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!

Game of Thrones

Today, we met with the head nurse at the health center and took a tour. It's a very small place with not much staff and very dilapidated rooms and beds. The nurse seemed tired, but she was nice and helped us out. We were able to set up an HIV Testing Day and discuss the possibility of a deworming day at the school. After the visit, we came back to the house for a nice hefty lunch to set us full and ready for 3 hours of baseline surveys in the hot sun. This time, both of our teams worked in the same zone. Though it was slightly confusing with numbering the houses, we managed to finish up our zone minus a few houses (where no one was home). Hopefully, with a full day of baseline tomorrow, we'll be finished entirely!

After the 30 minute trek back home, we had a few moments of relaxation before the kids rushed over. As Robert pulled up on his bicycle, I came out with the deck of cards and soon enough, Batale swung by and we had ourselves a nice game going. The younger kids brought their makeshift football considering we couldn't play yesterday with the standard size. After a few rounds of cards, Andrew discovered from the kids that Kabaale James wasn't home so I ran inside to grab the ball and the football game started once more. Their smiles just make me so happy. I told Isaac that I had this small fear that a kid who didn't eat enough for the day would play and end up fainting from malnutrition. But he told me that football probably gets their mind off of hunger. That made me feel slightly better for defying our 77 year old neighbor.

We didn't have a dance party tonight - just a few friends who shook their hips during the game. It was getting dark so I took out my headlamp and all the kids ended up playing with it. After saying good night to the kids, we had dinner, which was really good. We had chicken, cabbage, rice, avocado, sweet potatoes, and watermelon. Post-dinner, I engrossed myself in Game of Thrones. It's getting so good. Just passed the Red Wedding....

Flowers

We had our second hand-washing school visit today. We taught and sang the song to the younger kids while the older ones helped build the tippy taps. I noticed when the younger kids were dismissed from us, the teachers were not calling them back to go back to learning new topics. It made me a little sad to see that the teachers were somewhat unmotivated. It's definitely a hard job with little pay, but it's still surprising and frustrating.

After a long day at the school, we came back for a nice lunch and planned for our malaria education session next week! The regular kids came by, but we didn't play football today to respect the wishes of the old grumpkins Kabaale that lives across the street. So today, we just played cards and had a mini dance party. Oh! I almost forgot, the best thing happened today. One of the younger boys, Guster who is 6, came up and gave me a handful of flowers! It was so adorable I almost cried on the spot. Who's kidding? For those of you who know me, I did cry... and I'm proud of it.

Relaxing

Today was a fairly relaxing day. While the team leaders (Juliana and Trisa) went into Iganga Town for their weekly meeting, the rest of us took up baseline survey again. We started a new zone and got about 13 houses finished in 2 hours. Many of the children hadn't seen us in this part of the village so we had quite the caravan after awhile, but it didn't bother me. That is, until we noticed that a lot of the kids had ringworm... It was on their heads and faces. It was really sad and disturbing to see; I just hope that we can put on a de-worming day for the kids in the village.

As we walked back under a cloudy sky (which was thankfully the weather the entire time we did baseline), a couple of boda boda friends picked us up and took us home, saving us some 15-20 extra minutes of walking. When we got back, I learned a new card game with the kids and played with them for some time.

Later, we met with the Kasambika 1 team to plan our school visit tomorrow to build tippy taps and teach the hand-washing song. It was a very short meeting so we started the football game earlier than usual. With all the kids sitting around, waiting for the ball and staring at the new muzungus, it was easy to set the teams and start playing. As the game came to end, we had another big dance circle party to finish the night off.

Chapatti Sunday

First thing's first, Happy Birthday Dad! I hope it was wonderful! 

Unfortunately, I didn't have that many adventures this weekend, but I did make a lot of memories! The first was Issac making chapatti! Yumm. Flour, oil, salt, water, carrots & onions is all you need. Matched with peas, that was lunch! It was delicioso! (But I forgot to take a picture of the completed masterpiece....sorry!)

 The usual football game started earlier today around mid-day. While the older kids played, I made paper airplanes for the younger ones. But surprisingly, that attracted the attention of the older kids too. It was nice to see everyone throwing them around, but after awhile, we had about 10 airplanes on our roof. Then it was back to soccer, until our 77-year old neighbor across the street, Kabaale James, came out and told the kids to stop playing. They didn't listen to him the first time and when he started to come towards the house, all I read was some screaming and thundering footsteps coming towards me. One of them chucked the ball into the house and followed the rest of them, running around the back of the house.

Still, we had another game later in the day - a shorter one because out of nowhere, an impromptu dance party arrived. With simple clapping as the beat, the kids started to dance. Let's just say the kids of Kasambika 2 know how to move their hips! 

Earthquakes!

Happy 4^th of July to everyone in the States! Hope you all are enjoying some nice fireworks!

Last night, we had two earthquakes! The first was post-dinner while we were all hanging around in our living room. It felt small, but long – at least a minute! The second was in the middle of the night. It was shorter, but strong enough to wake me up. It definitely felt a little like home in California! 

Today was our first day conducting baseline surveys in the village. We split up into two teams and worked in different zones of Kasambika 2. We walked house to house and asked questions about mosquito nets and sanitation facilities. Working from 2-5PM, we only got to 17 houses and considering there are about 270-300 households, we have a lot of work to do the next few days. As we finished our last house, it began to rain. We tried to outrun it for some time until we conceded to the thunderstorm and took shelter in a nice house. After some harsh rain, the mom of the house brought us hot milk tea and sweet bread! The bread was so tasty - it reminded me of a donut. What I would give for a glazed donut... Mmm. 

Coming home to a large group of kids, it was comforting to see a group of familiar faces after a long day. After punting the football to them from the front porch, they quickly set up their game. Today, I sat back and watched. It was fun to be a spectator for once. 

After we said bye to the kids, it was time to fight the rat. The past few nights, we've had these critters running around on the beams of our roof. Last night, it sounded like I was listening to a rat war. Hopefully, we'll be able to rid them.

Tippy Tapping!

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already July! It’s been a full week here in Kasambika 2, Uganda and I’m loving every minute of it. Today was a non-work day since we worked on Saturday. All the girls minus me went into Iganga town while I stayed behind with the boys to relax at home. So we began building the tippy tap! But it was more like watching Papa Issac build the tippy tap. So here are some pictures of it!

The tippy tap is a contraption for washing hands cleanly. You just step on the pedal and water falls out of the jerrycan with no need to touch it! 

(Thank you Kenzie for the modeling!)

Sadly, there was no soccer today. We had to give the grass (more like the giant patch of dirt) a rest. Hopefully there will be a game tomorrow! 

The Uganda Travels

During a recent time of reflection, a dear friend (whom if I ever became famous would probably write my biography...in fact, I expect it from you Matt) broke my life down into chapters of a book. The first couple consisted of all the baby steps I took, the elementary years, all the way to my awkward middle school times. Then came the high school chapters (yes there is an s there) where Esther learned more awkwardness, humility, and embarrassment. From my first experiences with eyeliner and mascara to those red-haired months to that time my phone had a...let's say water incident..., there were crushes, mosquito bites, AP classes, yearbook signings with maps of lunch time cliques, major failures, and few successes. One of which was Berkeley. Filled with amazing friends and inspiring people, newly found passions, and incredible experiences, these are truly the best years and chapters of my life so far. 

But with only 6 days left before I live in a new country, a new continent for the next two months, I have other things on my mind besides reflecting on these college chapters. For those of you who may not know, in less than a week I will be traveling to Iganga, Uganda and living in a rural village called Kasambika. As an intern for the Uganda Village Project, I will be working on public health and development programs focused on the community's wants and needs. I plan on reflecting on the experiences and lessons I've learned here for my future self and for anyone who wants to follow my adventures. 

I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm absolutely terrified and extremely excited to start a new chapter: The Uganda Travels