Kivalamo – the Road Less Traveled – For a Good Reason

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. 

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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. 

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!

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. 

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).

Despite the roads it was a very beautiful drive up into the hills.

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.

It was a five kilometer walk up and down the hills beyond the truck.

Finally we get to Kivalamo.  Just a short walk up the hill left.

We were here in 2005.  At that time they had just dedicated the foundations for this new church.

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.

Itiweni was not feeling well so she had stayed in Iringa.  Brown and Enock gave the seminar.

There were lots of questions.

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.

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.

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.

It was still raining when we walked back to the car.

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.

Sandy was trying to relax as we stopped for the pastor.