Hi everyone, its now over half way through December and it doesn’t feel like Christmas is coming. I have seen two Christmas trees though Dodoma has its own Krismasi trees with bright red flowers this time of year. Also until the rainy season started last weekend it had been about 35°C.
The rains finally started last Saturday night after a week of some rain and then a couple of weeks of sweltering heat. There has been torrential rain everyday this week and thunderstorms, though mainly all at night. It’s turning everything green and completely transforming the landscape. I thought I had finally learnt the route to Membe to find the route looking completely different! The rain is also making driving more interesting, with huge pools of water on the road and having to decide how to drive through them. Justin typically starts a day in the field by asking if I’m ready for a challenge and has warned us that after Christmas we will be getting stuck many times. Still Justin is good at directing and apart from a few scary moments we haven’t got stuck in mud yet!
Work has been very busy over the last few months (thus this update is long overdue) and many changes taking place. In October, we welcomed Anna to the team as the new Project Development Officer and this meant that in November, we said goodbye to Victoria who will be missed.
The projects are progressing well and it is good to see some of the hard work paying off. The DEP III pilot has been running in Membe and three Dodea villages. We trained stove builders from each village to build the rocket stoves we observed in Kenya. It was very encouraging to see the enthusiasm of the builders and how everyone got fully involved with building. This was also a good chance to practise my Swahili as I took one group for the practical sessions.
Following training we held meetings in each village to explain about the stove and try and increase demand. The event in Membe was particularly good, with a traditional dance group having composed songs especially about the new stove. Coming to the end of the pilot phase and there are at least 70 stoves in the 4 villages and generally of high quality.
We had a successful launch of the programme in November in Membe with traditional dancing and stove demonstrations. We were also presented with a list of 19 residents of Chamwino village who would like a stove, helping us to choose chamwino as the next village to work in. Our initial meetings in Chamwino have also proved successful, with strong support from the village leaders and 8 leaders adding their name to the list of those who want stoves.
The Landcruiser has to be returned before Christmas after being particularly helpful for our work over the last year. Mr Mbenna has been as supportive as ever and we have just received the good news that he has found us a replacement vehicle. All being well, Anna and I should be driving the Toyota Hilux back from Dar after Christmas.
The New Year holds much in store for STT including having two new employees and several new villages to work in.
That all for this update – happy Christmas and best wishes for the New Year!Leslie
Photo: Christmas Tree in Dodoma
