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.

Here We Go Again

Rainy season still some weeks ahead and we have just run out of water from our main tanks. So today the order of the day is to clean those tanks in expectation of the new intake - be it rain or the water from the village water pipeline system. Luckily, I have bought recently and installed five plastic tanks of various capacity - 3-4 thousand liters each - for harvesting rain water from the roofs of the mission buildings. Three of them are still full. So, while cleaning those main tanks with antiseptic chemicals, we will put 60 liters buckets in all bathrooms in the main house and St. Martha, with regular buckets for fetching water and plastic jugs to pour water over us while taking improvised showers. Then we will fill them with the rain water from outside plastic tanks.

Back to scout-camping-like ways of washing and cleaning for now. I hope it will not take long till the rains come and we can enjoy again proper showers.

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...

West Of Here

I've been reading a novel under the same title as the title of this post. And it fits perfectly to the description of the meaning of this day today. The official opening of the main water tank done by the representative of the embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Tanzania this morning was a milestone in our quest to expand the development of the parish and its social institutions located west of the Divine Mercy Hill, while the tank itself was constructed on top of the hill to collect rain water from the Divine Mercy Shrine and from the main Mugango-Kiabakari-Butiama pipeline...

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. 

Operation 'Maji'

Having gone through a hurdle run - preparations, logistics, confessions on Friday, Confirmation feast with the Bishop on Saturday, then regular Sunday services with the wedding Mass in Nyamikoma outstation yesterday, time has come inevitably to go back to reality. This day I can proclaim as Operation 'Maji' day...

'F' Word

An organized chaos. I think this is a proper and accurate description of what was going on today here. I'm too tired by hearing confessions since morning till late evening, to pay any attention to my sense of organization and logic in making things happen - screaming in me in protest to what was happening around me today...