Spreadsheets

My introduction to spreadsheets came early—at nine years old—when I made Pokémon charts to optimize my team. Since then, my skills have evolved through years of military logistics and now graduate studies, where I routinely manage data and build tracking systems.

At the WASH project, my first assignment was to overhaul their monitoring spreadsheet for rural school latrines. Using the original questionnaire as a guide, I cleaned up the structure, streamlined it for easier use, and linked it to a Google Form. This allows field staff to input data directly from their phones, reducing manual entry and errors.

The goal is to track maintenance more consistently—many schools let their new facilities fall into disrepair due to inconsistent oversight. Ideally, the investment alone would motivate better care, but that hasn’t always been the case. With this new system, at least now we’ll know. I hope the effort I put into refining these tools will encourage their continued use after I leave, as I believe the capacity for monitoring will help elevate GDPU in stature in the eyes of the local government and schools, as well as western NGOs proving their donations would be well spent.

Monitoring

This first round of monitoring of the schools throughout the Gulu region, was to be our first field test for the new system, technically happened the first week of June. We counted this as our May visit, and would visit again toward the end of June. On the day we initially scheduled to head out for our first batch of schools, we hit a snag. The GDPU van was being used by the driver for a “personal reason”. This reason, and exactly how long we would need to wait was never adequately explained to me. We made plans to set out the following day.

We had planned to leave early around 8:30. So true to my military conditioning, I arrived at 8:15. The GDPU staff began to trickle in around 9:15, saying that Emma’s son was ill, so she would be late. Seems that everyone else got the memo, but informing me had slipped through the cracks, to my annoyance. We finally departed at 10:30, with a team of five: Emma, Joe, David (a contractor for repair assessments), the driver, and myself.

On the road to monitoring

Leaving Gulu, the shift was immediate: the paved roads ended abruptly, turning to rust-red dirt tracks. Boda bodas were replaced by roadside cattle and goats.

Although our destinations weren’t far as the crow flies, it took nearly two hours to reach the first school, another two to get to the second and another hour to get to the third, thanks to road obstacles, deep ruts, and the general slow-going terrain.

Although I had seen the AP video prior to my departure to Uganda, seeing these school latrines in person was eye-opening, and also nose clenching. All three school latrines had various deficiencies, including the one build just last year. Guttering not connected to anything, latrine pits on the verge of overflowing, tin roofs perforated by rust. Of the three handwashing stations, none had soap, one didn’t even have water, and the two that did have water were infested by mosquito larvae, water beetles and live frogs.

This is why the monitoring initiative of the GDPU was so important; they can inform the headmaster of the schools, and guide them to improvements that can be made, and hold them accountable to their inaction. This is why GDPU’s monitoring matters. It gives the headmasters concrete feedback and a chance to act. But it also helps the AP decide where further investment is worthwhile. If communities won’t maintain what’s already been donated, should they receive more?

The aforementioned missing guttering

Perhaps the most surprising moment came from speaking with the school representatives. Although the term had just started and enrollment was around 600 students, barely half were attending. It wasn’t about fees or farming season. The issue, they said, was mindset: many parents simply believe there’s no point in sending children early in the term because of upcoming holidays or teachers not being “serious” yet. The faculty, community, and parents have allowed the latrines to fall into disrepair not replacing soap or maintained clean water. Is it the motivation or capacity that is lacking? Another interesting cultural lesson.

Emma from GDPU and Aaron visit the Panykworo school during monitoring

These visits were equal parts frustrating and illuminating. The logistical delays, deteriorating infrastructure, and inconsistent school attendance could easily feel overwhelming. But they also underscored the value of consistent monitoring and local engagement.

What stung most was seeing the system I’d worked on fail its first real test—without a stable connection in the field, the Google Forms wouldn’t load or submit, the tracker didn’t update, and the data was lost.

On the next visit, we’d go old school: pen, paper, and manual entry. It wasn’t what I’d hoped for, but it worked. The tools we’re building are still small steps toward greater accountability, and, hopefully, better outcomes for the students these facilities are meant to serve. For me, it’s a reminder that real impact isn’t always clean or immediate—it’s slow, incremental, and often begins with simply showing up, asking questions, and listening.