Drink the Water-Jack Johnson

When you’re in a new place where so many things are different from what you’re used to, you learn to appreciate new and simple things.  One thing I have really come to appreciate is running water.  Water is a major issue here, and by major I mean it is a huge factor impacting every single Ugandan’s daily life in a significant way.

Learning early how to carry water like her mom

The local government is responsible for providing access to water but “access” can mean making sure there is a tap or well somewhere in the vicinity.  Most people do not have running water and, as a result, spend large parts of the day fetching water from nearby sources.  They also spend huge amounts of energy lugging heavy water jugs back home.  The yellow jugs that are most commonly used are 17 liters, or about 4.5 gallons.  Students must fetch water for their schools as well.  You think a lot more about your water consumption when you’re washing your hands with water that elementary students had to carry ¾ of a mile.

While water is a very serious topic here, it does make me laugh when they’ve lost the lid to a water container so stuff a banana in to keep the water from spilling out.  I would say that happens on about 1/3 of the water containers I’ve seen.

We were back to work with Pastor Francis and today when we arrived he was busy at work planting vegetables in his garden.  During the morning break I broke out a portable speaker and we had a dance party.  It was amazing and all of the students joined in-it was amazing!!

During classes I went with Michael to the P6 class and I enjoyed spending some time with the older students.  The students are basically in grade 6 and their ages ranged from 11-18.  They were learning about public health issues so I talked with them a bit about my insulin pump and how it worked.  We had a little competition and the winner got to have their blood sugar tested and eat a glucose tablet-they were coveted prizes and the teacher wanted to have hers checked too.

In the afternoon we visited  the final microenterprise.  This one was in a more rural village so we had to take a taxi there.  Taxis are basically 15 passenger vans but they often hold up to 20 people.  They have semi-set routes and people hop off and on at quasi-designated stops.

Once we arrived in the village, we walked through the town, gathering a following of 20 kids along the way.  We finally came to a piggery where we met Fred and his family.  Fred currently works as a cook at a local school.  However, his goal is to become a pig and chicken farmer and he is well on his way.  He has 7 pigs and hopes to start breeding them in another month or so.  He is also 75% of the way done building his chicken coop and then he hopes to have several hundred chickens so he can sell the eggs.  Fred’s work ethic was amazing as he was building everything himself-the coop, the pig pen, etc. on his time off from work.  He invited us into his home because traditional beliefs say that will bring blessings to his house.  Then he insisted upon providing us with food and water (even though we had just eaten lunch) because that would ensure the blessing came.  He served up pork of course-it was quite delicious.

We hopped back on a taxi and unfortunately ran into rush hour traffic so it took us quite awhile to get back to Mukono.  Once there, we gathered for a farewell dinner as several people will be heading back to the U.S. Wednesday (including Tami :(.  I was sad to see them go.