Iringa Hope visits 2013: Today At Nyanzwa

Today we went down to Nyanzwa. Nyanzwa is one of the longer drives for us. To get there you go down the hill from Iringa and head back down the pavement towards Dar Es Salaam. It is a pretty drive for the first 60 minutes or so, and then you get to the escarpment. Driving down the escarpment is always an adventure. There are lots of trucks that have trouble making the grade. Broken down vehicles litter the road. Baboons scamper around here and there. The road curves and winds as it drops a few thousand feet from the plateau to the valley below.

Once you get down you continue on the paved road for several kilometers, then turn down a small dirt road and drive along parallel to the escarpment. Another 60 minutes or so and you arrive at Nyanzwa.

Driving along the Nyanzwa road you pass several small dusty villages along the way. The baobab trees are lovely and the mountains form a beautiful back drop, but it is hot, hot, hot. When we arrived at the church the pastor’s wife, her helper, and three children ran out to greet us. Today Tom did not drive. Our car is just not safe enough to use it to go down the escarpment so the university loaned us a car and driver. It is a good thing that we have their car; it would be very crowded inside ours. Traveling together today were Brown, our two interns, Itiweni, an announcer form Radio Furaha, our driver, and the two of us.

Our group went to the pastor’s house and Brown went to look for the SACCOS officers and board members. This SACCOS was started by the Diocese in 2007-8. They had done some training and then left. The SACCOS worked fine at first, then things went wrong. They started making loans for all sort sorts of things – motorcycles, parties, weddings, etc. They also stopped monitoring and making collection efforts. As a result this SACCOS had run out of money and was suspended when Itiweni first visited them in 2010. We went to see them with Itiweni last year and looked over the situation. At that time we decided to get involved and fix this SACCOS. We got the government coop officer and the village officials involved. We then had a special election to replace all of the officers and board members and gave them a special charge to collect all of the missing funds. Finally we made sure the police were involved to help with the collections. Now, one year later, we were here to review where everything stood.

Itiweni has spent a great deal of time training and helping them with their task. There have also been visits by other Iringa Hope personnel. In addition, we have pushed the various government officials to work with the SACCOS officers.

When we finally had everyone assembled we began by praising them for collecting 80% of all the missing funds. Yes, 80% of the funds had been collected and, after harvest, they stood ready to increase this to 90% - what a great job! Now there is more work to do. We spent the next few hours going over tasks that remain before we can get this SACCOS running again. There were lots of questions and a great deal of discussion, still, when we were done, we all felt that we had a firm grip on things and would have the SACCOS working again very soon.

We broke up this meeting to go and talk to the members. This SACCOS used to have over 200 members. As a part of the plan to collect and restart the SACCOS everyone that we had to collect from was ejected from the SACCOS and will not be allowed to return. This took the membership from over 200 down to about 40. Now that the work had spread that we were fixing this SACCOS and it would start running again soon, there was a flood of people wanting to join. As a result the membership had shot back up to 84 with many more wanting to join (we had the SACCOS halt all new members until next year so that we could insure that all the members are properly trained and prepared to work).

At the members meeting there were 58 in attendance. We told the members what had been collected, what the rules of the SACCOS were, what steps were still needed to be completed, and when the SACCOS might begin working again. Then we left the meeting so that they might work on the items we had told them about.

Back in the pastors house we had lunch and waited to see if there were any more questions people had. Soon the SACCOS officers came in and told us that the meeting had approved the needed items, the members were off working on the tasks we had told them about, and they would be in Iringa on Monday to finish up the work – could we be there to help them? Itiweni looked at us – we were planning on visiting another location on Monday – and we said “sure.” I guess we will have to have another day when we double up to make up for Monday – but we will be changing our plans so that we can help.

We finally said good bye and headed back to Iringa. Another 2.5 hour drive, up the escarpment, around the wrecks, and down the road. The car had started out at the University at 7:20 this morning. It would be getting back around 5:30 or so tonight. A long day on the road.

It is a pretty drive down the road towards the escarpment.

Along the way you pass through Ilula.

The view from the escarpment into the valley below is lovely as well.

You turn off of the pavement and drive along the edge of the escarpment for an hour or so.

Nyanzwa is a hot, dusty place.

We were met at the church by the pastor's wife, some children, and her helper.

Tom had Brown find the officers and board members of the SACCOS.

After our meeting in the pastor's house we went over to meet with the SACCOS members.

We met out under the baobab trees. (Half of this SACCOS membership are Muslims.)

After talking with the members we left the meeting so they could start working on the tasks we had given them.

Walking back to the pastor's home we passed two mamas on their way to work.

Two of the board members have new babies.

The SACCOS officers came in to tell us they wanted to come to Iringa on Monday and finish the tasks we had given them. Could we help? (The man in the striped shirt is the chief village official.)