Today was a long anticipated day for Jim Wolf, who was given the opportunity by St. Paul Partners (SPP) to represent them at the dedication of the Mtera Secondary School water system. Jim has served on the SPP Board for 12 years.
Mtera Secondary School is located next to the Mtera Reservoir north of Iringa.
The reservoir had been the source of water for the school, but has been problematic for several reasons. First, in the dry season, the lake level drops by 15-20 feet and there are vast expanses of marshy area to get to the water. Secondly, there are alligators in the lake which have killed people trying to get water from the lake.
St. Paul Partners, an affiliate of the St. Paul Area Synod Bega Kwa Bega organization, raises funds to drill fresh water wells in Iringa Region of Tanzania. SPP became aware of the significant water issues at Mtera and partnered with the Engineering Dept. of the University of Minnesota to send a team of U of M engineering students to research the issue in January 2014. The U of M team developed an excellent proposal for a water system costing over $18,000. SPP proceeded to find the funding from multiple sources including 50% from H2O for Life with 7 schools participating in fund raising drives, a portion from St. Paul’s Lutheran in Wyoming, MN, which is partnered with the Mtera Lutheran Church and about 1/3 from the Winter Wheat Foundation.
Upon our arrival at Mtera, we were greeted with a column of students singing to welcome us.
Following their student color guard, we walked in a procession to the Administration Building and were given a marching display by the color guard. Introductions were made of the Bega Kwa Bega coordinators, the SPP Tanzania staff, the Kihesa pastors and companions with us and the St. Mark’s group. We toured the school grounds to see the well site and student and staff housing and ended up at the water storage tanks to do the water system dedication.
With great excitement, speeches were given, prayers were offered and songs were sung.
The students and staff were deeply grateful as now they can spend much more time with studying activities rather than the daily walk to the lake for water. Also their health will be greatly improved by having a source of safe water.
It was gratifying to know how many people and organizations heard God’s call to help solve this significant problem.
On the way back from Mtera, we stopped at Mtera Lake where people were loading boats to go to their villages across the lake. They had chickens, cases of beer, sugar cane and other food supplies. The lake is at its lowest level, so where we were standing at the edge of the water would be 15-20 under water during the rainy season.
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