Projects 101 cont.

Alright peeps. Here's some more project talk:

3. Sanitation Outreach. This project included building tippy taps at both St. Kizito's Babies Home and Impact Ministries (with a trial run in our yard first) and then doing a sanitation lesson for 4 of the classes at Impact. We covered what germs are, why they are bad, showed them some hands on demos of how germs spread (covered tomatoes in flour and then passed them around - flour gets all over everyone's hands), and then discussed the steps to handwashing and then when you should wash your hands. I covered the when part with Jen and it went well. We taught Primary 1 - Primary 4 this past week and will be teaching P5-7 this next week. The kids loved it, but the younger ones didn't respond as much or get as into it, but it was cute taking them out to the tippy tap and helping them wash their hands. The kids at Impact just LOVE visitors, and they always sing these chants when we arrive and I love it! It is a lot of fun. They always say "Visitors, you are most welcome" along with pretty much everyone else here too. We hear that on a regular basis. Here are some pics:
Trial run of building the tippy tap in our yard. David our guard, Whit, and I. David was the branch splitter and Whit and I were the pro branch finders.
Building 2 of the tippy taps at Impact. The locals were involved a lot so that was good! They were a lot better at digging the holes than we were that's for sure. The kids learning how to use the first 2 tippy taps we built. There were SO many of them and they kept leaving class to watch us build them haha.
Tying off the twine to bind the branches together. Hard work!

Jen and I posing in front! All the hacking at the wood and tying off the twine produces the lovely tippy tap - a can hanging on a cross bar that is tied to two branches that are planted into the ground. Then you cut a hole in the can and then tie twine around the bottle of the can and to a smaller stick near the ground. That is the stick you step on and when you step on it the water comes running out! We tied soap onto the cross bar as well and voila! You have a handwashing station!
The kids in P4 showing off their clean hands to us after we showed them how to use the tippy tap! We gave them a handwashing certificate to put on their wall. :)
Teaching the kids in P1 how to wash their hands - wet hands, use soap, scrub, wet hands again, and air dry!

4. Using crafts as an Income Generator. We have just done research for this project so far, but tomorrow is the big day that we learn how to make the crafts! The thought behind this project is that many women in the slums around here are unskilled and have no way of making any income. From what we have heard, some sell alcohol for a living and then there is a problem of alcoholism and abuse. To tackle this, we thought we would learn how to make crafts and then teach these women in different villages the crafts and teach them how to sell them so that they can get on their feet. We figure this is a good skill to have not only so they can make money, but also so they can make these useful things for themselves. We are going to some basketweaving techniques so that we can make baskets, tablemats, and change purses. We will possibly learn some beadwork as well. I am so excited because I love crafty things!! Stay tuned for what happens with this one.

5. Another project in the works is Science Teacher training. We are planning a few big seminars for teachers in the district and municipality here in Mbale. We are coming up with practical experiments to show the teachers so that they can implement them in their schools and keep kids interested in science. With the rote learning that often happens here, kids become disinterested in science and often don't seek out science related careers. We are hoping with this things will change. In August, some of the volunteers will run a science fair with different Primary classes as a competition so that the kids have a chance to create their own experiments as classes. I am excited for this one too, it should be good! Stay tuned!

K, that's pretty much everything that is up and running at this point. I will keep everyone updated! Love you all and thanks for the support!