week 6 - manual labor

Location: Sesse
Our trip to Sesse was valuable a experience for a number of reasons. We were able to see what life is like in one of the poorest areas of Uganda, and we were able to help some people in this area helping to bring clean, running water to their community. It was also beneficial because I think it gave many of us a new appreciation for manual labor and those who do it on a daily basis.

One of the purposes of our trip was to bring running water to xxxx (a community in Kalangala on the Sesse Islands). This involved digging a trench about 600 meters long in order to lay pipes that would connect the community with the nearest source of running water. Of course, this was not done using any type of machinery, rather, it was all done by hand, using rough wooden shovels and hoes. Unsurprisingly, our labor contribution to the project was somewhat limited, and although this was due to other reasons as well, one reason why this was so was due to our lack of experience doing such labor with our hands. I think it is safe to say that we all became tired rather quickly, and it was not the type of work that we could have sustained for a very long period of time.

Our Ugandan counterparts, on the other hand, worked for many hours, and many of them were older men or others mothers carrying their babies on their backs. Many of them did not wear shoes, and although we were advised to wear gloves (our hands were not calloused enough so we did not really have a choice), none of them did.

Manual labor is difficult and strenuous and oftentimes tedious, but it is very important in many places. Many depend on manual labor both as a livelihood as well as a means of production, especially in places where tools to take the place of manual labor are unavailable. In developed countries we tend to look down on those who do manual labor, but I think this experience was good for us, as we can now better understand both the importance of manual labor as well as the difficulty of spending even several hours of a day engaged in it. As with many of our experiences here, I think that this will also give us a great deal of perspective as to the lives of many people.