Last day in Dar

The first community we visited was nestled in the trees and had a stream running nearby (except in the dry season).  It turns out that the head mistress of the school we visited the other day happens to be married to the chairman of this area.  He knew all the right things to say, how they had to be organized to sustain a project.  But we still liked this area for a project.

Their little girl was obviously not afraid of me.  Her mom is in the red and married to the chairman.  At first they took us to a swam as their pick of a spot for a borehole--nope, not a good idea.  They showed us another spot on higher ground--much better.

When we walked to the school we found yet another solar-powered well not working--but no one knows if it is the solar, the pump or if the well went dry.  This water was so salty they say that when you poured the water on the ground you could see the salt.  I hope if we do a project around here we don't have this same problem.

These taps work, but only in the rainy season.  It seems to be a habit here to not go past the first aquifer.  This was a very needy school.  If we put in another borehole and they could sell their water to the neighboring community, they would have enough to sustain it and some of their school needs, like desks, which they seemed to be in sort supply of.

This is the borehole that feeds the taps above and is not deep enough for the dry season.

This is a rain catchment at a school.  There was another tank on the other side, that for some reason was no longer hooked up.  They used to have another tank, but they let it get stolen (they were supposed to have a guard before it was hooked up.

To get clean water year round they put in this borehole, which was supposed to be pumped up to the tank above, but no one had done it.  No one knows about this water, but it was obvious that at least for now it was working.  No one was around to ask these questions.

While we were in the area we stopped by to see John's new house that they are building out of town.  There is another house being built for guests and for his main worker.  He had a property full of corn, which he says will be successful this year.  When they move here he will have goats and chickens and other things to sustain his family.  

John's youngest son John wanted to see who his dad was with all week so he wanted a picture of us with his dad.  We all look pretty good considering how tired we all were.  We left at 9:30 AM and got back at the hotel at 7:30 PM.  There are many more projects we needed to look at but didn't have time.  We told John we'd return for another look-see when we come back to West Africa and then come directly here.  Tomorrow we fly back to Nairobi.