Gulu Survey Trip – Part 2

Living in Gulu over the past 10 days has been really awesome and I’ve made some good friends and great memories. One of the more memorable sights came on the first morning on the way to the property. We stopped off just a few kilometers before we reached our destination. We saw a very large rock outcropping and were told that it was a former hideout for the rebels when the LRA was active in Gulu. The LRA left Uganda about a few years ago. It was strange to be so close to part of history that was so recent and so violent. The LRA has massacred thousands of people since the late 80s. John, another Watoto employee, found some gun shells a few days later as he was walking around the property. Crazy!

It was really great getting to know Peter and John, brothers that sold the land to Watoto. They are both in their sixties which is rare to see in Uganda. They have both lived in Gulu all of their lives. The lived through the war and have some incredible stories about the LRA and the havoc they wreaked for many years in Gulu. This is Peter walking through one of the "trails" created with machetes to be able to walk through the area. It wasn't much of a trail.

We also got to experience the Ugandan elections while we were in Gulu. It’s the only thing people have been talking about for weeks. Back in Kampala, EMI has taken precautions and the office was closed last Thursday and Friday. All of the international staff and interns stocked up and didn’t leave their respective residences from Thursday until Sunday. Fortunately, Gulu was expected to be much calmer since it is so far away from Kampala, the capital and political hub in Uganda. As a result, we had a lot more freedom. We still worked last Thursday and Saturday. We took Friday off because that was the actual day of voting, but we still went out the compound for a walk.

The final were released just a few days ago and Museveni won by quite a lot.He has been in power since 1986 so this comes as no surprise to most. This is probably the most peaceful result that could have occurred since power will not be shifting hands. There has been a some controversy with dead people voting and other corruption occurring. There was a riot in the city on Wednesday over the corruption in the election for the new mayor of Kampala, but it looks like an isolated incident. Everything is calm today. Here are a few more photos from the trip:

 

The day we went out on a walk we stopped off at a local shop for sodas. A nice man brought over some nice wood benches for us to sit on. Notice the political posters in the background. These are plastered everywhere.

Citizens of Gulu standing in line waiting to vote.

The back seat of the car on the way out to the site. Peter and John are on either side of me in a tiny 1996 Toyota Starlet.

The drive to the site was about 45 minutes on a bumpy dirt road like this one. We saw lots of men like this riding bikes with huge bags of charcoal to go sell in town. He would probably get about $10 for a bag like that. That's not very much considering it probably took several days to prepare and will take about half the day to get it to town.

We also saw a lot of these along the way. Men were constantly making clay bricks in these large kilns. Bricks are sold for 200 shillings (10 cents) each.

Gulu Survey Trip – Part 1

Sorry I have been so silent over the past week and a half. Last Monday I left to go to Gulu and haven’t had very much internet access since. I feel like a lot has happened since I have been in Kampala but I will try to summarize it as best I can.

The site we were surveying is a plot of land about 45 minutes outside of Gulu, a town in northern Uganda. It is somewhere in the vicinity of 430 acres; the exact boundary is still being debated. We used GPS surveying equipment with multiple rovers in order to cover as much area as possible. There are no existing structures on the property so all we did was take topographical shots.

A lot of the site is covered with thick brush which made it very difficult to walk through. In order to make it easier to walk, the site had been burned to clear away a lot of the brush. Unfortunately, it left all of the grass covered in soot. As a result, we left each day covered head to toe in black dust. I think the highlight of each day was nice long cold shower.

The work we are doing is for Watoto church. They are looking to develop the site with a vocational school, agricultural center, and rehab center for former children soldiers. The survey is only the beginning of our work. I will be coming back to Gulu in a couple weeks with a full team of engineers and architects to start designing the site. From here on out, I will be using most of my time to work on this project. Many more details on the work and exactly Watoto is doing will be coming soon. In the meantime, here are a few photos from the trip:

Walking to the site for the first time. At times, the bush was pretty thick like this.

Luckily, however, the majority of site looked like this. From time to time, we ran into some pretty thick trees. At one point, while I was stuck in the middle of a whole bunch of trees a took a picture in each of the four directions from where I was standing. It took me about half an hour to walk just a hundred meters through these trees. These are the four shots:

This was lunch every day. Sitting on the ground in the middle of nowhere having some PB&J sandwiches and bananas.

I also wanted to give a shout out to my beautiful niece Grace who turned 2 this past Saturday. I was bummed I didn’t get to celebrate it with her but I was able call home and talk to her for a little bit. Talking to her made my day. Happy Birthday Grace. I love you!

Design Challenges

[WARNING: Engineering content. Prepare to feel nerdy.]

One of the ongoing projects that I have been working on since getting here in August is setting up some design spreadsheets in Excel to facilitate the design process here in the office. Since my project trip hasn't left for Gulu yet, I have been working more on this the last several days.

So far this has included creating design sheets for reinforced concrete beams and columns, wood trusses, concrete footings, and steel beams and columns (although the steel ones will probably hardly be used). All of these have been rather simple as design here is relatively straightforward with almost every building being single-story confined masonry construction.

Some of the challenges of designing in Uganda has to do with local construction practice. Since material is very expensive here, buildings will often be built without the necessary reinforcing steel or maybe even none at all! In extreme cases, people will leave out the concrete columns altogether and rely solely on unreinforced masonry. This is a very dangerous idea, especially in the event of an earthquake!

With all this in mind, we have to be very careful how we design. Since we know that only certain sizes of rebar are affordable (or even available) and construction workers will probably only make columns the size of the brick width (about 10in) even if the column is specified to be larger, we have to design knowing that it may not be built according to our specifications.

I should clarify that not all buildings are poorly constructed or purposely not built to the design (in fact, most are not). But knowing that it does happen occasionally is reason enough to more forward with caution while designing here in Uganda.

One thing that scares me is the potential for a major earthquake in the area. Buildings here are sufficient to handle gravity loads, but in the event of a large earthquake many buildings would collapse and there would be much devastation. It's a frightening thought and I hope it won't take a major earthquake to get a wake up call.

Africa Happenings

Living in Uganda has brought me much more in touch with news and events of Africa than ever before. I'm not sure how much press these events are getting in the US, but I though I would share some popular news stories that people are talking about here.

I've posted a lot of links. Peruse them as you please.

Tunisia: In December, riots and protests led to the overthrowing of current president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia. I don't know much about these riots other than that they were the main spark for what happened in Egypt (see below).

Egypt: In late January, Egyptians began protests over a variety of political issues. Ultimately, protesters were calling for the current president, Hosni Mubarak, to step down and a new government put in place. Hosni hasn't resigned, but he has said that he will not run again in the September presidential election. Since then, things have quieted down, but protests are still continuing. Several hundred have died and thousands more injured through these protests.

Sudan: Earlier in January, Sudan held a referendum vote on whether Southern Sudan wanted to secede from the Northern Sudan and create a new country. Everyone already knew, but the final results were released earlier this week and the overwhelming majority favored secession. The south won't officially secede until this summer but there have already been some issues. Yesterday, a minister and his bodyguard were shot and killed in Juba. There was also an army mutiny a few days ago leaving many dead.

Uganda: Things are really calm here in Uganda in comparison to some of the stories above. Although with the upcoming election, the U.S. Embassy doesn't seem to think so. I got this email message from them earlier today:

U.S. Embassy Kampala, Uganda
WARDEN MESSAGE
FEBRUARY 10, 2011

Reminder – Increased Security Threat around Ugandan Elections

This Warden Message is to remind all U.S. citizens that regional terrorist groups continue to pose serious threats to U.S. citizens and U.S. interests in Uganda. As mentioned in previous notices, the U.S. Mission in Kampala remains particularly concerned about the month of February, before and during the national elections. In light of these ongoing threats, the Embassy reminds all U.S. citizens to avoid large gatherings during this period. This includes events at hotels, sporting events, political events, shopping malls, etc. Any large gathering provides an attractive target for terrorists and should be avoided if at all possible.

While its true it can get more violent, things have been really calm here. Let's just hope that Ugandans don't take the lead of the Tunisians and Egyptians and protest if things don't turn out as they want. The current president, Yoweri Museveni, has been in power since the 1980s and is running again. I have actually enjoyed learning about how elections are done in other countries.

Campaigning is much different. Walls and buildings are plastered with posters and vans are going down the streets playing loud music to try and draw attention. President Museveni actually did a "rap" during a speech which has now been remixed and posted on YouTube. See below. Most of it is in Luganda, but it's still pretty funny and worth watching.

Just Pictures

Here are a few photos from a survey we did last week. The job is for an elementary school that is no longer in operation. A new woman has taken it over and wants to build a new Christian school. Enjoy.

-This is the current school. The plan is to demolish the current buildings and build new. Notice the pile of trash in the foreground.

-A view inside the school.

-Getting everything set up.

- Pat explaining to some locals what we will be doing.

-This little girl loved to help me out throughout the day.

-There were a bunch of boys that followed us around all day as well.

-Just hanging out by the school.

-There were so many that just stood around and watched us.

-Going to get some water.

-We saw this guys hauling bricks back and forth all days. Tough work!

-This guy had the right idea. Get out of the heat and take a nap.

-The next day we played Tom and Jerry for some local kids in our neighborhood.

Ready, Set, Survey!

Afoyo!

[That means hello, goodbye, thank you, and about six other things in Luo, the local language in Gulu]

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been doing a lot of surveying recently. I am finally back in the office and getting to do some office work. It’s nice to get out of the hot African sun for a while. I do have to say that it has been an adventure so far though.

My favorite project was a seven-acre plot in Gulu for a ministry called Touch the World. They are based out of New Jersey and specialize in community development. They have already built a medical clinic that is about to open and are breaking ground soon on a vocational school.

Even though it was only seven acres it turned into a multiple day affair. It takes about 6 hours to get to Gulu but since we couldn’t travel at night in that area for safety reasons, the trip took three days despite it only taking 3 hours to actually do the work.

It is much hotter in Gulu than it is in Kampala. That means I did a lot of sweating during the day and I could hardly sleep at night. One night, a neighbor decided to play music over their loud speaker all night long. It literally could be heard all throughout Gulu and didn't end until 7am the next morning. That didn't help the sleeping situation either, especially while still fighting jet lag. Needless to say, it's good to be back in cool Kampala and sleeping in my own bed again.

The only disheartening moment came when a member of Touch the World mentioned in passing that there are still some land mines in the ground left over from when the LRA was active in Gulu. I made sure to clarify that the areas we surveyed would be clear of any land mines. They assured me that their property was safe! I have to say I was a bit nervous when they first mentioned that.

In any case, life is back to normal now that I am back and settled in Kampala again.

[Sorry, no pictures. I forgot to bring my camera with me on this trip. I will be sure to take some when I go back to Gulu in a few weeks.]