November Update

School Desks Project

The payments have been made on the desks.

Click here for video of the headmaster of Kimanto Comprehensive Secondary School thanking the desk project sponsors, ChooseaNeed!

Goats:

JIDDECO:
1. One goat's leg was broken in Bugole. Apparently it was trying to jump out of the shed. I was told that it is being taken care of and the broken leg is being set.
2. I'm still waiting to hear from Musai John on the last widow in Kiwanyi. They were supposed to get another widow organized. I will follow-up this week.
3. Some people from Jinja came into the office the other day wanting to buy goats from JIDDECO…thought that was a nice side note. Unfortunately none of our widows could benefit from the sale, but at least we know JIDDECO is marketing the goats.

MURUDA
1. We delivered the goats. Basil will be working for this farmers' association. He told me it is a bit of an experiment but he has hopes it will sustain itself.
2. I will go back and move around with Banuli to see the women during one of my visits to the Kidozi well.


Orphan Scholarships:
Richard said they will visit each school once more and then the last time as they collect the reports. He gave me all of the receipts he has with three missing.

We will get the accountabilities for the monitoring once the term is over.


Shallow Wells:
1. Idinda is now finished and it looks great! The opening ceremony is on Tuesday. The report is attached along with the new proposals.

* Join the opening ceremony for the Idinda Well on YouTube! *

2. We took Balidawa to Kidozi on Friday. I visited today when we delivered the materials and they have already gone pretty deep. They started digging up sand a little bit further down into the swamp, but hit water after 2 feet, so they moved further up hill. This is a sign that the water table isn't too deep. Herbert estimates another 10 feet and they will hit water.


Digging the Kidozi well

I also evaluated another potential site for a new shallow well, Butakanira:
i. The distances aren't outrageously long compared to other villages, however they said that their village area is small, but has many people.
ii. They have 2 boreholes, but the lines are always really long, causing some people to retrieve contaminated water. There are no other clean water sources in the community. There is a dirty river though…
iii. The longest people walk to the existing borehole ranges from 1 to 1.5 kms.
iv. Roughly 230 households to the village
v. Just as with Kidozi and Idinda, I had men telling me that they are ready to dig anytime and are just waiting for us.
vi. Butakanira was last in Namalemba sub-county for sanitation in JIDDECO villages. So this new well should help them keep clean… They knew this and when I mentioned it, I think it added to their fervor to do something about it. I think I might of hit a soft spot with that one.
vii. I hope to go there with Herbert tomorrow to identify a site so they can begin to mobilize the materials.

4. I was hoping to do 5 wells before Christmas. Depending on how long building and/or collecting materials goes, I thought it would not be possible also considering what I have heard about the month of December in Uganda. But, Herbert told me that in the village, December is very busy as everyone is looking for money to buy meat, presents, etc. He thinks we will even be able to build in December, so we'll see.
5. Water test planning for the wells. Herbert is telling me that the reagents are a lot more expensive and when bought, can test up to 50 wells. He said the District has the testing kits, which we could use. The reagents also have to be used in a certain time frame or they will go bad. Herbert was talking about testing the previous wells during the rainy season to monitor the effects of the influx of water. He mentioned that when the district carries out its tests, he would let us know. This might be a chance to avoid paying for reagents we won't use and wasting money.
6. Parts. Herbert told me that the next time the District can even consider helping us with parts will be in December, contrary to October, which is what he said when Ben was here. Henry made the suggestion of getting their commitment in writing so they have more incentive to include it in their fiscal plans. This is something I can talk to Herbert more about. Herbert also tells me that the parts are only set to get more expensive. He told me that new boreholes are moving towards PVC, so the metallic parts will eventually become fewer in stock, especially the pipes and cylinder, becoming more expensive.