Project Trip Report - Kapchorwa
Returning to Kapchorwa, Janet and I (Greg) were accompanied by nine other folks. Seven engineers from America, one engineer from Zimbabwe and one new eMi intern. Our team assembled to create the best possible potable water distribution and gravity flow irrigation systems for the people of Ngenge (pronounced Nay-Nay). We had irrigation experts, business planners, geologists, water engineers and interns. Needless to say, we were all excited.
Eventually we determined the project was not as simple or as feasible as we originally planned. The eMi project scope describes the natural conditions as “ample water supply from streams on the mountainside.” Unfortunately the water is not enough for the planned amount of irrigation the community wanted. Watershed analysis and rainfall data determined that the only way to get irrigation water for the dry season was massive amounts of storage, like a dam, making the building cost way more than available funds.
Gravity flow irrigation was what the Anglican leadership sponsoring the project wanted and expected from us. They were disappointed to learn within the first few days of our trip that such a system was not economically feasible. Janet and Andrew, our business planner, spent 2 days in meetings with the leaders explaining why it wasn’t possible. The engineers continued to develop the most cost effective way for the improvement of the villagers lives. I helped with all map related issues as well as watershed area calculations.
Noticing that proper sanitation measures were not practiced near boreholes (Ugandan for wells), our first recommendations were for community health education. For a very small budget, a community health specialist can teach the leaders proper sanitation practices. The leaders can then go back to their areas and teach the rest of the community. The sanitation practices are simple things like don’t allow livestock near boreholes, or don’t use the same jerry-can (bucket) for stream water and borehole water.
Additionally, we noticed that many of the boreholes were not maintained correctly. Well over half were broken, and it was obvious that none of the boreholes we looked at had been checked on since installation, this is supposed to happen twice a year. So our next recommendation called for the development of a business plan for regular maintenance. We are still working on the details of this.
Next, there were other communities that had to walk too far to get their borehole water. There were not even broken boreholes within a proper distance. Their women (that do most of the hard labor in Ugandan village culture) would get harassed by drunkards as they were walking back from the boreholes at night. So our obvious recommendation for this part of the problem was the drilling of new boreholes in those areas.
Then came the project presentation. Needless to say everyone was nervous about it. We were not sure how the community would react when we told them we could not build a gravity distributed irrigation system. We prayed about it quite a bit prior to our presentation Monday. God answered our prayers. We only had one complaint regarding the absence of the gravity distribution system. So, the presentation was a wonderful success, everyone was pleased with our work.
Personally, I want to thank all of our supporters. Getting to help out the people of Ngenge was a dream come true for me, and it would have been impossible if it were not for our supporters. I am also greatly happy to report that your money is well spent. We are continuing to work hard with the Anglican church to make our recommendations a reality. And now, pictures.
Recognize the bald guy in the middle?
Excellent view and Jeremy
Greg did not go into the field much for this project trip, most of his time was spent in this office.
Noting corrections made to the map by the Ugandans
And more corrections
No one is caught sleeping while listening to Pontet (Respectful term for an old man in chipsabene, the language spoken in Kapchorwa)
Thank you all again. Please continue to pray for the work we did, particularly that funding is raised by the Anglican church to implement our recommendations. Send us any prayer request you may have, remember that the key to divine revelation is the patterns in your life.
Stephanie’s update:
Hello! February has been a pretty busy month. At Heritage International School we had Spirit Week, where the kids dressed up every day and learned about how to be peacemakers. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed getting to work on it. Last week also brought the International Festival. This was a lot of fun. There are many many different nationalities represented at Heritage, and at the international festival everybody brings traditional food from their country and dresses in traditional clothes (which mean a t-shirt and jeans for the Americans).
It was a lot of fun to see the students and their families wearing their traditional clothes and to sample all the wonderful food. We got to try Korean, Ethiopian, Italian, Australian, Ugandan, and many other kinds of food, as well as see some performances!
It is hard to believe that it is already March and we will be leaving this June. Time has really flown by. Pray that we will be sensitive to what God has for us.
Keep Kenya in your prayers as well. You may have heard about the violence that has broken out there recently over election issues, and they have recently reached some sort of agreement. So pray that this agreement will work out and the violence come to an end.
-Stephanie
“From eternity to eternity I am God.
No one can snatch anyone out of my hand.
No one can undo what I have done.”
-Isaiah 43:13
Also, here is a picture of some baby bunnies with their momma. Hopefully these creatures will be leaving my house this week.
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