Day7-Tuesday
SiteVisit-2017
Tuesday 26th September
Back to Vumilia for the day. First visit was to the new borehole which isn’t working at the present time. An engineer came to repair it but injured his hand while working on the task. When the damage to his hand is better, he will return to finish the job, hopefully very soon. The borehole pipe had to be taken out as the problem is right at the bottom of the drilling. We also visited a farmer working in his fields, growing water cabbage (a new veg for me) tomatoes, potatoes and water melons, all grown to be sold in Urambo Market. The plants were watered from wells/water holes nearby. Even though it hadn’t rained for four months, I was surprised at how high the water level was in these holes.
We then returned to the village for the meeting with the village committee, followed by lunch:
Requests from the committee as follows:
1. Chairs and tables for village meeting room (there are none at the present time)
2. Another borehole nearer the village
3. Build a room for births, e.g. a maternity unit attached to the clinic;
4. A third hostel for the girls at the secondary school (as above)
and pay for meals for those staying there;
5. D-lights for students at the school;
6. Teachers houses (1 or 2)
7. Machine for crushing sunflower seeds; to save farmers going to Urambo with their seeds;
8. Set up a microfinance scheme;
9. Uniforms for the church choir/dance band;
10. 5 cycles for the village Health Team so that they can visit the villagers more easily;
11. Motor cycle for the clinician so that he can visit villagers more easily;
Then, on to take photographs of the sponsored students from Vumilia and Nkokoto before going back to meet the villagers at their village meeting. This began with a dance and singing from the village (Assemblies of God Church) choir/dancers, performed for the villagers and their guests. The meeting began with the usual greetings and words of thanks and appreciation, followed by my usual words of greetings from Nailsworth and Minchinhampton, together with word s about strengthening the friendship and building on the relationship between the two villages, etc., etc.!
Then came the requests, a long, long list with some heartrending requests mixed with some very unrealistic ones!
1. Setting up a microfinance scheme
2. Solar panels on every house(!!)
3. Fertilizers for the old ladies to improve their crops
4. Pump water from borehole to village centre
5. Bed sheets for old people to keep them warm at night during the colder periods of the year
6. Football equipment and equipment for the young people of the village
7. A health centre like a hospital so that they don’t have to go to Urambo hospital
8. Widow – money for children at school – uniform, etc
9. A market building where they can sell their goods
10. Roof for the Assemblies of God church (they have built the walls)
11. Albino mother – shoes and school uniform for her children
12. Beekeepers – protective clothing, harvesting equipment and a market for their beeswax
in the UK
13. Corrugated sheets for a chicken shed – group of men setting up a chicken farm
14. Cement for the Anglican church
15. A trike for a very disabled and old lady
16. Loud speaker system for the mosque
17. Help for a mother with an epileptic daughter (medical complications following malaria)
18. Secondary school hostel (see above)
19. Secondary school hostel for boys
20. Ambulance to take patients to Urambo Hospital
21. Widow – money for uniforms and food for children at school
22. Chairman – bicycle so he can get around the village
23. Then met a group of (30?) old widows (although some weren’t very old?)
who were asking for help for their children, lunches, food, clothes etc
We then walked back to students for more photos, including taking a ride on a Minch-Nkokoto bicycle to great laughter from the students! Then to Augustine’s home for a snack of ground nuts and Fanta, then back to Urambo. Tonight we had a thunderstorm and cooling, torrential rain, a preview of what is to come in October, followed by another power cut!
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