Perspective: Day 8: Kampala (Makerere University)

It's Friday morning and today we are heading to Makerere University, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Africa. Once here, we meet with the head of the technology development center, Dr. Moses Musazzi. Our objective for the morning is to learn about appropriate technologies and urbanization issues. Moses, innovator extraordinaire, shows us just how valuable simple resources can be. In fact, his building is the only one in the entire campus that is self-sustaining.

The tank shown above holds 34k liters of water and supplies his entire building.

Moses also invented his own brick-making technology - complete with machine, design, and components. His bricks dry within 4 hours but are strong enough to stand on immediately. His bricks have evolved to meet needs and some contain rebar for extra support.

The brick wall pictured below has been standing for 8 years without traditional mortar.

The brick machine:

With these bricks he has constructed storage containers for local farmers to store their surplus crops. Previously, they had been wasted.

Moses has also created and successfully rolled out the first sanitary pads made from local materials in Uganda. This is very important as research had shown that many disadvantaged school girls, from primary on up, would be absent 3-5 days per month due to menstruation. This leads to poor academic performance and the potential for dropping out altogether. Further research completed by his team discovered that ~90% of urban & rural poor women do not purchase off-the-shelf sanitary pads. This is primarily due to expense. Thus the need for an affordable and accessible solution.

Introducing Makapads:

Makapads consist mostly of papyrus but also contain recycled paper, much of which is from the university. Moses employs local labor for each step of the process.

He uses UV lights, housed in the buckets shown below, to sterilize the pads. Then, they are packaged and shipped out!

Needless to say, Moses is doing some brilliant work!

After we return from the field, we head to lunch at the Makerere Canteen right on campus. This is where I purchase my first Stoney...

This is ginger soda and it is so good. I wish it were available state-side.

Once lunch is finished, we head to the Uganda Museum to brush up on local heritage. We inform our tour guide that we have a little less than an hour before we are off to another site.

After a quick museum tour, we head to Sanyu Babies. They care for children only under the age of 3 and focus on abandoned, destitute, and orphaned children. Our arrival coincided with their "play time," meaning we were free voluntary labor for an hour. However, we greatly enjoyed our time playing in the yard with all the children. The staff definitely deserved the break as well.

Post babies, we pile back in the van, ready to unwind for the evening.

We caught a glimpse of a local construction job along the way. How would you like to work on this scaffolding?

We finally reach our home, Adonai, around dinner time. They have been cooking our meal for most of the afternoon and the place smells wonderful. Ashley, Jessica, Hanni and I head upstairs to freshen up but the guesthouse is soon filled with shrieking!

Ashley reached into her backpack and a freakishly large cockroach ran out and up her arm.

The black & white shot sets a nice horror scene.

As usual, we head to the balcony after dinner for wine and wind-down time.

It's currently day 8 and we haven't had a day off. The idea of long days and no real weekend is starting to weigh on us... We're hoping a night out will help. Sheila's sister, Brenda, lives in Kampala and it happens to be her birthday! We decide to go out and live like the locals. We dress up and head out around 10:30 pm to get a feel for the nightlife.

Our first stop is a fairly relaxed bar that's showing the World Cup. We have a drink and decide to move on. Next we head to a much more lively venue: Fat Boyz.