We’re back at the hotel after our third day working in Gambella village. Thought I’d give you a glimpse of what our days look like.
First we commute to work. The 15 kilometers down unpaved road can be brutal – especially the traffic! Here's what we constantly run into:
The village itself is as dirt poor as you can imagine. Most people live in small huts they’ve made. The girls start having babies at around age 14. They each have one set of clothes… plenty of holes and rips… and wash them in the river every so often.
They’ve historically been pastoral (no, not church, think “animals”), but climate change toward drought has made that far less productive. So they’re needing to learn agriculture.
One of our volunteers, Bob, is a water engineer. He’s met with the district water officials and will help us come up with an effective plan to help these poor Borana villages get water for irrigation. Bob says, “This soil is fantastic. All they need to do is be able to add water effectively.”
Bob’s new Borana name is Jarso (means “old,” go figure)… Here he is with a Borana man named Jarso because his father was old when he was born.
Honestly, what the adults want more than anything is a better life for their kids... healthier, more than one bowl of food to eat a day... and they want their kids to be educated. Wubshet and Habiba have helped them advocate for themselves with the district education office. The office said they wouldn't send teachers there unless the people put up a structure. So that's why we're building a schoolhouse...
The dirt expanse where 180 kids meet for school under a few trees is on the east edge of the village. That’s where we’re building the schoolroom. We’re making fantastic progress!
We joined the village women to gather rocks to use in the foundation… And we carried water to use in the concrete mix (a few of us were almost as strong as them...)
Several team members are helping the women build chicken coops for a cooperative income-producing effort. My favorite snapshot: the oldest women in the village learning how to use a saw and hammer!
Others love to play with the schoolkids. James, the principal, lets the kids out of class in rotations. They all want to play with the “wazungas” (the white people).
They're all great students, eager learners, and their English handwriting is a vast improvement over my scrawl!
Finally, as the sun sets, we go back to town to eat dinner made by a couple of local women Habiba hired to cook for us, we debrief to plan the next day’s efforts, and fall into bed (happily) exhausted.
And that’s what I’m going to do now.
Next blog entry I'll tell you about the black cobra in the village. I'm dead serious (well... I hope not dead serious...).
Goodnight! --Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Thank you so much for the updates; they were inspirational to me! The work you, Laurie and the entire volunteer group did was a miracle to the Borana's. God Bless your mission into the future and I pray for everyone's safe return home!
Mark Tanner
Posted by: Mark Tanner | 09 August 2008 at 05:35 PM