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).

Becoming Ugandan

We had the pleasure of attending part of a traditional Uganda wedding ceremony last Saturday. It was held for a family that is friends with Ignitius, and he graciously invited us to attend. Lauren and Gloria dressed in Ugandan gomesi, which I hear are very uncomfortable because they are tightly wrapped and heavily padded. On the other hand, Dan and I dressed in kanzu which are basically light robes, and are worn with suit jackets. In my opinion they look sharp and are very comfortable. I'm a big fan.
There's a saying in Uganda: If it's worth doing, it's worth doing slowly. Weddings are certainly worth doing, and, as the saying goes, are done slowly. We only saw the introduction ceremony, and it lasted about six hours. My favorite part was when the groom's family brought the dowry out to the center of the lawn. This included dozens of closed baskets, extravagant couches and seats, a large container of traditional alcoholic beverage (mwenge), a quarter of a cow, and two live chickens.



Peter took Dan Lauren Gloria and me to the small fishing village of Senyi the next day. Our original plan was to fish using line and tackle, but once we got there we discovered the only fishing available was using nets, which is very labor intensive. After all the hard work we went through on Saturday of sitting through the introduction ceremony, we decided to just relax instead. We picnicked, napped and read in the shade with a gorgeous view of the lake and surrounding hills.

Mzungus are an uncommon sight here, and we collected a large following of curious children. They watched us so intently, for almost the whole afternoon. You'd think they were expecting us to do tricks for them.


Today I gave presentations about composting practices for two classes. One of them was at Providence Home, which is a charity that takes care of disabled children and the elderly. As part of their program they send some children to local schools, and for others they have their of vocational classes. This afternoon I visited there with Gloria and Lauren during the childrens' play hour. The main attractions were soccer, bowling with empty water bottles and my camera. Providence has lots of positive energy, despite the great obstacles so many of its members face.

More Projects

So far the main project I've been working on is education about the benefits of using compost. This has worked out very well so far, but between my visits to schools I've had extra time. In this time I've been looking into two other projects. The first is a water sanitation project. RASD has two clay pot filters that are very effective at removing bacteria and particulates from a water supply. Many people in town get their water from 'protected springs' which contain E. Coli bacteria and other things you don't want in your body. I hope to create the facilities at RASD to create more of these sanitation devices.



The second project I've been looking into is to create a solar cooker. The idea behind this is that the sun produces a lot of energy that can be used to heat food the same way a stove does. All you need to do is to concentrate this energy on the food you want to cook. This can be done by using reflectors in the shape of a parabolic cone (same shape as a satellite dish), with the pot of food at the focal point. Ideally the solar cooker would be mobile, so you can adjust its angle according to where the sun is in the sky, but my prototype is stationary. Right now I only have the supports in place, making it look like a little Stonehenge.



While I've been dabbling in these new projects, Lauren has continued to make charcoal briquettes from coffee husks. Recently we tried to make the husks turn to charcoal more evenly by adding a column of wire in the center of the barrel to increase airflow and heat distribution. This seemed like a great idea, because the previous batches of charcoal had been overdone on the sides and underdone in the middle.
About half an hour after we sealed poured husks into the barrel and sealed it with mud, smoke began pouring out through the smallest holes imaginable, and through thick layers of the mud itself. It seemed that the extra airflow had turned the barrel into an uncontrollable smoking monster. The barrel finally stopped smoking on its own accord. Hopefully this batch turns out well. You can tell when it turns out well because the briquettes look something like enormous Oreo cookies. Yum!




On the topic of delicious treats, Shari runs a little operation producing ginger candy. She buys raw ginger in bulk at the city, then has the small girls that she teaches help her to cook the ginger. As a bonus she has them calculate how much profit she will get from selling the ginger at different prices. We affectionately call this her little sweatshop. One thing I've learned here is that food seems to taste so much better when it's freshly homemade instead of from some far-away factory, and this ginger is no exception.

Jinja and Nakavundira

Last weekend we visited Jinja, which is famous for being at the source of the Nile River. Lauren, Gloria and I rafted the first 18 km of the Nile River on Saturday. The guide said that on the certain rapids the raft would almost certainly flip, and the best thing to do was to grab your paddle in one hand, the safety rope on the raft in the other, and hold your breath until the raft gets through the rapid. We only flipped twice, albeit once going through the rapid called "The Bad Place". This was decidedly safer than some extreme sports people do in Jinja. For example, while we rafted Dan watched people jump in barrels and tumble over Bugalogi falls.
(Here's a video someone got from the company we used; they do the same rapids we did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_RlTSwTy-8 ).

(For the record, Uganda is installing a second dam on their section of the Nile, and it will flood the top half of the rapids we ran. In my opinion, these were also the best rapids of the day; they were large enough to be exciting, but none of them were terrifying enough to be called "The Bad Place". So if east Africa is on your travel itinerary sometime in the next couple of years, make sure you raft the Nile!)

The day after rafting, Gloria and I ran the half marathon in Jinja. Most of the other runners were Ugandan, and although one local man insisted that Ugandans had a reputation for being out of shape, I disagree. It wasn't until about the 15th kilometer that i really hit the wall, but when I did I hit it hard, and I had to do a slow jog/walk for the last 6 km. Gloria finished the race running, which is very impressive since this was her first road race.
Along the way Uganda Scouts (like Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts in the US) handed out water, wet sponges, and handfuls of sugar. Let me tell you, this sugar was the best thing I had tasted in my entire life. After the first water/sugar point, I was dying to get to the next, which was a grueling 5 km away. And keep in mind, this was a very grueling, hot, sunny, midday, on-the-equator 5 km away, which made the sugar even better.


While we were rafting and running, some termites decided to build a nest in the wooden work shed that Duke students built last summer. Ignitius and I tried to dig up the queen and kill her, but she evaded us. We next caught a chicken, which eats bugs like termites, and tossed it on the pile of termites we had unearthed. It ate a few, but then left for its own chicken reasons. The termites were finally exterminated by the resident ants, which discovered that unprotected termites made tastey food. Nkokonjeru may not have Terminex, but they have dedicated ants.
(The above picture is part of RASD viewed from the work shed. Biomass charcoal briquettes are in the foreground).



This afternoon I established a compost pile at a primary school called Little Angels. Ignitius came to translate, and he did a great job of getting the crowd of little students to listen and work on making the compost. The word in Luganda for compost is nakavundira, and the children at this school decided this would be a good name for me. It's usual for a Ugandan name to have a literal translation in Lugandan. Ignitius' last name, Bwoogi, means 'sharpness'. It just happens that my name should mean 'compost'. I suppose my Ugandan name would be a lot worse if I was educating students about latrine sanitation or bio-gas harvesting. With this in mind I'll count myself lucky and hope the kids keep paying attention to the things I have to say, whatever they decide my name should be.



Since we've been in Nkokonjeru we've lost power four or five times, but usually only for several hours. Although this means we're helpless as we watch our laptop batteries drain, it doesn't compare to a power outage is in the states. Here we just light candles and LEDs and keep on with our lives. One great thing about losing power is the stars become even more spectacular. During outages, the nearest human lights come from the small city of Mukono, something like 30 km north of here. I'm waiting for the next full moon, and hoping for a clear sky and power failures.

Work at RASD

Today I'll tell you about the work that I'm doing with RASD. RASD has only been an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) since 2005, but already has a lot of facilities and programs. For example, their internet cafe is the only way to get to the web in town, so every time I make a post, it's thanks to their little router.



My first project to focus on is an education program to promote composting in Nkokonjeru. On Tuesday I met with the Town Health Inspector, Yusufu Kazibwe, who told me that next month bins for compostible material will be installed in the town. Currently the rubbish bins in town are overflowing with a mix of plastics and compostable waste, so these new bins will hopefully help reduce the waste that has to be taken to dumps outside of the town. The compostible bins will be emptied to a compost heap. Here the town will oversee that the material is turned into good humus, and then sold to local farmers. There is a lot of substance farming in the town, so I plan to encourage people to also use household compost heaps.



Tomorrow I'm giving presentations at the two major primary schools in town on the benefits of using compost correctly, and on Monday I'll be giving presentations at the two major secondary schools. I'm trying to better understand how people could benefit from compost by speaking to locals; since Luganda is the native tongue, either Ignatius or Sam will be going with me
(This picture is Ignitius with RASD in the far background, on the hill toward the right).



If anyone reading this follows the Champions League (the football organization in Europe), you know that last night Barcelona beat Manchester United in the final game of the series. Dan's supervisor at the local bank, Moses, invited us to watch this match with him. Since satellite TV isn't something that people have in their households, when a game comes on that people want to watch everyone goes to something similar to a local sports bar. I was expecting booths, tables and bar stools, but the building that I walked into with Dan and Moses was set up more like a small church, with rows of tightly packed benches facing toward the front of the room where two small TVs were set up. Although outside the temperature was cool, in this room body heat from more than a hundred people made the air stifling, like a sauna with an unpleasant odor. A man went through the room to collect 1000 shillings (about 45 cents) from everyone, and the game came on at 9:45. The importance of this game to the people of Nkokonjeru is something like what the Super Bowl is to most Americans. So imagine a couple hundred football fans watching the Super Bowl in a tightly packed room. That's something like what this match was like.

Muzungus arrive in Nkokonjeru

This past week has been very busy so I've grouped two posts together. Now that I'm in Nkokonjeru, I'm able to use the internet cafe and should be publishing regularly.

Last Friday the van dropped us off at Mother Kevin's convent in Nkokenjeru. For the next two months this beautiful place will be home sweet home for four of us Duke students. Along with Lauren and me, who are working with RASD, there are two students who are sent by the Duke Microfinance Leadership Initiative (DMLI) who will be working with the local savings and credit bank. Gloria is another undergrad and Dan is studying Public Policy in graduate school. All of us are staying at the guest house in the convent, where each of us have our own rooms, a common room and a dining room. The sisters are very nice, and they keep the grounds beautifully maintained.

















I was surprised at how kind people were in the city of Kampala, but people I've met in Nkokonjeru are even more good-natured. We've spent some quality time with Peter, who is about our age and also works at RASD. Last Sunday we went with Peter to see two local soccer teams compete. Although some of the players played barefoot and the goals didn't have nets, the match was high stakes: the prevailing team won a goat. Before the game began both teams lined up and Peter informed us that the four of us were going to be marshals for the game which meant that we shook the hands of all the players. At the time I was really confused at what was happening, but it was clearly an honor for us.



Not many westerners come to this small town, and the term locals use for us is "muzungu", which means lighter-skinned person. While walking around, small kids will get really excited when they see us, and start yelling 'muzungu! muzungu!'. Almost everyone greets each other, even just passing strangers on the street. Many of the locals think it's hilarious when we greet in Lungadan, and I sometimes feel like we may be here for our comic relief as much as for the work we do with our projects. The work ahead of us sounds exciting and I look forward to the things I may be able to accomplish, but I'll talk about that more in a later post.



We've met a few more Peace Corp volunteers in town. Holly is an avid runner, and she's showed me some of the runs she does around the town. The dense forest gives the air here a rich, clean smell, and running is wonderful early in the morning. Next Sunday, Gloria and I will run with Holly and other Peace Corp workers in a half-marathon in Jinja. Jinja is where Lake Victoria flows into the Nile, and is a popular whitewater rafting destination. Lauren, Gloria and I plan on rafting the Nile next Saturday.