This week was very exciting. We had a team meeting on Monday during which we discussed our goals for the upcoming weeks and worked on writing our proposals. Tuesday found us in Nakalanga and our first day of data collection and surveying. Nakalanga was very beautiful and the hour-long bodaboda ride there proved magnificent. We saw so many acres of land, trees, and fields of crops. It was so peaceful and such a scenic adventure. Once there, many kids from the village ran up to talk to us. We laughed with them, met with the women in CCUg’s Group Savings Program there, ate the wonderful lunch that the women prepared for us and began interviewing them for our baseline surveys. We were able to survey 45 different households in Nakalanga and began doing data entry of the results! It was heartwarming to see the village coming together to take care of us and their inviting smiles as they welcomed us into their community. We all walked away inspired from the visit after seeing how everyone worked together. We were also feeling confused as we learned that a politician, prior to our visit, distributed high-yield corn seeds to their community. While seemingly a positive venture, this will make the Nakalanga community completely dependent on purchasing these high-yield seed, season after season (since they are infertile after being planted once) and cause a shift in their economy, forcing them to spend more of their income purchasing foods from the market. Most of their fields will now be dedicated to growing these maize seeds instead of their previous diverse crops; this will also deplete many of the nutrients contained in their once rice soil. It was troubling to hear this news, especially as our baseline survey was intended to mitigate such effects and help the people of Nakalanga grow more diverse seeds and potentially begin a seed bank that would help diversify their diets. We will regroup this coming week and plan for a better way to approach this daunting problem of sustainability in Nakalanga.

On Wednesday, we had a training with Hakim and learned about the production of beans and different methods for growing beans. Gabriella and I, with the supervision of Brenda, also worked on creating lesson plans for our upcoming health education workshops. We will be visiting 15 different schools and conduct lessons regarding HIV/AIDS/STI’s, Sexual relationships, Alcohol/Drugs, and Self-Esteem/Confidence. We continued working on those materials on Thursday and began designing posters and interactive games for the students to play. Job, Diana, Brenda and I also did a few run throughs of the skits we are going to perform during the workshops. These skits will hopefully cause the students to reanalyze a few of the misconceptions they have when it comes to alcohol and HIV/AIDS. We are excited to see the students participate and bring their own knowledge to the discussions!

All of this being said, we were all also honored to celebrate Anbar’s 23rd birthday with him on Thursday! Happy Birthday Or’el! We had a phenomenal time dancing with CCUg staff and reminding Or’el how awesome he is. We all got our boogy on, although we are all still recovering from dancing the “Wobble” 😉 Nonetheless, it was great relaxing with some music after a jam-packed week of work. Friday was a national holiday called Martyrs day, in remembrance of  the people who died for Christianity. Brenda, one of the supervisors for CCUg, invited us to be a part of the festivities by eating lunch with her family. We ate some food and spent some time talking to her dad about our cultures and schooling. On Saturday, Gabriella and Or’el, with the help of Diana and I, cooked Shakshuka and Bobagnoosh (most likely spelled wrong) for our host families. Both of these are traditional Israeli dishes. We had a fun time eating and then we went to a beach in Magamaga and did some yoga facing the beautiful Lake Victoria!