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.

String is a Best Friend in Kasambiika

Today, we woke up and relaxed for a bit before heading out to do work. Kenzie and I fetched some water at the borehole. Isaac worked on a poster to hang up for our malaria sensitization tomorrow. Then, we tried taking the bikes to the school to drop off some jerrycans for the tippy taps. I took Kenzie while Andrew had Isaac. Yet, we had an epic fail. The back seat where Kenzie was sitting started to break. With a quick fix-it, Kenzie and I switched seats and we headed out again. But then another epic fail. The pedal on the bike broke. So Papa Isaac made a makeshift pedal using string again and we conceded to having only Kenzie and Andrew ride the bikes to the school. 

As Isaac and I walked back to the house to get ready to mobilize people for the malaria sensitization tomorrow, we passed by some of the favorites - Batale and Said. They were sitting outside their hut peeling cassava. We stopped to greet, yet we ended up sitting and peeling with them. Batale and Isaac had knives, but I just used my fingers. I had cassava up in my fingernails for the rest of the day. After some time, Kenzie and Andrew met us and we all headed back to the house for lunch. As we started to head out to mobilize, Batale came by with cassava and corn. It still amazes me that people here can give so much when they have so little. 

After our hour of walking around and telling people about our "omusumo ku musuuda gw'ensiri" (malaria sensitization), we hung up some posters at the boreholes and the health center. By the time we got back, Juliana and Trisa had come back from Iganga with all the groceries and items for the week. After unloading, Isaac and I headed to Nabitende to buy some luxury items (i.e. sodas). On our way there, our boda man had to stop on the side of the road because there was a giant, black cobra in the road. It was at least 2 feet long and slithering its way into the potato fields. 

When we got back, it was only football, dinner, and setting the rat traps. 

Rats 1, Humans 0

I woke up this morning to the sounds of rats fighting or possibly dying. Trisa and I got out of our room to check where they were. In our hutch, we heard one that was squeaking and screaming. Isaac, Kenzie, and Andrew all got up as well and we started preparing for war. We stuffed the bottom gaps of the doors with curtains, grabbed weapons (a soccer ball, a bucket, a broom, and a stick), and a flashlight. As we looked for the rat, a small one jumped out and ran out before we could get it. Disappointed, I thought there wouldn't be another one, but Isaac was adamant. He pulled out drawers and poked around. Then we saw it. About 7 inches with an enormous tail, this rat ran around the hutch and hid from view. At one point, Andrew was about to stab it with a stick until it jumped out of reach and started running around the living room. With all of us on top of chairs, stools, and tables, I swept the rat away from the garage a couple of times, Kenzie threw the soccer ball at it, Trisa waited with the heavy bucket for the drop, Andrew clapped loudly... and Isaac tried to smack it with the stick. All the while, we were screaming and yelling. Eventually, we ended up failing as the rat sprinted to the garage through a hole in the gap.

Surrendering to defeat, Kenzie and I started on our French Toast making. It took some time getting used to cooking on a charcoal stove, but we succeeded and our teammates gave the final ruling as delicious! YES!

In Iganga today, we are heading back to K2 soon. I hope we'll be victorious over the rats tonight.

Dancin' in the Rain

Yay for the weekend! We had some other interns come visit today in Kasambika 2. It was fun to see some familiar faces. With 8 new faces, the kids still came by to hang out and I ended up playing with them for most of the time. Guster made me a bouquet of flowers today. Batale and Robert came by to play some cards. Then Batale and Robert took us for bike rides around the village! It was so much fun sitting on the back of the bike saying "Jambo!" and trying hard not to scream every time we hit a dip or a bump. The people we passed by just laughed and pointed while we rode by. When I came back from the bike ride, someone threw the football out and a game started. It went on for awhile...until the rain came.

At first, it was just some sprinkles so we kept playing. Then it started coming down harder and a few of us still tried to play while others took refuge under our roof at the porch. I tried to stay as long as possible, but then the monsoon came. At this point, everyone (kids and interns) were all huddled on the porch hiding from the rain. The kids started to use the runoff rain from the roof to wash their hands and sing the song at the same time. Then Trisa yells over the noisy rain "Esther, let's dance in the rain!"

Immediately, I jumped from the porch and started twirling and jumping in the rain, dancing my heart out. Other interns came down to dance and the kids soon followed. We kicked at the puddles, ran down the street, and chased each other, slipping and falling all the while. It was glorious.

Impromptu Team Trip

We had quite the lazy day today. With no need to do baseline surveys, we just chilled around the house until after lunch when we planned the specifics of our malaria education session for next Tuesday. We worked on some posters, a skit, and the details of malaria. Using their makeshift football, we played keep away with the kids until our boda bodas came for our team trip!

An impromptu journey, we all traveled to Kaliro, a town much like Iganga in the next district over. We got some ingredients for our French Toast breakfast on Sunday! It was another beautiful boda ride there and back. We left around 5:30 and when we got back, we were riding under an amazing sunset sky with a sliver of the moon beaming over the rice fields.

When we got back, we had the quieter group of kids waiting for us - Samuel, Daniel, Eria, and Kabaale. They played with our headlamps, flashlights, and phones. We played some music for them and watched them rock out to Rihanna, Usher, and Neon Trees. After that, it was more Game of Thrones and then sleep!