Ngarenanyuki - Water and Primary School

If you go to the UK, you can see the old castles and other history of the country but it is not so easy to see history in the Ngarenanyuki Area.

I'm always interested in history, the very reason I put things on my blogs, and around the Ngarenanyuki village, there is some history if you know where to look - or if you are fortunate.

There are two ways to get to the Ngarenanyuki village; the first (shortcut) is through the ford just past Olkung'wado and through the banana plantation, and the other by following the road on past the secondary school and over the high bridge, turn left and keep on going.

There are some small shops (duka) and from there to the left is a track that leads back to that ford but first passes by the state hospital. But straight on is a bridge and the road becomes rougher, rocky at first, and there is a big 'Shell' sign (yellow scollop shell). It was apparently erected for/during an international car rally event. The road passes across a dry river/creek bed and then in the dry season the dirt road becomes a dust road - dust at least 30cm deep! Off the road there, there are building that are the local government offices and others that seemed to be disused.

Loti's sister and her husband live on that dusty corner.

From here the road almost peters out but still reaches the Ngarenanyuki Primary School and next door (there are no other doors) is the Lutheran church. Between the church and Uwiro village, the road is a bit tricky as it crosses a creek bed where the rocks and slope kept me alert. Once through though Uwiro is easy to pass through with the next stop being Kisimiri Primary School.

There is an avenue of Jacaranda trees within the school grounds and the classrooms  are off to the right. And then  there is a long drive to buildings, converted to classrooms, but in the past seemed to be storehouses.
Between the main school block and these converted classes, to the left is a large old house, probably and old farmhouse that is now the Head Teacher's house.
The tree shelters in this picture were very well made and the planting were very orderly, planned by the Head Teacher.

When we first called at the school, the Head Teacher was a friendly, well liked woman whose husband held high village office. She took to the idea of carrying out and environmental programme and was happy that we were to assist the school.
The area is very dry, seriously dry, but we were told that watering trees was no problem because there was a water supply nearby.

Sure enough to my surprise there was a creek, fed by a good spring where (mainly) girls were able to collect water and carry it back to school. Here there are five pupils with the Head Teacher collecting water.
Water quality is a great problem throughout the district because of the various salts. I was told that this spring had good quality water.

People travel a long way to collect this water, certainly Maasai from as far a Ilkirimuni. I was curious to see a Maasai man with a camel, speaking Arabic to the animal - I don't know if it is true that camels only understand Arabic.
But, while I was in the creek bed, I could see the remnants of an old dam that must have been a water scheme.

The environmental seminars went well and as usual, while we wanted to put our efforts into the senior classes, the whole school wanted to take part. We were quite happy to work with the whole school but I doubted the smaller kids would understand my brand of Kiswahili.

Here the head Teacher makes some emphasis to some of the younger pupils.

The school through the Head Teacher encouraged the pupils in the environmental programme, but we continued to encourage by awarding prizes for good care of the trees/environment.

We were able to facilitate the supply of sports balls - a rarity in remote areas. The pity is that there are Acacia trees and they have thorns, causing punctures and early deterioration of the balls. 

 It is quite important to protect newly planted trees. Obviously from livestock - including hens) but also from the dehydrating sun. In most areas there is also a shortage of fuelwood, so usually materials for shelters is a very real  investment!

These were very good shelters and inside there is a bottle to supply the tree with water by the drip method.

The success of all school planting rest with the enthusiasm or lack  of the teachers and we were well supported here.

Later, there was a change of teachers - it is difficult for me to to understand why these changes occurred, but at the time the teachers were not happy and we noticed a reduction in cooperation. This happened in many schools.

 As with most of the schools we worked with, we were impressed that that cultural traditions were used to emphasize what we were teaching. It is easy to lose culture and singing, dancing and risalas are treasures.

There are usually reasons that trees fail to grow and the first growing season is probably the most important. The faster the tree is established and with active growth, the better the chances the trees have. Danger times are school holidays and not through drying out. More likely animals come through and knock down shelters and eat the trees. Sometimes donkeys are a problem and even giraffe (you need tall shelters for them!). However continued watering is always helpful.

 The Lutheran church is close to the school and of course they too wanted to have some trees planted in the grounds. Shade is needed around church grounds - but look how dry it is. 

Of course some of the teachers also belonged to the church, probably holding office of some kind. I suspect that school kids carried out some of the watering of these trees.

 As it turned out, and thanks to DanChurchAid, DME were granted funds to carry out water projects and it became my role to oversee the project.
This is when I found out about some of the history of Ngarenanyuki.
(Presumably) whoever was in what is now the school house and set up an elaborate water project. From the creek, in an open ditch to this transfer box. I thought that the box had been put in by the settler farmers had done this to supply water to the locals, but I guess there were no locals, only workers for the settler farmers.

From the transfer box the water went into a huge, concrete reservoir. I would guess that the other outlet went to the farmer's house by galvanized iron pipe. But this reservoir (I never measured it, but at least 20m x 20m and perhaps a metre or more deep. The reservoir was overgrown and full with mud and rubbish but I suspect had been used to irrigate a banana plantation and perhaps market garden.
The project was for domestic water supply but the reservoir was cleaned out. From the creek, we renovated the dam and hooked a pipe to the transfer box. We left a pickup point for water at the creek so did not utilize 100% of the water.
From the transfer box we took a line to the school and church, and another line to the nearby village of Uwhiro. Any water from the transfer box that was not used domestically, went into the reservoir. That is water flowing in over night. Some could be siphoned off for the nearby cattle dip as well.

 The significance of livestock is high in within the culture of local people which was why the cattle trough was installed. But my personal secret is that of conservation. If you look nine pictures up, you will see animals in the creek-bed - I would leap at the chance of avoiding that any time.
I guess the water trough was situated midway between Uwhiro and Ngarenanyuki.

And there we are, cattle using the trough.

You have to be a kid to know, but I would hope that the kids were genuinely pleased that they had water on tap at their school. When I was a kid, I think I would have liked the distraction of going to a creek to collect some water. On the other hand we adults and in this case, the teachers would look at their watches to judge how much mischief the kids were up to. All kids do that, but mischief too could be a learning experience.

On another occasion we took our friend, Mama Upendo to Ngarenanyuki and she was delighted to pose with teachers, kids and Loti.

A little beyond the school - up the hill, if you like, I was taken to a site where the farmer settlers had established a bore hole that tapped an underground lake. I was told the water quality was good and I have no way of knowing for sure but it is possible that the lake feeds the spring/creek we tapped from.
The pipe is about four inch and is filled with stones. My guide told me it was kids tossing stones down there (mischief) but it is also possible the farmer settlers sabotaged the bore before they left.
Water was extracted by means of a pump powered by a tractor and pulley.
My time had run out there, and I would have liked the opportunity to revitalize the bore hole