watering it up...

So one project that has begun to take up my life is the Water Filter project. We have been training, and implementing water filters wednesday's and Friday's the last couple of weeks and it was been really fun. Its great to see the people come together and pool their money together so that they can have a water filter and have clean water for their families and communities. Child of Hope has been such an incredible partner in making sure that we are implementing them in places that the people will appreciate them and use them to their fullest potential. Pius, Shadrach, and Evelyn have been the Welfare workers that have been taking us to the communities and mobilizing them for us to teach. it has been inspirational to be able to see them work so hard for the people of Namatala and it has made me appreciate them so much more!

This is at Child of Hope where the children are able to get clean water during school... doesn't he have the cutest eyes!!!!!

This is Pius and Shadrach whom i absolutely love! they are the interpreters that take us around to the water filter places. two of the most sincere people!

There is nothing more rewarding then when you come to a certain community that has been mobilized by the Shadrach, Evelyn or Pius and they are waiting for you and have seats set out in a circle, and their money all collected and their water manager elected. it makes you so excited! At times we go to places that by our standards are not where we want place the filters, but then i think about it. Clean water is a basic human right! and there are so many people that have such a look of eager need for the water filters. There is so much happiness in their eyes that is contagious and they have such an attentiveness in their posture. Its so wonderful to be able to be bringing this water to them. Im trying to think of a way to continue after i leave... suggestions will be accepted :) 

This is how we transport the water drums to Namatala, its quite entertaining. 

I love his SUPERMAN shirt!!!!! so cute!

yep, got the teaching face on :) 

Oh yeah, i got ringworm on my arm... No Big Deal.....

Thank You....

So, yesterday was the 4th of July and it was interesting spending it in a different continent, culture, and countr. The day went on as a normal wednesday for everyone except after our days work we had planned an incredible meal and invited our friends and a few partners too. We made Hamburgers, potato salad, sweet potato fries, a greek salad, corn on the cob, watermelon ( one of my favorite items), a pineapple and banana salad. and for dessert a friend brought brownies, and we made rice krispies!!!!! with nutella instead of marshmallows because when we tried to find them and everyone laughed at us because they had NO idea what we were talking about. but i was so excited for the rice krispies! And we put up a volleyball net and had a couple rounds of volley ball. it was really fun! we invited the Elders over and a few of the branch members, and had about 30 people there. It was so much fun!!!! but we made way too much food. We were so afraid that we weren't going to have enough food that we prepared way too much. In America that is no big problem because that just means that we get left overs for a few days which i don't mind left overs. however, we have a very small fridge that doesn't fit very much. So we didn't know what to do with them. We just figured we would send an extra plate home with everyone and then eat as much as we could before it spoiled. So as i was munching on a few of the snacks and talking with Alexis a friend of ours Freddy was talking with us and he kept telling us to keep eating because there are starving children in Africa. I remember the first day that i got here Freddy took us out to eat and i got something that i didn't really like and he turned to me and was like, eat up, there are starving children outside. I felt so guilty that i ate even more and tried to clean my plate. So as we were talking again about it he was just teasing me but we talked about that and how i felt so guilty about it. And then alexis said something like, Well, since we are here how do we get the food to the starving children?... She said it sarcastically but Freddy took it seriously. And thats when the greatest idea began. Freddy said that last year he had gone with the other HELP team once a month to LITERALLY feed the starving children in Africa. You always hear horror stories here about people going out and giving food to people and the people getting very aggressive in getting their food and fights happenings. So i was a little nervous about going but i trusted Freddy. When we got to where we were going to give out the food it was so great! Freddy told the children to get in a line and they immediately formed into a line. And then we gave them a paper plate and then they went down the line and we gave them food. the faces of these sweet sweet children. I don't know how to describe it. they would just stand there with they plates and stare at the food as we put in on. then once their plate was full they ran and sat down on the ground and just started eating. It was so overwhelming to see just how many kids there were that were living on the street. Who literally have no one to look after them.

There was a few of the boys that came up to us after they had eaten their food and in the most sincere voice said  "Thank You". These boys live on the streets, they don't go to school, and I just recently saw them riding in the back of a truck that was literally full of garbage that they rummage through to find any food that they can get. They don't have a mother to tuck them in at night, they don't even have a place to sleep that is protected. BUT they were grateful for the food that we were able to give them and came back and said Thank You. I wanted to take them all home with me and tuck them into my bed, and give them the care that they need, and sent them to school and give them food so that they will be healthy.

There was one boy that particularly hit my heart. He ate some of the food but he wasn't use to the American food that we gave him so he didn't eat too much. And he just stood there and i felt so bad so i put my hand on his head  to give him some comfort and he backed up and leaned against my legs and i just sat there and held him for a minute. He was probably about 10 years old and I just thought to myself i wonder how often or if any he was able to receive positive affection.

water filters

Water filters!!!!! I am really excited, because a project that i have been working on since i got here is finally starting to see results. ill give you a little backgroud. When i first got here to Mbale we were taken by one of our previous partners Child of Hope to tour around the Namatala Slums... yeah, that name probably sounds familiar because now a days its where i spend most of my time. So we went and saw where previous Help volunteers had implemented water filters, and they were doing great! So since then me and Kara and actually most of the team have been working to be able to get water filters in the slums. i remember first having a frank conversation with Philip, (the MAN! i think i posted a pic of him last time) After we had begun teaching sanitation in the community in preparation of talking with them about water filters. We had been trying to figure out how many filters we needed and could not get a number... and it was getting really frustrating trying to create a project without a number to work with. So i finally said Philip, i know you have a number in your head of how many filters you would like to have... just tell me that number so that i have something to work with. He finally very very shyly said... 50....Great! so basically as many as possible, so we went back to the team and researched and looked at prices and tried to figure out just how many water filters we could get. 

She's got a itch, but shes is so cute!!!

Doesn't she just have such a great pose, and i love the brother in the background trying to not be interested but completely is.

So.... after many many weeks i am so excited to report that we will be putting 30 filters in Namatala!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ah i am so excited about it. We had started to identify communities where we would implement the water filters. I have been teaching about sanitation and it was the best when we went back they had kept their jerri cans clean and they were trying their best do be more sanitary. So we told them that if they were willing we wanted to bring in a water filter for their community. it was cute because as i was telling them and the interpreter was interpreting i was waiting for that moment when they would get all excited and say YES! but they just smiled and in a soft voice was like yes, that would be great. i felt like i was more excited than they were so i asked them if they were excited and it was so sweet. this one woman named Peace said, we are so happy inside we dont' know how to show it outside. my heart melted. i love doing what i am doing! i will have to update you on when we implement the filters. its gonna be great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my faces are pretty great in these pictures... i have weird facial expressions.

apparently Pious was saying something very important to which i was paying very close attention. 

He was very interested in my teaching as you can see  :)  

yup, theres that weird teaching face again.

Don't mind the chickens while we teach 

Peace is the one in the blue tank top, shes so great! This is just some of the group that will get the water filter.

i was playing a song on my Iphone and dancing to it. they were pretty entertained.

thats a smirk if i ever saw one :)