This update has been a long time comin’, we know.
Our arrival in Lyantonde, a town in S-O Uganda we would later call home, was preceded
by a 2 week stay in the eastern part of the country.
There is culture shock for you, a tiny little village of about 500 scattered people who, for the most part, practice subsistence agriculture. We were quickly introduced to the food staples we would learn to love: rice, matoke (steamed and crushed bananas), posho (maiz based, mashed potato texture), cassava, sweet potatos and beans. To sum this up, it usually sounds like this: rice & beans, beans and cassava, matoke and beans, and so on….the fresh fruits make up for it.
Food aside, there were a few other things to get used to. Women kneeling to greet men (a custom Denise did not pick-up?!?), living with farm animals, bats and various creatures, as well as always, sticking out like a sore thumb. Everywhere you go, various stares & greetings are in store. There is the “what is that?” stare, the “what is this white person doing here?” stare, the “what are you going to give (bring) me (us)?” stare or question, the “Bye Muzungu!!!! (foreigner, white person)” shouted by every child you cross and the attached assortment of “how are you’s?”, a question repeated until you disappear from their sight…
We have also made many children cry.
There we spent most of our time giving HIV/AIDS seminars to various groups in the community including widows, students, and people living with HIV. In between these, we taught a couple days at the PARDI sponsored St-Andrews primary school and orphanage. The bulk of our time was spent assessing this project and the needs of the community involved (mainly widows and orphans). Because access to health care was one of the most common complaints, we also went to the nearest facilities to see the situation for ourselves (we have a report on all this for those interested on reading it).
Every house we visited, we were given bags of peanuts, eggs, papaya, jackfruit, sugarcane and corn. The hospitality was incredible. The eastern region is green, lush and beautiful. Houses and huts are well groomed, adorned with flours and neatly swept paths. The effect of AIDS however, has left its mark. A great number of grand-parents with numbered years are trying to care for their orphaned grand-children, widows vying to raise families of 8 alone, are examples of the various strains on these communities. What will become of all these children is the most common question their guardians would ask.
I hate to be gloomy, but from what we have seen, it is a great question indeed.
Back to civilization, Denise & I spent about a week in Jinja, a city on the shores of lake Victoria just an hour and a half east of the capital, Kampala. We had planned on white water rafting but I got malaria instead. It ain’t as bad as it sounds, but I would not wish it on anybody either! Needless to say, I was down and out. D was great.
We’ve been living in Lyantonde for 3 months now and have learned to call this trucker town home. Lyantonde is a small town. There are about 3 restaurants that we eat at and no internet. We have a sweet little apartment and some great neighbors. Actually that’s probably the best part of our living here – the Ugandans that we have become friends with. Kassim lives across the court yard. He works at the main bank here (which is a nice hook-up) and has a ton of movies, satellite TV and is obsessed with Monopoly (it’s the South African version! No boardwalk!) We spend our weekends with him watching Premiership Soccer ! GO ARSENAL! And we’ve become pretty obsessed with it. And playing monopoly. He’s really great. Then we have Kenneth – he’s our other awesome neighbor. He works at an NGO in town. He’s MR. fix it and MR. Resourceful. He’s helped us out countless times and he’s hilarious.
JM and I play soccer every Sunday with PARDI staff, some of the other volunteers, and whoever else happens to come along. It’s a lot of fun. We’ve both accumulated a few bruises. During the work week we are super busy. When we first got here, JM spent a couple of weeks building furniture for our home. After that he spent a month giving HIV/AIDS seminars to villages and schools in the area.
We then began work on the well project, which meant a month in the field determing whether there was a community need for water. It became clear very quickly that there was an immediate need for water (safe or unsafe) in this area. We visited a lot of people to get their views on how best to proceed, in terms of what type of well would be suitable for this area, where to put the wells, what members of the community where most in need etc. After meeting with government officials, community develppment workers, field counselors, widows, orphans, primary schools, child headed households, we came to the conclusion that cement rain harvesting tanks that bring water closer to orphans, widows and CHHs were the priority.
To get to these tiny villages in the surrounding hills and valleys, Denise & I rent motorbikes and scoot around from place to place with a PARDI staff to help with obvious communication issues. I got to admit, we look pretty good on those bikes. Most of it is closer to dirt biking because of all the hills, rocks & mud! You should see Denise with her army pants, tang-top, sun galsses and red bandana....She's loving it. Despite the many unheard tragedies in the region, the scenery is beautiful, and people always ready for a laugh. Back to water...
So we came up with the idea that while we were investigating the water situation we would film our experience and document the process. We’ve definitely stretched the capabailities of our digital camera and come up with a lot of material that we are in the process of editing so that we can make a fundraising video. We’ve never done anything like this before so it’s going to be challenging, especially with our limited technological resources. But we’re excited about sharing it with all of you.
In three weeks, we will be posting the video online in the hope of fundraising as much money as possible by late December, early January. By then we hope to have raised enough money to start building. The 'ferro cement tanks' only take 2 weeks to complete and the impact of clean, safe water is immediate. We’ve set up a pay pal account for donations and we’ve designed a brochure with additional info (it should be out in 2 weeks). My mom, Donna Buckley, is PARDI Canadian fundraising coordinator and she can forward any cash or check donations to us (personal checks made payable to me, JM will be deposited into our accounts by her and then wired to PARDI Uganda).
There have been a few 'bacterial setbacks' if you know what I mean. Our howlin' stomachs are finally returning back to normal....
