Gonda-Uganda: January 2009

Primary School children dancing at a lodge on Lake Mutanda near Kisoro in Southwestern Uganda.

Preparation to begin building latrines are now in full swing. Tor and I have mapped out about 40 latrines to be built at 4 Batwa villages. Often I drive the motorcycle down to the guesthouse in the morning for breakfast and find Tor cranking away on some new latrine design modification or looking for ways to cut costs on existing designs. Tor and I have come up with four main criteria for the construction of the latrines:

1. We want to maximize the involvement of the community in every step of the projects. This includes participating in every step of the planning and building process.

2. We want to provide the strongest most versatile latrine for the least cost and we want to use building techniques that use existing masonry an carpentry skills within the communities.

3. We want the materials to be light as transportation costs are the highest they have ever been in Uganda and these materials must be carried long distances often on steep and treacherous terrain.

4. Lastly, if at all possible, we want to provide a latrine that can be sustainably used for over 50 years. This means that the structure will outlast the life of the pit and can be disassembled and reassembled with minimum skill and effort (aside from digging a 15 to 20 foot hole in the ground).

One method that we have come across is the use of thin layers of sand and cement applied to a light structural framework such as chicken wire. This process used to make walls and possibly slabs is known as ferrocement. This is cement that is not poured into forms but applied as a plaster and has proven its strength and usefulness many times over in projects such as boat hulls and water storage tanks. The ferrocement walls are lighter than brick walls and utilize traditional mud and waddle techniques of applying plaster to a structural framework. Test walls are going up as we speak and we hope to have built our first latrine in early February. I guess this is all a lot of excitement about storing well…crap! But it has been extremely rewarding working with the Batwa communities on their concerns about sanitation and coming up with a design that they can be proud of and that they will take responsibility for long after we have left.

Members of the Batwa community with the tools and food that will be used for digging the pits for the latrines.

To increase community buy in and involvement we are setting up water, sanitation, and nutrition committees. These groups of people are the current and future managers of these Rotary projects. In some cases the committee members overlap and in others they are completely separate. These committees are what Rotary calls the Rotary Community Corps. The RCC are groups of volunteers that manage the financial, logistical, and enforcement aspects of the projects. By-laws are written for the proper management of the projects and include schedules for maintenance and in some cases fines for misconduct. One such fine I found particularly interesting in the Batwa community of Bikuto was for 10,000 shillings for cleaning pig intestines at the protected spring source. Apparently a prized delicacy among the Batwa they also realize it is one of the more unsanitary and disgusting preparations of food known to mankind.

Batwa children grouped together at a community meeting to talk about water and sanitation. Meetings are often populated by all ages from the youngest suckling babies to the oldest crotchety Muhzees (respected elders).

As for living in Bwindi, I continue to enjoy the near perfect weather on a daily basis. When the sun comes out in midday it can really cook here especially with the humidity but without fail the clouds will roll in in the afternoon to cool things off and provide short bursts of rainfall that will give way to beautiful sunsets against white pillowy thunderheads. I am settling into my new Banda (another name for cabin) quite nicely which has a 180 degree view of primary rainforest. The forest sits there as one of the last remnants of truly unspoiled wilderness. The majestic quality of the forest seems infinite and is a great source of mystery and curiosity in my daily routine.

For the Christmas holiday Tor and I traveled south to the volcanoes on the border of Uganda and Rwanda (and Congo for that matter). We walked through the forest on a footpath used by the locals to reach various trading post to the North and South of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. On our way we found a family of screeching Chimpanzees sitting on the massive limbs of a 20 ft in diameter fig tree. The trees canopy must have stretched nearly 50 feet in every direction and the Chimpanzees could have cared less about us. It seemed they were in the middle of a family squabble and refused to be interrupted by visitors.

From there our travels took us through the town of Kisoro (apparently the Switzerland of Africa) and up the dormant volcano of Mt Gahinga. From which we had stellar views of surrounding volcanoes and could stand in both Rwanda and Uganda at the same time. A crater swamp at the summit of the volcano was vegetated by the alien like Scenicia plants that are found on all the mountains in East Africa extending above 12000 feet in elevation. Coming down the mountain I ran into my first poisonous snake in East Africa, a Bush Viper. Extraordinarily camouflaged our guide nearly stepped on the black and green coils.

Ranger guide against the backdrop of Mt Sabyinio seen from the top of Mt Gahinga. The guides carry rifles to scare off wild animals such as buffalo and elephant though I'm not sure a fully automatic AK-47 is totally warranted.

It’s hard to believe that already 4 months have passed here. It has been such a blur of new experiences it’s impossible to describe effectively all of the daily nuances of being here. Hopefully, in time, you will all have a chance to experience East Africa for yourselves and pick up on the cultural and natural phenomena that make this place so unique. I hope the New Year is treating you all well. Please send me any thoughts or questions.

Photos

Three Bakiga men hold a banana tree sluice up to an unprotected spring in order to determine the water volume produced by the spring. This volume is then compared to the number of families that will collect the water to determine if the volume of the spring is adequate.

A man collects papaya by dislodging the fruit with a long wooden pole.

A photo of a taxi park in Kigali from a short three day trip that Tor and I took to Rwanda during the holidays.

A sign outside of a church near Kigali Rwanda. This is one of the many genocide memorials in Kigali, Rwanda. Over 1200 Tutsis who took shelter in this church were killed. Over 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and Hutu sympathisers were brutally murdered in 1994. The sign is self-explanatory. Suprisingly enough it is sponsored by Rotaract a club of young Rotarians from the area.