Tuesday, 26 April 2016
MY UNBELIEVABLE ADVENTURES
Hello my esteemed reader. It is been a while now ever since I last wrote a blog. Now I have a lot of things to explain my absence and the delay to write blogs.
It was really a pleasure to be nominated or chosen to be part of the ICT mappers. It was one big luck that I was yet to explore my geography skill of mapping using an ICT idea. It happened that I found myself with a team of twelve students to map with. It was simple. These were digital maps. So we used digital devices. These were actually smart phones, GPS units and computers. So the teacher introduced us to how to use these devices and with no time we had owned the skill. The next step that followed after this is actually the threshold for today's blog. The story begins.
In our neighborhood, there is a place known as Katoogo. A place known for its poverty. A slum it is. It was the place we drew all our focus to since it was in line with our theme "COMMUNITY MAPPING FOR URBAN RESILIENCE AND SAFETY". Actually, most of us had not grasped the finer and clearer image of what our theme was actually about. Now we sloped down to Katoogo with a great eager to know what lay in the wetlands. No. In the slums.
We did not take long before our boots stepped on the muddy grounds of the slum. We paused amazed at the first glance when our eyes caught the entire place with funny houses confined in the same place with out any discernible plan. One house looked very much similar like the other and if one did not known the place, one would actually lose one's way to a certain destination in the slum. However, there in between the houses existed corridors and these are what had been turned into play grounds for the children.The poor children run about the corridors all chasing one ball. All of them were drenched with sweat which they dried with their dirty patched clothes. Their legs were brown- the color of mud. What was so similar about them was their unfitting pants. The torn pants were sagging down and so they always had to hitch them up.
Oh what a plight they lived in! But they were happy and unbothered about their misery.
At that time, we started our work straight away. We took pictures of most scenes, and taking data on every thing there that was worth to record. One of the most pitiful conditions of the place was sanitation. It was so poor. There poor latrines_in fact, some latrines had an abnormal structure as they were instead flats. They were so high in the sky.
There withal, garbage was every where. It compiled up and made a huge heep that was the mother of the stench that infested Katoogo.
In addition, this place had no proper drainage, steams of water passed through everywhere and the whole ground was soft and sticky. A lot, more weird things happened in Katoogo but people still lived there. Where were the poor people to go once they left Katoogo? That was a question that everyone called in question_it was a question of concern.
A students of coarse, we did not intrude into any business that we had no partnership in. Our work was to collect data and present it as one detailed map. Of what importance was this. It was for pitching out our idea to the UCC( Uganda Communications Commission). Even then, were to compete with other schools that had other ideas of ICT and were to use them to help solve problems in their society. But we had hope that once we showcased our project, it would be of help to slums in urban centers.
It was really a pleasure to be nominated or chosen to be part of the ICT mappers. It was one big luck that I was yet to explore my geography skill of mapping using an ICT idea. It happened that I found myself with a team of twelve students to map with. It was simple. These were digital maps. So we used digital devices. These were actually smart phones, GPS units and computers. So the teacher introduced us to how to use these devices and with no time we had owned the skill. The next step that followed after this is actually the threshold for today's blog. The story begins.
In our neighborhood, there is a place known as Katoogo. A place known for its poverty. A slum it is. It was the place we drew all our focus to since it was in line with our theme "COMMUNITY MAPPING FOR URBAN RESILIENCE AND SAFETY". Actually, most of us had not grasped the finer and clearer image of what our theme was actually about. Now we sloped down to Katoogo with a great eager to know what lay in the wetlands. No. In the slums.
We did not take long before our boots stepped on the muddy grounds of the slum. We paused amazed at the first glance when our eyes caught the entire place with funny houses confined in the same place with out any discernible plan. One house looked very much similar like the other and if one did not known the place, one would actually lose one's way to a certain destination in the slum. However, there in between the houses existed corridors and these are what had been turned into play grounds for the children.The poor children run about the corridors all chasing one ball. All of them were drenched with sweat which they dried with their dirty patched clothes. Their legs were brown- the color of mud. What was so similar about them was their unfitting pants. The torn pants were sagging down and so they always had to hitch them up.
Oh what a plight they lived in! But they were happy and unbothered about their misery.
At that time, we started our work straight away. We took pictures of most scenes, and taking data on every thing there that was worth to record. One of the most pitiful conditions of the place was sanitation. It was so poor. There poor latrines_in fact, some latrines had an abnormal structure as they were instead flats. They were so high in the sky.
There withal, garbage was every where. It compiled up and made a huge heep that was the mother of the stench that infested Katoogo.
In addition, this place had no proper drainage, steams of water passed through everywhere and the whole ground was soft and sticky. A lot, more weird things happened in Katoogo but people still lived there. Where were the poor people to go once they left Katoogo? That was a question that everyone called in question_it was a question of concern.
A students of coarse, we did not intrude into any business that we had no partnership in. Our work was to collect data and present it as one detailed map. Of what importance was this. It was for pitching out our idea to the UCC( Uganda Communications Commission). Even then, were to compete with other schools that had other ideas of ICT and were to use them to help solve problems in their society. But we had hope that once we showcased our project, it would be of help to slums in urban centers.
Nice write up about #MapKatoogo Regan, I think it will do you good to add one or two photos to give the reader what Katoogo looks like in real.
ReplyDeleteits cool but you need more much to do with mapping in order to sell your idea
ReplyDeleteHi do you have the coordinates of the slum katoogo. We are a charity starting to work with the school there -Zion- but it doesn't appear on maps so we can't find it
ReplyDeleteMany thanks
Paul
Wow wow wow,Im over joyed.Lugoloobi i really love this project and the proffesional skill you have presented,you have indeed made me proud.keep up the spirit of writing
ReplyDelete