Travels with Mike & Kathy

Prior to our visit to Zimbabwe (Zim) we corresponded with Elder and Sister Bullock via

Johnsons and Bullocks e-mail to prepare ourselves and them for the 2 weeks we would be there working on

our assignment as short-term specialists for clean water and sanitation. The Welfare Department for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church) had assigned us to Zim in order to get a project going in 2010. The Bullocks had only one month left on their 18 month mission assignment as country directors (CD) for LDS Charities (LDSC) and we thought we needed to take advantage of their country knowledge and experience and at least get things started there prior to their departure. Selection of location(s), and the site monitors and hygiene supervisors is a lot easier when done by a CD who has been in-country for some time.

Salt Lake City to Harare, Zimbabwe is a long flight. We made stops in Paris for an 8 hour lay over and Nairobi for 3 hours. The total travel time was 36 hours and about 7 in-flight movies. Upon arrival our hosts were not there to pick us up as the itinerary info we had showed us arriving 2 hours later than we had. Fortunately we knew we were booked at the Holiday Inn. As at any airport there are plenty of taxis ready to take travelers into town.

Whenever visiting a new country the ride from the airport is always interesting. The sights along the way give a feel for the place, at least the city. I find that I am immediately trying to orient my sense of direction. Harare had a sense of a place that had stopped progressing. It looked like it had once been a well kept and attractive city. Since the declaration of independence from colonialism in 1980, not much had been improved or taken care of. We came to find out that Zim, once the breadbasket of Africa was now a broken economy largely relying on assistance from world organizations. The term is NGO; non-governmental organization. There are local NGOs and international NGO’s. As in any 3rd world country, there are a lot of NGOs in Zim.

There are about 20,000 member of the LDS faith with the central area being right there in Harare. There are few growth areas away from the capital, the largest being in Bulawayo 5 hours to the south where there is another stake. We had determined that on this first visit we would focus on projects in closer to Harare.

Through earlier correspondence the Bullocks had indicated that there were several areas that had come to their attention of where clean water projects were needed. In reality, one could throw a dart at a map or just about any country in Africa and they need clean water. There is some criteria we look for when considering an area for a project. We want to know what the governmental authorities have to say; in this case the Zimbabwe Water Authority (ZIMWA), some other major NGOs who deal in the clean water and sanitation sector. In most countries where there are a lot of NGOs they form an association for each “sector” or area of focus. The large NGOs have several areas of focus. The association for clean water and sanitation is WASH-Water and Sanitation Health. We were able to get a lot of information from them and found that there is national policy in place for NGO and village recipients that matched our criteria for doing projects.

The two buzzwords in the NGO world are “capacity” and “sustainability”. Once the project is completed are the recipients capable of sustaining the change and will they continue the new way. The last is usually a cultural issue. One example is while i Cambodia we went to several village to put in some drilled wells (boreholes) and learned that villagers don’t like the taste of the water coming out of boreholes and even though it may be clean, they prefer the taste of the dirty ditch water they have been drinking. So the clean water is used for washing bodies and clothes and the villagers continue to get sick from water born illnesses and in the case of children, too many continue to die.

An important part of any clean water project is hygiene education. LDSC has implemented PHAST-Public Health and Sanitation Transition. It is an education program used by many NGOs worldwide that helps teach villagers the importance of washing hands after toilet functions and prior to eating along with other hygiene matters. It helps the villagers, in particular, the mothers, understand waterborne illnesses and why their children and themselves get diarrhea and what they can do to prevent it. In Zim government policy dictates that with any water projects, hygiene must be taught and villagers must attend the training.

Bullocks and Locardia Murenza

The Bullocks knew of a sister who has been a member of the LDS faith for 20 years and they felt she would be perfect as the country supervisor for hygiene training. We all met with her and it did not take long to confirm she would be perfect. She will have the responsibility of recommending who the training leaders are for each project and the training leaders will be responsible for training and overseeing the facilitators. This is a paid position for the supervisor and training leaders. The facilitators are volunteers at the village level. Each facilitator is responsible for training 25 families. In a village of 300 families that will mean 12 facilitators. In one area, Goromonzi, we will be doing bore holes in 30 villages. There will be 2 training leaders there. Sister Murenza will have a big responsibility and hopefully will be with LDSC in projects for years to come. She was excited to be working with the CD and helping her people. During a recent visit from Sister Beck, the LDS Church General Relief Society President, Sister Murenza was recognized by Sister Beck during a talk because of the “light in her eyes”.

We were looking at 3 areas for projects. In Hararae there is an area called Mufacose that had requested some assistance. As we drove into the area we observed children pulling water up out of sewers via the drain holes where they had removed the drain covers along the streets. There were several schools that needed drinking water and along with using water for drinking they wanted to use some of the property around the school for gardening. There is also a clinic in the area that needs water and a business center that is centrally located. In Goromonzi the 30 villages had already formed water committees in each village and were committed to attending hygiene training classes. There is an area to the north about 2.5 hours drive called Muzarabani that is in an area the ZIMWA considers as a 5 on a scale of 1-5 in the way of need. Zim is divided into provinces, districts, wards and villages. We met with the chairman of the District Development Fund (DDF) and we were impressed with his organization and commitment of cooperation. We committed that if the projects were approved by the area office in South Africa and Salt Lake that we would do bore holes in 4 wards if there was water to be had and consider more in next years budget. They were in a very sandy area and we are not sure we can access water by drilling.

It was in Muzarabani that we found our two site monitors we would need. The CD couple have a lot or responsibilities and other projects so they cannot be at the drilling sites as the work is going on so through the projects we retain a site monitor to observe the quality of the work and the materials. There is too much opportunity for fraud. It is evident from any daily paper in the US that it is not just poor countries that problem. There are two pastors of a couple of churches in that area who had found out about the LDS Church and had read the Book of Mormon. There is no LDS Church in that area. Being a pastor of a church is how they made their living, and quite a good one at that by their standards. Because of the remoteness to any organized branches of the LDS church they could not be baptized. One of the pastors came down to Harare and was baptized. As a result he, of course, lost his job. He also lost his wife. She went home to her family. Her parents are quite well off. They offered to get him his job back and return his wife if he would denounce his new found faith. He said he could not do that. The other pastor had not gotten baptized but assigned all the teaching responsibilities to other members of his congregation. He didn’t feel he could teach the doctrine anymore because of his newfound knowledge. If things work out and he is assigned as the site monitor for Harare and Goromonzi he will be baptized. Through the whole process with them and Sister Murenza we could feel a strong spirit directing the decisions we were all making.

Sis Murenza, Pastor Mhike, Bro. Kapatamoyo

It didn’t take long for word to get out that LDSC was looking to do some clean water projects. On our second day there two men showed up at the office asking to be considered for the drilling contracts. Again, we informed them the projects had to be written up, submitted and approved first but we were willing to consider them. We discussed their experience and told them we were going to Mufacose to look at the school sites. We wanted to know if there was water that could be tapped into should we drill there. They said they would meet us there. We figured they would have a map of the aquifers or some equipment for detecting water.

When they arrived they came out with their witching sticks!! I thought, this is interesting. One of them began pacing the area with the stick and it wasn’t long and there was a definite “dip” in the stick. He approached the same location from different angles and each time the stick visibly reacted. He informed us there was definitely water there and then his partner took out a tape ;measure and measured at what heights from the ground the stick dipped at that spot and they told us how deep the water was. Ok, I had heard of witching-they told us this was Africa and it was risky to use that word so we should call it “divining” or “dipping”. I googled it later and it was interesting reading.

Of course we all wanted to try it! I checked out the spot where they had dipped and then went off in different directions. I was totally amazed when for no apparent reason the stick dipped with such force that no matter how hard I gripped it it went down. I will be interested to see if we find water in those spots.

Mike checking out divining

Of course, Kathy had to check it out also

We found that working with the local authorities in the DDF was going to prove to be very efficient and would make for good quality projects. Part of sustainability is making sure that years from now the pumps are still working and the bore hole is still producing, assuming there is still water there. The DDF has standardized throughout the country what types of are used, quality of materials, and ensuring that parts are available and someone in the village is trained on pump maintenance. In a lot of countries, including Zim there are pumps that are sitting idle because they are not working. They are trying to rectify that situation. In our project area we asked them to map any broken pumps or non-producing wells. The picture shows a type “B” bush pump that is the standard pump used. In some cases we will fix those instead of drilling a new one if it makes sense to do so. The DDF also helps to ensure that the village water committee is formed and that the site the water committee designates is the best one for the village and not in the village chief’s front yard. In Goromonzi we had meeting with as many as the village leaders as we could and explained to them their responsibilities if we were going to do any bore holes in their villages. Sister Murenza was a great help as she could speak in Shona to them to make sure the information was all understandable to them. They do speak English but some of those in the further out villages understand much better in their native language. The Bullocks had been working through one particular man for awhile prior to our visit and he was there organizing the meeting. During the meeting I asked him a question-in English,of course. He replied back in Shona looking right at me. I started smiling and didn’t stop him. Then when he paused he looked at me like I was supposed to say something I mentioned that I didn’t speak Shona. Everyone laughed. It was mostly men at this meeting. When we get down to making decisions on the location in the villages we want the women to have the major input as it them who have to go get the water.

We found the people everywhere we went to be friendly and happy. Here are a few shots of people we met.

Mike has some new friends

Along with fetching water, getting firewood is a daily task for the women…..

….and everything is carried on their heads…..except for the babies…note the little face sticking out!

The Bullocks had funded a project putting in a new transformer for a clinic so that they could have electricity again. We attended the turn-over ceremony with them. The lady in pink is a Member of Parliament (MP) and requested LDSC do some more projects in her district. Sister Murenza was very helpful in our discussions with her.