MUNGU NI MWEMA
God is good.     

After a three hour drive we walked up the mountainside to look at a concrete holding pool that feeds by gravity two cisterns below used for agriculture, washing and cooking.  Before this cachement was in place, they relied on a 300 foot deep well with a solar powered pump to serve more than 5000 people in this high desert region east of Nairobi.  The vegetation looked very familiar—agave, prickly pear, century plant. 

 

We were welcomed with a marvelous party under a tree, complete with chocolates provided by one from our group.  At the bore hole well we met with a very large community singing and dancing and making speeches.  We went in the late afternoon to a large sand dam that was 33 feet deep at the concrete base, and full to the brim with rainwater.  Again, singing and speeches gave us the clear impression that these folks are grateful for their new life, with liberal water supply where before there was so little. 

  

As one elder put it: “This year during dry season none of our goats or donkeys died.”  There you go!  What more can I say than that. 

 

Truth be told, CWS figures each well costs $7500, with one third for materials, roughly one third for professional services such as concrete transportation and pouring, plumbing etc and one third local labor, given by the community.  An outside investment of $5,000 can do so much for so many. The average time needed to install a sand dam is around three months, although some committees organize local labor that gets the job done much sooner.  In our case, we also made possible in Chepkechir a concrete latrine that they chose to install before starting on the schoolhouse. 

  

The Kamba people near Mwingi recently planted a community garden with onions and maize and other vegetables for cooking on government land next to their new dam.  They are beginning to practice "roundtable" lending, with eventual access to electronic banking by mobile phone as is common in rural areas to allow some savings to tide people over during difficult times.   

  

CWS has now sponsored thirty-five sand dams in all, fifteen in Mwingi region, thirteen in the East and West Pokot regions (including Chepkechir and Boringo) and seven more in Tankara up north.  

  

This is an incredible uplift from poverty for many of these women and men, some of whom have real hope for a brighter future thanks to Church World Service and the local well management committee consisting of tribal elders, women and young men from several villages close by each other.   

  

They see it as a miracle to be able to bathe and to wash their clothing and their children and to cook with locally drawn water. 

  

The people have come together to better their lives and we’ve been part of that through our gifts.  

  

I spoke last Sunday about CWS work with “youth caregivers” whose responsibilities have grown as the adults in the village suffer from AIDS.  These kids are very resourceful, but they need encouragement from their adult mentors and sponsors. 

  

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to see first-hand where CROP walk funds and other relief and development gifts end up.  God multiplies our gifts in every place by giving us dedicated Christian partners to work with, and amazing grace to see us through leaner times.