Iringa Hope visits 2013: Kihesa Training Day Two

This morning we went over to the Kihesa training session. The classes started 8:00, but we arrived at 10:00 in order to greet people over chai. We met a number who we hadn't seen yesterday. Today there were over 70 people in the classes. Attendance is always higher on day two so Itiweni schedules things accordingly.

Peter and Margaret had been there bright and early to help organize the sessions for the day. Today the group was split into two parts – those who have been to training before and those who are new this year. The new section was the largest with about 50 or so attendees. The other section had about 25 or so. Overall a great turn out.

The returning session had given our instructor a list of questions they wanted answered. It was a long list with lots of good questions. When we arrived at the class there was a discussion going between the chairman of Iringa Hope Joint SACCOS, the Ilulu Coop officer, and an Ihemi officer. We didn't understand the discussion, but it was good to see how involved everyone was in the class.

The group upstairs was also busy working. They were getting the basics of the organization and record keeping. Here too, there were many questions and lots of discussion.

After chai Tom went to “say a few words to the groups.” Sandy thought that these turned into “many, many, many words.” Well, maybe so. This was our chance to make sure that everyone was “on the same page” for the year. Tom covered some things that we had seen done that were not right. He congratulated them on their excellent work the prior year and highlighted the Nyanzwa officers for collecting 80% of the money owed. Then he told them a few things to work on (”You need to grow your membership.” “We need to service loans below 800,000 Tsh ($500) first so we can help the most members.” “You need to encourage your members to save by making it easy to do.” and so on.) Finally he told them a few of the results from our visits and invited them to come to the MFI office to see the entire report and our budget for this year.

Following this we went out to wait for lunch and see if there was anything we needed to do. It was an overcast day so as we sat we started to doze off. Tom was the first to fall asleep and Sandy soon followed. As it approached two o’clock it started to rain. Soon it was really pouring. Lunch was served and everyone mingled. Some of the people came over and told us how much they enjoyed coming here and how much they were learning. We were very happy to hear this.

After lunch we took off to do a few errands and get ready for our radio show. Tonight is the last of our broadcasts for this year and we have been told by many people they will be listening. Tom hopes to spend the night talking about the Iringa Hope organization and what we found during our visits.

Our SACCOS team has enjoyed watching our attempts to learn Kiswahili. They are especially amused by Tom's efforts. Today he confused one of the classes by greeting them with a hearty "kwa heri", (Kiswahili for "good-bye"). He had intended to use the traditional Hehe greeting "kamwene". When this was sorted out the class had a good laugh.

We greeted people during chai.

There were two sessions this morning. The session for new leaders had about 50 members.

The session for returning leaders had about 25 members. When we got there the Iringa Hope chairman, the Ilulu Coop Officer, and an Ihemi officer were talking.