Friday, April 20, 2018
We had another nice, easy day,
departing at 9 AM and getting back about 4 PM.
We looked at some of the projects that have recently been completed. We also
met a gal named Jenny that the Teerlink’s want to use to do the community
development and hygiene training. They
met her while developing a project in a certain community. When they saw how this lady organized
everyone in her community, was a problem-solver and so self-reliant, they realized
that she might be a good fit. Jenny
looks to be in her 30’s but is 49 she said.
She has 3 children of her own but has lots of people living with her
including a very old mom that she claims is 101. (We think it is closer to 98, but that’s
okay. No one really knows exactly how
old they are here in Africa.) I met her
sister and her sister’s grandchild and her mom, and I know others bunk at her
place.
This is just one of the
few wells we saw today, part of last year’s project that have recently been
completed. On the right is a latrine in
this same place. It was clean and on the
side of the wall is painted, “Do not stand on the seat!” They have raised
ceramic bowls that they typically stand on to use, but these they are supposed
to sit on and learn a new way…we had some strong ladies here keeping things
clean and collecting money for its use.
We were sitting
around the new well in Jenny’s area and she brought out her bookkeeping. We’ve never seen such incredibly kept records
that she is keeping for the money collection for their new clean water
well. This is a very deep well so it is
hard to pump the water up to the top.
Jim had them get a tool and they lengthened the pipe and it helped make
it a lot easier. This group is already
thinking ahead (with Jenny in the lead) and want to put in a mechanized
system. They will put in a sump pump,
pump the water to a tank above, and let it go out into the community. They will purchase a generator until the
government gets around to putting power on the poles that they just installed,
but it will take 2 years before they see those wires and they don’t want to
wait. She said that they have about
3,500 people in the area and they all come to fetch the water at the new well. Their new plan will get the water closer to
the people. Jim asked if they were compensating the lady who was the well caretaker
and suggested that they should pay her for her work—either free water or a
small salary and they agreed, after he gave them his thoughts on the
matter.
This is Jenny and
another community member working with the new well project.
Then we met with Jenny by
herself. Teerlink’s began telling her of
their plan to hire her (she is also well-educated) as a community development worker
and hygiene trainer on future jobs. As
we broke up the meeting and got back in our truck we saw Jenny walking in front
of us and were delighted as we saw her giving a double fist-bump in the air! It was so cute that we all wished we had been
able to get a picture of that. Jenny got
a job! And we are happy too!
We saw a few more sites and were
disappointed with some of the concrete work again. We all decided that besides talking and
training and showing them plans, after we leave and on the next job the
Teerlink’s will have all the site monitors, contractors and their technicians come
to a demonstration. As they mix
concrete on a project mix in the proper way they can see what we really
want. They insist on doing it the
African way, and that is never good enough for anything to last.
A brand new well, and
already a hole…hmmmm….African concrete.
When we were in Kenya
we remembered seeing a tree with yellow flowers that they said was good to cure
malaria. We saw this same tree and
talked to this lady who showed us the pods from this same tree. You take the seeds out of the pod and peel
them and if you eat one every day you won’t even get malaria. We each ate one—not too terrible.
That evening we ate at our hotel
and mainly wanted to do this so we could report to the area office about the
hotel. We will stay here again, but ask
for this room when we come. We know it
has the remodeled bathroom and a softer bed and an air conditioner that
actually works. We presume that the dignitaries
will not be sent here, but regular people like us can be—the others can go to
the Royal Grand. This is good enough for
us, even though yesterday it took several tries before we got them to bring us
the towels that they took so they could wash them—they just didn’t bring them back.
We are, after all, in Africa…
One of the women in
charge of the latrine—don’t mess with her! You better pay if you use this
bathroom! Don’t stand on these—sit!!
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