Across the Main Road it is somewhat drier than the Engorora village and it is a settlement of more traditional Maasai houses. Mainly we worked with Francis who was a keen environmentalist/tree planter and who was a leader in the area.
Francis suffered from a problem I often encountered when planting trees in most of the villages. He had made a plea to receive more trees than was usual - I was guarded about supplying extra trees to anyone because I was well aware that people faced problems wi
th water as well as browsing animals and some people are just plain greedy wanting as many as they possibly could!
Well Francis prepared his holes well and received his trees and true to his word he did care for them well, taking the responsibility himself (as against handing the work to his wife or his children) so the trees grew well. He was vigilant that browsing animals did not damage his trees. One night though, 'marauding' donkeys (I haven't said much about donkeys yet) trampled through his property destroying a large proportion of his trees - he was devastated.
But this sums up what can happen. Alfred's trees turned out to be the worst in the other part of the village - why? Well he too took more trees than he could look after and assigning young Miriam to carry out watering duties, did not supervise her well enough. The trees were alive, but not thriving as they should.
The woman who mostly tended the vege garden also lost most of her trees. She lived a little more remotely from the village and water became a problem for her during the dry season - she had a health problem and could not water her trees - they all died.
These problems I learned to take in my stride and to work around in an effort to cause better outcomes. But I had to keep my whits about me. School kids were classic at, on inspection day, placing twigs/branches of live trees where their tree had died to fool me into thinking their tree had survived and in the hope of winning a prize. And in this village area a guy was begging me for trees. He had promised that his holes had been prepared - we went to check; no hole shad been prepared, so he recieved no trees!
Josiah was a staunch believer in education through motivation, and I went along with the idea. I realised that it had been a technique of mine over the years without actually thinking that it was 'motivation'. Josiah liked the idea of providing food, people would come, then snap, you give them a lecture, or at least instruction on environmental matters. The only trouble with that idea is we did not have the project funds to do it on a large scale, which meant that whenever we provided food, the funds came from our own pocket.
So before Francis had his mishap with the donkeys, I transported the environmental group from across the road to partake in a soda and bites and walk around Francis' plantings as well as some of the other plantings nearby.
Then on another occasion, we transported the environmental group to the Sanawari nursery where we provided a 'high' meal and were surprised to find that Mama Baraka also enjoyed the day.
Francis kept making requests to me for a project to bring water to this side of the village. Again this was an extra and there was no funding set aside for such a project. Josiah too was very keen, he had a vested interest as he had some land closeby where he grew beans.
Missy was about due to end her time with us and she made a request to her church back in the USA which resulted in enough funding to meet the budget I had worked out.
The first step of course was to gain a water right. There was a water line running from Arusha to outlying villages and our request was to hook into it. I spoke to the Water Board (my name for it) and the guy I knew there approved the taking of water, but we needed a letter from the village each side of where we were to take the water. This was a difficulty because the village chairman of each village saw the letter as being a cash cow prime for the milking. We had
no budget for this and we could not raise money from within the village [the beneficiaries].
So I just left it for a month. But there was a constraint - the rains were due and the slippery nature of the black cotton soils meant that I would be unable to transport in the materials. And I thought it a good thing for Missy to see the project completed if at all possible.
Josiah and I went to negotiate with the village leadership of the lower village and they finally agreed to allow a hookup as long as it did not exceed a one and a half inch saddle clamp.
The upper village still wanted a substantial amount of money, so I suggested that we go back to the lower village and ask if we could take the water from within the village. This meant an extra roll of polythene pipe but would allow an extra branch line to within that village. It was agreed so we could go ahead. [The upper village then wanted the same deal, but we did not carry that out]
The village men dug the trench with the only difficulty being a dry creek bed which would carry water during the rains. We laid the pipe ourselves and made the joints as well. There was no holding tank required, just the standpipe and tap.
The project was completed with no further problems and Missy was thrilled to see the water flow. Francis too was pleased with the project.
It was Francis' genuine wish to have water close to his home so that his wife could have a better standard of living but sadly she died two years later. I have memories of her wide, welcoming smile and the love she had for her children. Maybe the water is in her memory.
th water as well as browsing animals and some people are just plain greedy wanting as many as they possibly could!Well Francis prepared his holes well and received his trees and true to his word he did care for them well, taking the responsibility himself (as against handing the work to his wife or his children) so the trees grew well. He was vigilant that browsing animals did not damage his trees. One night though, 'marauding' donkeys (I haven't said much about donkeys yet) trampled through his property destroying a large proportion of his trees - he was devastated.
But this sums up what can happen. Alfred's trees turned out to be the worst in the other part of the village - why? Well he too took more trees than he could look after and assigning young Miriam to carry out watering duties, did not supervise her well enough. The trees were alive, but not thriving as they should.
The woman who mostly tended the vege garden also lost most of her trees. She lived a little more remotely from the village and water became a problem for her during the dry season - she had a health problem and could not water her trees - they all died.
These problems I learned to take in my stride and to work around in an effort to cause better outcomes. But I had to keep my whits about me. School kids were classic at, on inspection day, placing twigs/branches of live trees where their tree had died to fool me into thinking their tree had survived and in the hope of winning a prize. And in this village area a guy was begging me for trees. He had promised that his holes had been prepared - we went to check; no hole shad been prepared, so he recieved no trees!
Josiah was a staunch believer in education through motivation, and I went along with the idea. I realised that it had been a technique of mine over the years without actually thinking that it was 'motivation'. Josiah liked the idea of providing food, people would come, then snap, you give them a lecture, or at least instruction on environmental matters. The only trouble with that idea is we did not have the project funds to do it on a large scale, which meant that whenever we provided food, the funds came from our own pocket.
So before Francis had his mishap with the donkeys, I transported the environmental group from across the road to partake in a soda and bites and walk around Francis' plantings as well as some of the other plantings nearby.
Then on another occasion, we transported the environmental group to the Sanawari nursery where we provided a 'high' meal and were surprised to find that Mama Baraka also enjoyed the day.
Francis kept making requests to me for a project to bring water to this side of the village. Again this was an extra and there was no funding set aside for such a project. Josiah too was very keen, he had a vested interest as he had some land closeby where he grew beans.
Missy was about due to end her time with us and she made a request to her church back in the USA which resulted in enough funding to meet the budget I had worked out.
The first step of course was to gain a water right. There was a water line running from Arusha to outlying villages and our request was to hook into it. I spoke to the Water Board (my name for it) and the guy I knew there approved the taking of water, but we needed a letter from the village each side of where we were to take the water. This was a difficulty because the village chairman of each village saw the letter as being a cash cow prime for the milking. We had
no budget for this and we could not raise money from within the village [the beneficiaries].So I just left it for a month. But there was a constraint - the rains were due and the slippery nature of the black cotton soils meant that I would be unable to transport in the materials. And I thought it a good thing for Missy to see the project completed if at all possible.
Josiah and I went to negotiate with the village leadership of the lower village and they finally agreed to allow a hookup as long as it did not exceed a one and a half inch saddle clamp.
The upper village still wanted a substantial amount of money, so I suggested that we go back to the lower village and ask if we could take the water from within the village. This meant an extra roll of polythene pipe but would allow an extra branch line to within that village. It was agreed so we could go ahead. [The upper village then wanted the same deal, but we did not carry that out]
The village men dug the trench with the only difficulty being a dry creek bed which would carry water during the rains. We laid the pipe ourselves and made the joints as well. There was no holding tank required, just the standpipe and tap.
The project was completed with no further problems and Missy was thrilled to see the water flow. Francis too was pleased with the project.
It was Francis' genuine wish to have water close to his home so that his wife could have a better standard of living but sadly she died two years later. I have memories of her wide, welcoming smile and the love she had for her children. Maybe the water is in her memory.
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