Farewell to Kotido!

8/12/13

Today was our last work day in Kotido and we are all feeling quite sad about it. It has been such a joy working with For One Another and MAP and getting to know the villagers.  This morning began with a trip to the Sand Dam site where we carried more rocks on our heads (total pros by now), ate some type of grain straight off their crops (I haven't died yet), and watched them use the rocks we had moved to mix and pour cement!  Carrie also received a marriage proposal from one of the villagers. Apparently he has a lot of cows...

After we headed back to Nakosoburin to distribute 10 more filters before going back to Brenda's for more rice, beans, and eggplant. :). We are all definitely exhausted from the work and though this  experience has been one of the most amazing of my life, I believe I am finally ready to go home. 

A bit of a side note but, one of the best parts of the trip for me has been waking up before the sunrise each day and stepping out of our hut to journal and read the tattered Bible the hubby sent with me.  Below are a couple of verses that felt quite appropriate for the last two weeks.  

"When trouble comes your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing."

~ James 1:2-4

"Do not love the world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave."

~ 1 John 2:15-17

Safari!

8/10/13

Safari Day!!! We drove the 2.5 hrs to Kipedo National Park and were lucky enough to see warthogs, antelope (they run like bunnies!), water buck, water buffalo, giraffes, baboons and even a herd of elephants! It is truly beautiful here and the vegetation seems much more lush than the Kotido area. It was a bit of a culture shock today at the lack of chivalry here at times but perhaps we are just tired and our behinds too sore from so much four-wheeling with the Land Cruiser in the bush. :/

8/11/13

Rest day! A day to relax was much needed so we attended Christ Church of Uganda in the morning (2.5 hrs of it...) and then had lunch with Brenda before heading to the market in Kotido. We picked up lots of beautiful wraps we had been seeing all over town and other homemade goodies.  We rested in the evening with beers and reflected on our trip so far. We have been so so busy it had been hard to process it all. I still cannot believe I am here! Around 6pm we were starved so we all begged our host Charles to make us chipati (thick crepes) and French fries. We are all starting to get a bit homesick and are really starting to miss the variety of food at home since rice, beans, and eggplant (delicious!) have been our staple diet here. Oh how I miss cheese!

Challenges

8/9/13

Today after dropping the MAP folks off at the Sand Dam we visited the village Nakosoburin that had received filters last year to clean out their filters and review maintenance and hygiene with them.  As the women brought their filters to us it was disheartening to see that some of the buckets or filters had broken and were unusable. These people have nothing and even the small help they do have is now unusable. We were unaware of the issues so had no supplies to replace their buckets or fix their broken filters. All we could do was clean the dirty filters and take down the names of those who were in need of replacements.  The problem we faced was if we replace some we may have to replace them all to avoid jealously and the type of message it sends to all those who took such good care of their supplies. So frustrating!  Even with my meager salary I could end so much hunger and suffering in this village and yet, what good does a handout do but create a codependent culture? The children whose faces remind me of my nieces, nephew and Goddaughters, look at you with their swollen bellies and tell you they are hungry and yet, you have nothing to offer them. Some days I wish I could take them all away from this place. 

Kotido continued...

8/5/13

Today was our first day in the field. We spent the morning with MAP having a short devotion and then going over the days plans. The village we visited first is where we will be constructing the Sand Dam.  Their crops are already struggling and it is still wet season so a Sand Dam Is extremely necessary. The people were fairly primitive but organized and very curious about us. They call us muzungas (white people) haha. The children are sweet but obviously malnourished with big bellies protruding and prominent cheek bones. Many of the women have scarification on their faces in beautiful patterns. We are told this means they are married. After the meeting we went to the site of the river where the Sand Dam.  The people had agreed to the Sand Dam with MAP weeks earlier but all of a sudden we were mid argument with them over the dam. Apparently an old women across the river was concerned that her maize would be destroyed by flooding. Another woman was wailing and crying for reasons that still remain unknown. After about 2 hours we finally came to an agreement to build the dam. Thank God!  MAP is really amazing with the villager and so patient. After finishing up at the new Sand Dam site we visited a completed one and then were off to dinner to eat and eat and eat some more. Starved!

8/7/13

For the last two days we have been visiting villages that will receive either water filters or a Sand Dam. Yesterday we spent the morning drilling holes in 30 of the buckets for the filters by hand. We all huddled in the tiny kitchen in the back of the MAP office and heated the plastic enough to make it easier to drill. We all have blisters all over our fingers ha!  So worth it today though when we met the village who received the filters. They were so kind a grateful to receive them! They clapped through Carrie's entire presentation and posed for pictures with their buckets and filters after we were done with the distribution. It still amazes me how little the villagers subsist on!  It really makes one feel like a glutton. :(  I wish there was more we could do for these people and it just makes me feel even more convicted to keep supporting the work that For One Another is doing. 

Before going to the village receiving the filters, we stopped by the village receiving the Sand Dam to help them start building. I swear those women are the hardest working people I have ever seen. They carry these enormous rocks on their heads half the size of their bodies like it is nothing!  Even the pregnant ones! They made small grass head cushions for us and we were able to carry rocks on our heads as well. I have so much respect for them after all the work we did and it was great to interact with the villagers. I feel like we were able to form a strong bond with them and earn their respect. Tomorrow we head back to the Sand Dam site and hopefully another village to distribute more filters. I hope to be able to post more pictures soon.

8/8/13

After dropping off Livingston (the Sand Dam engineer) and other MAP staff at the Sand Dam site, we headed to a village Carrie had distributed water filters to last year. Our main goal was to clean out the filters that may have become clogged and also see how the clean water solution was working for the villages and if their health had improved. We were greeted by the villagers under their meeting tree and proceeded down to the village.

It is truly amazing how fortified their homes are. They have these thick branches all intertwined and anchored into the ground to protect their individual houses, creating a very sturdy fence.  Each hut is constructed out of mud and sits low in the ground to keep it cool. The roofs are made from layers and layers and layers of stacked grass so thick it keeps the rain out. They are really quite beautiful. We were even able to go in one! I didn't think I was going to be able to squeeze through the tiny opening that served as the entrance haha. Once inside, as our eyes adjusted, we began to look around and spotted a bat hanging from the roof! Needless to say, we filed out as possible. 

We spent the remainder of our time in the village cleaning out all the dirty filters and reeducating the villagers on proper care and maintenance of he filters. It was good to hear from them that the diarrhea had lessened in the children after using the filters. 

About 4pm we departed and headed back to the Sand Dam site.  They had made quite a bit of progress and were just waiting for the trench they had dug to drain before pouring the concrete. Then we were off to Brenda's for dinner and showers. Perhaps tomorrow we will have water at our place!

Kotido

8/4/13

Today we arrived in Kotido after 6+ hours on an extremely bumpy road and one river fording.

Exhausted and sore!  There is no running water in the house we are staying at so we have been flushing with a Jerry can and taking wet wipe showers.  Today we walked around Kotido and stuck out like sore thumbs. I was a little nervous at first but out guides Innocent and Dennis were so amazing and made us feel very comfortable. There is so much poverty it is hard to see but the people seem to have good spirits. We were told just 10 years ago that 95% of the population had  guns, including the children. So much violence! But it seems much more peaceful now. We got to see an amazing ceremony with 7 of the clans if the Karamoja tribe. They danced with feathers and sticks and butchered 7 cows right there in the middle of it all. They invited us back to eat with them in the evening. I was happy we didn't go back though so I didn't have to eat the meat :/ The children here are so beautiful...so full of life and they love to see pictures of themselves. 

We came back to the house and napped then were off to the sliding rock. The rock has been worn smooth by all the sliding. So fun! Carrie, Anna and I all slid down together. Later, The children there acted out a play for us. :) tomorrow we go to see the Sand Dam in one of the villages. 

Kampala to Gulu

View from our room in Kampala

Well we are officially in Africa!  We arrived in Kampala Thursday night after over 30 hours of travel. I can't remember the last time I watched that many movies.  We drove through the streets of Kampala to our hotel and I must admit I felt a little nervous. There were people all over the streets at midnight and we stuck out like sore thumbs! Our driver was very nice though and we arrived at the hotel with no issues.  After 3 hours if sleep we were up again and headed out to Gulu with our friend Agnes from MAP International.  After all the travel the day before we were not looking forward to being cooped up again but we couldn't wait to actually see Africa!  We all piled into the van with our thousand pieces of luggage and were off. The streets of Kampala are a true assault to the senses. People, color, life everywhere with shops selling household items on every side and meat hanging raw in the "butcher shops." Women carry everything from baskets to firewood perfectly balanced on their heads men cut between cars, flying down the streets on their motor cycles.  We stopped on our way to pick up the Sand Dam engineer (a water collection system we will be building in Kotido) and got ourselves firmly stuck in the traffic of a massive market. We literally sat for over an house not moving as hundreds of people pushed between cars. The clothing here is so beautiful and color is not spared in the least. Made we feel quite dull in all my green and gray.  After sitting for what seemed like an eternity we turned around (I really don't know how we didn't hit the dozen cars smashed around us) and headed back to a gas station for the engineer to meet us. After picking up Livingston our engineer we were off officially to Gulu.  I managed to grab some sleep in between the massive potholes that jolted us awake.  Outside the city you can really appreciate the nature in Uganda. It really is the Pearl of Africa.  About halfway through our trip we passed the Nile river!  Green, green, green and then BAM! The most amazingly beautiful, overwhelming and rushing river I have ever seen. It is truly overwhelming. The water surges past rocks and trees. I can really appreciate why it is so famous. This place truly is the cradle of life. Shortly past the river we came upon a dozen or so baboons!!  I could hardly contain myself from squealing with excitement. The mommas walked along our cars with their babies hanging from them waiting for us to throw down the bananas we had purchased in the roadside market earlier in the day while the males boldly walked in front of our car daring us not to feed them.  Baboons!!! Right in front of us! I am in heaven :)  After what seemed like another eternity we arrived in Gulu.  The hotel is quite nice, minus the ice cold showers and we feel VERY safe.  After a quick rest we headed to the hotel to meet with the local Rotary club (Carrie is a member). After a nice but extremely long dinner (things move a but slower around here) we headed to bed and crashed for a whole 7 hours! 

Today we will make our way to Kotido where we will be doing most of our work. I can't wait to see what we will encounter on the way!

Baboons on the way to Gulu

The Nile river

View from our room in Kampala

Dinner with the Gulu Rotary Club