Live From Tanzania: Angel-On-Loan

Note from Johanna and Sergio: when this blog post is published, we will be in the middle of our 36-hour door-to-door trip home. Our stay in Tanzania is over, but our stories are not. Please, come back to our blog for more of them. They won’t be “live,” but they will continue to be great!

Mr. Ramadan Mugenyi (center) with Johanna Burani (left) and Sr. Dativa (right)

Mr. Ramadan Mugenyi drills wells and receives high professional marks from those who use them. He has recently supplied two schools and the Bishop’s house in areas surrounding Benaco. Our water supply situation is tragic. Water is currently hauled in barrels from a public source 10 kilometers away from our Center. Depending on our activity, two to five trips are made every week. Now that we have 40 chickens (and we want to bring in more) and now that the youths have prepared the ground for cultivating crops for the elders, the lack of our own water source on the premises is holding us back. 

After much discussion within the Board and extensive consultation with “Mr. Rama,” we have given him the green light to start drilling in August. We are confident he will do a top-quality job and will address any unforeseen problem. As he says, “No problem. 100%!”.

After three hours of measuring and evaluating best practices and costs, Mr. Rama’s parting words were “Tupo pamoja,” which means “We are together” in Swahili. We really believe he is our angel-on-loan.

Currently water is fetched from a distant site and stored in a basin.