Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine's



I thought it pretty cool that here in the bush of Uganda people were concerned that Jamie and I were apart on Valentine's Day. Valentine's, in my mind, was a joke of a holiday invented by Hershey and Hallmark. Probably most guys are like that. Interesting to see the perspective-shift as people here are taking time to tell others that they love them without any incentive from corporate-culture or expectation of something in return.

Too bad Jamie is off in Nairobi and missing this moment of enlightenment.

Guess I'll have to eat all the chocolate myself.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Water is Life

The more I go out into the community and see the conditions that real people are living in, the more I'm blown away that life can be so hard for some people. It hits me especially bad when a kid who I may be feeling sorry for runs up and grabs onto my leg and hugs, not letting go. Smiling and making me feel better. How weird is that.

Sometimes I have a hard time being out 'in the field' just because things can feel hopeless. So its so incredibly encouraging a day comes along where I get to be a part of the solution and make a real difference in real people's lives.

I was able to go out with the local district water engineers and pump mechanics and have a good root around. Parts were purchased and tuesday we did the repairs for three water pumps. I always forget when I'm looking at a picture that there was someone on the other side of the camera taking the picture and actually living that moment, smelling the air and sweating it out in the sunshine. Sometimes remembering that helps to bring it all back to reality. I'm only saying that because I've been there looking at these pictures that, for all humanity's sense of right and wrong, shouldn't be allowed to exist. Viewing them I could pretty easily just pass them over and move on with life because it didn't really apply to me. But I dunno... I guess I'm just trying to convince you to view these photos as if you were there. Sure, they might look like anything else you've ever seen, and sure the photography might not win any awards (well ok, it definitely won't), but if you're reading this you probably know me, and I was on the other end of the camera that day, and when the shutter snapped and I put the camera down I was still there. Sitting on the ground in one instance hugging a little guy who needed it. Those moments are tough, and I guess I'm still kinda shaken from that moment because it was so surreal.

I just want this to be real to everyone else too.

Anyway, on with the pics. Enough emotional babble.

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

The pump mechanics starting repairs at Balanaga, a small village about 8 kms from Kibaale Community Centre

From The Davii - Ug Fotos


From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Cute little girl looking on

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Fitting a new tank - water comes up from the ground and spills out the spout. The head assembly will fit on top of this. The only tank was rusted out and in bad shape

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

I couldn't get how happy this guy was

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

... I couldn't get my eyes off of this guy. This is Alex and he's a happy kid, but he's suffering

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

As you can see here, the water in this area has a huge amount of iron content. I want to come back to this pump and install an iron removal plant in the future

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Putting the new head assembly on

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Water again! The people here were forced to draw from a scummy pond, but no longer

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Some of the kids were gathered to watch. Once it was working, we spent quite a bit of time educating these kids on how to properly handle the pump to make sure it doesn't break down any sooner than necessary. Kids have a tendency to bang it up and down on its stops, but that shouldn't happen. You can see the effort the kid here is putting forth though - here we installed 14 new sections of metal piping... that's over 200 feet down

We moved onto the second pump for repair. This pump is in Kyakasenene, which is super fun to say ("Chya-kah-SAY-nay-nay") but pretty far out. Its close to a school though and again, the only water source is a scummy pond that the local water committee is attempting to keep as clean as possible by skimming things out of it. Still, no good. Kibaale Community Centre to the rescue!

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Heading off into the bush with parts and tools in hand (and a big white photographer scurrying to catch up)

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

It's rockier out this way. The hills get this cool 'Windows Desktop Wallpaper' look to them because nothing can grow but scrub

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

The local water source

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

... we couldn't find the guy with the key, so we made do with the tools available to get in

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Yanking the piping out. This is a shallow-well and only about 15 feet deep, so its not too tough

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

School got out and the kids came rocketing down the hill with jerry cans in hand to fetch water from the pond

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Two hours later, WATER! Pump fixed

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

This repair will server over 400 kids at a school nearby

With that one finished we headed back to Kibaale and into the local trading centre (Kibaaletown) for another repair. There is a shallow well in town, about 10 feet deep that has been breaking down constantly. We decided to just overhaul the entire thing with new parts and give it new life. This is maybe 400 meters from the new borehole which was put in in early January, but despite this having been broken people were still drawing water from the pond rather than walking to the new borehole. Frustrating, but when you consider they have to lug 20 litres of water at a time, by Jerry Can, on their heads... that extra 400 meters can be a lot.

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

This is the current water source in the centre of town. I've been working to keep it tidied up, so really, you should have seen it before

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Taking it apart

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

I love this picture, but I hate it too

From The Davii - Ug Fotos


From The Davii - Ug Fotos

The mechanics are great guys and spend a lot of time with the kids educating

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Almost finished the repairs

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Water!

From The Davii - Ug Fotos


From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Sunday, February 8, 2009

2009: so far so good :)

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

In January we had a staff planning retreat at Lake Mburu National Park (it's about 1.5hr from our place). Go Team!!
From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Look at this view - it was beautiful! We stayed at this place for one night.
From The Davii - Ug Fotos

We saw lots of animals - zebra, buffalo, deer-like animals and warthogs. Pumba and his friends are sleeping.
From The Davii - Ug Fotos

We saw some hippos - luckily these weren't the hungry hippos.
From The Davii - Ug Fotos

We also did a lot of planning for the year to come- it's going to be a good year :)
From The Davii - Ug Fotos

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Joel, Avin and Finn love riding on the roof - it's a better view!
From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Sean is contemplating life. Just a couple of weeks before, someone thought he was 40 years old. Poor Sean.
From The Davii - Ug Fotos

I'm practicing my balancing skills on the log. I'm still to become a pro-surfer one day, but not catching many waves these days.
From The Davii - Ug Fotos

This is Christine's graduation party in Kampala. Christine works in the same office; Christine works with women groups in the area. She finished her degree in Social work and working with Community Services for 2 years. She is so great!
From The Davii - Ug Fotos

This is Samalie and her baby Amos. Samalie also works with Community Services and works alot with the students in university. Amos likes to cry at night and he is the cutest baby ever! Samalie is enjoying her sister's graduation party.
From The Davii - Ug Fotos

This is Esther (Amos' older sister). When we first came here, she would see Sean and immediatley cry and run in the opposite direction. (I guess he is pretty scary looking). But, Sean has made much process in this friendship and she now calls him uncle and will sit on his lap.
From The Davii - Ug Fotos

Me and one of our teacher's daughters are hanging out. We arrived at the party at 3pm, but it didn't start until 7pm - it's pretty typical here and we just enjoyed hanging out.