The ETI Team arrived MSP shortly after noon. So grateful to have had the opportunity to go and even more grateful to be home. In the weeks to come we will follow up with a summary blog and some photos. Thank you for joining Chris Johnstone, Magnus Fredricson, Per-Ove Persson, Per-Ole Enander and me for KARAGWE 2016!... read more

Travel to and from Tanzania and the schedule in between is generally packed with activity, social events, reconnections and strategizing. The team and I generally leave pretty tired - ready to decompress and relax. I am fairly sure the same is true for our hosts. But this time ETI needed to stay overnight in Entebbe, Uganda since we wanted to travel here with our Swedish team who flew out at 4-something this morning (ouch) while we fly out midnight tonight. That means we have had a day to relax, check email, keep you entertained with blog posts and decompress. Fabulous. Chris Johnstone and I walked to Lake Victoria although were offered rides by most passing vans and certainly all motorcycles. It's 84 degrees so we worked up a good sweat as we stretched our legs. The ... read more

Almost hard to believe it is our last day in Kayanga. We leave tomorrow morning and travel to Uganda to fly out on Saturday. I thought it would be a rich experience to travel with the evaluation team to the village and help collect data. I may not be able to upload the photos just now - power has been out in Kayanga and surrounding villages for the last 24 hours. I will take advantage of the generator at the Kayanga Internet Cafe and hope for the best. Thanks for following along. The eval team left around 9:30am with Chris Johnstone (team lead from UMN), Enoch, Assa, Vincent and Brighton Katabaro. Turned out the village chief did not communicate the research plan to his village so we headed to the clinic to see if people were ... read more

Great Summit 2016. Each year ETI and KAD meet to renew partnerships and get progress updates. KAD invited a Swedish team this year so Magnus and Per Ove (specialists in rural agriculture) joined us. Highlights: - Water harvesting system is inspected and fully operational. To date 280,000 liters have been collected. February rains bring hope for more. - Borehole was named 'The Miracle'. Pump and flowing water are still amazing to most. While capacity and water quality are generally known, the well cannot supply KARUCO on its own. There are plans to dig 4 more. - Lots of construction going on. New women's dorm being finished and men's dorm started. Labs being outfitted with sinks and equipment. Dining hall and Auditorium proposals out, Adjacent school is offering staff housing. Germany is funding 50 computers. - 40 ... read more

Monday is here. Let the baseline begin! Chris Johnstone met with the evaluation team early and went over the directions and game plan for the day. Assa, Horace and Enoch will help Drs. Katabaro and Johnstone with interpretation of items. Assa, Horace and Enoch are employees of ETI's partner, KAD and will be 'instrumental' is interpreting items that have been translated into Swahili by the KAD Team. Today's village for data collection is Nyakahanga - not far from Kayanga or KARUCO. ETI is hoping for 40 villagers to participate in the data collection. But since it is our first time, we do not know what to expect. Our goal is to get a feel for conditions (economic, and in terms of social roles of men and women as well as practices that harm or sustain the ... read more