A Week in Ashley’s Shoes

We know a lot of you are curious about what a day in our shoes is like, so we decided to share a week in our shoes with you. 
We will start this past week with Ashley.

Before I start, I want to really introduce my organization and project. My host organization is EMESCO Development Foundation. It was locally founded by the current director who was born in the district I live in, Kibaale District, before it even got its name. He’s a very amazing man. He saw the communities struggling in areas of development and the lack of aid/organizations being sent to the area and decided to start helping the communities himself. In 1999, the organization started with programs officially beginning in 2000. The original projects were focused in areas of water and sanitation; things like building protected bore holes, water catchments and pit latrines in communities and schools. In fact, if you visit many of the schools throughout the district, you will see EMESCO written on the majority of water tanks, latrines and bore holes. After 15 years, the projects have expanded into 5 main areas of: water, sanitation and hygiene, health, agriculture, education and environment. 

My project: Sustainable Organic Agriculture Project-Year 3

The project was recently renewed for its 3rd year this past month and I am very excited to see the program start from the beginning. The first 2 years the projected was focused in certain communities and during year 3 the program restarts by entering into new communities.

This project involves going out into the communities 4 out of 5 days a week, with an average one way travel being 1 ½ hours.

Here is a glance at a week in my shoes, although this week did have a holiday I wasn't expecting.

Monday- 

I woke up around 5am thanks to the neighbor’s rooster and tried to go back to bed…without much luck.

8 am I finally got up and got ready for work and at 9 am headed to the office. (I live right across the street, literally, and it takes less than one minute)

10am headed to our first community with one of my counterparts. It took about 1 ½ hours to get to the village and we spend the first half of the day with them. The meeting was the first official meeting in the community and we sensitized members about the project. 

Around 2:30 we headed into a nearby town and got lunch and by 3 we were headed to the next community and stayed there until around 5. 

Once we were halfway home, the rain started. Since we were traveling by motorcycle, which is a must to get into these villages, we had to stop. Luckily, there was a small auto shop and we ran inside and waited with some fellow travelers. We ended up waiting for 2 hours, the rain would not let up for anything. It was too dark inside, as they shut the door to keep the rain out, to notice that I actually knew the attendant at the shop and when he called my name I was very confused until I saw his face. It’s a small world; he is one of the local youth we have worked with that works at the shop during breaks from school. 

Finally after the rain stopped, we geared up and started heading home. The sun had started to go down and the air was cold making the ride seem longer, besides the fact it took double the time to make it home due to the wet ground. 

8:30 pm, finally made it home, frozen. I took a warm bucket bath in the house. Ate rice and g-nut sauce my neighbors had prepared and passed out by 11pm (which is early for me).

Tuesday- 

Woke up again around 5am thanks to the neighbor’s rooster and tried to go back to bed…..contemplated going outside and unlocking it from the neighbor’s kitchen so it could go out of the compound. Instead, I yelled for someone to make it stop….which did not happen.

8 am I got up and ready for work and by 9 am I was headed to the office.

10am headed out with my counterparts and traveled 1 ½ hours to a village nearby the ones from Monday. Spent the afternoon with community members and headed out to the next community. Due to circumstances we did not anticipate, the local healer (who is the chairperson), was praying/healing some of his followers, so we had to reschedule for next week. It happens. 

The chairperson from the first community gave us eggs and we took them to town and fried them for lunch. (As of writing this to post, I found out that the healer was in a serious motorcycle accident with the other driver dying instantly. He is in critical condition in the capital, so thoughts his way.)

Afterwards, we headed back and I got home around 6:30. Took a shower, worked on some things in the computer, ate pork Matt prepared, watched some shows on the laptop and went to bed around 12:30am.

Sensitizing new community about program

Wednesday- 

Woke up around 5am, again. Dreamt I was waking up my neighbor to unlock the kitchen to let the rooster out. It kept making noise for the next 3 hours…it was just a dream.

8 am got up and ready for work, not in the best mood from lack of sleep, and by 9 am I was headed to the office. 

10am headed with my one of my counterparts to new communities in another sub-county. The trip took about 1 hour to get 32k (~16 miles) and the ride was absolutely beautiful.

We spent the afternoon in the new communities and were welcomed with open arms. The great thing about the projects the organization does is they enter into communities from all sides; first are usually water and sanitation projects, then health and agriculture. This helps to give the communities a solid foundation of basic needs as they build up their other skills as well as a good relationship and trust. 

Made it back home at 5pm, worked out for a hour since I was back early, took my bucket bath, ate dinner, watched a few episodes of Chuck and headed to bed around 12:30. 

Did I mention they ate the rooster for dinner, finally.

Thursday- 

8 am got up and ready for work and by 9 am headed to the office. 

10am headed with my counterpart to the villages in new sub-county. We spent the afternoon in the villages, ate lunch in the nearby town and headed back home. 

Made it back around 6 and stopped by the office to drop off paperwork. Also, I was told Friday was Labour Day so no work Friday…not going to argue with that. 

Went home, worked out for about a hour, ate dinner, discovered the Roswell series, and went to bed around 2am. 

Friday- 

Slept in, I enjoy my sleep. Woke up around 11. 

I spent the day catching up on closing out a grant, finishing activity reports and washing the sheets and blankets which amazingly didn’t take too long (I am getting faster at washing). Ended up staying up all night watching more Roswell.

Saturday-

Slept in and woke up around 11am, spent a few hours working on the computer and got ready to meet one of my youth. Around 1:30 I headed out to a nearby secondary school and meet with three new youth trainers from 2-5. I would have visited my Saturday group of kids I meet with to read and play games, but it was raining so I headed home, worked out, ate dinner and watched Roswell all night. Around 12 am I took a break to eat some yummy duck the neighbors had prepared, Matt missed out since he was already asleep, and stayed up until around 3 watching more Roswell. 

Sunday-

Woke up around 9:30 and started washing all of my clothes, it took about 1 ½ hours. 

Around 1:30 I headed to meet with the youth trainers at the secondary school from 2-5.

Afterwards, I made a trip to town and bought food for the night. Once I got home, I headed to the garden and weeded, then headed over the primary school next door and hung out with some of the students.  Once the sun went down, I headed home and worked out, took my warm bucket bath inside and cooked stir fry for dinner and worked on this blog entry while watching Roswell.

Around 12 I went to bed finishing out my week.

Traveling to the new communities

This Guy

This Bridge

No way we were going to let him go first

So there you have it, a typical week in my shoes. Next week, Matt.

Ah, You are Lost...

As our Ugandan counterparts and friends like to say when they haven't heard from us in awhile.

Last time….

The plan was to have a feast on Easter with this lovely bird. As luck would have it for the bird, we ate lunch at Matt’s counterpart’s home with his family and had more than enough to fill us for the day. So the new plan was to have some yummy hot wings, something we haven’t had while being here. Well as luck would have it again for the bird, while Ashley was at a week-long training, Matt grew fond of the creature. 

Then this happened.

And this was built today...

 

And since Matt’s supervisor decided to keep his rooster for a little while longer, most likely because of Matt’s idea to start a poultry farm…we are hoping for some chicks soon.

So what else has been going on?

The week after Easter Ashley participated in a youth technical training part of an initiative of Peace Corps Uganda to encourage youth and adult partnerships. In a country where more than half the population is considered a youth, it’s a pretty good concept. Anyways, this training took place in Mbarra, if you look at a map Kibaale to Mbarra looks really close, maybe 5.5 to 6 hours (Google Maps estimates around that long). Ha! This is Uganda, there is no such thing as getting somewhere that fast. Ashley was expected to be there by 1pm for registration and orientation activities….key word “expected”.

Travel: The trip started with a 4:30 am pick-up from the only taxi that heads out towards the capital you can actually count on. By 4:45 the 2 youth that attended as part of Ashley’s team had been picked up from their homes and by 5 am we were on the road. 6:55 am arrived to the tarmac road and waited 1 ½ hours in the rain for connecting transport and stood up on bus for 20 minutes until seats were available. 11:30 am arrived in Fort Portal, met up with others traveling and got lunch. By 12:30ish we were waiting for our transport and headed back on the road again, got to see a elephant, some monkeys and buffalo while driving thru Queen Elizabeth National Park ,which the kids enjoyed a lot and arrived in Mbarra around 5:30 pm. The expected 1pm arrival time…not possible. 

The highlight of the trip was hearing the excitement in the kids’ voices as they pointed out the Rwenzori mountains, large tea plantations, lakes and the Kazinga Channel, all things they have learned about in school and from books but never seen in real life. 

It’s amazing to think of something like seeing a mountain or large body of water being a highlight of a trip until you stop to think, most of the kids we were travelling with had never left their village and if they had the furthest away had only been about a hour away to a nearby “large” town. 

We have also been helping to Stomp Out Malaria! in Uganda. During the month of April the focus is on creating more awareness about Malaria, which is the #1 killer of young children in Uganda. We have been doing a lot of projects towards this goal including setting up bed nets at the health center, teaching how to repair bed nets,  discussing malaria prevention to HIV patients, teaching the health education students while playing some fun Malaria themed games, going out into the community to discuss prevention and treatment and Matt even had a spot on a radio show to discuss the facts and myths about malaria and the importance of preventative measures and treatment. 

Some Malaria Activity Pictures

Matt Teaching Malaria Prevention and How to Repair Bed Bets to Health Ed Students 

Ashley playing Malaria Themed Freeze-Tag with Students. The thing taped on the shirt is a mosquito and there is doctor somewhere who un-freezes (treats) people who have been "stung" and now have malaria.

Easter

If we were back in the States we would be joining in on the festivities at White Sands with our friends and family. Boards, BBQ, kids racing to find eggs buried in the sand surrounded by familiar faces with the feeling of spring approaching by the fact we can pull out our shorts and tank tops. This year we were met with a 4 day weekend, either because it is predominately a Christian country or the fact that they love taking holidays, and we had a mini vacation. Our original plan was to travel to see our home stay parents in the neighboring district but due to some logistical issues of an upcoming training Ashley had to attend it was impossible. So, we bought a chicken, some eggs and soda and stayed home sharing some American traditions. 

Coloring eggs and going on a hunt has always been a favorite Easter tradition, so why not teach our kids next door. When you don’t have a Wal-Mart to go buy a $3 kit or food coloring what do you do? Pull out some markers and let the kids go crazy.

The Kids Enjoying Coloring

All Finished

Our Beautiful Eggs

Then it was time for a hunt. Not sure if they completely understood why or what they were doing but they seemed to have a blast. Instead of having a giant basket filled with goodies, marshmallow chicks, chocolate bunnies or stuffed animals they got they got to eat the eggs they colored and were very, very happy. 

In the afternoon we went to Matt’s counterparts for a great local Easter meal. Matooke (steamed plantans), rice, chicken, beef, macaroni, sauce, greens and irish potatoes. Yummy! After such a great meal we didn’t have much room for dinner so the chicken had its life spared….but not for long. 

Next time, on the Great and Grand Adventures on the Greens.

WASH

....Your Hands!

These past few weeks we have been working on a WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Project at the health center and the nearby primary school. Everyday, way too many people in Uganda die from diarrhea related diseases due to poor sanitation and hygiene, with the vast majority being young children. The fact is, these deaths can be prevented by proper hygiene and sanitation. The topics for our Health Education classes this past term have focused on teaching students proper personal and compound/house hygiene and sanitation and it wouldn't be complete without discussing the importance of hand washing. Ashley applied for a small mini-grant and received funds to to construct permanent tippy taps, but before they were constructed we spent two weeks training on the importance of hand washing and building tippy taps with local materials. In total between the health center and school, a total of 422 people were trained on the importance of hand washing and learned how to build tippy taps.

It is always a joy to work with the kids, they are always so eager to learn and so eager to help out.

They told us they could mix the concrete, so we let them

So what is a Tippy Tap? We never knew before coming here...but it is a neat hand washing station and is simple to make from local materials. All you need is 2 sticks with a fork, 1 straight stick, a jerry can, string/rope, soap/ash with some sort of cover (we used half a water bottle), a smaller stick for a foot pedal and some water. Best of all they are very easy to make just ask the 9-14 year-old students that had no problem constructing them.

P4 Students Getting Down and Dirty Digging Holes

Deciding if the Holes are Deep Enough

A Finished Tippy Tap from Local Materials made by P4 Students

The following week we went back and installed the permanent tippy taps with metal poles. All the kids needed was a little supervision and by the end of the day they had finished all 5 wash stations.

Constructing Hand Washing Station for Nursery Classes with Matt's Guidance 

Baby Class Students Learning how to Wash their Hands with the New Stations

The health center constructed a total of 3 new hand washing stations including one for demo purposed to teach others in the community.

Keeping our Patients and their Families Healthy

What really made our day...as we were walking to town one day we saw some of our students constructing their own wash station for their families. Then while visiting a health center co-worker home we noticed he had constructed one for his family as well.

Taking the Knowledge Home