tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40041279059849009012024-03-05T23:30:18.618-08:00Iringa Hope visits 2012Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-66261577600337831852012-03-31T09:32:00.000-07:002012-03-31T09:51:58.745-07:00A Day At The Park<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Friday morning we packed overnight cases and headed down the
road to Ruaha. Ruaha is the second
largest National Park in Africa. It has
a wide variety of animals that live there as well as some beautiful scenery. We decided that we better go Friday afternoon
and Saturday morning – or we wouldn’t make it at all. After all, we are leaving for Dar Es Salaam
and home on Wednesday morning – so there is not much time left!</div>
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We headed out of town on the “Ruaha Road.” We have been down this road twice before on
this trip – both times to visit a parish that is starting a SACCOS. This time however we will go the full 130
kilometers to the park! </div>
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There are two branches to the Ruaha Road – the Tungamalenga
turn-off and the “never ending road.” We
decided that we would take the Tunagmalinga branch on the way out and the never
ending road on the way back.</div>
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Heading down the Tungamalinga branch things seemed familiar –
as well they should. We have been this
way twice on this trip – and we have been over this road in other years as
well. The road itself is like most of
the roads we have traveled – a washboard here, potholes there, a disappearing
bridge or two, and lots of natives carrying wood, baskets, and misc. here and
there. With the roughness of the road it
took us about 3 hours to get to the park.</div>
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Arriving at the Ruaha gateway, we stopped to talk to the
Rangers. This is the slow time of the
year here – it is often raining, the vegetation is lush making the animals hard
to spot, and vacation time is over for most.
According to the Rangers, there is only one other guest in the whole
park today!</div>
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Entering the park we stopped at the bridge over the Ruaha River. Often you can see hippos and crocs from the
bridge. We were not disappointed today
as we spied five hippos feeding and playing around in the water. Driving on we stopped for giraffes, antelope,
zebras, and baboons. We got to the River
Lodge (it is the only one that’s open now – normally there are 3 others) and
checked in to find that we are the only two guests expected today!</div>
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Ruaha is much lower than Iringa. While Iringa is about 1 mile above sea level,
Ruaha is only about 1,000 feet. This
means that it is much hotter here than back at the house. As a result nothing much moves (including the
guides and the tourists) between the hours of noon and 4:30. Since we got in about 1:30 or so we had lunch
and then went for a rest in our “primitive banyan.” </div>
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Emerging about 4 we had tea and then were off to see some
animals. First we ran into a small herd
of elephants playing along the river.
After watching them for awhile we took off for the far side of the park
where our guides had heard a lion pride had been spotted. Along the way we passed giraffes, zebras,
jackals, bat-eared fox, antelope, baboons, kudus, and lots of different types
of birds – some of which are found only in this park. </div>
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Finally we arrived at the lion pride we were looking for. This pride consists of ten animals. They had apparently eaten not too long ago
since they were just lazing around. Two
of them kept watch on the river bank, looking over a herd of elephants and
antelope on the other bank. We watched
them for awhile (you can drive quite close – we were no more than ten feet away
at one point) – they largely ignored us – except for one female who kept eyeing
Tom, we decided he must look juicer than the rest of us.</div>
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On the way back we stopped to look at the vista. Ruaha is really beautiful this time of the
year. It is full of wild flowers,
flowering vines, and lush vegetation.
Arriving back about 7 we were escorted to our banda – you can’t walk
around unescorted after dusk here – there are too many hippos, elephants, and
giraffes wandering around the camp. </div>
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A Masai warrior came and got us for supper. Our camp host was a refugee from Zimbabwe. Since we were the only people in the dining
room, we invited him to join us for supper.
His family had lived there for several
generations before being evicted by the current government. We had a good dinner, a pleasant conversation,
and then were escorted back to our banda to fall asleep to the grunts of the
hippos in the river.</div>
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Saturday started early – up and out at 6:30 for an early morning
drive. We were all surprised that there
was not much moving this morning. Still,
after driving around awhile, we started to see some of the morning wanderers. Finally we stopped for lunch at a spot
overlooking the river and the mountains.
A beautiful place for a morning breakfast.</div>
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As we drove towards the back side of the park we came across
a cheetah and her three cubs. An adult
cheetah is not too common to see, and finding one with three cubs is extremely rare. They walked
across the road just 10-15 meters in front of us. Mom and cubs seemed to be interested in us as
well, but they kept watch from the shade of a large shrub, where they would be
extremely difficult for the next group of tourists to see. </div>
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After watching the cheetahs, it was time to head back to
camp to check out. Our entrance fee was
good for only 24 hours, after which we would need to pay another $50. We packed, paid our bill, and headed for
home. </div>
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We are greeted as we enter the park</div>
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Sandy smiled back</div>
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We were greeted again outside our banda</div>
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Our digs</div>
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The sign next to our cabin</div>
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Elephants cooling off in the Ruaha River at dusk</div>
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This little lady crossed the road in front of us. Our guide identified her gender as female.</div>
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A jackal looked our way</div>
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This lioness licked her chops as she looked at Tom<br />
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This is mating season for the kudu, so we saw a lot of them.<br />
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Now we know that a zebra is black with white stripes<br />
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Sunset outside our banda<br />
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Picking through elephant dung for beetles</div>
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A bat-eared fox found us curious<br />
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So did these giraffes<br />
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15 yards in front of us this cheetah took her time crossing<br />
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She was accompanied by three cubs<br />
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Back at our cabin this fellow looks like he wants us to leave.<br />
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The never ending road</div>
</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-87199388613725784442012-03-28T08:19:00.002-07:002012-03-28T09:09:54.898-07:00A Funeral, Dinner, A Long Drive, And Some Recordings!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are beginning to wind down from a hectic schedule of
village visits and training sessions.
However, we have a few things we need to complete before heading
home. Tom will be recording some
additional training lectures by Enock and Itiweni that he will put on DVDs
which will be left here to be used in the villages. We also planned a dinner to acknowledge and
thank everyone who has contributed to the development of SACCOS in the Iringa
Diocese. Before either of these things happened however
we attended the funeral for Itiweni’s brother-in-law, which was held on Sunday
afternoon.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The deceased was a local businessman, only 41 years old, and
very well respected in the community, so his funeral was attended by several
hundred people. As far as we could see
we were the only wuzungus (white folks) in the assembly, so we didn’t feel like
we were blending in with the other mourners.
One of the mourners was the man we buy our groceries from. He was a very close friend of the deceased
and served as the MC at the funeral. He
and many of the close friends and family wore T-shirts with a photo of the
deceased on the front and Philippians 4:13 on the back (“I can do all things
through Christ, who strengthens me.” – in Swahili, of course.) Since he knew us
he ushered us up to the front of the church, where we definitely felt out of
place. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the end of the church service
the assembly all filed past the casket and when we fell into place and reached
the bier, Itiweni leaned up from her spot on the floor next to the casket and
we hugged – at that point we felt less out of place and more like we were in
the right place. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We joined the funeral procession to the cemetery, driving
most of the way, then parking and walking the final distance. The crowd was so large that the pastors used
a bull horn when they were speaking. The
sun was beating down on us, but everyone stayed for several numbers by the
choir, followed by a 40 minute sermon, the burial rites, the filling of the
grave during several hymns by the choir, and finally a few eulogies. After the burial, the group went to the home
of the widow for a meal, which we didn’t attend. The meal
was catered, and Itiweni told us that they served over a thousand people. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We went back to our house to get ready for the recognition dinner
at the Lutheran Center. Guests included
representatives from Tumaini, Bega Kwa Bega, and the Iringa Diocese. Many people have helped us in our work to
establish these SACCOS, so we wanted to say thanks. We also wanted to bring them up to date on
what we’ve been doing these last six weeks.
After dinner Sandy and Brown welcomed the group with an example of how
we handle our language translations during our village visits – with one small
difference – this evening Sandy spoke Swahili and Brown was her translator for
the <i>wuzungs </i> in the group.
Not her most eloquent moment, but a fun attempt at Swahili.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tom, always the professor, had prepared a power point
presentation reviewing the history of our involvement in SACCOS in Iringa, and
our progress to date. It included
statistics of how the SACCOS are doing so far and video footage of interviews
with SACCOS members telling how their lives have been changed by the loans they
have received. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tom spent Monday at the University recording lectures and
getting things organized. He worked
until 6 or so and then picked up a University vehicle for the trip to Nyanzwa
(ours is being fixed). He had to
immediately fill it up (it was of course empty) for the trip to Nyanzwa.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Tuesday we made our 3<sup>rd</sup> visit to the troubled
SACCOS at Nyanzwa. The Kilolo District
Coop Officer and a District Official rode with us. Leaving at 8 we got there about 10:30.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Coop Officer went off to talk with village officials –
so we waited. The meeting with the
SACCOS members who have paid their loans was called to order at 1:45. There were 48 members there (there are over
200 SACCOS members – but most of them have outstanding loans and so were not
allowed at the meeting) plus 9 SACCOS “officials.” The Coop Officer read them the audit report,
informed them that the SACCOS was not now operating, informed them that the
officials had all been dismissed and were being fined and were in danger of
being arrested. Itiweni gave a talk
scolding the members and the officials for their mismanagement. Sandy gave a talk shaming them for taking a
community resource and making it into a problem. Tom decided not to say anything since it was
clear the members were finally getting mad and did not need any more prodding. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the meeting was opened to the members, people started
to speak. One after another they got up
to denounce their leaders and vent their anger.
They went on with person after person telling how angry they were and
the many problems they had seen. Finally
I told Itiweni it was getting dark and we would need to leave soon. She talked to the Coop Officer and he stopped
the comments and proceeded to have 5 members chosen to collect debts. These five will go with the village police to
collect on the loans over the next few weeks.
If this does not work the law provides for them to be arrested and held
until they pay their loans. We hope that
this process will result in the restoration of this SACCOS – but only time will
tell.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We left Nyanzwa at 5 and headed home. As we were driving up the escarpment it was
getting dark. Tom really does not like to drive here at night – too many cars
drive without their headlights on (some people think that they save money by
not using their lights!) and there are many people walking (and some lying) in
the road with dark clothes on. When we
got back to our house it was 8:00 and had been dark for an hour!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today was another day of meetings and taping sessions. We had meetings with the diocese, with Bega
Kwa Bega folks, and then over to the University to tape some more
lectures! Tomorrow looks like more of
the same.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The funeral was videotaped. People feel free to get up and walk around during the ceremony.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
The coffin was taken to the cemetery in the back of a decorated pickup truck.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
The cemetery is on the side of a hill overlooking the town. Unlike our cemeteries no one keeps these grounds up.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
There were about 400 or so people at the cemetery.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
The pastor had to use a bullhorn to be heard by the large crowd.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The man we buy our groceries from was a good friend of the deceased and was MC of the funeral.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
People feel free to stand on graves, headstones, etc. Looking at the<br />
markers we noticed that so many died in their 30's and 40's.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
After the grave was filled in it was covered with ribbons<br />
and lighted candles were placed by family members. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
We gave a dinner at the Lutheran center to thank those who helped us and told them what we have been doing.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
We had a captive audience for Tom's power point presentation.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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Sandy gave a talk in Swahili while Brown translated it into English.</div>
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On Tuesday we drove back down to Nyanzwa with Itiweni, the Kilolo Coop Officer, and the District Officer. We had chai with the pastor's wife while waiting for the meeting to begin.<br />
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Then we took a walk to look at the onion fields and the CVP plot.</div>
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We stopped by the new school for instruction in one of their school-yard games."<br />
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The meeting finally gets underway.</div>
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The "members in good standing" chose these five to go with the village police to collect the debts.</div>
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</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-45649962844145330722012-03-24T06:11:00.000-07:002012-03-24T07:04:40.911-07:00The Training Sessions Have Finished!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The SACCOS training sessions continue with good attendance,
avid listeners, lots of questions, and astute observations. Our role is mostly recording the lectures,
taking pictures and providing child care as needed. Friday’s lectures covered “Developing a Financial
Proposal” and “Managing a SACCOS office.”</div>
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Tom was on Radio Furaha again on Thursday evening where the
topic was the importance of saving. He
got a lot of questions from listeners.
Unfortunately, the station was having problems with a lot of dropped
calls. Tom was able to answer most of the questions, but there was a caller who
asked what to do about children who would rather steal than work, and Tom had
to tell him he wasn’t qualified to answer that question because he had never
had the experience.</div>
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We are appreciating the good things about living in
Iringa. The vegetables we get from a
local grower are like what we get in Minnesota in July and August. We’ve been eating fresh sweet corn and green
beans several times a week; and beets, tomatoes, peppers, onions and lettuce are
delivered to us every Wednesday. The
market offers freshly picked papaya, pineapples, avocados, mangoes, and of
course bananas. In this mile-high city
we can enjoy the intense sunshine and when we get too hot, a step into the
shade offers a substantial cool-down. The
climate produces geraniums as large as bushes and poinsettia trees. At night the sky is so full of stars it
reminds Sandy of her years growing up on the prairie, only here we see the
southern cross instead of the big dipper.</div>
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Although we live in the city, our neighbors have livestock,
so we hear the familiar sounds of roosters crowing and cows mooing. Add to that the cacophony of bird songs and
dogs barking, it calls to mind the old Vacation Bible School song, “All God’s
creatures have a place in the choir, some sing low, some sing higher. Some sing out loud on the telephone wire, and
some just clap their hands, or paws, or anything they’ve got now.”</div>
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Before anyone decides to move here, you should know that the
power goes out regularly, our water pressure is a strong trickle, our internet
is sporadic, and the roads, if you can call some of them roads, well……..we
refer you to our blog entries for Kivalamo and Ugesa.</div>
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The training sessions concluded this morning, sadly without
Itiweni. Her brother-in-law died very
suddenly yesterday while attending a funeral, so Itiweni is with her sister and
the rest of her family. </div>
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We were back at our house by 2:30 with a whole afternoon ahead
of us. </div>
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It's too bad we can't grow trees like this in Minnesota!</div>
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At our training session we gave the SACCOS officers all of the forms they will need to run their offices.</div>
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Christopher Ugulumu explained how to use the record pads.</div>
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He went through all of the forms and had each of the officers fill in examples.</div>
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This little attendee needed a nap with Grandma.</div>
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It's lunch time!</div>
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From his reaction this little guy has probably never seen a picture book! (He was afraid of the picture of the elephants.)</div>
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</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-12002987097302585942012-03-21T10:52:00.004-07:002012-03-21T11:00:57.776-07:00SACCOS Training Session At Kihesa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Today we started the training sessions at Kihesa. All 20 of the new, existing, or emerging SACCOS
were represented at our session. Overall
we had 48 elected officials there with another 12 expected to arrive sometime
tomorrow. We are off to a good start!</div>
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The day started with devotions by the Kihesa pastor and
greetings from Chavalla, the general secretary at DIRA. Chavalla talked about how important the
SACCOS are to the poor in the Diocese and how valuable the program is to all of
the villages in the Diocese. We each extended our greetings to the group. Tom told them that we had traveled about 3,000
kilometers visiting 22 parishes, and that the assembled group represented
(almost) 1,000 members with about 120,000,000 schillings in assets. He also told them a few stories we had heard from
villagers during our visits about what the SACCOS are accomplishing in their lives.</div>
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Following introductions and greetings, the training sessions
began. The emphasis on Day 1 was
understanding the constitution of the SACCOS.
Each attendee was given a bound,
printed copy of the constitution we are asking them to use. The differences in the constitution for each
SACCOS will be the amount of the entrance fees, the share prices, and the
minimum purchases – and even those we expect to be very close.</div>
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Christopher Ugulumu, the Iringa Coop Officer presented the
first class in understanding the constitution.
It soon became clear that even those leaders who have had constitutions
given to them before have never really read them (no surprise). Christopher talked for about an hour and a
half before the group broke for lunch. After
the lunch break, the Coop Officer from Kilolo District gave the second class on
the constitution. The constitution and
the legal operation of a SACCOS were explained page by page. During the next two hours there were many questions. Finally, about 4:30, the discussion ended for
the day.</div>
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Our last task of the day was to take photos of the
attendees. We want to take pictures of each group of SACCOS officers, so every group
that had all officers in attendance lined up to have their group photo
taken. (So far there are 12 with all of
their officers here – the other 8 should finish arriving by tomorrow). We made sure we had their names correct,
along with the office they are holding, and wished them a good night! (It was good to note that we remembered
almost all of them from our recent visits.
Sandy even remembered which village most of them were from – Tom of
course did not!) It was good to meet the
new officers from Itungi. (You may
recall that when we were last there they were holding elections.) </div>
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We chatted awhile with the Kilolo SACCOS officer. He had been planning on going down to Nyanzwa
to supervise the election of new officials yesterday. Unfortunately he was called to a meeting so
he will not make it until next week. He
did tell us however that all of the loans, interest, and fines had been
collected. This means that with the
election of new officials Nyanzwa will be back in business and all of our
SACCOS will be running well.<br />
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There were 48 SACCOS officials in attendance.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Christopher Ugulumu explained the constitution in the morning.</div>
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After lunch the Kilolo Coop Officer took over.</div>
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During afternoon coffee Tom starting giving candy to the kids. Soon there was a crowd and Sandy took over.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Itiweni had a few closing remarks.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Sandy not only remembered the officers we had met, she remember which village they were from - Tom did not!</div>
</div>
</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-70043383491878019452012-03-18T09:18:00.000-07:002012-03-18T09:18:08.917-07:00Worship At Ihemi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We went back out to Ihemi for worship this morning. Our first visit here was in 2001-2 when we
were part of the first group from Chrisitania to visit our partner parish. We have been here numerous times in 2005,
2008, and now! We have visited all of
their preaching points on at least 3 occasions – and maybe more! Tom has even celebrated two of his birthdays
here! Today we were accompanied by
Itiweni and a visiting professor from Tumaini.</div>
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When we went to Ihemi today it was a little like visiting
distant relatives! We were greeted by
the Sunday School children singing and dancing.
They hadn’t forgotten that Tom likes to visit the Sunday School when he
comes. It was an honor to be greeted by
all their smiling faces and enthusiastic songs.
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On the way to coffee with the pastor we saw many old
friends. There was Mama Mchungaji (the district
pastor’s wife), Mama Mbembe (widow of the former pastor), Aloyce and his wife,
Pastor Kadege, who is the new Ihemi pastor, the chairman of the partnership
committee, and many others! Mama got Tom
in a hug and would not let go! We hugged
Aloyce and his wife, Mama Mchungaji, and many more. It took a long time to settle down to tea!</div>
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Pastor Benito Mdembo, who has visited Christiania, was
there. We keep talking about going over
to his house to see Mama and the children – but we both have been so busy going
places that it has not yet happened.
Benito had been giving a seminar at Ihemi the past few days and left shortly
after church for a meeting to plan his oldest daughter’s wedding. </div>
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Everyone waited for church to begin until we were finished
with tea. The word was out that this was
our last visit this year so the church was packed. After the service started the pastor called
on Tom to give a short talk. The
clapping, ululating, and applause made it hard to hear – we hope it does not go
to his head. </div>
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Benito gave the sermon.
He is a fiery speaker and he kept everyone on edge – for the full 50
minutes he used. The service lasted
about 2 ½ hours – what do you expect???</div>
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After the service Tom set up his projector to show a couple
of videos he made. The first was the
stewardship video from Christiana<i>, </i>the
second was the DVD we made after our 2008 Tanzania, which mostly was about
Ihemi. The room was packed for the first
video. Everyone seemed fascinated to see
what things were like at our congregation.
When Tom started the video of our last trip to Ihemi there was a great
deal of laughter. People seemed really
interested in seeing themselves and found some of the things we had recorded hilarious. </div>
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The rains started as we were having lunch at the pastor’s
house. When we left for home we almost
had an extra passenger along to Iringa.
An old man walked back to the truck with Tom (in the rain) and kept
saying “Iringa”, which Tom took to mean that he wanted to go to Iringa. He invited him into the truck and the two of
them drove back to the pastor’s house to pick us up. When Aloyce got into the truck to ride back
to his farm with us, he told Tom that this old man lives in Ihemi, he’s senile
and goes around asking everyone for money, and he shouldn’t go to Iringa . Guess Tom needs to brush up on his Swahili!!</div>
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After lunch we drove over to Aloyce’s home to buy some
eggs. Among his many businesses Aloyce
raises chickens and sells eggs. We
bought 60 eggs from him (30 for us and 30 for Itiweni) and we were given a
large sack of potatoes that his wife had prepared for us. A truly gracious gift and a warm gesture
indeed, when we can’t use words to communicate our thoughts and feelings. </div>
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Sometimes words are superfluous. </div>
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The Sunday School children had come out to welcome us!</div>
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On the walk to the pastor's house we met many, many friends.</div>
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Sandy and Mama <span style="text-align: left;">Mbembe hugged for awhile and then did a little dance.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Mama </span><span style="text-align: left;">Mchungaji had had a dress made for Sandy that matched hers. We had a hard time telling them apart!</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Benito gave a fiery sermon (he is the one standing).</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">At one point in the service the Ihemi congregation wrapped us in a konga - it was a gift.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">The chairman of the partnership committee had had a bad accident last fall. He has had surgery on his arm so he is not working right now (he is a teacher).</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">We stopped by Aloyce's house to buy eggs. He has a lovely family.</span></div>
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</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-59651054226544982602012-03-17T06:54:00.001-07:002012-03-17T07:07:56.642-07:00A Visit To Cathedral<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Today we drove over to Cathedral. Cathedral is a large church in the town of Iringa. When we were here in 2008 we visited a SACCOS
that was located here called “Amani.” Amani
SACCOS was all privately funded and had been started by some local business
people. It grew to 163 members, but is
now no longer working. We have had no
dealings with Amani other than talking with them, but went to talk with the leaders
today because we wanted to know what had gone wrong at their SACCOS.</div>
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When we got to Cathedral the pastor was in a meeting, but
left to come and talk with us. He told
us that the Amani SACCOS had stopped taking deposits and giving loans in 2010. Shortly after this the chairman started
having some personal problems and could not or would not perform his
duties. The members who had loans stopped
making payments and when the secretary and vice chairman went around trying to
collect, everyone refused to pay.</div>
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We next met with the church Secretary. He was a member of Amani and was the “proposed”
secretary in a group wanting to start a new SACCOS. He agreed with what we had heard from the
pastor and added that they had gone to the district coop officer to do an
audit. He said that they were still
waiting for the audit. In the meantime
they were trying to start a new SACCOS – but the coop officer was telling them
they could not have 2 in the same place.
I asked why they did not elect new officers and fix the existing
SACCOS. He just looked blank and said it
was difficult.</div>
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Finally the secretary of Amani showed up. She confirmed what we had been told and added
that the coop officer had the books and all of the records so they could not
work on collecting loans now. She said
that she and the vice chairman had gone from door to door to try to collect the
loans, but the borrowers refused to pay.
She confirmed that there was about $16,000 that was owed by the various
borrowers. I asked her why they had not
gone to the police (it is provided for in the Coop Act), but she only looked
shy. She said they were waiting for the
audit report. I asked her when they were
getting the report and she did not know.</div>
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<br /></div>
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We asked some more questions, but what happened seemed
clear. Finally we called the chairman;
he did not want to come to church. He
said he would talk to us somewhere else, then hung up, apparently not very
willing to work on the problem. </div>
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</div>
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We made a tentative appointment to talk with the new group
on Tuesday. We will urge them to work on
collecting from the existing borrowers.
They should owe the $16,000 plus 24% interest! It seems that they could pay some of the
interest for collection costs and still come out fine. It seems there is a fatalism (“God’s will”)
that needs to be worked on. We will see
if we can stir up the Amani members to get busy and solve this problem – but it
really is outside of the scope of what we are doing here. It seems that the Amani folks do have the
tools but not the push to do this.</div>
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Our visits are now over!
This afternoon we were planning on taking Mercy (Itiweni’s daughter) to
the zoo. When we got there we found that
the zoo had recently been bought by 7 day Adventists – so no more zoo on
Saturday! Instead we went back into
town, had some ice cream, read a few books, did a little shopping and had some
down time. <br />
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We went over to Cathedral Lutheran Church to discuss what happened to Amani. The Amani office used to be located where the small white building is.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
We went into the old Amani office to meet and discuss what was going on.</div>
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We had been planning on taking Mercy to the Zoo, but it is now closed on Saturday - so we went to the Neema Center instead for ice cream and play time!</div>
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Mercy and Grandpa had fun reading books and eating ice cream.</div>
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Sandy and Mercy did some shopping.</div>
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</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-50516466779448491382012-03-16T07:32:00.000-07:002012-03-16T11:18:54.283-07:00A Day At DIRA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We have finally finished our out of town SACCOS visits. Today we went to the diocese office (the <u>Di</u>ocese
of <u>Ir</u>inga <u>A</u>rea or DIRA) to meet with their fledgling SACCOS. When we got to DIRA we found that Itiweni had
been delayed in town at the bank. We
took the opportunity to go over to the DIRA kindergarten to see the kids. The children are wonderful to see. They are always happy to have visitors and smiling
warmly. They sang the Tanzanian national
anthem for us. We always love to hear children
sing that song. After Tom gave them all
candy and videotaped them singing, we said “Asante sana” to the teacher, and then
left for our meeting.</div>
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The meeting was held in the chapel area of the complex. There were 11 men and 16 women at the
meeting. Before the meeting started we
had a chance to visit with two of the leaders.
We asked them why they needed a SACCOS when they are right in town and
all have “regular” jobs with salaries.
They laughed a bit and told us that given the nature of their salaries
at DIRA they all needed to have an income on the side to support their
families. </div>
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<br /></div>
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When we asked what they did
for additional income, about 85% of them said they had small farms and the
others told us they had some type of shop.
So why not join one of the other SACCOS in town? The answer was the same as we have been
hearing – there were only two that they were eligible to join – a government
one and a private one. The government
SACCOS had lots of bad loans so people lost money all of the time. The private one took savings but only gave
loans to their friends and family. The
other micro finance offices in town only gave loans for 1, 2, or 3 months at a
time and so they would not work for farming.</div>
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When Itiweni arrived the meeting got underway. Chavalla, the general secretary, welcomed everyone
to the meeting. He made it clear that he
did NOT run this SACCOS and was only a member.
He said that in our honor the meeting would be conducted in English (all
of the DIRA personnel speak at least some English). We thanked him and Tom started talking.</div>
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Tom told them about Iringa Hope, the Micro Finance
Institute, and the newly formed Joint SACCOS.
He discussed what a SACCOS is for (income projects only), how to fund it
(save first, then borrow), and how to keep it honest and fair (full disclosure
all of the time). Sandy then got up to speak. She noted that there were no women in the
leadership of the SACCOS and told them they needed to change this (they decided
to replace the secretary with a woman).
She talked a bit about the importance of women in getting a SACCOS to
run well and then turned the meeting over to Itiweni.</div>
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Itiweni could see that some of the members did not really
understand the English so she asked Chavalla if it was OK to switch to
Swahili. She got the OK and then spent about
45 minutes reviewing the operations of a SACCOS. They have had a constitution, officers, and
savings for awhile now, but they were uncertain about how to extend this to
loans. So far they had saved about $600
and wanted to know if it was time to start giving loans. We told them that they should come to our
training seminar (they will) next week and that we could then help them set up
their loan committee. (They have
received a generous gift from America to help them get started, so they will
have enough to start with loans this planting season.)</div>
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After we left the meeting we went to collect the books for
next week’s meeting. Surprise – they had
not gotten them! So, after making
arrangements to have them shipped in by Monday we went to Tumaini for some
meetings. The rest of the day we spent
in making arrangements for the upcoming training session.<br />
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We got to the DIRA compound.</div>
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We visited the DIRA kindergarten.</div>
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Then back to the chapel area for a meeting.<br />
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There were 11 men and 16 women at the meeting.<br />
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We went back to Tumaini for more meetings.<br />
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We went in to visit with Provost Bangu - we had not seen him yet!</div>
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<br /></div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-90358786857519644402012-03-15T08:56:00.004-07:002012-03-15T09:06:30.141-07:00A Meeting At Ilula<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Today we drove down to Ilula – about an hour’s drive down
the road towards Dar Es Salaam. Ilula is
located right next to the hospital complex.
The current pastor’s house was the original Ilula dispensary that gave
birth to the hospital. </div>
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When we first arrived we could not find anyone! We thought they were expecting us. Soon however the pastor emerged from his
house to greet us. Surprise (for us) the
pastor is the one who baptized Itiweni!
Where can we go that she does not know anyone?</div>
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Pastor Aidan Muyenze invited us in to talk awhile before the
meeting began. He told us that his
congregation has 6 preaching points and 1,000 adult members. There are some businessmen in the congregation,
but most are tomato farmers. We asked
what the average income of his parish was and he told us it ranged from about
$1,000 to $7,000 a year. The biggest
difference he informed us was the amount of capital that his parishioners were
able to get. Those who could borrow some
capital or who had enough to begin with had the highest incomes. </div>
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Since we were in town I asked him about the existing SACCOS
in Ilula. He told me that the existing SACCOS
had a lot of non Christian members. When
his congregation members had tried joining they found that the other members (mostly
Muslims) got loans – but they did not.
In addition there was an ongoing problem with embezzlement. Somehow he said the losses always seemed to
be in the Christians accounts. The other
SACCOS in town are government owned.
These SACCOS tend to have a lot of bad loans so the members keep losing
money. He said his congregation believed
that if they could get a SACCOS going in their parish they could control the
way loans were given and make sure that only people who were trustworthy would
get loans. They also felt that they
could make sure that they all got treated equally in getting loans. He assured me that they would not exclude people
outside of the church, but that they would be very careful whom they let in.</div>
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We went over to the meeting.
There were 13 women and 8 men there.
Tom gave his introduction followed by Sandy’s greeting and then Itiweni
began. She told them the basics of our constitution
and what they can and cannot do. She
talked about the member’s rights and responsibilities. Finally the questions started. “Do we have to give loans for anything a
member wants?” (The government SACCOS
require this) “No – the loan committee
can only approve things that will make money.”
“Is there any training available?”
“Yes – that is part of what we do.”
“Do we have to admit everyone?” “No,
the membership committee must admit only those who are trustworthy.” And so on.</div>
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After we were done the members
held a meeting of their own. We went
over to the pastor’s house for a drink with him before we left. “God bless you for coming.” They all said. “We have been hoping that someone would come
and help us and now you are here!”</div>
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We drove back to Iringa to hold a meeting with Enock – time to
work on goals and objectives, training plans, etc. Then a quick dinner and off to do a radio
show at radio Furaha – another late evening in Tanzania!</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
The church is right next to the Ilula Hospital complex.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
The pastor came out to greet us. His house was the original Ilula dispensary.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
The view across the valley is lovely.<br />
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<br />
We had not seen donuts served since we got here!<br />
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The pastor sat and told us about his congregation and why they need a SACCOS.<br />
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When we started the meeting there were 13 mamas and 8 babas in attendance.<br />
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This man wanted to know if they had to give loans for anything the person wanted (this is a problem in the Government SACCOS). The answer is "NO" - we only give loans for income projects.<br />
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This mama wanted to know if we had to let everyone join (this is a common problem since there are large numbers of people who do not pay their bills). The answer is "NO" - only people who are trustworthy.<br />
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We left and went back to Tumaini to work for awhile. Tonight is our program on radio Furaha - another late night in Tanzania!</div>
</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-75833598133949685862012-03-14T11:21:00.000-07:002012-03-14T11:21:28.109-07:00Return to Nyanzwa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
We left the house at 7, picked up Enock and Itiweni and met
up with the Kilolo District Coop Officer. We decided to go to Nyanzwa separately,
getting on the road at 8:00. We went
down the hill and back down the road to Dar Es Saalam. Going down the escarpment is always a bit
scary at best. The road is full of
trucks that have break problems going down and transmission problems going up. Throw a batch of really bad drivers and you
can guess what it is like.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Half way down the escarpment we had a rear-end collision
with a Land Rover that had been forced to stop due to one truck trying to
overtake another, so both lanes were taken up by on-coming traffic. Not too
much harm was done. The hitch on the
Land Rover was bent. The truck that was
responsible for the collision just kept on going. Before we got out of our vehicle Enock told
us that it was his uncle driving the Land Rover. He was driving two British Anglicans to Dar
where they were catching a plane for the UK.
They will be gone for 6 weeks; we leave in three. Their people will contact our people and take
care of paying for car repairs. (In
Tanzania, the insurance on our car will only pay if the police come out. It would take the police at least a day to arrive
– and then they probably won’t do anything since no one is hurt.) We continued on our way and after an hour’s
drive over a dirt road we arrived in Nyanzwa.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We went to the pastor’s house and waited a few minutes for
him to arrive. He had been at his shamba
(farm) and had only learned about our visit that morning. He was pleased that we had returned to
Nyanzwa to address the problems in their SACCOS, specifically, the large number
of loans that had not been repaid and mismanagement by the SACCOS leadership
which resulted in no cash to lend.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Kilolo District Coop Officer arrived and we went over to
the meeting. At the meeting were the
local officials, the village officials, and the district officials. Tom lectured them awhile on how bad this
SACCOS was. He told them he expected the
government officials to act to collect the loans and restore the SACCOS. Various other officials spoke. The SACCOS officials offered some excuses –
but no one accepted them. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally the
District Coop Official’s decisions were announced. He gave the officials 3 days to pay their loans,
fines that he levied, and replace some funds.
After this he was issuing arrest warrants for them. He was giving the members 14 days to repay their
loans or he would start arresting them as well.
He dismissed all of the debtors from membership in the SACCOS. He also dismissed all of the SACCOS officials
and called for new elections. (This is why it is so very important to register our SACCOS. The Coop Officer can only help us if we have registered!)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After the meeting we met with the pastor for awhile. The pastor was happy about this outcome. He told us that the SACCOS had been a very
good thing before they borrowed from the Post Office after which multiple
problems arose. Following the decisions
handed down today he is hopeful the SACCOS will once again become a blessing to
his congregation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We got back to Iringa at 6:30, shortly before dark. Tom has been on the escarpment after dark in
the past and doesn’t want to repeat the experience. Another day tomorrow!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
We got down to Nyanzwa about 10.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
We remembered our meeting here in 2008. We met with everyone under a large Acacia tree.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Enock reminds the officers that the SACCOs is here to serve the poor people of this area.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
This board member was very angry at the SACCOS officers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Finally the Kilolo District Coop Officer's decisions were announced.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Sandy had the last word! She reminded them that Jesus was a very humble man - but he was angry and used a whip to drive out the money lenders who were cheating the poor people.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
We needed to hurry as we left the meeting. Tom does not want to drive up the escarpment after dark.</div>
</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-65319626245825938912012-03-13T11:30:00.001-07:002012-03-13T11:30:57.813-07:00A Stop At Kidabaga<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today we went back down the hill and out the road south to Kilolo. After driving for about 45 minutes we took a
turn off to the west. Thirty minutes
later we arrived at Kidabaga. Kidabaga
has a new pastor, Pastor John Mwlafi, he has only been here since
September. His congregation has about
1,200 adult members at two preaching points.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We sat down with Pastor Mwlafi and talked a bit about why
his congregation wants to have a SACCOS.
First he explained there are a lot of very poor people in his congregation. Basically there are 2 groups of members – the
poor who are largely farmers and kiosk owners and the middle income who own
bigger businesses and large (15+ acres) farms.
The first group lives on $50-300/year.
The second group has incomes of $400-900/year. It is the first group that he is most
concerned about.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He explained that at Kitabaga there was a “self-help” group
of 12 members that made loans. Someone
from the US (he did not know who) had given this group $700 in 2009. Since then they have been making loans among
themselves of $70-100. They now had
$1,100 (the increase is all due to interest income and fees– they charge
2%/month) which they used. The group had
grown to 32 members with a large group on a waiting list (they did not want to
admit anymore since they did not have enough capital for loans). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He went on to explain that this group did not know how to
grow their capital and were anxious for help in learning how to run their
finances. They were hoping to
incorporate as a SACCOS – but they just did not know how to go about this.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After chai we went to meet the members. There were 30 members at the meeting. We introduced ourselves and then Itiweni took
over. She told them the basic steps to
forming a SACCOS. She then went on to
describe what was in a constitution and what they would need to do. Finally she told them about the need to start
savings as well as looking for loans. Once
again there were lots of questions. Many
of them were the ones we have heard before!
Can you help us get a constitution?
Can we come to your training sessions?
How does savings help get loans?
How many people does it take to form a SACCOS? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The pastor thanked us for coming. As I get up to leave a line of women formed
to thank us and tell us “God bless you for coming.” </div>
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<br /></div>
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As we were getting ready to go for lunch two members came
over to tell us how much their lending group had improved their lives. Abel Mbombwe, 55, told us that his loan had helped
with school fees for his children and with living expenses He had taken out a loan for $70. Putting this together with $30 he had saved
he planted ¼ acre of tomatoes and ¼ acre of Irish potatoes. After harvesting these and repaying his loan
he had made a $200 profit! (His normal
income from his farm is about $100/year
He has taken out the same amount for a loan every year since and insisted
that it was “a must” for his family.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Seba Mahenge, 52, had taken out a loan for $70 in 2010. She had used this together with some of her
savings to plant peas. She had given a
tithe first and then used the rest of her profits to improve her home. She is now on a waiting list for a second
loan!</div>
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After lunch we stopped in to see the Kilolo cooperative
officer. We are going to go with him to
Nyanzwa tomorrow. We discussed what we
were going to do there to fix the SACCOS problems. After our meeting we went down to the
District Executive’s Office. At this
meeting we emphasized how important it was that we get the government’s full
cooperation for our SACCOS. He was very
interested in our work and seemed well informed about our efforts. We had a good meeting with him – we all
believe that he will be well disposed to assist us.</div>
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<br /></div>
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We finally got back about 4:30 – a short day! I’m afraid however that it has to be short
since tomorrow we need to leave about 7 for Nyanzwa! </div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyMqSmkO-xbxVHUD_21p96Of2foGHoDJCtaYypNSo2RjaY2a7f_1mIjkEWLW_P7RBl2BE0hynSEerp_WfdntKhNQJa2Ozq8jJcrKqNt88YcUuBDjLFZvgI0hE6AW2cjE2iVW9ckZ2L7qM/s1600/DSC_7949.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyMqSmkO-xbxVHUD_21p96Of2foGHoDJCtaYypNSo2RjaY2a7f_1mIjkEWLW_P7RBl2BE0hynSEerp_WfdntKhNQJa2Ozq8jJcrKqNt88YcUuBDjLFZvgI0hE6AW2cjE2iVW9ckZ2L7qM/s320/DSC_7949.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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We arrive at Kidabaga.</div>
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<br /></div>
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First we have chai with the pastor.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Pastor Mwlafi</span> explains that a large number of members of his congregation have incomes less than $300/year. These are the members he is most concerned about.</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Can you help us get a constitution?</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">Can we come to your training sessions?</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">How does savings help get loans?</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">How many people does it take to form a SACCOS?</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span> </div>
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<br /></div>
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Itiweni spent 2 1/2 hours explaining the basics.</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">As I got up to leave a line of women formed to thank us and tell us “God bless you for coming.”</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Abel Mbombwe told us that a micro loan was "a must" for his family.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Seba Mahenge tithed first then improved her home.</span></div>
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We met with Bosco Ndunguru, the district executive officer, to review our meeting objectives at Nyanzwa. </div>
</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-64285791540812459172012-03-12T09:04:00.000-07:002012-03-12T09:39:42.014-07:00Starting Up At Kitowo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Today we took an hour’s drive south of town, down the
Pommern road to Kitowo. A mist was
rising along the hills and cows kept claiming the road as theirs. Kitowo is a typical rural parish. They have five preaching points with 1,000 members. The main church is an attractive looking
brick structure – however they have a large new brick building they are working
on.</div>
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Pastor Hezron Kiswaga met us when we arrived. He has been here 2 years now. Surprisingly Sandy did not have him in her
class at Tumaini and Itiweni did not know him!</div>
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During chai Pastor Kiswaga started telling us why he thought
that a SACCOS was a must for his parish.
“The people here have nowhere to get capital for their shambas
(farms). They see how well the CVP plot
is doing and want to use the same methods.
It seems they are stuck in poverty without some way to get capital.” </div>
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He went on to tell us that in his parish most members have 4
acres to plant. It costs them about
$80-90 per acre to plant “using traditional methods with CVP spacing.” After harvesting and selling their crops they
get about $190-200 per acre for their crops.
Most can only afford to plant part of their land (3 acres or so) – so they
make about $300-350 per year.</div>
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“We have seen how we can make much more using the CVP
methods. If we can borrow $300 we can
plant one acre using the CVP methods and 3 acres using our older ways. When we harvest we will get $800 from the one
CVP acre and $600 from the other three acres.
This means that our members could make $850-900!” He was clearly excited for his parish. Just think, a $300 loan could take his
members from extreme poverty to being “lower middle class” by Tanzanian
standards!</div>
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After chai we went next door to the church for the
meeting. After prayers and introductions
Itiweni gave them a seminar on how to organize a SACCOS. The members were somewhat subdued – they had
been working in their fields all morning and were tired. Still, as the seminar went on you could feel
the excitement building.</div>
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After Itiweni had finished speaking the pastor got up and spoke
to his parishioners about how this SACCOS was their chance for a new life. He expressed his pleasure over having
Tumaini, the diocese, and Iringa Hope helping them. After he finished we left the members who continued
with their meeting. If they decide to elect officials they will be
able to participate in our training session next week.</div>
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We went over to look at their CVP plot – what a stark
contrast with the fields planted the traditional way! The corn in the traditional fields was about
4 feet high. The CVP field was over 6
feet and lush. On the way we had passed
a building with a sign over the door announcing “Kitowo SACCOS.” I asked the pastor about this. “Yes,” he told me. “There was a SACCOS here at one time. It only served one extended family and was
closed when they moved. Later on there
was a government SACCOS nearby – but they did NOT offer long term loans (i.e.-6
months) and were no help to our members.
It is gone now too.”</div>
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We left Kitowo expecting to see them at our upcoming training
course and went back to Iringa. Once in
town we got busy making arrangements for next week’s training session. First we stopped at the Iringa cooperative
store. We have decided to provide all of
the attendees with the proper paperwork to keep their records. Most of the established SACCOS we visited are
using plain paper for keeping their records, and the newly organized groups don’t
have any of the necessary supplies. Since
we are insisting on consistent record keeping and auditing we want them to get
a good start. </div>
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It was a good thing we stopped at the store ahead of time
because there aren’t enough record books in stock to supply our course. We need to have 23 copies, which is more than
they normally sell in months, so the books will be shipped to us from
Moshi. </div>
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We wound up the day back at the University making
arrangements for printing constitutions, copying various papers, etc. Next week’s training sessions are coming
fast!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
The mist was rising as we drove along towards Kilowo.</div>
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As we approached the church we were greeted by a group of women working on their shambas.</div>
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It is an attractive brick building.</div>
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While we had chai the pastor told us why he believed they had to have a SACCOS.</div>
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At first the members seemed tired and worn out, but as Itiweni gave her seminar they started to get excited.</div>
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After the seminar the pastor told his members that this was a chance for "a new life!"</div>
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On the way to their CVP demonstration plot we walked by the new church they are building.</div>
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The CVP corn is over 6 feet tall - the other corn is maybe 4.</div>
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When we got back to Iringa we went to buy the forms that we are planning to give the leaders next week. Lucky we went now - they did not have nearly enough on hand.</div>
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</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-26182558848967110082012-03-11T08:33:00.002-07:002012-03-11T08:34:22.599-07:00Back To The Future At Itungi!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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For those of you who may recall we visited the SACCOS group
at Itungi on the 1<sup>st</sup> of March.
At that time we found that the group was anxious to do something,
however the leadership seemed to have grown tired and disillusioned. We had suggested that they needed new
leadership to revitalize their efforts – so today we went to church at Itungi
and stayed to have a meeting with the group afterward.</div>
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The church service started on time with a full house. The pastor here seems to be a real fireball
at preaching accompanied by lots of “Amens” and ululating (making noise by
swinging your tongue from side to side) by the women. The pastor invited all of the parishioners to
stay for the meeting after church – and to our surprise they all did. At one time Itungi had 100 SACCOS members,
but the number had decreased to 30 when the SACCOS failed to get outside
funding and the leaders did not know how to use savings to fund loans.</div>
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At the SACCOS meeting Itiweni presented a brief seminar on
what will be in a new constitution. Enock
then conducted a session on what makes a good leader. We polled the members to see if they agreed
that they needed new leaders – it was unanimous. Itiweni conducted the nominations, insisting
that there be at least two nominees for each position. The members voted and the Itungi SACCOS now
has new leadership!</div>
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While this was happening the other congregation members were
watching and listening. After the vote
the pastor told them that this was the future in their parish and they should
think long and hard about joining. We
think there will be more members before too long.</div>
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We made arrangements for the three new leaders to attend our
training session. We also gave them a
list of things they need to do before we can enroll them in Iringa Hope. Specifically they will have to complete and
vote on a new constitution (we will help of course), certify their votes and
list members; complete our training courses, and contribute their required
savings and share purchases.<br />
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As we were finishing one of the women stood up to speak. “God bless you for seeing the need here in
Itungi. God has blessed us all this day
by giving us the opportunity to improve our lives. With this good start I believe our SACCOS
will progress well.” There was much
applause and she was clearly very pleased.</div>
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We had a quick lunch with the pastor then headed for
town. Itiweni had some work to do at home,
Enock wanted to see his wife (she has been gone to school in Moshi for the past
several months), and we needed to do some shopping (also just crashing sure
sounded nice). These 7 day weeks just
seemed to fly by!</div>
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We were back out to Itungi this morning.</div>
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They have a very pretty brick church.</div>
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The service was packed.</div>
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Itungi has many subsistence farmers. As a result they get a lot of offerings "in kind." This means a big auction after services.</div>
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To our surprise most of the members stayed for the SACCOS meeting - even though only 30 of them belong.</div>
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At the close of the meeting this woman rose to speak. "God bless you for seeing the need here in Itungi," she began.</div>
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We had a quick lunch with the pastor - it was starting to pour outside.</div>
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The pastor here is a bachelor so the men did the cooking!</div>
</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-45096685548119099632012-03-10T20:53:00.001-08:002012-03-10T21:06:17.140-08:00Ipogoro – The Economics Are Compelling<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Today we went to Ipogoro, a suburb of Iringa, so our drive
was short. The pastor at Ipogoro is
Nixon Emwitwla, who speaks excellent English.
After chatting with him we took a brief look around the church compound
before going in for chai. “Compound” by
the way is a bit of stretch – but not much!
Ipogoro has a nice church building next to a huge new church building that
will seat 1,000 that is still under construction. The pastor explained that the existing church
will become an educational building. Next
to these buildings is a nursing/education/early child development building and
the parsonage – quite a complex! The
landscaping is also very well done.
Overall this is a huge difference from yesterday’s visit!</div>
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When we sat down to chai, Pastor Nixon told us about his
congregation and how generous Augustana Lutheran has been to them. They have 12 evangelists, 3 assistant
pastors, and 2000 members! Their
membership is growing so they are hoping to finish the new church in the next 2
years.</div>
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During our discussion of SACCOS Pastor Nixon told us that
the members are concerned since they can not apply the methods the Ag.
Institute is teaching them since they do not have enough capital. He told us that they have decided that they
really need a SACCOS in their parish. He
cites the need to reduce and prevent poverty and hunger among the congregation
and help members send their children to school.
He tells us that Ipogoro has a very high number of widows and orphans
and an equally high poverty rate.</div>
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The economics of having a SACCOS is clear and very
compelling. Without a SACCOS most
members struggle to plant two acres with their traditional methods. This yields them about $200/yr to support
their families. If they use the spacing
and crop residue as they are being taught, they can raise this to about
$300-400. If they can get a loan for
$200 they can plant one acre using the hybrid seed and fertilizer and the other
3 acres using the traditional seed. This
will yield them $600 profit from the one acre plus the $300-400 from the other
3 acres – for a total income of $900 – a threefold increase!</div>
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Pastor Nixon told us that they started organizing last
March. Since then they have raised
1,773,000 schillings (about $1200) through membership fees, shares, and savings
– very good! They currently have about
120 members. They started work on a
constitution but decided to wait until they could get one from us. When Itiweni last visited them she gave them
a seminar on the basics of a constitution.
As a result they have organized and elected officials, a board, and have
appointed advisors. They are hoping to
start making loans later on this year – but they can’t open a bank account and
register without more capital.</div>
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Following chai we went into the meeting. Most of the officers were there along with a
number of the members. Enock presented a
seminar covering the basics of the constitution and the rights of members. Following this, Brown gave a description of
some of the SACCOS we had visited. He
told them about the successes at Ihemi and Ugesa. He told them about the other SACCOS starting
up and their savings. When he was done
there were many questions. Finally,
after 30 minutes or so we had to bring the meeting to a close.</div>
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As we were closing, the chairman rose to give us a report on
their work. It was a very well prepared
and thoughtful report – we all appreciated it.
In his report he stated that they needed 10,000,000 schillings more in
capital (about $6,700). This is the same
number that the pastor had told us earlier.
Pastor Nixon told us that they hoped to make their first loans in time
for the fall planting; this is possible but they will have to hurry.</div>
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As we were leaving they asked us if we thought that they
could use the Parish bank account to hold their funds for now. It is normally not a good idea to mix funds
this way, but without a constitution and a start on registration they can’t
open a bank account – so we said, “OK” with reservations.</div>
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Overall we felt that this group would succeed and do well –
but we were concerned about whether or not they would get enough capital to be
able to make this fall’s planting!</div>
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Back in Iringa we quickly changed clothes and went to a
wedding. It was the wedding of Obeid’s
son. Obeid is a music director from
Tumaini who was Sandy’s office partner in 2005.
The pastor presiding at the wedding was one of Sandy’s students from that
year. It was a very interesting wedding
– all 2 ½ hours of it! There was lots of
singing, some dancing, a 40 minute sermon followed by a 20 minute address from
the bishop. </div>
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We got home from this just in time to get ready for the
reception. This is supposed to start at
7:00 – but we suspect it will not get going until 8 or 8:30 – after all TIA
(this is Africa). (At the reception Obeid, the music director at Tumaini University and the father of the groom, told us that they desperately need brass instruments - anyone want to send to Tanzania?)<br />
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We went over to look at the new church that Ipogoro is building.</div>
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Ipogoro currently has 2,000 members. The new church will hold 1,000 of them.</div>
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The existing church is part of their "compound. It will be used for education.</div>
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Pastor Nixon talked to us about the need for a SACCOS in the parish. It will triple the income of the members and relieve the poverty that exists here.</div>
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Their SACCOS started organizing last year. They have selected leaders, board members, and advisers.</div>
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While most of the attendees took notes and asked questions this member had a hard time staying awake!</div>
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At the end of the meeting the chairman gave a very good report of their work so far.</div>
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When we got back to Iringa we went to a wedding at Cathedral.</div>
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It was 2 1/2 hours long with lots of dancing, a 40 minute sermon, and a 20 minute address by the bishop.<br />
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At the reception Obeid told us that they desperately need brass instruments at Tumaini - anyone want to send him one??</div>
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</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-17080028050894422172012-03-09T06:47:00.000-08:002012-03-09T06:47:17.550-08:00Back Down The Road To Mlafu<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This morning we went back down the road to Dar, turning off
at Ilulu, we passed by Itungi, and 30 minutes later were at Mlafu. As we turned off the road at Ilulu a man ran
out and waved us down – it was Doricus Kimbavala (you may recall that he was
the former pastor at Ihemi who went out to visit the IHESA SACCOS with
us). He had just come from Mlafu where he
was visiting his children. Since the
death of their mother they have been staying with their aunt while Doricius
goes to college in Arusha. </div>
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When we got to Mlafu Sandy recognized the pastor. Pastor Daison Mpesa was another one of the
students from her communications class at Tumaini in 2005. He told us that after graduating he was sent
here to Mlafu and had been here ever since.</div>
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We went into the parsonage and talked awhile over chai and chapatti.
Mlafu has 4 preaching points. The congregation has 300 adult members (and
770 children!). Pastor Daison told us
that the parish was very poor. (Looking
around I would have guessed that it was one of the poorest parishes we have
visited.) They have a CVP which is doing
well and it was through the people from the Ag Institute that they first heard
about SACCOS. Today was the first time
they have received any instruction in how a SACCOS works and how it can improve
the quality of life in a community.</div>
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Our meeting and Itiweni’s class were held in the church with
11 men and 9 women in attendance. Brown
gave them an introduction, Tom and Sandy extended greetings, and finally
Itiweni started the seminar. This
seminar proved to be longer than most as the members had many questions -- What
makes a good SACCOS leader? How do we
start? How much should we save? Can we get help with the starting
capital? How many members do we
need? Who can join? Where can we get training? What can we use loans for? What can we use for collateral? </div>
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Good questions and lots of serious people who really want to
have a SACCOS. We promised to provide
them with a constitution. We also
invited them to send three people to the training sessions. Finally the pastor got up. “Thank you, thank you for coming so far to
see us! We really need help in
this. Our members want to do better but
we need training and help. Bless you for
helping us. . .” His talk went on. He told them they should all start saving for
the startup capital. Itiweni suggested
that maybe they could each save $2/month.
The pastor told them the richer ones should save $3 or 4/month.</div>
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When we left the church Pastor Mpesa rode with us to show us
the way to the home of Doricus’s sister.
We were met on the road by his oldest daughter who walked with us to the
house and introduced us to her brothers and sisters. Ebenezer, the youngest, had been a baby when
we saw him last. The younger children
were amused by the stories we told them about what they were doing the last
time we saw them. </div>
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It’s good to see so many familiar faces when we make our
visits. </div>
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There was enough rain the night before that the road was very muddy and slippery.</div>
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We had to stop and ask directions from this woman. It turned out she was on her way to the meeting (she rode along with us).</div>
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When Sandy got out she immediately recognized the pastor. He had been one of her speech students when we taught at Tumaini in 2005.</div>
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As we had chai the pastor told us how they really needed help to be able to afford to follow the teaching of the Ag Institute</div>
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The church is a very attractive brick structure. I was told that their partner (Our Saviors Lutheran in Stillwater) had helped them build it. Asanta Sana!</div>
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The 20 people who came were very serious. They asked so many questions that the seminar took 30 minutes longer than usual.</div>
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The local government official was there. "Can I announce this to everyone in the area next time? We really need this type of training here."</div>
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The pastor talked for a long time at the end. "We need to start saving for this now," he told them.</div>
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We drove back down the rode to Doricus' sister's house.</div>
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His daughter came running down the road to greet us and introduce to the children - they had changed since 2008!</div>
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What a delightful family!</div>
</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-20351084162751145682012-03-08T06:50:00.000-08:002012-03-08T07:51:31.127-08:00A Day At Kilolo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Today we went back down the way we had come yesterday to
Kilolo. Since Kilolo is only 45
kilometers from Iringa it was a far shorter drive. While yesterday’s drive was punctuated by
mud, sliding vehicles and terror over the possible plunge down a mountainside,
today’s drive had herds of cattle to contend with. (It also was over the best part of the road
we were on yesterday.)</div>
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When we got to Kilolo the pastor suggested that we start the
meeting right away. The group waiting
for us was rather small consisting of 2 pastors, 3 evangelists, the parish
secretary, and 2 people from other preaching points. We started the meeting with introductions and
general statements by Tom, Sandy, and Itiweni.
By the time Itiweni started her seminar people were showing up. Soon there were 25 people at the meeting – 14
women and 10 men.</div>
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As Itiweni went along the questions started coming. Can we just do savings? (Yes)
Do we need a constitution and can you give us one? (Yes and yes)
Can we come to your training session?
(Yes) Can we send 4 people
instead of 3? (Yes) And so on.
The question and answer period lasted at least half an hour. There was clearly much interest and
excitement here.</div>
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After the meeting I asked the leaders a little about their group. It turns out that the Kilolo group started
meeting in January. By February they had
elected leaders (3 men) and decided that they would start saving to get enough
money to start a SACCOS. They were each
planning on saving 5,000 Tsch/month (about $3.30). With 30 members (16 women and 14 men) they
already had $200 saved and were hoping they could give out one or two loans by
the end of the year. </div>
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They told me that
they had decided that they had to start a SACCOS when they realized that none
of them could apply the farming methods they were learning because they did not
have enough capital. As they were
talking about this problem they came to realize that many church members were
also having trouble with their dukas (small shops) since they did not have
enough capital to buy the stock they needed.</div>
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The pastor told us that everyone is very excited to start a
SACCOS. They want to make it a success
and “win the respect of the Iringa Diocese.”
He said he believes that showing that Christians are willing to lead the
way for the community will help spread the Word of God.</div>
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As we were leaving the church some of the attendees came
over to say “God bless you for coming.”
People kept telling us this and shaking our hands until finally the
pastor gave Tom his son’s hand and said he should lead the way out of the
church.</div>
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We had “chai” (tea with chapatti, hard cooked eggs and white
buns) with the pastor and several of the SACCOS members (some of them are members
of other churches) and church elders. We
talked some more about SACCOS and what the other parishes are doing. They told us they want to ask their partner
for help in starting their SACCOS. We
told them that they needed to write to their partner and we would be happy to
meet with them when we get back in the US, but any request needed to come from
them.</div>
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We left early enough to get back to Iringa and make some
more arrangements for the upcoming training session. Since it is so hard to get out to some of
these villages, and since there is only Itiweni to do the training, we decided
to make a series of training videos to send out to the villages (Sandy and I
have brought 2 portable DVD players to try out.
We will work to send more if they are happy with them.). Overall we decided that we should make 5 DVDs
for now and try to get enough copies to send out to all of the SACCOS.<br />
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The biggest obstacle to our travels today was the large amount of cattle on the road!</div>
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If not roaming over the road they were pulling the wagons.</div>
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Kilolo is a pretty brick building just off of the main road.</div>
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Our first greeters were some children (actually the first greeter was a boy without any pants - but that picture has been censored)</div>
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When we started the meting there were only a few members there.</div>
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Before long the group had grown to 25.<br />
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After the meeting people kept coming up and saying "God bless you for coming."<br />
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We ended the day at Tumaini where Itiweni and I did some work.</div>
</div>
</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-91132976965740066802012-03-07T11:01:00.000-08:002012-03-07T19:49:33.047-08:00Kivalamo – the Road Less Traveled – For a Good Reason<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It was a nail-biter, that’s for sure! If you read about our adventures on our trip
home from Ugesa a couple of weeks ago, well, our trip home from Kivalamo trumps
that. </div>
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When plans were being made to go to Kivalamo during the
rainy season, we were very well aware that the road could be impassable at
times, so we made many inquiries about road conditions. The last report we
received was from two days ago when we were told the road was “good” – a
relative term, to be sure. You may
recall from yesterday’s blog that heavy rains were forecasted for the region,
and we had some rain during the night, but we were optimistic and left for
Kivalamo at 7:00, hoping to be there by 10:00.</div>
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The first leg of our trip was fine; we didn’t see any signs
of the overnight rain. After passing
through Kidabaga we started seeing water standing on the sides of the
roads. When we reached a fork in the
road where we had to decide whether to take the shorter, more direct route to
Kivalamo, or the longer road through Idete we chose the shorter route. After going only a couple hundred meters we
found we were sliding downhill while attempting to drive uphill, Tom backed up
and took the other road. This alternate
route was a challenge to Tom’s driving skills, with deep gullies and wash outs
every few meters, and tall grass growing down the middle of the road.</div>
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As we approached Kivalamo, pedestrians told us that a truck
was blocking the road. We felt we had no
choice at that point but to continue, so we did. About three kilometers from Kivalamo we came
upon the stalled truck. We discovered it
was completely blocking the road. Tom
parked the car on the side of the road (the side, in this case, was tall grass
and shrubs) and we walked the remainder of the way - fifty minutes up and down
the hills and through the mud!</div>
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We were met by Pastor Faus Duma and since we were concerned
about getting home before dark, especially with a 50 minute walk ahead of us
before we reached our car, we decided to forego the usual tea with the pastor
and start our meeting right away.</div>
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Kivalamo had tried to start a SACCOS several years ago. At that time they had elected leaders,
collected fees, and started collecting savings.
They tried to open a bank account – but found they couldn’t it without a
registration number, and for that they needed a constitution and officers. At that point they realized they did not know
what to do or how to proceed and so they gave up. When they learned that there was a Micro
Finance Institute that could help them, they were once again interested in getting
started. Today we met with 24 interested
persons (11 men and 13 women) from the original group.</div>
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We started off with prayers and singing (not all of the members
are Lutherans – still they joined right in).
After opening comments Enock started his class. When he finished there were many questions
that were answered by Enock– a good session!
When we went to have lunch at the pastor’s house they elected new
leaders and made sure that we would have room for them at our training session. </div>
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We were all impressed by the eagerness of this group. The members told us over and over how they
have wanted to have a SACCOS for a long time – but didn’t know how to go about
it. Members we interviewed told us that
they needed a SACCOS to help them save and get capital. Once again we heard that they could not apply
the CVP lessons to their fields since they did not have and could not get the
capital they needed. Some were hoping to
raise livestock. Everyone seemed to
understand that a SACCOS meant saving as well as getting loans – and were
excited about being able to do both!</div>
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As were finishing our lunch we heard a very light rain
falling on the roof. Looking across the
valley we saw heavy rain approaching. We
waited until it passed and started our walk back to the vehicle. We were fortunate to have no rain fall on us while
we were walking. Tom had to execute a
u-turn on the very narrow road, with one side backing up to the mountain and
the other side dropping straight down.
That done we were on our way. The
afternoon downpour had turned the roads into slippery goo which made the challenging
gullies and wash-outs from this morning nearly impassable. We slid down many of the mountain roads as
Tom did his best to steer us around the bends.
After 30 minutes of white knuckles and clenched teeth the road-bed improved
slightly, but we didn’t really relax until we got back to Kidabaga. Mr. Toad’s
wild ride couldn’t have been crazier. </div>
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Pastor Duma met us in Kidabaga for a ride to Iringa. He had arranged to ride his motorcycle as far
as Kidabaga, where he would park it and then ride with us the rest of the way. He took the shorter route down the mountain
and almost didn’t make it. (I suppose
the same could be said for us, as we were in many situations where we had our
doubts that we would make it through).<br />
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Despite the roads it was a very beautiful drive up into the hills.</div>
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This truck was stuck in the middle of the road. "We will have it out very soon," the driver said. When we left 4 hours later it was still here.</div>
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It was a five kilometer walk up and down the hills beyond the truck.</div>
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Finally we get to Kivalamo. Just a short walk up the hill left.</div>
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We were here in 2005. At that time they had just dedicated the foundations for this new church.</div>
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This is the old church. When we visited in 2005 it was raining (like today). The church overflowed with people looking in windows and standing outside of the door to look in.</div>
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Itiweni was not feeling well so she had stayed in Iringa. Brown and Enock gave the seminar.</div>
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There were lots of questions.<br />
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<br />
Leonetin Myungile, 30, has six children. She wants to start a SACCOS so that she can invest in her shamba. Her goal is to send all of her children to secondary school.<br />
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Roniko Kilave, 38, wants to start a SACCOS so that he can apply the new farming methods that he has learned to his fields. He also wants to buy some chickens so he can sell eggs. He has 5 children. He could not go to secondary school so he would like to be able to send all of his children there.<br />
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As we were leaving the meeting Enock spied this woman carrying bananas. She was on her way to her kiosk to sell her bananas. Bananas here sell for 100 Tsch each ($0.07), in town they sell for 300 Tsch each. Enock bought them all for 300 each. "When I go to the villages I like to help the local people by buying what I can from them," he told me.<br />
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It was still raining when we walked back to the car.<br />
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On the way back we stopped at Kidabaga to pick up the pastor. He had ridden the church's motorcycle this far and rode the rest of the way to Iringa with us.<br />
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<br />
Sandy was trying to relax as we stopped for the pastor.</div>
</div>
</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-19169873827013374332012-03-06T08:51:00.001-08:002012-03-06T09:14:48.839-08:00Mgama – The Word Spreads<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This morning we picked Enock up at Tumaini, Itiweni at her
stop and headed for Mgama – an hour’s drive south west of Iringa, near Ihemi. Mgama lies a short drive off of the main
road. It is in the same district as
Ihemi (our partner congregation). The
district pastor who lives at Ihemi also covers Mgama. As a result the pastor here often goes to
Ihemi for meetings.</div>
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Pastor Edward Mgeyekwa has been at Mgawa for three years. He has 11 preaching points and 880 adult members
in his congregation. He invited us to
come and meet with 30 people who want to start a SACCOS. “I have been to Ihemi many times and have seen
how it is helping the people there.
Since Ihemi got a SACCOS their members have benefited greatly. We really need to have a SACCOS here to help
us,” he told us.</div>
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We went to see their CVP crops. This is the first year for this demonstration
plot so they did not have any results yet.
Along the way Tom found some kids – of course this meant he had to go
get candy – and of course this meant that more kids showed up in the corn! It’s amazing how he keeps finding these kids;
or is it the kids who are finding him?</div>
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When we got back from the CVP we
started the meeting. Even though the
pastor had only 30 on his list of interested people, 35 showed up for the
meeting! We each gave our opening
greetings and talks, then Enock took over and gave Itiweni the day off from
teaching (she was not feeling well today so she was glad to have the day
off). He discussed how to start a
SACCOS, the importance of savings, how to organize, etc. </div>
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When Enock’s class was over the class
attendees held their own meeting to elect officers. These elected officials will attend the
training session in two weeks where they will receive further instructions in organizing
and running a SACCOS, and help in writing their constitution. We ate lunch while
they elected a chairman, secretary, and treasurer; two men and a women – the woman
is the treasurer!</div>
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Since Pastor Mgeyekwa had given us a male perspective on why
the community would benefit from a SACCOS, we invited the women to provide a
spokesperson to give us a female point of view.
Thirty-year-old Tamasha Mkakatu
was asked “Why are you interested in forming a SACCOS in Mgama.” Her response: “Life is very difficult here in
Mgama. We don’t have enough capital to
plant our fields. Those who would like
to have a small shop cannot get any capital to start with. We would like to keep animals, but we don’t
have the money to buy them and can’t get loans.
Most of our people cannot afford to send their children to secondary
school. I know that a SACCOS would
change this!”</div>
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We left Mgama promising that we would have a constitution
for their leaders to look at when they attend our training session. </div>
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We returned to Iringa earlier than many days, but we had
things to do before we could call it a day.
After dropping Enock at Tumaini, we accompanied Itiweni to Kihesa where
we met with Pastor Kiwanga to make arrangements for the training session. Last year the 4 day session was held here,
with meals and lodging provided for all of the attendees. At that time the Kihesa center could house
everyone, but this year the anticipated number of 60 far exceeds the number of beds
at Kihesa. </div>
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The overflow will have to be
housed in local guest lodges.</div>
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Following our meeting at Kihesa, Tom had errands to do in
town and Sandy made a return trip to the Radio Furaha station to record more
jingles. We’re not sure if that’s
because the first ones were really good or really bad.</div>
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It was good to get back home tonight. I’m afraid that we are a bit worn out and
tomorrow we plan on going to Kivalamo – a three hour drive with some difficult
roads. We await the traffic report. Here the traffic report is not about rush
hour, white-outs, or ice and snow. The
report will be a phone call telling us whether or not torrential rains have
made the roads impassable. Today’s
weather report: a low pressure system in
the Indian Ocean is expected to bring in heavy rains from the Congo. Stay tuned……</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Mgama is a short drive off of the main road.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFR1CtfRyWAXhGt1hs0u3iIuJyGjUSGZahpgnF7rj2CCCy7cybbyjkR3cr7x5TYbsO8xDQNP73jmPmKHMXV9x7hLKTjNkXX_lFgvlj-eY5V4Vv3kY4jKLIrbLf2daOJY0II1lWXzFprLM/s1600/12-03-06+Mgawa+%252860%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFR1CtfRyWAXhGt1hs0u3iIuJyGjUSGZahpgnF7rj2CCCy7cybbyjkR3cr7x5TYbsO8xDQNP73jmPmKHMXV9x7hLKTjNkXX_lFgvlj-eY5V4Vv3kY4jKLIrbLf2daOJY0II1lWXzFprLM/s320/12-03-06+Mgawa+%252860%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Pastor <span style="text-align: left;">Mgeyekwa told us, "</span><span style="text-align: left;">I have been to Ihemi many times and have seen how it is helping the people there. Since Ihemi got a SACCOS their members have benefited greatly. We really need to have a SACCOS here to help us,”</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">On the way to the CVP field Tom found a child who needed some candy.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">This is the first year for this plot.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCnlT8JwHZg42JWbwBMdrDnZBj9B7PNmVSU9BkSpdxgupAci7qlzKBb_MPypYvihbYH9v4sQDKKLN-kJ65xEJFSV7-q0K61GWFZio-tn5GkxW5laSE0SeIG8Ef9R7JpUADp4oOYyWq9Dg/s1600/12-03-06+Mgawa+%252827%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCnlT8JwHZg42JWbwBMdrDnZBj9B7PNmVSU9BkSpdxgupAci7qlzKBb_MPypYvihbYH9v4sQDKKLN-kJ65xEJFSV7-q0K61GWFZio-tn5GkxW5laSE0SeIG8Ef9R7JpUADp4oOYyWq9Dg/s320/12-03-06+Mgawa+%252827%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">It’s amazing how Tom keeps finding these kids; or is it the kids who are finding him?</span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLz7BBA5pGKTtuuHqmWmDnf8KvVIAiawUsqx0qzUQm-BsEcJ44oaH3__bP_QfPyN7nKR20we3WUS8t6W9bKXkvSwVyq2kXE2B-vaUYIzc5l4uGSN_u-nI86Xx5HTsKRfhzyMbJRoe62lQ/s1600/12-03-06+Mgawa+%252848%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLz7BBA5pGKTtuuHqmWmDnf8KvVIAiawUsqx0qzUQm-BsEcJ44oaH3__bP_QfPyN7nKR20we3WUS8t6W9bKXkvSwVyq2kXE2B-vaUYIzc5l4uGSN_u-nI86Xx5HTsKRfhzyMbJRoe62lQ/s320/12-03-06+Mgawa+%252848%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="text-align: left;">Sandy always hands out pens. It's amazing - everyone seems to be genuinely pleased to get one!</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">Itiweni got the day off as Enock gave the seminar.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf_E_T_y0h0XDEz2sGTGLE55lDIrrzUabHr8io_uEFjN6iVXjjIKIaiJrlH8Xfkign7o53VKwso8krlriUJPCGL5JPILqPBtyt8f6Gvnj5spVRZErbuyDQ1Tk4d4UEBkzSymbGDLnQtFo/s1600/12-03-06+Mgawa+%252852%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf_E_T_y0h0XDEz2sGTGLE55lDIrrzUabHr8io_uEFjN6iVXjjIKIaiJrlH8Xfkign7o53VKwso8krlriUJPCGL5JPILqPBtyt8f6Gvnj5spVRZErbuyDQ1Tk4d4UEBkzSymbGDLnQtFo/s320/12-03-06+Mgawa+%252852%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="text-align: left;">35 people showed up even though only 30 had signed up!</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="text-align: left;">This little girl was too shy for candy.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPCk8facMwysQ5tdhNPEbbD3zf4BOquel4prkjEshbKpwkg8QGWhiWfJw5bJvLAJqzXQ3EAet4dsPHJlP2ISF87hQgJNAHjFkqeuBjD_DjuZk6NFCEyZSY62M3pFc6h8X6baUmOSVMzHM/s1600/12-03-06+Mgawa+%252870%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPCk8facMwysQ5tdhNPEbbD3zf4BOquel4prkjEshbKpwkg8QGWhiWfJw5bJvLAJqzXQ3EAet4dsPHJlP2ISF87hQgJNAHjFkqeuBjD_DjuZk6NFCEyZSY62M3pFc6h8X6baUmOSVMzHM/s320/12-03-06+Mgawa+%252870%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="text-align: left;">Tamasha Mkakatu told us,"</span><span style="text-align: left;">Life is very difficult here in Mgama. We don’t have enough capital to plant our fields. Those who would like to have a small shop cannot get any capital to start with. We would like to keep animals, but we don’t have the money to buy them and can’t get loans. Most of our people cannot afford to send their children to secondary school. I know that a SACCOS would change this!”</span></div>
</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-3875027279875330872012-03-05T07:03:00.002-08:002012-03-05T08:15:39.410-08:00A Day At Mwatasi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Yesterday, Sunday, we crashed! I’m afraid that we were so worn out that we
spent the entire day inside doing a little reading, a little looking on the
web, and lots of sleeping! Today however
we were back on the road with a trip to Mwatasi!</div>
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Mwatasi is a two hour drive south east of Iringa. To get there you take the road to Pommern and
instead of turning off, head out towards the hills. Since it was a bit longer we could not drive straight
through but had to stop and let Tom walk around a little (he needs to get out
and walk around every hour or so to prevent embolisms from forming). Stopping on the side of a hill we got a good
look at the landscape – beautiful up here!
While we were looking around Tom spied a kid – so out came the
candy. Sure enough, once one kid had
gotten candy more started coming out of the corn field. Mama was watching – but she only laughed when
she saw what they were getting. </div>
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When we got to Mwatasi we were greeted by Pastor Elias
Kadnda. This is his first congregation
since graduating from Tumaini 2 years ago.
Itiweni knows him from the University, it turns out he knows many of the
students that were in Sandy’s communications classes at Tumaini in 2005.</div>
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Mwatasi does not yet have a SACCOS. There is a group that has been meeting to
form one. After tea we met with the
group. This group currently has 36
members, 28 of whom attended the meeting.
After greetings and some discussion about who we are and how we can help
them, Itiweni gave her presentation entitled “Uanzishwaji wg SACCOS” (starting
up a SACCOS). Tom is recording her
instructional presentations and will be putting them on DVDs. We brought some portable DVD players, hoping
that in the future they can be used in villages where SACCOS are being formed. </div>
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Itiweni’s talk today covered the basics of getting
organized, selecting the first officers, etc.
She emphasized the need to generate savings FIRST and then do business
plans and work on loans later. Three
leaders (chairman, treasurer, and secretary) will be elected to start
collecting savings. Itiweni will be back
later on to continue her instructions on running a SACCOS. </div>
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After the meeting we went over to look at the CVP acreage. The corn was looking very good. The pastor told us that up here there seemed
to be too much rain to use the hybrid corn that was being used elsewhere. He explained that when they planted half the
plot with their traditional seed and half with hybrid seed the traditional seed
did better (Mwatasi gets a lot of rain and is higher in the mountains than the
other sites we have visited so far.). He
went on to say that when they combined their older seed with the spacing and other
techniques from the CVP plot they were able to increase their yields 2-3
times. Unfortuantly they cannot afford
to use the CVP techniques without a loan for their crops – which is why they
have started working on getting a SACCOS!</div>
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Two women were hoeing in the field right next to the CVP
corn. The pastor told us that the church
members were all asked to come and hoe this field up so they could plant beans.
Of the 1250 members, only these two women showed. They had
been working since early morning and it was now 1:00. </div>
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When we went back to the church there were some members waiting
to talk to us. One of them happened to be the village
mayor and the councilman from the Bomalang’ombe Ward
on the Kilolo District Council. Mayor
Michaal Kisava, 50, told us that he wanted to get a SACCOS started as soon as
he could. He said that he believes that
a SACCOS is necessary to help “this poor district of mine” develop (His ward,
includes 5 villages including Bombe la ngombe and Mwatasi.). The first thing he looks for is to have the
people learn to save and budget their money.
“The education through your program is a real must for us to move
forward.” After that he says they need
loans to develop their shambas. “Right
now we can only apply the CVP methods to a small part of our farms. With a small loan we could do much better.”</div>
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Alafrisa Mpogole, 43, told us much the same thing. “The first thing that we need is to learn to
plan and budget and save,” she told us. “A
SACCOS will help bring changes to the village through learning.” She is planning on telling others to join and
hopes that Itiweni can come back soon to give them more lessons on
savings. She said that she has 6
children that she and her husband support.
One of them is a vocational school graduate who is now married, 2 of
them are in secondary school, and 3 are still in primary school. “We want to send them all to school – but there
is not enough money for this. We need a
loan so that we can improve our farming and send them all to school.” </div>
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As we were getting ready to go the children attacked! (Actually the children are always very
polite. They come over and stand and
smile and giggle a little to get attention.
They wanted Tom to give them candy of course!) Tom had been giving some candy to the
children as he saw them, but now they had banded together and were hoping for
more! Tom took a few photos of them and
then a short video. He started the video playing on his camera and showed it to
them. Giggles, giggles, and more giggles
went through the crowd. We gave them a
bit of candy and then we were off for Iringa. </div>
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On the way to Mwtasi these carts were the biggest traffic concern.</div>
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Tom had to stop and get out. Soon he had kids coming out of the corn field for - you guessed it - candy!<br />
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The views are really beautiful up here.<br />
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<br />
The class was very well attended.<br />
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This little stinker kept sneaking up the aisle for more!<br />
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The Mayor had lots of questions. He also could not help giving the attendees a speech!<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">When
Sandy quipped that it might be planting season, but to quote Jesus, “the
harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few,” Pastor Kadnda translated it
into Swahili for the group. Their laughter
let us know that they were familiar with the quote as well. </span><br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">Mayor Michaal Kisava, 50, told us that he wanted to get a SACCOS started as soon as he could.</span>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Alafrisa Mpogole, 43, told us much the same thing. “The first thing that we need is to learn to plan and budget and save,” she told us.</span>
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Sandy thwarted the kid's attack by handing out more candy!<br />
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</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-40557290994025911502012-03-03T06:42:00.005-08:002012-03-03T11:13:38.779-08:00Mkwawa – “We Take Our SACCOS Seriously”<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This morning we took a short, ten minute drive to
Mkwawa. Mkwawa lies on the other side of
Iringa, just past the Danish book store and down a dirt road. The church is an attractive brick building that
is undergoing some upgrades. Next to it
sits a huge new church that they are building.
“The old church will hold a bit over two hundred while the new church
will easily hold a thousand” said Upendo Koko, pastor. It has been under construction for 8 years
now. The church has 1050 adult members spread
over the main church plus 3 preaching points.</div>
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The Mkwawa SACCOS was started in 2006 by the members of the
church. Over the years it has been
funded by their savings, share prices, and the interest on loans. Currently the SACCOS has $2,500 in capital
provided by its 29 members (17 women and 12 men). Being less rural than most other SACCOS the members
are more “business people” than farmers.
(The definition of business people includes many members who are raising
livestock by their homes.)</div>
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We met with the pastor and discussed our visit first and
then went over to meet with some of the SACCOS members. On the way we saw hundreds of kids. “This is the Saturday class for children in
need. These children are living with
grandparents, distant relatives, etc.
They come here on Saturday for singing, classes, play time, and lunch.” Tom wanted to hand out candy but with so many
children he just did not know how to start!</div>
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Ten of the members had shown up for our visit. The pastor explained that the rest were
working today (We came on a Saturday because this church being urban would most
likely have many members who could not leave work during the week.). We greeted them, introduced ourselves and
explained the reason for our visit. Then
Itiweni gave her class on the rights and responsibilities of SACCOS members. Following her presentation the members raised
several questions that were answered by Itiweni. One member wanted to know if anyone could
call for an audit (the answer is yes, if enough members agree). Another one wanted to know if they can take
people’s collateral if necessary (again the answer is yes). A third wanted to know if it was alright to
join a SACCOS only to save money (certainly!).
Tom closed with a prayer and we met with the leaders.</div>
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Despite having started in 2006 this SACCOS does not have a constitution.
It seems that they have been following the
correct procedures for years – still they really wanted to make sure they were
doing what they should be doing (We will give them a copy of a constitution to
vote on during our upcoming training session.).
We sat and discussed their experience with them. They have had 100% repayment
on loans for several years now. We were
told that at one time there were members who didn’t pay and the SACCOS took their
savings, their collateral, and made their guarantors pay any outstanding loans. This has happened in less than 1 or 2% of their
loans, but they have always gotten paid.
They also revoke membership of anyone who does not pay. This is a very big incentive for people to be
prompt. Right now there are 2 members
who are taking extra time to pay – but they will pay more interest to do this. We were impressed that they took these
actions. They were surprised that anyone
would consider doing anything else! </div>
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We talked awhile about their need for capital. Currently they have ten members who want to
join – but they will not let them join until they have more capital or unless
they agree to use their SACCOS only to save money. “We really need another 12,000,000 Tsch
(about $8,000) to be able to cover the needs of our existing members plus these
new ones. We would like to get some help
from our partner parish – but we are reluctant to ask them. They have been so good to us already.”</div>
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We told them that it was their decision and complemented
them on their excellent management of their SACCOS. They have joined the Iringa Hope Joint
SACCOS. Their Treasurer has been chosen
as an officer. They were clearly very
proud of this.</div>
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As we broke up we went to talk to some members. One member, Peti Sovelo, 50, has 6 children
and has been a member of this SACCOS for some time now. He told us he has been a member for a number
of years and has benefited greatly. This
past year has been difficult for him. He
took out a loan for $265 to plant vegetables and raise pigs at his home. The vegetables did very poorly due to a
drought – still he salvaged what he could and paid back $200 so far. The remaining $65 (plus interest) he will pay
over the next two months as he sells some of the pigs. “It was difficult when the vegetables did
poorly, but I never considered not making my payments. I had promised to do this and I have.” </div>
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We also talked to Tula Mnyawami, 76, a widow with 6 grown
children. She has 3 of her grandchildren
living with her. Last year she took out
a loan for $70. She took this money,
together with some she had saved, and bought 100 chickens so that she could sell
eggs. After the chickens grew up and
started laying eggs she was able to get $14/week ($7 profit) from the eggs they
laid. Things were looking pretty good
until thieves broke into her house while she was at a funeral and stole the
chickens. “I will finish paying back my
loan next month” she proudly told us. “I
never considered not paying it in full – I owed it and I will pay it.” She hopes that after she finishes paying her
loan back she can get another one and try raising chickens again!</div>
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We gave Tula a ride back to her house and she gave us a tour.
Her home is spacious and in the living
room she has pictures on display. Tula started teaching in 1956 and retired in the
1990’s. Her husband was the first
General Secretary of the Iringa Diocese.
We chatted in English and were impressed by the English language skills
of this elderly woman. We looked over the
area where her chickens had been living before thieves stole a good share of
her livelihood.</div>
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We were very impressed by the people at Mkwawa – hard working,
honest, and very proud of what they are accomplishing! Asante sana Mkwawa!<br />
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The existing church was having some brick work done.</div>
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There were hundreds of children there for classes. Tom did not know how to start handing out candy - so he didn't!</div>
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Ten of the members showed up for the class.</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Peti Sovelo, 50, has 6 children and has been a member of this SACCOS for some time now.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">We also talked to Tula Mnyawami, 76, a widow with 6 grown children.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">We took her to her house. She has 3 of her grandchildren living with her.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">She had 100 chickens in this area laying eggs when thieves scaled the wall and stole them while she was at a funeral. I looked around and counted three left.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Sandy and Tula looked at some old pictures from when she was a teacher.</span></div>
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</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-11189304386730965042012-03-02T06:58:00.001-08:002012-03-02T07:18:27.445-08:00A Day At Nduli<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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If you drive north out of Iringa on the Dodoma road you will
pass the airport and, after about 20 minutes, find the turn-off for Nduli. A ten minute drive down this road gets you to
Nduli. The church at Nduli is a pretty
brick structure that, according to a cornerstone, was built in 2002. Pastor Laiton Muyinga came out of the parsonage
to greet us. His was a familiar face, as
we recognized him as a member of a district choir we heard at Tumaini in
2001. Don’t give us credit for
remembering a face we saw only once 10 years ago; Tom recorded the concert and
we have watched the video many times. </div>
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Induli is a relatively large congregation with 8 preaching
points and about 1,000 active members (about the size of most Lutheran churches
in the US!). The pastor at Nduli has big
plans for his parish. He has started a
number of new enterprises from harvesting honey to making peanut butter. To get these plans going, and to give the
farmers here the capital they need to do a good job in their fields he wants to
see a SACCOS started. “I think that a
SACCOS is a must for my parish,” he told us.
He believes that unless he can get a SACCOS started there will not be
enough capital for the parish to operate.</div>
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After tea with the pastor we went to their World Day of
Prayer service. It lasted about 2 ½ hours. In attendance were 26 women and 13 men. The church service was designated especially
for women. In the middle of the service
the women performed a play based on a parable of Jesus in Luke 18:1-8. It was amazing!
The play was teaching them about the
very problem that started us working with micro finance! The problem is that traditionally when a man
dies his eldest male relative inherits everything – his property, his money,
his family – and comes and takes what he wants and leaves the rest. Since he often only wants the property and
not the family this results in many widows being left destitute. In the play the woman goes to a judge and the
judge reluctantly grants her the right to all of the property and tells her she
does not have to go with her deceased husband’s elder brother. (This is of course the law, but most people
do not know this and often ignore it.)
As in the scripture lesson, the widow had to be persistent, and plead
her case before the judge many times. The women were great! Even without knowing Swahili, we could follow
the story fairly well. </div>
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Following the service we met with
the emerging SACCOS. So far this group
has organized enough to elect a chair, treasurer, and secretary. 68 people have joined this group, each paying
20,000 schillings to join. This means
that they now have 1,360,000 schillings (or about $905). They wanted to open a bank account and
deposit money but they could not do this without a constitution.</div>
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We spent about two hours with them
explaining the basics of how a SACCOS works and what would be in a
constitution. We told them we would send
them a constitution to read and vote on.
We also invited their leaders to come to the training session in two
weeks and told them we would give them the forms they needed and show them how
to keep their records. </div>
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Tom spent some time telling them
how a good SACCOS is a partnership between strong Mamas and strong Babas. Since they have already chosen 2 men and one woman
as leaders we suggested that they elect a woman as a vice chair and try to keep
their board and committees balanced. (Of
the 68 members, 48 are women and 22 are men.)
We also discussed the need to grow their SACCOS with savings. With the strong leadership of their pastor
and the good mix of members we think this will be a good SACCOS.</div>
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As the meeting broke up we talked
with some of the members about why they wanted a SACCOS. Larensia Malila, 44, told us that she wants
to start a business and needs to get some capital (she is hoping to get $200 to
go into business). “I need to have a
kiosk to pay for my children’s school fees.” She told us. Her husband works at the airport and has
uncertain hours and income. She has 5
children, three of which are going to secondary school partly due to
scholarships.</div>
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Festo Mtega, 34, has 3 children
and wants to improve his farming and maybe start a business. “I have learned how to improve my farming from
the CVP plot but I can’t apply this unless I can get some capital.” He also would like to implement some of the
ideas that the pastor has brought to Nduli – but he can’t without raising some
capital (he is hoping to borrow $250).
Festo wants to be able to pay his children’s school fees, build a new
house, and buy dairy cows.</div>
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As we were leaving some kids came
around looking for the candy-man. Sandy took over the responsibility of giving
these children their sugar-fix, making a few new friends with big smiles.</div>
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Tomorrow we are off to Mkwawa.<br />
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Nduli is an attractive church just a short way from the Dodoma road.</div>
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The parsonage looks nice but the walls are crumbling. They are building a new one with guest rooms!</div>
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We thought the pastor looked familiar. We had seen him in a choir concert in 2001.</div>
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The worshipers were mainly women. It was a special service dedicated to Mamas.
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These two kept peeking at Tom. They wanted more candy!</div>
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As soon as church was over they got some!</div>
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The SACCOS meeting was crowded.</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Larensia Malila wants to borrow some money to buy a kiosk. She hopes to be able to pay for her children's school fees.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Festo Mtega would like to be able to implement what he has learned from the CVP plot. Without a loan there is not much he can do.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="text-align: left;">Sandy took over for the candy man (I think she was jealous).</span></div>
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</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-38890173477862722412012-03-01T07:00:00.001-08:002012-03-01T09:58:34.086-08:00A New Start At Itungi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This morning we took a drive down the road towards Dar Es
Salaam. When we got to the other side of
Ilula we turned right onto a dirt road and drove to the top of a hill. This is where Itungi is. It is a very pretty setting with a relatively
new church. The pastor greeted us and
(surprise) asked us in for tea!</div>
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We were here today to talk about the group trying to start a
SACCOS. Apparently they have been
meeting and talking about this for the past four years. The group started out fairly large (maybe 100
at one time) but has shrunk down to about 30 now. Itiweni was here last fall doing some
training. She gave two classes to the
leaders and gave them some work to do.
They were to meet with her with the needed information and forms in
November (they did not come), then December (they did not come), then January. Our meeting today was to discover the reason
why and to chart a course for the future.</div>
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We visited with the pastor for awhile about the difficulties
the community is having in getting a SACCOS started. When
we finished our tea and our discussion with the pastor there were several
villagers waiting to talk to us; a group consisting of 9 women and 7 men. There is a CVP (Companion Village Plot) at
Itungi and the villagers need more capital to follow the CVP farming methods. Several of them comment that they do not have
enough capital to plant and no one will lend them money. One woman told me that she can get a loan in
town for 1 or 2 months at 5% - but she needs to have 6 months for her crop, a
comment we have heard before.</div>
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As we talked to the group their problems became clearer. They started meeting four years ago after
they found an old constitution. They had
heard that this was a way to get capital for their farms and desperately wanted
to have a SACCOS. Unfortunately they did
not understand the way a SACCOS works and the constitution that they had contained
many errors. </div>
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They elected officers, collected entrance fees and share
prices (about $13 each) and waited for their leaders to get things
working. The leaders collected these
funds but did not understand what to do next.
After almost 3 years we learned of their difficulties and Itiweni went
to teach them what they needed to know.
By this time, however, the leaders were discouraged and did not pay
attention. As a result they never followed
through on any of the things that Itiweni asked them to do.</div>
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We recognized that this group needs new leaders. We encouraged them to elect a combination of
women and men to leadership positions.
We have noticed time and again that when women have a significant
presence in the leadership of a SACCOS things get done and the SACCOS
works! (Sorry guys – but that is the way
it is here. Probably the women are more
interested in how the family is supported – just a guess because I really don’t
know!)</div>
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We discussed the importance of savings, working together in
the SACCOS, how loans work, etc. We made
arrangements to visit them on Sunday the 11<sup>th</sup> of March when we will
bring along a new constitution for their approval. We plan to give them instructions on
understanding the constitution and the election of officers. We will also make arrangements for the new
leaders to attend the training sessions this month! </div>
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Everyone seemed excited – but we will see when we come back
on the 11<sup>th</sup>. We told them to
listen to Itiweni and Tom on radio Furaha on Thursday when they talk about “Giving
and Saving.” (We are giving a series of
talks on the benefits of SACCOS, savings, giving, and what it means to work in
a coop.)</div>
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After the meeting we went to see the CVP plot. It’s a long drive through the brush – but we made
it! Sandy ventured across the muddy
field, but Itiweni stayed in the car. Her
comment: “I have been to so many CVP
plots already and my shoes aren’t good for this.”</div>
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Back in Iringa we had a meeting with the regional cooperative
officer with the purpose of working together on SACCOS issues. Oh well, it is not 6:30 yet!</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Itungi is a 20 minute drive from Ilula. (It is a very pretty dive up the hill.)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The church where we met is fairly new.</div>
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A group of Mamas were waiting for us to talk to them.<br />
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<br />
This Mama commented that she needed capital to use the CVP methods and no one would lend her money.<br />
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<br />
Afterwards we went to see the CVP plot. It was a bit of a drive through the brush.<br />
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<br />
Sandy struggled through the mud but Itiweni thought she could see fine from the car!<br />
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<br />
The view from up here is really pretty.<br />
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<br />
Back in town Itiweni and Tom met with the new coop officer.<br />
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<br />
The end of the day brought a visit to the market. We will get home before 6:30 today!!</div>
</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-48891091072674061252012-02-29T08:08:00.002-08:002012-02-29T08:08:49.194-08:00Mlowa – “We have a CVP plot, we need a SACCOS”<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Mlowa is located 1 hour and fifteen minutes to the northeast of Iringa. It is an emerging SACCOS rather than an existing one, like those we have visited previously. The villagers of Mlowa started talking about
having a SACCOS last year. Early in the
year Itiweni visited this village and talked with them about what a SACCOS was
and how to form one. They were very
excited about this and sent a letter to their companion congregation, Christus
Victor, asking if they would support them.
The letter they got back said, “YES!” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There was a lot of excitement and 108 people signed a list to get more
information and training. Then they sent
a letter to the diocese and waited and waited and waited. (It seems that the diocese assumed they would
contact us so did not say anything. They
assumed the diocese wanted them to wait so they did. Itiweni had told them to call her when they
wanted to start training and, with other things going on, had not called them
back.)</div>
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When we got to Mlowa the pastor was not there (he had to go
to another preaching point) so we met with the church treasurer. We, of course, had tea first. Tom spied some kids and so had to hand out
suckers.</div>
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Slowly the people gathered and the meeting began. Since this is an emerging SACCOS Itiweni
changed her course to focus on the basics of organizing and running a
SACCOS. There were 24 who attended this
meeting – half women and half men. We
emphasized the responsibilities and roles of the members and officers as well
as the role of savings and planning.
Overall we spent about two and one half hours presenting materials.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was during the presentation that Tom’s candy habits came
home to roost. First one small boy, then
two, then three, then a whole group came creeping up to stare at Tom and make
faces. They of course wanted candy – but
the adults in the course and wanted no interruptions! A compromise was struck when Tom gave them
each one piece and they were told to shoo!
(Tom then started noticing the little kids that the mothers were holding
– so he soon had to get up and give them suckers!)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After the meeting we met with some of the members. Why I asked do you want a SACCOS, after all
Pride In Africa has a person here and there are some other groups around. “Pride In Africa charges 4% per month and
will only loan us money for 1 or 2 months (sometimes they will go three) so it
does not help the farmers. The other
groups in Mlowa are about the same. We
really need to have something to address the needs of the farmer.” I was told.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the evangelists, Dinas Mlowe, is a single woman
helping to support some of her nieces and nephews. “Rural areas need the opportunities for
borrowing that we can get from a SACCOS.
I have learned how to improve my farming from the CVP plot but I do not
have the capital to do it. This last
year I could only plant 1 acre of rice and some ground nuts.”</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Mama Mchungaji (the pastor’s wife) said, “There is a lot of
knowledge that comes from the SACCOS training.
This will help the whole village do better. By giving the farmers the capital they need
to follow the CVP teachings the incomes will increase here and people will be
able to start other businesses. Our
children will benefit and our future will be brighter.”</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jonas Mukusa, father of four and one of the leaders of the
group told us, “Village people have nowhere to go to get the capital they
need. I have four acres to farm. I followed most of the CVP teachings on one
acre (he could not buy enough fertilizer so he skimped a bit) and only followed
the spacing rules on the other 3 acres.
On the CVP acre I got 25 bags of corn, on each of the other acres I only
got 13 bags of corn. I have one child I
am sending to school now and 2 more that want to go soon. I need to get a loan so I can farm the way I
know I should.”</div>
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We told them to hold
a meeting of those who were serious about joining a SACCOS (probably the 24 who
came plus a few others) and choose some leaders. Then send these people to our training
session next month. After this we told
them we would work with them to schedule some more training sessions with
Itiweni and work to get them started this year.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We were very pleased with this group. They have a good balance of men and women,
they did not want to do anything until they had the right training, and they
are all there for the right reasons. It
was a good day!</div>
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(PS-I hope you will forgive my paraphrasing of Itiweni’s
translation. Everyone of course spoke in
Swahili.)</div>
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The road to Mlowe is actually pretty good driving.</div>
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We were greeted by the pastor's wife and the church treasurer.</div>
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24 potential members gathered to meet with us.</div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The chickens had to check out the classroom before we got started.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Itiweni gave a lesson on what a SACCOS is, how to buy shares, voting and organizing, etc.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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Earlier Tom had been giving the kids some suckers - so during the meeting these kids were creeping closer and closer wanting theirs!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Even this little one eventually got a sucker.</div>
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After the meeting some people wanted to meet with us to talk about why they want a SACCOS.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmK3rmbwgJNMOvnNWbFLI3HSfi8apeKaorX7B15jsVyu5lRearPsLKOi-tgMgU7yKQFTE3F8sLaozMBzc1wy4v5N68ccISiMDnLVx00vebc-EFRKHjTyVsKYFPYMtvD5-alvvGW3-DavM/s1600/DSC_6424.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmK3rmbwgJNMOvnNWbFLI3HSfi8apeKaorX7B15jsVyu5lRearPsLKOi-tgMgU7yKQFTE3F8sLaozMBzc1wy4v5N68ccISiMDnLVx00vebc-EFRKHjTyVsKYFPYMtvD5-alvvGW3-DavM/s320/DSC_6424.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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The evangelist wanted to follow the CVP lessons, but she could not get enough capital.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCek9uTJxRYKjWMKzY_NX-WyUFsuB2kgZqJ_Lq50Pin3HBxkXRDiB4U-d5gg13YnHN4EEmajut-GJKAoF1-NpLCxJRQfTFgcynfKDMdxacLMpYHOzhrqoVGxZC29iY2haerRc3Zmg2b00/s1600/DSC_6431.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCek9uTJxRYKjWMKzY_NX-WyUFsuB2kgZqJ_Lq50Pin3HBxkXRDiB4U-d5gg13YnHN4EEmajut-GJKAoF1-NpLCxJRQfTFgcynfKDMdxacLMpYHOzhrqoVGxZC29iY2haerRc3Zmg2b00/s320/DSC_6431.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Mama Mchungaji wants her village to improve. "A SACCOS will bring hope for our children."</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Jonas Mukusa knows how to increase his crops - he just needs to be able to borrow the capital to do it!</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>
</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-6680396736392761282012-02-28T08:27:00.002-08:002012-02-28T08:27:49.886-08:00Ilambilole - A Widow and A CVP Demo Plot<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We planned to leave Iringa at 9:00. First we had a few errands to run – dropping off
a bill at the procurement office at Tumaini and then going over to make a
payment at the CRDB bank. Walking into
the bank it seemed that Itiweni knows everyone who works here. As a result we were ushered to the front of
the line and helped immediately.</div>
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On returning to our vehicle we discovered that it wouldn’t
start. In fact, it wouldn’t even turn
over or make a noise. We called Denis
Ngede (he talks care of the car for us) and he sent someone over. After looking things over it was discovered
that the wiring was bad – so we needed another ride for the day.</div>
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While this was going on Itiweni called Brown to tell him we
would be late. He told us that he and
his wife had just been in a motorcycle accident and he had injured his side and
arm. Fortunately mama (who is pregnant)
is OK.</div>
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So we sat in front of the bank waiting for Denis to send
another car and driver. While sitting
there there was a steady stream of people that Itiweni or we knew who stopped
to say “Hi” and ask what we were doing.
Soon we are joined by a parking officer – are we illegally parked as
well??? She was friendly enough and
understood the problem so we paid her a parking fee and she went on her way.</div>
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After an hour we got another car and a driver and left for
Ilambilole. The drive is about 1 hour
from Iringa going north on the road to Dodoma.
This of course meant that we were an hour late in getting there – but no
problem TIA (this is Africa). And of
course, FIRST we have tea with the pastor. </div>
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On the way to meeting with the SACCOS officers Tom spied
some school children. It’s candy
time!!! Tom started to hand out candy
and kids just kept appearing. Good thing
that the kids quit coming before the candy ran out! (Tom started with 100 suckers and ended with
a hand full.)</div>
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After the bad news of yesterday, it was a pleasure to
discover that the Ilambilole SACCOS is very well run. We met with the officers and the board
members of the SACCOS in their office (about 10 people over all). About half of them were women. They had all of their books, their bank
statement, and records up to date and waiting for us. When I asked them about how they dealt with
delinquent loans they immediately pulled out their constitution and showed me –
what a great way to start!!</div>
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This SACCOS has 62 members – 32 men and 30 women. They proudly told me that they started with a
$4,700 gift from their partner Our Saviors Lutheran in Hastings. In fact they kept mentioning Our Saviors so
often it seemed that they should be paid for advertising (seriously, they are
very proud of their connection – they have named their SACCOS “Our Saviors
Ilambilole SACCOS”).</div>
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Looking over the records I noted that last year they made 64
loans and had 3 that had not been paid back in full. They told me that these 3 members had been
sick and that they had rescheduled their loans to give them another 6
months. I asked if they were charging
interest for the whole time and they looked at me strangely – of course they
will pay all of the interest! Are they
paying now? Their co-guarantors have
started to pay and they will collect it all!</div>
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After meeting the officers and board members, we went to the
church and held the general meeting. As
usual Itiweni’s talk was very well received with lots of questions. I noticed that many people had brought copies
of the constitution and had good questions about their rights and obligations –
good work!</div>
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After the meeting we talked to some members about their
loans. Talking with Pendo Mtoji, 36, we found
that he and his wife had 4 children in primary school. He had taken a loan out for $200 and bought
some chickens (41). He built a house for
them and was selling eggs. “30-40 eggs a
day at $0.20 each with a $.03 profit” he told us (in Swahili of course). After paying off his loan this money was set
aside to buy school uniforms and supplies (about $330/year). His second loan was for $420. He is using this to farm his corn using the
CVP demonstration plot approach.</div>
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Our second visit was with Jema Kevike, 48. She has five children, one in secondary
school and the rest gone elsewhere to work.
She took out a loan for $170. She
farmed corn using the CVP methods and made a profit (after repaying her loan) of
$250. This she used to buy some goats to
milk. With the profit from the goats she
has now started to build a house. Her
second loan is for $270 to raise more corn.
She plans to use the profits from this crop to pay school fees and work
on her house.</div>
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The last visit was with Beata Mgimba, 42. This widow has 3 children; one in teacher’s
college and two in secondary school. She
has been sending them to school with a combination of scholarships (thanks Our
Saviors) and what money she can make off of her work in the village and her ¾ acre
of land. Everyone agreed that she does
the best job in the village of following the CVP teachings. Her first loan was for $60. Her profit on her crop was $120! (She bought
2 pigs and helped her children pay their school fees.) Her second loan is for $80 to buy more pigs
and plant another crop. Very impressive!</div>
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Everyone involved with the SACCOS here was very happy and
appreciative of their opportunity to get loans.
They currently have 17 members waiting to get loans and need another
$3,000 in capital. I would say that any
money sent here is well sent indeed!!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQpRepmyUk8zXcjLm5OjmX6hGM2HCSTNJV-FUkuSIgNdk4L9dMkqKJMhlxSet7LLHJsipFDgRJYZEknuhuWbyiWZzE4-mg0BMuAJJlt-yayNxXbJKeoy5GCOlzqE-MDfqp0OGdOB_ZHP0/s1600/12-02-28+Ilambilole+SACCOS+(20).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQpRepmyUk8zXcjLm5OjmX6hGM2HCSTNJV-FUkuSIgNdk4L9dMkqKJMhlxSet7LLHJsipFDgRJYZEknuhuWbyiWZzE4-mg0BMuAJJlt-yayNxXbJKeoy5GCOlzqE-MDfqp0OGdOB_ZHP0/s320/12-02-28+Ilambilole+SACCOS+(20).JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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After an hour's delay we were on our way. The traffic jam added a little additional delay.</div>
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When we got to Ilambilole we were greeted by an old friend. Pastor Doricus Kimbavala was there to say, "Welcome!"</div>
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The board members and officers were about 50-50 men and women.</div>
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There were lots of good questions and many referred to their copies of the constitution of the SACCOS!</div>
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Tom gave suckers to all of the children.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Pendo
Mtoji bought some chickens and is selling eggs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Mama </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: left;">Kevike bought some goats and is building a house.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: left;">Widow </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: left;">Mgimba is helping to send her 3 children to get an education (one is in teacher's college and two are in secondary school).</span></div>
</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-76686013269293608672012-02-27T09:39:00.003-08:002012-02-27T10:08:44.742-08:00On To Nyanzwa!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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After visiting five very successful SACCOS last week, we had
a disappointing start to our second week of visits when we visited Nyanzwa
today. Nyanzwa is located about 3 hours
drive from Iringa. To reach Nyanzwa you
take the road back towards Dar Es Salaam down the escarpment. At the foot you take a dirt road for about 35
kilometers. Assuming the Masai and their
cattle don’t delay you too long you will make it in 45 minutes.</div>
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Arriving at the church we were met by the pastor and the
SACCOS chairman. The pastor seemed
somehow familiar to us – but we could not place him. We have been to Nyanzwa on 4 other occasions –
but we were sure we had not met him here.
We went into his house where we were greeted by his wife. Suddenly it struck us; we had met him when we
were at Kipaduka a few years ago. When
we asked if they remembered us from Kipaduka mama said, “No – but then all
white people look alike.”</div>
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After having coffee
we met with the officers of the SACCOS.
When we had been here in 2008 we were impressed by the good records and
active participation of the members, now we felt that the SACCOS is being
poorly managed and needs some changes.
We found that recent record keeping is so poor that we were unable to
come away with any details. We also
confirmed that despite having assets of $33,000 this SACCOS has only $1,350 in
cash available. And where is the
rest? It is currently loaned to the
members – who all seem to be falling behind in their payments!</div>
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The Nyanza SACCOS has about 200 members; only 48 of them are
women. At our meeting today with the SACCOS leadership we noticed that of the
nine members present, only one of them was a woman. Lukia, the woman, was the only member in the
roomful of leaders who had repaid her loan in full. All of the other leaders had loans
outstanding, some of them small, others fairly substantial (by Tanzanian standards). Sandy commented that in every other SACCOS we
visited where the membership and leadership was equally divided between men and
women (and heavily favoring women in the case of Mkimbizi), record keeping was
well done and loan repayment was close to 100%.
She followed with a question of whether or not the men in the room
thought there might be a correlation here.
This brought smiles. Then Tom
asked if this (repaying loans on time) was something that women can do and that
the men were not capable of. This
brought some frowns and a bit of discussion.</div>
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Brown (a representative of the Iringa Diocese head office),
Tom, and Itiweni took turns lecturing the leaders about responsibility, setting
an example, commitment, etc. We told
them they needed to form a committee to go to each and every member with a loan
and sit with them and make a plan to repay their loans by the end of June
(harvest time). They said we will do
this tomorrow. “YOU WILL DO THIS TODAY”
Brown told them. </div>
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Following the meeting we interviewed Lukia about her
dealings with the Nyanzwa SACCOS. Her
loans were taken out in the early days of the SACCOS (2007-2008). She had taken out loans twice; her first loan
in 2007 was for $50 which she used to plant onions. This loan was repaid and she took out a second
in 2008 for $120 which she used to plant beans and onions. After she repaid her loan she bought pigs,
and has situated herself so that she hasn’t needed to borrow anything in the
last three years. She has used her
profits to send her two children to secondary school.</div>
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Our second interview was with Salima, a widow supporting two
children and two grandchildren. We
recognized her immediately as a woman we interviewed in 2008. She is another woman who borrowed money in
2007 and 2008; loans that were paid in full.
She didn’t take out a loan in 2009 because the weather that year was
such that she didn’t want to gamble on being able to repay a loan. When she applied in 2010 her loan application
was turned down, due to lack of money for loans. Salima was probably one of the best credit
risks that this SACCOS could have taken.
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When we went to start the car to go home we found the
battery was dead! “Ooops – I forgot and
left the headlights on,” said Tom. Never
mind – with a handful of volunteers pushing the car was soon started and we
were on our way. Getting back to our
house at 6:30 we realized that it had been another 11 and ½ hour day!<br />
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Going down the escarpment can be a bit tricky with the run away trucks!</div>
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It's only a 45 minute drive if you don't meet too many cattle.</div>
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Mama didn't recognize us.</div>
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Itiweni pounds the table. Will they listen?</div>
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Of the officers and board members only Lukia had repaid her loan.</div>
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The widow Salima was turned down for her loan. She was probably the most reliable borrower of all!</div>
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The goats sure liked our car!</div>
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I guess it takes one battery or five men to start our car!</div>
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</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4004127905984900901.post-53973748091534390052012-02-26T06:52:00.002-08:002012-02-26T06:57:17.724-08:00Our Second Sunday in Iringa (At Cathedral)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Today, being Sunday, we took the day off! No long drives, no early mornings, just a leisurely
drive to church. We decided to try going
to one of the churches in town today – so we picked up Itiweni and off we went
to Cathedral. The service at Cathedral
was a bit like those we’ve attended at the rural churches; that is, it lasted 2
hours with many choirs and multiple offerings.
The one thing missing though was the energy and dancing. The more reserved nature of the service
reminded us more of home; the one exception being the sermon which took 45 minutes
and was full of energy. We could
understand the energy, but unfortunately, not the words. </div>
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After church we went
outside for an auction of items donated during the offerings. While standing there we started to meet
people we knew from town. There was
Beatrice (Denis Ngede’s wife), Brown (who is traveling with us), Harry (a Tumaini
businessman we’ve met during past visits), Obadiah (from Tumaini’s choir), and
many others. We wound up leaving the
service with a variety of “we need to have dinner” and an invitation to a wedding
early next month. </div>
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After leaving church we went to get gas. The tank was half full so it only took $65 to
fill it up. That’s right – a full tank
of gas here costs about $140. As close
as I can estimate the current price is about $6.50/gallon. It costs about $35-40 every day for fuel for
our visits. At this rate we will be
spending about $1,000 on gas to make our visits! No wonder people don’t have cars and visitors
to the villages are not that frequent.</div>
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Oh well – a quiet afternoon catching up on our writing and
then off at 7 tomorrow morning to Nyanzwa.<br />
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Outside the church with Itiweni and her daughter Mercy.</div>
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The choir sang and the auction was held in the courtyard after the service.</div>
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We kept meeting people we knew. Shown here are Harry (on the left) and Obadiah (on the right).</div>
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We got gas and did some shopping - not much chance to visit the market during the week!</div>
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</div>Tom & Sandyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06110829663573621951noreply@blogger.com0