We've spent today in the office. When it started raining we were very glad we've finished fieldwork... The roads/paths would be impassable in the rain & we'd probably be stuck in the middle of nowhere. We've realised some of our research project children will struggle to get to school in bad weather. You'd need a trail bike to get up the steep muddy paths.
Today's job was to collate & analyse all the data we've collected, start to make recommendations, and cost the various options. For each of the 19 children! Yes, it took all day, and tomorrow we have to get more quotes and meet the local Disability Association... you guessed it... to discuss latrines.
We've had some interesting discussions that have stretched our brains beyond the usual extent of retired people!
1. As a charity, how do we balance immediate desperate need with encouraging and motivating people? For example, if a family are day labourers, on any particular day they may not have any money... Literally no money. But if we give them the full amount for transport to take their child to an orthopaedic camp, will they expect us to keep giving money and not look for work? Our solution is to budget for the full amount but decide how much on the actual day.
2. If several local suppliers quote a reasonable price for a child's motorcycle helmet, can we be sure it's good quality? Our solution.. Visit the shop and look. The helmets were like toys, and they break if dropped. Hopeless. Our children will be negotiating steep hills on paths with unstable surfaces. Our final budget is nearly twice the cost - but we can't compromise on safety even if that's the locally acceptable solution.
3. Our schools are in deeply rural areas previously out of the range of Global Care. We can get quotes from builders here in town for constructing latrines, but in the villages the price of labour and materials will be much less. We've decided to get several quotes from town so we can prepare a budget now, but the team will contact schools for local builders and get quotes from them. Otherwise we'll have to pay for town builders to make site visits with one of our team because, 'they'll never find the school'!
We went out for lunch today. Local food which cost £8 for 5 of us to have huge plates of rice, matoke, cassava, vegetables and meat stew.
We didn't have hot water yesterday... I'm ok with cold showers after my cold water exploits but it's quite cold outside in the morning. Our resident go to person went to our room, stood in the shower in very muddy shoes, fiddled with pipes and it works again.
Today we arrived back at the hotel to no electricity or wifi. We said we needed to send emails so he sent a boy out for fuel for the generator! We're online woohoo...
When we left the office, we asked if the team were happy with the work today. Moses said, 'I am happy, I did not eat crisps.'
Tom said, 'I am happy, I did not travel into the hills and I had a Ugandan lunch.'
Charles said, 'I am happy, I had a rest day...sleeping in the refrigerator (it was very cold this morning and Charles forgot his Rukungiri jumper) and eating lunch.'
We didn't peer into any stinky huts today either...
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