Well, it’s been a much busier week than the previous two. On the weekend, I helped create and type up questionnaires and answer sheets for the Kiyoora project. The Kiyoora project is a pipeline that brings water down from a natural source, in this case a mountain spring, down to several villages. In each, there are numerous taps along the way. It was built in 1999, and was supposed to last over twenty years, but it has come into disrepair. The ACTS members are understandably frustrated about this – they had taught a caretaker how to maintain the pipes. The problem is that the communities were not paying the caretaker (the money for the caretaker was taken from the community by the water committee leaders, some of whom were corrupt; when they realized their money was being embezzled, the villagers stopped paying), so he blocked up the pipes with wood to send a message: “No pay, no water.” Also, children, who do almost all of the water collecting, have damaged some of the taps (they fight over who gets to be first to use the water, probably so they will not be late to school). Plus, some people built houses near the roads and cut the pipeline to put their houses in. SO, this week we’ve been questioning villagers close to the source in order to find out a) what were the problems (which I’ve just listed) b) how they think they will prevent similar problems from happening in the future (accountability, electing good leaders, watching the children, education), and c) finding out if the people need education about water (yes – it’s clear they do), AIDS (actually, a lot of them seem pretty well informed), and sanitation.
So what is the surveying actually like? Well, there are now four of us non-engineers (not counting Nancy, who has her own scholarship agenda, or David, who attends meetings, does financial and admin stuff, and a host of other things) – Tim Folkman, me, and two American guys who have joined us for a month – Ryan and Andrew (they’ve been in Kampala for several months doing ministry to street children). So, we four are teamed up with four Ugandan women, and we go off in pairs, from house to house, asking questions. I’ve been teamed up with a lady called Jovanice. Jovanice questions the head/s of the household, translates the answers back to me, and then I record them (and when I’m bored, I make up new questions based on my own interests). The houses in the villages are made out of dried mud and thatch, wooden doors, and sometimes with corrugated iron roofs and woven thatch carpets or dirt floors. The nicer ones have been plastered inside and out, and have been painted. All of the houses I’ve been to have a sitting room where visitors can come – this is where we sit, usually perched on home-made wooden chairs. It is hot, and there are lots of flies. But everyone is very kind and hospitable – ‘You ah welcome’ they always say.
Today was an especially nice day. We had breakfast at seven, and were in the cars at eight to start the bumpy ride to the villages near the Kiyoora site. We arrived at 8:30 am, and split up to survey the area. David Moore came with Jovanice and I because I had asked David if I could come with him to a meeting in Nyakyera about ACTS’ microeconomics work (they help widows by renting land for them. David has worked it out so that each widow will work four plots of land. The revenue from the first three will be enough to live off, pay school fees for children, and hopefully garner a small profit with which to buy goats, which in turn should multiply; the fourth plot revenue will go towards paying next year’s field rent, so that they can be self-sustaining. I hope it works.). Anyway, today we hiked through the steep hills to question goat-herding families about the Kiyoora project. It was beautiful up there – green rolling hills like out of storybooks, and a wide, blue sky – a bit like a Ugandan setting from Heidi… without the snow. Down in the valley below, we could see little mud houses nestled in among the banana trees. Because I climbed up and down the slopes quickly, Jovanice called me a mbusi, the Ugandan word for 'goat.' David said I might be given a Ugandan name while over here, but I'm sort of hoping that one won't stick...
I saw an interesting thing in one of the houses today – a poster praising Saddam Hussein and his follows as strong, free men. In it, the heads of Saddam and his sons and brothers had been pasted onto the fit, strong, intrepid bodies of soldiers. I desperately wanted to buy it to bring it home to show my Islamic studies professor, but David said no. Still, what a weird thing to see in a mud hut at the top of a Ugandan mountain…
The second odd thing I saw today was a group of men digging into the earth. I asked our guide what they were doing (thinking they were fixing the pipes), and he replied that they were hunting. “Hunting what?” I asked, but at that moment, there was a chorus of excited voices – the men had obviously caught what they were hunting. They bounded up the slope and presented their prize to us. At first I thought it was a possum, but then I realized it was a giant rat – the biggest one I’d ever seen. It was a river rat, they said, and they were going to cook the squirming rodent up for dinner.
Well, that's about it for now - tomorrow, Friday, will consist of more surveying and meetings, and on Saturday, we'll work a half-day. Sundays are completely free, so I will probably do my laundry then.
Hope all's well in Canada,
Erica
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