Oct/10/2010 – Ndatu Village had a community meeting to discuss the
Uraki Water Project preparations. One of the primary meeting objectives was to select the new Karamu – Uraki Water Committee from the community.

The Community members selected Mr. Lee to become Coordinator, and also appointed the
Watoto Foundation Manager, Head Master Uraki Secondary School and Head
Teacher Uraki Primary School to become Committee Members through their
positions held on their Institutions.  We are very pleased with these selections as we have a great working relationship established with all four of them.

Also, during that meeting, the  Community agreed that they are ready to dig the
trench as soon as the survey and drawing is ready. It was emphasized that digging Trench should be carried out urgently before rain season started.  Best guestimates on the time frame are that the engineering work would be completed by November 1 and digging would begin mid November.   Our fundraising needs to shift into high gear so we can purchase the flexible pvc pipe to be buried.

It was also agreed that during the time of digging the trench not all Community Members will come out at once.  Instead a number of Balozi (3), will come out with all of the people who live in those 3 Balozi and start dig a specific given potion.   Ultimately, all Balozi will
participate by taking turns.  The work of digging the trench will be conducted once a week.  It was also agreed that for the people who are employed and they cannot participate, this will be documented by the  Sub-Village Chairman and they will have to pay in advance Tshs.
10,000/= each round when their Balozi gets out for digging trench.  For community members who will fail to show-up during the process of digging the trench they will pay a fine of T.shs 10,000/= each round when their Balozi gets out for work.

October 5, 2010 – As a team we have agreed to hire Pangani Basin to perform the engineering assessment phase of the project.  This is the first phase of the project and will represent the formal kick-off of the project.  Thanks to the over $4,000 in donations from the website so far, these monies will be directly used to support Phase I of the project.  We expect that Pangani will be able to start the engineering assessment by October 15th and completed this by November 1st.  Stay tuned for more details pending their analysis.  We have also drafted a position description for the local Project Manager role which is being routed to various constituents for review.

Sept 26 – Oct. 3, 2010 – Now that the big climb is over, we turn our attention to advancing the water project. See below for meeting and progress updates:

Mr Kisalee, the local office manager for our climbing partner Serengeti Pride Safaris, has done a great job organizing our schedule of meetings while were up on the mountain.

Meeting # 1 – MajiTech, the local water engineering firm, had arranged for one of their subcontractors, an Arusha plumbing company, to walk the proposed water line and give us a cost estimate. The meeting to review this estimate was a bit of a shocker as their price was more than 2x what we had anticipated. We quickly learned that this plumbing company was 100% commercially focused and not going to be a viable partner. While we appreciate their efforts, our goals are not aligned to form an effective partnership.

Meeting # 2 – Uraki Primary School Headmaster Mr. Lema. We spent 1.5 hours meeting with Mr. Lema to get an update on the past history of the school as well as the present needs of the school. Mr. Lema is an impressive leader who runs a very organized school and has a great personal connection with the students and the faculty. The success the school has achieved under his leadership os very impressive. 10 years ago, they had 300 students and six teachers. Now they have 1,300 students and 36 teachers. Normally in Tanzania the Headmasters are moved around quite a bit, but the community has lobbied hard for him to stay. After our formal meeting, we toured the classrooms where we got to interact with the children. Many of them sang songs to us as well as asking us questions about the US political structure. We reaffirmed our commitment to bring fresh water to the children of his school.

Meeting # 3 – Uraki secondary school. We met with the Headmaster of the secondary school which is just adjacent to the primary school. While the primary school grounds are well kept, the secondary school grounds are immaculate. During our formal meeting, The Headmaster stressed how big of an issue fresh water was for the wellness of his students. While in his office, he showed us their biology and chemistry supplies which were completely outdated and few and far between. We did go on a tour of the school, but did not stop in many of the class rooms as the students were taking national exams. The classrooms are approximately 25×30 feet with dirt floors and house about 90 students per class. The classroom we did go in did not have enough chairs for each student, so they ended up having 2 students share a chair at the same time! During the QA session with the older students, one asked if there was any way that we could also help fund some science laboratory equipment. Honestly, the things they need have been discarded by most labs in the US 10 years ago. Rather than throw this stuff away, if there is a way that we could ship this over to TZ, it would be great.

Meeting 4 – Pangani Basin engineering firm in Arusha. We have been trying hard to find a local partner who could develop a formal engineering design for our project, inclusive of a bill of materials and budget. When we walked into Ben Shaori’s office, we got an immediate feeling that this was the type of company we were looking for. Pangani Basin is a branch of the Arusha government which has a dual function of overseeing major water projects in the region, as well as an independent engineering firm for project layout and design Ben had all kinds of topographical drawings out on his desk that were exactly the type of detail we were looking for. Ben walked us through their four step process for designing a project which consisted of 1) investigating the quality of the water source, 2) investigating the quantity and flow of the water, and 3) drawing a topographical survey of the water line, and 4) developing a project proposal. While we have gathered some of this information from independent sources, we are quickly approaching the point of needing this formal output. To complete the work, Ben will need about two weeks and $3,000.

Meeting 5 – Arusha Attorney (Julie) – Through a contact that Gautam had in Missouri, we were able to get connected to an attorney in Arusha who was kind enough to spend some time with us and share some of her experiences.   We were planning to meet with her later in the week, but found ourselves within a km of her home and decided to stop in and see if we could introduce ourselves.  While Julie is a French-Canadian, she is married to a local Tanzania who runs a tourism and safari company.  Their home compound also serves as the safari offices and provided a great location out in their yard for a relaxing and productive meeting.  Julie’s husband had a TON of great feedback and information to share with us about charitable projects in Tanzania.  His feedback was based on his personal experience with more than a dozen projects in the area, many of which were focused on water and sanitation.  Our hands were sore after taking many pieces of advice from him around effective project management, transparency and accountability.  We were really pleased that our thinking for these areas was so closely aligned with his recommendations.  It was also interesting that our guide company leader, Lema, was a long time friend of Julie and her husband, and they also know Mr. Lee quite well.  After listening to Julie’s husband’s advice, Julie provided a lot of very practical advice around legal contracts and enforceability.  While Julie is a practicing attorney, her advice was very practical in terms of how to gain the buy-in and support of different levels of government and what to do when different factions don’t agree on a common approach.  Overall, this meeting was very beneficial to our understanding and I am sure that Julie and her husband will be valuable resources along the way for us.

Meeting 6 – District Executive Director.  Last time that I was in Tanzania, August 2010, I had met the new incoming District Executive Director.  At that time, he was the interim Director and was going through a two week transition into the formal job.  In our first meeting he was very quiet and respectful of the incumbent who was serving out his term.  This time he was more open and very happy to see us back again.  For those who had read the book, “Three Cups of Tea”, in which the author Mortenson describes the concept of building a relationship and trust over drinking tea – the third occasion being the one where the relationship really is cemented, this felt very much like that type of progression.  This was our “Second cup of tea” and things were starting to fall in line nicely.  We had sensed some conflicts brewing between the different sub-villages within the village.   In Tanzania, there is the Ruling Party, CCM, which has been in power for quite some time.  Within the three sub-villages, two of them are affiliated by the CCM party and one is affiliated with the opposition party.  It was becoming somewhat obvious, that although we had no political affiliations or preferences, the opposition party was not openly supporting our efforts to help.  The purpose of the meeting with the DED this morning was to share our concern over partisan politics getting in the way of making this project a reality.  The DED immediately stepped in and said that he would call a meeting with the entire Village Executive Committee that afternoon at 4:00 pm and he hoped that we could be there in attendance.  The pending message was clear, and we definitely rearranged our schedules to be there.

Meeting # 7 – As a team, we knew the value and the importance of the afternoon meeting.  There are only so many times that we could, or would want to call a favor in from the DED, and we needed to make the most of the afternoon meeting.  We had been making notes since our meeting with Julie and her husband around what our expectations would be of all of the various constituents.  It now became obvious to us that we needed to formally communicate our exepctations to all parties, as well as what we were prepared to do in return for their support. We decided to work feverishly as  team to have this Memorandum Of Understanding completed by the time of the afternoon meeting so that we could communicate it to all.  There is a small, less than sterile, roadside cafe outside of the DED’s office and that became our mobile office for the next four hours.  There was also an internet cafe with a printer next door which was very convenient for printing draft copies.  Armed with my laptop, we went to work on drafting the MOU.  As a team we wrote this in English and then Mr. Lee helped by translating paragraph by paragraph in Swahili.  Four hours later, the MOU was competed and we felt good about our preparation for the afternoon meeting.

Meeting 8 – DED and Village Executive Committee Meeting –  At 4:00 sharp, our car and the car carrying the DED arrived at the Uraki Priamry Schook, a very appropriate setting for the village meeting.  Meetings like this in Tanzania start out very formally with everyone signing into a registration book.  After sign ins, the DED got right to the point.  It was fascinating to see him in action with the Village Executive Committee.  While he is very formal in the way that he addressed the constituents, he also has a very extroverted, dynamic personality which was very visible through his communication.  He also seems to have a good sense of humor and a smile that can make you melt.  He very sternly delivered a message that he was in 100% support of this project and that the village must not look at this project in any sort of partisan manner.  He went on to talk about the ramifications for those who may block, or in any way not openly support the project.  He talked about the lack fo funds in the District to make this happen any time soon for the village and that this “Gift” of partnership must not be under appreciated.  There were about 35 Village leaders in attendance.  For those who had previously openly supported the project, they were very emotionally passionate in their show of support for the project.  For those “fence-sitters”, they quickly got the message that this was not the topic to build a political statement around.  It is interesting that there are national elections in less than a month in Tanzania.  While none of the officials that we are dealing with in the sub-villages are impacted by these elections, there is a noticeable degree of politics.    The meeting ended with everyone verbally expressing their support and shaking hands and coming up to each of us and letting us know how much they genuinely appreciated our offer of help.

Meeting 9 – After a successful meeting  with the DED and Village Executive Committee, we had one meeting left with Eli, the Country Manager for Empower Tanzania, our newly selected partner for the project.  Eli made a huge effort to take a bus up from Hedaru which is about 150 km south of Usa River where we were staying.  Eli was introduced to us by the Empower Tanzania management team in the United States.  After working on a part-time basis with the Empower Tanzania US team, Eli was hired full-time as the Country Leader when Empower Tanzania decided to open a dedicated branch locally in Tanzania.  Empower Tanzania is focusing on a number of projects across the region, including water.  Eli had a lot of great feedback to share with us in general about working in the region.  Where we had specific questions about the water line that they had just successfully completed, he was able to immediately get on his mobile phone to their Project Manager for specific details.  Neither we nor Eli are sure at this point in our Project what the appropriate role, if any for him to play is, but we were grateful for his feedback and input to our project.  The primary benefit for us from this meeting was to share our thought process around construction, transparency of spending and accountability for time lines and budgets.  The “lessons learned” that Eli shared with us were extremely valuable.  Because our meeting ended so late at night after dinner, Eli had to stay over night and return home the next day.

Meeting 10 – On our last day, we crammed two more meetings in to fully maximize our schedule.  The first meeting of the day was a follow up to our meeting with with the DED and Village Executive Committee earlier in the week.  One of the things that we had asked for in the MOU was that the Village Executive Committee would hold a public forum in each sub-district to announce the project, share the expectations that we had of each of the villagers and seek their commitment.  As a summary to other writings on our blog, there is a concept within Villages in Tanzania of a Balozi.  The Balozi is one informally appointed leader for every 10 households in the village.  If a message needs to get communicated to all villagers, the fastest and easiest way to do this is to call the Balozi together.  This afternoon’s meeting was held in an open courtyard in the middle of one of the sub-villages.  There were about 75 people in attendance, including about 80% of the Balozi leaders from the sub-village.  Unfortunately, we were told at the beginning of the meeting that there were two deaths in the community and that some leaders and residents were off taking care of the burial and the funeral.  During this meeting the Village Executive Officer and the Sub Village Chairman explained who were were, what the Summit4water project was and asked for their support of the program – digging the entire ditch line for the pipes and carrying building materials to the job site when necessary.  The support from the community was unanimous.  Since it was Sunday, many of the people had just come from church, and the woman especially were beautifully dressed for the occasion.  People were standing up from their chairs and hooting and hollering with support for the project as the VEO shared the good news.  Once again, after the meeting, every single attendee came up to us and expressed their genuine thanks for the support Summit4water was providing.

Meeting 11 – Usa River Rotary – Our last meeting literally on the way to the airport was with Ingla, the local USA River Rotary Chairperson.  I  had met with the Milwaukee Rotary Club before heading over to Africa with the team.  During the Milwaukee Rotary Club meeting, I shared an overview of our project with a sub-group of the overall Club.  There seemed to be a lot of interest in our project and they asked if there might be a local Rotary Club in Usa River that they could partner with.  They had directed me to their global membership directory which is how I connected up with Ingla.  Ingla is a Swedish National who has been living in Tanzania since 1996 and speaks fluent Swahili.  She shred with us the background of the Usa River Club and what their areas of focus were – Water, health education, and female equality.  The Usa River Club is still pretty small, 15 members, but they are actively looking for projects to get involved with and Ingla seemed to be interested in learning more about our project and taking this back to her club.  If nothing else, the members of Ingla’s Club may be helpful when it comes to sourcing supplies and the hiring of a Project Manager.  The membership of the Usa River Club is roughly 40% local Tanzanians and 60% foreigners.  We will be following up within the week with Ingla with a project overview and more information on Summit4water.

Article source: http://www.summit4water.org/?p=566