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May 23rd, 2015- Our First Week Here!

 

Since arriving at our home for the next five weeks and meeting our host parents, we’ve been settling into a routine of early mornings, workdays at the school, and long walks through the village. On our early morning walks to the school we are greeted by crowds of small children waiting outside of their houses to see the abazungu, and often they join us in walking for a while. Fruit trees and long grasses flank the road, with goats and chickens weaving their way through the foliage. Every turn in the road brings new views of blue hills in the distance. It’s truly a beautiful daily walk! It takes us about thirty minutes to reach the Kanywamiyaga Primary School, where we are working on constructing the tank for recycled rainwater.

We are staying in a brick house that overlooks a valley of banana trees, and every morning we wake up to the rooster crowing. Mama (our host mom) spoils us greatly with an endless supply of fresh food from the garden. She sends us to the school every day with thermoses of organic tea (made from avocado and coffee leaves), and cane sugar. She also made Michael bathe for the first time this trip, not letting him eat dinner until he had. Webale muno, Mama!

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We had our first taste of Jackfruit the other day, picked from a tree in our backyard. It’s very slimy and tastes a bit like sweet, ripe bananas.

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Our home while we are here! Across from our house, there is a wonderful view of a valley filled with banana trees and gardens. This is an example of a middle class household.

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Mama teaching us to make homemade ekipoli (peanut butter). It’s quite laborious- she gathers the ground nuts from the garden, and then spends at least four hours pounding them into peanut butter.

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Looking for gorillas in the valley behind our house. We were a bit relieved that we didn’t encounter one! Although we did discover ants that made an audible shaking noise as a warning signal.

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Kanywamiyaga Primary School, where we’re spending most of our time here. This is where we come every weekday to do construction and work with the children.

Our work this week:

We began Tuesday morning with a theory lesson in which our engineer Zed shared his Fero Cement Tank (FCT) design. Many parents of the children also attended, as we will be learning and working alongside them throughout this whole process. By the end of the week, we were able to dig the hole for the tank (400 cm diameter), and form the foundation and frame of the tank. We also dug the foundation for new steps in front of the classroom doors.

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FCT Theory Lesson, taught by Zed.

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Preliminary excavation for our water tank.

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On Thursday, we worked in the Parents’ Garden for the Kanywamiyaga Primary School. Every week at this time, many of the parents (especially the mothers) come together to garden and provide food for the school.

 

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While we were working at the school, these kids biked by with their dinner in hand.

 

Yesterday, we rode boda-bodas (motorcycles) from the village to the URDT Girls’ School Campus, where we stay on the weekends. The bodas are our favorite form of transportation, despite the layer of dust that turns your face a shade darker by the end of the ride. Also, Michael spilt milk all over the back of the boda driver after thinking that he could carry an open carton in his backpack. We heard the driver mumble under his breath, “This job is so tiring.” Poor boda driver!

Back at the URDT Girls’ School, we had a meeting with all of the head teachers to discuss our teaching objectives for the girls and the different subjects that we want to focus on during the weekends. Our categories are leadership training (in which we’ll focus most on the concept of servant leadership), math skills, writing skills, debate, and health counseling. We can’t wait to see where these next few weekends lead us!

This post written by Katherine Davis

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