Moi-Ndabi...

This photograph shows Moi-Ndabi. The people who live here were displaced many many years ago (see my post below for more about displaced people and what this means). They live on flood plains here beneath the mountains, which are areas where it is likely that the water levels can get high enough to cause flooding. As you can see from the picture, the people in Moi-Ndabi live in houses made of sticks and mud. If you think about the story of the three little pigs, and what happened to the house of sticks was in that story - then you can understand that the houses are not very sturdy.

While I was there visiting the village Chief this week, I saw how scary the floods can be. It wasn't raining in the village when I was there; it was all dry. The water comes from the nearby mountains and no one can tell when it will come or how strong the flow will be. While I visited the Chief, the water came and flooded a gully, cutting us off from the road home. If the water had broken the banks of the gully I think that houses and animals would have been swept away. It is a dangerous place to be living, but many of the people here are so poor they don't really have a choice.

Mission Care International helped the people of Moi-Ndabi by bringing water to the village. Before January 2007 people had to walk up to 20km a day to fetch water - now there is a pump right in the village for people to use. This makes such a difference to the lives of the villagers.