April: Month One

During my first few weeks volunteering for Buiga Sunrise I have been able to familiarize myself with the organization’s home base, Uganda’s Banda Kyandazza Village. I have also been learning the local language, Luganda, and have now met and spent time with all of Buiga Sunrise’s volunteers and staff. During the first month, regular operations were disrupted for about three weeks as Director Nicole Van Seters and Chief Financial Officer Michael Mugerwa were visiting from California. Sunrise staff and volunteers were busy meeting and making arrangements with Nicole and Michael. As a result, staff and volunteers schedules have been irregular, so mine has been so also!

I have also been challenged in developing a regular work routine by Buiga Sunrise’s limited access to electricity. During the first four weeks of my time with Buiga Sunrise, the only source for power has been at the Sunrise School, which is about a fifteen minute walk from the Grace Family Health Centre grounds where I reside. Even at the school power comes and goes, and it may be out for hours or days at a time due to load sharing or other functional complications with the power supply. However, new batteries are being purchased for the inverter at the school, which should allow us to use stored electricity more effectively. Also, one of the projects initiated during Nicole and Michael’s visit involves the installation of an electrical scheme that combines solar and grid power so electricity will be more readily available at the clinic grounds. This should enhance my ability to participate in the administrative tasks I expect to be involved with over the coming months.

Despite the challenges thus far, in my first month I was able to meet with Nicole on several occasions. We spent time discussing her thoughts on, plans for and ideas about the present and future of Buiga Sunrise. These conversations were enlightening, providing me with information on how an international Community-Based Organization such as Buiga Sunrise can operate efficiently and effectively while cooperating with and considering the needs and desires of the local staff, volunteers, and community members. In addition, I have been able to participate in the following work activities:

Observing in classrooms: 

During my first week I was able to observe the teaching methods in each of the three classes at Buiga Sunrise – Kindergarten, Preschool (Top Class), and Primary One (Grade One). I witnessed as the children learned reading and writing skills in English, and participated in Physical Education and Art classes. In the coming weeks Nicole has asked me to augment the learning taking place by facilitating “Circle Time,” a time for students in each class to gather and participate in fun group learning activities.

Preschool Classroom

Kindergarten Classroom

Primary 1 Classroom

Filling in where needed: 

Buiga Sunrise students are sometimes assisted in learning to read English by matching words with corresponding pictures. To assist in this process, I drew many pictures of household items, such as cutlery and electronics, as well as of a host of domestic and wild animals. The teachers at the school will label the pictures and attach them cardboard so they can be used for reading.

For parents with students attending Buiga Sunrise School who cannot afford tuition fees, there is the option of working in the school garden in exchange for some or all of these fees. Food grown in the garden is used to feed students two healthy meals per day, and 75% of what students eat is currently grown in the garden (Nicole hopes to increase this to 100% in 2011). Parents are invited to work in the garden at specific times each month; because the school was temporarily out of printing ink, this month I was able to copy invitations to several dozen parents by hand. The children then took the invitations home and many parents came to work in the garden the next day.

Starting this April, Buiga Sunrise’s Grace Family Health Centre is undergoing construction. The existing clinic building consists of three rooms: one room for a small pharmacy; one for birthing mothers and expecting mothers requiring examination; one for mothers who have given birth or for any other individual needing medical attention. A new addition is now being constructed, and is to consist of two new rooms: one room for an office, and one to be exclusively for mothers who have just delivered. With the installation of this latter new room, the existing room designated for new mothers and other patients will be used exclusively for other patients. This will allow for mothers with newborn babies to rest in the healthiest environment. During the early stages of construction on this new building, I assisted in laying the foundation by transporting and placing building materials by hand. Through providing this assistance and by observing the construction that has followed, I have learned how buildings are constructed on a conservative budget in a developing country.

Me and Adibo hauling bricks.

Upon her visit to Banda Kyandazza this April Nicole determined that the teacher’s office/supply room at Sunrise School would benefit from a different organizational scheme. In light of this, I was able to work with the Director in categorizing and taking inventory of all of the school’s supplies. This included reorganizing office stationery as well as math, art, science, music and language arts supplies into newly designated storage containers. I have since compiled an exhaustive list of these supplies on Microsoft Word, and will be making labels for each storage container so that items can be signed in a out of each container according to each teacher's weekly lesson plan. I have also been given the responsibility of working cooperatively with Buiga Sunrise Supervisor Ruth Apili to ensure that the supply inventory stays accurate and up to date.

Job Shadowing with Roger Sserunjogi, Community Programs Coordinator: 

This year, Buiga Sunrise intends to plant one and a half acres of tea bushes and two acres of coffee trees. There is a local tea producer which purchases leaves, and a coffee cooperative in Banda Kyandazza where beans can be sold at a fair price. Parents with children attending Buiga Sunrise School have volunteered to work in these plantations in exchange for their children’s tuition. All profits generated will be directed back into the school to help purchase school supplies and pay teacher salaries. This will allow Buiga Sunrise to gain independence from its historical reliance on charitable donations. Roger Sserunjogi, Community Programs Coordinator, is in charge of supervising the tea and coffee plantations. This month I travelled with Roger to farms within the community to document successful tea and coffee plantations. This documentation will be used as a benchmark against which Buiga Sunrise’s plantations will be measured as its tea bushes and coffee trees grow. For this project, I also assisted in clearing part of the land where the coffee trees have now been planted.

Roger also supervises Buiga Sunrise’s goat program. Parents with children attending Buiga Sunrise School are able to acquire on condition that they pay a “goat maintenance fee.” This fee covers the cost of de-worming, spraying for ticks and veterinary inspection, and is reasonable compared to the profit a goat sold at market can earn. Profits from the maintenance fee will be used to purchase a second male goat for breeding, and any remaining funds will be directed back into community programs. This month I also travelled with Roger to visit many of the families supporting goats in order to examine the health of the goats, inspect the condition of the goat shelters, and determine whether the goat is expecting and/or if the goat has delivered.

Roger inspecting goats in surrounding villages.