Betty Urness’ Mission Trip
Hello KGF Family!
Erik and I are back from our trip to Tanzania with Global Aid Network - Water for Life Initiative. I thought you might enjoy a short overview of our experiences along with a few photos.
Each day we were up early to travel to the small villages where we would be working. We were able to watch a drilling rig in action and then walked to where the people in this village were presently getting their source of water. That was shocking!
We visited another village where a water well had been operating for a couple of years. The contrast was so obvious. The villagers had energetic, bright and happy children and a much cleaner environment. This is me pumping water.
We spent another day in a village where Erik helped get all the pieces in place for the pump installation.
The following day we arrived in the village where our well was ready to assemble the frame for the concrete. We prepped the area and poured the concrete. We all had a share in signing our name in the wet concrete along one side of the platform - "GAiN Life Team 2024 - Titus 1:4". It was deeply gratifying to see all the villagers gathering around to watch us work.
Erik and the other kids on our team (6 in all) brought soccer balls and frisbees to give to the children in the schools we visited. Those kids can run like the wind, barefoot and on very rough, weedy ground. They had no trouble outscoring the "white" team! Super fun to watch!
Here's Erik with a typical African soccer ball made of tightly wound up
plastic bags bound with twine!
Tanzania is a beautiful country but there is so much deep poverty. Seeing how hard they work for so little and how they manage, most often with no electricity or roads, living in 2 room mud huts with little to no belongings except the few clothes they have and a few pots and pans, is incredibly humbling.
I want to thank you for generously supporting us. These water wells are desperately needed all over Africa and many other parts of the world. You helped provide a beautiful freshwater well to a community of several hundred African people. The good news is our whole team was able to raise more than we needed so the extra money is being used to install another water well in Benin, West Africa!
During the last 4 days of our adventure, we went on safari to the Serengeti Plains and Ngorongoro Crater, the largest extinct volcanic crater on Earth and one of the 7 natural wonders of the world! We saw hundreds of animals up close from elephants, lions, zebras, hippos and rhinos, Cape Buffalo and wildebeests, to cheetahs, leopards, gazelles, flamingos and ostriches and many, many others. These are truly beautiful animals and to be so privileged to see them so close up in their natural habitat is a memory we will keep forever.
Again, thank you for your generous contribution to this water well project and especially your prayers. May the blessing of your generosity be returned to you!
With deep gratitude,
Betty and Erik Urness