The Work Begins

We started working on projects this week, mostly receiving training on them and being introduced to all the options that are available to us to work on this summer. We constructed two adobe stoves, visited a mushroom house, toured the Kawolo Hospital, met with a women's group, and visited a school that HELP has volunteered at in the past. The adobe stoves were a really neat project! They require getting dirty and working hard, but they are so valuable to the people. They save so much time in cooking and firewood that they help the mothers out a lot. They are also a healthier way to cook than an open fire because they produce a lot less smoke. We made them using all local materials--bricks, cement, clay, and banana tree trunks. I can't really explain them, but maybe I can get a picture up. They are an awesome project though, and I'm excited to contintue building them and teaching the people how to build them.
Touring the hospital was really neat. It was actually a really big hospital and was well organized, but it was not nearly as clean or developed as our hospitals. It made me very appreciative of health care in America, even if Obama is messing things up it will still be 100 times better than anything in Africa. I'm planning on volunteering at least one day a week in the hospital, hopefully with women and babies, the disabled, and pediatrics.
I think that's all for now...

Oh wait... I ate a grasshopper!