Welcome to Mgongo - Karibu Sana

10th July


Camp Neighbours

When Charlie 2 arrived in the rural village of Mgongo our title of 'Team Majanga' was fully earned - we had the wrong tent poles, a missing tent, an hour walk to water, broken water filters, no shower and a collapsing long drop! For those of you who aren't aware of what a long drop is, we had to dig a hole in the ground for our toilet for ten weeks... It was certainly an interesting experience and a few team members admitted to dropping some items down to the depths! We were all very hot and tired after our day of finding an appropriate site and setting up camp, but battled through the majangas and kept smiling :) When the sun set over the barren landscape we thought the amazing view made it all worth the effort. The night sky was incredible too - I've never seen so many stars in my life!



The Sunset

Our Shower

Putting Up Our Tent

Now our camp feels like home, even though we are all squashed up into one tent! The water situation became a huge problem, so luckily now we have Emanuel who delivers it on a bike twice a day from a pump in a nearby village. We have also built a tarpaulin shower, looking out into the middle of Africa, pretty amazing! Unfortunately there's not much positive to say about the long drop....

Since our team of thirteen have been in Mgongo we have been really involved with the community in order to launch our water and sanitation project. First of all we conducted baseline surveys about water access, health issues and sanitation with our local project partner SEMA. This involved interviewing houesholds within the local community and looking at their latrines (if they even have one). It has been quite shocking, as most toilets are a dirty tiny pit or a slit between two planks of wood, with only a metre high wall to protect it. No door, no roof and no hand washing facilities. We also asked about access to water, finding that most households spend over four hours each day collecting water from the boreholes in the dry river bed, usally with the assistance of a cattle-drawn cart. It has definitely made us appreciate a lot here and realise how much Raleigh and ICS have the potential to help.


Mgongo Primary School Toilets

I am really excited about seeing some visible progress in Mgongo now. After we have compiled our survey results we are going to discuss which area in the community needs the most help, which will probably be latrines in the local primary school. Currently they have 8 drop holes for 600 students, which are poorly built and already falling down. They don't have enough water to drink so washing hands is not a priority for them currently. The school children seem to be amazed by seeing 'mzungu' (white people) for the first time! They often come to the camp and just watch what we are doing or play football with the guys. Our team have are currently planning activities such as sports days with the schools to meet all the children properly before we do health and hygiene workshops with them. We also have plans to set up a women's group which will be the first one of its kind in this area.

It is only early days but I feel like we are already making progress and cannot wait to get fully stuck in with the community. So for now,  kwa heri!

Emma ..x