Off to Mgama

We drove back down the road towards Ugesa today.  We are not going as far however since we will stop in Mgama.  Mgama is an hour drive from Iringa.  It is a medium sized village of about 1,500 households.  Our meeting today is at the church.  Last year we met in a community building – but we were told that that building is not large enough anymore.

Our first stop was at the pastor’s house.  The chairman of the SACCOS was waiting to talk to us.  He knew that Tom would have questions for him.  He told us that last year they made over 80 loans to their members.  Since many of their loans go to buy fertilizer they voted to buy fertilizer in bulk and give it to their members directly instead of cash.  They told us that they did this for two reasons – first, they thought that they would get a better price and delivery schedule this way (they did, getting a 10% lower price and a timely delivery), and second they were afraid that some of the newer members might not buy fertilizer but spend some of their money instead.  When Tom asked how much profit they made on their loans the chairman hesitated a bit.  “We made a $400 profit for the year.”  “The year before you made fewer loans yet made a profit of over $2,000.  What happened?”

The chairman seemed a bit concerned, and then told us that the crop prices were so low that people were afraid that they would not be able to repay their loans.  There were over half of the members in this situation (remember what happened at Kitowo?  There was a similar problem here.)  So what did they do?  The chairman told us that they called a general meeting to discuss the problem.  They all voted to allow the loans to be stretched out as much as an additional 3 months with no penalty and lowered the interest rate from 2.5% per month to 1% per month.  And did everyone pay?  Yes he told us, after they voted for this plan everyone paid 100% on time and in full!  He seemed to think that we might not like this, but we thought this was another excellent example of how good local leadership can solve a bad problem.

When we went to the general meeting, the chairman apologized for the poor turnout (there were 38 members there), but there is another village meeting going on and he would like to end our meeting in time to join the village meeting.  Tom discussed the Joint SACCOS and Sandy gave her Swahili greeting.  As usual, Sandy got lots of laughs and applause while Tom got close attention, but no laughs, except when he makes an embarrassing blunder.  Peter then went over what Tom had told them.  He thinks that everyone understands it better if it is explained both Tom’s way and his way.  Afterwards there were lots of questions.   These members are very involved in their SACCOS.  The chairman has prepared a good report on the SACCOS. Everyone listened closely.

When he finished his report he gave us a long thank you.  He told us that there are many changes among the members; there are many more children in school and many new homes being built.  Despite this year’s poor prices, Mgama can tell that things are getting much better here.  The pastor told us that he sees many good things among the congregation.  Smiling, he also mentioned that the church offering plate has more in it than there used to be.

After the meeting Sandy interviewed Betty Mwikamalo, 46 and married with 5 chldren and 2 grandchildren.  Betty and her husband are supporting 4 people in their household.  She has borrowed three years in a row from the SACCOS.  She has borrowed $200, $200, and most recently $170 (She wanted to borrow $200 again, but their capital is being stretched by the increasing members so she got less this time).  She made very good profits on the first two loans, but this time she only made $100.  She explains that the prices for maize here are very low (about $14/bag while last year it was over $30/bag) so she barely broke even this year.  There has been a company here urging people to switch to beans and offering to pay big prices.  She is thinking of switching her crop all to beans.  Tom suggested that maybe she should think about having more diversity in her crops and plant both beans and maize.  It is dangerous to have only one crop.  What will she do if next year the bean prices crash because everyone switched to beans?

Next Sandy spoke with Aidan Kisinga.  Aidan is 48, married, and has 5 children and 3 grandchildren.  He currently supports 9 people – himself and his wife, 4 of his younger children, and 3 grandchildren.  He has been a member of this SACCOS for 2 years and has taken out two loans.  His first loan was for $100 to buy fertilizer for his maize.  He has paid his loan back from his tomato sales (he also grows tomatoes and sells them in a small shop), but he has decided to keep his maize.  He tells us that it costs him about $300/acre to plant maize and, at the current price, he will net about this amount from his crop.  He has decided to keep all of his maize to feed his family.  He also has sent some of the crop to his younger brother in Dar Es Salaam.  And what about next year?  He was one of the members that got fertilizer instead of cash (about $150 in fertilizer).  He has again planted maize but this year he thinks that he will get a good profit.  “Look at the SACCOS member’s crop,” he told us. “We received good fertilizer at the right time and at a good price.” Our plants are twice as tall as those who waited for the government to supply fertilizer. 

We left while the meeting was still in progress.  They were talking about increasing savings and the possibility of having the SACCOS buy fertilizer again.  We are very impressed by the way that these leaders have addressed the price problem.  This is another SACCOS that was faced with a large problem because of no market for their crops, and once again we found that they were able to find a creative way to help their members.

Mgama is about a 20 minute drive down the road to Ugesa.

We greeted some members as we went to have chai.

There were about 38 members here to meet us.  There is another village meeting going on today.

Sandy always gets lots of smiles and laughs when she greets everyone in Swahili.  Tom gets laughs when he makes blunders.

After the meeting Sandy interviewed Betty Mwikamalo, 46 and married with 5 chldren and 2 grandchildren.  Betty and her husband are supporting 4 people in their household.

Next Sandy spoke with Aidan Kisinga.  Aidan is 48, married, and has 5 children and 3 grandchildren.  He currently supports 9 people – himself and his wife, 4 of his younger children, and 3 grandchildren. 

As we got in the car Sandy took out her knitting.  Peter was interested in what she was making - it is a prayer shawl.