Our petrifilm test results proved (somewhat) to be valid. This morning we emptied out and cleaned the rainwater tanks. They were filthy. The water was dirty and brown. Yum. Who's up for a nice clean bath? Surprisingly, the water was still clear when you opened the tap...
Afterwards, John took us around for more household surveys. John, Monica, Beccca, and Helen visited some homes by the trading center. All the families there were renting their houses. John also took us to visit one of the former politicians in Ddegeya. This guy had previously stopped Tom, Monica, and Helen on the road to discuss America, tell us that he had traveled through 12 states, and ask if Monica and Helen were Tom's wives. Today, he went on to describe his grand plans to construct a giant personal well to catch surface run-off after we had asked him about water needs for the community. He subtly hinted that we should help him build this well. He introduced us to all of his sons, saying that it would be "good memories for them."
We then went to visit a grandmother, raising her grandson, and found that she made baskets as her source of income. Becca and Helen bought two sets of baskets, which probably provided her with enough money to get some firewood, water, and food for a while. In the middle of our chat with this woman, the politician reappears at her house to give us an offer to sell us up to 5 acres of land for the project at a "good price that I'm happy with." According to John, this is likely to be very expensive. This is not likely to happen. If it did, we probably would be evicting half of Ddegya from their homes.
We came back and had the usual lunch. We had scheduled a meeting with the local council at 3pm, which on African Standard Time is 4pm. The council members and John trickled in by 4pm. The meeting was very productive. We discussed our findings from our trip. The council agreed that the community would be involved with each stage of the project. They asked when we would need labor. We discussed the priority of different projects. Overall, it seems the council is fully onboard with working on the project; a great step in building a strong partnership with Ddegeya.
We decided to treat ourselves, having accomplished a lot so far and indulge in a concert. A concert produced and performed by the children of Ddegeya. It started out as a spontaneous play session and became a formal concert once they realized they had an audience. They were really into it with some great dance moves. Many of them were pretty good singers. They said they learned much of it in school. Becca and Helen decided they wanted to join the star cast after being spectators. The rest of the audience quickly dispersed soon after...
Becca and Helen started dancing with the kids. They have more rhythm than us. However, it quickly turned into a workout session as the kids led us through sets of jumping jacks, push-ups, and one-legged hops. From there it progressed into us playing Ugandan children games, with us having very little idea of what was going on. Unlike most American children's games, none of them were competitive and all had a song. We ran in circles, made bridges, sat-up and down, and tapped each other's heads. All with two babies under foot.
Meanwhile, the rest of the team was doing more civil things like cooking dinner. Peter, Monica, and Pauravi were making chappatis. Pauravi was practicing her chappati rolling skills. Even her grandmother would be proud. She later took up the task of passing on this impressive skill, directing Becca and Helen in the art of making perfect circular chappatis.
Becca and Helen left to ensure the trace of the nerds would be left behind. We realized we had way too many petrifilm tests while packing. Tom walked in and couldn't resist the temptation to continue scientific experiments. We left a few sets of petrifilm tests, whirlpacks, and Quick Swabs along with instructions on how to use them. Half-way through Helen's explanation on how to use stuff, Tom said, "Don't worry, I'll read these all in detail." Enjoy the thrilling late night reading Tom. Tom placed the material on the shelf and marked the space with his signature hat to ensure no one else would take them. We're not sure who would. Maybe, the curious and pestering chicken, Chester. We look forward to interesting rainy season data ( and lighter suitcases).
Monday, August 24, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
First of all, sorry about not writing yesterday. We got several notices today that we had forgotten. No worries, today's blog will be extra long :)
Yesterday got off to a pretty slow start. Pauravi and Peter did some more laundry. Turns out Peter is pretty talented when it comes to doing laundry. He got all the stains out of the socks, making them look brand new. We spent a good part of the morning discovering the clinic's small, but awesome book collection. We've all got our noses in some inspiring development books and captivating stories.
In the afternoon, John, Tom, Monica, and Helen went out to do more community surveys. We went to a region of Ddegeya that is farthest from any source of water. Our first stop was at house that was remarkably wealthy for this region. The house was well constructed, being made of brick and actualy concrete instead of cheap sand mixtures. They had enormous concrete rainwater collection tanks that provided adequate year round water for human consumption and even crops. The rest of Ddegeya relies on rainwater for their crops. This was the only household to reply "none" when asked if they had any water concerns. The house had well ventilated latrines and was even connected to the grid (something we're striving to do for the clinic). There was a second, even wealthier looking house right next to this one but we didn't stop.
Immediately following this house, was one of the poorest regions of Ddegeya. Many of these houses were of the shoddy mud and stick construction, their crops were failing, they had difficulty finding water, and they little or no other income. On this trek, we ran into probably the poorest and most hardworking woman we have encountered. The woman was forced to take her children and flee from an abusive relationship. She now lives by herself raising her daughter and twin boys. They have no plot of land and therefore cannot rely on the community's primary source of food, sustinence farming. The woman is left with very few options for an income and had resorted to doing odd digging jobs for others in Ddegeya. Because her children are so small, she is the only one capable of collecting water and many times is forced to buy water and firewood if there is no time. She also has to rent her house (but is hoping to buy it soon). John definitely showed his remarkable commitment to the development of Ddegeya and its people when he offered the woman a plot of land at the Engeye clinic. She came by today to get the land will start working it soon.
We didn't blog last night due to a collective desire to watch a movie. We watched Crash. Vidya-you were right, it was really good. Afterwards, Becca and Helen waged battle with a giant black cricket that had made itself at home in our latrine. Neither of us wanted to share the latrine with the cricket so we made several futile attempts to kill it. We enlisted rocks and Helen's flip flops all to no avail. Monica came by and just used the latrine with no problem. So in the end, we were forced to make peace with the giant black cricket.
This morning started muh earlier than others. Not because we all got out of bed earlier, but because there was a major event that at least some of us noted. Recently, John brought a rooster to the clinic. This morning the rooster started cock-a-doodling around 5 am, continuously for a bit, and then all of a sudden the cock-a-doodle was much longer, and very off key. Pauravi woke up startled and definitely noticed this difference and thought to herself, "It sounds like the chicken just got its head cut off." To her shock and awe, that is exactly what had happened. Pauravi seemed to be the only one unaware that the reason John brought it to the clinic in the first place was to kill it, and eat it eventually. She's had a mixture of emotions all day, since this is the first time she's been so close to such an event, and at the end of the most religious week of the year for her. She felt powerless to do anything about it. She's never been one to impose her beliefs on others, and didn't attempt to this time either. It is an interesting juxtaposition to the email she received the other day about Jiva Daya. How much negative karma has she accumulated by neglecting to stop the act? Everyone else was excited to have chicken for lunch and dinner today. It was a special treat for them.
Yesterday got off to a pretty slow start. Pauravi and Peter did some more laundry. Turns out Peter is pretty talented when it comes to doing laundry. He got all the stains out of the socks, making them look brand new. We spent a good part of the morning discovering the clinic's small, but awesome book collection. We've all got our noses in some inspiring development books and captivating stories.
In the afternoon, John, Tom, Monica, and Helen went out to do more community surveys. We went to a region of Ddegeya that is farthest from any source of water. Our first stop was at house that was remarkably wealthy for this region. The house was well constructed, being made of brick and actualy concrete instead of cheap sand mixtures. They had enormous concrete rainwater collection tanks that provided adequate year round water for human consumption and even crops. The rest of Ddegeya relies on rainwater for their crops. This was the only household to reply "none" when asked if they had any water concerns. The house had well ventilated latrines and was even connected to the grid (something we're striving to do for the clinic). There was a second, even wealthier looking house right next to this one but we didn't stop.
Immediately following this house, was one of the poorest regions of Ddegeya. Many of these houses were of the shoddy mud and stick construction, their crops were failing, they had difficulty finding water, and they little or no other income. On this trek, we ran into probably the poorest and most hardworking woman we have encountered. The woman was forced to take her children and flee from an abusive relationship. She now lives by herself raising her daughter and twin boys. They have no plot of land and therefore cannot rely on the community's primary source of food, sustinence farming. The woman is left with very few options for an income and had resorted to doing odd digging jobs for others in Ddegeya. Because her children are so small, she is the only one capable of collecting water and many times is forced to buy water and firewood if there is no time. She also has to rent her house (but is hoping to buy it soon). John definitely showed his remarkable commitment to the development of Ddegeya and its people when he offered the woman a plot of land at the Engeye clinic. She came by today to get the land will start working it soon.
We didn't blog last night due to a collective desire to watch a movie. We watched Crash. Vidya-you were right, it was really good. Afterwards, Becca and Helen waged battle with a giant black cricket that had made itself at home in our latrine. Neither of us wanted to share the latrine with the cricket so we made several futile attempts to kill it. We enlisted rocks and Helen's flip flops all to no avail. Monica came by and just used the latrine with no problem. So in the end, we were forced to make peace with the giant black cricket.
This morning started muh earlier than others. Not because we all got out of bed earlier, but because there was a major event that at least some of us noted. Recently, John brought a rooster to the clinic. This morning the rooster started cock-a-doodling around 5 am, continuously for a bit, and then all of a sudden the cock-a-doodle was much longer, and very off key. Pauravi woke up startled and definitely noticed this difference and thought to herself, "It sounds like the chicken just got its head cut off." To her shock and awe, that is exactly what had happened. Pauravi seemed to be the only one unaware that the reason John brought it to the clinic in the first place was to kill it, and eat it eventually. She's had a mixture of emotions all day, since this is the first time she's been so close to such an event, and at the end of the most religious week of the year for her. She felt powerless to do anything about it. She's never been one to impose her beliefs on others, and didn't attempt to this time either. It is an interesting juxtaposition to the email she received the other day about Jiva Daya. How much negative karma has she accumulated by neglecting to stop the act? Everyone else was excited to have chicken for lunch and dinner today. It was a special treat for them.
Friday, August 21, 2009
A Trip to the Big (Kind of) City
After breakfast, we got ready to head to Masaka, at the other end of the Masaka-Mbarara Road (we are currently in between the two cities). This meant going out to the main road, and waiting on the side for a taxi. Something like five taxis stopped to inquire about where we were going before we got one. Most of the taxis were going straight to Kampala, and didn't want to let us out in Masaka. Finally, a taxi stopped and said okay to us going to Masaka. There were five of us, and after we got in, the taxi had 20 adults, 3 kids, a large sheath of banana leaves, and the driver.
For part of the ride, five of us were in one row meant to hold three, with Pauravi sitting on Becca's lap. It did eventually empty out though, with only 4 people in a row. These taxis are meant to hold 14. The road to Masaka is riddled with potholes, and there really is not two lanes, because cars will always go to the other side if their respective side has too many. Going up hills and around blind turns, drivers honk their horns to let the cars going the other way know that they should move out of the middle of the road.
Halfway to Masaka there is a police checkpoint. The police are checking to see whether the taxis are really carrying 14 people. A little before this point, 3 people got out, hopped on a moped and met up with us again after the police checkpoint. Apparently the driver and "conductor" (the guy collecting the money and negotiating fares) don't count though, because we had 16 people and 2 kids still. But we passed the police with no problem, and met back up with the others who had ridden past on a moped. They got back in and we continued on our journey.
Once we got to Masaka, we first headed to the bank to exchange a bit more money. We had wanted to stop by a clinic in Masaka and see what kind of equipment they had, but when we enquired, they said we had to ask the clinic director. She didn't let us see anything, or even have any information about the manufacturer's because according to John, she thought we were trying to set up a rival clinic. Engeye refers a lot of their patients to this clinic though when they cannot treat them or they need more advanced care, so it was a bit weird, but we had to go with it. We had to go to a different bank afterwards also for John to take care of some money business for the Engeye Scholars.
The next order of business was lunch. This was exciting because it was really the first time we would have something other that matooke, poshe, beans or peanut sauce. A lot of the options on the menu though, were quite similar. We all ended up getting curry and rice. It was good, though different than Indian curry. Pauravi had vegetable curry though and it was basically cabbage, carrots, oil, salt and pepper. The chicken curry was good though, definitely a difference from the normal routine. Even with drinks, the most expensive meal was less than $3.
After lunch, we went to scout out available resources and supplies. We wanted to see what would be available in Masaka and find out prices. To find out the price of gravel and sand, we visited the nearest construction and asked a construction worker. Apparently you get directly from where it is dug and crushed, so that was too far. We also went the hardware store "district" of Masaka, and searched around for PVC piping, rainwater tanks and other goodies. Next we checked out the prices of generators and solar panels.
Our final order of business in Masaka was to go to the supermarket and the fruit market. We got banana bread, strawberry cake, and various types of crackers and things. The cakes/breads are good, though very different than what you might get in the US. They are not sweet, and taste more like the fruit than anything else. While we were in the supermarket, the grid cut out, so all the power went off. This is apparently a very common problem, and sometimes it will be out for a whole day. The fruit market was like a market anywhere, but we passed through the butcher district, shoe district and other areas with only certain types of shops to get there. We ended up buying almost 30 passion fruits (very delicious), papaya (2 huge ones) and 12 clementines (the outsides are dark green). We only spent 6000 shillings, which is about 3 dollars.
We headed the back to the clinic and headed out to collect our third set of water samples. It will be interesting to see the results because the second round had some huge variations from the first. An interesting finding also is that the pH of a lot of the boreholes has decreased from around 6.2 or 6.4 to 5.5 or 5.6. We've noted that it hasn't rained in the past couple of days, and think maybe this is related, but we aren't sure. Any ideas?
We thought about watching a movie, but the darkness seems to make us all more tired, even though it is only 9:30 pm, so that idea got scratched.
Sula bulungi.
For part of the ride, five of us were in one row meant to hold three, with Pauravi sitting on Becca's lap. It did eventually empty out though, with only 4 people in a row. These taxis are meant to hold 14. The road to Masaka is riddled with potholes, and there really is not two lanes, because cars will always go to the other side if their respective side has too many. Going up hills and around blind turns, drivers honk their horns to let the cars going the other way know that they should move out of the middle of the road.
Halfway to Masaka there is a police checkpoint. The police are checking to see whether the taxis are really carrying 14 people. A little before this point, 3 people got out, hopped on a moped and met up with us again after the police checkpoint. Apparently the driver and "conductor" (the guy collecting the money and negotiating fares) don't count though, because we had 16 people and 2 kids still. But we passed the police with no problem, and met back up with the others who had ridden past on a moped. They got back in and we continued on our journey.
Once we got to Masaka, we first headed to the bank to exchange a bit more money. We had wanted to stop by a clinic in Masaka and see what kind of equipment they had, but when we enquired, they said we had to ask the clinic director. She didn't let us see anything, or even have any information about the manufacturer's because according to John, she thought we were trying to set up a rival clinic. Engeye refers a lot of their patients to this clinic though when they cannot treat them or they need more advanced care, so it was a bit weird, but we had to go with it. We had to go to a different bank afterwards also for John to take care of some money business for the Engeye Scholars.
The next order of business was lunch. This was exciting because it was really the first time we would have something other that matooke, poshe, beans or peanut sauce. A lot of the options on the menu though, were quite similar. We all ended up getting curry and rice. It was good, though different than Indian curry. Pauravi had vegetable curry though and it was basically cabbage, carrots, oil, salt and pepper. The chicken curry was good though, definitely a difference from the normal routine. Even with drinks, the most expensive meal was less than $3.
After lunch, we went to scout out available resources and supplies. We wanted to see what would be available in Masaka and find out prices. To find out the price of gravel and sand, we visited the nearest construction and asked a construction worker. Apparently you get directly from where it is dug and crushed, so that was too far. We also went the hardware store "district" of Masaka, and searched around for PVC piping, rainwater tanks and other goodies. Next we checked out the prices of generators and solar panels.
Our final order of business in Masaka was to go to the supermarket and the fruit market. We got banana bread, strawberry cake, and various types of crackers and things. The cakes/breads are good, though very different than what you might get in the US. They are not sweet, and taste more like the fruit than anything else. While we were in the supermarket, the grid cut out, so all the power went off. This is apparently a very common problem, and sometimes it will be out for a whole day. The fruit market was like a market anywhere, but we passed through the butcher district, shoe district and other areas with only certain types of shops to get there. We ended up buying almost 30 passion fruits (very delicious), papaya (2 huge ones) and 12 clementines (the outsides are dark green). We only spent 6000 shillings, which is about 3 dollars.
We headed the back to the clinic and headed out to collect our third set of water samples. It will be interesting to see the results because the second round had some huge variations from the first. An interesting finding also is that the pH of a lot of the boreholes has decreased from around 6.2 or 6.4 to 5.5 or 5.6. We've noted that it hasn't rained in the past couple of days, and think maybe this is related, but we aren't sure. Any ideas?
We thought about watching a movie, but the darkness seems to make us all more tired, even though it is only 9:30 pm, so that idea got scratched.
Sula bulungi.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
What's this?
Today's first new experience was eating jackfruit for breakfast. It's an ugly green fruit, quite large, covered in bumps. It has individual packet-like things inside, each with a seed. The fruit itself tastes good, but the texture takes some getting used to. Each piece looks kind of like a clove of garlic, and is quite smooth.
It was cool when we woke up, but within maybe 30 minutes it got really hot. We decided not to go out this morning, but instead to organize a meeting at the clinic with John, the clinic manager, Charles, the nurse and Sophie, an assistant, to talk about the clinic's needs. While we were waiting for them to be free, we started doing research on possible solutions, such as spring boxes and charcoal from sugar cane.
The clinic's biggest need is definitely electricity. They currently have no lab equipment because it all runs on power, and are unable to admit patients for overnight observation. Electricity would dramatically improve the services they are able to provide, and would allow them to become a vaccination center (refrigeration).
It was interesting asking about water, because Charles said that he would like the community water supply to be cleaned because many people come in with GIT, or other preventable diseases that come from water. The clinic does need sterile water though, because they currently have to use some of their saline solution meant for rehydration to clean wounds because other water is not suitable. This is expensive, and is an unnecessary cost.
After lunch, John took Helen, Becca and Paruavi out to ask about costs of basic necessities in the trading center in Ddegeya and to get samples from two new (very small) ponds. The store we stopped into was connected to the grid, which powered the refrigerator full of sodas. We saw racks of sun-dried or smoked fish hanging on the walls. A bit shocking to see for someone who is vegetarian. It kind of reminded us of the way meat hangs in the windows in Europe (Spain, specifically). The store sold supplies such as flour, sugar, bread, sweet rolls, donuts (Ugandan version), soaps, school supplies, curry powders, etc. We bought a passion fruit in the trading center. On the way to the pond, we had an agriculture lesson, with John showing us all the different types plants and trees, some of which included banana trees, yam plants, pineapple plants, mango trees, papaya trees, guava trees, avocado trees, peanut plants, cassava trees, eggplant tree/bushes, tomatoe plants, strange cucumber like things and many, many other new plants that we had never seen before. This is the result of urban living in the States.
While Helen, Becca, and Pauravi were out, Peter dug a soil pit near the pond by the clinic to observe the different layers of the soil. He saw two layers of dirt, but his digging did not intersect the water table as we had hoped. We will try again tomorrow.
When we got back, we took out the samples from yesterday, and many of them are presenting with much more coliform than previously. The rainwater was especially surprising. Our first rainwater samples had only 2 coliforms, but this time there were maybe 80 on each. We don't know what would cause this to happen, but is very suprising to us, and we think that perhaps the rainwater tank heats up when it is hot, causing bacteria to grow. Maybe we won't take a bath today... Baby wipes sound good, don't you think? We started to also notice a distinct smell from our water bottles so we decided it was time to treat them with some iodine tablets.
When we got back from the trading center and ponds, Tom, Monica, and Peter were making chappatis to have with dinner. They were very good. They had some onions in them too, which added to the flavor. Pauravi also helped roll a couple chapatis. They were very round, and would make her mother proud. Dinner was again the same foods, but this time with chappati. We also had the passion fruit after dinner, and it was delicious.
Tomorrow we are going to Masaka to try and go to a larger clinic, price the cost of construction materials, and buy some food (we want to get a lot of the fruits we saw today). It will be good to see another part of Uganda (or town at least).
It was cool when we woke up, but within maybe 30 minutes it got really hot. We decided not to go out this morning, but instead to organize a meeting at the clinic with John, the clinic manager, Charles, the nurse and Sophie, an assistant, to talk about the clinic's needs. While we were waiting for them to be free, we started doing research on possible solutions, such as spring boxes and charcoal from sugar cane.
The clinic's biggest need is definitely electricity. They currently have no lab equipment because it all runs on power, and are unable to admit patients for overnight observation. Electricity would dramatically improve the services they are able to provide, and would allow them to become a vaccination center (refrigeration).
It was interesting asking about water, because Charles said that he would like the community water supply to be cleaned because many people come in with GIT, or other preventable diseases that come from water. The clinic does need sterile water though, because they currently have to use some of their saline solution meant for rehydration to clean wounds because other water is not suitable. This is expensive, and is an unnecessary cost.
After lunch, John took Helen, Becca and Paruavi out to ask about costs of basic necessities in the trading center in Ddegeya and to get samples from two new (very small) ponds. The store we stopped into was connected to the grid, which powered the refrigerator full of sodas. We saw racks of sun-dried or smoked fish hanging on the walls. A bit shocking to see for someone who is vegetarian. It kind of reminded us of the way meat hangs in the windows in Europe (Spain, specifically). The store sold supplies such as flour, sugar, bread, sweet rolls, donuts (Ugandan version), soaps, school supplies, curry powders, etc. We bought a passion fruit in the trading center. On the way to the pond, we had an agriculture lesson, with John showing us all the different types plants and trees, some of which included banana trees, yam plants, pineapple plants, mango trees, papaya trees, guava trees, avocado trees, peanut plants, cassava trees, eggplant tree/bushes, tomatoe plants, strange cucumber like things and many, many other new plants that we had never seen before. This is the result of urban living in the States.
While Helen, Becca, and Pauravi were out, Peter dug a soil pit near the pond by the clinic to observe the different layers of the soil. He saw two layers of dirt, but his digging did not intersect the water table as we had hoped. We will try again tomorrow.
When we got back, we took out the samples from yesterday, and many of them are presenting with much more coliform than previously. The rainwater was especially surprising. Our first rainwater samples had only 2 coliforms, but this time there were maybe 80 on each. We don't know what would cause this to happen, but is very suprising to us, and we think that perhaps the rainwater tank heats up when it is hot, causing bacteria to grow. Maybe we won't take a bath today... Baby wipes sound good, don't you think? We started to also notice a distinct smell from our water bottles so we decided it was time to treat them with some iodine tablets.
When we got back from the trading center and ponds, Tom, Monica, and Peter were making chappatis to have with dinner. They were very good. They had some onions in them too, which added to the flavor. Pauravi also helped roll a couple chapatis. They were very round, and would make her mother proud. Dinner was again the same foods, but this time with chappati. We also had the passion fruit after dinner, and it was delicious.
Tomorrow we are going to Masaka to try and go to a larger clinic, price the cost of construction materials, and buy some food (we want to get a lot of the fruits we saw today). It will be good to see another part of Uganda (or town at least).
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Wrenches, Duct tape and then there was water
The morning started with John saying that the borehole was broken again. It was fixed only a month ago. The constant need for attention is kind of shaping our feelings about them. The borehole breaking changed the morning's plans a bit, but we still got everything done that needed to get done.
After breakfast, we did laundry. The soil here is really red, and gets everywhere. After washing everything, our water looked like the pond water. We had one bucket for washing and one for rinsing. Our water was the rainwater, and Susan gave us some amazing soap that got almost all of the red dirt out. After, we headed down to Naalongo, the name of the pond. We were going to collect another round of samples from the three sources by the clinic, but when we got down, we saw that the pump wasn't giving any water. We tried pumping it to see what it felt like, and it felt like the chain was loose. The pond was now crowded with people getting water from it, which wasn't good since we just learned that the pond has E.coli in it. We went up to get John and the tools and proceeded to take the pump apart. We had also asked John to tell people to use the water from the pond in the bamboo forest, but he said that people thought that they couldn't get enough water from it, so they kept using Naalongo.
While we were taking the pump apart, we acquired a huge crowd of kids watching. It was interesting to see how the pump worked and was put together. It stops working because pieces down at the bottom of the tube come unscrewed. The gaskets that help pull the water up had just come unscrewed. It is good that it is a relatively simple fix, but the fact that something that simple can cause the pump to stop working.
We discovered that there is a lot of the red clay in the soil that has clogged the borehole before, and to try and prevent this, during the last fix, they put a mosquito net around the bottom of the pump to act as a strainer, and it seems to be working. We are going to go take apart another borehole that is making a lot of noise and not pumping as well as it could and see if we can improve it.
We measured the depth of the borehole before putting it back together and discovered it is not very deep. The water is only 1.2 meters deep, and the hole itself is 3 meters to the bottom of the water. Many of the boreholes in the area were drilled by the government in the rainy season and stopped working very quickly. In the lower valleys, the soil is more sandy and other parts are a gray clay which discolors the water and makes it very murky. The water from the working boreholes in this type of soil is less clean.
By that time there was a huge crowd of people waiting for us to fix the borehole (42 jerry cans and their respective owners), and when we finished putting it back together, there was a lot of competition and jostling for who could fill their jerry cans first. We also noticed that they wash their jerry cans with mud on the outside, but the insides are very dirty.
Lunch was the usual, with spaghetti instead of rice. After lunch, we split up again with Helen and Becca going to do more surveys with John, and Pauravi, Peter and Monica going to finish collecting the samples.
We visited 5 more houses this afternoon. The first house had a very large cow/bull (a cow with horns?) in a very small pen situated above where we were sitting. It was kind of intimidating. We started asking today about the fertility of the soil, and many of the responses were that the soil was getting older, and not producing yields as good as it used to. We also started using Quick Swabs on their drinking water jerry cans to test for surface contamination. A positive is that many of these looked much cleaner, and people would only put water in there that had been boiled. It was kind of weird doing these tests at people's houses, because we also plated them on Petrifilm there because it is recommended to plate them quickly. We'll let you know of the results tomorrow.
At another house, there was a very cute little girl who apparently wanted to come over to us, but was too scared/shy of the mzungus. At one point I (Becca) was sitting on a stool and moved to look at a picture Helen had taken and kind of fell over, and she started laughing. We have a great picture of it. There was also an interesting discussion about whether you can lose toenails in the US because everyone wears shoes. Only when we mentioned that you can drop something on your toes did they believe us.
On the way to collect samples, Monica pointed out an avocado tree that Tom likes to climb.
We plated seven groups of samples, and have 8 different sources. We have to go get samples from another pond tomorrow. Our incubator is working out well, and we are very grateful to have a powerless incubator. D-Lab definitely has some cool technology.
At dusk today we noticed the bats flying out from under the roofs of the clinic buildings. Also, the sky tonight was really clear (the first time we've really been able to see stars), and we went out and looked at the Milky Way and some of the constellations.
Sula bulungi.
After breakfast, we did laundry. The soil here is really red, and gets everywhere. After washing everything, our water looked like the pond water. We had one bucket for washing and one for rinsing. Our water was the rainwater, and Susan gave us some amazing soap that got almost all of the red dirt out. After, we headed down to Naalongo, the name of the pond. We were going to collect another round of samples from the three sources by the clinic, but when we got down, we saw that the pump wasn't giving any water. We tried pumping it to see what it felt like, and it felt like the chain was loose. The pond was now crowded with people getting water from it, which wasn't good since we just learned that the pond has E.coli in it. We went up to get John and the tools and proceeded to take the pump apart. We had also asked John to tell people to use the water from the pond in the bamboo forest, but he said that people thought that they couldn't get enough water from it, so they kept using Naalongo.
While we were taking the pump apart, we acquired a huge crowd of kids watching. It was interesting to see how the pump worked and was put together. It stops working because pieces down at the bottom of the tube come unscrewed. The gaskets that help pull the water up had just come unscrewed. It is good that it is a relatively simple fix, but the fact that something that simple can cause the pump to stop working.
We discovered that there is a lot of the red clay in the soil that has clogged the borehole before, and to try and prevent this, during the last fix, they put a mosquito net around the bottom of the pump to act as a strainer, and it seems to be working. We are going to go take apart another borehole that is making a lot of noise and not pumping as well as it could and see if we can improve it.
We measured the depth of the borehole before putting it back together and discovered it is not very deep. The water is only 1.2 meters deep, and the hole itself is 3 meters to the bottom of the water. Many of the boreholes in the area were drilled by the government in the rainy season and stopped working very quickly. In the lower valleys, the soil is more sandy and other parts are a gray clay which discolors the water and makes it very murky. The water from the working boreholes in this type of soil is less clean.
By that time there was a huge crowd of people waiting for us to fix the borehole (42 jerry cans and their respective owners), and when we finished putting it back together, there was a lot of competition and jostling for who could fill their jerry cans first. We also noticed that they wash their jerry cans with mud on the outside, but the insides are very dirty.
Lunch was the usual, with spaghetti instead of rice. After lunch, we split up again with Helen and Becca going to do more surveys with John, and Pauravi, Peter and Monica going to finish collecting the samples.
We visited 5 more houses this afternoon. The first house had a very large cow/bull (a cow with horns?) in a very small pen situated above where we were sitting. It was kind of intimidating. We started asking today about the fertility of the soil, and many of the responses were that the soil was getting older, and not producing yields as good as it used to. We also started using Quick Swabs on their drinking water jerry cans to test for surface contamination. A positive is that many of these looked much cleaner, and people would only put water in there that had been boiled. It was kind of weird doing these tests at people's houses, because we also plated them on Petrifilm there because it is recommended to plate them quickly. We'll let you know of the results tomorrow.
At another house, there was a very cute little girl who apparently wanted to come over to us, but was too scared/shy of the mzungus. At one point I (Becca) was sitting on a stool and moved to look at a picture Helen had taken and kind of fell over, and she started laughing. We have a great picture of it. There was also an interesting discussion about whether you can lose toenails in the US because everyone wears shoes. Only when we mentioned that you can drop something on your toes did they believe us.
On the way to collect samples, Monica pointed out an avocado tree that Tom likes to climb.
We plated seven groups of samples, and have 8 different sources. We have to go get samples from another pond tomorrow. Our incubator is working out well, and we are very grateful to have a powerless incubator. D-Lab definitely has some cool technology.
At dusk today we noticed the bats flying out from under the roofs of the clinic buildings. Also, the sky tonight was really clear (the first time we've really been able to see stars), and we went out and looked at the Milky Way and some of the constellations.
Sula bulungi.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Ye Bale ssebo, ye bale nnyabo
The morning started with scrambled eggs, some of the first real protein we've had. People here don't eat much meat, but occasionally they will eat one of their goats or sheep or pigs. Pauravi taught Susan, the cook, how to make them. They turned out well. The eggs here have white yolks instead of yellow ones.
After breakfast we split up into pairs to accomplish more tasks. Pauravi and Becca went off to start GPS mapping all the houses in the village while Helen and Peter used the zip level to take elevations along the paved road.
First with the GPS. We set off along the village road, and just started mapping waypoints at each house. People were really curious as to what we were doing, and many thought it was a telephone. Half way along the road we acquired three friends, three little girls who walked with us for probably almost a mile, taking turns holding our hands.
We also met up with a boy on a bicycle, named Rabo, who spoke some English, and told us we were heading away from Ddegeya. He offered to show us the way. We told him that we were mapping the houses. We also met his mother, Harriet. We're not quite sure what the layout is, but apparently the village of Chengala is close to Ddegeya, and from Rabo's description, there seems in some places to be an island of Chengala within Ddegeya, though this is doubtful. We went on a really convoluted path and he showed us his house, his grandmother's house, his grandfather's house, his father's fields, another pond, and a house where "a man cuts a baby and they destroy the house". We learned later from John that 1) the pond really isn't that far away and 2) that there was someone in the destroyed house suspected of murder and people came and tore down the house. He also asked Pauravi for her red blood cells (apparently his parents both have HIV/AIDS). He was very helpful though, and we did see a lot of Ddegeya with him, and his English was quite good.
So far today we have mapped about 130 houses, and suspect that there are maybe 50 more. It's going to be a multi day project, as we spent about 3 hours walking around this morning, which was quite tiring.
The zip level wasn't as exciting. We set off up the main road, leapfrogging the zip level. The whole way up, the caravan of people walking by to collect water were looking at us very curiously. A couple older men stopped to ask us what we were doing, and we explained the project. It turns out they were from another village, the neighboring village of Bunyere. There was one boy on a bike with water who when Helen told her dad to stop pulling the cable so far, the boy stopped because he thought she was talking to him. She told him it wasn't him, so he went ahead by maybe 10 feet, but after that, whenever we stopped, he also stopped. We got the usual "Bye mzungu" chants through the trading center. We finally found the lime green building that marked the turn into the borehole. But once we made the turn, we passed the secretary's house and discovered that we were kind of lost. So we kept asking people "mazzi, mazzi?" and made pumping motions until we were pointed in the right direction towards the borehole. There we found a couple of girls with their mother pumping water. They let us in line and we gathered the samples and headed back. This borehole is lower than Engeye, by about 25 meters, so about 5 meters below the borehole near the clinic. The top of the hill is 16 meters above the clinic, or about 35 meters or over a hundred feet above the borehole. Upon getting back, Helen started entering some of our data into an Excel table, and doing homework with Jeff, John's 4.5 year old son.
We had lunch after Becca and Pauravi got back, which was the same as usual, with an addition of some cucumber/eggplant like vegetable. Afterwards, we reviewed the community survey which commenced in the afternoon with John as our translator.
In the afternoon we split up again, with Helen and Becca doing community surveys and Pauravi and Peter going with Tom and Monica to Masaka to get water and some other things.
We ended up visiting 6 households. The first house was an old woman who lived with her 6 grandkids. She was sitting outside weaving mats, which are meant for visitors to sit on. We sat outside her and started asking our questions. The second house was a family with 8 kids and the 2 parents. They set out chairs for us, and before we sat down, the mother went into the house quickly and got chair mats to put the chairs. It was kind of strange to be treated so specially. They have 8 kids but only 5 live in Ddegeya, the others go to boarding school. It started raining while we were there and we went inside. The house was three rooms, with a well furnished sitting room, but most of the family still sat on the floor. Only the three of us and the father sat on the chairs. At the third house, none of the parents were home, but we talked to a girl, mostly in English, who goes to school in nearby Kinoni. Most of the kids were shy about speaking English, but she sat with us and tried. It seemed she had a hard time understanding our accents, but when John translated our questions, she would reply in English, which seemed relatively fluent.
The fourth house was a crazy grandmother, who we caught of dinner. She thought that we were boys at first because we were wearing baseball caps and pants. Once we took off our hats, she did accept our gender. She took us inside and started rambling to John. John became worried that we may be there for awhile. He told us of one old woman he had visited where he had meant to stay 10 minutes and had to stay 4.5 hours. She lived with her 2 grandkids, and was quite outgoing. She noticed Helen's cross and asked if she was Catholic, and asked if both of us were Catholic. John said Becca was Jewish and she proceeded to ask if those were the ones who killed Jesus. We ended up just switching and asking if she boiled her water. She had her grandkids come in, dressed in their Christmas clothes, to practice their English that she pays for them to learn at school. We asked about the kid's parents and learned that they were in Kampala. Many parents leave their kids with the grandparents and go work, but often times do not have enough money to send to their parents for food for the children. Sometimes they will send some money for school fees. This makes it difficult for the elderly to have enough income to provide for their families. She then accused John of being one of these people, not knowing that he is a single dad who raises his son.
The fifth house was two elderly women who live together but are not related. They have to ask kids who pass by to go get them water because they are both physically unable. They were also very inquisitive of us. They asked if we had bananas in the US, and if twins are ever born in the US. The pond is named Nalongo, or "mother of the twins". They asked if there was a special name for women who give birth to twins in English. The final family was sitting outside peeling matooke (green bananas). They lived the furthest away from Engeye and the pond, and getting water was the biggest burden. All of their 6 kids go to school though.
There was a lot of consensus about what the problems in Ddegeya are. Many people are concerned about the quality of the water from the pond and suggested protecting it somehow, most said by encasing it in concrete or something similar. Other concerns were about the safety of their children while they collect water, and the distance of the water sources from their homes. The ones who were more concerned about the security of the water source live the closest to it. The others who were concerned about the proximity/access of the source were those who had to travel further. During the dry season, some people walk over a mile and down 60 feet to get water, and then must carry the 40 lb jerry cans back, and the water collectors are primarily children. During the rainy season, the majority of people we spoke to already do some type of rainwater harvesting, though their gutters and collection tanks are open and rusty. They did seem to know that the first rainfalls would be dirtier. Most people also boil the water they drink. Another thing we found out talking to people was that firewood is scarce, and often times people have to buy extra firewood. In Ddegeya, the primary firewood is eucalyptus. Most people grow sugar cane, however, and there is a project at MIT about making charcoal, or something similar out of the part of the sugar cane you cannot eat. We are going to look into whether we might be able to implement this in Ddegeya because it is a relatively easy way to make a positive change.
While Rebecca and Helen were out surveying the community, Peter and Pauravi took a trip to Masaka with Tom and Monica to help get refills of the drinking water jugs and some groceries. A ride to Masaka that Monica estimated would take fifteen minutes, took three times as long. Here's a riddle for you: What do you get when you have 18 adults, 3 children, a baby, two hens, and a bunch of luggage? Answer: A taxi from Ddegeya to Masaka. That's right. A van meant for 14 passengers was crammed with all this. Each time the taxi stopped to pick up another passenger, we each wondered how they would fit into the vehicle. Amazingly enough, they all managed some how. When we finally reached Masaka, everyone had to get out to let the four of us out because we are all seated in the very back of the taxi. I, Pauravi, was personally excited to be in the "city" and see what it was like. I was ready to explore. I bought a piece of cinnamon bread from the local bakery for 1,000 shillings ($0.50) to taste. It was pretty good, but the bread was a little tough. I'm not quite sure what in the ingredients, or lack of, makes bread tough this way. It wasn't too sweet either (a good thing), and it was very yellow bread. Come to think of it, it was just like King's Cake (the Mardi Graas cake). At the grocery store we went to, I noticed that they sell many Indian products like spices and hair oil. I bought some tea masala and pillau (rice) masala to help flavor the tea/food at the clinic. (John said they'll cook with it tomorrow). I also bought a cadbury chocolate bar. The chocolate bar (2500 shillings) was more expensive than a razor! Obviously, the chocolate is imported. After we finished grocery shopping, we went to pick up our refilled 5 gallon water jugs. Tom and Monica expected me to carry one. I'm not sure what they were thinking. I was a good sport though and attempted to carry it. Luckily, we didn't go very far until we approached a taxi on the road. We offered to pay the guy 10,000 shillings to take us back to Ddegeya and he agreed. He started down this very unfamiliar road. We were going in the completely wrong direction when he comes to a stop and tells us we've reached our destination. At that point we had to inform him that he misunderstood us and we wanted to go to Ddegeya, the community past Kinoni on Mbarara Road. When he realized what we were saying, he wanted double the money. We refused and told him to take us back to where he picked us up. Luckily he went a bit further and dropped us right at a taxi stand on the main road. Again, I escaped needing to carry the water bottle. The taxi ride back was much quicker and smoother. We weren't crammed either. When we reached the main road 600 ft from the clinic, I could not escape my destiny. I had no other choice but to lug the water bottle as best and as far as I could. I forced myself to make it to the entrance to the clinic and then dropped the bottle. I was out of breath and couldn't make it another step. Surprisingly, Hudson and Richard just stood there and looked at me. No one offered to help for at least several minutes. I'm not used to that. Yesterday, an old lady was trying to climb a steep step up to the clinic entrance and three healthy young men just sat there and watched her. It must be a cultural thing. After what was supposed to be an hour and a half journey, but turned into a three hour one, we had some time to rest while we waited for Helen and Rebecca to return.
After Helen and Rebecca returned from surveying we all shared our afternoon experiences with each other. After that, we analyzed the Petrifilm results from the day before. As expected the boreholes are much cleaner than the ponds, and have no E.coli, but there is some significant variation in the water in the different boreholes. We think it may have to do with the elevation and soil types, but aren't quite sure. We are conducting another round of tests tomorrow, and hope we can do 3-4 rounds in total by the time we leave.
Until Tomorrow...
After breakfast we split up into pairs to accomplish more tasks. Pauravi and Becca went off to start GPS mapping all the houses in the village while Helen and Peter used the zip level to take elevations along the paved road.
First with the GPS. We set off along the village road, and just started mapping waypoints at each house. People were really curious as to what we were doing, and many thought it was a telephone. Half way along the road we acquired three friends, three little girls who walked with us for probably almost a mile, taking turns holding our hands.
We also met up with a boy on a bicycle, named Rabo, who spoke some English, and told us we were heading away from Ddegeya. He offered to show us the way. We told him that we were mapping the houses. We also met his mother, Harriet. We're not quite sure what the layout is, but apparently the village of Chengala is close to Ddegeya, and from Rabo's description, there seems in some places to be an island of Chengala within Ddegeya, though this is doubtful. We went on a really convoluted path and he showed us his house, his grandmother's house, his grandfather's house, his father's fields, another pond, and a house where "a man cuts a baby and they destroy the house". We learned later from John that 1) the pond really isn't that far away and 2) that there was someone in the destroyed house suspected of murder and people came and tore down the house. He also asked Pauravi for her red blood cells (apparently his parents both have HIV/AIDS). He was very helpful though, and we did see a lot of Ddegeya with him, and his English was quite good.
So far today we have mapped about 130 houses, and suspect that there are maybe 50 more. It's going to be a multi day project, as we spent about 3 hours walking around this morning, which was quite tiring.
The zip level wasn't as exciting. We set off up the main road, leapfrogging the zip level. The whole way up, the caravan of people walking by to collect water were looking at us very curiously. A couple older men stopped to ask us what we were doing, and we explained the project. It turns out they were from another village, the neighboring village of Bunyere. There was one boy on a bike with water who when Helen told her dad to stop pulling the cable so far, the boy stopped because he thought she was talking to him. She told him it wasn't him, so he went ahead by maybe 10 feet, but after that, whenever we stopped, he also stopped. We got the usual "Bye mzungu" chants through the trading center. We finally found the lime green building that marked the turn into the borehole. But once we made the turn, we passed the secretary's house and discovered that we were kind of lost. So we kept asking people "mazzi, mazzi?" and made pumping motions until we were pointed in the right direction towards the borehole. There we found a couple of girls with their mother pumping water. They let us in line and we gathered the samples and headed back. This borehole is lower than Engeye, by about 25 meters, so about 5 meters below the borehole near the clinic. The top of the hill is 16 meters above the clinic, or about 35 meters or over a hundred feet above the borehole. Upon getting back, Helen started entering some of our data into an Excel table, and doing homework with Jeff, John's 4.5 year old son.
We had lunch after Becca and Pauravi got back, which was the same as usual, with an addition of some cucumber/eggplant like vegetable. Afterwards, we reviewed the community survey which commenced in the afternoon with John as our translator.
In the afternoon we split up again, with Helen and Becca doing community surveys and Pauravi and Peter going with Tom and Monica to Masaka to get water and some other things.
We ended up visiting 6 households. The first house was an old woman who lived with her 6 grandkids. She was sitting outside weaving mats, which are meant for visitors to sit on. We sat outside her and started asking our questions. The second house was a family with 8 kids and the 2 parents. They set out chairs for us, and before we sat down, the mother went into the house quickly and got chair mats to put the chairs. It was kind of strange to be treated so specially. They have 8 kids but only 5 live in Ddegeya, the others go to boarding school. It started raining while we were there and we went inside. The house was three rooms, with a well furnished sitting room, but most of the family still sat on the floor. Only the three of us and the father sat on the chairs. At the third house, none of the parents were home, but we talked to a girl, mostly in English, who goes to school in nearby Kinoni. Most of the kids were shy about speaking English, but she sat with us and tried. It seemed she had a hard time understanding our accents, but when John translated our questions, she would reply in English, which seemed relatively fluent.
The fourth house was a crazy grandmother, who we caught of dinner. She thought that we were boys at first because we were wearing baseball caps and pants. Once we took off our hats, she did accept our gender. She took us inside and started rambling to John. John became worried that we may be there for awhile. He told us of one old woman he had visited where he had meant to stay 10 minutes and had to stay 4.5 hours. She lived with her 2 grandkids, and was quite outgoing. She noticed Helen's cross and asked if she was Catholic, and asked if both of us were Catholic. John said Becca was Jewish and she proceeded to ask if those were the ones who killed Jesus. We ended up just switching and asking if she boiled her water. She had her grandkids come in, dressed in their Christmas clothes, to practice their English that she pays for them to learn at school. We asked about the kid's parents and learned that they were in Kampala. Many parents leave their kids with the grandparents and go work, but often times do not have enough money to send to their parents for food for the children. Sometimes they will send some money for school fees. This makes it difficult for the elderly to have enough income to provide for their families. She then accused John of being one of these people, not knowing that he is a single dad who raises his son.
The fifth house was two elderly women who live together but are not related. They have to ask kids who pass by to go get them water because they are both physically unable. They were also very inquisitive of us. They asked if we had bananas in the US, and if twins are ever born in the US. The pond is named Nalongo, or "mother of the twins". They asked if there was a special name for women who give birth to twins in English. The final family was sitting outside peeling matooke (green bananas). They lived the furthest away from Engeye and the pond, and getting water was the biggest burden. All of their 6 kids go to school though.
There was a lot of consensus about what the problems in Ddegeya are. Many people are concerned about the quality of the water from the pond and suggested protecting it somehow, most said by encasing it in concrete or something similar. Other concerns were about the safety of their children while they collect water, and the distance of the water sources from their homes. The ones who were more concerned about the security of the water source live the closest to it. The others who were concerned about the proximity/access of the source were those who had to travel further. During the dry season, some people walk over a mile and down 60 feet to get water, and then must carry the 40 lb jerry cans back, and the water collectors are primarily children. During the rainy season, the majority of people we spoke to already do some type of rainwater harvesting, though their gutters and collection tanks are open and rusty. They did seem to know that the first rainfalls would be dirtier. Most people also boil the water they drink. Another thing we found out talking to people was that firewood is scarce, and often times people have to buy extra firewood. In Ddegeya, the primary firewood is eucalyptus. Most people grow sugar cane, however, and there is a project at MIT about making charcoal, or something similar out of the part of the sugar cane you cannot eat. We are going to look into whether we might be able to implement this in Ddegeya because it is a relatively easy way to make a positive change.
While Rebecca and Helen were out surveying the community, Peter and Pauravi took a trip to Masaka with Tom and Monica to help get refills of the drinking water jugs and some groceries. A ride to Masaka that Monica estimated would take fifteen minutes, took three times as long. Here's a riddle for you: What do you get when you have 18 adults, 3 children, a baby, two hens, and a bunch of luggage? Answer: A taxi from Ddegeya to Masaka. That's right. A van meant for 14 passengers was crammed with all this. Each time the taxi stopped to pick up another passenger, we each wondered how they would fit into the vehicle. Amazingly enough, they all managed some how. When we finally reached Masaka, everyone had to get out to let the four of us out because we are all seated in the very back of the taxi. I, Pauravi, was personally excited to be in the "city" and see what it was like. I was ready to explore. I bought a piece of cinnamon bread from the local bakery for 1,000 shillings ($0.50) to taste. It was pretty good, but the bread was a little tough. I'm not quite sure what in the ingredients, or lack of, makes bread tough this way. It wasn't too sweet either (a good thing), and it was very yellow bread. Come to think of it, it was just like King's Cake (the Mardi Graas cake). At the grocery store we went to, I noticed that they sell many Indian products like spices and hair oil. I bought some tea masala and pillau (rice) masala to help flavor the tea/food at the clinic. (John said they'll cook with it tomorrow). I also bought a cadbury chocolate bar. The chocolate bar (2500 shillings) was more expensive than a razor! Obviously, the chocolate is imported. After we finished grocery shopping, we went to pick up our refilled 5 gallon water jugs. Tom and Monica expected me to carry one. I'm not sure what they were thinking. I was a good sport though and attempted to carry it. Luckily, we didn't go very far until we approached a taxi on the road. We offered to pay the guy 10,000 shillings to take us back to Ddegeya and he agreed. He started down this very unfamiliar road. We were going in the completely wrong direction when he comes to a stop and tells us we've reached our destination. At that point we had to inform him that he misunderstood us and we wanted to go to Ddegeya, the community past Kinoni on Mbarara Road. When he realized what we were saying, he wanted double the money. We refused and told him to take us back to where he picked us up. Luckily he went a bit further and dropped us right at a taxi stand on the main road. Again, I escaped needing to carry the water bottle. The taxi ride back was much quicker and smoother. We weren't crammed either. When we reached the main road 600 ft from the clinic, I could not escape my destiny. I had no other choice but to lug the water bottle as best and as far as I could. I forced myself to make it to the entrance to the clinic and then dropped the bottle. I was out of breath and couldn't make it another step. Surprisingly, Hudson and Richard just stood there and looked at me. No one offered to help for at least several minutes. I'm not used to that. Yesterday, an old lady was trying to climb a steep step up to the clinic entrance and three healthy young men just sat there and watched her. It must be a cultural thing. After what was supposed to be an hour and a half journey, but turned into a three hour one, we had some time to rest while we waited for Helen and Rebecca to return.
After Helen and Rebecca returned from surveying we all shared our afternoon experiences with each other. After that, we analyzed the Petrifilm results from the day before. As expected the boreholes are much cleaner than the ponds, and have no E.coli, but there is some significant variation in the water in the different boreholes. We think it may have to do with the elevation and soil types, but aren't quite sure. We are conducting another round of tests tomorrow, and hope we can do 3-4 rounds in total by the time we leave.
Until Tomorrow...
Monday, August 17, 2009
Ddegeya's First Community Meeting
Our morning started at 3am with Pauravi and Becca waking up (or getting up...) to take some Benadryl. The music was still blasting across the street. Allergies here are affecting us both, and it's especially bad at night. Note: do not chew Benadryl. It makes your mouth go numb and has a horrible after taste- but it does nothing else (besides knock you out, and distract you from your allergies instead of curing them).
Breakfast was at 9 or so, and was the same as yesterday. Tomorrow we are going to show Susan (the cook) how to make scrambled eggs.
We played with the zip level this morning, which has many hidden functions that aren't mentioned on the packaging, so after a 4 MB download, we thought we knew how to use one of its hidden functions: the carry function, basically meaning that you can take the measuring unit and the base unit, and as you move up the hill (in roughly 200 foot increments), it will add the elevation. But the unit was being finicky and decided not to cooperate, so we were left to do the math. We took elevations from the main water source up to the village road, an elevation change of almost 20 meters. We suspect that the elevation change that some people are making up to the top of the hill in Ddegeya is closer to 50 meters, quite a way to carry 3-40lb jerry cans, even on a bicycle. We see grown men struggling to push bikes up the hill, while it takes 3 or 4 children to do the same. We also took the elevations along the village road, to the end of the village, and down to another (much worse functioning) borehole. This elevation change was 16.5 meters. This borehole fills really slowly though, and it takes almost half an hour to fill a 20L jerry can. But it is much closer to some people's homes, so they wait rather than carry their jerry cans an additional mile, and up and down the hill.
We took samples from this borehole, and Pauravi and Helen helped the kids pump the water. It was a good upper body workout, according to Pauravi. On the way to the borehole, Helen was ambushed by a group of children, who were curious about the contents of her pockets and proceeded to empty them. We must be a curious sight walking around Ddegeya with all of our strange equipment, and a couple people have asked us what we are doing. There are varying levels of English among the children and adults, and some seem to understand our answers. We are working on our Lugandan though.
When we got back to Engeye, we had lunch, and even had spaghetti today. We also discovered the hot sauce in the kitchen, which did wonders for the flavor in the otherwise kind of bland food.
We quickly did the strip tests before the appointed time for the community meeting. John told us this morning that it would be at 3pm, and had spent the morning going around the village letting people know. Uganda operates on Africa time though so the meeting got started at like 3:30, much earlier than we had expected, though people did keep coming until about 4:30 or so. The meeting lasted almost two hours, and was very successful.
Basically, it was amazing. Everyone was very attentive, very supportive, really eager, and asked very good, poignant questions. They were also willing to discuss the problems and concerns that they had. It is interesting to note that at the beginning of the meeting, the men and women segregated themselves, which seems to be common in many eastern cultures. Though as more people started to come, they intermixed because the newcomers sat in the back. We counted at one point 70 attendants. You could definitely tell that by people's attire it brought Ddegeya's middle and upper class. Many people also had cell phones (we don't know how they charge them though).
Access to water is definitely the biggest concern for residents, as is quality of the water and the safety of their children. People asked about whether it was possible to bring the water closer to their homes and not just in the valleys, where very few people live. They were also asking about the possibility of protecting the open ponds, and bringing water to the other side of Ddegeya, across the Masaka-Mbarara Road, which the government is planning on expanding.
We also showed them the Petrifilm test results that we had collected earlier in the day. A picture is worth a thousand words. The water from the borehole is much cleaner than the water from the pond, which is to be expected, but showing the results was a great way for people to actually see the difference.
Other things we mentioned in the meeting were that this is definitely a long term project, and that eventually we hope to tackle other areas, such as agriculture, cooking fuels or education. We asked them to think about other projects that might be possible.
Tom and Monica are interested in starting regular community meetings, but they had been thinking maybe once a month. The villagers however suggested having a meeting every Sunday. It seems like we may have started a trend.
Afterwards we talked with a couple of the skilled laborers (mostly builders), who taught us some Lugandan, such as wasuze otya (good morning), amayinja (stones), and amabati (the tin roofs on most of the houses).
Overall it was a very successful day. We developed a much more efficient way to do the Petrifilm tests, we learned how to use our surveying equipment and we had a very productive community meeting. Hopefully tomorrow will be even better. We are going to start doing household surveys.
Sula bulungi
Breakfast was at 9 or so, and was the same as yesterday. Tomorrow we are going to show Susan (the cook) how to make scrambled eggs.
We played with the zip level this morning, which has many hidden functions that aren't mentioned on the packaging, so after a 4 MB download, we thought we knew how to use one of its hidden functions: the carry function, basically meaning that you can take the measuring unit and the base unit, and as you move up the hill (in roughly 200 foot increments), it will add the elevation. But the unit was being finicky and decided not to cooperate, so we were left to do the math. We took elevations from the main water source up to the village road, an elevation change of almost 20 meters. We suspect that the elevation change that some people are making up to the top of the hill in Ddegeya is closer to 50 meters, quite a way to carry 3-40lb jerry cans, even on a bicycle. We see grown men struggling to push bikes up the hill, while it takes 3 or 4 children to do the same. We also took the elevations along the village road, to the end of the village, and down to another (much worse functioning) borehole. This elevation change was 16.5 meters. This borehole fills really slowly though, and it takes almost half an hour to fill a 20L jerry can. But it is much closer to some people's homes, so they wait rather than carry their jerry cans an additional mile, and up and down the hill.
We took samples from this borehole, and Pauravi and Helen helped the kids pump the water. It was a good upper body workout, according to Pauravi. On the way to the borehole, Helen was ambushed by a group of children, who were curious about the contents of her pockets and proceeded to empty them. We must be a curious sight walking around Ddegeya with all of our strange equipment, and a couple people have asked us what we are doing. There are varying levels of English among the children and adults, and some seem to understand our answers. We are working on our Lugandan though.
When we got back to Engeye, we had lunch, and even had spaghetti today. We also discovered the hot sauce in the kitchen, which did wonders for the flavor in the otherwise kind of bland food.
We quickly did the strip tests before the appointed time for the community meeting. John told us this morning that it would be at 3pm, and had spent the morning going around the village letting people know. Uganda operates on Africa time though so the meeting got started at like 3:30, much earlier than we had expected, though people did keep coming until about 4:30 or so. The meeting lasted almost two hours, and was very successful.
Basically, it was amazing. Everyone was very attentive, very supportive, really eager, and asked very good, poignant questions. They were also willing to discuss the problems and concerns that they had. It is interesting to note that at the beginning of the meeting, the men and women segregated themselves, which seems to be common in many eastern cultures. Though as more people started to come, they intermixed because the newcomers sat in the back. We counted at one point 70 attendants. You could definitely tell that by people's attire it brought Ddegeya's middle and upper class. Many people also had cell phones (we don't know how they charge them though).
Access to water is definitely the biggest concern for residents, as is quality of the water and the safety of their children. People asked about whether it was possible to bring the water closer to their homes and not just in the valleys, where very few people live. They were also asking about the possibility of protecting the open ponds, and bringing water to the other side of Ddegeya, across the Masaka-Mbarara Road, which the government is planning on expanding.
We also showed them the Petrifilm test results that we had collected earlier in the day. A picture is worth a thousand words. The water from the borehole is much cleaner than the water from the pond, which is to be expected, but showing the results was a great way for people to actually see the difference.
Other things we mentioned in the meeting were that this is definitely a long term project, and that eventually we hope to tackle other areas, such as agriculture, cooking fuels or education. We asked them to think about other projects that might be possible.
Tom and Monica are interested in starting regular community meetings, but they had been thinking maybe once a month. The villagers however suggested having a meeting every Sunday. It seems like we may have started a trend.
Afterwards we talked with a couple of the skilled laborers (mostly builders), who taught us some Lugandan, such as wasuze otya (good morning), amayinja (stones), and amabati (the tin roofs on most of the houses).
Overall it was a very successful day. We developed a much more efficient way to do the Petrifilm tests, we learned how to use our surveying equipment and we had a very productive community meeting. Hopefully tomorrow will be even better. We are going to start doing household surveys.
Sula bulungi
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Bye mzungu
So today when (some of us) woke up, it was raining, so at about 7 until about 8. Apparently this is the first time that it has rained two days in a row this season. Breakfast was bread, peanut butter, bananas, pineapple, granola, tea, coffee and milk. The unpasteurized milk (straight from the cow and then boiled) was quite good. The water hole is busiest early in the morning, and going until lunch. Early, at like 7, there was already a caravan of people with bright yellow jerry cans going down to the pond and pump. (For those of you who were wondering, jerry cans are called jerry cans because of the German invention of these fuel carrying containers during WWII. Jerry was the wartime derogatory name for Germany and the Germans.)
This morning was our water testing morning. This is the first time any of us have really used any of the tests, so it was interesting. We started just doing the pond and pump just down the hill from Engeye, though we later discovered a pond hidden in the bamboo forest, which is really cool. None of us have ever seen a bamboo forest so that was exciting. (There were unfortunately no pandas...)
We attracted quite a crowd at the water hole doing the tests with the distance wheel and strange small Whirlpak sampling bags. Compared to their 20L jerry cans, our 100mL bag was tiny, and we think they thought we were quite strange for only getting so little water. All the kids who were down there just stood in a half circle watching as we discussed what to do first, and got down in the mud to collect water from the pond.
The kids are amazingly strong to be able to carry the water jugs as far as they can. We can see them struggling with 3 cans on the back of their bicycles to push them up the hill. We also learned later today that Ddegeya extends on this downward part of the hill, but also all the way to the other side, so some people have to travel almost 2 miles round trip up and down the hill both ways just to get water.
We collected 4 samples this morning, and 5 this afternoon. We also discovered that the sodium dithalasate (or something along those lines...) tablet in the Whirlpak affects the pH and conductivity probe readings, so we've started taking the tablet out. We don't think it will affect the Petrifilm tests though. We had our laboratory session on the picnic table outside doing the Petrifilm tests, while kids played soccer on the field next to us. We also did strip tests on all the samples, and are getting roughly the same data for most of them. It wasn't sunny enough (too cloudy) to melt the tetradecanol packs for the incubator, so we had to heat them in boiling water. We also had some difficulties spreading the samples on the Petrifilm and avoiding air bubbles, but hopefully we'll figure it out eventually.
Lunch was ground peanut sauce (purple, because of the skin of the peanuts), rice, posho (the cornstarch and water mix, not matooke as we learned), cabbage, and spinach (also purple/hot pink). After lunch we discovered the bamboo forest so we did the extra sample collection.
After that, while John, Tom and Monica made banana pancakes, Hudson took us to all the other pumps and water sources he and Richard (someone else who works at Engeye) knew. We found one pond (very disgusting, green film on top, probably algae, and milky apparently from the clay soil). We also found 4 more boreholes, but only one had water. We are finding that ONLY the ones at lower elevations have any water, even if it is not a consistent supply. We suspect that the water table is only at the lower elevation, also because down by the ponds by Engeye, there is a type of marsh that ferns and other water plants are growing in.
The Ugandan government built a lot of boreholes, but most of them don't work. Boreholes for Ddegeya seem expensive and unpredictable, but also apparently a lot of them were built during the rainy season, so maybe they will work again?
He also showed us another primary school with a water tank, two building built by the Ugandan government and two much nicer buildings built by the Japanese government; a secondary/vocational school; some Dutch built water system that was built in the past 7 months, but no one really knows what it is for (Hudson suspects that maybe water will be pumped from the valley on the other side of the hill, but is unsure); and the trading center in Ddegeya, which is along the main road from Masaka to Mbarara. An interesting note is that in the part of the village near the trading center there is a lot more garbage than in the part of the village we are in. As we walked along the main road, whenever we passed a group of kids, we would hear of chorus of "Bye mzungu" or bye foreigner.
We learned from Hudson that there is a Ddegeya village board, and he pointed out the house of the secretary of the board, which was much nicer than some of the other houses. There is also a Parish board (bigger area than the village).
Before dinner we talked about our plans for the next couple of days, and the community meeting. John said that they have never had a community meeting before so we are unsure of how it will go, but hopefully it will be successful. John is looking over the community surveys, and is going to give us comments. We have to discuss with the person who is going to translate for the meeting to make sure that they understand the point that we are trying to get across, and make sure that the meaning we think we are saying is what we are actually saying.
For dinner, we had pretty much the same food as lunch, plus the banana pancakes, which are very different than American pancakes. They are basically mashed banana, flour and corn starch, and then fried in oil. They were quite good though. (And Helen thinks that they are the same as an Indian dish; if anyone knows the name, let her know).
It's only 10:30pm, but all of us are tired, and it's pitch black, so it seems late. None of us have ever seen it this dark. You can't really see the stars though because it's been cloudy. We have to go brush our teeth though, which requires going outside, taking bottles of water, standing around a pit or drain, using headlamps, and spitting into the drain.
Sula bulungi.
This morning was our water testing morning. This is the first time any of us have really used any of the tests, so it was interesting. We started just doing the pond and pump just down the hill from Engeye, though we later discovered a pond hidden in the bamboo forest, which is really cool. None of us have ever seen a bamboo forest so that was exciting. (There were unfortunately no pandas...)
We attracted quite a crowd at the water hole doing the tests with the distance wheel and strange small Whirlpak sampling bags. Compared to their 20L jerry cans, our 100mL bag was tiny, and we think they thought we were quite strange for only getting so little water. All the kids who were down there just stood in a half circle watching as we discussed what to do first, and got down in the mud to collect water from the pond.
The kids are amazingly strong to be able to carry the water jugs as far as they can. We can see them struggling with 3 cans on the back of their bicycles to push them up the hill. We also learned later today that Ddegeya extends on this downward part of the hill, but also all the way to the other side, so some people have to travel almost 2 miles round trip up and down the hill both ways just to get water.
We collected 4 samples this morning, and 5 this afternoon. We also discovered that the sodium dithalasate (or something along those lines...) tablet in the Whirlpak affects the pH and conductivity probe readings, so we've started taking the tablet out. We don't think it will affect the Petrifilm tests though. We had our laboratory session on the picnic table outside doing the Petrifilm tests, while kids played soccer on the field next to us. We also did strip tests on all the samples, and are getting roughly the same data for most of them. It wasn't sunny enough (too cloudy) to melt the tetradecanol packs for the incubator, so we had to heat them in boiling water. We also had some difficulties spreading the samples on the Petrifilm and avoiding air bubbles, but hopefully we'll figure it out eventually.
Lunch was ground peanut sauce (purple, because of the skin of the peanuts), rice, posho (the cornstarch and water mix, not matooke as we learned), cabbage, and spinach (also purple/hot pink). After lunch we discovered the bamboo forest so we did the extra sample collection.
After that, while John, Tom and Monica made banana pancakes, Hudson took us to all the other pumps and water sources he and Richard (someone else who works at Engeye) knew. We found one pond (very disgusting, green film on top, probably algae, and milky apparently from the clay soil). We also found 4 more boreholes, but only one had water. We are finding that ONLY the ones at lower elevations have any water, even if it is not a consistent supply. We suspect that the water table is only at the lower elevation, also because down by the ponds by Engeye, there is a type of marsh that ferns and other water plants are growing in.
The Ugandan government built a lot of boreholes, but most of them don't work. Boreholes for Ddegeya seem expensive and unpredictable, but also apparently a lot of them were built during the rainy season, so maybe they will work again?
He also showed us another primary school with a water tank, two building built by the Ugandan government and two much nicer buildings built by the Japanese government; a secondary/vocational school; some Dutch built water system that was built in the past 7 months, but no one really knows what it is for (Hudson suspects that maybe water will be pumped from the valley on the other side of the hill, but is unsure); and the trading center in Ddegeya, which is along the main road from Masaka to Mbarara. An interesting note is that in the part of the village near the trading center there is a lot more garbage than in the part of the village we are in. As we walked along the main road, whenever we passed a group of kids, we would hear of chorus of "Bye mzungu" or bye foreigner.
We learned from Hudson that there is a Ddegeya village board, and he pointed out the house of the secretary of the board, which was much nicer than some of the other houses. There is also a Parish board (bigger area than the village).
Before dinner we talked about our plans for the next couple of days, and the community meeting. John said that they have never had a community meeting before so we are unsure of how it will go, but hopefully it will be successful. John is looking over the community surveys, and is going to give us comments. We have to discuss with the person who is going to translate for the meeting to make sure that they understand the point that we are trying to get across, and make sure that the meaning we think we are saying is what we are actually saying.
For dinner, we had pretty much the same food as lunch, plus the banana pancakes, which are very different than American pancakes. They are basically mashed banana, flour and corn starch, and then fried in oil. They were quite good though. (And Helen thinks that they are the same as an Indian dish; if anyone knows the name, let her know).
It's only 10:30pm, but all of us are tired, and it's pitch black, so it seems late. None of us have ever seen it this dark. You can't really see the stars though because it's been cloudy. We have to go brush our teeth though, which requires going outside, taking bottles of water, standing around a pit or drain, using headlamps, and spitting into the drain.
Sula bulungi.
Oli Otya from Ddegeya
Helen and I just wanted to send an email letting everyone know how things aregoing. John has a modem at the clinic, so we have internet. We arrived atEntebbe yesterday at about 8pm and stayed the night at a hostel in Kampala. Wemet up with the Minerva Fellows, Tom and Monica, who were also at the hostel asthey had been in Kampala for a couple of days scouting out possible craft ideasfor the women in the village.
We left Kampala early this morning and settled in for the 4 hour ride toDdegeya. We came in a 14-person taxi, which at one point had 18 people. People stand on the side of the road and wait for a taxi going their direction,and then get in. We passed through markets and smaller towns which are bustlingalong the highway.
We stopped in Masaka to exchange money. The current rate is 2035 Ugandan shillings to the dollar. After that we headed towards Ddegeya. When we got there, we unpacked and observed our surroundings. We are staying at the clinic,in a building with two rooms, one for men and one for women, each with 8 beds init. We unpacked and inventoried all of our equipment (water tests, totalstation, GPS, etc. etc.). We had a snack of pineapple, which was really good,but different than what you would get in the US. It started raining, which itreally hasn't done much of yet apparently. It didn't last very long, maybe anhour, but we ate lunch while it rained. Our lunch (which is typical fare)consisted of rice, matooke (steamed cornstarch mixed with water), avocado, andbeans with tomatoes and onions. It was pretty good, but we'll let you knowwhat you think in a couple of days (or meals).
We hung around the clinic for a little bit. It is a magnet for children. We met some kids, like John's son Jeff, as well as his friends who live in thevillage, such as Faiza, Oliva, Akwo, Florence, Adam and many more. There are LOTS of kids here, and they are usually pretty excited to come up and try theirone English phrase, and ask what your name is. We brushed up on our Lugandanwith phrases such as Oli otya (how are you?), bulungi (good), gwanni? (what'syour name?), Kiki kino? (what's this), mazzi (water), Simanyi (I don't know),ye bale (a greeting to an adult), nyabbo (madam), ssebo (sir) and some more. And of course, nedda (no) and yee (yes).
Before John was free, Helen, her dad and I took a casual walk up the main roadthrough the village. On the way we met a lot of kids, many of whom thought Iwas Monica (the Fellow from Union College). We learned a lot of names, most ofwhich we don't remember, and got a general feeling of friendliness, at leastfrom the kids.
After the rain stopped, and John finished typing up clinic reports and meetingwith the Engeye scholars (kids that the clinic sponsors to go to better schoolsin Masaka; they are on holiday right now), he took us out to show us a lot of the water sources. The first one he took us to was a Borehole that was built by the government, but which quickly runs out of water. John said it can take an hour to fill your jerry cans. Something else we noticed is that not everyone uses funnels, so there is a lot of wasted water. Next, he showed ustwo holes that villagers had dug in an attempt to find more water. They were pretty deep (we haven't measured yet), but not much water, except at the very bottom. The holes are abandoned. He showed us another borehole which has run dry, also built by the government. A private school in the area (St.Gertrude's Primary school) had also dug a well on the side of the hill it ison, but it bone dry. It was maybe 20 feet deep. There are two primary schoolsin Ddegeya, according to John. This private one and one government sponsoredone. He said that many kids do go to school. The government school costsmaybe $15/term (it is supposed to be free, but teachers are not paid by thegovernment and students must have uniforms), but this is too much for manypeople. The private school is more, maybe $150/term or year (we're not sure),but it is a better school. The teachers are paid, so they want to teach. It was started by a Catholic priest, but is not a Catholic school. It is next to aCatholic church which is open occassionally. Most people go over the big hill tothe parish church. The private school had interesting signs posted on thetrees, such as "Speak English", "AIDS has no cure", "Avoid early marriages","Say no to sex", "Avoid trespassing", "Be panctual", "Respect elders" and somemore. We took GPS locations at each of the sources and locations.
After we visited the private school, we crossed the main road to the other sideof the village. (We're only half way through this email, FYI). John took usoff the main road into the village. Whenever we passed people, John would stopand introduce us and what we're here for. It sounds like we will have acommunity meeting at the clinic on Monday, which is good progress. All theadults seemed really receptive to us being here, and wanted us to come to their homes to talk to them. We met a woman, Sauda Muwanika, who is on the ParishCouncil and is the representative for women's affairs. We are going to go backto talk to her. It is a good step towards finding some of the community leadership.
The village is a manageable size. People grow bananas/plantains, coffee,tomatoes, sweet potatoes, mangoes, tapioca, papaya and other. Most people liveoff their land, and may sell coffee to make some extra money. A lot of thehouses had separate kitchens. People with more money build their houses out ofbrick with tin roofs and cook outside, while poorer people will use sticks andmud, and may cover it with a mixture of sand and water (looks similar tocement). It seems everyone cooks in a separate place from where they live though. Some people have latrines, a pit 30-50 feet deep. Again, richer people may pave the area with cement, while poorer people put logs over it, andit does not last.
The final water source we visited is the pond and borehole by the clinic. These are the main water sources for the community because they are the only reliableones. The pond is very murky and has tadpoles and frogs in it. It seemslower than in some of the pictures we've seen. This pump works pretty well (no waiting for water to come out), but people don't know how to use it properly(especially the kids). The pump it too fast/hard, and there are a lot ofleaks. Some people will still get water from the pond, even though the waterin the borehole at least comes out clear. We don't know why yet, but areinterested in finding out. We tested out the distance wheel from the main roaddown to the pond. It is 657 feet. We didn't do distances from anything else yet.
People come here from the entire village, even from the neighboring village,Nakateete, which is much further down the road. There aren't clear territorial boundaries, only the occasional sign from a school or something.
Tomorrow we are going to start doing water tests and measuring distances, andthen hopefully Monday will be the meeting. We are going to make a rough calendar of what we will be doing.
We left Kampala early this morning and settled in for the 4 hour ride toDdegeya. We came in a 14-person taxi, which at one point had 18 people. People stand on the side of the road and wait for a taxi going their direction,and then get in. We passed through markets and smaller towns which are bustlingalong the highway.
We stopped in Masaka to exchange money. The current rate is 2035 Ugandan shillings to the dollar. After that we headed towards Ddegeya. When we got there, we unpacked and observed our surroundings. We are staying at the clinic,in a building with two rooms, one for men and one for women, each with 8 beds init. We unpacked and inventoried all of our equipment (water tests, totalstation, GPS, etc. etc.). We had a snack of pineapple, which was really good,but different than what you would get in the US. It started raining, which itreally hasn't done much of yet apparently. It didn't last very long, maybe anhour, but we ate lunch while it rained. Our lunch (which is typical fare)consisted of rice, matooke (steamed cornstarch mixed with water), avocado, andbeans with tomatoes and onions. It was pretty good, but we'll let you knowwhat you think in a couple of days (or meals).
We hung around the clinic for a little bit. It is a magnet for children. We met some kids, like John's son Jeff, as well as his friends who live in thevillage, such as Faiza, Oliva, Akwo, Florence, Adam and many more. There are LOTS of kids here, and they are usually pretty excited to come up and try theirone English phrase, and ask what your name is. We brushed up on our Lugandanwith phrases such as Oli otya (how are you?), bulungi (good), gwanni? (what'syour name?), Kiki kino? (what's this), mazzi (water), Simanyi (I don't know),ye bale (a greeting to an adult), nyabbo (madam), ssebo (sir) and some more. And of course, nedda (no) and yee (yes).
Before John was free, Helen, her dad and I took a casual walk up the main roadthrough the village. On the way we met a lot of kids, many of whom thought Iwas Monica (the Fellow from Union College). We learned a lot of names, most ofwhich we don't remember, and got a general feeling of friendliness, at leastfrom the kids.
After the rain stopped, and John finished typing up clinic reports and meetingwith the Engeye scholars (kids that the clinic sponsors to go to better schoolsin Masaka; they are on holiday right now), he took us out to show us a lot of the water sources. The first one he took us to was a Borehole that was built by the government, but which quickly runs out of water. John said it can take an hour to fill your jerry cans. Something else we noticed is that not everyone uses funnels, so there is a lot of wasted water. Next, he showed ustwo holes that villagers had dug in an attempt to find more water. They were pretty deep (we haven't measured yet), but not much water, except at the very bottom. The holes are abandoned. He showed us another borehole which has run dry, also built by the government. A private school in the area (St.Gertrude's Primary school) had also dug a well on the side of the hill it ison, but it bone dry. It was maybe 20 feet deep. There are two primary schoolsin Ddegeya, according to John. This private one and one government sponsoredone. He said that many kids do go to school. The government school costsmaybe $15/term (it is supposed to be free, but teachers are not paid by thegovernment and students must have uniforms), but this is too much for manypeople. The private school is more, maybe $150/term or year (we're not sure),but it is a better school. The teachers are paid, so they want to teach. It was started by a Catholic priest, but is not a Catholic school. It is next to aCatholic church which is open occassionally. Most people go over the big hill tothe parish church. The private school had interesting signs posted on thetrees, such as "Speak English", "AIDS has no cure", "Avoid early marriages","Say no to sex", "Avoid trespassing", "Be panctual", "Respect elders" and somemore. We took GPS locations at each of the sources and locations.
After we visited the private school, we crossed the main road to the other sideof the village. (We're only half way through this email, FYI). John took usoff the main road into the village. Whenever we passed people, John would stopand introduce us and what we're here for. It sounds like we will have acommunity meeting at the clinic on Monday, which is good progress. All theadults seemed really receptive to us being here, and wanted us to come to their homes to talk to them. We met a woman, Sauda Muwanika, who is on the ParishCouncil and is the representative for women's affairs. We are going to go backto talk to her. It is a good step towards finding some of the community leadership.
The village is a manageable size. People grow bananas/plantains, coffee,tomatoes, sweet potatoes, mangoes, tapioca, papaya and other. Most people liveoff their land, and may sell coffee to make some extra money. A lot of thehouses had separate kitchens. People with more money build their houses out ofbrick with tin roofs and cook outside, while poorer people will use sticks andmud, and may cover it with a mixture of sand and water (looks similar tocement). It seems everyone cooks in a separate place from where they live though. Some people have latrines, a pit 30-50 feet deep. Again, richer people may pave the area with cement, while poorer people put logs over it, andit does not last.
The final water source we visited is the pond and borehole by the clinic. These are the main water sources for the community because they are the only reliableones. The pond is very murky and has tadpoles and frogs in it. It seemslower than in some of the pictures we've seen. This pump works pretty well (no waiting for water to come out), but people don't know how to use it properly(especially the kids). The pump it too fast/hard, and there are a lot ofleaks. Some people will still get water from the pond, even though the waterin the borehole at least comes out clear. We don't know why yet, but areinterested in finding out. We tested out the distance wheel from the main roaddown to the pond. It is 657 feet. We didn't do distances from anything else yet.
People come here from the entire village, even from the neighboring village,Nakateete, which is much further down the road. There aren't clear territorial boundaries, only the occasional sign from a school or something.
Tomorrow we are going to start doing water tests and measuring distances, andthen hopefully Monday will be the meeting. We are going to make a rough calendar of what we will be doing.
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