Rain catchment systems, pianos, and colleges... oh my

-Today we headed to the Nyamasare Catholic Church, which is located up the hill from the clinic, in order to conduct a presentation on clean water. We arrived early so that we could experience the services. The service consisted of nearly 2 hours of wonderful music! : ) We all walked away in wonder at the wonderful voices that the parishioners have. Typically churches will have a choir that provide the backbone to the sound but the whole congregation had wonderful voices and the dancing was equally beautiful. The instruments consisted solely of drums and a triangle that was wrung with rebar. Following the services, Phil and I conducted a presentation on clean water. We discussed the use of PUR, WaterGuard, and the 3 Pot Method. Following the presentations, the church thanked us for our work and the presentations and then made some lofty requests. They started off pretty basic, asking for a rainwater catchment system… but then things got a little strange when they asked us for a piano and then for me to build them the “Scott Webb Memorial Engineering College.” Unfortunately, I feel that previous NGOs have given the community convoluted expectations. Roy took the time to explain to the congregation that EWB strives to work with the community on a level basis to provide technical support that they may not have ready access to. While EWB UCSB won’t be providing a piano and a university, hopefully our future projects can help bring clean drinking water to the community.
-Scott