Another day another pump

Harisen writes

John,
I was in Chembezi in Elamuleni to see the broken well, I will fix it early next week.
Laston Kaunda was sending you his regards.
I explained to them about the situation with the pumps, they were very sorry.
God bless you.
Harisen.

The picture shows the village of the Chief, Chembezi: (the surname is the more polite way to address people in Malawi).
The village has about 25 families. We fixed their pump, installed by CCAP, earlier this year as a temporary solution.
The pump situation referred to by Harisen, is the fact that the Revenue people still hold our 20 pumps for a ransom of 600 euro duty.
We are working on trying to get them to relent, as their is no duty on pumps for villagers who get them free. This is the official position, BUT in practice things are at variance. The duty for us represents 100%.
Not to be deterred though!!
At the front of the picture is the newly cultivated soil for maize, waiting for the rains. Behind this is Cassava, a drought resistant root crop, used when the maize is used up. It's not the preferred food but it can mean that they don't starve.
We encourage all "our" villages to grow it.