Salini Tour

Salini is the Italian company that is building the Bujagali dam, funded by the World Bank. Since the dam will flood out many of the homes of the villagers who live on the water, the World Bank is trying to be nice enough to help these people on a short-term basis. Salini has selected 4 surrounding villages on each side of the river to distribute free nets. Although this is against our protocol at Soft Power Health and we do not want any official affiliation with this project, we agreed to at least offer some training and beg them to at least educate the people about malaria and how to use their nets. We had a meeting with the woman who is organizing this project at the Salini construction site. Although she agrees in our subsidized net sale program, the big boss up top at the World Bank does not. Either way, Jessie and I were at the dam site for our quick meeting. Afterwards, we asked if we could get a tour, and sure enough, we were given our neon construction vests and a hard hat and off we went. We drove around the construction site to see the remains of our long lost rapid. The guy told us how cool it was that a particular part of the site used to be an island. I sat there, holding back my actual opinion, and looked down to see what used to be this amazing play spot called the Ugly Sisters wave. We then saw the turbines under construction, the rock-crushing site, and the hundreds of buses and Salini cars. The place felt like a city of its own. It was depressing, but interesting to see it from their perspective. We definitely did not tell them that we were kayakers. Silverback is still up and running. I have heard rumors that it will be around for a while, maybe even until April 2010. I am skeptical to believe what I hear, but we will see. I am enjoying it while I can.

More Flying at Sipi

After doing a few net sales outside of Mbale, we were able to go back up to Sipi. It turned into a good Valentine’s Day weekend of Jessie, Polly, and me. I was able to do a little flying again, which was good fun. A bunch of the kids have made their own mini parachutes now (small plastic garbage bags and some string). It is great to have them release their parachutes so I can see what the wind is doing. However, I am just hoping they do not jump off the mountain with their own homemade gliders anytime soon. Here are some more photos taken by Will Clark. Polly filming The mini parachutes Flying over launch Yikes Down at the landing zone. Quite a crowd!

Nomads #2

The last few weeks have been busy with work, play, and filming. Polly Green has returned to make her next video about the project here in Uganda. She made her film “Nomads” about 3 years ago, just when the clinic was opening. Now she is here working on a follow-up film and a little promo/fundraising video for us. It has been good fun, but always a little interesting to have a camera follow us wherever we go. Fortunately, I am just the sidekick, which makes me happy. Jessie, Polly, and I have been having lots of fun though; we have had plenty of net sales and family planning sessions, kayaking adventures, and dance parties. We have been trying to cram everything in to get those shots that Polly needs. We went down to Kalagala for a park and huck session and spent a little time at the Special before the low water started. Hopefully some of the footage turned out. I think Francis has been enjoying the camera as well (i.e. jumping on the roof of the car with the loud speaker before a net sale, or emphasizing the condom demonstration with the black dildo at the family planning sessions). I never thought I would become a stunt devil but who knew! Hopefully Polly has what she needs.