Week 6 - Let there be water!

Location: Ssese Island
Our trip to Ssese was definitely the highlight of my week!! Since taking a course on infectious diseases, I have been very interested in water and how essential it is in preventing or causing disease. Our wonderful leader Joel took us to the villages water source and after walking through a long stretch of field and trees, when he stopped and said "This is it" I thought he was joking. The "lake" was about 7 feet deep with about a 4 foot radius. When we were walking, everyone was stepping in water and puddles which we didn't realize lead to their water source. During the heavy rains, which we experienced there, everything is practically washed downhill into this lake. I realized that on our way to the lake, I didn't see any pit latrines which meant that everyone would go where it was convenient and unfortunately, that would end up in the water they would consume later. Before we left we were told about the poor conditions but seeing it and inadvertently contributing to it by visiting it made our presence there much more significant. It was made clear that our purpose was to bring water to this village but seeing what they had been dealing with completely changed my whole attitude and thought process. After that visit, we returned back to the site to put everything together. My eyes were glued on the engineered and I sat there and prayed to myself because it had to work. Everyone was tired and hot but after seeing there source, we were all energized and ready to finish this project which is basically an essential human right! At the end of the day when we saw water flowing, we were all so relieved and I was really proud of what we had accomplished and I hope work like this will continue in the future!