Sunday, January 13th

Dear friends and family,

Today was another phenomenal day.

We visited the village called Uru East, which has a population of 13,000. This village had clean water 30 years ago when a newly built hospital redirected the flow of water from the mountain source. Then the hospital moved and no one was able to maintain the small dam and pipes due to a lack of money. For thirty years, the women and children have been going to a higher source carrying buckets of water on their head to get the clean water. With fertilizing their crops and run off, the water has become very polluted. They drink it anyway because although this causes much illness, it is their only source.

After our meeting, we climbed up to the top of their area to see the water intake so we could understand the situation better. This put a couple of us over the edge in the fitness area, but well worth it! The rain forest is just too much for words, stories-high canopies of ferns and umbrella type plants for as far as you could see and deep cliffs of unknown beautiful plants.
We kept saying this looked exactly like the setting for Jurassic Park.

When we returned, they had prepared a feast for us to share with them at the school house.
On top of it, it is Sunday and they had their best dress on from church and they all looked so beautiful. The people welcomed us with open arms and such warmth and love. Everyone is so ready for their water problems to be fixed. They mentioned several times that they felt they have been forgotten. They committed to doing all that it takes, whether it's digging the trenches or laying pipes, to get the job done.

At the end of our visit, Margie shared a song she knows about calling the mother of the river and then they shared a song with us. We are so connected to these Tanzanian people and their hearts. It was the most wonderful day so far. But we may have said that before!

Love to all!
Margie, Barbara, Chris, Jeremy and Matt