A day at Ipogolo

Today we visited Ipogolo.  Ipogolo is a very short drive from Iringa.  You just go down the hill, turn right, and there you are!  The Ipogolo church is very active.  The pastor’s name is Nixon.  We have known him for several years now.  Last year he was in the US visiting churches and talking about his parish.

We got to Ipogolo around 10 and met with the chairman and a member of the board.  Ipogolo is very well organized.  It currently has 83 members with another 9 working on joining.  We visited in their office awhile then walked over to our meeting room. 

As we were walking over we stopped to look at their new church.  They have been working on a large new church for about 5 years.  So far the walls are up and the roof has been framed.  It will hold about 1,000 people when it is finished. Pastor Nixon tells us he is “whispering for it to get done” so it will be soon. Whispering for something is a common joke with Nixon.  There was a movie he saw on American TV where someone could whisper and things would happen!

We went into our meeting and found 23 members waiting for us.  Pastor Nixon explained that there were two funerals today so many members were gone.  He had been at the hospital in Iringa earlier today to see his wife, Prisca, who has malaria and had to hurry back to meet with us.

Tom gave a brief talk outlining how Iringa Hope works and how funds were used.  He went over some of the numbers that we had found from our interviews including the number of children sent to school, the decline in malnutrition, and the general increase in the family’s health and well-being.  While this is a much richer congregation than most that we visit, there was general agreement that they had seen all of these things happening here too.

The chairman of the SACCOS got up and gave a report.  It was very detailed, giving the number of loans, capital, income, etc.  Overall this SACCOS earned over $4,000 last year.  Their members have saved $11,170 so far.  However, even with this, they had to borrow funds from Iringa Hope Joint SACCOS to make loans to their members.  The chairman told us that last year Iringa Hope had loaned them 11,700,000 TZS (about $7,500) and they were still short about $12,000.

While we were all listening to the SACCOS annual report to the members, a dog walked in.  He kept walking around looking at the members and trying to get some attention.  Several people tried to shoo him away, but he was very patient and persistent.  Finally he lay down in the aisle and listened for a while.

This SACCOS has plans to start work on a small building this coming year.  Like many of our SACCOS they have been working out of a small, closet sized area in a church building.  This year the church has offered to give them some land so that they can build a better place for their SACCOS.  With 83 families in this SACCOS there are 498 people represented here.  They are hoping to gradually increase their membership with a goal of having 150 families – or almost 1,000 people.  They certainly do need a building to support this work.

This is one of the locations where we hope to start an AMCOS (a Farmers Coop) this year.  They discussed this at our meeting.  There is a lot of excitement about doing this here.  Even though this is a suburban church, most of the members farm at least part time. 

After the meeting Sandy interviewed two of the members.  The first person she talked with as Yusta Sailale, 58, and a single mother with 5 children and 6 grandchildren. Yusta currently is supporting herself and 5 other family members.  She told us that she has taken 2 loans.  Her first loan was for $435.  She used this to support her chicken business.  After paying off her loan she had earned $135.  Her second loan was for $830.  She has used this loan to expand her business.  Her chickens are still growing so she does not yet know what her profit will be, still she expects to make a lot more than her first loan.  She used her profit to pay school fees for her children and she deposited some in her savings. 

Sandy next talked to Shadrak Kilamwela, 39, married, with 2 children.  He told us that he and his wife also are supporting some other relatives so that there are 6 people in his household.  His first loan was for $200.  He used this loan to plant maize and beans.  Maize prices were very low last year, so he only made a profit from his beans.  He earned $200 after selling his crop and paying his expenses.  Once again this year he has borrowed $200 to plant maize and beans.  If the prices come back up to their normal range he expects to earn about $600 from his crop.  “Thank God the rains have come” he said.  Besides paying school fees for his older child, he also bought some chickens and a young pig which he intends to breed.  Payment to the owner of the boar will be one of the baby pigs.  He will raise the piglets and then take them to market. 

We had a brief lunch with Pastor Nixon and the SACCOs officers.  While we were eating his son and daughter came over.  His seven-year old son greeted us in excellent English.  He was a bit shy but Sandy got him to talk with us awhile.  Nixon’s daughter is a real cutie.  She gave us a big smile as we were leaving.  Nixon rode into Iringa with us where we dropped him at the hospital to see his wife.  He was hoping she was well enough to return home.

We talked with two board members of the SACCOS.  Look at the wall chart behind them.  This circle chart divides the year into two month segments.  each segment has listed the things that will be going on at their SACCOS.

Ipogolo is building a large church.  It will hold about 1,000 people when finished.

The chairman gave a report to the members.  It is their annual meeting and year end report.  (The chairman is standing.  Pastor Nixon is at the far end of the table.)

The dog kept wandering in and out of the meeting.

Finally it lay down in the aisle and listened awhile.

 The first person she talked with as Yusta Sailale, 58, and a single mother with 5 children and 6 grandchildren. Yusta currently is supporting herself and 5 other family members.  

Sandy next talked to Shadrak Kilamwela, 39, married, with 2 children.  He told us that he and his wife also are supporting some other relatives so that there are 6 people in his household.  

While Sandy did interviews Tom went out and met with the SACCOS officers and board members.

Pastor Nixon's daughter came over and made faces at us.  Tom made an instant friend when he gave her some candy.