Back in KLA

Well, we've successfully transitioned to the second group. On Wednesday, 7 of us left Hope Integrated Academy and headed back to Kampala, while the second group and a couple of long termers stayed to finish it up.

Our project has been going great and ahead of schedule. Our last action was the installation of the biosand filter. We took the forms off and delivered it to Rosemary's house. Rosemary is a student and head of her household which is about a 2 hour walk from school. Her and her siblings currently drink untreated water from a nearby swamp and the folks at URF are excited for her to have the filter. If all goes well, the filter will be producing 10-20 liters of clean water after a week of 'seasoning'. This was a bit of a pilot project and if things go well, we'll likely be incorporating these filters at a larger scale in next years project.

We also got a micro-irrigation system off the ground working with the agricultural class at HIA. The teacher was excited to incorporate the compost being produced from out composting toilets with a class project that can directly help with food security.

Which leads to another direction our future work will go... food security, meaning how secure is the next meal/harvest/food source. From our conversations with locals and folks at URF, so much of the issues with health, water, etc are tied up with food security. So without much definition, EWB would like to work with the surrounding community to improve food security in this notorious dry area.

So from HIA and Kyetume, we arrived back in Kampala and had a fabulous Indian meal before sending three of the group to the airport. The four of us remaining had an amazing time rafting the Nile yesterday and spending a fun evening with folks from around the world at the rafting base camp... so much fun and such a great end.

Two more of my travel buddies left today and the last leaves tomorrow.

I'll be heading to EMI tomorrow to catch up with friends and do a little work.

More then...