By: Jessica Malone
We started out with another delicious breakfast at The Lutheran Center and then headed in our 70's coach bus to the village of Kiponzero. When we got there we were greeted by some members of the village and they expressed their appreciation for our work and previous work that has been done. We all signed in to a guest book, which became a theme of the day. I was extremely surprised to see some people with cell phones. While clean water is not easily accessible to many of these people, they are still able to afford the low rates of the cell phones over here.
We then headed over to the village dispensary (local doctor's office/hospital), where we also had to sign in, and spoke with a doctor there. It was interesting to hear that for a doctor's visit and prescription it would cost the residents of the village 2000 TSH or around $1.25 because the government subsidizes the rest of the cost. We then did our first set of water testing at the hand pump there. The samples we took need to incubate for 24 hours before we will be able to tell if there is bacteria in the water.
Our next stop was the primary school, in which we had to sign in again. Most of us then tried carrying a bucket of water on our heads. None of us were successful in being able to take a step without using our hands to balance it...it is hard work!
We visited another well, took some more samples, and then went to visit an open water source where people are also gathering water from. We took samples there and then headed back to the primary school for lunch. It was surprising to see that they served us pop and bottled water. It was so nice of them to cook us a nice meal of rice, beans, chicken, and vegetables.
It then started pouring rain and we all went outside under the roof overhang to watch it. We took some samples of the water pouring off of the roof to see if a rain catchment system would maybe work in the future. Mark decided to do a slip and slide!
We then went into a classroom and let the students ask us some questions. We sang them the Minnesota Rouser and they sang us their school song and the Tanzania National Anthem. It was amazing!
We then headed up to a current drilling site and got to see a hole for a new well being drilled by a mud rotary drill.
We then headed back to the hotel, some of us made a trip to the local tourist market, and then had a nice dinner of chicken, rice, and vegetables at the Lutheran Center. It was another exciting and beautiful day in Tanzania!
