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Mwizenge s. Tembo

Professor of Sociology

On Saturday afternoon May 24 2014, I had just finished mowing the grass around my yard. It was a warm spring day. I sat by the small table under the pine tree in my back yard to rest before I could remove my coveralls or overalls. Thedogs were suddenly barking in the house which was usually the sign that someone was at the front door. There was no one in the house at the time. Sometimes the dogs barked if they saw the cat through the front door. After a while a man was on the back yard fence gate. He was an older man I had never seen before.

He sat down after I greeted him and I apologized for not running to  the front door.

He told me he had this idea of wanting to provide clean drinking water to people in rural Africa. He said he had his own money. Would I be willing to help him?

I was surprised. I told him that he might be taking a huge risk because there is so much corruption in Africa. What if I got his money, drunk it, bought a brand new car, and flew to Las Vegas to go and gamble?

The elderly man laughed. He shook his head and said he had heard about me. He thought I was a good trusted man. I told him I was flattered.

He explained  that he and his wife would provide the money for drilling the water boreholes, the cost of the hand driven water pumps, and the labor for the installation of the water pump. The village residents would contribute labor in carrying sand, crushing stones, and providing the water for the construction of the borehole water pump cement deck.

I finally told him he might be in luck and the people who will receive this gift of clean water will also be lucky. My brother and I had just gone through 6 years building the Village Library at NKhanga. The library was opened on December 8, 2012 and has now been operational serving hundreds of people in the community and many schools. We had gone through six difficult years from 2006 to 2012 of organizing people in the villages to execute the project. We had learnt some lessons about how to carry out the project. It had been very challenging but gratifying work.

I told the man I would propose the idea to my brother in the village and I would get back with him.

The man is Mr. Harry Showalter who is 90 years and is a member of the Mennonites. His house is on a farm  about 5 minutes’ drive from my house across the North River in Ottobine.

The great news is that after 5 months of hard work including consultations, dozens of phone calls, text messages, and my brother conducting extensive research, organizing, and travelling 400 miles to Zambia’s capital city twice to buys pumps, the great news: the first 3 villages now have clean drinking water using the hand driven borehole pumps that have just been installed this week October 21 2014. Mission accomplished. The villages that now have clean water are Zibalwe, Chitamba and Kamzati. The next three villages have already asked to have the pumps installed as the news has spread like wild fire.