Stories from the Field: Baseline Surveys, WASH Sensitizations, and HIV Drama Group

By Lindsey Anderson

On Monday, after the team leader meeting, Derek, Felix, and I arrived home and Naomi and I left for a few baseline surveys on the complete opposite side of the village. Our goal was to get as many as possible and then head home to help with our group dinner with Kazigo B before dark. We ran into one of our VHTs and he kept taking us to more houses… As dusk began to arrive, he said we only had 10 more houses for this side of the village, so we thought: why not? By the time we finished the last house, it was almost completely dark and we had no phone and no light, and our VHT left us…so we had to start the 25-30 minute walk back home. After about 5 minutes, it was pitch black. Naomi kept trying to scare me because she was saying there was someone following us and she kept grabbing my arm. Finally, we ran into Dan and Simon Peter from the Kazigo B village and they helped guide us the rest of the way home.


On Tuesday, we had our WASH sensitization at the secondary school in Nabitende. It was not as successful as some of our other sensitizations. High school kids in Uganda are very similar to high school kids in the United States. If they decided they already know the information (or just don’t want to listen), they aren’t going to hear anything that we tell them. But, I’m sure the information came across to a select few...


On Wednesday, we had our HIV sensitization with the God’s Messengers drama group, who arrived 5 hours late because of a diver mishap. When they finally arrived, Sara and I got into the back of the pickup truck (with about 20 other people crammed back there) and drove around the village mobilizing. It was a crazy experience!! We were shouting, dancing, and I even beat on a drum for a few minutes. It was a lot of fun. Once we got back, we all got together to entertain the audience by participating in the local dance! Every single one of us got the chance to tie a scarf around our waists and shake our hips to the beating drums. The audience had a lot of fun watching us, and we had a lot of fun dancing for them! 


Lindsey Anderson is interning and living in Kazigo A village this summer.