Water/Maji

The kids getting ready for the water to flow

In the USA we really don’t think that much about water.  I realize if you are dealing with a flood you think about non-stop.  But for most of us it really is not something we think about until we get the bill every month.   You go to the faucet and turn it on.  The biggest problem most people have now is figuring out where the sweet spot on the hands-free sensor is to get and keep the water running.

 

The new controls wired in

What you don’t have to worry about is how far you must walk to get water, or how far you must drive your cattle to get water.  You don’t think about getting your donkeys ready to carry a bunch of water jugs for you.  When you want to do laundry, you most likely go to a machine in your house and it is already connected to the water for you.  You don’t have to carry your laundry to the water and wash it in front of everybody else in the village.  I have said “you” a lot in all this, but I mean me too.  Even here, I have the luxury of an elevated water tank connected to an electric well pump that we run off a generator so that water is gravity feed into my house.  I don’t have a washing machine, but I can still wash my clothes in the bathroom of my house.   My only hardship comes when the guard forgets how many times, we have told him to fill the tanks every time they get half empty and I wake up on Saturday morning with no water in my spigots, so I have to walk across the compound to get a bucket of water from the other tank.

 

The spigots for the solar pump well are "downhill" from the tank

Now the project I am about to tell you about is not mine.  It is a project of Over the Wall International Missions?  I think I got that name right. They have been putting a solar well pump on the water well at Kiruani TAG church.  Most of you will remember I am not normally a fan of the solar well pump system because they break and then the community is left with a very expensive unusable well.  I say that because most groups come in and dump the money to do the solar well and then leave never to be heard from again.  This group out of NC has stuck with the project despite some initial problems getting it to work properly. 

The other week they finally got all the control wiring and extra panels set up so they could start to operate their solar well pump and open it up to the community again.  Pastor Stephano asked if I would come down to take pictures.  I was excited to be asked, first I constantly doubt my photography skills and especially my ability to edit photos to make them better.  So just to get asked was a happy moment for me, but to also have open permission to take pictures of the Maasai women and kids in their tribal clothes doing something as intimate as getting water was a big deal for me.  I am very cautious about taking pictures of people here.  I realize that when we come take pictures of them doing things like getting water at the well, or herding animals, or cooking, that it is like having a foreigner come into our houses and start to take pictures of us as we cook for the family or do laundry.  Just because they are outside does not make it any less personal to them.  The bonus of this event was I found out that my efforts to earn their trust by printing copies of photos and asking the Pastor to give them out to the people in the pictures has been working.  They were for the most part comfortable with me amongst them as they opened the system and let the community come get water from the spigots.

The kids were of course eager to pose so it took a little time for them to just get back into a routine and act natural.  The system runs off 10 each 200-watt solar panels.  They had to add a control system and inverter to the wiring because the DC water pumps apparently did not work well, and they installed an AC water pump.  Once it all was connected, they tested out filling the tank which means run it till the water starts squirting out the overflow pipe.

Everybody was all smalls as the younger mamas lined everyone up to get water.  The kids were there in mass to get a bucket or two for their families.  Some stopped by with any container they had available to get some water.  One older mama brought the donkeys and loaded them up. 

The kids joked, played, teased each other as kids will do, but when it was their turn they went to work.  The younger kids even used the discharge pipe from the area to wash their feet.

I did not go back to take a picture of the ladies washing clothes, because that always seems to personal to me.  Instead I wanted to focus on the joy and happiness as they now have a water source close that provides them with clean water again.  For everyone there it was a great day.  Especially for an amateur photography who really wants more chances like this one.

 

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