Ilmarba Primary School – Rainwater Harvesting Project, Completed February, 2010

WILK paid for supplies and a contractor to set up water storage tanks, gutters and downspouts to collect the rainwater on 2 large classroom buildings at Ilmarba Primary School. Water is now being collected from the rains and is being used by over 300 students and teachers at the school. Rainwater is free and, until WILK’s project, unused! The school has over 100 boarders and 8 teachers living on site, who need a lot of water because they eat all their meals, wash themselves and their clothes at the school. This is a big water burden on the school. There is a community borehole but it is not so close to the school. The area is full of wild animals like lions, elephant, zebras, gazelles so it’s not always safe. Now, with water in tanks on the school grounds, it is easier, faster and safer. It also reduces the burden on the borehole and the amount of money spent on diesel.

I wanted to share the announcement of the People to People Delaware Award Dinner with you all. So many thanks go to all of you who are part of the Water is Life – Kenya team. You all should be recognized for your love, enthusiasm, hard work, giving of time and skills. Nothing can go ahead without you. Together we are helping so many people here in Kenya.

I know I’ve already shared this with some of you, but it’s worth sharing again. I can’t tell you how much my heart filled the other day at the community meeting when the people of Imisigio told me about their borehole. Last October, in what were, thank God, the last months of a hideous and devastating drought, Imisigio people used the borehole water to do bucket irrigation to start their tomato plants. At the end of November the rains came to add to their efforts, and now, those who had used the borehole water succeeded in reaping a great harvest. If you look at the faces of those people now, you see joy and success and hope. What a huge contrast to the desperation and hopelessness of September!

This is what our work has accomplished.

With gratitude to you all!
Joyce

I just wanted to share some REALLY GOOD NEWS with everyone.

At our meeting in Imisigio (first borehole site) on Wednesday, April 14, we asked how things were going at the borehole. Several people reported that last October, at the tail end of the hideous drought with no rain in sight, people carried water from the borehole to their fields and used it to plant tomatoes. They have gotten great harvests and are recovering from their losses of the last years of drought! They are really happy AND are very enthusiastic for using the water at the borehole site to do irrigation.

If we had tried to start the irrigation project before they had had their own success, it would have been much tougher to begin! They also talked about buying a mill to grind their maize into flour – the staple here is ugali – heavy cornmeal polenta – and the maize is high in the fields right now. Really gorgeous and tall and green in every direction you look.

They are really excited to have a visit from the local agricultural officer who will help with the project so they can learn about irrigation techniques. The community plans to start clearing the land next week. I have already met with the Ag officers in Loitokitok and we are scheduling their visit.

Everything we have been working toward, all the work that we all do – this success in Imisigio is the result – real life changes, real improvements, real development.

Thanks to all of you!!!

Joyce

Hi Everyone,

Here is an article about WILK in an interview of me written by Mary Welch, writer for Womenetics, an online women’s magazine.  She sent me a list of questions which I answered for her in this article.  The interview was arranged by Monica Tannian.  She met Mary Welch in Atlanta and, in Monica’s inimitable way, she made sure it happened.

We put the link to the article on our website (here and on our News page).

Love,

Joyce

You were there…all of you who have cared to support Water Is Life – Kenya. You were with us this past August at the Imisigyio Well site for the dedication and celebration for the fresh water this well brings to thousands of people everyday.

We drove for hours through the semi arid, dusty, parched earth savannas across Amboseli National Park. We passed elephant, hyena, giraffe, zebra, up terrain that seemed impossible to travel on even for our 12 seat Toyota Land Cruiser. Except for us there were no people in site.

Up we drove across crevassed trails carved deep into the earth by empty riverbanks where rains haven’t fallen in what seemed an eternity. We asked how could people live in such a difficult environment?

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Go to Kenya! To get a true sense of what Water is Life-Kenya and Joyce are doing you need to have been there. Mark Manniso and I did just that this past August.

Getting through Customs in Nairobi, we were greeted by Joyce and three Kenyan friends. Next, we drove south for 50 minutes to Kitengela where she lives. The first night Mark and I stayed in a little motel. Out front was a locked metal gate. A guard sat over the motel water tank all night. After breakfast we shopped in Kitengela for provisions to cover our four-day stay down at the Amboseli Camp. Crowds of people of all ages, dust, cows, goats, traffic of bikes, cars, big trucks and clutter filled the streets.

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EWB is a national organization which focuses on using the engineering expertise of its members to help design and implement projects for communities in developing countries. The 5 person team, consisting of Prof. Bridget Wadzuk, Grad. Assistant Gerrad Jones, Rachel Jones, J.P.Gunn and Rory Kotter arrived at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Saturday morning, Feb. 28th. We immediately ferried them off to Nairobi’s industrial area to look at pipes and that’s how it all began, finishing with their return to the airport one week later, tan, exposed to a new continent and new way of life, chapped lips from the dry, dry air, wind and dust, and bejeweled in their gifts of Maasai beadwork, hopefully ever more convinced of the urgency of bringing water to people.

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At 2:17, JUNE 11th, 2008, the Meshenani Borehole was born.

Dear friends, you have to know what went into this to appreciate what came out. So do the urgent things, clear your desk, then take a few minutes to read our story.

We started out drilling at Meshenani on Thursday, June 5 th , with high expectations. The community all came out to the site to watch, pray, provide tea and meat, be on hand for everything. On the second day we expected we’d reach water bearing layers and invited the school children to come and watch. We bought sodas and sweets for the celebration. The school kids prepared songs to sing and signs to hold “Water is life – for people and animals”, “God Bless Joyce and Water is Life”. They waited patiently under the big acacia tree, occasionally getting up and roaring around, eventually getting used to the NOISE made by the drilling machine.

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My Dear People:

I really wanted to be there with you at the First Thirst Fund Raiser, especially to give you a warm welcome, but you were in the care of my magnanimous and effervescent partners, so I know you were well-loved and coddled, fed and attended to. Until the last second I was tempted to get a plane ticket and fly over there, but my mind kept telling me, that money you’ll spend on a plane ticket is enough to build a generator house for a deep well, so no matter how much you want to say hi in person and drink a fresh iron Hill Brewery Anvil Ale!

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Let me introduce myself. My name is Joyce Tannian and I’m a native of Newark, Delaware. I have been living in Kenya for a year and a half. How did I get here and what on earth am I doing, you may well ask. Before I came to Kenya,

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