Getting to work
And so it begins. We are alone on the island, there are no more orientation excuses...
it's hard for me to know where to start. Currently i'm doing a lot of research...aka a lot of reading. Based on Stacy's feedback, i've decided to focus on creating a solid HIV/AIDS education program in a couple of communities, rather than spreading myself to many different communities. Hopefully this will work well. As a start, I am working on an HIV/AIDS survey, which will hopefully help me get a better understanding of where they are at, and what sort of program to create.
as for me.. things are still a little bit up in the air, awaiting a time when Ben, the agroforestry manager, and i can sit down and discuss our ideas. the agroforestry program is involved in a whole bunch of projects - such as a reverse slope terracing demo plot, the tree nursery on Bwama Island, pig lottery, community agriculture groups, and most recently, widows gardens - so we need to figure out where i'm going to focus my energy. i'm starting out with a bit of work on the widows' garden project, an effort started by the last intern. just recently, LBDC was able to lease land for the gardens, so we will be selecting widows and creating gardening groups shortly.
in the meantime, i decided to head over to the agroforestry nursery on Bwama Island to meet the agroforestry program staff and find out a bit more about what goes on over there. today was day 1. mostly it rained. but when it wasn't raining, i got to meet and hang out with Mzee William, William, Dick, Dennis, Justice, Sam and Ben filling planting tubes with soil. it was actually harder than it sounds.
As em mentioned, part of the agroforestry program involves a pig lottery. Happily, today was a give-away day! So, Bryony paddled over to Bwama to witness. The pigs are so cute!! So we took about a million photos (we will not subject you to all of them!).
Shortly after the pigs were taken, a rather violent storm had us all running for shelter - a 5m square hut. There were 10 - or possibly more (it was kind of dark) - in there, for about an hour, with torrential downpour on the tin roof. In our house, we can't watch a movie while it's raining because we can't hear the laptop, at full volume, over the water on the roof.... good times!!
i eventually decided to leave the island...it was still raining - just not as much...i needed to get back to work. Despite the fact that it wasn't raining as hard...the wind was deceptively strong, and i had unfortunately picked the smallest, and tippiest canoe (which was quite nice to maneouvre on the way over when the lake was calm). oh dear. let's just say i'm glad i can canoe or else i would have had a nice swim back to Bushara. Nevertheless...i arrived quite wet, due to the fact that waves were coming over the shallow dug out canoe. darn it.
my trip home was in much nicer weather... however, when i went to head home, my canoe had been borrowed. no problem. except that i was borrowing one of the Bushara staff canoes, which had to be home by 4 so she could go home... So, i borrowed Dick's canoe, hoping to catch him before he left Bushara so he could leave in his own canoe. Dick's canoe was curvier and tippier than the other i had been paddling. avoiding the "muzungu cork screw" (as people here call the pattern made by many first-time dugout paddlers) was further complicated by the fact that i was trying to talk to Mzee on the way home, while staying keeping my canoe within conversation distance without running into him... and, I ended up meeting Dick part way to Bushara...and switching in the middle of the lake. stay tuned for more fun with dug outs.
it's hard for me to know where to start. Currently i'm doing a lot of research...aka a lot of reading. Based on Stacy's feedback, i've decided to focus on creating a solid HIV/AIDS education program in a couple of communities, rather than spreading myself to many different communities. Hopefully this will work well. As a start, I am working on an HIV/AIDS survey, which will hopefully help me get a better understanding of where they are at, and what sort of program to create.
as for me.. things are still a little bit up in the air, awaiting a time when Ben, the agroforestry manager, and i can sit down and discuss our ideas. the agroforestry program is involved in a whole bunch of projects - such as a reverse slope terracing demo plot, the tree nursery on Bwama Island, pig lottery, community agriculture groups, and most recently, widows gardens - so we need to figure out where i'm going to focus my energy. i'm starting out with a bit of work on the widows' garden project, an effort started by the last intern. just recently, LBDC was able to lease land for the gardens, so we will be selecting widows and creating gardening groups shortly.
in the meantime, i decided to head over to the agroforestry nursery on Bwama Island to meet the agroforestry program staff and find out a bit more about what goes on over there. today was day 1. mostly it rained. but when it wasn't raining, i got to meet and hang out with Mzee William, William, Dick, Dennis, Justice, Sam and Ben filling planting tubes with soil. it was actually harder than it sounds.
As em mentioned, part of the agroforestry program involves a pig lottery. Happily, today was a give-away day! So, Bryony paddled over to Bwama to witness. The pigs are so cute!! So we took about a million photos (we will not subject you to all of them!).
Shortly after the pigs were taken, a rather violent storm had us all running for shelter - a 5m square hut. There were 10 - or possibly more (it was kind of dark) - in there, for about an hour, with torrential downpour on the tin roof. In our house, we can't watch a movie while it's raining because we can't hear the laptop, at full volume, over the water on the roof.... good times!!
i eventually decided to leave the island...it was still raining - just not as much...i needed to get back to work. Despite the fact that it wasn't raining as hard...the wind was deceptively strong, and i had unfortunately picked the smallest, and tippiest canoe (which was quite nice to maneouvre on the way over when the lake was calm). oh dear. let's just say i'm glad i can canoe or else i would have had a nice swim back to Bushara. Nevertheless...i arrived quite wet, due to the fact that waves were coming over the shallow dug out canoe. darn it.
my trip home was in much nicer weather... however, when i went to head home, my canoe had been borrowed. no problem. except that i was borrowing one of the Bushara staff canoes, which had to be home by 4 so she could go home... So, i borrowed Dick's canoe, hoping to catch him before he left Bushara so he could leave in his own canoe. Dick's canoe was curvier and tippier than the other i had been paddling. avoiding the "muzungu cork screw" (as people here call the pattern made by many first-time dugout paddlers) was further complicated by the fact that i was trying to talk to Mzee on the way home, while staying keeping my canoe within conversation distance without running into him... and, I ended up meeting Dick part way to Bushara...and switching in the middle of the lake. stay tuned for more fun with dug outs.
posted by bryony & emily at 6:16 PM
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