Return to Nyanzwa

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.

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.

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.

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.  

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!)

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.

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!

We got down to Nyanzwa about 10.

We remembered our meeting here in 2008.  We met with everyone under a large Acacia tree.

Enock reminds the officers that the SACCOs is here to serve the poor people of this area.

This board member was very angry at the SACCOS officers.

Finally the Kilolo District Coop Officer's decisions were announced.

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.

We needed to hurry as we left the meeting.  Tom does not want to drive up the escarpment after dark.