A Day in the Life of... Tuesday 14 Feb

Today we're heading off to Haboombe village in the Moomba ward. It's a very remote village and will take us some 3 hours to get there, so it's a very early start  - out the door at 4:30.... The main road out of Monze soon disappeared to what is pretty much a dirt track and then the dirt track disappeared.... But the 4x4s kept on rolling - up cliff sides (well hills really but they felt like cliffs at the time) and we even crossed a river (getting up the river bank at the other side was nothing short of a miracle) - people pay good money back for home for this kind of "off road" experience. But at least it wasn't snowing!

Never have I experienced such a warm welcome from a community as we had that morning from the people of Haboombe Village - the vice-head of the community welcomed us and "thanked God for our arrival and what we may bring". It was a very humbling moment for me, as what were we really bringing? Part of our welcome reception involved an amazing band - who played on home made instruments and had some of the most "in tune" voices I have ever heard (or maybe I was just captivated by the moment!). 

Meeting the "family" we were spending the day with was a little scary - it was like being back in the playground, wondering who was going to pick you for their team. But we were picked, Peter (from Veolia Water) and I, and were introduced to the family we were going to to spend the day with - Ellios Haboombe (yes, the same name as the village) and his wives, Kanema (his first wife) and Nellie Munesaka his second. There was a little confusion about how many people lived in his household but it seemed to be in the region of 12. Ellios told us he was born is 1926. Over the next few hours we collected fire wood with them, attempted to grind maize into flour (not easy using a giant pestle and mortar) and prepared pumpkin leaves for lunch. And then the all imported collecting of water in 25 litre plastic containers.

However luck was on our side and we didn't have the 3 hour walk (1 way) that they did for over the half the year, as we were in the rainy season! All we had to do was walk about half a mile to the local river - down hill  - phew. But then I realised that you had to carry the water back up the hill........Nellie was the main water gatherer for the household and would collect some 85 litres for them every day - so we had to help. But boy was it hard work - Nellie made it look so easy, collecting water from a little scoop hole by the river, pouring it into her container which, when it was full, she lifted on to her head - boldly walked across the river, climbed the river bank and then back to her home. All without spilling a drop - oh and she dropped her scarf but bet down and picked it up again, without spilling a drop! Needless to say I was not quite so smooth......

Talking to the family during the afternoon we learnt that their greatest wish was that "someone" would come along and create a bore hole and install hand pump for them which would give them access to safe, clean drinking water - something you can't argue with. Unfortunately no one had yet! Hopefully next year through the work of WaterAid and DAP (Development Aid for People to People) the village will get its wish. Unfortunately no definite decision has yet been made and so the village waits. The day with the Haboombe family came to an end all too quickly and it was time for us to leave. Nellie's parting words to me were "If money fell from heaven I'd use it for a hand pump - oh and a grinding machine for the maize flour". I left them thinking surely it can't take over a year to make this happen - there must be a quicker way....