Following the Engineers

Most of this week, I’ve been, surprise, surprise, following the engineers around while they do their thing. Repairs for the Kiyoora Water Project are well underway, although there is still much to be done. Recently, the young engineers – Matt, Melanie and Michelle – have been looking for another source. Apparently, even if they do repair the Kiyoora Water line, there isn’t enough water from the original source for all the people (the population has grown a lot, and I think the source has dried up a bit). Anyway, so Bern sent the young engineers (with me tagging along) into the hills to find another source that we can tap into. I don’t think Bern was very hopeful that we would find another source, because he was surprised when Matt told him we had.

           

What’s the new source like? Well, it’s pretty gross, really. When we hiked up the first time (quite a slog – it’s very steep, and of course the heat makes it unpleasant) on Friday morning, and found three sources. Two of the springs were too small to tap into, but the third was pretty big. It’s a mountain spring that the Ugandans had dammed up to make a brown, murky pool. Once we had spotted it, the engineers got out a jerry can and a timer to test the flow. But we first had to un-dam the spring. After digging the blockages out (logs, mainly), and letting the water flow out for a while, we found that there were tons and tons of long, black leeches sticking onto the underside of the logs. Ugh! These people had been drinking from leech-infested, chocolate-milk coloured water. Even while we were there, several families came down with jerry cans to collect water. Anyway, the engineers timed the water flow, and they found that it was fast enough to tap into.

The next time we went up, on Monday, we foolishly ascended in the mid-afternoon, when the sun was at its hottest. Still, Bern took a look at the source, and he said it might work. Some of the things we would have to look into, he said, would be to get permission from the person owning the land where the spring is located. Another thing we’d have to look into was the fishpond – lower down on the slope, a teacher had diverted some water to make a pool where he keeps his fish. They’re tiny little things, almost not worth eating, but they don’t wait for the fish to grow big. Still, we wouldn’t want to be responsible for drying up his ponds by taking too much water. But the most important factor we would need to consider was the slope itself. As the engineers explained to me, for the water flow to be sufficient in the pipes, the pipes have to slope down the mountain in a steady descent. The trouble is, there is a valley in between the source and the Kiyoora line, and we can’t have the pipe going down and then up – it’ll mess up the water pressure and flow. So I suggested building a little wooden bridge across to carry the pipe along. But Matt pointed out that we really needed to bury the piping so that most of the Ugandans don’t know where it is (to prevent them from stealing the pipes, which has happened before, sadly). So, yesterday morning, we trekked up into the hills again to try to find a way across the valley. Boy, we must have hiked up and down that valley, bush-whacking through ferns and brush, three or four times that day. Our conclusion: there is no good place to cross the valley – we’d have to go around it. This way would use more pipes, but it would keep the flow intact. 

Aside from helping out the engineers, I’ve eaten some different kinds of Ugandan food this week. We had a sort of stew with matoke, which I disliked because of the bitter spices, but they also gave us chapates – deep-fried, flour pancakes. The Ugandan staff eat them plain, but Melanie and I discovered that by putting sugar, cinnamon, and butter on them, they are really good. Mel says she thinks they taste like Beaver Tails. The chapates remind me of churros from Latin America. We’ve also eaten freshly made banana chips, which the Ugandan staff made for us. They are absolutely delicious. I hope they make them again. Also new for me was sugar cane. It looks a lot like bamboo. Bern sliced it open for me with a machete. The inside is white and stringy, and has a sweet, almost flowery taste. I mainly chewed and sucked on the white stringy stuff before spitting it out, but the Ugandans actually eat the stuff.

So that’s about it for now. I don’t know what next week will hold, but I know Grace is leaving us (she was only going to stay for a month). Also, Matt and Melanie and I have been working on getting visas for Rwanda, which is surprisingly tricky for Canadians (Americans can just get them at the border. I don't know why it's different for us), and we think we’ll have to go to Kampala to get it sorted out. Lastly, we got the news that David Moore’s mother has died. He is flying home today, but will be back soon. Keep him and his family in your prayers.