Mwanza

We had another chance to participate in a tour of World Renew similar to what we did in Cambodia.  World Renew is the development agency of our church’s denomination and they have a field office in Mwanza which is a city on the south shores of Lake Victoria.  Unlike Cambodia, we had some Canadian World Renew staff come for this trip as well as a few supporters like us from the US and Canada.  We learned a lot again and continue to give thanks to God for the good work being done by World Renew and the agencies it partners with.  In driving through a lot of poor villages and not stopping at them, it tugs at your heart knowing that World Renew can only do so much.  However, those they are able to help are deeply impacted and even a little drop of water in a bucket creates ripples.  We got a real sense of ownership by the local village people on the programs that were implemented and their excitement to share what works with more community members.  And even though we only visited three villages in this small area, there are upwards of 200 villages impacted by this office which is more of a splash than a drop.

Our first day was an orientation at the World Renew office where we learned about the work being done and some cultural training.  At the end, they treated all the guests from Canada and the US with gifts of bags, skirts, and shirts from the local markets.

During some free time, we took a taxi to the water front so we could see Lake Victoria.  Mwanza is nicknamed Rock City due to many unique rock formations in and around the city.  The most famous one in Mwanza is named Bismarck Rock which is the balancing rock out in the lake.

Geita

The next day we did a 4-5 hour drive to the much smaller town of Geita which would be our base for the next couple of days while we visited some villages.

Lake Victoria has a skinny bay that extends quite far south like a finger and Geita is on the other side.  So rather then take the additional 3-4 hour drive around the bay, we took a ferry across.

The town of Geita, like many towns on our trip was an interesting contrast to our North American eyes.  There was a new hotel going up across from our hotel that on the one hand had nice concrete structure, windows, etc, but on the other hand was surrounded with what looked to us as this rickety scaffolding with no really planks or guarding.

Our first stop was the diocese of this region for the Africa Inland Church (part of AIM, African Inland Mission) who was the partner agency in this area for World Renew. We met some of the AIC staff and then headed out to our first village.

They do their animals large scale in Africa.

Due to the privacy policy of World Renew, we had to be selective on our pictures and videos.  We tried to limit the pictures to mostly projects and World Renew and AIC staff.  Where that wasn’t fully possible, we had to blur out other individuals or simply not include pictures.  Below is the one video from behind showing the village welcoming us to the village courtyard and meeting place with song.

The song and dancing continued at the meeting spot where they formed a circle and then welcomed each guest one by one by name, as part of the song, to enter into the center of the circle bringing all the guests from the outside of the ring into the inside of the ring.

We then met under the tree and heard from two groups of VSLA (Village Savings and Loan Associations).  It was interesting to see that the first group was all women which is normally how the savings group have historically worked.  However, the second group was half male and half female and a lot of them pretty young.  The first group had been so successful that now everyone wanted in on it.  They had prepared a lunch for us and as we prepared to go, all the girls got swarmed by villagers looking for selfies with the blond hair girls.  Another one of those contrasts: in places where there was no running water or consistent access to electricity, a decent number of people still had cell phones.

The next day we visited some more villages that were focused more on Conservation Agriculture (CA).

From our AIC member and the farmer we learned about the three main points that CA emphasizes: no tillage (to prevent erosion and reduce labour), keep soil covered using with cover crops (so the sun doesn’t hit it directly, to put nutrients back in the soil, prevent weed growth and to retain moisture) and crop rotation (to break the cycle of pests and disease, and to use different nutrients).  With those pillars, the yields of maize have increased phenomenally (eg between 2 and 5 times increases), and the amount of labour it takes has decreased.  A lot of those practices Julia’s dad and brother do on their farm as well.

With such an increase in yields, the farmer could afford to put in a well outside his house, which significantly improved their quality of life by providing cleaner water and removing the need to walk a long ways to get it.  The second picture is of them drying out their grain on big tarps on the ground.

The program also introduced a better storage system that included a double liner to be inserted into the traditional 100lb bags.  These would be pulled tight and sealed, cutting off oxygen preventing insects from spoiling the grain (primarily weevils).  This was especially needed with increased yields and allowed the farmers to store their grain until prices were more favourable.

Some of the farmers in this area also did a loans VSLA but with a twist.  They all had phones that used text messaging and the loans were all managed through the mobile provider.  They demonstrated to us one of the farmers requesting a small loan from the group and everyone else in the group was notified by their phones.  This was an improvement on the first village where everything was done on paper and in lock boxes.

We then visited another village a little ways away that had different soil type that could support fruits, in this case bananas and citrus.  Some of the same crop cover principles worked with the banana plants, but also important was the proper spacing of citrus trees to maximize use of the land but not so close as to limit production.

Another massive lunch prepared for us over wood fires in the courtyard.

Our last stop for that day was at another village to visit a farmer who participated in the kitchen garden program to the extreme.  Most of the other farmers we had already visited had small plots to grow their own vegetables as encouraged by the program.  Not only was this kitchen garden the largest we had seen with amaranth, peppers, papayas, bananas, onions, pumpkins, cucumbers (and probably some I’m missing) but they also extended that concept into their farm which was 18 acres and also included papayas, bananas, yams, cassava, sweet potatoes, passionfruit, citrus/orange trees, avocadoes, amaranth, peppers, cabbage, eggplant, etc. all of which they sold in the market vs for their own consumption.  It was probably the most diverse farm I have ever seen.

Parts of the kitchen garden.

They also raised rabbits, in part for the food, but just as importantly, to collect the urine via the pipe system you see on the side of the cage.  They collect the rabbit urine and use it as a natural pesticide.  They let it ferment for 7-14 days and then dilute it with a 1 to 1 ratio and put in a squeeze bottles and then spray the plants.

They also made use of lots of plastic bottles for slow drip irrigation for the vegetable plants.  They would fill them with water and punch a pinhole in the cap and hang them from a string over the plants.

Walking the larger fields out back.

On our last day the focus was on spiritual formation and specifically the Truth Centered Transformation (TCT) program. This village was larger then the others and we met at the church where the AIC staff person translated for the evangelist as he told us about the history of the church (number of members, church building, etc) as well as the TCT program and specifically the different modules.  The first few were on spiritual things like the Kingdom of God, but many were on very practical things like money, health, marriage, etc.  The three main points of TCT are to increase numbers, decrease poverty and ensure resources are used effectively.  We were able to ask a few questions about adequate Bibles, teaching the children, etc, and then walked around village to learn about the impact of TCT to the village.  They then feed us lunch at the church and sang and danced for us.

Some of the cotton grown around the village and the lunch served in the church.

We spent a lot of hours in these trusty 4×4 vehicles getting us around all the dirt roads to the various villages.  They showed up each morning washed and clean to pick us up.

We got to know the local World Renew staff pretty well who drove us around, taught us many things, and also loved to joke around.

Our time did come to a close and we had to head back to Mwanza.

Some beautiful views on the ferry ride back.

We were on the bigger ferry this time and sat in the first row.  The ladies behind us asked the girls if they could braid their hair.  They had never done hair like that before and were curious.  We had already had a (translated) conversation with them and they were very polite about it (didn’t just reach out and touch the girls without asking), so the girls felt comfortable enough to let them have a go.

Enjoying the beautiful sunset from the ferry dock with the Canadian World Renew staff.

One of the local World Renew staff was wearing these really nice sandals with an intricate bead design.  She said they were Maasai sandals which is one of the tribes in that area and she arranged for some Maasai men to meet us at the Mwanza hotel that night with some sandals so the girls could each pick out a pair.

The next morning was our last morning in Mwanza so we had to say goodbye.

After a couple of days together we had a couple of good Dutch bingo moments: the gentleman from the US went to church with my one of my sisters when they lived in Minneapolis and his brother went to Dordt with my other sister.  We also discovered that the other lady from Canada went to the same church as Julia’s aunt and uncle. 

It was a blessing to be with these wonderful people for the last number of days.