Plans and Status

After arriving in the village, a few notable items came to light quickly: water access problems, drought, and hunger. The only working water well in the village is not working so we are getting our water for daily use from the river that is running dry. This means bathing and washing clothes and dishes in river water. They have not had the money for the technician to fix it. The Project offered to pay (total cost: $12USD) so the technician will begin repairs tomorrow, and who knows when it will be complete(hopefully in 3 days, African time). The drought in the region means no crop harvesting; people do not have enough to eat and the government does weekly distributions of maize. The next distribution is Monday. Despite this, they are resilient and making the best of it.
The teachers home will take 30 days to physically build. Prior to that, we must make a budget, secure the materials, and obtain District approval. The process begins in earnest Monday and I hope that it will be completed in less than 2 months time. I have begun to explain that if we do a good job at securing the materials for good prices, there may be money left over to purchase school supplies. So it is in their interests to be frugal.
The District has not given the school their annual allotment of funds for nearly 1 year. They are out of chalk and other basic supplies for this reason. So, managing a limited budget will be their challenge.
Socio-politically:
The UN has declared famine in southern Somalia. The problem is making its way south into Kenya and Tanzania. Southern Sudans independence was a big deal a couple of weeks ago with 24/7 tv coverage. The TZ parliament is in session now and there is a major electricity shortage in the country. The President is about the fire the Energy minister and is considering legal charges. I have experienced the outages for upwards of 9 hours at a time almost daily prior to arriving in the village. Businesses are hurting because of this. The country watches parliament on TV like we watch the Superbowl and there is a lot of upset about the energy issue. Of course, there is no infrastructure in the village for electricity so it doesn't affect the village like the commercial towns. Advantage: the stars and solar system are beyond stunning at night.
I am scheduled to meet with District education officials in Babati soon. Next update when we have some movement on the planning and budget of the teacher's home.