Water

It’s Friday morning and I have a few spare minutes that I thought I would use to write a quick update. At 10:00 we’re going to drive to a village in the area to hold a seminar about safe drinking water and hygiene. There are two Americans here visiting who have been leading the seminars all week long in tandem with the Kroppachs. I have learned more about wells, bore holes, pumps, biosand filters, and finding where to drill or dig for water in the past week than I had planned on knowing... but it’s really interesting. If anyone needs a well or bore hole put in when I get back... nah, just kidding – I probably still can’t help you ; )

What I’ve basically been up to this whole week is doing whatever the family does, learning about what their missionary work looks like, and starting to do interviews with a few people here. The interesting thing that I found yesterday as I asked several people about their opinions on missionaries is that in this particular village, there were only a handful of people who’d ever met a missionary before! Made me have to rethink how I wanted to ask my questions, that’s for sure, but it was fun to get to talk with some people from the village through a translator.

The seminar yesterday was in Bohalahala where we visited for church on Sunday. I saw their lone source of water, a muddy stream that is used in the following order from upstream to downstream: cattle watering, then laundry washing and bathing, and then drinking water. No wonder that when we ate there on Sunday, the rice that was washed with water was a little bit on the brown side...

Anyway, during the course of the seminar we were given food several times. First someone comes around with a basin and a pitcher of really hot water (this is done by the local tribe to ensure that there are no bad spirits in the water) that they poured while you washed your hands with soap. Then we were given chapati (flatbread browned in oil) with tea for breakfast, which we had to take more of than we wanted in order to be polite, but it was hard knowing we were eating a second breakfast that we didn’t really want in front of everyone else in the church, many of whom probably hadn’t eaten since the day before. But again, I was really thankful for the hospitality.

My time here in Geita has challenged me to learn a lot already... and I have only been here for a week now. There are many things that are hard for me to grasp and others that make me really mad. I hate hearing about the gold mines run by foreign companies here that are destroying the environment, polluting the area with mercury, lowering the water table so that many shallow wells are in danger of being dry within a few years, and isn’t paying taxes to the government. It’s not fun to listen to stories about taking people to the local hospital and seeing more dead bodies come out than people on the mend. And I have also heard a lot about NGO’s who come into a village, give out wells and mosquito nets and shoes, and then leave... and the things either aren’t used or are sold for profit and basically are a short-term fix that is often more abused than used by the people to help improve their situation.

All of this it’s a little bit difficult to write about in a blog post, but that’s just a little summary of some thoughts floating around in my head. At the same, I do see other good and encouraging things happening in Africa right now as well, the people are usually very friendly and welcoming, and I am incredibly thankful to be here and to have the privilege of learning so many things, many of which fall well beyond the bounds of my thesis project.