About Wednesday and Some Photos

As I said in my last post, we started implementing the project in Kasaali and Kyotera this past Wednesday.  With the help of Godfrey, the husband of the Chairwoman of the Kyotera cluster, Agnes, we were able to find six pigs to buy from the village.  We delivered the pigs to the Kasaali cluster in the afternoon and did a short training on the project design.  We addressed some concerns and points that were brought up by the people in both clusters and were able to make changes to the model design based on their suggestions on the spot.  From those experiences we’ve been able to come up with an explanatory diagram that can be used in future training sessions as the project spreads to other VSLAs and perhaps even other clusters.  This week, I’ve also come up with some charts to organize monthly information collected by the cluster committees on the VSLAs, costs associated with maintaining the pigs and profits generated, as well as information on the buyers.

Looking back on Wednesday, it was really the best day that I’ve had here without question.  I had been facing some frustrating challenges, but this put everything into perspective.  The villagers were so happy that they sang and danced in thanks for the project.  I don’t think that they realize that I am the one who should be thanking them for the opportunity to work with them and be able to design and implement something to help them.  And I really do hope that it helps them.  I am thankfully going to be able to monitor how the project is going each month through December.  I don’t know how I’ll pull it off, but I want to be able to come back in a year or so and see if any good came of the project.  

The first two were taken in Kasaali.  In the first one, I am obviously the confused looking Mzungu (white) haha.  The man in the second picture is Godfrey, the man who helped us get the pigs and also do the training in Kyotera.  The last picture is one of the training session that was held in Kyotera.