Kakira: LOLZ

I did absolutely nothing today.

Here in Uganda, the pace of work is quite slow compared to that of the States. Which is why I literally sat with my fellow interns in the office that we have claimed as home base and did nothing at all, except stare into space and make that's-what-she-said jokes. We all get frustrated with the slow pace, because so much time gets wasted. In Uganda, the idea is that you will always have more time, so you don't really need to hurry. Being late/breaking a commitment is generally not as big a deal either. It's not that I don't respect non-monochromatic cultures, it's just really, really annoying. I don't really want to go home and then be like, "I spent my summer sitting in an office...IN UGANDA."

On the bright side, things did happen today--a teacher meeting happened at Kagogwa Primary so that the teachers can learn about our project and give us the land behind the school. Funnily enough, the almost two acres behind the school are currently planted with maize that is exclusively for the teachers. We found that out yesterday when we went back up to the school and took a look at the land. None of the maize growing there is given to the children (and that much maize is more than enough to feed all of them every day for an entire term). Hmmm.

Also, we called a technician who is going to look at the water pump at the school tomorrow morning and give us a quote for how much it will cost to fix it. He was supposed to look at it today, but he didn't have time--pump technicians are few and far in between and there are a LOT of broken pumps to fix. Hopefully he will follow through and go tomorrow though. After we get the quote, we will decide if fixing the pump is within our means or cut it from our project entirely. There's also the issue of the safety of the water--we will have to figure that out if we get the pump working.

So tomorrow, we should get a set date for a meeting at the school to tell parents about the project and figure out if the water part of the project is still a go. But yeah, we ourselves did just about nothing today.

Meanwhile, on the home front, Becky is no longer sick, which is great. Between the two of us being sick in the past week, Fina was working pretty hard to get us to eat. On an unhappy note, one jerry can of water has now gone up to 1000 shillings from 500 shillings. The family keeps making sure Becky and I have safe water, but I'm not certain how much water they are getting. James, Ali, and Vincent keep having to walk all the way to the gas station near the Madhvani Compound, which is a pretty long way to go at night with a big can of water. That's where the accessible water is, but it's not that safe for drinking (I drank some by accident and didn't get sick though, so I guess my immune system is just awesome). I've never been in the middle of a water shortage...but with the rising prices here, this was bound to happen sooner or later.

Power's out again--we had heavy rain this morning, so I'll stop writing here. Peace out.