Water...

In most rural villages in Uganda, people must travel daily to wells to get water just for that day, taking from 15 minutes to two hours. In the village of Salaama, it took about 20 minutes to reach the well pictured to the right. It was free flowing water from the mountain. The school kids had to fetch water at least three times a day. This is where we retrieved water for drinking, washing clothes, bathing, etc. Only half of the kids were able to boil the water before drinking because paraffin was expensive and only available in the village five miles away. Water is a necessity in life. Drinking water is a necessity in life. Not having this defines poverty.
  


When it rained in Uganda, everything stopped, especially in the village. It was impossible to get anywhere, even to the next village over to get paraffin to boil water. Some kids could not come to school because their homes were up the mountain where the trails were washed out in the rain. Even getting water from the well was extremely difficult because the hill was so slippery and muddy, kids couldn’t carry their water up it.  Perpetual rain stopped school and villagers were unable to take their goods to markets to sell. Poverty is the inability to absorb geographic shocks such as rain. Poverty is the lack of roads to get from one village to the other. To bring food to the markets to sell. To get to a hospital. To get to school...

                                 
           Roads...

    (Phillip and Mukisa walking to school)




                                      Education...


This is my first grade classroom that I taught in at Alpha & Omega Primary School. There were about 15 children in my class. I had a very small chalkboard inside, and the children did not have textbooks. They had to copy everything from the board into their notebooks. When it rained we didn’t have school because the roof would fly up and rain would come pouring in. This picture is an example of the learning environment for many children in Uganda (those that are actually enrolled in school). Poverty is the lack of education.