Greyas Village

I would like to apologize again for the lack of photos, there is no way any of us can upload photos here so I will post photos to go with this writing as soon as I return! 

Also during our stay in Katete at Tikondane we walked 40 minutes (in 85 degree heat) to pay a visit to Greyas village.  Headman Greyas (the local chiefs are called 'headmen') gave us a tour of his village which was full of thatched roofs, pigs, chickens and dogs running around freely.  We saw a lot of struggling people and animals here.  The water pumps/boar holes were both broken - with no maintenance plan from the donor agencies who installed them (in this case Rotary Intl.)  a common problem here in sub-Saharan Africa.  The chickens in the coop are killing each other (because they're not used to being in a coop) which was implemented as a request by Tikondane - trying to impose western farming techniques.  Most of the pigs had also died as a result of putting them in pens, from sanitation issues and lack of food (they usually graze on their own and people cannot afford to buy food for them.) 

On our way back we saw a very sick little toddler sitting by herself on the side of the road trying to crack a nut to feed herself.  Her older sister (no more than 5) was sitting nearby, clearly unable to take care of her. She had a fever and no adults were to be found.  I had an orange in my bag which we gave to her. 

Overall an intense experience seeing so much poverty, illness and limited access to food and water.  As I later found out in our travels, Greyas village is lucky to have the best hospital in the country located within an hour's walk and support from Tikondane.  Our next stop Mfuwe revealed much more of a rural setting with much less access to health and education...