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Field Rep Voices – Team Molly, Annalise, Aliyah, Kathryn and Simply

Opening Day is arguably the most exciting day for the village during the process of starting the water business. It is the first day that the community can purchase clean water. While driving through large puddles on the way to our village, we all were thinking that, because of the rain, the community of Dawunyili may have decided to collect rain water with their buckets instead of coming to the water center. As we pulled up to the village, we found we were alone with a bunch of goats.

Just as we started to get a little nervous that no one would come, we saw a blue bucket in the distance, balanced on the head of one of the women. One by one more women and children came with the safe water storage containers and before we knew it, Opening Day had started! The women entrepreneurs had everything in control. Gurimpaga and Abiba were washing each safe storage container while Amama filled the 20 Liters full of clean water and kept track of how many people bought water. While the women were effectively running the business, Team Simply fixed leaky taps and sat back to watch as each bucket was filled.DSC08355

By the end of the morning, we lost count of how many buckets were filled since we were caught up in the moment. Thankfully, Amama kept a tally of the people and we were thrilled to count the totals and realize that every single household from the village and the Fulaani came to get clean drinking water! Team Simply was “killing the game” (a common phrase used by the best team leader, Simply).

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We have heard stories of gifts given to Saha Global on Opening Day, but when we saw that all of the community had filled the water containers, we realized how the community felt about getting access to clean water. Opening Day in Dawunyili village encompassed our daily interactions with the people in this community. It was perfect. Everything went well and the experience was fun, laid back, and overall joyful. Throughout the morning, we recognized that the village was excited to incorporate the water center into their lives.

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Team Simply is excited to return to the village to monitor after a day off. In addition, we are excited to work with the younger kids and educate them about the importance of keeping the water clean in their homes.  It will be hard to leave this amazing community, but we know we have made amazing new friends that we will never forget.

 

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Field Rep Voices: Olivia, Ayodele, Eric & Lorry

After the solar project was implemented, Team Eric began monitoring the business and individual households to see the community’s response to our project and make sure that everything’s running smoothly.

Photographed by: Ayodele Mason
Photographed by: Ayodele Mason

Since the project is mainly finished, we were finally able to get some of that beauty sleep back and wake up a bit later, at 7 o’clock, in the morning. After a long drive to the village, we first checked out our village’s dugout and the polytank there to make sure that the previously implemented water project is working successfully to provide clean water to the village. Komlan Yili’s dugout is actually a stream that is a long walk from the village. The water levels rise later in the rainy season, so the villagers have built a bridge that people can use to cross over the stream during these times of the year to reach villages further down the road. The wood for the bridge is replaced every year to ensure that it is safe to walk on. Still, it’s pretty scary and super uneven. It’s one of the many quirky and amazing things about Komlan Yili.

Photographed by: Ayodele Mason
Photographed by: Ayodele Mason

 

After checking on the polytank and finding no problems, we met with Safiatu and Nina, the water and solar entrepreneurs to discuss how the solar business is going since opening night and to hear about any water business updates. Everything is going well and it is clear that the business is in great hands.

Next, we visited nine households to ask about their lanterns and safe storage water containers. We learned that one woman had already gone back to the charging station even though her batteries were still charged, just for fun! It was great talking to women in each of the households and hearing all of the ways they were already using their lanterns at night (cooking, the kids doing homework, and processing shea nuts). It was amazing to see how much we had already been able to impact these people’s lives.

At the end of the day, Safiatu took us to her household for a good ending to our day. Our translator, Eric, has been looking for a pet kitten and Safiatu had three baby kittens! They were all so cute, Eric is going to buy two now instead of one.

Ayodele with a kitten
Ayodele with a kitten

Monitoring has been a great part of this experience, because now that most of our work is done, we can see how these businesses are impacting people’s lives. It is also a great opportunity to just talk to people on a more individual level and learn about their daily lives. We are definitely not ready to leave Tamale yet, but it is good to know that the business that we helped to create will continue after we leave. 

 – Team Eric

Field Rep Voices: Angela, TJ, John and Jose

Opening Night…

The car that’s been coming to our village the last few weeks showed up again today, for the first time at nightfall. The 3 salamingas that have been building the solar center jumped out of their wheel machine smelling like water instead of their typical smells of dirt and sweat. They also wore nicer clothing and seemed prepared for some sort of celebration. Little did I know I was in for a surprise…

The three met with Fatima, Fatimata, and Hamshowu; the owners of me and my goat family. During the last two weeks I’ve heard them talking about how excited they are about running what they call a “solar business.” I’m not sure what that is, but they mentioned how they will finally be able to see and do work at night. The group gathered in the structure they built next to those shiny panels aimed at the sun. Shortly after, the rest of the villagers made their way from prayers towards this building each with a gadget in their hand.

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Fatima, Fatimata, and Hamshowu

The sun was completely gone and had been for a while now. I was hungry so I decided to do some grazing. And then it happened… I’ll never forget it. The boy Mohamed lifted his gadget and a beautiful white light lit up his face! It was unlike anything I had ever seen! Then there was another light, and another! One-by-one these gadgets lit up the sky. My owners, the villagers, the 3 salamingas, all of them started dancing and laughing. All of the sudden my owner walked towards me, like he was choosing me for some special purpose. He put a rope around me and started bringing me towards all the fun. I must admit I was pretty scared. It’s a great honor to be selected by your master.

 

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Silence fell as he brought me into the center of the group and handed my rope to TJ. “Yo TJ!” He brought our village clean water the last time he was here. He’s a good guy. I thought we might just be hanging out together, but then TJ and one of the salamingas lifted me into the back of their wheel machine.

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And so here I am, telling you this story because, well… it’s been the wildest day of my life. My new owners have even given me a name, Minga! I’ve never been in a wheel machine before, let alone one with these three who now smell like sweat and dirt instead of like water. The village is all that I know, I’m not sure if I’ll see it again. I want to remember it. So I’m sharing my story with you now. Why wait? Life is short.

Singing off,
Minga the goat
Adventurer and Narrator
Formerly of the village of Moya