Rainy Season In Kiabakari

Rain And Ground Water Harvesting, Cleaning and Storing Project - Images

And the final post for today - just a few pictures of the final stage of the completion of the rain and ground water harvesting, initial cleaning and storing in concrete and PVC tanks development project in my mission in Kiabakari, co-financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. These pictures were taken also in mid-December, like the previous two posts. I had no time to post them earlier - internet issues and guests prohibited to do so. Today, I am in Musoma, so the internet is gentle enough to allow to upload the pics. Mind that the latest works are not depicted here. Not all elements of the project are seen here as well. This is just to let you get a general idea of the nature of the project.

I will post final pictures along with the remaining two projects once they are in full swing. Still, what is seen here, fills my heart with pride and gratitude to God, Polish Foreign Ministry, Foundation Kiabakari and all people involved directly and indirectly in the realization of the project.

Blessing

Finally, 'mvua za vuli' (short rainy season) have arrived. A genuine blessing in this part of the world, and I guess, all over where people know what it means to lack water for certain periods of the year. Thank you, Lord!

For a few days now we have enjoyed thunderstorms with good downpours. Our plastic tanks filled up quickly and we pumped the rain water out of them up to the main concrete tank by the church. One good rain fills six tanks (3-4 thousand liters capacity) in a matter of a couple of hours. The main water tank by the church though depends mainly on the water from the village pipeline which never comes up our hill (we need to use boost pump each time we get the news that the water appeared in the neighbors' taps. We harvest the rain water only from the small portion of the church roofs, unfortunately, as the village pipeline failure to deliver water to inhabitants of Nyamisisye and Kiabakari villages in relatively new backward development.

It looks like the situation is not going to improve in the foreseeable future, so we have to react quickly and install gutters and build main retention tanks for rain water, funds permitting. Just a few pictures below taken with mobile phone camera to show you the beauty of the Vuli season.

Unfair

Yes, we felt so disappointed last evening when we came back from the Holy Mass in Nyamongo district in Kiabakari, where there was a heavy downpour just before the Mass, messing whole setup altogether and soaking it wet completely - and here in the Kiabakari center, and Divine Mercy Hill area there was not a single drop of water. Just dust everywhere. This was unfair!

Fruit Of the Holy Spirit

It's raining. It started a half an hour ago. Not a big rain, but gutters carry water to our tanks. Sisters from my convent and from Shirati will begin their annual retreat in the evening. The water is necessary. Since I fixed gutters to the half of their house and put two 5 thousand liters tanks, there was no rain. Not a single drop. Till today. This is Solemnity of Pentecost. And one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is joy. And we are happy to get rain just today when we needed it most and we were a bit worried what we will do if we run out of water during the retreat. I hope it rains for a while longer so the tanks can be filled... Thank you, Holy Spirit, for giving us joy today!

Sense of Belonging

Yes, the sense of belonging is what I felt intensely during the night vigil before Divine Mercy Sunday this year, which - by the Will of God and the Church - has become united with the beatification of the Holy Father who  was instrumental in bringing attention and devotion of the Church and the world to Divine Mercy message. John Paul II beatified Sister Faustina Kowalska, then canonized her and made officially the Second Sunday of Easter time - Solemnity of Divine Mercy, thus fulfilling the will of the Lord Himself which He revealed to Sister Faustina on numerous occasions when He was appearing the her, as described by herself in the Diary...

LIfe From Above

Days of fetching water in plastic 100 liters capacity containers from Musoma two-three times a week are over for now, thanks be to God! The water arrives itself, propelled by favorable winds and seasonal conditions as rainy season arrived in full. Now what we do is to put the same plastic 100 liters containers in strategic places and catch rain gushing through gutters and spitting down in fury. Life in plentitude from above. Happy days, indeed!

Below The Belt

This feeling is like being hit below the belt. Hard to absorb and accept. It will take time for me to recover. It just dawned to all of us here in the mission that the dire situation with the water supply in Kiabakari is incurable without undertaking serious steps into rectifying the situation. And the situation is tragic. I have a health center, pr-school and primary school, plus sisters' new convent and my rectory and now solid water supply. The water line we have been using so far has been congested with ever new customers being connected and located below our Divine Mercy Hill, thus making it impossible for water to reach our tanks...

Drizzle

Sitting in the couch in the sitting room of the rectory in Kahangala, waiting for my host, Fr. Andrzej Mądry, CR to come back from his pastoral duties in the parish. Drying after the whole day spent in Mwanza City in the drizzle. The rain which accompanied me all the way almost from Kiabakari to Mwanza, turned into drizzle in Mwanza itself and refused to go away...

The Curse

Cosmas, one of those burned alive parishioners (and it looks like he was falsely accused of stealing children and selling them to Gambush in Sukuma land, as the child the mob accused him to steal, was found with the father's child in Musoma), when they were stoning him and setting him alight, he allegedly (as I was told by people later on) cursed them and Kiabakari, saying that because they kill innocent man, there will be no rain in Kiabakari ever...

Nanotechnology Era

Two months without water and counting. A new Kiabakari record. I have no choice but to rely almost entirely on rainwater from now on. Plus driving to Musoma to bring clean water for drinking and cooking - 500 liters each trip. Repairing gutters as we speak, purchasing additional plastic 3 thousand liter tanks, repairing cracked service water tank behind stores. 

Rider On The Storm

What an awesome pleasure it was to ride into the storm yesterday afternoon, heading to Musoma Post Office to get a long awaited parcel (sent as a gift on my 20th anniversary of work as a missionary in Tanzania) by my fantastic friends in Poznań, Poland, along with the packet containing my high blood pressure drugs that I am about to start taking to combat this brand-new condition to me, which arrived conveniently at the same time...

Rain

The very first rain last night and still raining lazily...Dark heavy lead clouds looming over Kiabakari...Cool breeze sways treetops gracefully... I love weather like this. The best condition for intellectual work, meditation, book writing, thinking, unwinding my senses and feelings fed by specially chosen concert on DVD playing in background... Thanking God for this wonderful gift... I will stay home doing some mental work. I'm not going to waste this special time... Check the following short video clips I took some time ago on days like this today. Feel the ambiance and think about coming over for a aromatic cup of coffee and a croissant that awaits you today... We will sit and talk, enjoying music and ourselves, sipping coffee and sharing thoughts how to make the vision of Kiabakari come true...

Vuli

Looks like Vuli is finally knocking on the door...Vuli is the Swahili name for a small rainy season, the equivalent of European spring time. Clouds have been building up for several days, murky weather, humidity, hard to breathe air, barometric pressure changing constantly...First shy drizzles, be it at night or during the day, for a few minutes, and us running around with plastic buckets and containers, trying to catch every drop possible from roofs, gutters, anywhere...

If it rains in Mara Region, it must be Kiabakari...

I was just about to get car keys off the hook to get into the truck and drive away to military camp 253 KJ in Kiabakari for a regular prayer meeting  of Small Christian Communities of Catholic families of military personnel living in the camp and those of police station in Kiabakari, which is located close to the camp, when suddenly a thunderstorm came down from Butiama hills with full force and struck Kiabakari and Kukirango valley which stretches wide from east to west just in front of Divine Mercy Hill and my house on the dark slope of it...

I became weary and on guard over those years living here whenever rains comes to Kiabakari as its very seldom to come in peace and with its full blessing... Usually it comes with fury and anger, strong gusts of wind, with lightnings which intimidating, thunderous voice rolls freely throughout the soaked wet landscape... Sometimes it leaves a trail of devastation with fallen trees, blown off roofs from poor people's houses or floods in the lower parts of the valley...

So, instead of going to the meeting as nobody would dare to stick out his/her nose outside at these conditions till it passes completely (and it still rains which is 30 minutes after the time of the prayer meetings was supposed to begin), I called them to make sure the meeting has been postponed due to the severe weather condition, and took my iPhone to shoot some videos of the rain. Of course, it won't show the sheer power, awesome strength of the wind and magnitude of the forces of nature, but nevertheless you can see how wonderful it is with gusts of wind sweeping through the courtyard of the mission and outside...





Oh, I have just heard a lightning strike....a special one, which always announces the end of the fury...it is like it's saying - 'OK, guys, we are done, let's move on to somewhere else!'...

And it will take half an hour or more for people to slowly get out and go back to normal business and house chores.

Thank you, o Lord, for the gift of rain...

So glad, by the way, that the thunderstorm did not bring power lines down, as it happens most of the time, when a storm of this proportions passes through our area (sometimes even small rains make us stay in darkness when power goes off suddenly!) as I enjoy electricity while typing this post on my laptop, feeling so homey inside with a cup of hot Africafe coffee and the rain dies down gradually outside with evening shadows lengthening slowly announcing the coming of a night curtain over Kukirango valley and over the house with blue roof on the dark side of the slope of Divine Mercy Hill...

Getting There...

Just came back from a regular Small Christian Community prayer meeting. This time it was the community of Catholics working as prison wardens and their families. We usually meet at the recreation hall of the prison compound, designed for prison officers and their families to relax, chat and buy/drink some soft drinks...

It was raining all night in Kiabakari and the area. In particular in the area of the prison called Nyamongo. It was not raining that heavily in my area. So I thought things were not that bad even if there was a slight drizzle when I was leaving the mission heading to Nyamongo. I didn't check with the Christians there what was the condition of the road. I should have...My 17 year old truck forgot long time ago what 4WD drive was all about, it has been out of order for long time and it is too expensive to repair it.

I was lucky to pass through...It is only 5 kilometers from the mission to prison compound. The road condition was quite bad and car was 'dancing' in slippery mud...Judge for yourself...
 

 

How different was the 'taste' of the Rosary we prayed together with Christians in Nyamongo though, when I was able to get through the mud and reach the awaiting community! Quite different to the bad taste of failure I had last Sunday when I was unable to pass the flooded stretch of the road leading to one of my outstations called Kamugegi....and Christians remained there with their catechist leading the prayer service instead of celebrating Holy Mass with me...