Malinyi District is located a full days drive to the SW of Ifakara. The first portion of the road crosses the Kilombero river just outside of Ifakara. A ferry, very much the size of the Keller Ferry in Washington, carried 3-4 vehicles across the river. The second portion of the dirt road is very much like the U.S. Forest Service roads when they break up in the spring. They are mud roads filled with large water holes, ruts, and many times large trucks which are stuck up to their axels in the mire.
Teak plantations, subsistence farming, and wildlife hunting are the main economy. Rice, corn, beans, mangos, cattle, goats and pigs were the main agricultural products seen. Mangos were having a very good year. I was told that when Mangos are having a good year, it will not be a good harvest of other crops. Many crops had had too much rain already this year, and were being replanted.
Lugala hospital uses solar power and generators to provide electricity where no power lines exist. Most surgeries are cesarean section operations. Seventeen babies were in the hospital the day we visited. All the mothers were very young and small in the hips, which probably contributed to the need for cesarean delivery.
Tumaini school is a bible college for evangelists and a secondary school. They use generators in the evening for a few hours only. The class size in two classes I taught English to where 60 –80 students. I saw the scores from the national exam in the diocese youth office and they all were in the C & D range. The school has a plan to provide a better education, which includes lab work, more teachers, and the development of a library and internet.
Americans told me the river divides the diocese. The Tanzanian people told me, this is just a part of the journey they make every day and only divides the diocese geographically, but does not divide them as a community of believers.
An airstrip is located between the school and the hospital.