Bukaigo: Village life (pictures galore!)

Hello from Bukaigo (pronounced Boo-kah-ee-goh)!

The drastic change from superfluous American life has become more apparent every day.  Hardwood floors and lush carpeting are replaced with slanted, hard concrete and woven plastic mats that serve as both floor and furniture.  At night, playing cards replaces television as we all sit in a circle under the light of one light bulb or two kerosene lamps when rolling black outs take away the electricity.  No longer is water obtained with the twist of one’s wrist and the turning of a nozzle but instead requires a bike ride and extensive pumping at a well to fill multiple 5 gallon jugs that serve for drinking, showering, cooking, and laundry.  The hot steam from showers is now a view of banana groves, cornfields, wandering families of chickens, and a 12 oz. cup used as a shower nozzle.  However, the lush green expanse of Uganda and its friendly and welcoming people are an all-encompassing experience of village life.

Meet Monitoring & Evaluation Team 1:

Ai

Franc

Dean

Amy

Meet our neighbors:

Ruth, our cook

Some of our new neighborhood kids

People at the borehole

Our intern supervisor, Laurel

Our home for the next two months:

Our two-bedroom house

Our kitchen

Our washroom

Our pit latrine

What do we do?

Play frisbee

Do laundry

Fetch Water

Play cards

Play a lot of cards (even when the lights go out)

Some of the animals we get to see:

Goats on our doorstep

Toads (called torts) that come out at night. One came into our house after a heavy rain. After Ai found him chilling in a corner, Amy kindly removed him from the house.

A chameleon in our front yard. He had a strange walk as you can see from the photo. Maybe he was playing dead?

A newborn calf. His umbilical cord was still attached

Baby chicks

Things we did during Week 1:

Had a meeting with members of the village health team

Toured our village

Get serenaded by some locals when we did our community mapping

Mobilized for our community meeting

Get rained out while mapping the village and had to seek shelter at a villager’s home

Built latrine covers

Until next time!