Q/A Conference call with Virginia Taylor - October 3rd

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Lifestyle
Woman:
Woman wake up at around 6 am and milk their lifestock. They then make chai tea on bomas for their husbands to drink. They clean around the house, picking up what's been blown around at night. Then they collect water and or firewood (depending on the day), walking to grab firewood 1-4 km. Maasai will walk towards some type of watering hole to collect water. They then prepare food for their families to eat. The family typically only eat 1 meal a day. Then they take care of the children. They then settle the home and bed and go to sleep at around 10 pm.

Men:
They wake up and tend to their cows and goats, making sure none of them are sick and tend to the ones that are. The then drink their tea. They take their livestock and walk them around with other maasai men. They then go and maybe socialize, get alcoholic drinks. They come home at around 5 pm and check on their livestock again. They then eat the meal prepared by his wife and drink some more and socialize with the elders.

Children
The younger children go to school while the older ones take care of the younger children as well. Some children go and collect firewood and others help their mother. Boys might help with hearding with their father or heard in place of father.

Income
Where do they (man/woman/children/all?) get their income? Are there businesses? What are the most common micro-enterprises in Longido? How much do they make and how much do they live off of?

Income depends on the family and which occupation they have. People without a job make things from around to sell. Employed villagers can be government workers, teacher or nurse etc. Teachers employed by the government can make up to ~350,000 Ti shillings/month while coordinators can make up to ~500,000/month. Most families live on ~125/month.

Cooking
Women cook using large metal or wooden pots. Meals are typically ugali (corn flour).

Tools
They have very limited tools that consist of a hose, shovel and wheelbarrows. Men would hold pangas (10 inch knives). These tools are bought from a hardware store in longido.

In terms of manufacturing they have welding machines and machines to create sheet metal. They have planers as well for wood. Furniture is made from wood. Children in school are asked to bring a ho.

Manure
They use manure to make their homes. They use cow dung mixed with ash from the soil as bricks. They do not use manure for fertilization because of little agriculture. One person however has a bio gas in longido.


Monetary System
The village pay in cash and coins. They own a lot of little bills. Loans are done in groups

Water Taps
Source of the water comes from the mountain and the water hole that they drilled. It costs about 1 mil Ti Shillings to build private tap whereas the public ones are free. However line up for the public water tap is dependent on hierarchy. Those who are more respected are first in line whereas those who are new to the community are last. The beginning of the day, the water has a good flow but as the day continues, the water flow is much slower. Still unsure as to where and how many water taps there are.

Taps are open at the police station or hospitals at specific days and families are allowed only to get water on their specific day. If families miss their day to collect water then they will have to collect water from a separate source. They primarily use yellow jugs, a burlap bag or 1 strap bag to collect water at ponds for example.

Water Collection (Storage)
There are two large reservoirs at the hospital and an institution. They are used for backup but are used anyways.

About 20% of villagers have cisterns. They use black tanks that hold about 1000L. Not many homes have eavestroughs either and ones who do are homemade made of corrugated sheet metal

Agriculture
There is very little agriculture, about 5% of the land is used for agriculture. They living is dependent on hearding and livestock. They use the water mostly to feed their livestock and of course human consumption. An interesting area to look upon are small little garden plot for family homes (says Virginia). The women buy food from a market far away. 

Cleaning
Villagers use a detergent brand called Toss to wash clothes. For showering, they use a huge bar of soap made from oils.

Water recycling and conservation
After they've used the water for cleaning or washing clothes, they use it again for other things as well.
Reservoirs are open to the environments and have no stop of evaporation. They instead restrict the flow of water individuals can get to conserve water.

Soil
Longido is mostly made up of sand and clay. The soil beneath the ground, about 4-5 feet deep through sand, is very good for agriculture as it is rich dark earth. 

Story : A Maasai man was trying to build a reservoir to collect water the size of 2 football fields. He and a group of men cleared the land by hand, built a bank from the soil. After some time, rainwater was collected in the reservoir and worked for a small period of time until the weight of the water went right through the bank and to the other side of the bank.

Plentiful sources
They have lots of:
Cows/goats
Maize/corn (more water they grow it, less water they buy it)
Corn flour 

Virginia's thought's
The idea of roofing is difficult because of the way current homes are made as they are not properly designed for water harvesting. Area to harvest ware like a canopy might be a better idea.

Failed projects
Pas projects have failed because of inadequate investment.

Who Virginia is in contact with to obtain her knowledge
- Water engineer & his team
- CITO
- Organizational research & Development team
- Capitalist for Change team
- Small Australian NGO - permaculture
- Kimakowa (traditional maasai boma)
- Village council in longido
- Micro finance people
- Staff of Tembo
- Etc. 


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