The Pace of Development Work

Tor and I with the members of our recent latrine building workshop. The lone woman in the photo is Beth, our translator.
(Note: This is the first part of a three part series describing our efforts to run a technical skills workshop for the Batwa in the month of March. The first and second parts of this series will focus on our efforts leading up to the workshop, and the third part will deal with how the workshop played out and the future of our work in Uganda).

It has been a hectic time here recently in Bwindi. I realized a couple weeks ago that Tor and I had only taken two short trips outside of Bwindi since Christmas. We were well past due for checking out some of the sights Uganda has to offer. I was also looking to find some much needed perspective on working with the communities here. Unfortunately, during this time I had to say goodbye to my close friend Tor Erickson who has contributed so much personal and professional support during the last four months.

To get away Tor and I took a great trip out to eastern Uganda with a young Dutch musician, Tina, who has been working with children in Gulu, a city in the war torn north, and her brother Tom. First we headed out to Sipi Falls, a set of spectacular waterfalls on the Sipi River which drains the western flank of Mt Elgon. Mt Elgon is an ancient volcano on the edge of the Great Rift Valley along the Kenyan border.

The lowest and largest of three spectacular Falls in the Sipi Falls region that drains off of Mt Elgon.

Our first experience of the mountain was in the waning light of dusk. Under falling darkness we could just make out the outline of a massively broad landmass lifting up from the flat plain. What we saw was not the form of a young, cone shaped volcano ready to rupture but that of an ancient volcano that had seen its day in the sun and was slowly, inexorably eroding back into the plain. Fittingly, the mountain took the form of a sleeping person spent from millions of years of geologic activity.

Tired and weary ourselves from hundreds of kilometers of driving we arrived at our lodge under the blanket of darkness. My first sense of Sipi Falls was the hushed sound of running water and chattering birds. All we could see was a faint, rugged ridgeline silhouetted against an imperceptibly lighter sky.

I greatly enjoy experiencing a place arriving for the first time while it is still dark out. Sight can often overwhelm our other senses. Darkness forces us to a more balanced use of our faculties, contributing to a more complete experience of a place.

We spent a couple days exploring this spectacular region. On the final day Tor and I hesitantly signed up to go climbing. We could only imagine the kind of climbing equipment we would find in a country that is known for squeezing every last bit of functionality out of a piece of equipment until it breaks for good and is then used for another purpose. We were pleasantly surprised to find up-to-date climbing gear and cleanly bolted routes. The rock was an old Lahar mudflow dotted with protruding chunks of stone that made for great handholds. The climbing was superb and during rest periods, in between climbs, we enjoyed fantastic views stretching out to northern Uganda. We finished up our climb and then were off to Kampala to run some errands and, sadly, to say goodbye to Tor.

Goofing off on the waterfall hike at Sipi. From left to right Tor, Tina, Tom, and our overprotective guide Fred.

Traveling around in Mt. Elgon I was struck (not for the first time) by how long certain natural processes take. How many millions of years did it take Mt. Elgon to lift up from the Rift Valley and then to wear down to the nub that currently exists? A nub thirteen thousand feet tall and encompassing twenty square miles, to be sure, but we have to remember that at one time it used to be a much taller mountain than Kilimanjaro.

These thoughts on time also made me think of how long processes take for humans. How do humans create the social structures that they live in and how long do those structures take to form? Africa has had its entire tribal social structure ripped to shreds by the division and the subsequent domination of the continent by European colonialists. Then, just as the people seemed to be coming to some kind of equilibrium with a new set of colonial rules, independence struck and the rules shifted yet again. It was a cultural whiplash that happened in an instant but its fallout has lasted for decades. The adjustments that people have made have been incredibly painful and have triggered side effects of lawlessness, corruption, war, starvation, oppression, and poverty.

It is the same for the Batwa. For thousands of years they lived in a social structure adapted to rules and guidelines set by the forest. Banned from the forest in 1994 they are now forced to live by a different set of rules, a set of rules that they lack the education and cultural background to effectively cope with. This is why humanitarian efforts that simply give money or goods, or implement projects without carefully consulting the Batwa and allowing them to organize to fully benefit from the projects can be so dangerous. Without the requisite education and community organization the projects will, at best, fail, and at worst community dynamics and relationships can be disrupted and dependence on outside handouts can become heavily relied upon.

Batwa Children of the Bikuto settlement hanging around at the drinking and bathing water source for the community.

One specific danger of the ‘charity’ style of humanitarian efforts is that much of the funding for these efforts can end up being funneled to those on the ground who have the best education or who sit in positions of power. Frequently these are the people least in need of help and rarely are they the intended recipients of the aid. Because of their local status as influential community members or their education they are the ones who are best able to communicate with and direct NGOs or philanthropists. As a result, funding for community development often does not effectively find its way to the people who are the intended target and instead money goes to those who can best communicate with the donors.

That is why it is so important that we work within communities to build skill sets, whether those skill sets be organizational or labor oriented, so they can truly be the owners and beneficiaries of the projects that come their way.

I feel we took a great step towards promoting project ownership and building community skill sets by running a latrine building workshop for the Batwa. The workshop was attended by eight community-chosen Batwa from four different villages. Its purpose was to teach the necessary construction techniques to build latrines from the foundation to the roof, without the help of any outside masons or carpenters. Tor did an outstanding job engaging the Batwa and teaching the necessary skills. In the next installment of this blog, I will leave it to Tor to describe the philosophy and background of the class. In the final installment, Tor will talk about how the month-long workshop actually played out and I will discuss where we hope to go in the future.

Pictures:

Cooking lunch at the conclusion of our latrine building workshop in Bikuto. Simon (left) was one of eight participants and Syverin was the cook for the duration of the workshop.


Members of the latrine building workshop. Above: Muhzei. Below from left to right is: Kenneth, Medad, Simon, Lokolo (pronounced Rokoro), Tofa, Tinfyo, and Moses.

Cutting heads. Syverin holds two chickens in their death throes.

Fisherman preparing their nets on the shore of Lake Edward in the fishing village of Kisenyi. Kisenyi is one of three villages surrounding by Queen Elizabeth national park because they were there before the park was designated.

The coolest kid in Uganda. Unfortunately it was a mammoth effort trying to get these shades back from him.

Tor teaching the workshop with Beth our translator and using a blackboard. Can you tell us what the 4 components of concrete are?...

Tor posing in front of the ferrocement latrine build during the workshop.

Tinfyo seeking cover during a windstorm in Bikuto. The thatch is blowing off of the building behind him.

Me standing in front of a massive strangler fig tree in Entebbe just south of Kampala.

Wild insect life on an island that we visited on the Nile. The first photo is of an unreal preying mantis type creature feeding on some a dragonfly. The second photo is a line up of dragonflies on a branch.

Keeping on

The Batwa getting down at a recent visit to the Bikuto settlement. The dancing is a combination of a burst of quick jumps while stomping your feet down and some fancy foot work in between.


Agandi everyone,

Before I realized it February in Bwindi was gone in a flash. The guesthouse, where I take my meals, work, and find social sustenance, has seen many new faces and said goodbye others. This month we were graced with the presence of two pediatricians (Elizabeth and Annie) from the states, a neo-natal nurse from Denmark (Anna) as well as two med students from Denmark (Christian and Eva).

A photo of the February crew. From left to right (back) is Elizabeth, Annie, Der, myself and Tor and also left to right (front) is Apiyo, Carol, and Anna. Apiyo and Carol work as staff at the hospital and the rest are guesthouse wayfarers.

The guesthouse is such a great mix of culture, language, and background is. The conversations that you have over meals range across the globe (literally and figuratively) encompassing politics, religion, food, adventures…etc. Because of the strong hospital presence here, inevitably the conversations will turn to infectious disease, tropical ulcers, and the parasites that infest the local human population. This morning I realized how much my tolerance had grown here when I was able to happily eat my French toast with plum jam while Eva, told stories about patients vomiting blood full of hookworms!

Also this month we had a visit from Reno Rotarian Dr. Bob Clift and his wife and Linda Clift. Their visit was thoroughly enjoyable. We visited several Batwa settlements where projects are ongoing and they had the opportunity to see our approach to the projects and provide input. Bob and Linda really embraced the effort we are putting in here to build sustainable, community owned projects.

While they were here, Bob and Linda had a chance to sit in on a meeting for the goat portion of the project. Realizing that we know very little about how the Batwa cultural and social systems work Paul and I decided to hold a meeting where the Batwa have an opportunity to teach other Batwa. Mpungu is a Batwa settlement that is currently running a very successful goat project and we brought them over to talk to the beneficiaries of our goat project. The meeting brought out all kinds of issues and ideas that I had not thought of before. For example the folks at Mpungu seemed to think that perhaps the greatest benefit of having goats in their settlement is not for milk or meat but for fertilizer for their crops. It also brought out issues of land ownership and how the community needs to think about how to graze their goats and still be respectful to their neighbors.


Paul Muhwezi facilitating a meeting for the goat project.


Rotarian Bob Clift assessing the situation at the Batwa goat meeting at the settlement of Kitariro.

After the meeting Bob Clift expressed to me how important community ownership was becoming in his mind. He explained how he plans to bring that message back to his Rotary Club in Reno and to put a greater emphasis on the incorporation of community involvement. All I could do was nod in agreement. I’m looking forward to some of that feedback.

The Batwa breaking into dance with Linda Clift caught in the middle.

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It seems that my tolerance for discomfort has grown immensely since my arrival to Bwindi in September though I can definitively say it will never compare to the tolerance of peoples from Uganda. From walking miles and miles everyday to carrying giant stacks of firewood on their heads to piling 20 people in the back of a pickup that is already full of bags of corn flour, matoke (green bananas) and other supplies to making gravel by hitting large rocks with a hammer until they become small rocks. Paul, my Mukiga partner the other day tried to bring jerry cans full of gasoline into the cab of the truck as we were heading home from the field. I told him that the fumes were going to make me sick and he gave me a look of pity as if the poor Mzungu would never be able to make his way through Uganda without him. Which to some degree I cannot argue with.Pediatrician Annie hoops taking a photo of Batwa children at the Mpungu settlement.

Tor was talking to me the other day about how he didn’t think that he could return to the states and deal with complaints of people that were anything short of emotional or physical disaster. There seems to be much less sympathy for others misfortune here as life tends to hold a certain degree of heartache and physical suffering for everyone. It’s almost as if there is an intrinsic empathy and because everyone suffers there is no need to acknowledge it. Although open displays of sympathy for others is rare there is much humor and excitement in the Ugandan culture in sharing the stories of others misfortune. Many of these stories fall under the category of “if I didn’t laugh I would probably cry.”

For example:
Tor and I the other day were hanging out at a Batwa settlement, known as Bikuto, trying to set up a building workshop with the people there. We sent a gopher to pick up a phone number from the other side of the settlement that was down a ravine and back up the other side. In fascination we watched with the Batwa women the young man run full speed down into the ravine and back up the other side; the low lying tea plants allowing us to watch every step. On his return trip we watched his red shirt screaming down the other side of the ravine set against the light green tea leaves. Without warning he pitched forward cart-wheeled and slammed into the tea bushes. The Batwa ladies burst into laughter as Tor and I sat there with our mouths hanging open. He immediately recovered went back up the hill for the pen and phone number and continued his charge down the hill. Luckily he was not injured.Tor getting goofy with Petronea a Batwa woman with more character in her pinky than most people will ever show in their entire lives.

I feel like I have experienced every emotion possible since I arrived here in Bwindi. I think this spectrum of emotions just fits into a place like Bwindi. Great sorrow and great joy walk hand in hand here like no place I have ever been. The willingness of people here to move on with their lives despite tragic accidents or debilitating injuries is sometimes hard to make sense of being the westerner that I am. We tend to dwell on those times we were cheated or injured or lost big. Here I think that life is just too hard to dwell on what went wrong this would just lead to too many opportunities lost. It’s probably an experience that every person from the states could benefit from.Me showing off my first care package! It only took 2 and a half months to show up. It contained gummy bears, gummy ginger candy, socks (!), tea, bandaids, salaami, and much much much more.Photo of me defending my care package from Phillip by any means necessary. Phillip is the guesthouse cook.Butterflies of Bwindi. During the dry season the butterflies congregate in the thousands around standing water. It is a pure delight.

Scott Kellermann giving a thumbs up to the cow intestines and stomach linings hanging at a local butchery. Looks disgusting, smells awful, and tastes great (at least to the locals).

Annie Hoopes hanging out with a Batwa child from Kitariro during an outreach.

Gorillas crossing the road near one of the safari camps. The gorillas have been particularly active around the human settlements in Bwindi lately. This gives the Uganda Wildlife Authority fits when Mzungus see the gorillas without paying their 500 bucks!


An outrageously beautiful butterfly, speaks for itself.

Community with a capital "C"

Batwa community members of Bikuto with Batwa Development Program staff member Levi Besingye (in the motorcycle helment).

Hello everybody! It has been an especially full month here in Bwindi as we attempt to get the water and sanitation projects off the ground. My days are generally composed of waking up around 7 am and driving a motorcycle down to the guest house where I will fill up on coffee and an omelet before talking over the days plan with my partners Paul Muhwezi and Tor Erickson. By 9 am we are usually off in the field working for community meetings or project implementation. Field work lasts anywhere from 6 to 14 hours depending on the day’s activities and then back to the guest house to compile notes, finalize community contracts, and check e-mails (and dinner!). I’ve found with all of the logistics and grant management that it has been difficult not to lose sight of the most important aspects of this work namely, community involvement in the projects and community awareness on issues regarding water borne illnesses.

All of my encounters with the NGOs (which are a heavy presence in SW Uganda) and local government here stress the importance of community participation but I am finding that there is a vast difference between what is spoken and what is implemented. One complexity that I did not realize coming into this work was that communities in Southwestern Uganda are painfully aware of the NGO presence here and will jump at the chance, if given, for community projects. Any help is good help?

I though my greatest challenge here would be trying to convince communities of the importance of the projects that we would like to implement. Instead communities are accepting the projects and in some cases are not concerned about being convinced. They just want what other communities have received from NGOs, expensive projects. Thus our approach is beginning to evolve and we are putting a heavier emphasis on dialogue with the communities.

The focus of our outreach is now more centered on finding out what the communities want for their people and what they know about clean water and sanitation. If projects have been implemented in the past and failed, why? One community that we have been working with has three giant school latrines (provided by NGOs) lined up in a row and only one of the latrines is operational. The other two are collapsing and crumbling. Maybe this is a case of poor workmanship or maybe it is the case of a community accepting a project without being involved enough to insure that the work gets done properly.

Our team has been trying to tease out what constitutes “buying in” for each community. One way I am starting to look at this is what kind of contribution from the community is a great enough sacrifice that they will feel a sense of obligation for sustaining the projects. We are trying to find that balance between pushing a community to its limit in terms of contribution without overwhelming them to the point where the projects never get off the ground. That limit is different for every community.

For example the Batwa don’t seem to value the blood sweat and tears of manual labor as much as their Bakiga neighbors. So while working with them even the hardest labor I can think of, namely digging the pits for pit latrines still does not necessarily constitute buying into the projects. So we are looking for something more, some other way that they can contribute. Whether that be cooking the meals for the workers of the projects or utilizing some resource available to the community we are still feeling it out and fine tuning the process. The dialogues have been getting more in depth and I feel like we are starting to gain a lot of knowledge on why projects in the past have failed.

Mutwa Fergans demonstrating how to climb down into the pit of a future pit latrine to dig. These pits are commonly dug in excess of 20 feet deep leading to concerns about groundwater contamination.

Recently we protected our first spring!! It was a spring in the village of Iraaro just 20 minutes east of our location near the hospital. It was a spring that I had visited in 2006 when I visited the area for the first time. Water had escaped from the original protected spring delivery pipe and was flowing underneath the catch basin leaving only a trickle issuing from the delivery pipe.

With the assistance of the district water officer and about 15 community members we opened the spring up to diagnose the problem. After 2 hours of digging we uncovered a cement box that the spring water passed through. The box was between the eye of the spring (the location where the water originates) and the delivery pipe and was full of gravel. On top of the gravels was a thick mat of very fine dark purple roots. Although a surprising development, nothing prepared me for the 3 foot long root wad that was pulled from the pipe above the cement box as water gushed out of the delivery pipe. The root wad filled the entire diameter of the pipe and was completely blocking the flow of water. With my mouth hanging open I could only marvel with wonder and disgust at how one root wad had blocked this community from having clean water for 10 years.

Community contribution of labor. These women are carrying stones to be placed in the uncovered spring to protect the water channel from collapsing.

We continued to dig up the spring and found more and more purple root mats. We followed them up to a stand of ten banana trees sitting above the spring. Who owned the banana trees was my immediate question which was answered by silent looks over at the spring committee chairman! How ironic! The chairman was even bold enough to ask the community to compensate him for removing the trees though I don’t think the community were having any of it (and neither should they in my mind). The spring is now filling a 20 liter jerry can in 2 minutes versus 15 minutes before the roots were removed.

I have now worked with the Iraaro community to protect their water sources for a total of around 20 hours including education, training, and spring protection. It is now my goal to take the momentum of this successful project to restore clean water to a community and involve those people in neighboring projects. Having this exchange of information makes my life much easier and allows local knowledge of spring protection to be passed on without a middle man. Even misinformation exchanged in this manner allows me to better understand what people know and where knowledge gaps exist not to mention where my own knowledge gaps exist. I’ve always said you never truly know something until you can teach it.

Well I’m beat. It’s a late Saturday afternoon in Bwindi and I am ready for some exercise and maybe a nap. This evening folks from the guesthouse will be grilling up fajitas with chapattis in place of tortillas. Weekend here I come! Take care.

Photos
A muhzee (name for a respected elder) resting after clearing vegetation from his spring to maintain the community drinking water source.


A three way encounter that nature never intended. Monkeys, turkeys, and humans.

Young man preparing aggregate that is used in concrete. This is a simple procedure of smacking rocks with a hammer until you have the right aggregate size.

Tor plastering a sample latrine wall using ferrocement. Ferrocement is a labor intensive procedure whereby cement and sand is plastered onto a framework of wire and reeds. The resulting wall is lightweight and uses a fraction of the cement costs.


A boy demonstrating a toy created by capturing a large wood boring insect and hooking a stiff piece of grass under the exoskeleton. The child is blowing on the insect to get it to beat its wings.

Bwindi in the New Year

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.


Me hanging out with a couple boda boda drivers at Lake Mutanda where I spent Christmas.A girl peeling beans while her younger sister looks on.


Tor befriending the Batwa community of Kyabuyorwa.

Photo of Lake Mutanda at dusk with the outlines of volcanoes Mahavura, Gahinga, and Sabyinio in the back ground.

Experiences from a Refugee Camp

Children at the Mutanda refugee camp just north of Bwindi Inpenetrable Forest.








One morning about two weeks ago Scott Kellermann walked into the guesthouse dining room and flipped my whole day upside down (as he so often does). He asked me if I was ready to visit the Congolese refugee camp about an hour and a half from here and test their water.

A little background on the refugees here: The war that has been raging in the Congo for the last ten years has seen some recent flare-ups. General Laurent Nkunda and his rebel group continue to attack the Congolese army and the Hutu militias that are holdouts from the Rwandan genocide. As is always the case war takes it’s greatest toll on the civilian population indigenous to the country. Both Nkunda’s forces as well as the Congolese army have been implicated in mass killings of civilians, raping, and looting in Eastern Congo. It is estimated that around 5 million people have died since 1998. For more information on the current crisis check out this link. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/16/congo)

At present, fighting from Goma all along the Uganda border up to Rutshuru has sent eight hundred thousand refugees into Uganda. Uganda probably has the most advanced and efficient system for accepting refugees as they have sheltered refugees from Sudan, Congo, Rwanda, and even Kenya during the recent election violence. Most of the refugees are being taken to well prepared camps at locations inside the borders of Uganda however some remain nearby to the south of us in Kisoro and to the north near the small town of Kihihi.

My answer to Scott was ‘let’s go check it out.’ Scott, Richard Magezi, Dan Skeen, and I piled into the truck and headed out. After driving for about an hour to the small bustling town of Kihihi we veered off the main road down a rugged dirt track. We knew that we were on the right track because of the steady stream of land cruisers with UN emblems rolled by us. The steep hills characteristic of Southwestern Uganda quickly gave way to the Savanna Forest and warm temperatures of the Great Rift Valley. Suddenly there it was, 3000 dome shaped huts sitting about five hundred yards away from us in a massive field. The huts looked strangely like igloos because of their white coloring and I only later realized that these were white tarps wrapped around wood structures to keep out rain and reflect the suns rays. A line of people extended from the huts towards the water taps that had been set up. It’s hard to describe the feeling of seeing so many displaced people removed from their homes not by choice but by necessity to protect their children and loved ones.

Refugees collecting water with a backdrop of huts made from collected wood covered by standard issue tarps.

As we came closer to the camps one sight that struck me was the huge presence of the UN and NGO’s at the camp. Brand new Land Cruisers and off-road Toyota SUV’s crawled all over the perimeter roads of the camp. Workers wore shirts with their various NGO names printed on their shirts and hats. Names like UNICEF, OXFAM, Save the Children, Medicins Sans Frontiers and others all advertising for attention while providing services to the refugees. Trumping all others was a massive red banner with Save the Children Printed across it in white 8ft tall letters. It gave the camp an almost amusement park feel, that is until you looked deeper. Sitting nearby was a mountain of jerry cans wrapped in plastic and waiting to be handed out. Several hundred women with children on their arm or wrapped against their backs waited to receive their jerry can, blanket, and tarp. This was standard issue for every family at the camp. Also on site were 55 gallon drums welded together in order to support latrine holes. The sandy soil in the area was susceptible to collapse.

A mountain of jerry cans passed out to families to collect water at the refugee camp.

We linked up with MSF (Medicins Sans Frontiers) and found them to be very receptive to us… after we explained ourselves. MSF is a group of medical volunteers in charge of running the medical clinic for the camp. Scott was able to find out what medicines that the clinic was lacking and we took off to check out water sources with a Congolese volunteer named Matau. Because of a lack of coordination among the NGO’s MSF was stuck in a position to provide the water to the camp as well as medical attention to the refugees. We actually found the OXFAM guys still writing their budget for pipes for delivering water to the camp. With the help of local villagers Matau had located the largest spring that I have seen yet in all of my assessments (6 liters per second) in the region. It was just dumb luck that the camp turned out to be located so close to this spring source as there had been no previous knowledge of the spring beforehand. The water was being pumped about 300 yards to two 15,000 liter bladders which looked like giant waterbeds. I had the inappropriate urge to get up and jump on the bladders and was surprised that more children from the camps had not been trying themselves.

Each time a bladder was filled it was treated with a single spoonful of chlorine powder. I was skeptical of this amount but my test results revealed that the water in the bladders had no evidence of fecal coliforms even though the source water had elevated levels. The source that the district had recommended was a cattle watering reservoir that was extremely contaminated (I later found out that this was the source of water for 300 local villagers). It was really impressive what Matau had put into place to provide water to the refugee camp and with what the MSF volunteers had accomplished in general. I think it says a lot that the volunteers getting paid a lowly stipend of several hundred dollars a month appeared to be getting more accomplished on the ground than any of the other paid NGO workers combined.

MSF volunteer Matau looks on as a Unicef worker checks the chlorine levels int the water. If the chlorine is too low it can be contaminated by bacteria and if too high people won't drink it because of the taste.

After testing the water we went out to the water taps to take photos and hang out with the children and women collecting water. When we approached, the refugees were reserved at first but soon the children were laughing and smiling and demanding to see the digital images on our camera view screens. At one point Dan Skeen was absolutely mobbed with children and I was concerned that they were going to pull the tattoos off his shoulders. Even at refugee camps kids are still kids. I have found no better example of people experiencing joy and happiness under difficult and transient living conditions.

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December has brought many interesting developments. Our recent focus has been on coordinating the building of latrines in four Batwa settlements. In previous meetings the Batwa have agreed that the latrines are necessary in their communities. In order to make the projects cost effective and to involve the community we asked the Batwa to provide the labor for digging the pits and for providing roofing thatch (speargrass or banana leaves). One thing that you quickly notice walking around the communities here are brick making operations utilizing the high clay content of the soils here. In cases where households want more permanent latrines the people are going to make bricks for building the walls of the latrines. Labor intensive but requiring only a moderate level of skill, making bricks is a great opportunity to get the community involved in providing sanitation for their families. Where households do not know how to make bricks we are providing that instruction with the assistance from local brick-makers.

During the initial meetings with the four Batwa settlements we had no takers for permanent latrines due to the increased level of commitment that those latrines required. Slowly by slowly over the last two weeks households are deciding to commit to the longer lasting latrines and as of last week nearly a third of households have upgraded to permanent latrines. However, the Batwa are still vehemently against the idea of composting latrines. The composting latrine is the most sustainable choice because wastes are removed from them every 6 months and then they are refilled. The pit latrines deposit wastes deep in the ground and have the potential to contaminate local springs as well as the shallow aquifer. If maintained properly, pathogens are eliminated by allowing the feces to biologically breakdown over a 6 month period before they are removed.

I can’t necessarily blame them for not wanting to remove their own feces from the chamber because I myself would bock if I was asked to do the same thing. Despite this roadblock I am greatly encouraged by the community support in these latrines and feel like we are making solid headway.

Coordinating perfectly with the latrine projects has been the arrival of my lifelong friend and contractor extraordinaire Tor Erickson. His skills as a builder and manager of construction projects have had an immediate impact on the projects. Together we have begun to come up with the designs for latrines that are cost feasible and built to last. Being able to consult Tor with his experience with concrete and his skill at estimating costs are providing a key consultant where without him I would be inquiring from local contractors who may or may not be trustworthy. Local contractors will be a necessary element in these projects as we are slated to build over 100 latrines and protect 40 springs but determining initial costs and designs will set the stage for this future work.

Tor with some new Bakiga friends in the field testing water sources.

I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas and to let my friends and family know that I miss you all very much. It feels so strange here that Christmas is just around the corner and I’m still getting sunburned on a daily basis. The celebration for Christmas here is a goat roast that is held on Christmas eve followed by a 4 to 5 hour church service on Christmas day. Not exactly the usual turkey dinner with present opening and conversation with my grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Well, wish you all a happy holiday and will be posting more adventures in the new year! Dan and I standing with Congolese children chased out of the Congo two weeks prior.A Chameleon hanging out on a fencepost. Bizarre creatures!A waterfall seen from a stroll through Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.Goat roasting party at my new Banda. I've got so much going on I didn't even describe the big move. It was rather uneventful but I did get to slaughter the goat. Which was...pretty disgusting.