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Wind pump at Maji Moto G’day.
What an emotional rollercoaster the last couple of days have been…
Wednesday we were traveling back from town when unexpectedly we bumped into the secretary from the Water Authority office. She asked us back to her house for some tea and we ended up staying for dinner and to our surprise we were joined by the head of the water authority, who happened to be her husband! We hadn’t realized that they were married after nearly 4 weeks of loitering in their offices. He was so supportive of the wind pumps that we are backing, it took us completely by surprise and put us in a positive mood ahead of the meeting with Endonyo Narasha and World Concern.
On Thursday morning we left for Endonyo Narasha with the chief in our car. We detoured through Maji Moto where a proud wind pump stands tall and spinning providing water for the schools of the community. The chief seemed to be very impressed by what he saw and was excited by the prospect of having a similar setup in Endonyo Narasha. The meeting got under way a couple of hours late as people gradually drifted into the centre having
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Decision making body at Endonyo Narasha outside the church collected their water. We were nervous as the meeting got under way and this anticipation was not helped by the early comments during the discussion, which seemed to support the generator. The case for the generator and the wind pump was presented fairly giving pros and cons for both options and using cow related metaphors that they could relate to. The discussion that followed the presentation was lively and lengthy, not helped by the drunkard who couldn’t quite follow what was being said but insisted on having his say. It all hung in the balance as the chief stood up at the end to sum up the discussion and give his views. He used examples drawing on the community’s financial situation and his own far reaching experience to point out that they would struggle to afford the fuel and constant maintenance that a generator would require. The decision was left to a vote, which saw nearly everybody vote for the wind pump - yay!
Following this we left for a nearby village where we were served copious amounts of tea and milk, including a taste of gassy fermented milk from the gourd-mmm mmm. This was followed by an evening
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Hairy arms - aaargh! milking session when the cows come into the central compound for the night after looking for green pastures all day long. I (Jo) had my first milking experience which did not go quite as planned. Thinking that I was going to be approaching large, succulent, bulging udders I was confronted with tiny raw nipples that I was supposed to yank at to force out any milk lurking in there. Funnily enough I wasn’t very successful. After about 5 minutes of milking I only harvested enough to cover the bottom of the cup. After recovering from her amusement at watching me the Maasai woman took over with a resolute desire to milk the cow dry and came away with a jug full in less time than it took me to come to terms with the calf’s saliva I had felt on one of the nipples.
Night approached unnoticed as we sat in the dark manyata (mud hut) with the councilor’s smiling brother, the ever attentive hostess wife number 2 of 4, our driver, James our village translator, ‘Headache’ the puppy, the overexcited curious children and approximately a billion cockroaches crawling over every surface and the odd fly or two. We
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After they had stopped grabbing my legs, arms, hands and any part of exposed white skin. were very generously presented with a bowl of rice and potatoes for dinner before listening to the hyenas wondering past and looking out at the silhouette of the Mara in the distance. After relieving ourselves behind the back of the hut but within the thorned perimeter we ventured back in alone with only the wife and children. We lay on the dried hide in the boudoir area desperately trying to avoid creepy crawlies at all costs with socks pulled high and lying on our thick sleeping bags unable to escape the burning heat of the fire. Sleep did not come easily to us as the pitch black seemed to enhance the scratching and burrowing that came from almost every direction.
After four sporadic hours of sleep we had become quite accustomed to the melodic scratching and felt reasonably relaxed in our environment. We do not want to come across as ungrateful, it was just a new experience for us. Morning brought more tea, more milk and more cows. After the cows are taken to pasture by the men the women go to collect water. Some can walk up 7km following the recent rains. Conveniently this village was located reasonably
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Rubbing cow nipples close to the spring. The women are accustomed to carrying at least 20 litres of water with a strap over their forehead and the barrel on their back. We were given 5l jerry cans that were only filled with 3l worth! Pete took on the task of carrying our hostess’s load half the way back to the village and literally nearly keeled over straining his neck and elbows in a way I couldn’t even imagine as I couldn’t even lift it!
We said our thanks and sped of in our waiting four by four to collect a water sample four hours away in Sakutiek.
The 24hour pumping in Sakutiek seemed very successful showing the borehole has a high yield. We have learnt that this is incredibly lucky in this district as most boreholes that have been attempted have been dry. As we arrived the villagers were busy collecting the water and loading it onto their donkeys and their backs. We saw some women carrying over 40l worth in two barrels - I don’t know how they do it. We should get the results of this report next week in order to order the wind pump.
The journey back
to Narok was a bit of a white knuckle ride as a small amount of rain had made the hilly, uneven dirt roads into mud slides. The Mau escarpment has been heavily deforested in recent years to make way for potato farming which has led to less rain and severe erosion resulting in the water problems in Sakutiek. Trees are now being planted although it will now take years to regain the natural balance in the area.
Friday evening we met up with the country manager of the international charity World Concern to see how we are going to work together on the wind pump project in Endonyo Narasha. It will take time, but things are looking good and we are hoping to keep things moving as fast as possible once we have the water analysis results. We are looking forward to working with them and think we will learn a lot.
Today we got up and prepared for the day of sacrifice. Poor Billy was slaughtered by the rescue centre’s Massai guard who had really bonded with him but essentially saw him as his next meal. Both of us saw the whole process which took two hours.
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Huts at sunrise After he was dead we felt completely removed from our pet. No part of him was wasted, a couple of people ate the kidneys raw and even the head is going to be boiled up by the guard. The girls love meat and rarely have it, so it was a real treat. He had a happy life and has gone on to satisfy many tummies, thank you to Sakutiek for the goat and to Billy for his life.
Good night.
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Luke
non-member comment
Life Polarising
This is a deeply inspiring and moving project, and makes me want to get involved in some way myself. Water is a precious thing as years of drought in Oz have shown me, and clean fresh water is clearly such a fundamental need in Africa - keep up the good work! On a personal note, this seems like such a polarising event and I think it could shape the rest of your life. It seems like such a profound and moving experience. I hope we get to catch up some time when we're in the UK, or if you visit us in Oz, to hear more about what it was like. Hugs, Luke