Idodi: A Village Film Show

Yesterday Anette and I squished into a cab after work with our three flatmates (all teachers at my school) to ride out to Idodi for a village film show. For several years now, Friends of Ruaha Society (FORS) has been showing environmental films in their 24 villages – at the primary schools during the day and outside for the whole village at night.

As always, we were greeted with incredible generosity and kindness – sodas to start, then a steaming pot of the Tanzanian staple ugali accompanied by perfectly done beans. Scooping out big portions onto our plates, we all dug in with our hands - some (yours truly) more messily than others - and thanked our hosts, two friends of ours who teach at the secondary school, for their hospitality.

After eating we walked through the school compound to the sports fields, which were glimmering green and gold in the late afternoon sunshine. Hundreds of students were gathered at the various pitches, running about cheering and wearing their colorful school uniforms, different colors for each class. The setting is incredible; the fields are on a plateau above the school with a panoramic view of the valley below ringed by green mountains, and Ruaha National Park just on the other side.

All week at the school they’ve been having an inter-class competition; the winning team will be presented with a cow which they will then slaughter themselves and enjoy eating. With this incentive, the teams were engaged in the most serious of friendly competitions: netball (the Tanzanian schoolgirl’s sport) volleyball, and of course, football. As the football match ended 2-2, the sun slipped behind the mountains and dusk was gathering in the long grass. We walked down from the fields to the center of the village, where the film show was just beginning under the starlit sky.

The projector, laptop and speakers were hooked up to the battery of the FORS Land Rover, and the screen was the side of a whitewashed, thatch-roofed building. Three hundred or so people encircled the screen, children sitting on the ground in front, an elderly man in a white robe and white kofia given a chair of honor at the front of the crowd, the rest standing.

Our Tanzanian colleague stood up in front of the crowd to say “karibuni,” and to explain that the film shows are a part of FORS’ environmental education program - more than just an evening of entertainment. We showed two films in Kiswahili produced by the African Environmental Film Foundation, the first about the elephants of Kenya’s Tsavo National Park and the second about the recent drying of the Great Ruaha River. For people who’ve grown up without electricity, TV and movies, it was a spellbinding two hours, and for us, it was a joy to stand there with them and share in their reactions to the films.

“EEH, EEH, EEH!” uttered the villagers each time they saw a lion, hyena, buffalo, hippo or crocodile.
“TSSSCH” a collective sucking of teeth signaled their disapproval whenever slain elephants appeared on the screen.
“EEEEEEH!” a cry of amazement upon seeing the thousands of tusks collected by park rangers.

One of our teacher friends asked me, “Is there still poaching in Ruaha National Park?” Another asked me, “Do you have elephants in America?” A little girl in front of us exclaimed, “All the fish are DEAD…no good.” A man to our left saw the river sweep away earth and grass from the banks and said, “Erosion. Hmm.”

Contagious bursts of laughter accompanied scenes of a baby elephant being covered with a blanket by its keeper, an orange-headed agama lizard hopping bravely across rocks in the river, storks and herons stealing fish from the crocodiles. In such moments, the power of these film shows was evident.

Although these people live on the border of Ruaha, many of them have never had a chance to visit the park and see these animals. Whenever the smallest children saw a lion on the screen, they grabbed each other and pointed at the screen while saying excitedly, “Simba, Simba!”

Seeing their joy and fascination during the film shows, we can imagine how happy these children will be when they see these animals in real life. This is why FORS conducts educational safaris: so the children and teachers of the primary schools in these villages can experience the spectacular wilderness and wildlife of Ruaha with their own eyes.

Last year FORS took 3,500 students and almost 200 teachers into the park, and this year we hope to take even more. Starting in September, Anette and I will be joining the schools on these safaris, and we’re looking forward to sharing an even more intimate experience of Ruaha with the people of Idodi and Pawaga.