Some of the many villagers who attended the meeting who wanted the canal fixed

The day before we arrived in the village, we received word that there was a landslide that blocked the water from flowing through the canal.  With nowhere else to go, the water forced itself under the wall of the canal causing the canal floor to cave creating a giant hole in the canal.  Panicked, I met with the technical chair and tried to come up with a solution to the new problem and completely revise our schedule.  We didn’t get too far before we heard from Canute, our main contact person in Masaera that the village did not want us to fix it; instead, they wanted to fix it themselves.  This was great news because not only did we not have to completely redo our plan, but it meant that the village was taking ownership of their canal.

A few days into the trip I had the opportunity to attend the village meeting to discuss the fixing of the canal.  From what was translated for us, it seemed like all the villagers were willing to pay money and donate their time to make sure the canal was fixed in a reasonable time frame.  At one point, all the villagers raised their hands and cheered.  It turned out that this was the official vote, that if each family did not contribute their 2,000 shillings (about $1.33) they would have to pay a $10,000 shilling fine.  I have never seen a group so willing to support a large fine.  I was surprised how important it was to do whatever they could to make sure the canal continued to bring them water.  It made me happy to see how the village was coming together and taking initiative to repair the canal.  This was the main objective of partnering with the village: to make sure that when we are not on implementation trips the village has the knowledge and skills to maintain the canal themselves.  Seeing this first hand was absolutely amazing.