This week has been incredibly interesting working in the field with the other interns, Community Concerns Uganda (CCUg) staff, and the builders! We are working in small teams of 3-4 people. Each day a different group is in charge of preparing local Ugandan dishes for all workers, fetching water for mixing the cement, buying bricks, and/or pushing wheel burrows of concrete, among other things. We are constructing a house for Takua Margaret, and Gabriella and I (Regine) sat down to hear her story on Tuesday. Her Journey, from HIV stigmatization, lack of access to health care, to financial struggles that lead to ill health, reflects common struggles in parts of the Ugandan community. Talking to her gave us great insight into their complexities. Gabby and I posted the details of the interview we had with Takua on the Community Concerns Uganda Facebook page. We are very excited to continue to know Margaret and help during this process. She is such a strong woman and we hope that this house will become the home she has been missing for so long.
In addition to mixing cement, sand and aggregate to make the tunnels for a firm foundation, we made frequent trips to the spring and pot hole to fill up 15-20 liter jerricans. There jerricans had to be carried up a steep hill and then placed into a large plastic water drum. Although it was difficult at first, by the end of the week everyone was getting stronger and we could begin to see all of the progress that we were making. Instead of holding these jerricans with all of our might against our chests (in a baby-holding position), we transitioned to holding them on our heads and our shoulders like the locals. Truly, it was amazing to see how much effort the interns and I, along with the builders and staff were putting in to make a positive change in Takua Margaret’s life.
We also celebrated Diana’s birthday this week on Tuesday- Uganda style- with a heartwarming dinner and some tasty Black Forest cake. We have shopped multiple times in the market for food supplies to cook for ourselves and the builders during the house construction and were invited to attend a traditional wedding on Saturday! We danced Ugandan traditional dance and had a great time enjoying the cultural celebration. It was very eye-opening to see some of the similarities and differences between our cultures and a change of pace from the work-week.
We are really enjoying our work so far with Community Concerns Uganda and have begun media updates about our progress on the different projects that we are involved in. This week Or’el was in charge of writing the weekly report, Gabriella led a parenting workshop, Diana took initiative of the Entrepreneurship class, and I attended a Group Savings meeting in order to garner ideas for my personal proposal. As interns, we are each responsible for drafting a proposal for CCUg pertaining to improvements with programs they have already established or programs that they could enact to better impact the community. We look forward to talking to more community members and enveloping ourselves in the culture. Our host families have been doing a great job teaching us the language and we are excited for all of the other things we will be learning in the coming weeks!
Lesson of the week: To say hello, people usually say: “Oli otya nyabo (when talking to a woman) or Oli otya sebo (when talking to a man)”. That directly translates to “How are you ma’am” or “How are you sir”” but it is the most common greeting used here. We typically respond “Bulunji” (pronounced: buloonji) which means “I am good.”
Love always,
Regine (Team Leader)