Last week in Katosi

This last week in Katosi has been absolutely wonderful. It is when I started to see everything I have been working on for the past two months come together and actually produce something tangible; it is hard to describe how awesome that is.

Most importantly, I finished and printed the booklet for school sanitation clubs that Avery and I have been working on. We got the idea because we didn't have time to do all the projects we wanted to while we were here, especially with the St. john bosco primary school sanitation club that we helped to start. So we decided to leave instructions on how to do projects, like building school gardens, making tippy taps where students can wash their hands, and even for painting murals and doing solar water purification projects. Then we also decided to have sections on physical education and discussion topics like HIV/AIDS, and some tips for starting and expanding sanitation clubs. We also asked about four schools what would be helpful to include in the book, and what challenges they face as a health club so that we could try to include some solutions in the book! Then we decided to print it and leave a copy with St. John Bosco and also the 15 other primary schools that have been given rainwater tanks by Katosi women development trust. I was going to have to leave some of the books with people in Katosi to deliver for us, since some of the schools are really far away. But then we decided to hold a training on sanitation for all the schools to attend, and at the end I presented and gave everyone a copy of the book. It was incredibly awesome.

At the meeting we talked about how students can be agents for change in their communities, because they can take what they have learned from sanitation club to their homes and their families. They were a very active group of people to discuss sanitation/ community issues with, and I really learned a lot from what they had to say and even from their questions. I think that Avery and I will have to make a second edition of our book and update it with what they had to say!

This last week I also helped finish keyhole gardens at St. John Bosco and at a school called Kikubo. We couldn't plant seeds yet, because it is still the dry season, but the kids were still excited and proud to have worked so hard and gotten tangible results. And let me tell you, they did work hard. Building a garden where there are rocks and weeds and junk all over the place took a really long time, and it is hot. Not to mention the students pretty much have no water to drink. Actually I don't think they have any at all at St. John Bosco. They get porridge twice a day, but still. In fact one of the topics at the training we had was about water. When leader asked the teachers how many of their schools have enough drinking water (boiled or treated) they have for their students and none of the teachers raised their hands, I realized how lucky schools in the US are, and how ridiculous it is to complain about certain little things.

Anyway, I had promised to give shoes to a certain number of the third and fourth grade students at St. John Bosco that worked really hard in sanitation club. It was part of my intern project (Kicks for Katosi)that I would give the students a reward for the kids who helped build gardens, build tippy taps, and paint a mural. But then by the end of the summer I was really conflicted. There were 100 students in the club and they had all worked so hard (of course some more than others. but as teacher martin told me, "there are some lazy people in every country you go to"). But I did not have enough money to buy them all shoes; with the intern money I helped raise over the past semester, I only had enough for like 30 pairs. I did not want to give some students shoes and not give some students shoes. I had to make a decision though, with teacher martin of course. Martin proposed that I buy 15 pairs of shoes (for the 15 students he chose who worked the hardest) and that I buy a notebook and pen for everybody else, which they really need. So that is what I did! And I still have enough money to leave 15 extra pair of shoes with Heidi, the peace corps volunteer in Katosi, to give to 15 more students who participate in the club for next school term. Hopefully Kicks for Katosi will even keep going to the next and next terms, my dad has even offered to pay for more shoes in the future (thanks daddd, that means so much!!!). So we will see how things go, but I know leaving will not mean I am done with projects in Katosi!

So yesterday, I went to deliver the shoes/notebooks/etc at St. John Bosco. It was actually soooo sad, because I was late and the kids had gone home early! (I had been running around frantically doing so many things like Keep Katosi Clean, a trash-cleanup day with refreshments afterwords!!). Luckily, about half of the students were still around and saw me coming, so they brought their friends back to St. John Bosco. But even though I knew I could leave the rest of the shoes and presents there for Martin to give them monday, I still felt like I was letting them down. I started crying, because I wasn't going to get to say goodbye (I had been planning to leave Katosi the next day), and I had not really fulfilled my promise; the students probably went home thinking I was just lying about bringing them rewards for their hard work. I was literally sobbing like a baby. But then I had an idea! My flight is not until 4 oclock monday, so I am going to stay in Katosi for the weekend, go to school and say goodbye at 7:30 monday morning, and then peace out to the airport. I hope hope hope it works out, because I really really love that school and those kids. They have made my summer amazing more than anything else has.