In Nahayamanga

I am back from a long day spent at the village of Nahayamanga. This village is the most remote one that we intend to visit, about an hour and a half outside of the city of Mwanza. On the way we saw all sorts of bicycles and carts loaded, almost impossibly full, with an assortment of items: corn sacks, bundles of grass for roofing huts, sugar cane, water buckets, etc., as well as many women down at the water holes near the road, filling buckets with water, which they carry home on their heads. This practice is everywhere and is amazing to see.

We arrived in the morning and were greeted by hundreds of the people in the village, in particular, the children were excited to see us (much like yesterday, the crowd a children grew exponentially over the course of the morning... and then school got out in the afternoon to add to the crowd!) I don't think that I've ever had physical contact with so many people in a single day prior to this trip in my entire life. The children love to crowd around us for a hug or handshake, or simply to touch our skin and hair (they don't have much hair on their arms, so our hairy arms appear to be particularly fascinating to them).

The drilling began around noon and continued for a few hours until one of the trucks ran out of fuel. They were still waiting for the fuel to arrive as I write this, but are planning to drill through the night once it does arrive. Pray for success tonight! Many of the villagers watched the drill work for hours and remained there when we left. I had a conversation with one older man who spoke some broken English. He asked how it was that the funds were available for this well and I told him that many people in America where we come from gave their money for this well when they heard about the great need for clean water in Tanzania. When we closed the conversation he thanked me profusely and said that if we had not come he did not think this would ever be possible in his village. After experiences like these, I feel compelled to believe that of all of the things I spend my money on the most year, this is certainly one of the most meaningful things.
--Merideth