Ojalai Village

Well, my initial plan was to keep my blog updates short and consise, if they are too long people will stop reading them. Today however is going to be almost impossible to sum up in just one small blog post.

We left our hotel early (6am) and travelled around 1 hour to a local village called Ojalai. Ojolai is a community that has not yet had the benefit of WaterAid support yet, this trip would give us an insight into the challenges communities face without WaterAid’s (and other NGO’s) vital work.

Only a few years ago this town was war torn and the women of the villages raped and many killed, but on this glorious sunny day, you wouldn’t know that now. There is no power supply, no clean running water and no toilet facilities. I spent time with a young family, Agunti Agnes, her husband Essau Paul, and their two one year old twins, Opiya Brian and Acen Robin. Their other two children were not around, one four year old Obongo Calvin was hiding from the scary white folk and Apendo Marchelet and 8 year old girl was at school. Their compound area consists of three huts, one sleeping hut, where all 6 in the family sleep, one spare room and one kitchen. Their toilet facilities are in a small hut, and is essentially a hole in the ground.

Every day Aguti Agnes has to carry her baby twins to the water supply to collect water, the ‘well’ is 400m away and she has to travel around 6 times a day collecting 20 litres a time. The water is dirty and not suitable for drinking. During the dry season Aguti will have to travel 2.5 kms to a bore hole for her water. In this heat, I was struggling and felt awful drinking fresh bottled water while Aguti and her family are drinking dirty water.

Myself and two colleagues helped Aguti and Essou go around their daily chores, repairing the toilet, building hand washing facilities and cooking lunch. To repair the toilet we had to collect some cow dung, mix it with water and spread it around the floor of the toilet. After this I was the ceremonial opener of the toilet, lifting the brick from the hole.

We then helped dig the holes for the handwashing facilities and washed our hands using it.

For lunch we were having chicken, with no shops near by the only food is that prepared by the community and therefore, preparing a meal of chicken involves the slaughter of the chicken. After this rather disturbing event we went to the kitchen to watch preparations. The kitchen was a mud hut with a burning fire in the corner which they cook on.

We shared stories of home with the family and photos of loved ones, the men were particularly fond of the pictures of Barney and Bess, my two dogs, wishing they could have a dog themselves. It was difficult to get across that our process of getting food is vastly different from theirs, everything is packeted and done for us, their style of living is very much self sufficient.

We helped gather water with the family, a hot journey and although not desperately for was hard enough in the heat carrying 20 kilos of water.

As well as sharing their lunch with us we shared our lunch with them, for them it was their first taste of sausages and sandwiches, it felt great to be a part of that. When we packed away the rubbish it was amazing to see how greatful the villagers were with our left behind rubbish, each bit they will make use of, they thanked us and thanked god for us visiting them. Seeing how grateful they were for something so simple made me wish I had brought more things with me to give away.

After a moving and emotional morning, our translators helping us communicate amazingly, we headed to the school. A beautiful welcome song and some speeches. The school has 438 pupils and only three pit toilets, there are 22 disabled pupils at the school and they have no special facilities to help them use the toilet. It must be particularly hard being a girl as there is little facility for menstrual hygiene, if a girl is on their period they are allowed to go home to change. This fact was told to us by a male headteacher, and it was great to hear him talk open and free about the importance of menstrual hygiene, something which WaterAid really focused on in their recent ‘to be a girl’ campaign.

The school is not funded by the government but actually by the community, it was built and is maintained by the community, who each pay the teachers wage. Without this school a vital link with education would have been lost for the 438 pupils here.

The lasting memory of this community is how happy they all are, they are pretty much self sustaining but are greatful for any support that they receive. My lasting memory will be when I asked Paul if he had a message to send back to the UK...his only answer.... Thank you. From a man in a village where they still have no running water this spoke volumes to me. 

So thats it for today, there was so much to convey no blog post will ever do it justice. Tomorrow we will visit a community which has been touched by WaterAids work, we will see the difference it has made to the lives of its villagers. 

Thank you Southern Water and WaterAid for giving me the opportunity and the support to share your amazing journey. 

Adam

Good Morning Kampala

Morning All.

I have a spare 5 minutes to update my blog, so even though I don't have a lot to say I thought I would share my experience so for.

The 'gang' met at Heathrow Airport at 8.30am yesterday morning, under the giant H. The 'gang' I am referring to consists of 13 colleagues from companies across the water industry, (From Scottish Water to Affinity and from Northern Ireland Water to the Environment Agency) and 4 from WaterAid.

The flight was 8 hours direct to Entebbe airport, which is near enough on the Equator. One of the most common questions that I was asked before travelling was, 'Are you afraid of Ebola?'... well I wasn't. Arriving at the airport and being greeted by staff in plastic aprons and surgeons masks taking your temperature and issuing hand sanitizer was however a little bit daunting. It was a stark remember how real the threat of ebola is, especially here in Africa. We are lucky to be able to joke a about coming home with Ebola (the most common thing people said to me before travelling) but here the threat is a bit closer to home. On the other hand its nice to know that Uganda are taking the virus seriously.

After leaving the airport, my wallet struggling under the weight of 400,000 shillings, we met with Antonio and Spiero ( I really hope that I have remembered/spelt their names correctly). We boarded our coach ready for the hour transfer to our hotel in Kampala. About a mile down the road one of the group realised the driver didn't have any headlights on. After struggling to find them we pulled up at the side of the road (next to a man with a large gun)  the driver investigated further. Long story short, a fleet of taxi cabs had to be called to take us onward to our destination, leaving me too tired to wonder what on earth the bus driver was going to do with no lights on a dark road after midnight.

Kampala has a population of roughly 1.6 million people and covers 73 square miles built on seven hills, there seemed to be a fair few of the population partying at clubs while we made our way to the hotel.The rest of our journey was incident free, there were some interesting sights and smells along the way, the most interesting of which was some giant floodlights in between upright sheets of corrugated metal. Our driver, James, later informed us that these were set up to catch Grasshoppers to cook and eat. How delightful.

Anyway, I must get showered now, we have a long 6 hour journey to Soroti today.

Will update you all again soon.

Adam

Today is the day

So today has finally arrived I'm all packed and waiting for my ride to the airport, a reliable taxi firm I like to call dad.

My bag is heavy owing mainly to a whole heap of southern water baseball caps I am taking for the kids.

While packing I realised its been a while since I really roughed it. Opting for a suitcase not my backpack (hopefully that won't cause me too many problems) and even almost forgetting a towel. I am wondering if after meeting some of the communities in uganda I will start to feel that some of the things I packed are unessesary luxury's.

In a minute I will say goodbye to my ever patient and wonderful wife, something neither of us are looking forward to.

This won't be a long post but for those reading my blog regularly my next post will be in Uganda. Have a good week all and see you on the other side.

Akipi

"For many of us, clean water is so plentiful and readily available that we rarely, if ever, pause to consider what life would be like without it."

With under a week to go until I travel to Uganda with WaterAid and thirteen colleagues from the Water Industry, I have been overly conscious about water (Akipi in Ateso) in everything I do. What would it be like if I didn't have easy access to clean water? What  if I couldn't go to the toilet in a safe environment?

So what have I done? Not a lot really, baked, gone to the football, stayed in watching the remembrance service on TV. Regardless of what I have done one thing is for sure I certainly needed water and a toilet on more than one occasion over the weekend. 

I certainly took for granted while baking that in order to add the 200ml I needed for the sugar syrup in the Gulab Jamun I was baking,all I had to do was turn on the tap. When my parents came round, all I had to do to make them a tea was go to the kitchen and fill up the kettle. 

This time next week I will be learning how people in Uganda prepare food, gather water and look after their families. I will be seeing the problems they have and the work WaterAid is doing to try and address this. 

Everywhere we go we expect to have access to a clean toilet. As I walked towards the Amex Stadium to watch Brighton play, desperate for a wee I began to ponder: What would it be like to not know there was somewhere safe and clean (well, cleaner than I imagine the Bwaise slums to be!) to go to te toilet. But we take these facilities for granted, we even moan when we find them in a poor condition. Its these sorts of things that I think about as I prepare for this trip.

Please don't misunderstand, I am not saying that our expectation for a clean toilet and fresh running water at the turn of a tap are an unnecessary luxury.All I am saying is that it is important to remember that in a world where smart phones and the internet are becoming a 'need,' there are still some people in the world that don't have access to water and sanitation. 

Well, that's all from me now until we travel next week. I must now go off and pack, I think I have everything sorted now, most importantly I have started taking Bimuno, hopefully a godsend. 

If you want to know any more about our trip head over to wateraid.org. You can also read my fellow travellers blogs here.

Pre trip post

Hello all

Thanks for reading my blog.

Its now just over two weeks before the water industry supporters trip 2014. High time I feel that I share a bit more about what we will be doing on the trip and how I am feeling about it.

We fly on Saturday 15th November to Entebbe arriving late in the night. After a short rest in Kampala the group will be travelling by road to Soroti, which is in the North East of Uganda.

On Monday and Tuesday we will visit two separate areas: Morugatuny sub county and Acowa sub county. During our time in these communities we will be meeting the locals and understanding how they live their lives and the problems they face. We will be witnessing first hand how they get water and understanding the issues they face with their toilet facilities. This week especially I have been trying to think of the problems I have on a day to day basis to try and put into perspective the things I expect to encounter already I am realising how trivial some of these problems are.... not getting my coffee in the morning, walking the dogs in the dark. missing my favourite TV programme. I am so interested to experience how these compare to the developing world.

On Wednesday 19th November it is World Toilet Day and I know we have some special activities planned. WaterAid don't just work on providing access to clean water but a lot of their work is educating communities on how to maintain water supplies, working with local governments and campaigning to raise awareness. Days like World Toilet Day are important milestones in WaterAid's calendar and a huge opportunity to prote their key messages and help the developing world.

On Thursday we travel back to Kampala via Jinja, the source of the Nile.

Friday will be spent visiting the Bwaise slums in Kampala before returning home late on Saturday.

There is a lot to prepare for both physically and mentally and all at WaterAid have been very supportive. I'm looking forward to hooking up with my colleagues from the water industry on 15th November.

Keep following my blog for pictures and updates.

Thats all for now

Adam

First post

Hi All.

I will be travelling to Uganda on 15th November 2014 with a group of colleagues from the Water Industry.

The trip is organised by Wateraid who transform lives by inproving access to safe water, toilets and hygiene education in some of the worlds poorest communities.

Without clean water and toilets, people are trapped in a cycle of poverty and disease. Across the developing world, millions of women are wasting precious time collecting dirty water and children are dying from preventable diarrhoeal diseases.

I will be visitng some of the communities that Wateraid has transformed and some of the communities that they are in the process of transforming. I will sharing my experiences using this blog, including photos, videos and stories of my time in Uganda.

If you want to learn more about the work Wateraid is doin and how you can get involved you can visit their website http://www.wateraid.org/uk/