A letter from Christi Boyd in Cameroon
March 2013
The Desert Shall Bloom
As the farmers show me the fruits of their labor, the images remind me of a compelling contemporary Dutch Church hymn, one of my favorites, based on Isaiah 35:1-10:
The desert shall bloom then,
a desert rejoicing and laughing.
The rocks which were standing
since the days of creation
full of water, but closed,
the rocks become open.
The water is gushing,
the water shall tingle and sparkle
All those who thirst drink their fullness;
the desert shall drink, and
the desert shall bloom then,
a desert rejoicing and laughing.
Original lyrics and music: Huub Oosterhuis en Antoine Oomen
English lyrics: Tony Barr and James Hansen
© Ekklesia Music Publishing EMP.
For the world: Small Stone Media bv, Holland
The crew from Dan Kalou is working on the casings for their new gardening wells
I was in Niger at the behest of the Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP) to follow up on water projects established over the last several years through the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering. Jeff had been asked to accompany a joint delegation from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Reformed Church in America, including World Mission staff and mission workers as well as The Outreach Foundation director, and it was deemed a good opportunity for me to take part as an agent from the Compassion, Peace and Justice ministry area to make the team multidisciplinary.
My personal companion for this visit was Ibrahim Habou, a longstanding PHP associate through his earlier development work with Church World Service and the Evangelical Church of the Republic of Niger and currently as co-founder and president of the Christian non-profit organization Nagarta, or “Well-being” in the local Hausa language. It took us a full 17-hour drive to get from Niger’s capital city of Niamey to the south-central province of Zinder.
Maito women draw clean drinking water from OGHS-funded well
Located in the heart of the Sahara Desert, low rainfall puts the population here at risk of waterborne diseases and chronic food shortages. This is why Nagarta initiated a water management program to provide clean drinking water for the communities and their livestock, and to offer irrigation possibilities to increase the yield of food staples and boost commercial vegetable gardening. Meeting these various needs requires two types of water points, each different in its engineering and design.
It is early in the morning and as we approach the water point of Maito, I am greeted with lively chatter of village women and the echoes of their clattering buckets bouncing off the concrete wall of the deep well. The women wholeheartedly welcome my inquisitiveness and cheerfully explain while Ibrahim translates: "The water well is very useful for us. We drink the water and use it for the children, for cleaning the house, washing clothes, cooking food and bathing.” Asked how they managed before the water point was built, they answer: “Before, we used to walk five or six kilometers, sometimes even ten, to fetch water in some neighboring village. It would take us one hour to walk to the village of Bobo, for example, and another hour to get back. And while there we had to wait in line for up to three hours, to return home with just one jerrycan of water.” Their voices bursting with laughter, they add that with potable water now within reach, families draw up to 20 or even 30 times a day, serving around 2,600 people in two different communities. Some male bystanders join the conversation and point out that during the dry season people from another seven villages come to this well, making a total of nine rural communities supplied.
A Mazoza vegetable farmer waters his tomato plants
Eager to measure some concrete impact, I guide the women through a question-and-answer process. The daily savings in time and energy is now used for small income-generating activities, says one of women. Three times a week she buys peanuts to process them and extract oil. She then walks to the provincial capital of Zinder and sells the peanut oil in the marketplace. Spending each tour 1000 CFA to purchase the peanuts and 35 CFA for the extraction machine, and selling the oil at 1,250 CFA, her net gain adds up to about $1.25 a week. Beaming with pride, she adds that it allows her to buy clothes and food for herself and her children.
On our way we watch the construction works at Dan Kalou, where a team of villagers is preparing concrete to make well casings. Ibrahim explains that a new water project always starts with the request from the community. Nagarta then assesses the feasibility and sits down with the villagers to discuss the prerequisites. The community organizes the collection of $400 as their own contribution and democratically chooses the members of a management committee, who are trained in bookkeeping, open a water fund savings bank account, and oversee the maintenance of the water spots. Nagarta deploys a team of professional well diggers equipped with all needed materials, including the curb and casing moulds. Village men are organized in work teams of 10 who take turns to assist the well builders, and the best workers among them are selected and trained as technicians and supervisors. The women ensure the ongoing water supply needed to mix cement and provide food for the work teams. Last but not least, the community members receive three training sessions on awareness, hygiene and cleansing of the water spot.
We continue our journey, with Ibrahim at times vigorously twisting and turning the steering wheel—as if driving in slippery mud—so that the car won't get stuck in the soft sand dunes. Whereas the dune soil here is suited for the cultivation of staples like millet, sorghum, beans and peanuts during the rainy season, the fertile clay on and around the riverbeds allows for market gardens to grow lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, pepper, cabbage, cassava and potatoes. The surface water, however, does not suffice to complete a growing cycle of vegetables during the dry season.
And yet, amidst the shrubby savanna, I see the desert blooming, with lush colors in an abundance of vegetables contrasting against the white-yellow dune sands and bright blue skies. Farmers go back and forth between their gardens and the well, drawing one calabash of water at a time to fill up a jerrycan for the next tour of irrigation.
Our last stop is Mazoza, where 17 wells supply water for 500 family gardens. Sitting down with the entire community, we hear how increased incomes help better feed and dress children and pay for medicines and lifetime ceremonies like weddings and baptisms. Some have been able to buy a donkey to transport crops to the market, and this then evolved to the purchase of cow and wagon. As the sun is setting behind the thatched roofs of the mud houses and it is time for us to call it a day, the village chief stands up to express in the name of the entire community a last word of gratitude to the PC(USA) and Nagarta and to all who have helped improve their lives.
As their messenger, I hereby extend those words to all of you who participate in the One Great Hour of Sharing and help the desert bloom: Thank you!
Christi
The 2013 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 100
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