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...