Stephanie Ng's Visit- May 2012
We arrived at Lbaa lo Ltepes 1/Remot 2 Well to find several Samburu mamas using the well. They told us that they used spend the entire day (from very early in the morning till the evening) searching for water. Now, they are literally minutes away from the well. One of the ladies laughed as she said that if you are in the middle of cooking and realize you do not have enough water, you could put a pot on the stove with some oil and spices, run to the well to get water, and return to the pot being ready to add the water and other ingredients.
They use the water for drinking, eating, and washing. They have a rule in the community that the only animals that can drink from this well are the baby livestock. They enforce this rule in order to protect the well from contamination and ensuring that it will not be overused.
With the time saved, women can now engage in many different jobs –they go to the market to trade livestock and buy food, look after the animals and children, and tend to various domestic duties.
When asked how this well has changed their daily life, Yapais Lesamana said the following statement: “This well gave birth to this nursery.” Because of this well, the community was able to form their own nursery which is attended by 110 small children! The number of girls to boys in the nursery is about even. Although she doesn’t know the number of children that go to primary school, she knows that it is more than the nursery attendance. She noted that there are more boys in primary school than girls mainly because girls are married off when they are very young. The biggest problem facing this community now is the lack of structure for the nursery.
Currently they are in the process of making a kitchen out of tall branches and sticks. For now, all 110 students meet under this big tree and have to sit on the floor. Though they still have a long way to go in building a safe, permanent structure for the nursery, everyone is grateful for the opportunity to send their children to school and all the parents do whatever they can do to help build the school including pulling all the weeds that grow under the tree so that the students have a firm, dry place to sit.
When asked how the well has personally changed her life, Yapais said that she can now save the energy she used to expend in search of water. Instead of spending the entire day looking for water, Yapais is now the cook for the new nursery. Furthermore, prior to when they had the well, many baby animals would die during the drought season. Now, no more of the baby animals die and instead all of them grow to become adults, which is very profitable and bodes well for the community.
As to the working condition of the well, there was a problem with the rubbers about a month ago but Paul was to fix it and since then the well is pumping water at its normal flow. The gate and barbed fencing is still intact in kept in great condition.
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