Excellent! - excellentdevelopment.com

Our Quest Team Leader Sarah was in Kola when a team of visitors arrived from Tanzania to learn about sand dams. The visit was co-ordinated by the Mennonite Central Committee, who fund our work in Kenya, as well as many other projects across Africa, including Tanzania.

---

There has been a hive of activity in the offices of Excellent Development Kenya over the last week as we’ve been the welcome hosts of 14 people heralding from Tanzania. The visitors, all from the capital Dodoma and surrounding villages, were learning about Excellent’s work with the view to transpose our methods, and hopefully our successes, in the dry regions of southern Tanzania.

They were particularly interested in learning the mechanics behind constructing sand dams. This they received in abundance by assisting Kyumbuni self-help group build a sand dam to provide the area with access to water. They were able to experience first-hand the enthusiasm and energy that typifies a dam build. The excited Kyumbuni group were delighted with the extra numbers and the opportunity to engage with another culture. A personal highlight was an impromptu but relevant cultural differences demonstration showing the different ways that Kenyan and Tanzanian women respond to the burden of carrying water-the Tanzanians use their heads (literally!) whilst the Kenyans their backs…

The atmosphere was nothing short of carnival with a dedicated team of energy inducing singers and dancers to keep the energy levels up (many who combined said activities with mixing huge piles of cement - no mean feat!). A particular crowd favourite was Monica, a lady who by conservative estimates was at least 110yrs old, who every day, all day, would sing and dance in her own unique African style to encourage the workers - hence earning her the nickname - the energiser bunny…There was no shortage of jobs, from mixing cement; fetching water; throwing trays of cement (messy and lethal for those of a dreamy disposition - a tray to the face of a day-dreamer was a rare but worrying event!); helping the ladies cook the delicious lunch; digging trenches; fetching stones - or displaying your vocal talents…it was great to see everyone really get involved in all aspects of the project.

And clearly Monica did her job well as we managed to finish the dam in double-quick time much to the delight of the jolly crowd. Alas it was therefore time to depart, although not before some lovely speeches of thanks in Kikamba, English and Swahili and gifts of food and local hand-made rope were bestowed upon the welcomed visitors.

To emphasise not only how important but how sustainable Excellent’s work is, the group also took a tour of dams, old and new, and water tanks, pipelines and so on to give them them ideas on how to run similar projects in their own regions. In conjunction with this they also saw some examples of Excellent’s work regarding trees, visiting their forests and seed banks - even being given their own seeds to start their own seed banks in their areas. There was a lot of scribbling down of the tips on planting after hearing that Excellents tree planting success rate is over ten times the Kenyan average! Talks on how to encourage social ownership of the dams, such as making the group contribute half the costs, so that long-term maintenance and thus success is sustained were also a key part of the visit.

On their final day they also had the chance to spend the day with an established Self-Help Group at one of their dam sites. It was a great opportunity to ask all of the burning questions they had been formulating throughout the week such as “how do you encourage members to participate in the hard work?” and “how do you get other self-help groups to help your group?” Thankfully the substantial training that Excellent provides groups shone through and every query was answered informatively and with sensitivity of the issues that face self-help groups.

One of the highlights of the day was the fantastic lunch that they put on, not only due to the tastiness of the food but due to the fact that it consisted mostly of ingredients, such as avocadoes and mangoes, that the local farmers can now grow due to the implications of the construction of the sand dams- a nice reminder of how the benefit of Excellent’s work is not just simply better access to water but all the knock-on advantages that this brings.

It was with reluctance that the group returned back to Dodoma with their heads buzzing with all the information they’d learnt, notebooks overflowing with notes on methodology and top tips and phones full of new contact numbers. Fingers crossed that by forging links between the two organisations the visitors will be able to replicate Excellent’s success and help the thousands of people struggling to survive with the current water scarcity in neighbouring Tanzania.