| Monday-
August 14, 2005 (Day 4) Building day 1 |
"it is for a lack of $15/year that the vast majority of Ugandans will go through life with a seventh-grade education" |
 The house as it stood on Monday morning. |
I
'd thought I had been awakened by roosters yesterday - I was
wrong! This morning, I am pretty sure all the roosters met and
decided to put together something special for the Mzungas ('white
people' in Lusoga). Basically, if you aren't up by 4:30am, you
are quite likely deceased. The mornings here are beautiful -
every sound you hear is made by nature, and the air is as crisp and
clean as any I have ever experienced. I have a feeling I am going
to be an outdoors person after this trip.
Today we woke up at 6:30am and had a breakfast of butter sandwiches, tea and boiled eggs. At 8am, it was time to head for the build-site. We piled into a pickup truck (all sixteen of us!) and drove down a very bumpy dirt road towards the site - about a ten minute drive away. As we drove, hoards of village children ran after the truck screaming and laughing. We waved back and yelled "jambo!" (hello!), the only word we knew.
We arrived at the build-site
around 8:15am and greeted the workers who had already arrived.
They were all very kind and patient as they gave us a quick lesson on
the skills we would need to know to build the house. The methods
they use to ensure accuracy are so beautiful in their simplicity.
They tie strings around corners and run them along the walls to ensure
the bricks are all at the same level. They use a plumb-bob (a
weight tied to the end of a string) to make sure the stacks are well
vertical. The jobs needing to be done were carrying bricks,
mixing and carrying mortar, laying bricks and pointing (using a metal
rod to create the half-pipe between each layer of bricks).
I found particularly interesting the way in which they made bricks. The have a template which they fill with clay from the ground. Once the bricks are formed, they stack them in a cubic formation with layers of hay between each row. They then cover the entire pile with hay and set it on fire. As the hay burns, it bakes the bricks. The only problem with these bricks is that they tend to be very brittle (if you dropped a brick on the soft ground from more than two feet or so, it would likely break in half). As such, when the bricks were transported to the site and poured into a heap, 30%-40% of them broke. Therefore, one of the critical jobs at the site was digging through the pile to find useable bricks
By the end of the first day, each of us had performed each job. We were quickly learning the tricks of the trade and gaining the trust of the local builders. We worked until 4:30pm at which point it began to rain and we had to head back before the dirt road became too slick.
After getting back to
our house (which by the way is the same type of house we are building),
I asked Farouk, our driver and one of the adults who spoke english
well, how posho was made. He took me to the place in the village
where the dried corn is grinded into a fine powder using a rickety old
piece of machinery run by a small deisel engine. In order to make
posho, he explained, they simply add water to this powder and knead the
resulting dough.
After returning from the
corn-grinder, I sat down to write. Anytime you sit down here,
children surround you to touch you and ask you questions. These
children impress me so much - few of them have ever seen Kampala, much
less travelled outside of Uganda, but every one of them speaks 3-4
languages. While speaking with the children about their studies,
I learned one of the most difficult realities to accept. Here in
Uganda, the pre-university schooling is split into two series, the
Primary series (P1-P7) and the Secondary series (S1-S6) which
transcribes approximately to our 12 grades. The Ugandan
government pays for the Primary series, minus the costs of uniforms and
books. However, in
order to attend the
Secondary series, each
child needs to pay 25,000 Ugandan shillings (about $15 US).Very few of the children
can afford this. Therefore, it is for a lack of $15/year that the
vast majority of Ugandans will go through life with a seventh-grade
education. I am still struggling to comprehend poverty of this
magnitude. Children keep asking to have their picture taken with
you - they cling to you and want you to hold their hands...it is
heartbreaking.
As I write this, I am laying on my back on a giant rock looking up into one of the clearest skies I have ever seen, reflecting on the day's events. I have never been this exhausted in my life, but I have also never felt this alive. Today, I built part of a house in which a very poorfamily is going to live. I can't remember the last time I made a difference in anyone's life but my own. I want to devote my life to helping people like this - they need all the help they can get.
Today we woke up at 6:30am and had a breakfast of butter sandwiches, tea and boiled eggs. At 8am, it was time to head for the build-site. We piled into a pickup truck (all sixteen of us!) and drove down a very bumpy dirt road towards the site - about a ten minute drive away. As we drove, hoards of village children ran after the truck screaming and laughing. We waved back and yelled "jambo!" (hello!), the only word we knew.
 The owner of the house arrives and thanks us. |
I found particularly interesting the way in which they made bricks. The have a template which they fill with clay from the ground. Once the bricks are formed, they stack them in a cubic formation with layers of hay between each row. They then cover the entire pile with hay and set it on fire. As the hay burns, it bakes the bricks. The only problem with these bricks is that they tend to be very brittle (if you dropped a brick on the soft ground from more than two feet or so, it would likely break in half). As such, when the bricks were transported to the site and poured into a heap, 30%-40% of them broke. Therefore, one of the critical jobs at the site was digging through the pile to find useable bricks
By the end of the first day, each of us had performed each job. We were quickly learning the tricks of the trade and gaining the trust of the local builders. We worked until 4:30pm at which point it began to rain and we had to head back before the dirt road became too slick.
|
Lusoga
lesson
Sawaemeca (Sah-wah-eh-meh-ca): what time is it?Enumba (Eh-noom-bah): house Amadee (Ah-mah-day): water |
Featured Dish: Posho Posho (pronounced
Poh-shoh) is made by cooking a mixture of dried, ground corn meal
(maize) and water. A variety of spices can be added to it,
although it is quite good plain.
|
Featured Video: Women drying rice The women of Uganda have
some
clever ways of cooking without electricity. Here, watch as a
woman uses a curved bowl to dry rice by repeatedly tossing it into the
air.
|
As I write this, I am laying on my back on a giant rock looking up into one of the clearest skies I have ever seen, reflecting on the day's events. I have never been this exhausted in my life, but I have also never felt this alive. Today, I built part of a house in which a very poorfamily is going to live. I can't remember the last time I made a difference in anyone's life but my own. I want to devote my life to helping people like this - they need all the help they can get.