An Interesting Story of Mrs. Kashinde, the farmer.
by Johnny Mwakalinga
Kashinde is a traditional Tanzanian name which can be translated in English language as “go have a victory”. Mr and Mrs Kashinde had lived together in this called “Hembeti”, since 1993. They were lucky to bring up three sons and one daughter in their family. Their first borne was a male child called “Jumaa”, because the son came to them as a blessing from God on the day of Friday, who was born in 2000. Mr Kashinde had spent most of his time at a River wami conducting fishing activities in order to support basic life needs for his family. He was able to raise up a local hut constructed using burnt bricks and trees, and the roof was made up of grasses. If you ever enter inside their hut you will see only one bedroom with a verandah, the bedroom contained several handmade mats using “Ukindu grasses” for them and children to sleep on. A small part of the hut was spared for cooking purposes, the type of the cooker used was only made up of three medium sized stones with firewood at the centre, the cooker is called in Swahili “Jiko la mafiga matatu”, that is three cooking stones cooker. On addition to that there was a wooden folding chair, popularly “Kiti cha Kukunja” in Swahili, on which Mr. Kashinde used to rest on it while tired from fishing activities waiting for the meal time with a water storing equipment called “Mtungi” which means a pitcher of water in English which is made up of clay soil.
Mr and Mrs Kashinde had lived quite a difficult life with their children for about 20 hard years up to 2014 when Mr Kashinde got a very sad death after being killed by a Crocodile. From this time Mrs Kashinde had lived alone with the three children and their life was even very worse. The acquiring of schooling needs, clothing, food and medication was a big problem. Now the interesting story of Mrs Kashinde here begins.
This is a photo of the pitcher of water (locally fridge) that Mrs. Kashinde had in their old hut. It naturally keeps water inside it cold, cool and sweet to drink.
One day Mrs Kashinde after having pondered a lot about ways in which she could improve their living standards and alleviate a sheer poverty her family suffered for many years, she came up with an idea of acquiring a small piece of land of about two acres and establish a paddy farming project. The next few days she went to the village office to request for a piece of land and the village boss granted her the two acres of ground she requested, as long as she is a Widow with three poor children. The next days She received a support of paddy seeds from the village members which was about 80 kgs of paddy seeds. Mrs Kashinde was then able to start paddy farm on October, 2015. During this season she had harvested about 57 bags of paddy, as she did not know about where to get the best prices (market), she sold about 52 bags in the village at a price of 60,000.00 Tshs per a bag and earned 3,120,000.00. The rest 4 bags she spared for food and one bag for use as seeds in the next season of farming. So, she spent the money investing in her children education.
The next farming season She harvested about 53 bags of paddy, and Before selling her paddy she considered of acquiring a small radio set. The radio set was made up of wood (wooden radio) which was popularly known in Tanzania as “Radio ya Mkulima”, which means a farmers radio in English from which she can listen and get information on paddy markets. One day she heard that our neighbor Ugandans are facing a shortage of rice in their country and that the demand for rice is already high. Mrs Kashinde with other farmers hired a lorry and went to sell their paddy in a border town near to Uganda called Tarime town. At Tarime there was a gathering market where the Ugandans came to collect rice bags at a price of 150,000.00 Tshs per just one bag. Mrs. Kashinde sold her 51 bags and got Tsh 7,650,000.00 on the spot! The buyers advised them to open Bank account in order to safe deposit the money. Mrs Kashinde opened account with NMB Bank Tarime and deposited the monies, and travelled back home Hembeti while very excited!
Today Mrs. Kashine lives a happy life with her family, as they managed to build one modern house and added six more acres of land for farming. Her children can now attend schools and they have enough food security. Also she is still using her bank account she had opened at Tarime for new business transactions.
Mrs Kashinde and her three sons with Johnny Mwalinga (left). Her first son, standing next to Johnny, is called Jumaa and was baptized as Arnold. Arnold will be attending clinical officer diploma studies in a nursing college starting from October 2018.
