Travel to Uganda

The Uganda gang on layover on London (from left to right me, Andrew (Texas), Lindsey (Texas), Brian (Edmonton), Nick (Kansas), and Michelle (Minnesota).

At first, the thought of a twelve-hour layover in London sounded like a good idea but in retrospect I think it only lengthened the effect of jet lag. At any rate, we had a great time in London. We actually hit a somewhat clear day in London whereas when we landed in Kampala it was raining cats and dog; go figure.

A friend of Andrew (the tall guy in the picture) met us at the airport and gave us a whirlwind tour of London and we managed to see the Big Five London attractions (Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby, London Bridge, and the guards with the big furry hats). We also managed to duck into a an authentic London Pub for excellent pub fare (I had fish and chips complete with mushy peas). We landed in Kampala on a wet, Wednesday morning with everyone intact and all luggage accounted for. After a too short rest, our in-country orientation began. It included practical things such as buying furnishings for the apartment, exchanging money, visiting existing staff and projects, and a scavenger hunt to help us learn how to get around and where to buy things.

One the boys' dormitory. The mound of earth in the foreground is from the excavation of the soak pit.

One of our outings was to the construction site of the ministry Music for Life, which is a boarding school located near Entebbe. It was a great opportunity to see typical designs and construction methods that are routinely used on eMi projects.

Interior of the boys' dormitory. The clearstory in the dormitories provides additional ventilation to help reduce the spread of disease amongst the kids and it also provides some additional natural light.

The architecture was all fine and dandy but I was more interested in the guts of the project, the really important things, namely the septic tank and soak pit. I had designed several before but never saw one actually put in place. I am gladly providing these excellent views for your benefit. Unlike North America, labour is cheaper than materials and equipment in most of Africa. Therefore, much of the work is labour intensive. In addition, the ministry prefers to provide a means of livelyhood for workers rather than expedite the project by using machinery. In this case, the septic tank (one of several) is constructed of locally-made bricks rather than the more expensive concrete and the two 12 m long by 2 m deep by 2 m wide soak pits will be dug entirely by hand.