UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

Figure 1: Taken on a boat on the River Nile. For the past 5 ½ years I have lived in four countries; Uganda being one of them and Uganda being my favorite. Being back this summer was an enjoyable and nostalgic 8 weeks. In this blog post, I will briefly share some of the experiences(both good and bad, but all memorable) that left me in deep thought during and after my project. The first experience was in the first week, during my school visits and surveys when I noticed that some students were literally sharing and drinking from plates (yes plates) when using the filters because they did not have cups. When I asked the school administration why they did not provide cups for the students some said: “it was not in their budget” (this came from the same head teacher that offered me bottled water when I entered his office!). Others explained that cups were a luxury and if the students were given them, their parents were likely to take them away and keep them in their homes for visitors...

Class: Good morning Teacher Kemi! Kemi: *cringes* Maybe facilitator Kemi? Yes, I think facilitator Kemi has a better ring to it, don’t you? I did not like that they called me teacher Kemi. I wasn’t there to teach. I was there to facilitate. Kemi: “Good morning P4, but please sit down.” I did not like that every time they addressed me they would stand up. Figure 1:A selfie with some of the students during a workshop. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning for six weeks this summer as part of my research project I facilitated workshops at St. Pauls Primary School Nsambya, primary four(grade 3 equivalent) class. The primary four class was made up of 80 students and the workshops focused on safe water practices, and aimed to progressively encourage the students to lead and facilitate their own conversations on water health and sanitation amongst their friends and family in hopes that it would increase their willingness to practice progressive collection methods by involving them i...

Figure 1 & 2:Landmark where the Equator crosses Uganda and me talking to students during a workshop. After months of hard work and preparation, email exchanges and phone calls I was finally in Uganda. My first Monday morning in Kampala(Uganda’s capital) found me waiting and waiting and waiting in the front office of my host organization. Finally, I got to meet my would-be-supervisor, and after a brief introduction, I was told that the organization was no longer in operation and that they would refer me to someone else, who would later refer me to another person who would also refer me to someone else. After what felt like a lifetime of referrals I was then told that I did not have the correct paperwork to conduct my research project and that I would have to wait six months for a permit to be approved. In the words of American boxer Mike Tyson; “everyone has a plan ‘till they get punched in the mouth”. It felt like the world was quickly crashing around me and I started to panic...

Today was packed with stuff to do. To start, we woke up at around 6:15 in the morning in anticipation for our community meeting. After a brief breakfast and such, we set up the room and finished packing our stuff so that the community meeting could be held indoors. It was pretty cold outside, but the inside temperature wasn't much better. At 7:30 when our meeting was going to start, we only had 5 or so people on time; this was a drastic change compared to our first community meeting where we had plenty of people show up on or before our start time of 7:30. We didn't start the meeting until about 9 or so, and launched into our parts. Sophie, Sam, and Stephen talked about the soil and water sampling we had done, as well as household surveys. They described why we were there and also what tests we were doing. Then, Allison talked for Lauren (who was starting to feel really sick and couldn't give a speech) about forming a latrine committee. This was the turning point in our tal...

I started the day with a bit of breakfast and some household surveys with Allison, Sophie, and Ana. The first interview we had lasted about 40 minutes, and concerned a community member, his father, and his mother. He explained that although he already had a latrine, it was very uncomfortable, and he didn't like when his dad went to the bathroom because his dad was sick often. It was an interesting circumstance that could be perceived as cruel, but the fact of the matter was that these people had absolutely nothing, and had to negotiate for what little they did have. Ana had a really good way of talking with the community members, as she was very charismatic and had a way to make them laugh. Afterwards, we moved on to a house that we had not previously surveyed or taken a point of, which was interesting considering that we thought we had marked everything. The resident had a nice latrine, but it was unfinished, and although he was in Parque-Colani (the place that we had agreed to do...

Today was packed with a lot of driving. Sam and I woke up and scrambled to get dressed. Fortunately for us, Ana, our NGO, had not arrived yet; however, it wasn't long before she did. The person at the front desk of our hostel had taken our passports as a deposit for our Wi-Fi password and key, which felt sketchy, but we got them returned all safe and sound. Ana, to my surprise, was a young engineer probably in her late 20's or early 30's. She was from Spain and spoke fluent Spanish and English. She detailed our plan for the day and was thorough with some paperwork we had to sign. She had a good energy about her. After packing the truck, our driver Jose drove us to Achacachi, which was our first stop on the way to Sorata. Before our drive, I noticed older women wearing the iconic hats that were present in Bolivian photos. They were very traditional, but I was surprised at the frequency of how many women wore them. Men wore a kind of fedora which was also interesting, and I g...

My first 9 hours in Peru I spent in an airport waiting for my flight from Lima, the capital, to Cajamarca, another major city in Peru. I am part of the group Engineers Without Borders and this year our project was to go build a reservoir in La Huaylla, a community in Peru. Now, 9 hours would be no big deal if we all just slept before our next flight which was at 5 in the morning. By all, I mean Hannah, Evan, Josh, Semaj and Olyvia- the first half of the team. We all met in Lima to head to La Huaylla together and rather than getting even an ounce of sleep we spent all night talking about things I couldn’t remember if my life depended on it.  We board our plane hours later, a little exhilarated, excited and yes of course, exhausted. When we land we are greeted very cheerfully by Jorge, the HAUSS president (the HAUSS is the waterboard committee in La Huaylla) and two Peace Corps volunteers, Andrew and Joe. They haggle with 3 taxis and finally agree on 8 soles each to take us...