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.

STOP AND BE THANKFUL

At the end of the day yesterday we gave our remaining water that we used to make cement to the villagers in Nala, where we are building the well system. This water is not drinkable but these people will be boiling it and using it for cooking, drinking and bathing. These people came from all over the village with their buckets hoping to get some cleaner water but in the end very few left with water in their hands. They are fighting for this water.. They were lining up, waiting for hours to get their hands on this water. In canada we line up and fight for the new gadgets, cellphones and video games... We take clean water for granted so much. We need to stop and be thankful for what we have.

-Katelyne :)

Why Mission Projects are important

 

Until you go see the world, see how little others have, see how happy others are with just each other, how kids can be happy with sticks and sand, see how strong they are and how much they have to endure just to get water,
Water.
When I speak water though it is not the clean drinking water that falls from your faucets, its not the water that you use to water your plants. No it is dirty water and its the only water they have ever known. Some people have to walk over distant mountain to get it because some people just can't afford to buy water off of a water truck for 300 Tanzanian shillings. It is 2014, I am 19 years old and I am making a difference in the village of Nala along with my 9 other mission teammates. In the picture below are some of the villagers who are smiling because some of them have not bathed in weeks and they are getting the water we did not need for building purposed today on the work site.

 

Sunday, a day of rest.

Well we are excited for another day of working at the well but yesterday we had a day of rest. In the afternoon we returned to the Village of Joy Orphanage. We played some football (soccer) and catch. We played cops and robbers, African style, we danced la bambs to homemade maracca's. We gave out piggy backs and put on a finger puppet show. A really cool thing was Danica letting the kids play with her IPhone, and they found out how to take pictures in less than ten seconds. Talk about easy accessibility.
Had one of my favourite gospel readings yesterday. With the seed scattered and grown among the rocks and the path and the thorns and the good soil. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Building the foundations!

The windmill project continues! The original estimate of approximately 200 feet was way off. We had to use the water drilling unit to go down to 106m. Well over 300 feet! We continued mixing cement, for the foundations of the water storage tank. I wish I could post the appropriate pictures but I haven't taken my phone to the construction site. Try and imagine there are four 1m square foundations surrounding the well. Then we dug a trench 80cm deep and 25 cm wide. Lots of work with pick axes. The ground is hard because it is so dry. And the vegetation just clings barely to life. The difference between the compound with it's well and drip irrigation and the dry, dead foliage of the village. Finally there is the foundation for the water tank that is about 2m by 4m. The villagers are working with us and the work gets done fast. I find the food that we have for lunch simple and delicious. The Africans only have one meal a day and so they take a very large serving, the servers tried to give the same anount to us (who are eating three meals a day) and were surprised when we asked for half the amount. Hard work builds character! We are currently preparing music for mass tomorrow. 

Mathew

Things I have learnt this week (Roxanne)

1. The children of Tanzania always wave eagerly when we drive by. They must know who we are and are very happy to see us!
2. MOST Tanzanians are very friendly and always wave as we go by.
3. It is not surprising why everyone needs to walk several miles for water. It is a quasi desert here - very dry. I have not seen a drop of water yet!
4. I have learned how paranoid I am of mosquitoes - 5 cans of OFF is 4 too many!
5. I learned to never complain about Saskatchewan roads.
6. I learned Tanzanians drink A LOT of pop.
7. I learned that if you are at a restaurant and they bring you warm tortilla bread with a bowl of red stuff, taste it first before shovelling it in - it may just burn your face off (just ask Katelyne!)
8. I learned that black coffee is actually quite good! It is grown, roasted and ground right here.
9. I learned that waving with your left hand is disrespectful.
10. I learned that eating eggs that have been sitting on a shelf won't actually kill you!
11. I learned that Tanzanians have NO rules: no seat belts, machetes are little kid toys, very small children play on the streets, scaffolding is made of sticks, everyone rides a bike, but very few have helmets. And the more people you can fit on a bike the better!
12. I learned that no matter how difficult their lives are here, they love to smile and seem very happy!
Until next time, take care and we will try to continue to blog when we can. Internet is very weak here. All in all, we are working hard and having a great time and learning a lot.

by Roxanne Richards