Then there was Bomalang'ombe

After our visit at Ng'ang'ange we headed further down the road to Bomalang'ombe.  Bomalang'ombe is the home village of Itiweni, our senior SACCOS Coordinator.  We had heard about this village before, but had never been there.  As we continued on our drive we again saw many scattered, small villages.  Many of these are built along the road, which often hugs the crest of the hills. 

Bomalang'ombe is very spread out.  About 6,000 people or approximately 1,000 families live here. However, right in the middle of the village, where the church is located, the buildings are so spread out along the ridge that we seem to be in the country.

When we got to the church, the pastor and about 40 of the new SACCOS members were waiting for us – so went into the church for our meeting.  The pastor welcomed us and introduced their SACCOS chair (he is technically not yet the chair because they aren't registered).  The chair introduced the other officers and we started our meeting.

Everyone here seems to be aware of the problems with government and privately owned SACCOS and wants to know why we are different.  Tom gave his talk on what makes Iringa Hope different and why our SACCOS succeed while others don’t.  After Sandy gave her Kiswahili greeting she asked “How many of you are related to Itiweni?”  Immediately the room was full of raised hands.  At least half of all of the people here are relatives of Itiweni.  The entire leadership of this SACCOS is related to her.

As the hands were raised we once again were reminded of how different it is here.  For one thing, in this country the women and the men still sit on separate sides of a meeting.  Sandy went back to take a shot of the room and it is almost comical.  All of the men are way off to one side while all of the women are way off to the other.  In addition, you never see a man and woman holding hands – but men hold hands with each other and women hold hands with each other.  There are so many similarities, but sometimes the differences jump out.

As Peter started to talk he asked a few questions.  One question he had for the group was regarding other lending groups that might be in Bomalang'ombe?  We were told that there are, but they charge 15% a month and only lend for 2-3 months, similar to our previous village visit.

Peter gave a class on shares, loans, interest and repayment to a very interested group.  They just started to organize last September, and then contacted Peter in January asking for assistance in getting set up.  They told us that they had heard about us from our program on radio Furaha and from Itiweni’s last visit.  Right now they have 45 members with 5 more working on joining.  They have collected 700,000 TZS so far, but they will need 5,000,000 TZS (about $3,000) in order to register. 

When we left the meeting it had started raining.  The members continued on meeting so they could make some plans on how to increase their capital.  We wish them great success!  

We went through many small villages that were spread along the roadside.

If you look carefully you can see how the villages follow the road along the ridges.

Bomalang'ombe is so spread out that even when you are in the village it seems more like the countryside.

There is a very pretty view of the city from the church.

There are 45 members of this group.  Most of them were here today.

When Sandy asked how many were relatives of Itiweni most of the hands went up.

All of the leaders are related to Itiweni.

This chubby little girl was so cute.  She kept peaking at us until we gave her some candy.  Then she made a mess - but her did not seem to mind.

It is interesting how the men always sit on one side and the women on the other side!

The chairman decided that they would make a plan to collect funds.  We left the meeting for a quick chai and then home.

It was raining as we left for the drive back to Iringa.