by Barbara Joye | Jan 28, 2014 | AFRICA 2014-JANUARY-MARCH
On arriving in Tanzania every year for our work trips, the first thought that comes to mind is “the mountain”. Our first glimpse of Mt. Kilimanjaro and it’s glaciered peak rising above the clouds is an anchoring image for us. It is Africa, it is our work, it is ‘home’. Kilimanjaro’s image has even greater impact for the people who live here. Ever present, she looms as a daily reminder, defining everyone who lives nearby or on her slopes as those who belong to the mountain. And she in turn provides for them, with countless fruits from the forests… with earth to grow vegetables in … and water from the glaciers. Children sing songs about this beautiful mountain, men tell stories of heroic adventures and women may know her best as the giver of water and life. But in recent years, the mountain has been struggling to provide for her children. Climate shifts have created rapid melting of the glaciers that have supplied water for a millienium to those who live here. It is a melting of such speed as to create a catastrophic loss of surface water and impairment to life. Struggling to keep up with the receding water, the walks for water became longer and longer, leaving the women and children exhausted, ill and impoverished. But the mountain has a long reach. In 2006 a story of Kilimanjaro’s people and their struggles for water reached a small group of friends in the USA and from their story… It Can Be Done was born. Working in partnership with the Uru East community, a grass roots beginning based on...
by Barbara Joye | Feb 14, 2013 | Journey 2013
“Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” Mother Teresa As we continued to handle construction and engineering priorities for the water project, our days have contained celebrations of hope and happiness in other areas as well. A visit to Kishumundu Secondary School allowed a wonderful reunion with Lucia Mbuya, the 2012 recipient of ICBD’s Hope of the Future educational scholarship. We were delighted to hear that she had placed 8th out of all Tanzanian students taking admission exams for her current grade level. Lucia’s favorite subject is biology and she is now hoping to be a doctor someday “so she can help people in her country”. Our Fulbright Scholar and Field Engineer Yana Genchanok welcomed her parents to Tanzania on Sunday, with a dinner at the Ngowi family’s home. We all enjoyed Eva’s wonderful traditional food as well as many stories, tall tales and some shared trepidations as the Genchanoks looked ahead to climbing Mt. Meru this week. We finished the evening with Yana proudly showing her family the water distribution system. We spent a wonderful Tuesday driving up to Materuni village to see Eva Ngowi’s dream in progress’ for a Coffee & Curio Shop. About a 30 minute ride up the mountain from her home, some 30 to 40 tourists drive daily then park their cars at Materuni for a hike to the Nambe’ Waterfall. Eva negotiated a deal with the owner of a small shop that is currently under construction there,where she plans to have the Acorn Women’s Cooperative sell home grown coffee beans, coffee, drinks and snacks, and...
by Barbara Joye | Feb 5, 2013 | Journey 2013
For me, the experience of Africa is living life at its fullest. It is a place where I am keenly aware that life is precious and fleeting and where I am constantly amazed at the resilience of humanity. There is little opportunity to avoid the darkest sides of life, with so many challenges to life itself apparent at every moment. But here in Africa I have no desire to avoid the dark because to do so would be to miss life altogether. We were invited this week to visit a church in the Meru area, about an hour from Moshi town. Leaving the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro we drove through the dry flat plains, dusty and near-barren from drought. We saw small children standing within a foot of certain death, as they vigilantly guarded the family’s goats grazing at the highway’s edge. We watched the Maasai herders walking countless miles with their cattle in search of even the smallest water hole, a residual blessing from infrequent rain. And we watched the owners of barrel laden donkeys retrieving water from a rare roadside standpipe, having walked days for water. Many people turn away from life’s challenges here in Africa, saddened by the depths of problems and convinced that real impact is not possible. But to turn a face from the problems means to turn away from the depths of the people themselves, all mirrors of the best and worst within us all. As James struggled to regain energy after a week long bout of food poisoning, we tried to manage some work progress during prolonged electrical blackouts, phone failures and...
by Barbara Joye | Jan 28, 2013 | Journey 2013
“Hope is a verb with it’s sleeves rolled up”. — David Orr, ‘Hope Is an Imperative’ Our first week in Uru brought its own reminders of how much cooperative effort is required in a community participation project. ICBD’s role continues to adapt to the project’s needs, but after the start-up investment and efforts, a great deal of the project then relies on the Uru community’s abilities to self organize and contribute wherever possible. The distribution line from the Grandmother Well at Kimocholo to our initial four villages and sub-areas (10 access points) has been funded through Uru community contributions and subsidized with a loan from ICBD. This allows the communities full ownership and ensures sustainable management of the system. Many well intended projects here in Africa end up failing within 5 years due to poor planning for community participation or limited understanding of the people’s resources. In our ‘pilot program’, a simple system of collecting monies for the pails of water being purchased at the access points, with accountability and a small ‘commission’ paid to the kiosk attendants, has been implemented. ICBD is assisting the community in the formation of a registered company, the Uru Waters Company, that will provide the community with transparent bookkeeping for monies collected. These monies will eventually cover the electricity needed to pump the water from the well and provide monies in reserve for system maintenance and repairs. In the meantime, we are all working together to correct any small problems with the water system that are now appearing with water flowing plentifully along this first line. In fact, the water is flowing so...
by Barbara Joye | Jan 22, 2013 | Journey 2013
As sure as night is dark and day is light I keep you on my mind both day and night And happiness I’ve known proves that it’s right Because you’re mine, I walk the line. — Johnny Cash, “I Walk the line” Monday was a day spent driving and walking our Uru water system. This included the “Grandmother Well” at Kimocholo, the Unity Path pipeline bringing the water to the Ndshini cistern, and then following the pipe path through 4 villages which include numerous sub-areas. These 4 villages now contain 6 public access points for clean water from the Grandmother Well,with 4 more kiosks in progress. We met and talked with many Uru people throughout our walk, asking questions about the water and the difference it is making in their lives. My favorite conversation was with a young woman carrying a tiny baby on her back, who thanked us “for bringing the water so close to her home”. Her daily walk for water has been dramatically reduced from hours to only minutes. Not only is she and her family enjoying safe clean water now, but she has more time available to her, greatly reducing the stress of her daily life. As we walked and then stopped to look at the public access kiosks, the nearby manifolds with their new meters, and to speak with the people… I could hear Johnny Cash’s song “I Walk the Line” inside my head… over and over. Aside from the obvious correlation, I realized that this song was deeply appropriate for our walk, as it is a beautiful love song. So I...
