Roxanne's Message

Hi everyone. I'm still using other people's blog account until I can get mine going. So we have been working hard at the village this week. I am so grateful that I have a chance to see with my own eyes what happens with these windmill projects. Kayla and I were asked by many people at home, if the Tanzania people had any input into the project. They wanted to know if we provided all the money, material and labour for the well. I hope my explanation will help people understand what it's really like here. Our group of ten raised the money and paid for the cost of the well and the windmill. BUT the main focus of this organization, I'm happy to say is education of the people, and giving them the opportunity to control their own destiny. All the workers here are local: the cooks, laundry, housecleaning, drivers, carpenters, welders, painters, cement workers, labourers, administration,etc. Some are Catholic, some Muslim. At the worksite many of the villagers, both men and women come to help mix and haul concrete. They want to help because they want to take ownership of this project. A woman named Elizabeth has been working here for about 3 years or so. She does a lot of things with the village people, helping them understand their responsibilities with the well after we are gone. Her and the villagers plan (more or less) is this: The village people appointed an agent who will be responsible for keeping track of how many pails of water he sells. It has been agreed that he will sell each pail for 100 shillings, which is about 7 cents. Please remember, this is fair, and what most people can afford. The agent must keep records of his sales as well as bank receipts. They plan to meet every month to discuss the financials and to see how it's going. The money they make will be used for any maintenance and repairs that may need to be done to the windmill or holding tanks. Any old or disabled people can get some water free. I also want to say that there is a small crew of very strong, hard working young Tanzanian men who work hard every day with us. They have been crawling up to the top of the windmill at very dangerous heights, bolting everything together. Most have been working here for a very long time, so they definitely are the professionals in the group! So it has been amazing to work side by side with these people. They have the will and the brains, they just

need the help to get the water out of the ground. Our well is 324 feet deep. Only a very expensive machine can do this. And if people could see what we see here every day it would not take much to realize that water IS desperately needed here.So our adventure continues. Bye for now, until next time, Roxanne Richards

Building the tower

The foundations have been set and we have just finished the tower. It's at least three stories tall. We placed the steel beams in the concrete foundations and then built layer upon layer. It is easily the tallest structure in the village. We used a winch to haul up the motor and some of the heavier pieces yesterday. And today we used a pulley and brought up the blades one by one. I'll have pictures tomorrow. We have also built one of two water tanks. We began by covering a mould made of burlap sacks with a clay made of... Then once the clay dried we covered it with two layers of refined concrete. We will build the second tank tomorrow. We brought some of Deanna's One World Futbols to the village today and played a friendly game of football (soccer). I made a dive for the ball and came up in a bramble of the worst burrs ever. I have a really bad farmers tan.