From dawn to dusk, the new hand labored in the parched and infertile fields of Dodoma, the most impoverished province of African Tanzania. Uncomplaining, he hacked at the dry soil with a primitive hoe, guided a plough drawn by oxen, picked ears of maize, ate the local diet and slept in a native hut. Julius Nyerere, 48, Tanzania's President, was making an earnest attempt to measure at first hand the depths of his country's need, and to promote Ujaama (community villages), the self-help principle through which he hopes to assist Tanzania in alleviating its poverty.

Low on funds as usual, the composer sent a note to his friend Franz Hofdemel, imploring the loan of 100 gulden (about $500 in today's money). As an added persuasion, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart hinted that as a Freemason, he might be helpful in backing Hofdemel's candidacy for the same order. History does not record whether Mozart repaid the loan. But last week the letter, written in 1789, just two years before the composer's death, brought $5,738 at an auction in Cologne--more than ten times the asking price.

After sailing for 57 days in a 40-ft. reed raft resembling a basket, Thor Heyerdahl and his seven-man international crew reached the Caribbean island of Barbados, 3,200 miles across the Atlantic from their point of departure on the Moroccan coast. Happy to have demonstrated with Ra II (Ra I was abandoned last year 600 miles from Barbados) that the ancient Egyptians, who sailed such papyrus craft, could have discovered America 40 centuries ago, Heyerdahl proudly noted that his vessel had survived its journey intact. Ra II will eventually be installed in an Oslo museum alongside an earlier ocean-going ship of Heyerdahl design: the balsa raft Kon-Tiki, which made the journey from Peru to Polynesia in 1947.

Kenya may straddle the equator, but it can get mighty chilly there at night, as Film Star Jimmy Stewart, 62, and family discovered on their visit to the country's high (altitude 6,000 ft.) and windy Aberdare Hills. Shivering in the 45DEG air, Actor Stewart was inspired to write a poem about it--demonstrating that Euterpe is not his muse. Sample: "They've never known the temperature/Thermometers just fail./ For, when exposed, the mercury/ Just sinks below the scale."

If it were true, the news deserved a larger setting than Suzy Knickerbocker's society column, where it appeared: that Washington Post Company President Kay Graham, 53, saw Britain's most eligible bachelor every night during a visit to London and even extended her stay a week. "Absolute nonsense," said a spokesman for Prime Minister Edward Heath, 54, and went on to add that Heath's own reaction ranged from "amusement" to "incredulity." Fact was, Kay flew over for the elections. The only time she and the Prime Minister got together was in the intimacy of a mass press conference.

Each summer for 20 years, Conductor Arthur Fiedler, 75, has gone to San Francisco to give audiences there a shot of Boston Pops. This year it occurred to Otto Meyer, president of Paul Masson Vineyards and a Fiedler fan, to toast the anniversary with champagne. Fine, said Fiedler--provided there was enough for all 100 musicians in the orchestra. No problem there. Every one drank the bubbly to open the 20th season. Said the maestro, with tongue obviously not in cheek: "This is my coming of age."

Never before had a Puerto Rican beauty captured so distinguished a crown. So it was understandable that the island was preparing an enthusiastic reception for Marisol Malaret Contreras, 20, the leggy, green-eyed lass (5 ft. 8 1/2 in., 35-23 1/2-35) who won the rhinestone diadem of Miss Universe over 63 other contestants. "A victory for Puerto Rican women!" proclaimed Puerto Rico's Governor Luis A. Ferre. He decreed a half-holiday for all government workers, and of course a parade.

Refreshed by the waters at Bad Gastein, the frail old lady detoured to Salzburg just for the chance to sit for a spell on a street bench beneath a vault of beech trees. And why not? The visitor was world-renowned Operatic Soprano Lotte Lehmann, 82, and the sign above her white head read LOTTE LEHMANN PROMENADE, an honor that Salzburgers bestowed on Miss Lehmann this month. "It is pleasant," smiled the soprano, who retired in 1951 but still teaches voice, "to rest on one's own street."

After winging down to Rio from concerts in Mexico and Venezuela, U.S. Jazz Pianist Errol Garner submitted to reporters' questions about his first love. He predicted the return of jazz to its traditional forms because latter-day composers "ran too fast, crossed the entire country and wound up throwing themselves into the ocean." How come music is the only love in his life? Replied Bachelor Garner, 47: "I haven't found a woman who likes jazz 24 hours a day."

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