Oh, Kyrumba! (Thursday, Oct 23)

So a couple of blogs ago, I claimed that I had just driven the most difficult road ever in my life. Well we went back to the same place yesterday and, again, I was driving. Just when we thought we’d found the worst road ever, we were shown otherwise. It had rained the last few nights in Kagando, so it wasn’t a surprise that the ground was wet and the roads slightly muddy. However, it had apparently rained hard enough for one of the streams to take out part of the road, leaving behind a gap about two feet deep and a foot wide all the way across! I think our first thoughts were something along the lines of, “Oh well, guess we’re not going to Kyrumba today…” which then turned to, “It can’t be THAT bad, you think we could get across?” followed by, “Yea, pretty sure we can do this, we’re engineers!” And so, with the help of some passer-bys, we built a sort of bridge/dam using banana trees and rocks to drive across. In the end, it took a lot of maneuvering coupled with a few “what have we gotten ourselves into” moments, but we made it across, and managed to get in a full day of work at Kyrumba. However, all three sources that we examined came back with E. Coli, meaning that, at the end of the day, we weren’t much farther ahead than if we had just turned back…

On another note, after three nights in Kagando, we returned to the Kasese guesthouse tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll be heading north to Kitswamba to visit a couple of new sources that the LCIII, head of the sub-county, has identified. Kitswamba is widely known throughout the Kasese district as being the area in greatest need for water, so it would be wonderful if we could find water to bring to the people in the communities there. So far, we’ve looked at a couple possible sources but they have either turned out to have insufficient flow, poor quality, or both. And while we want to be optimistic, in reality, if we don’t find a good source this time around, chances are that we won’t be going back to Kitswamba another time. Tomorrow night, we’ll be camping out somewhere between Kitswamba and Kaswa and then head to Kaswa on Saturday to see another source. This is also an important visit as we need another clean source in Kaswa to add to the flow from the existing sources we have already found. We currently have enough water for about half of a project proposal, which will serve about the population in one parish; however, we’re hoping that with another source, we’d be able to make it one complete project proposal, and be able to supply the two bordering parishes with water as well. In short, the next two days are quite important in that the results may confirm, or cancel, the potential for any water projects in these two locations.

EDIT: The internet café was closed when we went tonight so this won’t be posted til after we get back on Saturday night, at which time I’ll be able to post the results as well.