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 :) 

Feeling at Peace

                                     




We traveled to the Bunabukoya Village to continue to help build the health clinic, they had already dug the outline for the foundation (pictured above) When we got there we helping in getting the mixtures of the foundation together. This consisted of mixing small rocks with some cement and putting it along the outline of the clinic and then also bringing the bricks that were made previous to the site to set it. We were the manual labor that brought the rocks, cement, and sand to the building sight. Which we were able to do pretty successfully thanks to the help of a man named Henry Ford who invented the assembly line.

We put that assembly line to very good use. Throughout the days when we were doing this we would get a little grumpy because we were tired and it was really hot outside and usually just when you thought you couldn't handle it anymore…. the kids would have recess time and come and join us in the assembly line with all of their little sacks and lighten all of our spirits. i don't know what it is but when you see those kids hauling cement, bricks, sand, rocks, whatever it is i would get the strength to keep going. They were so eager to help! i don't know if it was because they wanted the clinic or if they just liked being around the Muzungu's but ill take either one because i know i wouldn't have been able to do half of the labor without their smiling faces. And if the work was too hard for them, meaning their parents told them they couldn't help they would just sit on the side and watch us, which was pretty encouraging too!!!!! AHH I love these kids!!!

        

Sarah the incredible host!

Also, Sarah taught us how to cook, i learned how to mingle posho.

She is the most excited and happy woman i have ever met! she always greets us with the biggest smiles and warmest hugs! i love it! she probably only understand 10 percent of the conversations that i have with her but her bubbly personality makes me feel like i could sit and talk with her all day! She was telling us about her life and how she and her husband Timothy, (a man that African men should follow example from because he treats his wife how she deserves to be treated) are able to provide a living. We asked her how she is able to get money to buy food and she just looked at us and was like… if we need food and i cannot grow it i sell a chicken and then go and buy it. mind you this woman is the one that we live with 3 days of the week and she has 10 -12 "guests" staying at her house sleeping in her living room and she goes out and sells a chicken so that she can make us posho and scuma (which is like spinach) and then kills another chicken so that we can have a protein to eat with our meal. And asks for NOTHING in return. We always give her money as a contribution but she never asks and i know she doesn't expect it. 

Timothy, Sarah's husband

When her husband timothy found out that i was thinking about staying in uganda longer than august (yeah that may be a spoiler for some of you its just a thought and who know if i can actually afford to stay here longer anyways)  he got so excited that he had the translator tell me that if i stay and were to come to the village i will always have a place at their home and that he would accept me like a daughter. He doesn't have any men to marry me off to so i'm pretty sure that he has no ulterior motives in offering his home to me. They this family is so incredible. i think one of the reasons why i love sarah so much is because she is a woman after my own heart. Her home is place where you can feel instantly welcomed and she takes in "stray" people every day. in Sarah's blood family there is only her, her husband, and her daughter vikki. But her home is always filled with people. there is always laughter, happiness and bodies of people strewn about the floors finding a place to sleep. She cooks to feed the masses and it is always eaten up. 

Me attempting to mingle posho

One of the many people that stay at Sarah's often

Each of these people are not immediate family to Sarah but they come and go  as if they are!! I love it!

Vikki and Sarah, can't you just feel the happiness coming from them!!!

i want a home like hers where people feel welcome to drop in to say hi. or if they are in need of a place to rest their head they know that there is always a spot at cami's house where you will be welcomed with a warm smile and a BIG hug :) 

Boda Boda

There are only a few ways of getting around in Mbale. One is walking, which is nice when it is not blisteringly hot... the other is a taxi which  an often used mode of transportation but it is a little more expensive. So the most common form of transportation is a Boda Boda. I would say a boda boda is a mix between a scooter and a motorcycle. It has one guy that is the driver and you can fit a good amount of people. I have seen two grown woman with a baby on the back, and the woman sit side saddle. which makes sense because you are in a skirt. but i haven't ventured to try the boda boda side saddle. But i did document one of our boda adventures and let me tell you, it was fun. 

We were going to the Namatala village but we didn't know exactly where we were going go we were going to meet with a man named Moses that was going to meet us at the shell gas station and then we were going to go from there. 

We flagged down a Boda driver whose name is John and we told him we needed him to take us to the Shell station near the Namatala Slum. He had a little bit of a glazed over eye look and then said, ok 2,000 schillings for both. this was pretty reasonable because we were going outside of town. So we jumped on, fulling trusting that they knew where we were going. Once we got to the first shell station it didn't look like it was where we were suppose to be so we told them the next Shell station. When we got there we couldn't find Moses. We couldn't find him, and had to wait for 20 minutes while our country director Rebecca tried to phone him and let him know where we were. 

While waiting, all of these children started coming out of their homes to see the muzungu's and we took tons of pictures with the children, then we were on our way again to find the Namatala slum. We had to make one more pit stop and then we finally arrived. it was a great adventure and i have decided that i love travel by Boda and it will be my preferred mode of transportation this summer.

We are so excited to Boda!!!

When we stopped at the first Shell gas station and were a bit confused...

I tried to learn their names so from the left to the right is boyee,( boy' e), Sophie, naumateria (Her name was the hardest to pronounce, but it sounded beautiful, she would smile every time i attempted to say her name), and Dauphine she was very sharp and had a great memory.

Video of one of the rides. 

Successful Boda ride!

Remember when...

Kimani

Remember when you were a little child and you were sitting down at the dinner table being cranky and ornery because your mom was making you eat your green beans and you didn't want to finish the green beans on your plate!  Either because you weren't hungry or you wanted to be stubborn and frustrate your mom, so you didn't eat all of your food. Then your mom seeing the stubbornness in your face says out of frustration, "There are starving children in Africa!"

I met those starving children in Africa today. They are the most loving, caring, happy, humble children i have ever met!!! We walked around their village/ slum today called Namatala. And all they wanted to do was hold the Muzungo's (whit persons) hand or touch their skin and follow us around. They wanted us to take pictures of them so that they could look at it on the screen and find the face that matches theirs. We walked for 2 hours in the village and met with the people there and saw what the previous Help volunteers had done. They put in water filters that helped many people in the village not get effected by the cholera outbreak that happened in February. We are looking to find more donors for water filters.

We also talked with a few of the woman that had been given small grants to start their own business's. It was great to hear their success stories.

But the thing that hit the most was the children... running around in rags, playing with the smallest pieces of trash as toys, and getting the biggest joy of watching the flash go off on a camera. It was overwhelming to see people living in such humble circumstances. But empowering at the same time because no matter what their circumstances are, just getting a wave from a muzungu brings a smile to their face. And when you see their incredibly beautiful dark faces matched with their pearly white teeth grin. i think.... Ah, there is no where in the world i would rather be, then walking through this filthy dirt road with the greatest people i have ever met.

So i remember when my mom use to tell me about the children in Africa and how they are starving, and now i think, yep, there are a lot of starving children in Africa, and I love them and i hope to be able to make a difference in the lives of a few of them, because they have already made a difference in mine!!!!

                           

                          Kimani was learning the eskimo kiss  :) 

They love to smile

The one being held would not let her put her down.

This is a normal thing for them to have cows just walking down the road...