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| One of the protect springs used before Kiyoora |
Since August I’ve been looking forward to February and being able to work with Africa Community Technical Service (ACTS). ACTS is a Canadian organization that works throughout Uganda doing agricultural and water projects. As the short term team left and we finished our last week of camp up in Gulu at the end of January, I was excited to get away from the city and head south into the mountains for the four week trip. We knew we would be helping with the Kiyoora project repairs, but we did not know what that entailed. The Kiyoora project is a water project that ACTS began back in 1996 and completed in 1999. Like all of their water projects, Kiyoora is a gravity flow system, meaning a clean, flowing water source at the highest elevation possible was tapped into and, along with a reservoir built to collect rain water, the two supplied water for 6 (now 7) cells or villages. Miles of underground PVC pipes were laid to connect the source, the reservoir, and a couple dozen taps that are scattered among the cells. The project made water collection much easier and provided cleaner water to over 2634 people when it was originally created, but over the years the project has slowly begun to fail due to lack of maintenance, illegal taps being added, and committee members embezzling the tapstand fees.
We (Andrew and I) thought that we would be getting our hands dirty helping with the manual repairs and we were really looking forward to actually getting to do some physical labor. Some friends and I have dreamt of coming to Africa and digging wells, so I was pumped about getting to work on this project. We were sorely disappointed, however, to find that our role was nothing near what we expected. Instead, we, along with two Canadians, were given translators and split into four two person teams. Every day, for about two weeks, we went into a different cell and surveyed anywhere from 3 to 7 homeowners with an 8 page questionnaire. I will admit after a few days it got rather boring listening to our translators do all the work as we checked yes and no boxes for 4 hours straight. One day, in between writing down the time it took to collect water before and after the repair, I began to think about just how important this project is to the people we were surveying, though.
I know I’m guilty of being selfish and feeling entitled to things back in America (aren’t all Americans?), but here I was sitting in a mud plastered house, being offered bananas and millet (disgusting, sand-like “juice”) from one of the homeowners I came to serve and I was concerned about how bored I was having to sit quietly for a few hours - talk about self-absorbed. The slap in the face was so humbling, though, and I appreciated the reality check… I’m spoiled! I mean I already knew I was spoiled and this journey has continued to reveal this truth to me, but it’s one of those things that has to be continually kept in check. Yes, I have been beyond blessed and I feel like most of us admit this most of the time, but when something doesn’t go quite our way we still get all bent out of shape. My hope is the next time something goes “wrong” instead of throwing a fit I’ll be able to look back to the people in Kiyoora and see how they were dealt much worse hands than me and yet they are not just doing what they can with what they’ve got grudgingly, rather they are praising God for what little they have and fully appreciating it. I know I’m only human and I’m definitely going to get frustrated… daily… like as the boys run around the house screaming my name as I try to write this blog… but looking at the big picture helps to put things into perspective. I compiled all the data from the 151 houses that we surveyed, so let me share just a handful of the results with you.
Before the Kiyoora water project people collected water from springs, wells, streams, dams, even swamps. 15.89% said the water was not reliable during the dry season and 29.8% said the water was bad. Water was fetched about 3.75 times a day and the average time each trip took was 38.98 minutes. 52.98% of the children were late to school from fetching water and 72.19% of the households reported illnesses due to their water. The Kiyoora taps provided cleaner and closer water with more pressure which made collection faster. Even with the project the average time to fetch water was 22.61 minutes, yet everyone we surveyed was extremely happy with how “quick” the taps made getting water.
I don’t have to worry about not having a reliable water source in dry season. I don’t have to boil my water to make sure it’s clean enough to drink. I don’t have to wake up before sunrise to fetch water. I don’t have to worry about being beaten, robbed, or raped when fetching water at dusk. I don’t have to walk 20 minutes to an hour just to get one jerry can of water. Many of the villagers shared with us one of ACTS phrases, “Water is Life.” Well my life, just like my water, is so good and I have nothing to complain about!
