2012 friends in Uganda

It is a special pleasure to go back to a place where you have taught and see the progress that has occurred.   On this trip,  no Ugandan army troops were needed to keep the LRA away and the refugee camps were gone.  The city of Lira was like a beehive of activity and growth with many people actually smiling.    Another special aspect of a return visit is to see friends from the last trip and make new friends.   What a joy!  We were there to teach Lifewater's partner about sanitation, because they had a contract deadline of just a few months to get the surrounding sub-district to be the first in Uganda to become open defecation free.   What a challenge!   

A local WASH representative walks to her home after class.

Often I am the oldest volunteer on these trips, but this was my first time to be the youngest. All three ladies were so joyful.  
We taught at the same location where pump repair had been our subject almost 6 years earlier.  The partners top leaders attended the class.  The director is amazing.  He also is the senior pastor of a very large congregation that is constructing a new church and he is also a boarding school adviser where his wife is head mistress.   When does he sleep?
 After 2 days of class, SURPRISE.   There would be no class the next day.  It was "Jubilee" -- the 50th anniversary of Uganda's independence.  We hastily arranged to visit a game park.  We arrived late that evening.  The hotel had a full buffet waiting for us. 

We picked up our guide in our crew cab pickup at daybreak.   It was an hour before we saw another vehicle.  Our guide took us down a road where we saw an elephant with the Nile river in the background.   We got too close because the elephant turned and flared his ears.  The guide yelled "go back!" The pickup sped backwards at probably 25 mph  We didn't see their big cats, but Murchison Falls is the most enjoyable game park I have visited.
  We made up the class day on Saturday.   Most of the lessons involved proper latrine construction and alternatives.   A lesson on how to implement the project was probably the most useful because they accomplished their goal after we left. 

   We built a circular cement slab which has distinct advantages over square slabs like less rebar, less cutting, easier to move, and fits a circular hole which is more stable.   We also built a  bamboo slab and a sanplat (sanitary platform) to cover it.   We weren't surprised to see termites had attacked the bamboo slab by the next morning.   Wood or bamboo slabs are not safe because people can fall in.  However, I explained that in Indonesia that the Dutch colonists solved that problem.   Bury the bamboo in wet mud for a month and the cellulose that attracts termites will be gone.  18th century buildings using dried bamboo as rebar are still standing. This is important to note because people just don't want to spend money on a latrine.  Wood slabs are unsafe with termites unless cellulose is removed.
   I got terribly sick on the last day of class.  I should have realized that a full buffet at 10 PM in an off- the- beaten-path hotel was probably not safe.   The local doctor gave me about 3 days of antibiotic, so a US medical clinic was the first place to visit on the return home.   When we left the students were quite sad  with one having tears streaming down his face.  Sanitation training isn't recognized by local people as life saving, but  I pray God will grant me 10 more years of this gratifying work.