Words from Tanzania

Some visitors get a chance to spend a few nights under the stars in an African national park. We get the opportunity from time to time to visit with the cattle-herding folks in the bush. Today I (Todd) traveled with the Diocese of Pare director of projects and planning, Mr. Geoffrey Mmbaji for the purposes of delivering a memorandum of understanding between the Maasai people of the Pangaro area and the ELCT Diocese of Pare. This is an agreement that I wrote with advice from the Diocese, and its purpose is to map out a plan for all parties to work together to rehabilitate a deep water well and delivery system which has been broken for over two years. The session with them today went better than expected, and we all enjoyed the meeting place under the shade of an Acacia tree with goat and cattle dung at our feet. They, of course, let me sit on a 3-legged carved wooden stool along with the leaders of the community.

If you can imagine your women and young girls spending 8-10 hours per day fetching water in buckets and other plastic containers for home use, you might be able to imagine another way. In a patriarchal society in Africa such as that of the Maasai, the women do the work around the home, and the men take care of the assets (cattle). Lori and I first found out about this area last August when we were invited to visit a very impressive Kisangare Lutheran Church. This church has sub-parishes with some evangelists who stay in those communities. Pangaro is one of those sub-parishes and the Kisangare pastor took us out to visit the Maasai one day and we were astounded at the lifestyle and later the patience. No water, no gardens, no crops, no sanitation, no food and no plan. But, they had cattle and goats, which are their wealth. Lori and I decided to ask for help from the folks in Iowa to help us rehabilitate their well water system and generator. Now is our chance to deliver and to build some trust as well as develop a partnership.

The deep well (120 meters) with above ground concrete storage tank was installed by donors of the Catholic Church and it was broken six months after installation. The issues are with the petrol generator that powers the well pump. Some desperate folks put oil and diesel and perhaps some other liquids into this petrol machine. It was also run for longer periods than intended and the windings of the generator portion may need some repair. The pump, connecting water delivery pipe and other pieces of the system have been removed and we must now reinstall the whole system after the generator is repaired. District & Regional water officials, Diocese leaders, the Kisangare Lutheran Parish, the Maasai people of Pangaro and the Catholics all had to agree for us to be able to start the project.

Today, I found out that the Maasai people of Pangaro are tired of their women fetching water all day. They are ready to invest in and manage their gift, and we pledged to work together. I will manage the project, the folks from Iowa will pay for it, and the Pangaro people promised to maintain a bank account with multiple signatories for the maintenance of the water system. If this is a charade, I don’t care. At least some thirsty people will get some clean drinking water. Right now I thank God for the human capacity to trust one another.