Saturday

It’s a warm muggy afternoon in downtown Luanda and the team drifts into the roadside soda shop. One of several that have opened up in Luanda since electricity arrived last year. Electricity means refrigeration, and refrigeration means cold drinks. It also means water pumps and more readily available clean water – our main objective this time. But on this afternoon it’s the cold drinks that have brought us to town.

Maurice joins us for a chat. He’s a retired science teacher and very involved in community projects. But this time we hear his stories about progress in Kenya over his lifetime. Born in 1944, he grew up during the period when Kenya was still a British colony. Not that many British (m’zungas, or white people) made it to this a more remote part of Kenya but their influence was widely felt.

In those days Luanda was much smaller; now more than 5000 people call it their community. The road through town was no more than a track through the bush; the fishermen had a small village by the shore and little of the land that slopes back to the Gembe hills was farmed. Those young men that didn’t fish hunted game in the bush. The prime targets were zebras and the hunt protocol was competitive. He who speared the animal was guaranteed a hind leg. The one that chased it and brought it down gained another leg. And another went to the man who killed the animal. Being fast on your feet and having a good throwing arm earned meat for your family.

The fishing was also good and one could catch plenty by line and hook from the shore. Now the boats go out early and the catches are not as good as they once were. The fishermen now live in small tin huts crowded between the main road and the beach.

Discipline was better then – maybe every elderly person reminisces like this – and harsh punishments made crime rare. Saluting an older man was expected of the younger men and boys; girls stopped and bowed their heads. Inconceivable today he tells us. But to our western eyes there seems to be no lack of respect. Some of the traditions of the Luo people have also faded away. He smiles, showing us one of their distinguishing characteristics. As young teenagers all boys and girls would have their six lower front teeth removed. Now, he tells us, the Masai are different, and the m’zungas too, but he can only identify other Luo by language. Dental advances aside, maybe this isn’t such a bad thing as Kenya tries to move away from tribal based politics.

While Nairobi may have been seeing material advances, very little of the British technology made its way to this part of Kenya. Utensils were carved from wood and water was fetched in gourds from a much cleaner Lake Victoria. Education was also slow in making its way west. The entire district had only a single primary school and that went only to grade 4. While Kenyans could earn degrees in Nairobi, getting beyond primary school in this part of Kenya meant boarding at a school many kilometers away. Now with more than a dozen schools in walking distance education at least is much more readily available. And the effort that so many families make to pay the fees to send their children to secondary school shows an enormous respect for the value of education.

Looking down the street from our plastic table and chairs we see a very different Luanda than that in Maurice’s 1950s stories. Population pressure has removed much of the bush, especially the large trees. The water supplies are strained and crowded conditions make sanitation difficult. There’s a long way to go to reach a more sustainable equilibrium, but there are signs of progress. Many more are being educated; ground water is being found and wells are being developed. The Viagenco clinic is adding to its health care and counseling services and expanding into developing schools for the orphans and food programs for the elderly.

Our afternoon interlude reminiscing with Maurice is paused as he stops sipping his cold Coke to answer his cell phone. The contrast between Luanda and our home communities is marked; but perhaps not as much as Maurice has seen here over his lifetime.

- Roy

Thursday

Thursday was filled with activity. Drilling began promptly at 8am and progressed quickly. A shallow aquifer was hit within the first half hour of drilling followed by a more significant aquifer later in the morning. By the end of the day drilling had reached ~80m. The current plan it to continue to 120m to maximize the lifetime of the well in times of drought.

Meanwhile, part of the fluoride team from CDN conducted a training with members of both the Opanga and Nyatemba committees, teaching about leadership, finances, and sustainability for a water project. Reminded me of leadership camps and trainings I attended while growing up. The workshop was well received by those attending and the trainers from CDN were happy with the level of understanding and engagement of the committee members.

Roy, Mark, and Cathy spent much of the day trying to repair leaks in the inlet and oulet bulkheads for the Opanga storage tank. We wrapped up the evening with a cold Stoney in the quite active business district before heading home for an excellent meal of potatoes, ugali, and a chicken from the front yard.

=David

Wednesday

Wednesday started out with a visit to Mercy School. We were greeted by many smiling faces. We first took a tour and were excited to see the progress at the site of the new school. The entire property has been fenced and work has begun to clear and area for the permaculture garden about half way down the hill, between the kitchen and the new building for Mama Junes Elder Support program. We then assembled with all of the students in the school yard for several speeches before we presented new education supplies including paper pencils, and colored pencils. The students were quite excited by the colored pencils while the teachers were most excited by the pencil sharpeners. The visit concluded with several songs performed by groups of children.

Anne and Mark stayed at the school to continue working with the students while the rest of the team headed over to see the progress on the Kasuan well, which has been repaired with a steel pipe and plastic tank. We took samples for fluoride analysis since past tests had indicated very high concentrations. Following lunch the team returned to the clinic to begin desludging the third rainwater tank. This time Elizabeth had the honor of climbing into the tank. Mid afternoon the drilling trucks rolled into town to begin setting up at the Nyatemba site. In the evening the team met with the Opanga water committee to continue discussion about the successes and struggles of their project. We wrapped up with some additional bacteriological test counting before walking home by starlight.

-David

Day 3: Nyatemba Committee Meeting, Clinic Work

We walked back to our home away from home under a blanket of stars from a long, but successful day of adventures. This morning, we woke up with greetings as our friendly neighbors walked past us into town, “oyah orey” (good morning), Amosi (hello).

We walked to town ourselves for a productive meeting with the Nyatemba Water Committee. In the meeting, we discussed achievements to date and plans for the distribution system after the well is drilled. We learned of the current electricity development in town and its promise as a hopefully less expensive way to get clean drinking water to the community of Nyatemba, approximately 6,000 people. The meeting group made its way through the cornfields to walk the path the truck will take to drill the well Thursday. We met the borehole site landowners who were very excited to help their community and to meet us. Pi ma lare is clean water and aero comano is thank you. They are thankful for working with us and for pi ma lare. We are thankful for this amazing experience, everything we are learning, and our new friends in Luanda.

Luanda visitors are never allowed to go hungry so we were kindly served two large lunches by the Nyatemba Water Committee and our hosts where we are staying. Being happy and full, we began a water testing frenzy. We only took a break when Cathy bought us cold Stonie ginger sodas (an EWB favorite). Our most important finding so far is that while chlorination is useful, cleaning the tap is also a significant component to keeping the water coming out of the tap clean. After seeing the petrifilms with chloroform colonies from the dirty tap as compared to the same tap after it was cleaned, the committee is aware of the need to keep the goats and donkeys from licking the taps. Yes, they are cute, but covered in germs. No, mom, I promise I won’t bring home the baby goat. We are also better prepared to educate the community on keeping the taps clean as part of the well’s regular maintenance. We should have more interesting findings tomorrow as we tested water into the wee hours of the night. We are hopeful that the clinic rainwater catchment system continues to show good findings (so far we have a consistent count of zero bacteria…yay). We are also looking forward to visiting Mercy school tomorrow where the children have prepared a special dance to greet us. Oi mo rey and goodnight to all our friends at home.

-Anne

Day 2: Work Begins

We continue to have a wonderful time—despite a growing collection of mosquito bites, we are still in very good health, recovered from jet lag and meet new friends here in Luanda every day.

We have begun repair work around the clinic. Mark jumped into one of the small rainwater catchment tanks to guide a siphon so we could drain fine sediment from its bottom. The 5 geckos that found their way into the tank were scooped into a pail and passed through a top. The dirty water drained was collected and used to water small neem trees that a local man, Maurice, has planted around the clinic perimeter. It’s believed the neem tree has many medicinal properties and also repels mosquitoes. Initial water quality tests are encouraging. Flouride levels of the untreated water at Opanga were at 2 ppm and treated water was less than 1 ppm. Bacteriological tests of water at the clinic and Opanga site show very low (to zero) counts of choliform contamination. The highest bacteria counts were taken from Opanga taps that were not first sterilized with alcohol. When those taps were cleaned, the water showed no contamination. Livestock is frequently found onsite at Opanga when we visit, so it’s easy to imagine a thirsty donkey having contaminated the tap.

Since counting petri films took so little time, we took the afternoon to wander into Luanda for a cold Stoney, then walked through the beach community and headed through the Monday evening market before heading toward the Nyatemba project site via one of the potential distribution routes. We are told that drilling equipment will arrive Wednesday evening and drilling begins Thursday. The site is semi-cleared-- unfarmed in an area filled with corn fields. We will meet with the Nyatemba water committee this morning.

-Elizabeth