Safari (journey) to Uru

So we're finally all here, and on my first full day, Tuesday, we spent the afternoon in Uru. We were glad to find 4 of the 5 biodigesters we visited working, though the village was quite different than what I expected. The family's houses were pretty spread out, as all families have a decent amount of land to farm bannanas, coffee, chinese cabbage, maize, and many other vegetables they eat and sell in the market. Most of the houses have some electricity, including just one or two light bulbs, and the cooking huts have one stove with two burners. Most of the families have a fair number of animals including cows, goats, chickens, dogs (one family had the cutest puppies!), cats and more. The children were adorable, but somewhat frightened by us 4 mzungus (white people). Everyone was so welcoming and kind, but as it was only my second day here I felt badly I didn't know more Swahili. People spoke varying amounts of English, but most spoke very little, so Kimario did a lot of translating for us.

Everyone was ecstatic to see Natalie and were very pleased to meet us. A couple families explained what a tremendous difference the new technology and stoves have had in their lives. The residences for which the pilot projects took place have two stoves each, one an efficient wood stove and one is run by biogas. Most of these families have said they have to collect very little firewood, and therefore women have more time to sell their produce, thus earning larger incomes. One woman said that she collects firewood for 6 hours every 2 weeks instead of for 6 hours 4 times a week! We have a few ideas of why firewood must still be collected. 1) There is not enough gas, which could be caused by families not using enough manure/water mixture, or not enough storag space, 2) They need two burners on which to cook - 1 for ugali (a maize doughy traditional food) and 1 for beans and/or meat (makande). The few families that are putting in enough manure/water mixture and have stoves working seem to really appreciate the technology. Additionally, the manure that has already gone through the reaction is being used as fertilizer in many cases, and one man even believes that it is helping his plants grow better than manure before it has gone through this process.

One of the digesters we visited was not working, but we believe this is because of a lack of care by its owners. There were metal sheets fallen on the plastic holding bags, so there might be a tear. Additionally this family's plot of land is very wooded and there were huge trees cut down and chopped up most likely for cooking.

We have heard that the four other biodigesters are not being used, possibly because they are not finished. We are hoping to get to see them tomorrow in our second trip to Uru. Kwaheri (good bye) for now!