Well it has been a crazy month and I totally forgotten about my blog. I figured I would try to fill you in a bit. I have spent 9 days camping in the middle of nowhere to build a spring protection system. To give you a picture of the village we stayed in we camped on the land of a man with 5 wives and uncountable numbers of children, you can't buy things like bread or cooked food unless you drive for about half an hour through riverbeds and thorn bushes, there is no cell phone reception except sometimes if you stand on the truck, one night I woke up to a bit of a commotion it turns out some hyenas had eaten 2 goats and in the morning I woke up to the sound of donkeys eating the grass around my tent. It is a bit of an adventure.

I also got to go on a tour of the region to learn about water issues to try to create a larger water project plan for the region. It was amazing get to see more of northern Tanzania. It was a bit depressing because we saw many past water projects that had failed miserably to provide safe water even though lots of money had been spent... wells went dry, projects broke before construction was completed....however, the good news is we visited MCC projects from 15 to 20 years ago that are still providing people with clean water.

My favorite story of the week was we visited an area that is near where the Barrick gold mine (Canadian company...however just read they are spinning of the Tanzania part)is dumping its waste into Lave Victoria. People were getting sick and 2 people had died. They thought it was because of the industrial waste polluting the water and had brought us and some government water quality people to test the water. We very quickly learned that the local people were doing things themselves that were likely causing the problem. First, people were using the path for relieving themselves. Also, there was a farm within a couple of meters from the small bay in the lake using pesticides. It had just rained so these chemicals very likely washed into the lake and then people went to that spot to get water. The final reason is that, according to a government official with us, the area is known for using chemical fishing...as in they dump chemicals in the lake and wait for the fish to come to the surface. Once these issues were explained to the local people they were understandably getting upset with each other but arranged a meeting for 2 days later with the water official with us and all the people in the area including the people known to be using chemical fishing and farming too close to the lake to deal with the issue. We have not been able to follow up with what happened later but from what I understood from their conversation I feel like it is likely they will now take steps to protect the water on their own saving their own lives. When I first thought of water projects I thought of digging wells, sand dams, protecting springs, sanitation and hygiene education, ...but this taught me to broaden my ideas of what kind of water needs their are in the area.