"Mzungu" (White)

Hello all! Jinja is amazing so far, and I'm having a great time! My host family is awesome, and we just taught the kids how to play frisbee this morning. They all loved it! Let me take you through my week...
We arrived in Jinja really late last Saturday night. The staff members from the Foundation for Sustainable Development were there at the airport in Entebbe to meet us. Margaret, Dave, Dan, Jonan, and Caroline are all amazing people who have showed us around Jinja, and have acted as a second family.

In the middle is Dan (aka Shakes) one of the Foundation for Sustainable Development Interns

We stayed at a hotel in Jinja for the first 2 nights while we received an in-country orientation led by the Foundation for Sustainable Development. I had my first traditional meal, and rode my first boda boda (motorcycle) which is the most common means of transportation in Jinja.

My first traditional meal: beans, rice, greens, sweet potato, yams, amatooke, and posho

My first boda boda driver

We had Luganda language classes and learned to introduce ourselves, greet people, and how to say different foods. On Monday, we met our supervisors from the local organizations we are working for. I met Chris, a young British guy who is in charge of a lot of the finances at Busoga Trust, and Agnes, who is one of the staff members working on a project in Bugembe. They talked to us about what Busoga Trust does, and what our role in the organization will be. Later Monday afternoon, our host families came to pick myself and Marion (another girl in the program who is living with me) up and bring us home. Jaja (grandmother) and Fiona (one of our sister's) met us at the hotel, and brought us home. Jaja is awesome, so kind, and a great cook. Fiona, who is 19, always has a smile on her face, and is very helpful around the house. We have 3 brothers and 1 sister, Trevor, Kenny, and Fred, and Faith who are all very nice as well. They are slowly warming up to us. Trevor, our youngest brother, had fun with Marion and I on PhotoBooth.

Tuesday through Friday consisted of myself, Marta, and Rida (the two other girls working at Busoga Trust with me) getting to know how Busoga Trust functions, and the different projects that the have going on in the villages. We went to many different villages in Mayuge, which is about an hour and a half away from Jinja. We travel with three other staff members in the Land Rover, which is necessary because some of the dirt roads in the villages are really bad. It has been shocking to see the poverty that is present in the villages. The lack of sanitation is what has been most shocking, and Busoga Trust works to not only bring clean water, but to also improve sanitation by encouraging the villagers to build more latrines, have hand washing stations, and drying racks for the dishes. 

Drying rack from a house in a village in Mayuge 

House in Mayuge

We visited many of the Busoga Trust wells that the villagers were constructing, and also went to a school in the village. I am still getting used to being called a Mzungu, which is what all the Ugandans call all people with white skin. All of the little kids point and yell Mzungu when we walk by. It is not at all used as a derogatory term, but I am still getting accustomed to it.

One of the workers working on the well in Mayuge

One of the Jajas in Mayuge

One of the private schools in the village

Harriet teaching a sanitation class in the village

On Friday, we visited one of the Busoga Trust sites that was almost complete. They installed the pump on Friday, and it was awesome to see how excited the villagers were to have clean water for the first time.

Children looking on while the pump is installed to their well

A boy from the village getting clean water for the first time

We have also tentatively decided what my group is doing for a sustainable development project. We have decided to implement a sanitation education program in a school in one of the villages that we have visited. Our hope is that the program can be added to Busoga Trust's program when they begin work in a new village. We have not yet decided which school, but that is the next step in our project. That is all for now!