We recently visited a new community in Southern Kenya. Our morning started at dawn and after two grueling hours of bouncing along dusty dirt roads, we arrived with 150 Uzima water filters and 300 buckets ready to teach and train on hygiene, sanitation and the use of the water filters.
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Our team was warmly greeted with singing, dancing, and the traditional Maasai embrace. This rural community is full of bright, colorful amazing women!
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Our dedicated team helped us unpack the supplies and set up the training under a large acacia tree, it was the perfect spot to spend the day.
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We took our time explaining the sanitation and hygiene portion making sure to ask questions along the way to ensure the communication and understanding was good. The area chief was our translator and he did a wonderful job!
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Meanwhile, the rest of the team prepped buckets and prepared for the data collection so our follow up team can continue the work in the coming weeks.
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Filtering that water through the filter will bring about a big change and we look forward to hearing reports on the lives it has impacted. Stopping the spread of water-borne diseases is important for this community to take the needed steps from where they are to where they want to be.
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This is the water pan the community uses (along with the animals) to draw their daily water. We passed wildebeest, zebra, Thompson gazelles, and more as we drove into this community and we know there are many others due to the larger footprints around the shallow pond. This water source is used for drinking, cooking, cleaning, washing, and bathing, and then, of course, it collects all manner of diseases from the animals and other contaminators resulting in typhoid, cholera, amoeba, and dysentery.
Later that afternoon, we packed the van tight with half our team and 4 Maasai Manas and a baby. We left the very rural community at dusk. We headed off to find our way back home along the bumpy dirt roads. We were told to head “straight” and after driving for 15 minutes and coming to a dry river bed with an extremely steep embankment we turned around and went back.
We were then told to head “straight” in another direction and with darkness quickly approaching we made the best out of the situation weaving our way back and forth like we had been driving these narrow roads all our lives.
At a seemingly random spot, we dropped off our Maasai mama’s who had attended the training and watched as they disappeared into the pitch black darkness. Hoping we were still going to make it out before dawn, we continued through the night, passing a lot of wildlife being careful now to run into any. A miracle of miracles we eventually found our way back to the main dirt road and onto the tarmac. Within a few minutes of arriving home, we narrowly missed hitting some zebras crossing the road, for real!
What a way to end an extremely full day! We love what we do!
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