A little about Uganda

Now I don't know about y'all, but until I started working on the Uganda project I didn't know where in Africa Uganda was located let alone anything about the country. So why don't we have a little lesson.

Uganda, twice the size of Pennsylvania, is in East Africa. It is bordered on the west by Congo, on the north by the Sudan, on the east by Kenya, and on the south by Tanzania and Rwanda. The country, which lies across the equator, is divided into three main areas—swampy lowlands, a fertile plateau with wooded hills, and a desert region. Lake Victoria forms part of the southern border.

Now while we are in Uganda we will focus our efforts in a few main areas. Hopefully I found a good enough map that you will be able to see them. We fly into Entebbe, which is located on the northwest shores of Lake Victoria. We are going to stay in the capital of Kampala for a few days as we meet with a few of our contacts and look for supplies. We will spend most of our time in Masaka (you will find Masaka located west of Lake Victoria).

We will also take some time to explore the areas around us. We need to visit a NGO up north near Murchinson Falls. While we are there, we will probably stop by Murchinson Falls and take a water tour and a safari. Murchinson Falls isn't located on the map but it is located right near the upper portion of the "G" in Uganda. In these photos you will see the Nile river. The Nile runs through Murchinson Falls and therefore makes the Fall itself.

Ok, I think that you've had enough of a history lesson. Stay tuned for more about Uganda. We might just tackle food.

Failed to mention

In my last post, I failed to mention one of our team members. She is a huge part of our group and I didn't mean to forget her. Without her we would be completely lost. Violet...please forgive me...I didn't mean to. Violet is a college student who currently lives in Uganda. We met Violet randomly on our first trip to Uganda back in December of 2005. She has been a team member ever since. She works hard for us while we are in the States, so that when we get to Africa we are ready to go. Not only does she keep things running on that end of the table (with travel arrangements, accommodation's, etc.) she acts as our translator while we are in country. She even travels to the areas we are working (leaving her boyfriend and family behind) in order to help us. Violet we couldn't do it without you. Thanks for all you do. We miss you and love you and can't wait to see you!

Meeting the team

Hello everyone, and welcome to our new blog. We are members of the student chapter of Engineers Without Borders at Utah State University. Now, just because we are members of EWB-USU doesn't mean that we are all engineering students. We are all studying a wide variety of subject and hope that all our knowledge will help those people we are going to work with.

EWB-USU has four student teams currently working on projects throughout the world. We have two teams focusing their efforts in Peru (one in Northern Peru and one in Southern Peru), a team working in Mexico and then our team in located in Uganda Africa. We are really excited about the work that EWB-USU is doing and hope that you enjoy learning more.

Please stay tuned as we update this blog on all of our efforts and work that will be done while we are in Africa. Please realize that internet is going to be a little spotty, but we will update the blog whenever we have a chance. So please feel free to comment on photos or whatever you would like.
Dr. Bill Grenney, Shannon Moore, James Dyer, Melissa Bambrough and Alexis Cooper.