Juancho in Uganda

We are today on our free day in Iganga after spending three full nights in our house in Bunio. There are bats that make really nice noises at night and it has rained pretty heavily, but it is a delightful experience. For example, yesterday we sat for about 2 hours at the veranda talking and watching one of the most beautiful skies in my life. The villagers are extremely friendly to us and they keep on thanking us for everything, while also providing great foods like milk tea and mangoes that tasted just like the Colombian ones. Regarding our work in the village, we have visited two of the wells/bore holes that are not working and we will try to have somebody check them out from the local district water office. The people that benefit from them have to walk long distances and normally it is the kids and the women who are the ones that have to fetch water on jerry cans. We have also seen a lot of under 5 years old children with probable worms and hopefully in conjunction with the local health center something can be done.

I have a lot of nice side stories and I am just going to write about them randomly. I find this better now that a day to day recollection. The first one is about soccer and the sensation that the world cup ball made on the village. The kids still keep it at our house but every morning they come and ask for it. I have already played a little bit but I sweat so much on this heat that it is impossible to keep up with them. Yesterday I was walkin around with the other volunteers and a little girl (about 4) greeted me in Lusoga and then proceed to tell me: "Can you please snap"... I snapped my fingers and what she really wanted was a picture. When I took the camera out she called her friends that started coming from every place. It was really nice. Today I was also waiting for a computer at the internet cafe (at the end I have picked a different place after lunch) and a couple of kids got close to me. I started speaking English and they repeated everything that I said. Since the wait was very long I had time to teach them the numbers in English as well as different things that I drew in my hand (house, people, sun, even a cow that resembled a humped dinosaur). We then played with air filled zip loc bags and pens that turned out to be the most playful things that I have used. I have a couple of pictures of them... That has been one of the best times of my whole stay.

Now a little request. We have a water project here that requires the cleaning of the water after the well with a solution called Water Guard. We have now a very expensive dispenser that they are trying to accomodate at each well but I thought that the little adapter that can be placed in liquor bottles for serving shots could be used. (they are normally made out of plastic and have a metal ball. My little cousin Tomas became an expert user thanks to Tawi!). There is a person that only comes next week and I am hoping that I can bring some with him. I am looking for about ten of these little things, so if you know how to get them please write to my sister (Maria sorry for giving you a logistical problem!) and she could probably help to send it to us. I will probably just write weekly or every two weeks.