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#sahydrated – Reflections on Saha’s Summer ’17 Program

It’s been just over a week since we said goodbye to the 2017 Summer Field Reps. Thanks to this group of talented, passionate and driven women and men, Saha was able to partner with with 10 communities in Northern Ghana to open 10 new water treatment businesses. Because of them, over 3,600 people now have the ability to drink clean water, daily. 28 women entrepreneurs are able to provide potable water to their friends, family and neighbors through  community-supported small businesses. And Saha is able to welcome 37 new faces to our global Saha family!

Alex, Alex, Alyssa, Amanda, Ashley, Brian, Caitlin, Cameron, Delaney, Dylan, Elias, Emma, Gaby, Harley, Henry, Ian, Jessica, Kate, Laura, Lexie, Lizzy, Lupita, Maya, Meagan, Nick, Rae, Raleigh, Sam, Solum, Sophia, Stew, Sydney, Taylor, Tshion, Zach, Zach, and Zijun:

It seems crazy to think that after three weeks of laughs, mosquito bites, blood/sweat/tears, games, guinea fowls, savannah sunsets, questioning and discoveries, we said goodbye for the last time as a group last week. We are so grateful for the excitement, enthusiasm, hard-work and positivity that you brought to team Saha. Because of you, thousands of people are living their lives with more opportunities for health and happiness. Due to your efforts and problem-solving, Saha was able to open

the MOST WATER BUSINESSES in our history!
It was such a pleasure to work with all of y’all, and we consider ourselves lucky to count you as part of Sahayili! As you head off to your next adventures, please don’t forget
Vene, Sahani, Gbunja, Darvoguyili, Kpachaa, Suri, Lambo, Larigbani, Tinkpanglanyili and Nakpanzoo 
and all of us here at Saha, and let us know what we can do to further your missions. 

With gratitude,

Amin, Eda, Eric, Kate, Kathryn, Morganne, Peter, Shak & Wahab

And now … for the jumping pics!

Team Cameron, Sita, Maya and Nick in Vene

Team Jessica, Gaby, Brian, Amin and Henry (not pictured) in Lambo

Team Kate, Blessing, Sophia, Tshion and Harley (not pictured) in Darvoguyili

Team Laura, Sam, Ian, Alyssa and Jaleel (not pictured) in Kpachaa

Team Nestor, Dylan, Rae and Lexie in Gbunja

Team Alex, Delaney, Lupita and Shak in Tingpangyili

Team Taylor, Ashley, Taufik, Lizzie and Stew in Nakpanzoo

Team Sydney, Elias, Raleigh, Wahab and Meaghan in Sahani

Team Simply, Zach, Caitlin, Solum and Emma in Larigbani

Team Zach, Zijun, Alex, Amanda and Peter in Suri

Field Rep Voices: Team Elias, Meaghan, Raleigh, Sydney and Wahab

For the short attention spanned millennials out there, here is a haiku describing our day:

Put tanks near water
Changed the location once
Now we are Sweaty

Women working with orange drums in original location

For everyone else, here is the fun story of our day:

On Saturday, June 3rd, we, Team Wahab enjoyed our 3rd day in the village of Sahani. Our goal for the day was to choose a location for the water business and to put the Polytank stand and three plastic water drums in place. Going in to the day we expected the task to be quick and simple, but such was not the case….

 

The original dugout location

Even though it had rained the previous night, the original dugout was extremely low and it would have been tough to fill 3 orange drums with water. Our first solution was to fill 2 drums with dugout water and the third drum with water from the borehole. The borehole water was salty, but we hoped that diluting the water and adding the aqua tablets would lower the salt content.

The larger dugout

After talking with the children they showed Elias and Wahab a much larger dugout that was slightly further away, but had a good amount of water left in it. We were able to convince the women running the business that the walk would be worth it and they wouldn’t need to use any of the salty borehole water. An impromptu parade of community members of all ages helped us move the equipment to the new location.

The children we try to keep entertained

Over the next hour some of us attempted to balance buckets on our head to help fill the orange drums. Some of our team was in charge of keeping the kids entertained. Duck duck goose was a favorite, as well as follow the leader.

Filling the orange drums

Once the orange drums were filled, we added the alum to the chocolate milk colored water and watched in amazement as the sediment began to floc. We closed and locked the drums to let them sit overnight so the sediment could filter out.

The dugout water

The day was concluded by another village wide procession back through path in the forest and though fields back to the village. The chief’s wife informed us that they thought our names were to hard to remember so they came up with our village names on the spot: Raleigh – “Roakayo”, Sydney – “Sedina”, Meagan – “MaMuna”, and Elias – “Eelisu.” We accepted our names and exchanged farewell formalities with the chief of the village and went on our way – Din Nuna