The Problem With Clean Water

A mini-flood and baseball sized hail. That pretty much describes the last week around our house.

This past Monday, one of the three children managed to flush something large and obtrusive down the toilet, then continue to flush, flooding the bathroom until water was dripping from the drywall of the ceiling in the room below. I learned three things from this: a) it doesn’t take as long for it to happen as you might think; b) who knew insurance would cover the damage from such a thing? c) it can take 8 days for such a mess to fully dry out, even with commercial heaters and fans carefully designed to dry it.

So yeah, Monday was off to a good start. Fast forward to Thursday of the same week, and I get the following pictures texted to me from my wife:

Yep, that had just fallen at our house. We were quickly becoming good friends with the insurance company.

While these two events were frustrating and time consuming (and will continue to be for some time to come), the overall best way to describe them is an inconvenience. That’s all. My wife and I have been extremely blessed that we are able to live in a home with a toilet that can overflow. And why can it overflow? Because it’s hooked to clean water. That’s piped straight into our house. For pennies. And then there’s this whole insurance thing, where a $500 deductible can fix anything.

Personally, it’s been a great reminder of how blessed we really are. I hope that someday the entire world can enjoy the tragedy of a mini-flood of clean, drinkable water in their home.

Clean Water Shortage in Ndejje, Uganda

Our latest post from guest author and Ugandan journalist, Sarah Tumwebaze, tells the story of the water crisis in Ndejje, Uganda. This story reminds us of the importance of follow-up on past well/borehole projects, as well as the severe need for borehole rehabilitation throughout Uganda.

A bunch of children between the age of four and ten run down the steep path that leads to Nakatigi well. They are in a rush to get water and be on their way back home because it’s only an hour to lunch and they have to take the water in time for the preparation of the meal.

The water they are rushing to fetch is brown in colour and very dirty. But to them, this water is safe and they are going to use it for cooking. One of them says with a smile, “We have been using this water since childhood because our parents cannot afford to pay Shs10,000 ($4) every year to use water from the borehole but we have never fallen sick.”

Children Fetching Water From The Nakatigi Shallow Well

Nakatigi well is one of the two wells in Ndejje Town council a suburb found 42 kilometers away from Kampala, the capital City of Uganda. This town that sits on 200acres of land boosts of a population of 7000 people. It has seven boreholes of which only four are functional plus two water taps which are owned by individuals in the area.

Ndejje was a war torn area in the 1980s. During this time, all they had were two shallow wells. By then, most of the people that were staying there had fled for dear life and thus the two wells were enough. When the war ended in 1987, people started coming back into the area.

The returning residents were in big numbers that the two wells were no longer enough for them. To fill up the water gap, government and other Non Government Organisations (NGOs) offered to construct boreholes for the residents. Mr Bemba Mulindwa the chairperson of the area explains that the first three boreholes were constructed in 1987, two were constructed in 1997, one was constructed in 1999 and the last one which not in operation any more was constructed in 2005.

According to Mr Ismail Funko Wenwa a resident of the area for 30 years now, “In the past, we had to walk for at least five kilometers to get water.” He says that they would wake up every morning at 5am and take the long trek to the nearest borehole which was five kilometers away from home.

Wenwa explains that the reason for waking up at such a time was because they had to come back home in time to get ready for school at 8a.m.

However, at times the water levels of the nearest borehole would go down, “and when this happened, we had to go to the next borehole which was eight kilometers away from home,” he elucidates.

Wenwa who is now the youth leader of Ndejje town council says, “at least the situation has changed and people have to move for at most two kilometers to get water.” However, he is speaking from the angel of those that can easily access the water in the area.

But for people like Mr Michael Kiwanuka the father of one of the children I found at Nakatigi well, it’s a different story, “Water is a big problem.”

He explains that every one that wishes to use water from the borehole has to pay money ($4 per year) which he does not have. “For that reason, we have to use water from the Nakatigi well. Its very dirty but we do not have a choice. At times it’s clean especially after it has rained but during the dry season, it’s very dirty.”

He adds that on days when the water is very dirty, “We request people that paid for the borehole water to help us get a jerrican or two for cooking while we use the water from the well for washing.”

According to what Mr Bemba says, Kiwanuka is not the only one that uses water from that well but quite a number of people. “The clean water we have in Ndejje is enough for only 3000 people. The remaining 4000 have to struggle to get water and among these are the ones that use dirty water from shallow wells.”

He explains that even the four boreholes at times are not enough during the dry season because during this time of the year, the water levels go down. Thus it’s hard to pump water out of the two functional boreholes which are shallow.

This is true because a few meters away from Nakatigi well is Nakatigi borehole. But by the time I was there, the borehole was not pumping water. According to Wenwa, the water level had gone down and thus people in that areas had to wait for at least five hours for the water level to rise again. He further explains that this happens many times and in such cases people have to improvise.

“During such times, people are forced to either walk to the nearest borehole which is one kilometer away, buy water from the tap where a jerrican costs Shs100 ($0.03) or pay someone Sh300 ($0.09) to collect a jerrican of water for them.”

One would wonder why the locals do not use the money they collect from the residents every year for constructing new boreholes. But Mr Bemba explains that the money collected is used to maintain the borehole, in terms of cleaning.

He adds that in 2007 when Ndejje was turned in to a town council, the government promised to give them tapped water, “but its now been five years since we got that promise but noting has been done.”

The water situation in Ndejje according to the chair person has left the residents of the area with various aliments and infections. He says that most of them especially the children suffer from skin diseases and diahorea.

This is confirmed by Mulindwa who says, “My children normally suffer from skin diseases and stomach discomfort. I think it’s as a result of the water we use for cooking.”

Another mishap caused by the water inaccessibility in Ndejje is the uncleanliness of the residents. “Whenever we call for a meeting regarding the cleanliness of people’s homes to rule out diseases like Cholera which was recently in Luwero District, residents cite the water problem as their major hindrance,” Bemba explains with a shrug.

At the moment, the chair person is afraid that as the population increases because of the various schools mushrooming in the area, “ In the next two years, water scarcity will turn out to be a bigger problem than it is right now.”

I Had To Sell My Porsche

We recently did an event where I was telling people what Three Avocados does. One gentleman stopped me and said, “Why Uganda? Why not here in America?” I have my standard answer to that question, but it also got me thinking…

I recently heard a story of a local company that went out of business. The owner of the company decided to e-mail all of the staff to let them know they no longer had jobs. Staff started arriving in the morning, only to arrive at their desks, check their e-mail and see they no longer had a job. However, in his infinite wisdom, the owner of the company let them know that it wasn’t just them. He closed his e-mail with “I’ve had to make sacrifices, too. I had to sell my Porsche.”

I sometimes wonder if this is how people living in developing countries see us. We have so much more than we could ever need, but yet, we complain that we don’t have enough. Or that we want more. Perhaps it’s time to step back and be thankful for what we do have. Most of us have clean water to drink, food to eat, a warm place to sleep, and plenty of clothes to wear. It’s so easy to want more when we look at those that are ahead of us – those that have more than we do. Maybe it’s time to turn around, look at those behind us, be grateful for what we have, and do what we can to help the ones less fortunate than ourselves.

Raising Five on $1.20 a day

She is willing to face all kinds of hardships so that her sons can go to school

Sarah Tumwebaze

It’s a cold and wet morning. Most people are wearing jackets and covered shoes. As I walk towards the community hall at Wabigalo, hands in my jacket pockets, I see an elderly lady, she is dressed in a long maroon dress with cotton, netted shoes on her feet. I ask myself whether she is not feeling the biting coldness. But I just let it pass.

When she sees me, she starts walking towards me and when she gets closer, she starts smiling and then introduces herself as Ms Hadijja Kavuma, the lady I am supposed to interview.

After brief introductions we start walking towards her place of work. As we walk, I start talking about the weather and how bad it is. She looks at me and smiles then says, “My daughter, I stopped feeling the cold the day I realized that it was only me and my children in this world.”

Ms Hadijja is a 53-year-old single mother. She has five children aged between 25 and 15.  She has been married twice. “I have been married twice, in my first marriage, I gave birth to three children all girls and in my second marriage I gave birth to two boys.”

During her first marriage, she was living a mediocre lifestyle. A house wife in Butaleja District whose only worry was to watch over her children and take care of her husband. One day she chose to go and check on her parents in the village. She stayed there for two weeks and on her return, she found another woman in her place.

“When I came back from my parent’s home after two weeks, I found when my husband had brought another woman into our house. When I complained, he threw me out but refused to give me my children. So I went back to my parent’s home,” she explains with no expression on her face.

After staying at her parent’s home for a month and all this while, her husband was not willing to take her back, she decided to look for a job. “In Butaleja, there was nothing much I could do, so I came here in Kampala to live with my friend.”

Her friend was staying in Makindye. She gave her Shs30,000 ($12) as starting capital. “I used that money to buy spices which I used to sell along the streets of Kampala.”

In 1992, she left her friend’s place because by that time, her friend had gotten married. She got a one roomed house in Wabigalo as she continued selling the spices. While at Wabigalo, she found another man.

He was a muganda man who was caring. After a few months of dating, she moved in with him. They gave birth to two boys. From the time her last born was born her husband stopped caring.

“He stopped coming back home and even stopped paying rent for the house. When the boys started school, he told me that he had gotten another woman. I was very hurt.”

In 2008 Hadijja moved out and rented a single room for herself plus her two sons. Since then, life has been a hard. “I still sell spices though I was able to get a stall a kilometer away from my house. However, the money I get from selling these spices is not enough.”

At the moment, both her sons are in secondary (College) one is in senior three and the other one is in senior five.  But the boys need Shs300,000 ($66) per a term yet in a day she earns a maximum of Shs3,000 ($1 and 22 cents) as profit from her stall.

She has to pay Shs60,000 ($24) as monthly rent for her one roomed house and Shs20,000 ($8) as rent for her stall. She also needs to give her sons money for up keep while at school.

“I have to give my eldest son (18 years) Shs1,500 (half a dollar) as transport and up keep because his school is three kilo meters away from home. I also need to give Shs1,000 to my youngest son (15 years) as up keep. I put him in a nearer school so that he does not have to walk for a long distance. However at times, when I do not have money, they both go to school without a cent. On such days, my eldest son misses class because by the time he gets to school, they will have closed the gate. Yet I cannot let him leave home when it’s still dark because I am afraid that he might find thugs along the way and they mug him,” she says with a sad look on her face.

The single mother adds that nice warm clothes, blankets, and bed sheets are a luxury to her. “Things like nice warm clothes, shoes, blankets and bed sheets turned out to be a luxury to me the day I realized that I was the one to take care of these two boys. Nowadays, all the money I get, I put it aside for their school fees and rent.”

She also uses this money to buy their single meal a day which is mostly of either posho or matooke with sauce like silver fish, ground nuts or cabbage. However, she only buys the food and gets the sauce from her stall.

She explains that to substitute on her income, she joined a group of ten women who collect money every week and in a week, one of them gets Shs100,000($32). Through this group, she is able to raise at least shs200,000 towards her sons’ school fees in a term.

However, even this does not rule out cases of lack. In 2008, she fell sick and thus could not work. “I sent my children to live with their grandparents in the village because I did not have money to feed them and take them to school. So, that whole year, they did not go to school.”

But to rule out any more such happenings, Ms Hadijja advised her sons to always do odd jobs so that they can raise some money. “I encouraged them to start working on construction sites during holidays where they earn Shs5,000 ($2) every day.”

While other people’s choices are driven by the kind of lifestyle they live, Ms Hadijja’s choices are driven by what she wants her children to be. “My two sons are the only reason I wake up every day at 5a.m and walk in the dark to Owino market to buy spices so that I can sell them and pay their school fees. It does not matter whether I never go to the salon or never wear nice clothes. I know that when they complete school and get good jobs, I will have all that luxury. But for now, I will endure all kinds of hardships and bad looks so that my boys can have a bright future,” she says with a faint smile as she sells tomatoes to one of her customers.

They’re Not Real People.

They’re not real people…until you know them by name.

We’ve always known that it’s difficult to understand the life that people live in Uganda. So, we’ve decided to bring you stories of real people, written by a journalist in Uganda, to help you understand their lives. We’re super excited to have Sarah Tumwebaze writing a series of blog posts for us.

Sarah is a weekend writer for the Daily Monitor, a popular newspaper in Uganda. Her only assignment from us is to get real stories, of real people. To show their struggles, their achievements, their life.

We’re excited to be able to share these stories with you and hope you will share them, also. The first post from Sarah will be arriving this week, so keep your eyes open!

Bring Three Avocados to Work!

Most workplaces have coffee, right? And most workplaces have pretty awful coffee, right? Well, we’re here to help!

Meet Jason (Pretend his picture is right here). Jason doesn’t drink coffee. But he heard the coffee at his office was terrible. And he heard ours is great. So, Jason had an idea…get his company to switch to Three Avocados. Not only would the coffee be better, but they would be providing clean water to Uganda while drinking coffee.

Jason decided that he wanted to chip in monthly in order to help cover the cost difference between their current coffee (a big blue tub) and our coffee. Jason must be in sales, because he talked 7 other people in the company into helping chip in to cover the additional cost. His company goes through about 20lbs of coffee per month. They were currently spending about $100/month on coffee.

Here’s how this breaks down:

• The company puts in $100/month.
• Jason puts in $25/month.
• 7 other people put in $5/month.
• The company goes through 20lbs of coffee per month.
• There are about 80 employees in the company.