Life Lessons

Last Monday I left Uganda, and on Tuesday I was back in the United States. On Friday I departed RDU, and on Sunday I arrived in Sydney. Although day to day life during the two months I spent in Uganda moved at a slow pace, it now feels like it was just as rushed as the last week has been. I clearly remeber the many incredible things we saw and did, but the two months seem to have finished awfully fast.
It's too early for me to make a very thorough reflection on what this trip's really meant to me, but here's a few things I've learned.


There's room at the table (or taxi park)
The taxi parks in Kampala are truly amazing. Vans are so tightly packed that a person can't walk between them at many places. It's an absolute miracle that any of them can even move, yet when a van is loaded an ready to go, other van drivers will shuffle their vehicles so the full one can escape. Most of the time, these drivers work together so well that, as a passenger, I hardly noticed.


Spread the love (or fire)
Almost all the cooking in Uganda is done on wood or coal-fired stoves. The challenge with these stoves is that there isn't a convenient "ignition" switch on the side. Starting a fire is no small feat, as we learned after trying to start one or two for the biomass charcoal experiments. To get around this, people will often go to their neighbors, who have a stove burning, and ask for some hot coals. Sharing hot coals costs the giver very little, and saves the other cook a lot of hassle. I thought about this, and in a way, one person's fire might spread to a great number of stoves. The more people give the hot coals, the more the fire spreads.


When there's a will (or a boda) there's a way
The tiny motorcycles that I saw everywhere are not only for transporting between one and four persons, but also for transporting crazy objects. Bicycles are used for the same end. In the city it isn't uncommon to see people moving large furniture or enormous bags of goods on a bicycle. Peter's family generously had us over to their house for a send-off party and a goat roast, and for this party he needed more chairs for his guests. So he moved 14 lawn chairs from RASD to his house, on a motorcycle. By himself, all at once.


When life gives you lemons, make lemonade (or a tire, make a sled)
We saw a lot of Ignitius's children, Condi and Solomon, during our time at RASD. One thing we noticed was that they were able to make a game out of anything at hand, whether it be a barrel, a matteress, a car tire or a bucket lid. It simply amazed me that the two of them seemed to find more joy in rolling around on an empty oil drum than many kids find in all the TV programs and videogames they can get their hands on.


Obviously these are silly analogies, but there's truth in each. If the lady living near to us wasn't generous, she wouldn't have shared her hot coals, and if Peter was determined, he wouldn't have been able to fit virtually anything he wanted on a boda.


I'm sad that my trip in Uganda has come to a close, but I have a lot of great memories to take away from it. I sincerely thank everyone I worked with at RASD for their hospitality; my trip wouldn't have been the same without it.
The end of one adventure marks the beginning of the next, and I look forward to what the future will bring.

Thanks to those of you who have followed my blog, and I hope you've enjoyed it.

Finishing Touches

We visited a little island out in Lake Victoria last weekend, which is run by a wealthy retired man of British descent (known as an ex-pat) and his six dogs. The place had a strange decrepit feeling that made me believe I had stepped onto a pirate island.
The island was very relaxing, but the most exciting part of the weekend was getting the boat to and from the island. Small canoe-like motorboats ferry passengers between the islands, and are well described as being taxi vans on water. Most importantly this means the ride is bumpy, and your vehicle’s appearance makes you worry that it’s going to break down. To get between the boat and shore, porters run about, carrying passengers on their shoulders.
(The picture of the boat resting inexplicably in the forest is from the island, which is full of bizarreness).



At the end of the weekend I was ready to get back to work. Since this is my last full week in Uganda, I needed to wrap up my projects. Last Friday Lauren helped me to cut the metal roofing into pieces that would fit into a parabolic cone shape, so this week I arranged these pieces onto the stick and wire framework I had previously constructed.
Today we added the roof to the latrine walls we have recently built. So far as I can tell, this structure should serve RASD well for many years to come.



We visited St. Paul’s public primary school, which is struggling to both pay bills and provide its students with a quality education. Although the Ugandan government has declared that under their new system of public schools every child has an opportunity for education, there are still significant obstacles. At public schools the Ugandan government pays the salary for the teachers (they provide one teacher per 45-50 students), but it doesn’t pay for meals, utilities or maintenance. At St. Paul's students have to miss class to get water from a source more than a kilometer from campus. The headmaster hopes to get rainwater-harvesting tanks installed, so we met with him to see the school's current situation and better understand their needs.



Happy news! One of Peter’s goats gave birth to three kids on Sunday. Only two days later his sheep gave birth to twins. As kids, the small goats don't yet have the distinctively unattractive features of older goats. I asked him how long it would take the baby goats to grow out of being cute, and to start to look like… well, to look like goats. He told us it would be about a year and a half, which is longer than I would have guessed. Until then he will have a whole tassel of baby animals stumbling around his yard.

Creepy Crawlies and the Boogeyman

So far as wildlife goes, we haven’t found anything very dangerous yet. Large predators like lions don’t live in the area, and the only poisonous animal I’ve heard much about is the black mamba, although allegedly all local snakes are poisonous. This is what Sam, from RASD, said after he hit this little snake on the head with a large stick.

Sam explained that all snakes here are enemies. If a child found a snake, they would try to play with it and get bitten. Since livestock is such a major part of life here, children are very accustomed to playing with animals. And picking them up. And running around with them. Poor chicken.





At a recent dinner, we learned about the feared Ugandan ‘Night Dancers’. These creatures are people by day, but at night they wear bones and banana leaves, and go to people’s houses and try to woo them outside. They make noises like crying babies, smoke incense, and even reach through windows to touch the sleeping occupants inside to try to conjole victims to leave their refuge.
One Peace Corp volunteer had been touched by the Night Dancers several times through her window, and had to move her bed toward the center of the room to keep them from reaching her. People unfortunate enough to be tricked into leaving their homes are eaten. But not to worry, we are told. Night Dancers prefer eating the dead, rather than the living. (We learned all this the day after we all walked down to the cemetery at night to look at the stars).
In spite of these stories, I’m still more concerned about parasites in the water, poisonous snakes, or reckless drivers than I am about the fabled Night Dancers.



I took my camera with me on a run up to the tallest hill nearby, known as Tank Hill. From here cell phone towers connect the small town of Nkokonjeru with the rest of the world, and water was once delivered from large metal tanks to the town below. The idea of the tanks was to use water pressure such that the town would have a water supply for a short while even during blackouts (power was needed to fill the tanks, but even without power, the water could reach households until the tanks were emptied). Now most institutions have their private water tanks that supply water during blackouts, making the tanks on Tank Hill obsolete.
(The pictures of the statue are from Convent’s garden at six, and then at seven in the morning.)






The Peace Corp volunteers in Uganda and some other volunteers attended the All Volunteers Conference, which was held in Seeta last weekend. I asked Kathy, one of the local Peace Corp volunteers, if I could present some of the projects that Lauren and I have been working on at this conference, and she got me a time slot for my presentation. Last Thursday I presented before a room of Peace Corp volunteers the topics of: education about composting, biomass charcoal production, and solar cooker designs.
I was afraid that since I’ve only been in Uganda for five weeks, while these volunteers are here for two years would make it difficult for people to take me seriously, but I was pleasantly surprised to find the audience was very friendly, and interested in my topics.



At RASD, Lauren and I have started a new project. The current latrine RASD uses is nearing it capacity, and it’s crucial that another latrine be ready soon. U.C. Davis students built an Eco-San urine diversion latrine last summer, but they never built a wall around it. So right now using the latrine would mean doing your business in plain view of everyone (in fact, the latrine is on a pedestal, so people could watch from far away). We are building a wall around this latrine, to make it useable by the time we leave.
The design of this latrine is such that the human waste is collected and made useful as fertilizer. Properly used, it’s a sanitary system that is very sustainable.

Falling Water

Over the weekend we visited Ssezibwa Falls, which is one of the lesser-known jewels of Uganda. This park features a waterfall flowing over a cliff of marble, a tea plantation that looks like a sea of green, and animistic religious sites.
Traditional rituals are still carried out today at and around the falls. There seems to be a lot of tolerance between Christianity and the traditional religion, because our guide said the pilgrims clad in bark-cloth clothes visiting the ritual sites were also Christian.
The most extreme ritual we heard of was to send a sheep over the waterfall. Allegedly, if the sheep survives the drop, then whatever the owner desired would come true. Animal activists may not be crazy about this tradition, but I figure it makes at least as much sense as throwing a penny into a wishing pool.


One of the sisters at the Convent, Sister Rosemary, helped to cook us an elegant traditional Ugandan meal, typically reserved for special occasions. She also taught us traditional cooking methods.
The food was placed in containers made of banana leaves for cooking. She first treated these leaves with heat to increase their flexibility, and then removed the main fiber, which again makes them more flexible. They served as a durable wrap while the meal was cooked on a stove, and they also added flavor to the dish.


In terms of weather, the climate here is very pleasant. Being right on the equator made me think it was going to be hot, but the high elevation keeps the climate moderate. The sun is very strong of course, but at night it gets cool.
Something that has struck me is how quickly storms come and pass. They are very sudden, usually announced by thunder and a bank of dark clouds. In less than a minute the weather can go from being clear to a torrential downpour. Usually these rains only last half an hour, and the dark clouds are swiftly blown over the horizon.

Feeling the Heat

We walked into the convent after work yesterday to find a chicken in our living quarters. It wasn't a very pretty chicken, and it wasn't a very smart chicken. Mud and dirt covered its disheveled white feathers, and when we tried to chase it out of the house it tried to hide itself behind the bookcase, but only its head would fit so it stood there stubbornly, seeming to say "if I can't see you, you can't see me!".
We finally got the frantic bird out of our residence, and a couple of hours later we sat down at our dinner table. In the middle of the table was our chicken, fried and ready to eat. Jessica, the lady cooking for us confirmed that yes, this was the same chicken that I captured with my camera in the house. It was also delicious.



I feel like I've been writing a lot about food, but a month of matooke (mashed bananas) and pasha (mashed grains) makes my palate crave for a variety of cooking. Lauren Gloria and I visited the Kevina Bakery at Providence Home a few days ago. Here the sisters of Mother Kevin's Convent work with other employees to make loaves, buns, doughnuts and other baked treats. They let us help with making balls of dough that the oven will transform into buns, which are incredible when they're warm.



There's good news for the solar cookers! I've used the tin foil we picked up in Kampala to make a sort of box cooker. Although it only has two panels right now, it's managing well. To better insulate the water I'm trying to boil I covered it with a black plastic bag. The reflectors worked well enough that hot steam from the water meleted the plastic bag yesterday. Hopefully a metal covering and two more reflectors will make this model feasible for wide-spread use.
Furthermore, Lauren helped me to develop a much improved holding mechanism for the parabolic cooker. Previously there was trouble because the focal point ('hot spot') of the reflectors moved, but the pot was stationary. This new holder lets the user move the pot up and down, and east and west, allowing the pot to easily follow the focal point throughout the day.



I've noticed that most of the great sunsets I've seen in the states turn the clouds pink or orange or red. Here there's been a couple of very red sunsets or sunrises, but most of them turn the clouds more yellow or purple (not the blood-red spectacle that I've seen other places). I suppose this could have to do with the clean air. The red may be missing, but the contrast of colors on the clouds is still a beautiful backdrop to the end (or beginning) of the day.

Center of the World

During the visit we made to Kampala last weekend we made stops at three locations for our various projects. First we stopped by a pottery workshop, where they used white clay to make pots that are very difficult to break. Apparently something about the iron oxide that makes the clay red also detracts from its strength. Unfortunately, they didn't have any clay pot water filters in production, so we're still going to have to figure that out from a few documents we have from companies that mass-produce clay pot water filters.
The next stop was the biomass briquette factory, which took sawdust and husks and turned them into neat little briquettes by applying about 250 atmospheres of pressure to the dust. Finally we dropped by the company headquarters of this place that sells solar cooking devices. They have three models: a little cardboard one the folds out, a wooden box one that also folds out, and a big metal parabolic one that is shown here. The models shown were more or less what I had in mind, and using the aluminum foil I picked up in the city I'm starting to make more prototypes.



After all the business was taken care of, we made a trip to the Equator on Sunday. About an hour trip found us at a pair of small white monuments that indicated we had reached the exact middle of the globe. Here we were standing on that little imaginary line that separates north from south, summer from winter, clockwise-flushing toilets from counterclockwise-flushing toilets.
This last feature was, of course, the most exciting, and to further the excitement a man had set up three basins: one north of the equator, one south of the equator, and one exactly on the equator. I didn't believe that only several yards of space could alter the Coriolis effect enough to make the water of one basin spin one way and the basin in another spin the opposite direction. To prove to me that he hadn't rigged this experiment, the man used the same basin each time, moving it north, south, and finally exactly on the equator. Sure enough, the water went counterclockwise in the north, clockwise in the south, and straight down on the equator. I've read that something the size of a toilet is too small to be subject to the Coriolis effect, but this experiment seems like it would be difficult to rig the way I saw it done. I'm studying in Australia next semester, so I'll get an answer to this great question.

East Africa Cooking

By a stroke of luck, I found some sheet metal while visiting the village of Senyi last Sunday. This material is ideal for using as reflectors for the solar cooker I'm designing. Since it was relatively expensive ($5 per square meter) I'm not cutting it until I have run tests to determine the best shape for concentrating the sun's heat. I've rigged up a branch to hang a pot of water from, which I'm trying to bring to boil using the sun's heat. Unfortunately, the focal point of the reflectors moves pretty quickly, and once the pot is no longer in the focal point the water's temperature drops pretty quickly. This means that I've been able to get the water very warm (above body temperature, I'd guess), but not too close to boiling. Since this contraption is designed to cook meals, and since almost all meals need to come to boil to be cooked, it needs to be able to bring the pot's contents to boil.


We're traveling to Kampala this Friday, and while there I'll purchase tin foil, which is not sold in Nkokonjeru. This foil will be useful for reworking into different prototypes at little expense, which is exactly what I need since the first model I've made doesn't work properly.



The weekend trip to Kampala is largely for our projects. We're touring a coffee husk charcoal production center and picking up supplies that can't be found outside of the city, but we're also looking forward to the many restaurants the city provides. After a month in rural Uganda, all four of us are missing the delicious, artery-clogging food that is so common in America. There are a few treats to be found in the small town of Nkokonjeru. One treat is delivered by the ice cream boda boda, or by the ice cream bicycle. I suppose these two are in competition. The boda boda has an orange gatorage cooler is full of flavored ice that the ice cream man sells in cups or cones, and the bicycle is pictured here.

Another treat is one that I'm still afraid to try. Although it is considered a delicacy, it usually stares me down before I work up the nerve to dig in. Fish heads, and in particular fish eyes, are a favorite among many locals. For this reason, we hope to have guests over when it's fish night. (By the way, the picture is of a full-size dinner plate).