Goodbye Kikagati

There never really is a good time to leave behind that which you have accepted into your heart but that’s what I did this week. I said goodbye to Kikagati and have moved on to Mbarara where I am tying up a few loose ends. From here it’s onto Kampala, Jinja and then Kenya and Tanzania.

The most difficult part was saying goodbye to the children of Kikagati. My departure date fluctuated with each new event, opportunity or challenge so when I finally did leave it was a sudden decision without any notice. That didn’t seem to stop the dozen or so kids that came out to see me off. I kissed some goodbye and hugged them all as the overcrowded taxi (at one point reaching 11 passengers in a small 5 person sedan) honked for me to get inside. As the car pulled away, the waving continued until I was far off into the dusty sunset. I was overcome with a large uncomfortable lump in my throat and a stinging sensation in my heart.

I left behind an amazing team of friends that I guess one can’t help but get close to in an environment as different and challenging as the one we encountered together. I already miss Geoff, Dax, Jamie (newest edition to the team) and Paula (Geoff’s girlfriend) so much and wish them all the very best of luck pushing towards the conclusion of the rainwater catchment project.

Ten Things I Will Miss…

There are many things I will miss about Kikagati including:
1. Driving to and from work everyday through a parted sea of children waving, doing happy dances, and screaming “how are you!”
2. Participating in the Returnees’ high energy dancing and memory piercing singing under the stars
3. Children’s smiles, laughter and singing
4. Peace (our cook)’s delicious feasts of goat, beans, rice and matokee
5. Seeing the mind-blown looks on the faces of the children watching the Monsters Inc movie on our solar powered laptop
6. Listening to Geoff and Dax letting off steam during one of their late night guitar jam sessions
7. Children touching the hair on my calves, forearms and head in complete amazement
8. Nightly language lessons and practicing what I’ve learned with the locals
9. Hearing the children within earshot talk about Kabungee (my nickname) but not understanding what they’re saying
10. The beautiful scenery of rolling hills, fireball sunsets and bright, endless constellations

Ten Things I Will Not Miss…
The positives far outweigh the negatives but here are a few things I thought I might mention that I will not miss:
1. Completely standing out as though you’re naked and having all eyes on you every single place you go
2. Being called Mzungu (White Man) so often that it really does start to feel like your name
3. Complete and total lack of any kind of privacy whatsoever
4. Some select people’s cultural/ religious ignorance. For example, a local village politician asked me if I was a Christian or a homosexual. Umm…Is there a door #3 on that one?
5. Cuts, scrapes, bruises and torn, stinging calluses from doing more manual labour than I’ve ever done in my entire life
6. Daily struggle to introduce the concept of protein to our cook
7. Using a smelly, fly infested latrine each day
8. The nose numbing stench of incredible body odour. Especially during the drive back from a long day’s work in a Toyota HiLux crammed past capacity with ten or more sweaty Returnees who haven’t washed since the previous Sunday
9. Trying to fall asleep to the sound of goat screams loud enough to wake the dead
10. Being awoken at 4:00 every morning by a rooster who is trying to get the jump on all the other cocks by crowing 3 hours before dawn

Kik and Kit

We didn’t always have a cock problem. It started when we finally managed to obtain two egg laying hens. It was quite a happy day when the neighbourhood rooster showed up in our compound to impregnate our hens. They laid about a dozen eggs and sat on only the ones they knew would hatch, the remaining ones for us to eat. We finally had more protein in our diets, which in Uganda is a big deal. We affectionately named our chickens Kik as in our village home of Kikagati and Kit short for Kitezo - the village cell where our project is based. It’s important to note that in Uganda “K” followed by the letter “i” forms a “ch” sound. We were quite pleased with the highly creative names of Kik ‘n’ Kit.

Soon, things started to go wrong. Kit got sick and died. Kik must have been in mourning because she was no longer laying eggs. Worst of all, as noted above, the rooster was there to stay. He was waking us up at ridiculous hours of the morning and we had no more eggs to show for it. After some deliberation, our team came to a decisive conclusion: Kik had to go. On my last night in Kikagati Peace (our cook) took matters by the neck and soon enough I was treated to a farewell dinner of chicken and a bottle of red wine, which I smuggled in. Usually, we are pretty good about not drinking in Kikagati because it sets a bad example and could tarnish the reputation of the NGO we’re volunteering with. It was a luxurious treat and a good meal.

Football Mania

One other fun thing I got to do shortly before I left the Kik was play football (soccer) with the Returnees. They had challenged our team to a match and we finally found a Sunday when our entire team was together to accept. When we got out to the football pitch we were surprised and a little apprehensive to find people in bare feet running laps and wearing old Arsenal jerseys with their own names and numbers etched on the back with markers. They really took this seriously and there was even an official referee with a whistle. They were all so excited to see an actual soccer ball as they often play with one made out of banana leaves in plastic bags tied tight with string. It seemed as though all of Kikagati had come out as spectators and I’m sure it was one of the biggest events to ever take place in the Returnees village. We definitely held our own and it helped that we had sports shoes while most of the others played in bare feet but after two hours of running up and down the pitch I was sore and completely exhausted.

Catchment Challenge

I guess there is no good time to leave a project while it is ongoing but I felt particularly bad for abandoning it at a time when there are so many staffing challenges. Without getting into too many details, basically the entire construction and excavation crew was recently let go and the catchment team is in the process of hiring all new workers from the local community to complete the last leg of the project. This has been building for a while but it came to a head when the entire group of Returnees (Ugandans exiled from Tanzania) decided, without warning, not to show up for work one morning as a strategy for higher wages. There has already been a wage increase and several perks added along the way for the crew. This strategy came across as very strange and totally inappropriate.

Millennium Village Project

Despite recent setbacks, tremendous progress has been made and the end of the project is actually in sight. The Member of Parliament (MP) for the District of Mbarara, Honourable Dr. Nkouhe stopped in the other day to see how things were going and seemed very impressed with the project. He is a big fan of Geoff and his work. Dr. Nkouhe came to Kikagati to announce that the area has been selected as a Millennium Village Project site. This means a concerted multi-sectoral effort over the next ten years to demonstrate the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include among many other goals, halving the number of people without sustainable access to water. To learn more about the MDGs check out this link: www.un/mdg

Education & Training

Obed and James are two Ugandans that I helped come to Canada a year and a half ago to participate in CAWST's BioSand Filter training workshop in Calgary. The two of them and I recently delivered a similar but condensed two day BioSand Filter Introductory workshop for a local NGO. The NGO is now working on a funding proposal so they can get a steel mold made (necessary for making their own filters), receive more training from Obed and start their own filter program. The experience was a fantastic learning opportunity for me.

Shortly after that training, Obed and I delivered a 3 day (half days) commuity education workshop on water, hygiene and sanitation in Kitezo. This is the community where the catchment is being built. It wasn't a big crowd (7 commuity members) but by the end of it, the participants decided to form their own commuity based group to transfer what they've learned to other people in the community. Very exciting.

Well, next time you read an update here it will be from Kenya. Until then.

Leor