Ratner Family construction of water well and pit latrine

As a family of five, older kids ages 25,22, and 19 years old, we went to Uganda to make a positive difference and to have an adventure. Both were accomplished. Africa Sustainable tourism (AST)is the organization on the ground in Uganda that helped us before, during and after with planning and delivering the kind of experience we were looking for. We had many questions and AST always promptly and professionally answered our questions/concerns. We worked for two weeks on the construction of a water well and then traveled for 10 days. AST were responsible for us from the moment we came out of the airport until we reentered the airport for our departure. They did an excellent job. James, Joyce, Jamilla, Catherine, Abraham, Raymond were all excellent at their jobs. We were extremely well taken of. Great food (we are two vegetarians and one gluten free) very clean guest house, any unexpected needs of ours were dealt with.
The areas that were a bit difficult for us were the following: Getting used to African time. Things get done slowly and sometimes work isn't an entire day. So you need to take initiative to entertain yourself or to make yourself useful in a different way than what you intended to do there. We were a bit disappointed that we weren't successful in completing both construction of the water well and the pit latrine. We completed the water well. The pit latrine was being started at the end of our stay by local people.
We are healthy/relatively strong people that enjoy the outdoors: hiking etc... the people in Uganda are far stronger and in better shape than we were. So our requested hikes were much more difficult and beautiful than we expected. Very steep terrain. We are more accustomed to nature walks (in their interpretation).

Our 10 day tour was wonderful. We hiked a lot, white water rafted, saw a local pigmy community, canoed, visited the Jewish community of Abayudaya and saw many monkeys.

It was an unforgettable experience. We feel changed people from being touched by the lovely, hospitable, appreciative, needy people of Kahangi Parish. Doing the daily living tasks is a very worthwhile experience. It helps you understand and appreciate the hard work and strength the local people have. We loved our unplanned encounters with the school children and teachers across the road. We got to teach them songs, dances and how to do the limbo. We will visit Uganda again.