Community Progress along the Kenyan/Tanzanian Border

The following is an reprint of the invitation to a lecture discussion:

University of Delaware
School of Urban Affairs & Public Policy
Seminar Series, Fall 2008

Wednesday, October 29, 2008
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
185 Graham Hall

FRANCIS X. TANNIAN
and
FRATERN J. TARIMO

THE CHALLENGES OF COMMUNITY PROGRESS
ALONG THE KENYAN/TANZANIAN BORDER


Summary:

WATER limits life and progress for thousands of people in any parts of
rural Kenya. Government has failed (neglect, corruption) to invest in
water systems that would function through dry and drought seasons.

Joyce Tannian, with support from many in Delaware, lives since the end
of 2005 in an area south of Nairobi called the Kajiado District. Two
wells with large amounts of water, serving over 4,000 people and 20,000
animals, have been developed.

Our talk will address the many cultural, political, economic and health
challenges to be faced when attempting to improve health, incomes and
education in a specific region of Kenya.

I attended this session because A) I love Fratern (hahaha) and B) I wanted to find about the topic. I admit that I do not know much of anything that is going on by the Kenyan/Tanzanian border and this discussion did shed some light on a few things. Below my notes (however random they are) from the session are posted. Feel free to comment:

Community Development at the Kenya-Tanzania Border
Francis Tannian, PhD & Fratern Tarimo
October 29, 2008

• (map of Africa) Kajiado district – Kenya has 70 political districts.

• Background- Kajiado district inhabited by the Maasai Tribe

• Mount Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania. Maasai people identify with this mount even though they are in Kenya. The Maasai do not need passports for Tanzania. They are pastoral and women are domestic. The fetching of the water is the job of the women (the terrain is hilly and sandy). Education is not given priority in this community. They carry 50-60 lbs of water on their backs for about 3 to 4 hours a day. There is not any water where they live. Some literature declares this tribe the lost tribe of Israel.

• >>> look at Maasai Tribe creation stories (see below)
• In the beginning, when the Creator fashioned the first fathers of the people, he sent three sons to the wild. To the first father of the Maasai, he gave a stick. To the first father of the Kikuyu, he gave a hoe. To the first father of the Kamba, he gave a bow and arrow. Each son survived in the wild. The first father of the Maasai used his stick to herd animals. The first father of the Kikuyu used his hoe to cultivate the ground. The first father of the Kamba used his bow and arrow to hunt. (http://users.erols.com/bcccsbs/africa/maasai.htm)

• The region has a rainy district and the lifestyle is used to travelling long distances to find water. The cow is sacred and there is a personal bond with the cows and the people. Kenya is about the size of Texas.

• Kajiado is twice the size of Delaware.

• Success and evolution at the Imisigyio well, a discussion between Joyce and the chief of the people.

• Joyce Tannian (wife of Dr. Tannian) got the money together to get the various technological surveys to determine the well water about 720feet under the ground. The people are ecstatic about the possibilities in the area.

• Ambesilli (sp?) National Park – a large reservation of physical beauty of the land. Safari traffic are big business. The Maasai do not hunt animals (?).

• Maasai withdrew from the political organization of Kenya. They are marginalized now and were promised certain provisions such as water resources and monetary receipts from tourism but have yet to see the provisions materialize.

• The Challenge: The amount of fresh water per capita is declining (over a 30 year period from 1995 to 2025) throughout the “water-short” countries such as Israel, Tanzania, Kenya, Poland and the UK.

• This community has never had a “mechanical infrastructure” (defined by whom?....maybe never had THIS TYPE of mechanical infrastructure) So there are short run challenges concerning operation, maintenance, fuels, money and accounting/ability. How to get from existence to sustainability?

• Extended Challenges: Who is responsible? Who is responsibility to sustain? There are language barriers. The Maasai speak Maasai, in Kenya the national language is Swahili and the these “types” speak English.

• Getting the water is woman’s job but at the community meetings with Joyce are all men.

• Extensive costs/benefits/frictions must be considered. Water decisions have multi-disciplinary aspects.

• QUESTIONS

o Do current community development strategies from mainstream international organizations work effectively?
• Budget (informal economies)
• Timeframe
• Evaluation process
• Oversight/Accountability
o How can community development projects in more traditional communities be improved?
o Is participatory action research been done on the communities at hand?

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, CONTACT:

WATER IS LIFE KENYA
910 Baylor Drive Newark, DE 19711
302-731-5850
www.kenyawaterislife.com

What's your decision?

I don't understand why people try to fake like there aren't times when your life comes to crossroads. Places where decisions have to be made. One has to decide to be or not to be, to do or not to do, to or not to..... These decisions are often made without thinking. There are the decisions that are made with thoughtful consideration, like the decision to jump into a relationship or end one for that matter. The decision to move away, start a new job, go to school, start a career.... those are the decisions that one thinks long and hard about.... but do people take the time to think about the bigger more significant crossroad or do they make haphazard and fleeting decisions when the time comes??
I think about spending an evening with Soledad O'brien as she was the opening lecturer for Latino Heritage Month at UD. She is great speaker, captivating, entertaining and quite enjoyable. However, as always there are the things that I tend to focus on.... one's relationship to community, there overt realization of self, self-awareness, responsibility to community and humanity.... just those types of things. Soledad commented on the fact to a young girl with an accent that was considering a career in broadcast journalism that losing the accent would not be problem and the classes would be cheap. My first and most apparent issue would be the dismissle of personal culture the culture of your family and language of your history.... the fact that that must take second place to your career is beyond my realm of understanding.... but it is even deeper than that. Soledad was raised in Long Island... she had a Long Island accent... that which is truly an American invention, but even that... that little bit of "otherness" was in her way of pursuing her career. She took the classes...found a husband that fit the picture....and is living her life.... Did she think about that decision? Did she think about telling that (speaking not only with her words but by her clear actions) to that young girl? Those are the big...life changing/altering decisions...

THE CHOICES people MAKE.