Back last year, I called a meeting to confront the village about two problems plaguing it. Problem number 1 was the non-pinned-up roaming sheep and goats whose excrement was spreading filth and illness all over the village (as well as ravaging my Moringa nurseries despite my enclosures). Problem number 2 was the steady depletion of soil nutrients and growing dependence on expensive and eventually harmful chemical fertilizers in a village that is highly dependent on agriculture. I submitted these problems to the village. Though I had ideas of my own, I asked them, in presence of the chief, what should be done, explaining that the village was poisoning itself with a substance that could potentially enrich it.

The village and the chief independently decided that the best way to rectify the situation would be to enact laws requiring villagers to pin-up their animals, at night to start, from that day onward. Starting January 1, 2007 the animals would be pinned-up, except for grazing outside the village, day and night. The fine to the owner for each animal in violation was the equivalent of 1 dollar. The village also independently decided to have a village clean-up day every first Wednesday of the month (See prior entry) .

The pinning-up or tying up of the animals lasted 3 or 4 nights and the Wednesday clean-up took place one and a half times.

At the time, having been in village for 2 months time and not wanting to insult the chief for non-enforcement of the laws it enacted, after subtly broaching the issue, I did not feel comfortable confronting the village. But I have decided to call the village on its failure to follow through. I feel I have enough respect in the village now to spend on such a move or maybe I missed an important opportunity to intervene before. My counterpart complains of 20 years of similar failures to follow through on the part of the village, leading to his giving up trying to intervene in village affairs and development. Maybe the white guy can turn things around ;-).