Hello from Kampala! Angela, Emmanuel, and Marisa are currently in Ddegeya while Shavi and Tess are in Kampala. Some exciting things have happened since I last wrote.
The construction of a 10,000 L tank started on Monday and is now well underway. The foundation is done and the walls of the actual tank have now been started- last I saw they were 5 layers of bricks up. It looks beautiful so far- its cylindrical- and I'm very excited to see it when we're back in Ddegeya. We have been helping mostly by doing the physical labor- mixing cement with shovels- but yesterday Tess got to help put mortar between the bricks of the tank which was extremely exciting. We are also in the process of attaching gutters to the house, but it's kind of a process because it requires 161 feet of gutters. It hadn't really rained since I got here, but it has been raining the past two days, so apparently the rainy season is starting. With the rainy season starting up, we really can't get this tank and the gutters up fast enough!
The community has been really helpful- donating money and bricks and food for the workers. We have had to buy some bricks to move the process along faster, but the community is going to pay us back for those bricks. We hope that the community really gets to feel ownership for this tank and keeps it in good shape while we're gone.
Also, we got a TIN for Engeye!! Good job John! Tess and Shavi are currently in Kampala to pay taxes on the non-solar panel crate, and hopefully to bring the crates back. Our customs agent thinks they'll be ready to go tomorrow, but we'll see if that's true. I really hope so. It would be great to get the crates there before we leave, even if it's just 2 or 3 days before we leave.
We all can't believe we're leaving so soon- 4 days!- but we're also very excited to see our friends back at MIT. And also for hot showers, American food, rooms without bats, and internet! And also getting to eat entire chocolate bars by ourselves, instead of splitting one Snickers or Cadbury bar 7 ways every night -that one might mostly apply to Tess =).
To all our friends back at home- see you soon! And to everyone else who is reading this- thanks for your support through this trip! Hopefully we will get the crates through before we leave so that we can adequately teach the clinic staff to put up the panels. And hopefully the tank will be almost done when we hop on our planes home.
I'll try and post again to keep you updated on the crates, but if not, see you in Boston!
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