No water and no power... what's a girl to do?

Sarah's continuing to settle in as Team Leader in the Girls' Home, responsible for all aspects of their care and wellbeing, as well as getting involved in the Hospital Ministry and Youth Work. She had a bit of a traumatic week last week as she was introduced to the horrendous consequences of the unreliability of Uganda's utility services... I'll let her tell you all about it:

"One of the things that has left a deep and lasting impression on me this month was when there was no water for a few days in the whole of Masaka (where I live). It made me appreciate being able to wash my hands and flush a toilet so much!!! We had to use a pit latrine... This was not fun!!! The pit latrine stank - it was disgusting. And it was so dark as well, especially in the evenings - I thought I would be clever and take my head torch with me so I could at least see a little bit... this was a big mistake, because when I switched it on, I saw that there were loads of giant cockroaches all over the walls and floor! Eurgghh! - Blissful ignorance would have been better, I think!!!

We also had to visit the pit latrine in groups of 5 or more when it was dark, as the latrine is on a banana plantation just behind the compound where I live, and apparently "Night Dancers" like to frequent banana plantations at night - "Night Dancers", I found out, are dodgy characters involved in witchcraft who get high on drugs and alcohol, then dance around naked - and they are not very pleasant if you meet them.... luckily for me, we didn't come across any!!! While the water was off, we didn't even have enough water to bathe or drink.

The girls and I had to walk with our 2 jerry cans each for 30 minutes to find water - we initially went to the local well, but the water had run out because there had been over a thousand people all getting water from it earlier that day who wouldn't usually get it from there.... so we had to march to a "water hole" instead (which was actually a big dirty muddy puddle as far as I could see). I had a lot of comments from people as I passed by - apparently they'd never seen a Mazungu carrying jerry cans and getting water from a well or water hole before! But we got our water and then boiled it to try to clean it, and then I had a wash, so it was well worth it!!! So that was exciting for a few days (not!) - I was so thankful when the water came back!!! I don't know if I've ever been so happy!!!"