From a runners perspective

7.15 a.m:
Ibanda looks like a scene from an early Clint Eastwood western. Dust blows around lonely street corners, an old woman hobbling home with a bucket of water, men glare at you from broken stools, in the shadows of a shivering tree two lazy goats are put out to grass.

The reason I know:
a hundred meters up the street there´s a convent (nonnekloster) with a western toilet opening at this time in the morning. For the last two days this morning walk has become a kind of daily ritual. Expectations. Excitement. Relief. Analysis. Always analysis. If you´re lucky the nuns are singing at the Mass in the catholic church nearby and the sound, together with the morning sun, filtrates through the square formed window. Zen-ish.


Thoughts at the toilet seat:
- It feels strange that the room I take most pleasure spending time in here in Uganda, is a western toilet run by a group of people that fight against the use of condoms in a land plagued by HIV/AIDS.
- I wonder what the Pope will say if I let him know Steven store 10 000 condoms in the room next door wich he rents from the convent. (he´s handing them out as a part of his information material by the way)
- When Ugandans run it looks like their feet is winding yarn into a ball.

Today the group of people wearing the badge “to sick to work” is counting 6, myself included. Rune (today addressing himself as mr Solid) and Silje who seams to be on the way to recovery, used the morning hours on planning the construction of the VIP seating together with Shaban. Doing some sketch-up work is obviously doing Rune some good.


After lunch the sick committee pulled ourselves together and went on an expedition down to the building site. We were met by a good atmosphere of optimism and hard work. After building formwork with Kikki in charge for the last two days, Baloko could now start making concrete for the foundation of the walls and the woodcolumns. Andreas came up with a good detail on how to make formwork for the foundation of the steelshoes by cutting corrugated iron plates into pieces and folding them into cylinders.


Per and Ida also learnt a lot about reinforcement today. Spending the whole day discussing how to best bend a reinforcementpipe into a precise 90 degree angle. After observing them for some hours Junan decided to help them out by using a woodbeam, simply bending the reinforcement upwards against the wood instead of bending it around a couple of nails. Ask Ida for the rest of the story, it´s her favorit (don´t ask Per).


Personally I contributed by laying on my stomach observing. Taking photographies. Dreaming of tomorrow. I´ll work my way up. Rise from the ranks. It´s just a matter of toilet tactics.

07.15 p.m:
The steep mountains bading in orange. Kandinsky at the helm.

Olav