One of the things I’ve been meaning to do since I got here is to visit MCC Moz’s other sand dam project in the district of Guro, on the other side of a river from Changara district where I work. Well, this month it finally worked out, although I was delayed a week by the flu. Last week I finally got to see our sister project. Here’s how it went:

Monday – Caught the bus to Guro (4 hours, due to conflicts between the passengers and the bus guy who insisted that 19 people could ride in the aisle of the bus). Tony picked me up and we drove the nice dirt road to the subdistrict seat of Mandie, located on the Luenha river (2.5 hours, ran over a HUGE black snake along the way). Stopped at the CCM warehouse to pick up a few things and continued to drive on a jolting forest track to the village campsite in Mphata (2 hours). From there Tony showed me 3 of the dams.

Tuesday – Drove back to Mandie to try to meet with the local administrator, who turned out to not be there (2 hours, flat tire along the way). Drove to Guro to get the tire fixed, but it turned out to be a more serious problem requiring a new tire (2.5 hours). Drove to Chimoio to get more money and buy a new tire (5 hours, another flat tire that was able to be fixed).

Wednesday – Got more money out of the bank and bought new tires. Drove back to Mandie, picking up the administrator in Guro, but arrived too late to continue back to the campsite where all of our stuff was located (8 hours). Slept part of the night on the cement porch of the warehouse and part in the backseat of the truck after it started to rain.

Thursday – Spent the day driving around the forest with the administrator to meet with new villages and see potential sites. Visited 4 villages and walked to numerous streams to see potential sites. The administrator accumulated pumpkins, corn, a chicken, cucumbers and other gifts as communities gave him incentive to place dams there. As darkness fell, we almost got lost when we tried to pursue a forest track that didn’t exist and the truck almost got stuck. Thankfully we made it back and were able to change our clothes for the first time in 3 days.

Friday – Another day visiting villages. In one community we were shown an old well built by the Portuguese that was providing a constant stream of water from horizontal pipes underneath a couple hills. In another community we saw a small primate in a treetop and the villagers threw rocks at it until they killed it, apparently because it steals their crops. It was a pretty little thing that looked like a fox with hands instead of paws. In another community we saw a huge natural sand dam created by rock formations. By the end of the day the administrator had accumulated 2 watermelons, 2 pumpkins, 8 cucumbers, 1 chicken, a huge pile of peanuts, corn on the cob, and the dead primate.

In spite of all the unforeseen adventures and all the driving (I do not much enjoy riding around on most of the roads here), as well as feeling sort of sick the whole time, I kind of liked Mandie. We spent a lot of time hiking around the woods to get to streams and it reminded me a bit of the forests of West Virginia that are dear to my heart. There’s something so peaceful about being under the trees. It was fun to see Tony interacting with the community leaders and trying to explain what would make a good site. At this point in the project, people are interested and excited, no matter what problems or lack of interest they may show once the work starts.

The dams I got to see were quite impressive. In spite of working with much smaller work crews than what I am used to, they have built some pretty big structures. At the oldest dam I saw, which has been working for over a year, you could literally see a line of green where the water under the ground is allowing weeds to grow where nothing grew before. That is cool! I hope and pray that more dams will continue to have that sort of effect as our two projects continue.

Sadly my most reliable camera batteries died after 3 photos, so I didn’t get any record of my Mandie adventure. If it had been working, I think I would have taken hundreds of photos. It is autumnish here and so beautiful even though the leaves don’t really change colors. I will have to remain with the pictures and memories in my mind . . .