Kenyan Safari and Zanzibar

Left Mbarara on saturday morning, December 20th. Took a five hour bus back to Kampala, then took a matatu to Entebbe, had lunch, and took a motorcycle taxi to the airport. Cost of the whole endeavour was ~$10, which was double the price of the 20 minute taxi ride from Nairobi airport to the hotel. Welcome to Kenya.

Liz and I were picked up the next morning by the safari company and spent seven magical days on safari. Well, most of the days were magical, but the reality was that three of the seven days involved some heavy driving. Still, by the end of it we had spent two good days on the Masai Mara and had seen so many lions they had gotten boring. We also saw a cheetah, a leopard stalking a herd of Impalas, a male lions munching away on the head of a Cape Buffalo (one of the big five eating the other) and countless giraffes and elephants. I'd seen elephants before, but the proximity this time put a whole new light on the elephant viewing experience. Who needs a telephoto lens when they're five metres away?

The other good park we saw was Lake Nakuru, which had the white and black buffalo, and once we'd seen them, we'd seen all of the big five, and frankly, all of the animals worth viewing. However, the lions managed to steal the show there. A pack of five lions were all sleeping on top of each other looking like a litter of kittens. Out of all the animals, the leopard, cheetah, lion, giraffe, rhino and elephant have to be the favourites. Considering the decline of hunting in the world, I'm not sure why the Cape Buffalo is still one of the "big five". It's frankly the cow of the safari world.

All in all though, the safari was amazing and I highly recommend Into Africa to everyone. We were able to interact with the local Masai, the local Kikuyu, visit an archeaology site home to Homo Habilis that is apparently 700,000 years old (cradle of humanity stuff), and stayed in some beautiful bungalows and tents along the way. Even had some curious, massive, spiders keep us company at night.

Ended the safari in Nairobi and managed to get a room at the Hilton on Liz' points. Do not recommend that hotel, it was built in the 1960s and it feels like it hasn't had a facelift since then...

Flew out disturbingly early sunday morning and arrived in Zanzibar. Was greatly amused that the Visa fee for americans into Tanzania was double what it was for everyone else. I guess Obama fever isn't as high here.

We're currently staying at a resort in southeastern Zanzibar The resort is amazing, with a short coral clif (5 metres high) overlooking the azure indian ocean. If you want to go swimming, you simply walk out the front of the bungalow, walk down some steps and you're swimming in a metre of coral. Water's too hot to really cool off though, so you need a combination of water and breeze to cool down. Such a tough life.

Yesterday's morning activity was swimming with the dolphins and for a full hour, equipped with a snorkel, mask and fins we dove and played with them. At times they would stare at you, or the pod would swim through you as you were treading water. I dove a couple of times and was able to swim alongside them, but alas was not accepted into the pod. Not yet at least.

We went again this morning, but quickly learned why it has such a bad reputation. This time there were six boats chasing the dolphins, and it was obvious they did not want to play. In fact, they were starting to look harassed and the whole thing was starting to leave a bad taste in our mouths, so after a quick swim alongside them, and Liz getting stung by jellyfish, we headed back in.

Heading off to Stonetown today to spend the next two days there and then off to the mainland for the long trip back to Mbarara. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas Eve

For my birthday last friday, I took a bus into Kampala and saw Liz again for the first time in 3.5 months. She managed to book a room at the Sheraton on points so after 3.5 months of 'roughing it' in Kasese and Mbarara, I was whisked into luxury and opulence for two days. I'd forgotten how nice a non-bilharzia swim could be. The other fun thing was introducing Liz and her friend Claire to Boda Bodas (aka motorcycle taxis). Thankfully two rides was enough.

The down side of course was the 12hr round trip to Kampala, but certainly worth it.

Returned to Kasese on sunday night and found out from my colleague that the proposal the district had given us, and that we'd been waiting two months for the consultant to finish, was based on some faulty assumptions. This will be the third proposal we've been given by the district that has turned out to be faulty.

Spent monday and tuesday further investigating the source we'd discovered the previous week. Forgot how much hiking this type of investigation involved, but did manage to hike over a 1,000 metre pass and found another source we'd first discovered in October. That moment felt like a crowning achievement, like we'd walked every metre of that little (but mountainous) part of Uganda. We've certainly hiked a lot more than most of the inhabitants of the area (they're more interested in more mundane things like growing food so they can eat).

This source may have enough water to satisfy our partner's dreams. The south Rwenzori Diocese is hoping to bring water to a subcounty called Kitswamba where some 16 people died of dysentary over the last six months. If we can bring some water there, it could reduce those incidences quite well.

Wednesday met with this subcounty to find out where they needed water the most and what the populations in those areas were like. And then headed back to Mbarara that afternoon for the Acts company christmas party. Certainly different than most company christmas parties I've been to (never played a game of pictionary in two different languages before...)

And then today attended a conference on groundwater resource mapping in Uganda put on by the federal government. It was actually two days long but of course the christmas party takes priority over a conference. On the other hand, if I'd registered yesterday, I would've received $30 for attending and free lunches and dinner's both days. Also confirmed with a consultant the cost to complete a design and proposal was more than $10,000. Actually more like $25,000. Which goes to explain why most of these systems aren't working very well. The government is spending all of the money on poor designs and conferences.

At least it gives Acts a good basis for being here.

Meetings and deadlines

The last update had us finding enough water for a community of 11,000. The next day Wesley went to visit the district water office and they finally gave us a proposal/design they’d been working on for the past six months. So two new potential projects!

We made the mistake of telling our boss Tim the happy news about the new spring and the district proposal. His eyes lit up and the wheels started turning. “Do you think you could try to put these proposals together before the Christmas break?”

We think he’s nuts, but of course we’ll try. Having never done this before, I’m not sure how long a design and proposal should take, but it seems like it should take more than the two days it takes me. It should certainly have a few more people than me checking for mistakes.

Still, if we could bump the number of proposals completed up to four, and all before Christmas, that would be pretty cool.

In other news, I’ve finished my most recent book, which I think puts the tally at ten, the amount of books I’ve read while here. Few other forms of entertainment helps. My favorite books are:

1) Emergency Sex (and other desperate measures)
2) Under the shadow of the African Sun

I believe I’ve mentioned the second book before, but the first has now taken the top spot in my heart. It’s a non-fiction book about three mid-twenty somethings who first go to Cambodia for the elections in the 1990s and then on to other UN hotspots around the world. And while the writing style alone is worth the read, it’s the way it captures events that I saw through TV and the news that really makes it a hit. I always wondered what it would be like to be at those places first hand, and wonder if perhaps that was what drove me to volunteer here? Highly recommended. And the title certainly draws some glances.

In other news, I finally caught up on my canadian news. Go figure that something interesting would finally happen in Canadian politics while I’m gone. Still, even read in Uganda, it’s pretty cool. Wonder where it’ll all go?

Back in Kasese

The first four days back from the off were a great re-introduction into how things work in Uganda. We had switched focus from the Kasese area to the Ankole area because if we don’t find a project in this area, we’ll be sort of kicked out of our base of operations. The Ankole area has four districts, and we had a meeting scheduled with the district water officer (DWO) of the Isingiro district on Wednesday morning. After an hour drive to get there, we find nobody there. We wait half an hour, because hardly anyone is ever really on time here. Then we call him and find that he’s in Kampala. But his assistant should be able to help us. Well, we had met this assistant last time we were here and he can’t really tell us anything new. But he set us up with another guy (delegation is an art here) who was able to show us some springs. The springs were all middling and we ended the day slightly disappointed. I say slightly because I’ve since grown accustomed to this yo-yo of effort vs. reward and am now viewing everything with great amusement. It keeps things in a positive light.

I decided I didn’t want to spend another day futilely tromping through the Ugandan countryside. So instead I traded places with Wesley and spent the day finishing the proposal for the Bwesumbu GFS and the design for Kalonge GFS. From my November 28th post, you’ll recall that we’re down from five to two real proposals (I’ve submitted a third, but I doubt it’ll be considered as it involves a 3hr hike with a vertical gain of 1km and digging through soil that may or may not have landmines). I would love to be able to submit more, but I’ve now been here for 3 months and it seems like the one month remaining will hardly be enough. Still, if the two proposals I’ve submitted are accepted, it would provide water to 12,000 people and a future population of 25,000. I’ll take that.

Friday we headed out the Ntungumu district to meet with the DWO there. But of course, he’s also in Kampala (I’ve been told they’re not having a DWO party, but I have my doubts). Still, his assistant led us on a merry drive where we saw two more useless springs, but did get to see our new camp under construction. Because we were in the neighborhood, we were also able visit our old camp, the one that had been our home for the first month in Uganda. Felt like coming home. Which is funny because coming back to Kasese also felt like coming home. And so did going back to Mbarara after a month in Kasese. Makes me wonder what my reaction will be like when I return to Vancouver?

Saturday was interesting. Back in September we’d received a letter from a community called Nyaruhandangazi. Cool name. They have plenty of springs, but not enough water and the quality is bad in most of them. So we couldn’t help them out. However, when we met with the Mbarara district water office last month, they mentioned two springs with different names in the same area. Then our boss Tim mentioned a headmaster who also knew of springs in the area, also with different names. Intrigued at the possibility of new sources in the community and therefore the possibility of completing a proposal for the area, we set out again.

Turns out they were the same springs, our new information just had the names wrong. Which on the one hand is gratifying because it shows how thorough we’re being, but also disappointing because it means there’s no hope for a conventional GFS in this area.

I was hoping to finish the second proposal on Sunday morning and afternoon, but our power went out. So instead we packed up and drove to Kasese. They seem to have more power. At least for the moment. Seems like power in all these cities is pretty erratic.

But now we’re back in Kasese, and in one day found enough water for 11,000 people. So the other three days of frustration this week were cancelled out. I’m starting to see the appeal of prospecting. Or gambling.

Whitewater Kayaking on the White Nile

I completed another personal first this weekend. On Saturday I went white water kayaking on the white Nile. A brief history and geography lesson; during the 19th century, there was a great rush to find the source of the Nile. Explorers such as Speke, Livingstone and Stanley spent years exploring East Africa trying to establish which of the great lakes was the source of the Nile. In fact, Stanley, trying to determine if Lake Tangyanika was the source, followed the Congo River to the Atlantic ocean. As Stanley was in the employ of the king of Belgium, this effectively gave Leopold control over central Africa which led to decades of plunder and devastation far beyond what the other europeen powers were doing to their colonies. Some might say the DRCs current problems were a result of Livinstone’s explorations.

Thanks to Livinstone’s explorations, Lake Victoria was confirmed as the source. (It’s is actually only the source of the White Nile, with the Blue Nile originating from Lake Tana in Ethiopa, the two rivers meet near Khartoum – but that’s another story).

So after traveling to Kampala on Friday, I headed off to Jinja on Saturday morning and met up with my instructor Ibra at 10am. We got into the water with our kayaks 10 minutes later and within two hours I had successfully completed an Eskimo roll. I’ve always been in awe of those kayakers who could complete one, so you can imagine my joy when I was able to do it myself. After lunch we headed up to our launch point which was just over 3 kilometers from lake Victoria. Over the next hour and an half we passed through six sets of rapids, of which the largest was a class 3. Well, Ibra said it was a class 2 on the Nile but that most foreigners would classify it as a Class 3. Once I’d gone through it, capsized and then ejected from my boat, I also gave it a class 3 rating. Of course, considering I capsized and ejected after the first set of rapids (class 1), I can’t really consider myself an expert on river rating systems. I also never managed to successfully correct a capsize with an Eskimo roll. Doing a roll on calm water and in the rapids are two completely different things. But a super fun sport. Going to look into it once I go home.

Spent Sunday and Monday trying to use as many different modes of transport to get from Kampala to Mbarara. Used a motorcycle taxi (boda boda) to get to the minibus (matatu) park. Took a matatu from Kampala to Entebbe. Took the new ferry to the Sese islands in the centre of Lake Victoria. Swam in the Bilharzia infected waters (the only reason I did this was because I was swimming next to an irish physician who insisted that I should take the shistosomosis medication once I left the country anyway, so I might as well have a good reason for taking it). Rented a motorcycle on one end of the island and drove it to the other. Boarded another ferry off the island. Caught a ride in the back of a pick-up truck of an American missionary who used to be a helicopter pilot in the US Air Force (how do I manage to meet so many missionaries in Uganda? I met twelve Baptist volunteers while rafting). Final leg of the journey was a 3hr bus ride where my seat was my bag in the middle of the aisle (not enough seats, and I didn’t want to wait for an emptier bus).

The night before we left, we hit the same club as we did the first time, but this time managed to convince two of the girls to come along. The highlight of the night was hearing the reggae song Barak Obama. They’re still going wild for that guy.

Kampala Marathon

So it’s been over a week since I’ve updated my blog, and this is the longest silence my blog has ever had without a warning, (a fact I was ignorant of prior to my mom’s observation).

We finished up in Kasese on Friday, and drove back to Mbarara that afternoon. We’ve now spent over 1.5 months in that city. Kasese as a town received some pretty sad reviews from both the Lonely Planet and Brandt guidebooks. And while those observations were pretty accurate, the town has a certain wild west charm to it’s dirt streets and it’s slew of Ugandan restaurants (but no western, Chinese, Indian or other exotic foods).

But I have to admit that I have a new appreciation for Mbarara. This town is far larger, busier, has better restaurants (and therefore better food), and most importantly, seems more lush and tropical than Kasese. And while it’s more tropical, it’s also cooler, likely due to greater humidity. An apt comparison would be Kasese is like Kamloops (in the rain shadow of the coast mountains) drier and hotter in the summer, and Mbarara is like Vancouver (greener, cooler and bigger – but no ocean in Mbarara).

So I feel like I’m back in a much nicer setting, and it’s doing wonders for my mental state. I’m not sure if it’s the greenness, or the Canada house setting which seems more like home, but I’m far more relaxed, and far more motivated.

For those interested, we met our deadline with three days to spare, and we’re hoping to submit another proposal before we head for four days off at the end of the month. The five original projects have been pared down. As mentioned previously, one was impossible from a design perspective (despite my best efforts), one was impossible because there is no road access (though I still intend to write the proposal conditional on the road being built), and two were not expensive enough, so we will have to combine them.

We had a target of three for that district and we’ve achieved two. But frankly we don’t have the time, (I’ve only got a month of work left) to get a third, so we’ve switched to the Mbarara district for the last month, because we need to find a project in this diocese or Acts will get kicked out of Canada House.

But all of that was inconsequential to the Kampala marathon! Seven of us headed out from Mbarara on Saturday morning. Four of us (Wes, Andrea, Naomi and I) to do the half marathon, two of us to catch an emergency flight out (the camp boss, Bern has a detached retina and is flying back to Vancouver for an operation, and his wife is accompanying him), and Tim, the Acts regional director/coach.

Prior to my arrival in Uganda, I was lucky to be connected with a fellow BCer who happens to be teaching at the prestigious Kabira international school. Some of the current enrolled students include the King of Toro and the princess of Bugamba (there are several kingdoms in Uganda). I was lucky enough to be able to stay at her place on Saturday night. Also went to a BBQ on Saturday night and had an impression of what it would be like to be an expat in Uganda. All of the well traveled nations were represented; Australia, France, Neatherlands and Canada. In terms of people attending, it seemed identical to BBQs in Vancouver. Conscious of the race, limited myself to one beer and went to sleep at 10pm.

Got up the next morning at 5:30am, had a quick breakfast and headed of to the start of the race. Something beautiful about waking up before dawn, but the beauty isn’t worth the sacrificed sleep. Crossed the start line at 7:15am.

I have to admit this was one of the most unique ways of seeing Kampala (well, not so unique I suppose, there were reportedly over 10,000 running, most were doing the 10km). Having hundreds of Ugandans cheer you as you run through the smoggy haze. Running through neighborhoods on busy streets you’d normally be terrified of passing through in car. Not to say it wasn’t still thrilling, they didn’t shut down traffic, this is the main city after all. In fact, only on a few streets did the runners have complete security. In other places you had to be pretty nimble in dodging the cars, and one round-about at kilometer 18 was still in full operation. I had to stop two cars to get through that one.

One of the highlights was being offered a bag of white powder at the water station at kilometer 15. The guy ahead of me took a handful and brought it to his face. He seemed to get a real boost from the stuff, so I had to give it a shot. Glucose! Just like icing sugar. The shot lasted about 3 minutes, and then I felt worse.

I’m proud to say I...completed the course. And while I’m not certain of the time, I think it’s somewhere between 2:15 and 2:30 (there were two clocks when I crossed the finish line). I’m going with 2:15. Also, Tim’s friend measured the course the day before with his car and found it was actually 24km and not 21km. I’m not sure I believe that, but it does make me look better.

And yes, out of the four runners from Acts, I was the slowest. But I would like to point out that I’m also the oldest by six years...and my arthritis was acting up.

Anyway, now back in Mbarara searching out new sources and putting the finishing touches on the Kasese proposals. Heading back to Kampala for the off and I’m hoping to either do some whitewater rafting or kayaking.

Landmines and $10,000

We’ve spent four of the last five days at the guesthouse of the Kagando hospital. Kagando is a church run hospital in a lush valley to the east of Kasese, it’s approximately 30km from the border with the DRC. (But that doesn’t mean it’s in any danger from the tragic civil war occurring there, the Ugandan People’s Defense Force is in firm control of the border – so mom and Liz, please don’t fret).

We spent Friday tracing the low elevation source and possible pipeline routes, but as it became apparent when we went over the calculations that night, it won’t be possible to take that water anywhere useful with a pipeline. It’s strange, but we could actually take it further with a roman aqueduct than we can with modern plastic pipes, makes you wonder about technological improvements.

We were not the first ones to investigate this source as a possible GFS. The diocese had hired a private consultant four years ago to come up with a design and cost estimate, i.e. exactly what we wanted to do. However, the result of that report was a design bringing water to some 10,000 people. Curious as to how I could be so wrong, I took a very detailed look at the design...and found that a crucial line in the calculations had been deleted. This line would have changed all the subsequent calculations, proving the system wasn’t feasible.

So basically the report was incorrect due to one unintentional error (or perhaps it was intentional? – no consultant likes to come back to a client telling them a project isn’t possible – likely wouldn’t get paid as much!). The real kicker was that the diocese paid the consultant 17,000,000 Ush, or ~$10,000 for the report. Which made me immediately feel like I’d earned my keep here. Especially if I can put together three of these reports (without those kind of errors) before I leave.

Speaking of designs, Yona had put together a design for the project that we’d hiked up to some three weeks ago. This is the project that’s a three hour hike from the nearest road. In his design, he used steel pipe for some 2 km instead of plastic. I asked him why he would use a material that’s four times more expensive, was he worried about there not being enough soil to bury the pipe? Nope, he didn’t want to bury the pipe because he wasn’t sure if there were any landmines in the area from when the ADF where there in the late 1990s.

However, I should note that he completed the design some six years ago, and since then a Unexploded Ordinances (UXO) team has gone through and cleared the area. But you can bet, this will figure prominently in my proposal; no road, 3hr hike, and chance of landmines.

We are heading back to Mbarara at the end of this week so we can drive to Kampala on Saturday. Seems I may have mistakenly signed up for a half marathon. I don’t really like running, really don’t like running in large crowds, and the longest I’ve ever signed up for before is the 10km Sun Run. So I wasn’t really sure why I wanted to do this, other than I had nothing else planned for that weekend. And besides, how hard could it be?

So I’ve been training, and yesterday went for a long run deep into the valleys of Kagando. Everybody stares as I run by, except for the kids, who stare, and then start running with me. This is less motivating than you might think because they seem to run faster than me. It’s especially annoying because they’re generally between 2 and 5 and they shouldn’t run that fast.

Because we’re heading back to Mbarara on Friday, this week has generally been spent wrapping up the projects we feel good about, or thoroughly discarding the ones that don’t make the grade. I think I prefer this part of the job. Perhaps it's beacuse I finally have that feeling that I might finally be getting somewhere?

Our First Proposal (draft)

So we’ve finalized our preliminary design for the Bwesumbu GFS. It will have two glorious components and stretch over ~15km. It is designed to feed a current population of 6,000 and a 20 year population of 10,000. The materials alone will cost ~$200K, and while that may seem like a lot, we’re really looking for that magic figure of $250K, which, when everything else is tallied together, will represent for Acts the maximum funding they can seek from CIDA.

As this is the first CIDA proposal we’re ever written, we’ll be depending heavily on the higher ups at Acts to take a close look at it, and hopefully correct the errors we’ve made in our inexperience. But still, I’m quite proud of the design and proposal.

We’ve basically spent five of the past six days on this proposal. But it’s our first, so I’m hoping the rest will be easy. In fact, I’ve already completed the designs on two more systems. What originally took me five 10hr days now takes me 4-6 hrs. So nice to notice the improvement. But it’s also reassured me that I didn’t go into the wrong field. It’s fun to do for a while, and certainly seems to yield more immediate, concrete results than environmental consulting, but spending your life looking at spreadsheet calculations would drive me mad.

So now that we’ll have one down, we need to send off two more similar proposals in the near future, and while we have candidates, none of them seem clear cut. One is a three hour hike up. A second already has some water coverage, and the source isn’t high enough. And the leadership of the third is either absent half the time, or drunk. Which, while entertaining, doesn’t lead to a high degree of confidence in community participation in the project. So while we ended the month with five potential projects, three of them leave a few things to be desired...

Ah well, such is life with NGOs I guess...

On Wednesday we drove to a new part of the district, also in the foothills, but in a deep valley. While the other places we’ve visited all have spectacular views of the eastern rift valley, this one was completed surrounded by hills with the resulting effect that this place looked cut-off from the rest of the world. Cool, but I swear I heard a banjo playing in the background.

It was the first time we’d gone out in the field since we’d gotten back, and we’d forgotten how hard it was to get food out there. Most of the time we skip lunch because as soon as we arrive in a community, we’re surrounded by the locals. Most of whom accompany us for the duration of our time there. So when we pull out our biscuits or samosas, we either have to share, not share and guiltily eat in front them, or sneak off and quickly eat the food without appearing to be eating.

So we’ve learned to eat little at lunch, which usually means we’re starving by 3pm. But this time we were in luck. We finished our assessment in the early afternoon, and were able to stop at a trading center to get Rolexes for a very late lunch. A rolex is a chapatti (or chapat as they call them) and fried egg, rolled up (hence the “rol” in rolex). Out of the many foods I’ve discovered in this country, this has to be my favorite. The second most delicious would have to be the banana pancakes, which are made from sweet (yellow) bananas and cassava flour. The common ingredient between the two is grease. Hmm, grease.

Morale musings.

It’s amazing how fast time flies here. We ended last month with five potential projects, and now we’ve got a deadline of November 20th to have on proposal completed entirely. And while this seems like ample time, I’m already getting stressed about how we’ve lost the first week of November. Granted, we only got here two days ago, but still, this seems much more important than most other jobs I’ve had before.

It’s seems important, though the state of some previously completed GFS systems makes me wonder about how useful our completed GFS systems will be. Case in point, we are hoping propose a new GFS system that runs in parallel to an 18-year old system. The 18-yr old system was originally designed for 36 taps. A number of illegal connections has bumped that number up to reportedly 100 taps (I say reportedly, because, of course, nobody knows how many taps are on the line). Of these 100 taps, only 20 taps work. After surveying the line yesterday, it has become apparent that the reason the majority of the line doesn’t work is because of lack of maintenance rather than any other major issue. Maintenance should have been taken care of by the community, but it would seem to be a classic case of tragedy of the commons. The community has formed a water committee which is empowered to collect money from the people to repair the taps and sections of the line that need maintenance. But obviously the maintenance has been non-existent, or at least minimal to the point that they are now begging NGOs to come in and fix the line.

Unfortunately, that seems counter to the whole “sustainable development” philosophy that Acts and likely CIDA and most NGOs seem to be aiming for. If the community can’t keep an existing line in good repair, how is our line going to be any better?

So of course, this leads to the whole question of why bother? Having worked for the past eight years, I’m used to massive amounts of money being spent to bring a relatively small amount of land with a relatively small amount of contamination into regulatory compliance. So in comparison to that, I have a very clear idea of how useful this work and money will be.

Unfortunately, my teammate Wesley is just out of university and is young (I can’t believe I’m describing someone else as young here – the true indication that I’m starting to mature? Nonsense!) and idealistic. So he’s been more affected by the neglect of the current systems and how nothing to seems to last and that nobody seems to care. He also understands that it’s more complicated than that, but that hasn’t assuaged his creeping cynicism. And here I thought I would be the one who was cynical. Almost as counterpoint, I'm finding the whole exercise rewarding, and have a very clear picture of how I'll be helping people. Blissful naivity?

Anyway, on Wednesday we headed back up to Kasese after meeting briefly with the Mbarara district water engineer (who, amazingly, seems to be even more disorganized and ill-prepared than Kasese). We arrived Wednesday afternoon and have been spending the last two days gathering information to complete a proposal for a GFS project that would bring water to 10,000 people. I’m hoping we can complete the design, cost estimate and proposal this weekend, but that might be ambitious. Either way, it'll be a computer oriented couple of days. Which is good because while hiking about the beautiful hills is nice, I don't really feel like my presence is of any value. The design stage is where I start earning my keep.

Lions rock

What a great weekend. However, before I begin, I would like to advise everyone that despite the renewal of the hostilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I am ok. In fact, I’m not even in the DRC. I am also not in one of the numerous refugee camps that are located in the eastern DRC and so have very little chance of contracting cholera, though if I do, I am currently within 5 minutes of a large and well equipped hospital that likely has an electrolyte solution in storage that could be given to me intravenously.

Seriously though, I’m surprised and delighted that some of my reader’s (re: my mom and my girlfriend) know about the conflict in the DRC. While I know details about the Rwandan genocide, I was largely ignorant of the civil conflict that’s been taking place in the DRC since 1996. It’s been called the African World War, and at one time sucked in six surrounding nations at a toll of 3 to 4 million lives. But I was largely ignorant of this conflict, possibly because other conflicts happening around the world dominate the news? Or possibly because it was just another conflict on a seemingly perpetually war-torn continent far away?

So I don’t know if other conflicts around the world are starting to wind down, or if they’re simply getting boring, but it’s nice to see the misery in Africa is starting to grab some headlines again. It would, of course, be nice if the headlines were about the latest improvements, but I’ll take what I can get.

Anyway, if you’ll recall, my last update had me heading off to Ishasha Plains to see some lions. We left Friday morning and arrived at the park by 4:30 that afternoon. Went on an evening game drive and to my delight, saw two lionesses. Unfortunately they were just lounging on the ground, but thanks to the presence of a guide we were able to go off-road and get within twenty feet. Which was cool until one of them got up and came over to check out the van. I mean I know a van is pretty solid, but there were moments when I wondered how wise it was to be trapped inside a sardine can with a large predator outside. Finished the drive by checking out a python which was lying beside the road digesting a baby antelope.

Camped that night on the plains, which previously seemed like a good idea, but after seeing the lions and the python, I had some rather...active...dreams. My fellow Acts companions, also sleeping in tents, didn’t appreciate the muffled yell of “help” I shouted in my sleep at 11:30pm. Apparently three of them didn’t get back to sleep after that. I would like to note that none of them came to see if I was ok...

The next morning, got up at dawn and managed to see two male lions on the same circuit we completed the previous night, though again, not in trees. Still, a lion is cool no matter where it may be, so we were counting ourselves lucky as we headed out of the park. But just as we were leaving, we finally saw them; two lionesses lounging on the bottom branch of a massive sycamore tree. They made the branch look very, very comfortable, but were kind of funny when one tried to get past the other to get off the tree. Didn’t look like any king of the jungle then. Still, this is possibly one of the most anticipated things I’ve been looking forward to since I arrived in Uganda. Now that I’ve seen them, I feel like I can finally go home. Once I’ve completed a proposal of course...

The group dropped me off at the town of Kihihi and continued on their safari while I headed back to lake Bunyoni to take a few chill days in a relatively cheap, yet kind of luxurious setting. It took me nine hours, three matatu rides, two boda bodas (the first boda got a flat tire half up to the lake, leaving me stranded effectively in the middle of nowhere with night fast approaching, but another boda came by ten minutes later) and a boat ride, but eventually I got there.

I’d forgotten how nice and serene the setting was. And also how there was very little to do. Once I’d sailed around the island, tried out the rope swing and finished my two books, I decided to head back. I’m now back in Mbarara, and likely going to start work on more design even though we technically have tomorrow off as well – it just seems like the most appropriate thing to do. Besides, vacation without some sort of fast physical activity seems to bore me.

Cooking my favourite dish tonight, spaghetti with a side of crickets. I felt bad cooking the crickets as they were still moving, but their legs had been taken off so they couldn’t jump anymore. One of the interns likened the morality to eating shrimp. They were delicious though. Similar to pumpkin seeds.

We have aced our midterms

So Monday morning our boss, Tim, drove out from Mbarara to check on our progress. He brought along Richard, the Ugandan construction foreman who was responsible for assessing whether the sources could be "captured" (that is, enclose the spring in concrete and funnel the water into a pipe so the source won’t be contaminated by surface activities).

As you’ll recall from my blogs posted earlier this month, despite some serious effort, we weren’t having very much success in finding potential projects. Well much to my surprise, by the time Tim and Richard showed up, we had five projects lined up. If you’ll recall, one has no road access and so would involve a 3 hr hike up to the source. This hike would be more difficult when lugging up a 25kg bag of cement. The second was along a very rocky, almost impassable road and a rather uncertainly committed local population (who would be the ones doing the majority of the work). Out of the three, we expected these two to be rejected out of hand. And of course we were nervous about the viability of the other two. Wes and I have never done this before, and so have an imperfect idea of what’s possible.

Much to our surprise, neither Tim nor Richard dismissed any of the projects. And so, while I still can’t believe I’m typing this, but we may have five potential projects in this district. If it turns out that each one of them is possible, and is approved, then in the end we could be responsible for getting water to more than 30,000 people.

Of course, since we expected two projects to be rejected and were uncertain of the other three, we’ve only done the preliminary stages of design and retrieved the minimal amount of information on each project. So it looks like we’ll be going back to Kasese next month, possibly for the month to complete the designs, get the necessary info and put together these proposals. I’m getting really, really psyched.

Headed back to Mbarara yesterday and am typing this blog from the Acts base in Mbarara, quaintly called Canada House. To be honest, this place almost feels like home in Uganda. It’s got a couch, I’m doing my own cooking, and its got enough books to keep me happy for another three months.

Setting up everything for four days off. Heading off to Ishasha plains, home of the famed tree climbing lions. This will hopefully compliment the tree climbing goats I saw in Morocco. And of course, if I see a lion chasing a goat through the trees, then that would surpass all of my wildlife viewings so far. Now that would be cool. Especially if the goat turned, mid-chase, and put up a fight with it’s mini-horns and hooves.

I’ll have the camera at the ready, just in case.

Clothing for travel and sketchy roads

The town of Kasese is in the rain shadow of the Rwenzoris, so most of the time it’s pretty dry here, except for the occasional week or two during the wet season. Daytime temperatures seem to get up to 30 -35 C on a regular basis. Except when I want to do my laundry, at which time it stays cool, overcast and usually rains. This makes the drying process a little slower, and of course I have to adapt accordingly. One of my methods of adapting is by washing as often as it’s nice out, but our schedule is rarely so relaxed as to allow me that option. Usually by the time we get back to the guesthouse it’s a hour to dark and we’re exhausted anyway. Which means Sunday is usually the only day I have time to wash. They don’t have dryers here. I also don’t have access to any washing machines (or more precisely, I haven’t seen one in this country yet), which means I have to wash everything by hand. Therefore, in order to reduce the amount of clothes I need to wash, I wear the same clothes every day. This isn’t actually as gross as it might seem. Or perhaps that’s just because I’ve perhaps adapted too much...?

From this frugal wearing pattern, I’ve re-discovered how few clothes I need when traveling. And am kind of annoyed I was duped by Acts into bringing two bags of luggage.

One thing I’m certainly wearing a lot are a pair of light synthetic socks I bought from MEC right before I left. I seem to be wearing the one pair daily and they are fantastic! Wesley and Asaph both wear gumboots all the time, and their feet are starting to pay. I’m forever grateful for the MEC employee who recommended light, quick drying shoes and associated socks. Those of you reading my blog will be delighted to hear that my feet are doing very well.

As I seem to be on a bodily discussion, I might as well send a word of praise to the vaccine Dukoral. The benefit plan for my company, URS, covered the vaccine, so I decided to get it even though I used to believe in letting my body adapt naturally to the new environment. But with Dukoral, I have yet to have more than a cold here in Uganda. The E. Coli protection runs out after three months though, so we’ll see how I do in December.

Speaking of vaccines, I’m starting to get annoyed with the daily dose of Doxycyclane. I now regret not taking Lariam (weekly), despite the strong request from Acts not to take it as it makes people have strong dreams/psychotic. Wesley, who I seem to be spending 90% of my time with, is taking it anyway, so if he snaps, I’ll be in just as much danger, right? And as for the dreams, I’m already one of the most active sleepers I know...

Two days ago we headed up north again to the sub-county of Kitswamba. The head (chairman) of the subcounty has been scouring his S-C as well as the neighboring ones for possibly GFS projects that could be feed his people. The cost of water in the main trading centre is currently ~$1 for 20 litres, which is a lot when the average income in the area is ~$200 a year.

The chairman indeed showed us a beautiful water source in the neighboring S-C which will be able to feed at least 10,000 ppl, but by the time it gets to Kitswamba, it’s doubtful there’ll be any water left. Spent the night up in Kaswa so we could collect a water sample first thing the following morning. Camped out in the front yard of the parish leader’s house and tested my little $35 Canadian Tire tent in some very strong winds and rain. It stood up to the wind, but rain collected in a nice puddle at the front door. I’ve since made some modifications with string, a garbage bag and a coat hanger. But the lack of sleep doesn’t seem worth it.

Due to the rain, the road out the next morning was kind of treacherous. It was Wes’ turn to drive and I was once again strategically placed outside giving him directions. At one point it looked like the back wheel might start to slip over the edge so we dug a new path into the side of the hill. First time I’ve constructed a road before.

Spent the morning in church after being duped by our cook into going. He made a special request that I go, but then ended going to a different church. And the English language services are at 7:30am! How do they hope to convert me if I’m not even awake yet? One funny thing though; they were having elections today and there was a position for Moslem converts assistant. Not sure what the duties are.

A long walk, a long hike and a short bridge

Monday morning we returned to the Kagando region and after dropping our bags and equipment off at the guest house, met up with Yona the diocene engineer. He told us it was too late to see one of the big sources in the hills, but that we could map out the pipeline route for the source we had seen the previous week. He wasn’t able to join us so instead he set us up with his plumber, i.e. a pipeline repair guy. Unfortunately, the guy couldn’t speak very much English. This was alright at the start, but rapidly got more annoying as the places he took us, and the places we wanted to see, were quite a bit different. Further, this source is relatively low and so the areas we were walking in were quite a bit hotter than the foothills we’re used to. Further, after the first hour we found ourselves walking along a road, which, in a flashback to the previous week, we could’ve driven too and saved ourselves some time and effort. In the end we drove most of the proposed route, but were still exhausted by the end of it, partially due to the heat.

The next day we woke up at 6:30am and headed off to a source called Kahindagoma, which apparently is the birthplace of the Rwenzuru Kingdom. While Wes and Asaph headed up to the mythically voluminous source, I went off with the chairman of the village to scope out where they wanted their taps. It was an entertaining tour which, thanks to my Garmin GPS, I was able to determine that I climbed a total of 1,600 metres over a 19km walk. All the while, the chairman was telling me about how, despite having one of the first schools built in the sub-county (back in the early sixties), the elementary school hadn’t been used very much until the last ten years first due to the war of separation (when the Bokonjo people tried to separate the Rwenzuru kingdom from Uganda), and then due to the Allied Democratic Force (ADF), who used the foothills as a staging area for the civil war in the DRC. On the same visit we found out that Yona also used to live in the hills, but decided to move into the safety of the valley after seeing the ADF cut off a man’s head. Surreal to think this mild mannered engineer could’ve witnessed such a thing and yet still be such a normal character to work with. He’s a hard worker, smart and easy to get along with. Without him we would likely have one tenth of the success we are currently having.

And I can now say that we are having success. The yield and quality at Kahindagoma were both excellent, and the elevation was good. In regular English, we’ve got water we can use, enough of it, and it’s high enough up we send it to the people who need it. The only downside is that we won’t be able to bury the line very deep as there’s very little soil that high up, and there’s no road to transport the material (A road to village has been surveyed, they just need to build it. Which in this country means gathering all the villagers and their hoes and pick-axes and hewing a road out of the side of the hills.) If I thought the 1.6 km of vertical gain was hard, try doing it with a 20kg bag of cement on your head. Thankfully our proposals will be reviewed by the Acts construction foreman who will decide if this is a practical project or not.

Wednesday we went back to Kalonge parish, Kyarumba subcounty. This is the same project where we managed to get the truck stuck twice the previous week. This time, the road was merely washed out by a stream. So we ended up making a short bridge out of stones and cobbles and driving across that. The purpose of the visit was for me to check out three further sources, while Wesley went around to map all of the communities with a GPS. This is necessary as the maps we have for the area were all created prior to the 1960s (i.e. prior to independence), and so information that we have on the population centers is a little outdated. In fact, I would like to take a moment to praise the humble GPS; this handy little instrument makes the survey and preliminary design about 1/10 the labor it likely used to be. I love technology.

Unfortunately for Wes, the chairman who led him around wasn’t too enthusiastic about walking and only showed him three of the seven villages in the parish. It would seem that our constant hikes and exercise have strengthened us to the point where we are exhausting our local guides. The path between two of the sources took us along a ridge approximately 1,000 metres above the surrounding valleys. Another day of beautiful views. Unfortunately the three sources were all contaminated, but we’ve still got two sources in the parish that should be able to service a good number of people.

Spent today hiking up to two piddly sources, that were hard to isolate, had turbid water, and relatively low flows, which all point to contamination, but we won’t know those results until tomorrow afternoon.

After the last three days at Kagando, I’m now covered in insect bites, and the origin was subject to much debate at the dinner table tonight (including an exhibition by yours truly). I’m hoping it’s not mosquitoes because of the malaria (though of course I’m diligently taking my malaria pills), but on the other hand I would prefer malaria over the Bot fly. Now the common consensus is bed bugs. Another new experience, yay!

Please let it be bed bugs.

(For those who may be worried, I feel perfectly fine)

Fort Portal, Crater Lakes and other Ugandan tourist attractions.

Considering the pace and amount of hiking we’d completed over the week, we decided yesterday to take it easy. Instead of completing any further work (which I’m doing today instead), we headed up to Fort Portal. My Brandt guidebook describes Fort Portal as “one of the most alluring town in Uganda”. And while it was well paved, I’m not sure how it acquired that high qualification. My impression was of any other Ugandan town.

However, it does have a few factors in it’s favor, including beautiful views of the equatorial glaciers, its proximity to a pygmy village, some very nice game reserves, a beautiful road west of town which descends from the plains of East Africa and into the forests of the Congo and the Crater lakes.

Unfortunately the glaciers were obscured by clouds and thanks to the guidebook’s inaccuracy on the Kasese - Fort Portal distance, we didn’t have enough time to see the pygmy village (which I was having some ethical issues with anyway, it’s been described as a “human safari” and not enjoyable to either party), the game reserves or the beautiful road descending from the plains into the Congo.

So we had to settle on biking around the Crater lakes, which was actually quite nice, though perhaps a bit rushed. Apparently the crater lakes were formed as part of the rift geology when this part of the world was being torn apart (geologically, not politically, that’s a more recent development, relatively speaking). Incredibly steep banks fall into a series of lake no more than a kilometer in diameter, all set amid rolling hills. Unfortunately, it had rained that day, and the roads were basically clay, so traction was a challenge. I also ended up with the one Ugandan bike without gears and poor brakes, so hills were also a challenge...both ways. But this gives me a clue as to why Ugandans are always pushing their bikes up hills instead of pedaling. Those bikes are all steel, and about three times the weight of my bike. And they often have a load of plantains (likely weighing 100 lbs). I’ll never think of them as wimps again.

Today is Sunday, and therefore a day of rest. It’s funny, I would’ve thought after two months with a Christian organization, some of their faith might start to rub off on me, but I’m no less an atheist/agnostic than I was before. I’m not sure if it was because I was exposed to Christianity at an early age, and then followed it up with a good dose of philosophy? Or if it’s simply because I find church services to be kind of boring and uninspiring? Either way, thanks to this lack of spiritual awakening, I have no inclination to go to church today, despite living in the diocene guesthouse, living next to the bishop and working with a man (Yona), who attends two congregations on Sunday and is trying to build a church for one of them (all donations gladly accepted). Instead I’m spending the day updating the information collected last week, planning next week, washing my clothes and researching the nutritional value of matoke (again). It seems like it should be healthy, but I’ve heard from two separate sources (both unreliable), that it’s nutritionally bankrupt. Anybody out there know anything about the nutritional benefits of matoke?

However, one thing I can’t argue is how readily plantains and bananas grow here. They are the fundamental base of the diet. In fact, one observation I made while doing the community mapping for Kaswa was how close the people in the villages are to the earth. Based on the food I eat, and the crops I see, I would guess that 99% of the food consumed by the villagers is grown by them. The houses and structures they build are mud and wattle (I don’t know what wattle is, but from what I’ve seen, it’s basically tree trunks and branches). The trees are planted every year for this purpose, as well as to provide firewood. (I would like to think it’s also to help prevent erosion, but farming practices seem to indicate erosion isn't really considered). The only outside materials they use is cement, piping, corrugated steel for roofing and some foodstuffs. And batteries and radios. So funny to be walking along a foot path, surrounded by simple houses and farm land only to come across a guy walking along, carrying his 70s style radio listening to a soccer (“football” of course) match between Manchester United and Chelsea. In response to queries, I keep saying Man U is my favorite team, when really I have no idea who any of the players are, an certainly not how well they’re doing.

Anyway, I’ve obviously got too much time on my hands as I’m starting to ramble. So I’ll stop here.

The Rate Has Picked Up!

As you may note from the title, this has been an eventful five days. And so for that reason, I’ve decided to split this into two posts, the first covering up to Friday and the second (posted below) covering yesterday and today. This is mainly to appease the more attention deficit readers in the crowd (I’m thinking mainly of my girlfriend here).

Wednesday was entertaining and a good follow up to Tuesday’s debacle. We were following up another report given to us from the district water office. We started the morning in Kasese at 1,000 metres elevation, and in the span of 40 km managed to climb to 2,000 metres to the community of Mahango. My amazement at our little Toyota Hi-Lux only grew that day as we climbed hills a Humvee would’ve had issues with. Once at the top, the road continued along the ridge with a panorama of the plains of Ugandan rift valley extending to the left (some 1,000 metres below), the Rwenzori mountains to the right and the town of Kasese behind us. And despite the 60 degree slopes on either side of the ridge, houses were spaced evenly all the way down to the valley floor.

One of the things I love taking away from traveling is being able to put a real image to a place. Before I visited south America, I had an idea that the amazon was a large, tropical rain forest and that the Andes were quite high. But I had no idea how much the identity of the entire continent was shaped from the relationship of the two. Apparently the five highest peaks on this continent are here in East Africa, and the Rwenzoris are the highest range in Africa. West of here the land descends into the Congo basin and the associated jungle. North of here, everything eventually drains into the Nile. (I’d love to be able to do an expedition into the Rwenzoris and see the equatorial glaciers, but at $600 for the mandatory six days, that seems like a very expensive undertaking at this time. Besides, every time I look at them, they look covered in clouds, so I can’t imagine the view from up there would be that great. On the other hand four of the peaks have glaciers, and seeing snow at the equator is always a cool undertaking.)

Once we reached Mahango and hiked to the source, it was, of course, half the flow reported, but we’re getting used to that. Certainly hones our patience.

It’s funny, for the most part the last two and half weeks have been a long, hard slog to find feasible springs. Our success rate is dismal (we’ve now visited approximately 40 springs of which 6 will be useful to us), and yet I’ve been finding the whole exercise incredibly rewarding. At the same time, I feel more pressure to succeed than any of the interns. Their time here is paid for by the Canadian government, whereas I’ve been entrusted with the money of my friends and family. I’ve never felt like such a workaholic and yet loved it so much.

So we headed back to Kasese at the end of the day, once again pessimistic about our chances for a good project.

And then Thursday our luck changed.

We headed off to an area south of the Rwenzori mountains called Kagando. Our resident engineer, Yona, met with us at the rural hospital in the area and then showed us to the spring.

What a beautiful sight! Water gushing out of the soil everywhere! Enough to provide 25 litres/day of water to 18,000 people (to put this in perspective, Canadians consume approximately 400 litres/day). Most importantly, the test results came in today and they were clean!

However, the downside of this source is that it’s located quite low in the valley. But that’ll be an engineering challenge as opposed to a resource challenge. At least we’ve got enough water to feed people. Which means in one day we’ve gone from 0.5 of a proposal to 1.5 proposals. Things are looking up. But then again, we always start the day of with reams of optimism. (We haven’t learned cynicism yet, we’re saving that for next month.)

Friday was also good, we headed back to the same area of the Kasese district, only further north this time. Arrived at a parish called Kalonge. Managed to get our truck stuck to the point of almost rolling off the side of the road (I was strategically outside and away from harm at the time...directing of course). No worries though, with the help of some seven local Ugandans and a pick-axe, managed to get the truck back on the road.

Parked the truck at 1,500 m and started ascending the side of the valley. Reached a beautiful source at ~2,000 m forty minutes later (while almost being passed a Ugandan grandmother carrying a huge load of fire wood - in my defense it was 34 C).

Looked at three more sources and all had high yields and what appeared to be good elevation. (Also met a very drunk local leader, entertaining, but also kind of annoying – always asking for money). Just found out last night that two of the four sources had good quality. Plus there are two more sources on the other side of the valley that’ll take another day to assess. Depending on those results, we may be up to 2.5 projects! The only issue may be building the line. If we had issues just hiking it, than building it could be overwhelming. On the other hand, as the Ugandan grandmother proved today, these may be idle concerns.

Had a brief (but typically incredibly strong) rain storm which turned the roads into a slip and slide. Managed to get stuck at the exact same location on the way out. But some quick road re-construction and we were on our way.

At the start of next week we’ll be heading back to Kalonge to do some community mapping (where to locate the tapstands, etc) so we can complete a preliminary design and cost estimate. Also, Yona has promised another good source, (this time a 2hr hike up), so by the end of next week, we may have three and half projects. One can dream.

Strange how one’s dreams can change depending on the circumstances.

My first pipeline design

It has been a long week, so this may be a long blog. Last time I uploaded a blog, I was writing from a church in the foothills of the Rwensoris. We returned to Kaswa the next day, and while I spent the time mapping the entire parish, Wesley and Aseph went off to look at the new sources the parish leader had found. At the end of the day we had a file of GPS points that included all of the cells in the parish, and had found a new source producing a respectable 0.45 L/s of water.

Thursday afternoon returned to Kasese and celebrated Uganda’s independence day by having a beer and a stoney, a ginger ale/root beer that has to be my favorite beverage in Uganda. However, that might be a biased view as I’ve only really had four beers in the country since I’ve gotten here. The perils of working under the umbrella of the Church of Uganda (COU), (the upside is that we’re staying in a COU guesthouse with an awesome cook. Friday morning we were supposed to meet with the district water officer for Kasese, but that meeting was postponed. While we were driving to his office. Twice. Just another thing to get used to in Africa. People you meet with are rarely on time. Finally met up with him and he was able to give us some good prospects that we should check out. Ended the week on a high note.

Saturday and Sunday I spent working on the design for the Kaswa project, and finally came up with a cost estimate Sunday night. Problem was, it was far too low for a CIDA sized grant, we need to come up with something like $250,000 and this one will likely cost less than $100,000. Which means we need to find more sources in the area and try to feed the entire parish. So we’re going back next week.

Took a break from the design work on Saturday night and headed out for a real night on the town in Kasese in my new dress shoes I’d paid $12 for (well the final tally was $25, but that’s another story).

Walked into a bar and of course, being Muzungus, were greeted by everyone there. Our neighbor at the bar turned out to be a very happy go-lucky sergeant in the Ugandan army who very quickly bought us a beer. So of course we bought him some beer and some goat on a stick from a street vendor outside (which I highly recommend, delicious). We became fast friends after that to the point that we were all dancing at a neighboring “club” (the quote mean it was actually just a bar with the music cranked so loud that some felt obligated to dance). Very cultural immersed night to the point that the only song I recognized was “Ever-blazing” by Sean Paul, and I was invited to dance repeatedly by our soldier friend who also insisted on holding Wesley’ hand at various points through the night. That’s one thing I’m still going to take some getting used. Still had a really good time, even if the only ones dancing were guys, and I had to spend half my time avoiding their groping hands.

Monday morning, headed out to a GFS project commissioned by the district water board. The system takes water directly from a larger river and was originally designed to supply 70,000 people and was augmented last year to supply 140,000. The system goes through four filtration steps. Unfortunately, the new intake gets clogged every time there’s a large rain storm. Which means the operators bypass the filtration. Which means 140,000 people get muddy river water. We didn’t see the system at it’s finest.

And today. Where to start. Today was the very apex of the Ugandan experience. We wanted to follow up on one of the prospects given to us by the Kasese water district office. The proposed GFS is in a sub-county called Kitswamba, and we met the chairman of the sub-county. Of course he was an hour late, but that’s how things work here. No big deal. We told him how we wanted to see this source and possibly put in a GFS in his sub-county. Considering how hard it is to get water here, he was very happy and was delighted to guide us. But he informed us we couldn’t take the shorter road because it was in a very bad condition. So we took the longer road. One of the issues with this project was that the source originates in another sub-county. So we stopped by the offices of that sub-county and picked up another high level official, the secretary of social services. Once we had our entourage, we drove a little further and reached the start of the trail. We then started hiking. At the 1.5hr mark we reached the crest of the ridge, and a saw a very nice road, likely only 5 minutes from the source. The chairman had wanted to talk to the “leadership” of the neighboring sub-county to make sure no feathers were ruffled once we started to walk around there looking for water. That little detour added approximately 4hrs of walking, and 1hr of driving to our day. The worst part was that the source was dry when we’d arrived. Not a productive day. We’re going to another source tomorrow, hopefully we’ll have more luck then. Because we now have to come up with three CIDA sized proposals before we leave and we’re currently at 1/3. At this rate we’ll leave in 16 weeks. Unfortunately I’ve only got 11 weeks. So hopefully the rate starts to pick up...

I write this blog from the front of an open air church at approximately 1500m altitude in the foothills of the Rwenzori mountains. The Rwenzoris apparently have some of the highest peaks in Africa, and unlike Kilimanjaro or Mt. Kenya, are a range instead of solitary volcanic peaks. I’ll have to check my guidebook, but I believe they go as high as 5,000 metres, and there are glaciers up there, which is impressive as they lie within 50km of the equator.

When I was last able to update, I’d just arrived in Kasese. On Friday morning, we met up with Yona, the diocene engineer, and headed off to investigate a source in the northern part of Kasese district, just north of the Kitswamba parish (the Ugandan geographical political order goes District, county, sub-county, parish and village). Unknown to us, the source had already been tapped 20 years earlier and a long pipeline with approximately 90 taps had already been installed. However, only 20 of the taps currently worked, and the system was losing a significant amount of water due to leakage. So it appeared that they were wondering if we could fix the pipeline rather than install a new one. Unfortunately, from our understanding of CIDA grants, this would likely not fly as CIDA is looking for sustainability in it’s project, and repairing a pipeline implies it wasn’t maintained/sustained very well in the first place.

Plus the coliform counts from the water sample came back high.

On Saturday we headed off to the southwest of the Kasese district and investigated approximately 5 sources over a 6 km route(on foot of course). As this was still in the foothills, the terrain was pretty heinous. Evaluated all five sources and together they might supply water for 2,000 – 3,000 people, but the need is to supply 10,000. It seems that the majority of the people in the area have to complete a daily 5km walk to get water. And of course the test results came back indicating all five sources were contaminated with bacteria. So it was another exhausting (physically and emotionally) day.

As we were staying in the bishop’s guest house, we were invited to church service on sunday. I declined and instead choose to visit some chimps at the Kyambura gorge. The gorge descends from the Rift valley plains in QENP into a tropical riverine forest. Dense tall trees, baboons and colobus monkeys everywhere. We also came across quite a few hippos, which explained the AK47 the guide was casually carrying along. The guide had promised a 2-2.5 walk, but after 3.5hrs we still hadn’t heard a thing, and so turned back disappointed. Just as we were heading out of the gorge, we heard that distinctive chimp hoot/scream. Turned back and found the chimps! So cool. Much larger than I was expecting and able to get up really close. Currently top of my list for wildlife sightings. I’m currently banking on the tree-climbing lions of Ishasha plains to top that.

Monday met with the district water board and found out they have a few plans for GFSs, but none that we could look at that moment, and none that we could use. But we could get the plans for the currently installed ones in the areas we’re interested in...but we’ll have to come back on Friday.

Yesterday headed back out to the northern area of the Kasese district and visited the Kaswa parish. The chairman of the parish (known as local chairman II or LCII for short), had mapped out four sources, and a rough sketch of a GFS that he was hoping to get funding for. This map included all of the villages, trading centres (larger villages where, you guessed it, people trade) and other crucial information Wes and I keep attempting to get. Most importantly he showed us two sources that had a relatively good yield, and test results today showed were relatively clean. The yield would only support about 4,500 people, but thankfully the parish only has 3,500. So we might just have a project we can finally write up. Or at least half of one. It’s something, and for the past three weeks, we feel like we’ve gotten nowhere, so it was important.

Spent today assessing four other sources in another parish, of which only two had sufficient flow to bother looking at, and even then were rather pathetic. So that brought us back down to earth after the half triumph of yesterday. Still, we seem to be getting somewhere, it just may take far more time than we have to get there.

As I write this (still in the church), I’m surrounded by thirteen kids who are all fascinated by a computer. It’s kind of eerie because they’re all within four feet of me, and they just stare at me or the computer in complete silence. Personal space has a different meaning up here. This place has no electricity, no running water (we’re working on that part), and of course no tv. So we seem to be the most interesting thing happening.

Going back to Kaswa tomorrow to see if we can develop this half proposal into a full one by finding more sources. But the more we search the more it seems that perhaps we may have to change our overall approach. All of the big sources seem to have been found and tapped. Trying to combine the smaller sources may add up in numbers, but reduces the efficiency of the system, and in the end, may still not be enough. Which has me pondering another philosophical question. If we manage to turn this into a water project, and likely raise the standard of living for the population served, the population will likely grow to the point where the water is not enough far faster than we designed for. Which seems to me Uganda will have this same problem of not enough safe water in less than 10 years. And at that point, the solution will certainly not be solvable by natural springs because they’ll all be used which would mean more expensive pumping or treatment systems. But that’s a problem for ten years from now and perhaps technology will solve that problem. Right now I’m just trying to find some water.

Kasese Again

So this blog should be much shorter and sweeter as it’s only been three days since my update. First, I’m happy to state that my malarial friend Naomi has recovered and seems to be at 90% of her former strength. Still, malaria seems like a very bad thing to get. She looked like the worst I’ve ever felt with the flu, but for two days straight. I’ll be doing my best to avoid it.

Spent Wednesday getting ready for the trip up to Kasese, including a 3 hr round trip to the Kinumefura Camp and back to pick up the supplies we’d need for a month of roving. The road is only 50kms (100km round trip), and it’s all paved. The thing that slows us down to an average speed of 33 km/hr is all the potholes. Potholes of all shapes and sizes. And most importantly, potholes that span the road on a regular basis.

The first week we were in camp we were put through a driving test by Tim Specht, the regional director of Acts, a Victorian who’s lived in Mbarara for the last two years. Three notable things stood out:

1) It’s sometimes good to swerve all the way to the wrong side to avoid potholes.
2) The horn is an essential tool on Ugandan roads, without it, you have only have half a car.
3) The largest vehicles on the road are the passenger buses, and if approaching from the opposite direction, they’ll plow you off the road...unless you hold your ground, just so the bus driver knows you’re there and moves over. In essence, a game of chicken with a bus. We are driving mini pick-ups. Thankfully I haven’t needed to establish my presence to a bus driver yet.

This morning we had a meeting with the regional office of water and sanitation. They have a far different manner of going about the installation of water pipelines than Acts currently does. The budget for initial project installation is taken from the federal government. However, order to ensure sustainability of the pipeline, they give the option of household metered hook-ups for $31, but also install public metered taps at the cost of $0.01 for 20 litres. This is to ensure that enough money is collected to pay for the system operation and maintenance and possibly pay for a new system at the end of the project life.

Acts installs the pipeline using CIDA funds. During the installation, tapstand committees are set-up to collect funds from the community in order to maintain the system. It seems to be a far softer system, and therefore open to abuse, than the government sanctioned approach. However, the government wasn’t very forthcoming on how the very poor (widows and such) pay for the water.

After the meeting, headed up to Kasese to investigate two projects suggested by the diocene engineer (I have to admit, this is the first time I’ve heard of a church region having it’s own water engineer – I know it’s wrong, but I’m tempted to try some Moses jokes, or maybe something about baptism, when we meet him tomorrow morning).

On the way to Kasese, we passed through QENP again, and this time saw some Ugandan Kobs and a leopard. The leopard was within 10 metres of the road and was stalking the kobs. However, once we stopped, it looked at us for a few moments and then took off. Might be the coolest wildlife sighting I’ve seen so far.

Arrived in Kasese without incident and are eager to set out tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed that it’s got a good flow and has no faecal matter.

First Off!

As some of the more astute readers of my blog may have gathered, our first vacation started in Kigali, Rwanda. Wes, Chris and I (three of the four engineers on the team) headed directly for the border after lunch on Thursday and arrived about an hour after dark in Kigali. Annoyed by all of the constant offers for rides, we decided to walk the three kilometers into town. Found lodging and then set out for dinner. Had an amazing French fry and goat meat omelette, though the amazing part may have been due to our hunger. Moved to cheaper lodging at the church guesthouse the next morning. Then went for lunch at an all-you-can-pile-onto-one-plate buffet (same place we got the omelette the previous night). Was more than enough for one man, but still delicious. Once we felt sufficiently fortified, we headed off to the Genocide Memorial.

A word on Kigali. The first thing I noticed were the streets, or more specifically the gutters. Or rather how they existed in Kigali, whereas they were dirt ditches in Kampala or Mbarara. Once I noticed that little touch of affluence, I started to pick up on other things like how the sidewalks and buildings seemed to have a little more order to them that most other developing cities I’d visited. The biggest difference was the motorcar/pedestrian interaction. In Ugandan (indeed in most cities outside of North America and Scandinavia), the car owns the road, and pedestrians run when crossing it. I learned very quickly in South America to either find a nun or priest (or very hot girl) who was crossing the road, and try to use them as a shield. (And everybody knows that at the other end of the spectrum, pedestrians rule in Vancouver - much to the annoyance of visiting drivers/pedestrians). This interaction seems to have reached a new balance in Kigali. Cars yield to pedestrians when there are enough of them and pedestrians yield to cars when there’s no break in the traffic. Everybody seemed very respectful of the rules. I wonder if this is a reflection on the rule of Paul Kagame and the RPF? Which brings us back to the memorial.

Very powerful place. Needless to say, I was emotionally exhausted by the time I’d left there. Up to that point, I’d been shielding myself from the thoughts, but after the images and the testimonials, I couldn’t help but think about it constantly. I would pass Rwandans in the street and wonder if they were Hutus or Tutsis. Which of course is the wrong thing to do. President Kagame’s most persistent message is that there are no Hutus or Tutsis, only Rwandans. But you can’t help but try to understand what drove the genocidaires. Also from that point on, I couldn’t help but take certain places and imagine what roles they took on during the massacre. The church guesthouse we stayed at had been a refuge during the genocide. Hung out in the bar at Hotel Mille Collines, famous from the movie Hotel Rwanda. And most of the rivers we passed on the way from the border had a sign indicating that this had been a genocide dumping ground (or at least from what we could interpret from the signs written in Rwandan. Seemed like there should be ghosts everywhere. But of course, it’s been 14 years, and the government was eager to put the everyday reminders behind them, so there was very little everyday evidence.

Anyway, this entry is far too long, but in my defense, this was a powerful trip. However, aside from the memorial and the place Kigali plays in modern history, the city is actually pretty small and boring. Beautiful but boring. The best memory I have is Wes and I finding a rooftop bar (through a series of unlit stairwells) and talking about American politics; the debate between McCain and Obama and the effect Sarah Palin is having on the race, with the bar owner, whilst playing pool. Very nice evening, one of those classic backpacker moments.

Sunday headed off to Bushara Island resort on lake Bunyoni, which has to be the most beautiful part of Uganda I’ve seen so far. And then my traveling companion Naomi came down with a fever and aches. So I took her into the hospital to be tested (but not before finishing off her delicious pancake breakfast), and was informed that she did indeed likely have malaria. So headed back the next day to Mbarara, which is where I currently find myself. Sorry for the long entry, congratulations if you’ve made it this far. I swear the next entry will be far shorter and succinct.

First real project!

Finally something to sink our teeth into.

A community approximately 45 minutes southwest of Mbarara sent Acts a letter a month ago, with over 400 signatures, asking us to come and please bring the community clean water. They mentioned that they also had a large spring nearby that would be able to supply the water.

Wes and I left first thing monday morning and met up with the (partially self-appointed) community representative at a gas station on the main road. Nelson then led us back to his community of Nyaruhandagazi. When we arrived, a whole contingent of community representatives were there. There were six existing springs in the surrounding countryside, and as these would likely be the water sources for the community, we had to evaluate each of them. This meant we had to ferry along all of the community representatives. At one point we had some 20 people piled into the back of our very small pick-up.

Unfortunately, only four of the six springs had a sufficient elevation to be able to service the town, and all of those springs would only be able to supply 5,000 of the 7,000 people. Further, once we completed the bacteriological tests, three of the four springs contained E. Coli, a bacteria which indicates that harmful pathogens are present in the water. Therefore, after careful consideration we had to abandon the idea of installing a pipeline in the valley. Not looking forward to telling Nelson. The hard part is that we also examined the main source of water the community currently uses, and it's got one of the highest bacteria counts I've come across so far. Kind of depressing, but I guess this comes with the territory.

Anyway, we started our five day break last night, and I type this blog update from Kigali! Beautiful city, and so much order. Gotta love a good military dictatorship/democracy.

cheers,

mike

Pasta! (And the internet)

September 21, 2008

For the past two weeks my diet has consisted of beans, rice, matooke (boiled, mashed and baked plantains) and cabbage for lunch and dinner. Breakfast consists of bread, posho, (similar to southern grits) and pineapple. Chai is between lunch and dinner and consists of boiled milk with some tea in it. Every friday we get boiled goat or beef and twice a week we get boiled eggs for breakfast.

When I read the Gulag Archipelago, I used to wonder what it would be like to have the same thing every day for lunch and dinner. Well, now I have an idea (thankfully sans the physical pain of living through Siberian winters). I’m certainly developing an appreciation for beans that I never used to have. I’ve also developed a craving for peanut butter and chocolate, two items which are hard to get in this country, which is odd because peanuts and cocoa beans both grow quite well in this region.

The second very major change to my nutritional status is due to this project being supported in-country by the Church of Uganda. No alcohol is allowed on-site. I haven’t had a beer (or anything else alcoholic), in over 10 days. Another thing I crave.

The first week was spent on the previous year’s project. Familiarizing with how it was constructed and why certain decisions were made. The project is called Kinemafura (or Sweetwater by Acts). The line is ~25km and serves ~10,000 people. It’s hard to describe the feeling of exhilaration that came over me when we first drove down that line and seeing the very concrete effect the pipeline has had on the people. The people (usually women), used to have to walk for miles to get their water. And they collected it from a swamp. Now the vast majority of the people have a tapstand within 500 metres of their house. To think that I could be involved with such a project was incredibly gratifying. I can’t think of the last time I was so excited (aside from when I started dating Liz of course).

We also attended an AIDS awareness spectacular completely run and performed by HIV-positive actors. Very entertaining. But also very long. My personal highlight was buying a live chicken at the church service that preceded the show. Not up to the challenge of keeping it as a pet, and not keen on killing it either, I quickly donated it to an old lady.

At the start of this week we traveled to the town of Kasese (which the Lonely Planet refers to as a town that has passed it’s expiry date) to do the design of a short pipeline branch. The road took us through Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP) which meant seeing a herd of elephants at the side of the road and stopping to at one point to let the baboons cross the road. Still no lions, but we’re going back in two weeks, so there’s still hope. We stayed in a guesthouse, which meant we were able to make our own dinner. Never have I enjoyed making pasta so much! God how I love noodles! Not that I don’t enjoy mashed bananas, but pasta will always have a special place in my heart.

After two days there, we took the six hour, cramped ride back to Kinemafura and have been working on the detailed design of the new project, called Nyaruegera (or Lifewater by Acts), which will be located ~20km east of Ntungamo.

However, the job that Wesley and I have been entrusted with is to search out new projects by; evaluating the water quality and flow of the source, the needs of the surrounding community and then completing a preliminary design of the pipeline. Once completed, we will submit a proposal to CIDA for funding for the project. The Ugandan construction team that Acts has in country is perfectly capable of installing the pipelines. Our job is to have a design to follow and to get CIDA funding to pay for the material. Our goal is to have three to four proposals that will be accepted by CIDA by the end of my time here. A daunting challenge, but I think I’m up for it.

Comox to Mbrarara

The fight from Comox to YVR was uneventful, and the brief layover was quite pleasant. The flight from Vancouver to London was long, but at least I got to watch Kung Fu Panda and Ironman. I also read further a cultural sensitivity book called "African Friends and Money Matters", which I don't recommend. It seems to be completely based on anecdotes and written in a slightly patronising manner. Perhaps I'm missing the point. Either way, a far better book that has helped give me an african perspective is called Under the African Sun, written by a polish reporter who moved to Africa in the mid 1950s. Still anecdotes, but at least this time written from an obviously western point of view and with a historical context. London to Entebbe was equally uneventful except that we lost two crucial bags. They're still AWOL, but hopefully we'll see them soon enough.

Arrived in Kampala at around 10am monday morning and once we'd settled into our guest house, we set out for the city center. Wes and I will be on the roving team, and responsible for finding new sources and villages that need protected water. So we tried to find some maps of the areas we'll be going to. Absolutely useless. We found maps designed to teach kids about the district (similar to our provinces), that had more detail than our road maps, but nowhere near the detail we would like. It's starting to become apparent why previous roving teams used hand drawn maps.

Tuesday headed out to Mbrarara and for the second time in my life I've crossed the equator. Pretty cool, and fun little experiments showing the water going back and forth, but the highlight was playing soccer with the kids. I'm looking forward to more of that.

These last three days have been spent in language training in the morning and trying to get prepped for heading out into the field in the afternoon. We plan on heading out to the previously installed water project tomorrow morning and spending a week there to learn how it was installed, follow up on how well it's working and learn from the people it's serving what could have been done differently. The following week we're scheduled to head to the new camp and help the engineers to do a detailed design on the pipeline that's to be installed this year and help build the camp we'll be living in.

I'm anxious to actually start doing some work, but as I'm rapidly learning, things work slowly in Uganda.

I may be out of internet range for the month either in the camp or roving, so don't be alarmed if I don't have an update for a while.

All the best,

mike

The Long Orientation

Welcome to my blog! This is officially my first blog. So if you have any real issues with this posting, please attribute my errors to my inexperience.

It's been a long week.

On monday I met up with six of my fellow ACTS team members at Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal. In a hopefully non-prescient act, one of our team members ended up taking the Tsawwassen ferry to Duke Point, (which is nominally in Nanaimo, but effectively the same as flying into Abbotsford when you think you're going to YVR). The van designated to pick us up arrived ~30 minutes late, thus preparing us, in a small way, for the speed of how things happen in Africa.

We arrived to our hostel where we met up with the remainder of the team members. A total of 13 us in total will be flying over. The group is broken down as follows:

- 4 engineers (four of the five guys in the group)
- 1 AIDS/HIV officer (mainly education facilitator)
- 2 water quality officers (water quality assessment/testing)
- 1 camp administrator/camp mom/making sure everything runs
- 1 program manager (Richard Roberts)
- 2 agri-forestry officers
- 2 leadership discipleship trainers (reverend and his wife)

The last two volunteers will be educating and training potential ministers in Uganda and are the only overt evidence that this is an inter-denominational faith-based organization. However, due to strict atheistic guidelines, ACTS can't have any religious on their CIDA-funded projects and so the reverend and his wife will be volunteering in another part of the country.

Tuesday and wednesday were spent with ACTS-centered orientation, with the returning interns from last year giving us their opinions and ACTS-management giving us their advice and the viewing lots and lots of slides. We also received a very thorough health briefing which freaked/grossed most of us out for example the Bot fly which lays its eggs under your skin - yum.

However, most importantly, I was finally given a proper briefing with charts, slide and most importantly spreadsheets. How I love a good spreadsheet! We also received handover reports from last year's staff who know exactly what kind of a situation we'll be going into because they had to go through it themselves.

My job is now almost too clearly defined to the point that is seems almost daunting. I'll initially be helping our civil engineer put together a detailed design for the pipeline that will be built this year. And then I'll be joining the roving team searching for new water sources and assessing whether they would be suitable for a future CIDA-funded, ACTS managed project, and then completing a preliminary design for these future projects. In essence, I'll be doing exactly what I was itching to do; using my existing environmental skills as well honing my water transmission design skills.

After that we all had a renewed sense of purpose and were starting to get psyched. Then we had two days of cultural sensitivity training. Good information, but by this time we were starting to go into information overload. One interesting fact I learned was that the area we're going into was formerly the Ankole Kingdom. The Ankole were (and still are) divided into two types of people, the Bahima and the Bairu; the Bahima were the pastorilists and led a nomadic life following their cattle. The Bairu were farmers and therefore led a more stationary existence. For those familiar with the Rwandan genocide, this is eerily similar to the Tutsis and Hutus. In fact apparently the relationship is similar but on far lower scale, the Bairu refer to the Bahimas as tall, beautiful and dumb and the Bahima consider themselves slightly superior to the Bairu. However, apparently the animosity apparently does not seem to extend beyond this simple level.

The orientation finished last night, at which point we had to pack up and load all of our stuff into a plane for an early morning flight. We'll be following our luggage today on the afternoon flight from Comox to Vancouver, and then waiting for 5 hrs in YVR for our BA flight tonight.

Now we're itching to get going and start work, but apparently we've got another week of orientation in Africa that we'll have to go through. But once we've done that, hopefully we'll start building something. It may be a latrine, but at least it'll be something.