Because it Took 3 Days Last Time....

Another "quick" weekly update.

Monday - 8/5

We built another tippy tap today for a lady we have deemed ANTM. (Look at that jawline!) She's definitely an inspiring woman. As one of the key members of our initial focus groups, she spoke about gender issues and family planning. With more kids than she wants, she openly supported tubal ligation so that she can stop having children. We were more than happy to build her a tippy tap!

Tuesday - 8/6 

We visited the school today for a tippy tap observation in which we watched whether or not the students would use the tippy taps after they used the latrine. Though most of the students did use the tippy tap during our visit, it was hard to know whether or not our presence affected that use. The biggest problem we have noticed is ensuring that the tippy taps are filled with water. Every time we visit, the students fill the tippy taps with water immediately so it is hard to know whether there is water in them when we are not there. Still, it was nice to see most of the kids using the tippy tap and soap today. 

My favorite picture of the day: The girl, Oliva, has never smiled in front of us until now. It was exciting to see her being playful with her brothers, Daniel and Samuel, today. 

Wednesday - 8/7 

We had our WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene... the acronym could use some work) sensitization today. We discussed safe transport and storage of borehole water, sanitation facilities (i.e. latrines, kitchens, and trash pits) and their correct dimensions. We demonstrated how to use Waterguard, a purifying method that uses chlorination, and how to make a tippy tap. 

Thursday - 8/8 

Happy IDD! Today is a national holiday celebrating the end of fasting for people who follow the Muslim religion. I traveled to Iganga today to attempt to update this blog, which clearly failed. Getting back to K2, it was fun to see all the kids excited to eat meat tonight. 

Friday - 8/9 

Today, we cleaned up the boreholes in our village. Below is a before and after picture of the first borehole we helped clean up. With the help of our MVP VHT Paul and the community members he mobilized, we were able to clean out the mud and weeds in and around the drainage area for the borehole. Additionally, we scrubbed the cement clean and slashed away the overgrowth. 

(Before) 

(During/After)

After our borehole clean-ups, we had our muzungu football match! Interns from Bukaigo, Buvule, Buwerempe, and Kasigo all came to Kasambiika Primary School for a match. We split up into two teams based on the rivalry between K1 and K2. Though we were leading the game for most of the match, it ended in a 2-2 draw. By the end, there was an enormous crowd watching the game and we all realized we should have planned to have a sensitization considering the number of people that came.

(The muzungus playing)

(The crowd post-game)

Saturday - 8/10

I headed into Iganga once more today with Kenzie and Andrew in order to print some photos for some favorite people. We also grabbed some lunch and used the internet at Sol Cafe. I also visited the post office in Iganga for the first time today to send some postcards.

(A matatu) 

(Inside of a cramped matatu)

(Iganga town)

Sunday - 8/11 

We were supposed to have an STI sensitization today with Loy, the same woman who talked about fistula. Yet, while we were mobilizing, we discovered that there were about 2-3 funerals in nearby villages and a wedding reception today. With so many events, we felt that the turnout to this sensitization would be low. So we spoke to Loy and had her re-schedule the session. As we headed back to the house, I was invited to dine with this family. They were incredibly kind and gave me some matooke and G-nuts. Though at the time I was nervous about dealing with some unexpected bowel movements, the food was quite delicious. A beautiful Kasambiika Surprise to end the week. 

Midterm Debrief - Halfway Through. WHAT

We had the UVP Midterm Debrief today. As we headed out on bodas to the Nabitende Sub-County Headquarters for the meeting, we saw another boda with pigs strapped to the back! It was sad to see since the pigs squealed every time it hit a bump or ditch in the road, but our boda driver just laughed at us pitying it. He said it was a normal thing. Another Kasambiika Surprises moment.

Midterm Debrief was interesting. Every team spoke about their biggest challenge working as a team, working with the community, and how they overcame it. Since our team rocks, we didn't have any challenges working as a team. Our community is amazing as well. Our VHT team is so involved and invested. The community members are interested in learning and they participate in our education sessions. So the only challenge we could come up with was managing their expectations. We often get asked for our personal items a lot (camera, eyeglasses, money, radio, phones, etc.), but that usually happens when travelling so it's not such a great challenge to overcome. We just explain our situation and what we came here to do. It tends to work out for the most part.

After debrief, it was only some football, dinner, and sleep. It's pretty crazy to think that an entire month has gone by here in Uganda. Time feels like it's flying by too quickly. A large part of me wishes that I was staying for much longer. In any case (moving on from my moment of lamenting), tomorrow, we have the day off and Kenzie, Trisa, Andrew, and I are heading to Sipi Falls. Woo!

Dull Knives...

This morning we headed to the school to follow up on the tippy tap hand-washing project. Last time, the other Kasambiika team visited the school and found that all the soap had been stolen. The teachers said the issue was that the soap was scented. That was pretty disappointing, but this time we brought unscented soap so we're hoping that they won't get stolen. Yet, our team is trying to think of a better way to have the students wash their hands. One major problem with soap (besides the stealing) is that it's not a sustainable chain. We don't think the school will be able to maintain a feasible method for obtaining soap for the students to use. We are working on different methods, but we are leaning towards switching from soap to ash. Supposedly, ash is a very good disinfectant and since the school has a kitchen, ash is almost always available. But we are waiting to see how the school manages with the soap batch we gave today before making the switch.

After planning for our HIV sensitization next Tuesday and lunch, some of the kids stopped by. We didn't have the football today, but Kenzie brought out the volleyball. The kids held it out as long as they could, but after awhile, their forearms hurt too much. So we just circled up and tossed each other the ball. After some time, it turned into a giant game of keep away with 2 teams. With all the screaming, more kids arrived. It was definitely fun, but tiring! They have so much energy. I met up with Batale after some time and peeled some more cassava. I had a knife today! Woo! And of course, I cut myself... on a dull knife. They invited me to their rice fields tomorrow. I'm excited to see them. If I'm cutting rice at the same rate it takes me to peel cassava though, I'll be at it all night.

I did have another Kasambiika Surprise today. I learned that Ugandans have a different way to tell time. The clock runs from 7-1. So the first hour of the day is at 7AM and they call that sawa mundala (1st hour). 8AM is then sawa babiri (2nd hour) and so on. Then at 7PM, the clock switches back to sawa mundala (the first hour of the night). It's some crazy schtuff. It took me at least 20 minutes to wrap my head around, but I think I finally got it.

Kasambiika Surprises

Woo! Today was our first sensitization and it was a hit! Approximately 85 people attended our malaria session and we sold 24 subsidized nets out of 53. It went really well. We talked about the symptoms, prevention, and treatment of malaria. We included a little skit as well to demonstrate the most vulnerable populations and how to best prevent malaria. Kenzie was a pregnant mother, I was a child under 5, and Andrew was the mosquito. The community members laughed and applauded our poorly acted skit, but we think the message was clear. We answered some questions and dispelled some myths too. In addition, we started our weekly tippy tap raffle. What is that you ask? Well folks, here's how it works: 1) we first randomly chose the winner of a new tippy tap by picking a number on the attendance sheet, 2) then we come and build a tippy tap at the winner's house. Boom. Done. Aren't you jealous?

After coming back, the teammates wanted some quiet time so there was no football today. But I was able to borrow Said's hoe and fill up a trash pit we had dug a few weeks back. (By we, I mean Isaac). Apparently, I'm too slow with a hoe, so Said ended up filling up the rest. With the leftover dirt, the little ones helped me fill up other holes in our compound. Now, we hopefully won't have as many sprained ankles! After returning the hoe, I also went with some of the kids to the borehole to fetch some more water. It was getting pretty dark and this is when I learned that the borehole is actually locked. This is so that no one can steal the borehole handle. I'm not sure why this surprised me, but I guess I didn't think the community borehole would need to be locked. Yet, it's also nice to know that there are people willing to take on the responsibility of maintaining the borehole and keeping it safe. Kasambiika surprises.