Day 5: To the Village Market

June 11: Today, Natalie (a sophomore in college) and I ventured into the hectic center of Mbarara, where crossing the street holds a 50/50 chance that a boda boda will run you over. I have yet to have an accident in the street (knock-on-wood), but I have definitely had close calls. Before we went to the city center, Natalie and I went to the Hopenet office. Hopenet is an organization that is running a field study in a rural parish of eight villages. Fresh water sources are built in the parish, but the people in the parish must be interviewed to help contribute to a study that is focusing on relationships. Hopenet is also starting a chicken-coop project, which provides a source of income for groups of women who have been affected by AIDs. The project is based off of a loan system: 1. A group of four to six women will receive materials to build a chicken coop and will receive fifteen chickens. As the women collect an income, they are required to pay back 70% of a certain amount of money, and if they miss the deadline, that group is disqualified and let go from the program. If the group manages to pay back the loan, they will receive more chickens and so forth. This mediates the transition for the women from being categorized as "AIDs people" to "business owners."

Mbarara's Central Market

      Throughout the next couple of weeks, Hopenet will be organizing a health fair within the parish, where residents can receive medical tests and diagnoses for free. The tents will be set up for four days, and different villages come each day. The organizers are expecting for there to be around 1,000 people who participate in the health fair, and I will be running a kids station, so that the adults can take part in the fair. Dosha and Amy (the principal organizers) sent Natalie and I out to buy some supplies for the health fair. We had to find and buy 1,000 manilla envelopes, 250 blue pens, folders, etc. When we went into the stationary and goods store, the employees just laughed at us when we showed them our order. "Those mazungas (meaning "foreigners" or "people who walk around in circles")." Natalie and I definitely received interesting looks from pedestrians and store owners as we made our way down the busy street with our over-flowing boxes.

A Well in the Parish

       In the afternoon, Dosha, Amy, Natalie, James, and I piled into a van, and we drove forty minutes out to the parish. There, we saw one of the wells that Hopenet built. I learned that the village people actually refused the well water at first because they thought that it was "different," in a bad way, from the unsanitary water that they once used. It took Hopenet a lot of convincing to prove to the town people that the well provided clean water.
      We continued to climb up into the mountains of the parish, and our little Toyota van became stuck multiple times (I nearly threw up every time our car skidded on the rocks up the slopes). *Ugandans call their roads a "Ugandan massage" because they are so bumpy.* Once we reached the end of the dirt road, we hiked up incredibly steep hills to reach the top of the parish. Walking up was quite the workout, and I was passed by older Ugandan women in their fifties/sixties, who were carrying babies. I was amazed at the strength of these women; although many of the locals here lack basic medical necessities, the level of their physical strength is astonishing and is much higher than most Americans.

The Group with a Local Child

      Once we reached the top of the mountain, we walked to an open field where you could look out over the parish: it was beautiful. The lushness of the landscape was breathtaking. Little children, many with bloated, malnourished bellies, ran out of their houses and greeted us. They wanted us to take pictures with them so they could see themselves. It was like I had entered another world: one with such beauty, but also with extreme poverty. In order for the villagers to retrieve water, they had to walk down the super-steep hill because the water can not reach the top of the hill.
      For dinner, Natalie, James, and I (all of us could benefit from a few more cooking lessons) learned how to boil pasta and make a veggie sauce. All I can say is that the cooking was more fun that the eating was!

View from the Parish