Off to Ilambilole

Leaving Isimani we drove down the dirt road to the pavement.  As we got onto the pavement Tom sped up only to see a “50” speed limit sign (50 km/hr that is – about 30mph – speed limits are often only 20 or 30 mph here).  He started to slow down but out from behind a tree stepped a policeman with a radar gun.  The police have been very aggressive this year.  We have seen a lot of set-ups like this one.  

This officer waved us down and showed us that we were going 59 in a 50 zone.

Tom explained about just getting on the road and seeing the sign, but it didn’t matter.  The officer was polite, but insistent that we pay the fine (about $20).  As he started to walk behind us to get his ticket book one of the ladies that we had picked up at our meeting at Isimani called out to him.  He stopped over and there was a torrent of Swahili flung at him.  After a second he straightened up and came over and told us “No ticket this time.  Please drive slower.”

We were, of course, curious about what had happened?  According to Itiweni the policeman eats in the woman’s diner all of the time.  She had told him that these people were her guests and if he wanted to ear at her diner he needed to forget about the ticket.  We decided it paid to take on riders.

We dropped off our riders at their destination and continued on to Ilambilole.  Ilambilole is closer to town than Isimani, but it is down a long, rutted dirt road.  As we went down the road we were jostled and thrown around.  At one point it seemed that none of us were on the seats and the car was not touching the ground either.  Anyway, we arrived safe and sound.

The Ilambilole SACCOS is located inside of the parish compound.  The compound is a nice area that is fenced off and guarded.  We pulled in and were met by the chairman and some of the officers. 

The SACCOS general meeting started soon after we arrived. We are planning on starting an AMCOS (Farmers Coop) at this location so Itiweni covered some information on how this is to be done.  One of the requirements is that the officers of the AMCOS must be different than the officers of the SACCOS.  This is of course to avoid direct conflicts between the group that sells Agricultural inputs and products (an AMCOS) and the one which finances this (a SACCOS).  Most of the members of the two organizations will probably be the same. 

The group raised a lot of questions about their AMCOS would be. “Is this a government program?”  No, it is strictly an Iringa Hope program.  “Good,” they tell us.  “If it was a government program we would not want it here.  The last program cost us all money and we do not trust government programs.”  There were many questions and a lot of excitement.  One question that we thought interesting was, “How many people can we have join this program.  Is 2-300 too many?”  We told them that we thought that the first year they should have under 100 members while they get organized.  But why the question?  It turns out that they have been talking about this since we first discussed this with their leaders.  When they mentioned this to people everyone wanted to join.  They were concerned about how many they should admit when they get started.

They selected their initial leaders so that they could start to organize their AMCOS.  We emphasized that we “required” at least one woman officer in all of our SACCOS and would do so in all of our AMCOS.  They promptly selected two women and a man to lead their effort.

Tom went off to discuss the SACCOS performance with the leaders.  The membership of this SACCOS has been flat for two years now.  We would like to have our SACCOS grow to at least 100 members.  They have not been admitting new members since they do not have enough capital to give more loans.  This is a tough issue.  Tom advised them that they should work on having their members save more and they would find that it would help with the capital issue. 

Tom then asked about their collections.  Last year there were 10 members who had crop failures and were late on their loans.  They told him that they had collected 100% of these funds.  An how about this year?  This year there were 2 members who were sick and did not tend their crops correctly and two who had crop failures.  After making sure that they were different people from last year, Tom asked about collecting these.  It turned out that they had already taken the savings (this is 1/3 of the loan value) and had told the cosigners that they would have to pay if the borrowers did not (every loan has 2 cosigners).  In one case the cosigners were paying and in the other 3 cases they felt they had a good work out plan for the loans.

While Tom was doing this Sandy was interviewing two members.  The first person she talked to was Jema Kivike, 51 and married with 5 children and 5 grandchildren.  She and her husband are supporting 3 of their children, one grandchild, and an orphan.  They have been members of this SACCOS since it was formed and have taken out 5 loans over the years.  For last year’s crop they had borrowed 600,000 TZS (about $400) and planted maize and sunflowers.  Neither one of these crops did well so their profit for the year was only $335.  They used their profits to send one of the children to secondary school and one to a technical school to be a seamstress.  Her most recent loan was for $420 to again plant maize and sunflowers.  She is hoping to get a better yield and better prices this year.  When she was asked how membership in this SACCOS had changed her life?  She smiled and told us that since joining the SACCOS her income had increased enough that she has sent all of her children through school and some of them to technical school.  She is also building a new brick house which will soon be done. 

The second person interviewed was Chesco Mgaya, 38, married and the father of 3 children, ages 15, 11 and 3.  He has been a member of this SACCOS for four years and in that time has taken out three loans.  Last year he borrowed 300,000 TZS to plant an acre of maize and close to an acre of tomatoes.  He had a good maize yield of 12 bags.  He sold 6 of those bags at the Isimani market for 60,000 per bag, and together with a group of farmers, he shipped his tomatoes to the market in Ilula where they sold for 450,000.  He had paid back his loan with his sale of maize, so the tomato sales were all profit.  He saved some of his profits in the SACCOS, used some to pay school fees, and invested some in his next crop of tomatoes.  His latest loan was for 330,000, which was used to plant maize.  The tomatoes he planted were completely funded by his profits from the last loan. 

The SACCOS officers and the pastors hosted us at a late lunch before we headed back to Iringa.  Tonight Tom does our call-in radio program.  The program has close to 200,000 listeners.   

When we got to Ilambilole there were a number of members waiting for us.

The meeting was well attended.  Peter had gone ahead and discussed a number of things before we got to the meeting.

Tom gave this little girl some candy.  She enjoyed the candy while she sat through the meeting with her mother.

They selected their AMCOS leaders.  (From left to right are the Chairperson, the Secretary, and the Treasurer.)

The first person Sandy talked to was Jema Kivike, 51 and married with 5 children and 5 grandchildren.  She and her husband are supporting 3 of their children, one grandchild, and an orphan.

The second person interviewed was Chesco Mgaya, 38, married and the father of 3 children, ages 15, 11 and 3.  He has been a member of this SACCOS for four years and in that time has taken out three loans.

We had a quick lunch and headed back to town.  Tonight we do our call-in radio show.