I realize I have been out of communication for quite some time. I feel like I have been all over the world- because I have! I was able to enjoy a fantastic vacation to Alaska and British Columbia in July. I returned to Liberia to soon find out I had the opportunity to come to Kenya to help with the communications to our response to the incredibly large famine. So, here I am, on the opposite side of the continent. Boy, is it opposite of Liberia! Liberia is so lush, receiving over 200 inches of rainfall each year. It is mostly tropical jungle, and very humid. North East Kenya is dry. .. I mean really dry. There hasn’t been rain in over 2 years, and has caused a very large famine for not only the Kenyan people in this area, but for Somali refugees who have fled into Kenya for assistance. SP has a DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team) team deployed to this area to bring relief to the starving, sick victims of this drought.
It is downright dry, windy, and dusty. Everywhere. You drive down the road and there are caravans of camels and donkeys carrying jerry cans full of water from the nearest source. If you are one of the fortunate ones, your community has a working bore hole, or a river. But the majority of communities do not. Water pans that would hold massive amounts of water in the past are now bone dry. The Kenyans have tried digging 10-15 feet holes in these watering pans, hoping to find water. What they do find is only a few inches of extremely dirty water. So what do you do when your main water source- a source that has never gone dry, is gone? You spend you days looking for water.
Most of the women are spending their days looking for water. Many times, they have to walk 20-30 km to find water, load up all of their animals and make the journey back to their settlement camp. Sometimes, when a bore hole is dug in their community, the water is full of salt and undrinkable. The conditions are dire and I haven’t even seen the worst areas. Malnutrition is every where, animals need water, as well as their owners.
Thursday and Friday I was able to tag along with our Water and Sanitation staff as they provided six nearby nomadic settlements each with 20,000 liters of clean water. Here, water is life. It keeps your animals alive, which keeps your family fed. Right now, a typical Kenyan or Somali refugee in this area only has 2 liters of water per day to use. I also heard someone say today that the water problem is so large, they only have enough water to bathe once a week. Knowing that this is an immediate response, we fully understand that trucking water isn’t the best for the long run. But it is best for now, until a more sustainable intervention can be made.
We serve a big God. Nothing is impossible for him. Please join me in praying for rain.
2 comments:
Wow... you're showing reality in the Horn of Africa better than any news source. I've used way more than 2L water since I've been up today: drinking it, making coffee with it, showering, washing dishes, washing the veggies I just brought home, and cooking. Praying.
Here I am wishing and praying for rain the past two months simply so our crops have better yields. Sigh. Thanks for the reminder and perspective. I'll be praying!
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