|
Tourism
is big business on Kilimanjaro and other mountains in Tanzania.
Here are some of the problems facing porters and guides on
the mountains of Tanzania.
Tour
Operators Allowances
Some companies still paying Tshs.2000-3000 per day (US$2-3)
to the porters and Tshs.3500-5000 ($3-5) per day to the guides.
Out of
this, the porters have to pay their own transport from Arusha/Moshi
to the park gates and back. Porters also will pay from $1-2
for the food they ate on the mountain while they eat almost
nothing. They will also pay $1-2 per person for cleaning the
climbing gears while they can clean themselves.
The allowances
are given to the guides to distribute to the porters and are
normally paid in the bar where guides will demand the porters
to buy him some beers, or deduct some money out of their allowance
as a bribe for giving them the trip.
The poor
porter ends getting as little as US$10 for a 6-day trip. Some
guides or managers also demand up to US$5 from the porters
before allowing them to work for their companies. Some companies
delay the allowances up to two weeks after the climb.
Luggage
Till now, some porters are carrying up to 50 kgs. There are
so many cases where the guides go to the ranger (weighing
personnel) before weighing the luggage and bribe him to allow
the porters to pass either without checking the weight or
without deducting anything if the load is found too heavy.
 The
porters will then carry more, and the guide will make extra
money by reducing the number of porters. If the load is too
heavy, a day-trip porter will be hired to take the load to
the first hut/camp then the rest of the days the extra weight
will be divided among the porters since there are no more
weighing policy.
Equipment
(a) Tents On Kilimanjaro, the porters sleep in the old worn
out tents. They are very old and terribly leaking. The porters
will even sleep ten of them in a tent that accommodates three
to four tourists.
(b) Sleeping
pads One out of ten porters has a sleeping pad. He could be
the lucky one to have been given a pad from a tourist. No
tour operators give sleeping pads to porters or even guides.
(c) Sleeping
bags Very few porters have sleeping bags, unless a tourist
has given them one. You will even find porters carrying Maasai
blankets (bed sheet). Some carry light gear to avoid heavy
load since they do not know how much they are going to carry.
If you are given 40kgs of luggage, plus 5kgs of your own gear,
you have 45kgs to carry. Some porters might loose their trip
if they seem to carry too much of their own gear.
(d) Rainjackets
This is a piece of rare equipment for the porters to have,
and if one has one, it is terribly leaking and shameful to
call it a rain jacket on Kilimanjaro. You will find some porters
covered by nylons that used to cover mattresses against dust
in shops. One nylon costs US$1
Huts
and Toilets
You will never understand the huts problem on Kilimanjaro
unless you have visited the rooms where guides and porters
sleep at nighttime. In high season (June to September), a
room with four beds (six by six feet) sleep up to 30 guides
and porters with their bags, food and cooking gear. Porters
and guides will have to wait until six o’clock in the evening
to get into the huts. They will just sit outside in the cold
waiting for the rooms to be provided. Imagine a porter arriving
at Horombo hut (3720m) at 1pm sitting outside till 6pm to
get into the room. There is only one toilet in every hut for
guides and porters. One can imagine how many porters are in
Horombo hut per day, and these people sharing one pit toilet?
Guides
and Porters Rescue
Personally,
I have been climbing Kilimanjaro for more than five years.
I have never seen a guide or a porter being rescued. A porter
dying on Kilimanjaro is a common thing, and no one from Kilimanjaro
Park management bothers if a porter is sick or dies. Even
the tour operators will not bother if one of his porters has
died. In 2003 for instance, there was a car accident carrying
porters and guides from Kilimanjaro. One porter died, and
a guide and others seriously wounded. The tour agent would
not even visit the victims in hospitals and their allowance
has not even been paid.
Is this
a fair tourism that everyone sings all over the world? The
answer is definitely NO.
Porters
Punishment
One of you might have seen a Park Warden or a Ranger beating
a porter at Machame gate or elsewhere on Kilimanjaro or one
of the Parks in Tanzania?
I have
personally witnessed this to my own porters being beaten by
a Park Warden and Rangers at Machame gate. One of my porters
was once beaten by a Ranger and ended up loosing his climb
simply because he entered the yard without a permission from
the Ranger.
Tipping
This is also a big problem especially to the porters. So many
guides will demand the tip from clients given to them for
distribution on their behalf. Some will do it fairly, but
in most cases it is not so. The tips are demanded during the
porters’ absence, especially in the dining room. The guide
will never mention the exact money given as a tip. He will
hide some and distribute some, pretending to be fair.
There
were some cases in 2003, where one guide got US$800 from the
clients, and he told the porters that he was given only US$400.
The guide and his assistant took US$200 and the rest was distributed
among 15 porters.
The porters
will say nothing because otherwise they will miss the next
climb. The porters are not also allowed to talk to tourists
or ask them how much they gave as a tip.
Food
Porters may get leftovers from tourists and some will even
get their money deducted for this.
Most of
the porters rely on porridge for the entire trip and still
they will pay US$ 1-2 after their trip for food. Only few
companies (if not two only in Tanzania) give lunch and breakfast
to the porters.
Something
must be done to improve the above problems That is why we
are forming the UNION
For
more information, contact:
The
Base Manager Kilimanjaro Guides and Porters Ltd
P.O.Box
10699 Arusha Tanzania
Tel/Fax: +255 (027) 2509215
Cell: +255 (0) 744- 544539
E-mail: info@kilimanjaro-union.com
Website: www.kilimanjaro-union.com
Editor:
I have met Joseph Nyabasi and he seems committed to the cause,
he assures me the porters and guides will all be members of
the company or cooperative running the union. This has promise
and, having started only four months ago, I wait to see how
it develops.
|
