Life in the Pearl of Africa

Graduation party, Ugandan-style

2012-02-10T02:25:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I was invited to a “function” being held in the compound where I live. My supervisor/landlady’s daughter just graduated from Makerere University, and so a party was necessary to celebrate the occasion (sidenote: graduations here are in Jan/Feb, even though classes end in July/Aug. No one really knows why…)

So, the function was scheduled for Sunday, and I expected a typical Ugandan function: large tents, lots of speeches, a late lunch, and then dancing through the night. What I did not expect was a pre-party the night BEFORE the actual party. But of course, we had a pre-party on Saturday. Slowly throughout the night, relatives and friends arrived to enjoy/prepare for the function. Around 9:00 pm we had break tea, with milk tea and bread. About 10:30 pm we had an appetizer course of cow liver. At around midnight we had roasted cow meat (sticks from the trees were widdled down and stuffed with hunks of meat and roasted over a bonfire constructed in front of my house). Finally, around 1:30 am we had dinner (rice, matooke, and cow intestine soup). I’m pretty sure we consumed an entire cow that night. I even watched people cutting this whole cow throughout the evening. Even though they had hooked up a generator for the night, the kitchen was (of course) the only room in the compound without power lines strung through it, so the pieces of meat were laid on top of banana leaves outside on the dirt and hacked into pieces with an ax and machete. (Another sidenote: it was really weird to have generator power for once. My whole house was lit up at night! Crazy!)

Hacking away at the meat

They really wanted to pose with the meat :)

After all the food was consumed, the party continued with dancing and booze. Many beers were drunk, many hips were shaken (chisoga dance!), and lots of loud music was played. Of course, I was told this was not a “serious” party, since the REAL sound system and music would be coming tomorrow. Nevertheless, the party continued the whole night, the generator finally going quiet around dawn.

The next day I emerged from my house around 9:00 am (relatively late for me, but I figured it was justified given the late nature of the party the night before). As soon as I appeared, my landlady’s husband told me he was so worried that I slept so late that he was about to come and check on me to make sure I was still alive. By that time, the tents were already set up and the caterers were already beginning to cook the huge pots of rice, matooke, and meat for the party.

Giant pot of rice and giant spoon (kind of looks like a boat paddle...)

The function actually started around 1pm, and as I expected, it consisted of a lot of speeches, traditional dancers (including a very cute little girl, see below), and prayers. It also included 10 cakes, each in the form of a letter, which spelled out CONCS FIFIN. I assumed this was some sort of lusoga code for graduates (or that I was still tired from the night before and couldn’t read properly), until someone told me it was just an abbreviation for “Congratulations Fiona.”

The graduates (Fiona and her friends)!

After a speech declared to be a “mini skirt” by a local leader (not quite so mini, since he had 8 elaborate points to go through), we finally had lunch around 5 pm. After eating, the tents were taken down, and the dancing began. While everyone was still mingling about, an older woman stopped me as I was walking, wishing to talk to me. Someone had apparently told her I was a doctor (this happens way too much), and she wanted me to fix her “sick breast.” Before I could protest and tell her I’m not at all a doctor, she whips out her breast and starts waving it in my face. Now, I’ve seen a lot of Ugandan breasts since I’ve been here (breastfeeding is quite common), but I’ve never had one waved in my face so insistently at a function with hundreds of people around. It took about 10 minutes to convince this woman that I’m not a health care professional, and that she should probably talk to the (at least) 2 ACTUAL doctors and 3 nurses attending the party.

As the official guests left, the villagers streamed in to take advantage of the generator and music. As the night wore on, the numbers of strangers dancing in the compound grew, and I was told kids were coming all the way from Bufuulubi! (I know this means nothing to you, but it’s a really far village, maybe 20 minutes by taxi, and definitely crazy-far to come from for dancing). Dinner was at a more-reasonable 11 pm that night, but the dancing again continued until dawn.

The next morning was for cleaning up and saying good-bye to the few remaining visitors (and eating the rest of the cow, of course). By Monday night, it was back to life as usual in the village: me and my 4 neighbors, no power, and the peaceful quiet of the night, generator free.

ttfn :)

So fresh and so clean!

2012-01-07T00:59:00.000-08:00

This year I got to spent the holidays at home with my awesome family! As much as I enjoyed spending the holidays in Uganda last year, I was so happy to get to go home for a bit, and especially to see my adorable niece and nephew! When I got back to Mayuge, everyone exclaimed that I was SO fresh and clean and smart. They said America had treated me well, but I told them to just give it a few days, and I would again be covered in the thick layer of dust that makes Mayuge home :)

The kids wanted to teach me how to play baseball... it was interesting

Adorable!

With the great dane puppy, who is now bigger than them both

Making rum balls! (rumbles, according to Vika)

Paddle boating on the lake

Sorry, I apparently only took pictures of the kids, and not of my aunt and uncle. I love you guys too! Now back to the dust...

P.S. I posted three entries at the same time, since I have good internet today. Scroll down to see the previous two new entries.

How I spend my time while waiting for a new home

2012-01-07T00:57:00.001-08:00

As I mentioned previously, I'm currently in a state of limbo while I wait for a new site. I will (hopefully) be moving soon, so I'm not starting any new projects (which would inevitably take months to get running), and since the schools are still on break, things have been a bit slow lately. Here's how I've been spending my time:

Yummy pancakes!

Thank you to my wonderful aunt who sent me an awesome camping oven, allowing me to bake without burning holes in all my pots! It has given me even more ways to kill time while waiting around at site :)

Homemade pizza

Delicious!

M&M cookies! Thanks Hope for sending the M&Ms!

On a slightly more productive note, I have still been working with Soft Power Health to organize community malaria events around Mayuge, with the help of some awesome health workers. Here are some pictures from the latest event at Kaluba Health Center II:

With Sarah - the best malaria educator ever!

Teaching at Kaluba

So true!

I know I promised some pictures of my ridiculous adventure to create kits for 3,500 girls to make re-usable menstrual pads, but I keep forgetting to take the pictures! I promise to rectify this soon! :)

World AIDS Day 2011

2012-01-07T00:54:00.000-08:00

World AIDS Day is commemorated on December 1st each year, with the mission of raising awareness about the HIV pandemic. This year, several PCVs around Uganda held World AIDS Day events in their communities, and I participated in two of them.

World AIDS Day 2011 - Soroti (Socks 'n Sacks!)

The event on Soroti was organized by the fabulous PCVs Chelsea Milko and Joanna Groepper. They organized a booth in collaboration with TASO (The AIDS Support Organization) within a larger event organized by the District Health Office. They made signs about HIV prevention in English and the local language (Ateso), which were placed around Soroti after the event. Ugandans educated others about creating sack gardens, an easy way for people sick from HIV to still grow some of their own food. In addition, we led condom demonstrations for the crowd and handed out free condoms, rice sacks, and seeds. It was crowded and crazy (like any Ugandan event), but it was a lot of fun.

HIV prevention sign

Preparing for seeds and rice sacks to give away

Condom demonstration co-led by a PCV and Ugandan

Sack garden demonstration

World AIDS Day 2011 - Lira

The event in Lira was organized by the lovely Liz Skeris and Jacqueline Demko. It started with a 5 km race and was followed by a health fair. Booths at the health fair included what is HIV, prevention, STD's and sexual health, condom demonstrations, and a quiz about HIV.

The race begins!

The prevention booth

Condom demonstrations

Quiz time - what do you know about HIV?

Two great, successful events! Thanks ladies for organizing! :)

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-30T00:19:00.000-08:00

This year marked my second Thanksgiving in Uganda. For both celebrations, I was lucky enough to have good group of friends to share the holiday with. This year we enjoyed chicken, mashed and scalloped potatoes, spicy pumpkin soup, carrots, homemade applesauce, and cheese (yes, just a block of cheese - and it was delicious!). Then for dessert we had spice cake and oreos! After eating, we continued the party by walloping a Thanksgiving turkey piñata full of "sweeties." So much fun!

Yummy chickens - the Ugandan turkey alternative

The Thanksgiving piñata: Sherman!

Bye bye Sherman!

Ebola and cholera and typhoid! Oh my!

2011-11-10T22:36:00.000-08:00

Uganda is a hotspot for all sorts of fun tropical diseases. When I was studying about rare, un-heard-of diseases in school, almost all of them seem to have been found in Uganda at some point. I've definitely found this to be true since I've lived here: in the past 15 months, Uganda has seen outbreaks of ebola, typhoid, anthrax, yellow fever, and anthrax. And that's not even including the "normal" tropical diseases like malaria, schistosomiasis, and trachoma. Oh, what a dream for a public health student :)

(fyi: no PCVs have yet contracted any of these diseases in Uganda. We are all ok!)

Midservice!!

2011-11-04T04:51:00.000-07:00

Last week my training group met in Masaka to have our midservice conference. Since we've all be at site for a year now, we got a chance to get together, reconnect, and share successes and frustrations from the past year. It was really great to see everyone! Here is our group - all 45 of use (it's pretty unusual to have an intact group make it all the way to the one year mark!):

CHED August 2010 one year in :)

The serious "work talk" was coupled by some fun activities as well: a movie showing of Volunteers (a Tom Hanks film from the 80s making fun of the Peace Corps), a trivia night, a Halloween party, and class superlatives. Yes indeed, two people in our group took the time to make a superlative for everyone in our group, including (in true Ugandan fashion) certificates! Mine was "most likely to be asked to sing the national anthem at the superbowl." I think this was more related to my being (with about a minute of notice) asked to sing the national anthem at out homestay thank you party and swearing in ceremony early on, rather than any actual talent on my part, but it was still sweet! Some of the other superlatives included best bikini bod (won by a woman in the 55+ crowd who rocks), most likely to always have taco seasoning in her bag, and most likely to bring HIV education to the Hobbit shire. We have a very interesting group :)

During the conference we were also supposed to make an action plan for our last year at site. Unfortunately, I will (hopefully) be moving sites soon, so it was difficult for me to take away future plans and hopes for the coming year. I'm trying to stay optimistic that things will work out for the best, but honestly the idea of moving at this point in my service is really daunting. Not only do I have to go through the stress of actually packing and moving, but I have to start from scratch with a community. I have to get to know my neighbors, my colleagues, and my market women. I have to learn where to buy my groceries and how to get around. It's been stressing me out! I'll update more when I have more details about where I'm going, but for now the only thing that's certain on my agenda for the next year is to finally finish my master's paper! Wish me luck!

ttfn :)

Peace Camp 2011

2011-10-31T02:06:00.000-07:00

At the end of August, I worked with about 20 PCVs to run a Peace Camp in Gulu for youth that have been affected by the war and LRA. For those you who aren't aware of the situation, here is little background:

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is a rebel group that has operated in Uganda, Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Led by Joseph Kony, the LRA began a guerilla war in northern Uganda in 1986 with the intention of overthrowing the government. The LRA routinely recruited and kidnapped children in the north to use as child soldiers in the campaign. About 90% of the LRA troops were abducted as children. Although active fighting has ceased since 2006 (the LRA is still active in other countries), the physical, emotional, and psychological affects of the war still permeate the culture in northern Uganda. There are still about 1 million people living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, unable to return to their homes.

Peace Camp brought together 80 youth aged 15-19 from four tribes most affected by the conflict in the north: Acholi, Langi, Iteso, and Alur. Being from the southeast of Uganda, I had learned little about the LRA and the conflict other than what I learned from training and my own research. I could not truly understand the impact or the tribal distinctions until I witnessed the interactions among the campers. The campers were placed into camper groups of 10, and each group included a mixture of the 4 tribes, in an effort to encourage understanding and forgiveness between them. The conflict has long been thought of as a war waged by the Acholi and has often had undertones of Acholi nationalism, leaving many of the people of other tribes resentful and angry towards the Acholi as a tribe, so it was important to address this issue throughout the week.

I was a counselor for one of the camper groups, and did my best to foster a safe and comfortable environment for my campers to share and come to terms with their experiences. These people are truly amazing and strong individuals who have overcome horrendous obstacles in their life. For example, I will share an anonymous story of a camper from their camp application. This boy was forced by the LRA to kill his mother with a machete, being told that if he didn't, both of them would be killed. After being freed from the LRA and returning to his village, he was hoping for support by his neighbors and friends for what he had to go through. Instead, all he received was harsh judgement by people who refused to understand how he could have committed such an act, even under pain of death. This young man demonstrated the amazing strength needed to accept his past and seek help from others. He attended Peace Camp seeking skills to forgive and accept the perpetrators of his hellish past, and he plans to return to his village and teach others the skills he has learned. This is just one story, but I have so much admiration for all the camp participants and all the survivors of the LRA's terror.

Peace Camp 2011

My group came up with their name themselves: the Black Africans. At first, the wanted to be the Black Americans, but I politely vetoed that idea. All week, I had to get my group's attention by yelling BLACK AFRICANS!! Very strange!

Our first group meeting of the Black Africans.

A conflict resolution group from Gulu called Breakdancers for Peace helped open the camp:

Breakdancers for Peace

My group!

Our morning assembly - it felt like a real "camp!"

A participatory theatre group from Kampala called Rafiki theater performed about domestic violence and allowed campers to play the roles of the characters and act out alternative solutions to the conflicts.

Rafiki theatre

Enjoying some down time

A meeting of the Black Africans!

During the week, we traveled to the Recreation Project, a ropes course established in Gulu by trained psychologists to create a fun and hands-on environment for people to overcome their fears and learn about the importance of teamwork.

All of us learning about the importance of teamwork

My group had to work as a team to re-arrange themselves on this log in alphabetical order without falling off!

The culminating experience at the Recreation Project was the zip line. As most of you know, I'm afraid of heights, but after seeing my courageous campers tackle this fear, and after receiving so much support and encouragement from them, I had to give it a try! As I was flying through the air, my campers were running along side me on the ground so that they could great me at the end, hug me, and tell me how proud they were of me. Pretty fabulous :)

Getting ready to jump off!

Flying!

The Black Africans!

Each tribe performed a traditional dance from their culture for the rest of the camp and for their own tribal leaders. The campers really got into the performances and were really proud to teach their peers about their culture.

Our brand new Peace Corps country director even came to visit!

The Peace Camp staff joined by our new Peace Corps country director!

Each camper signed a Peace Camp banner

Each evening, we had nightly rituals to wrap up the experiences of the day.

A candlelight remembrance ceremony

Each camper was assigned a peace friend, and they made an art project for their friend with a peace message. Campers also sought out their peace friends to do something nice for them during the week.

Peace messages made by campers

At the end of the camp, each group performed about what they learned about peace throughout the week. My group performed some songs and a skit about forgiveness.

Singing

Performing a skit

Campers planted trees and created a Peace Garden

Most importantly, campers had fun! Here's a camper showing off her dance skills to one of the PCVs who organized the camp:

For those of you who are interested in learning more about the conflict in northern Uganda, I recommend that you watch War Dance, a documentary that showcases stories from students in a refugee camp in northern Uganda and their journey to the National Music Competition. There, for the first time, they got to, demonstrate to the rest of the country the tribal culture of the Acholi people. It is a really powerful movie. We showed it to the campers the first night at camp, and though it was difficult for some participants to watch, they said it was empowering to hear others' stories and watch them succeed in Kampala.

ttfn! :)

Apparently if shit hits the fan, we can COS now...

2011-10-21T03:14:00.000-07:00

Exactly one year ago today I, along with 44 other, amazing people, swore in as Peace Corps Volunteers. I posted back in August that we've been in Uganda for a year, but this milestone means that we've completed half of our two years of service (Peace Corps doesn't count those 2.5 months of training as "service"). This time next year, I will (hopefully) be an RPCV! It also means that if crazy stuff happens in the country (we are still banned from Kampala...), and we get evacuated, we can technically still close our service (COS) and be an RPCV (highly unlikely though)!

It's easy to look back on the past year and feel disappointed. By American standards, PCVs don't accomplish a lot of tasks or complete a lot of projects in a year. However, I think it's important to take a look at the past year and commemorate the good. Here's some exciting things I've done this past year:

Wore a traditional Ugandan gomez at an introduction (a pre-wedding ceremony). No I never posted a picture of this because the gomez was bright orange and slightly hideous.
Spent my first Christmas abroad with my awesome friend Lisa!
Leaned to collect and prepare the materials for and sew a traditional Ugandan mat. Pictures to come, if I ever finish it!
Rafted the Nile River
Learned to make yeast bread
Learned to test for malaria, vaccinate babies, and palpate a fetus
Helped with a mass, door-to-door polio vaccination campaign
Lived through my first African election
Attempted to teach my health center about good record keeping
Helped paint a mural with some kids at the Uganda PC 50th anniversary service event
Helped Soft Power Health sell about 600 mosquito nets to people in my community
Taught some kids about HIV/life skills
Mostly answered a lot of kids random questions about any and all things
Crossed the equator by land
Visited Rwanda and Kenya
Wrote and received funding through my first-ever grant
Saw the last two Harry Potter movies at Uganda's one and only theater (ok, the same theater opened a second branch a block away from the first branch, but it's really all one theater)
Found good fajitas and pad thai in Jinja!
Learned about the LRA and the war up north from some powerfully strong Ugandan youth
Ate at the first KFC in east Africa
Went on my first safari
Got schistosomiasis
Spent two birthdays in Uganda
Helped ensure quality control during an injury research study in Iganga by training field workers and reviewing their work
Found and purchased 300 towels in one go. They take up a lot more space than you would think.
Somehow come to terms with the fact that I will probably need to move sites in the next few months (details to come)
Made some great friends, both fellow PCVs and Ugandans
Read 63 books (and counting...)

It's been a good year

ttfn :)

I've been in Africa for over a year, so it's about time I go on a safari!

2011-10-15T03:02:00.000-07:00

So things have been pretty busy the past month or so. At the end of August, I was a counselor at Peace Camp in northern Uganda, a camp organized by other PCVs for youth affected by the war. I'll post more details on that later.

I also spent several says back in Wakiso to help run some sessions at pre-service training for the new group of 46 health and economic development volunteers. I taught them about the (flawed) health management information systems used in health centers in the country and about malaria, including all the fun we had at World Malaria!

We also had a Peace Corps Uganda all-volunteer conference, where (almost) all of the PCVs in the country get together to talk about project ideas and what's going well at everyone's site.

Here we are! The fabulous Peace Corps Uganda group!

After the conference, 4 other PCVs and I went on a wonderful Kenyan adventure! We went to the Masai Mara and went on the most amazing safari ever. We saw over 50 lions, 4 cheetahs, a leopard, and countless giraffes, elephants, zebras, and wildebeest. We were there for the annual wildebeest migration, the largest migration in the world. We got to see them crossing the river, and even got to see a crocodile attack a wildebeest and a zebra! All animals pictures our courtesy of my wonderful photographer/friend Britt Larson!

The Kenyan Kitties!

In our safari car!

Cuddling :)

Just waking up from a nap!

So cute! I wanted to take one home!

This guy was so scare climbing down the tree!

Yummy wildebeest

Just some playing :)

Male lion taking a snooze

Some cheetahs resting after a meal

Cheetah!

Leopard!

The migration - so many wildebeests!

River crossing

Croc attacking a zebra!

Croc attacking a wildebeest!

Giraffes are so cool!

Elephant with baby

Zebras and wildebeest just hanging out

Baby zebra!

Hyena!

Cute - also = food

We called this guy "gaga" after his resemblance to Lady Gaga

Cool bird we nicknamed sherbet bird!

The Mara during the day

The Mara at sunset!

In summary, Kenya was amazing!

Next posts will detail Peace Camp and my current adventure: preparing material to teach 3,500 girls how to make reusable menstrual pads!

ttfn :)

Beach Weekend

2011-08-13T21:52:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago, a bunch of PCVs got together to enjoy a nice beach vacation to celebrate the previously mentioned one-year in country anniversary. About 20 of us traveled to Ssese islands on Lake Victoria to enjoy the sand and sun. We relaxed on the beach, avoided the water like the plague (that darn schistosomiasis), and even played capture the flag. All in all, a fabulous time.

Cormac the mermaid!

Snoozing in a hammock (complete with mosquito net!)

Peace Corps goal 2: teaching Ugandans how to build sand castles

Reading on the beach

Bonfire!

This is definitely still Africa :)

ttfn! :)

Wow, I've been here a year already!

2011-08-11T01:04:00.000-07:00

So one year ago today I left the grand ol’ U S of A for Uganda. I feel like such a important anniversary deserves a blog post, but I don’t know what to write that will do justice to the occasion. Instead, I will create a short list of memorable moments of the past year:

Watching a small baby cry hysterically as older children offered her to me for eating (there is a myth that whites eat African babies)
The first time I could go to the market and bargain for my food with out having to use English
My first Christmas abroad with a fabulous friend, Lisa – Christmas miracles and Christmas crumble
Playing yahtzee by candlelight with other volunteers
Watching the last Harry Potter movies in the one theater in Uganda
Busoga girls nights with the lovely Lusoga Ladies
Days of eating – where we spend the day restaurant hopping in Jinja
Having my co-workers tell other mzungus that they are visitors, but that I am now a Musoga
Getting lost on our way to an Indian restaurant in Kigali, and then finally eating the best Indian food I’ve had in a year
Watching Drew struggle through about a dozen power outages to bake delicious cookies in his new electric oven (also called Drew’s easy-bake oven)

All in all, it's great to be able to look back one year later and know that we’ve got a truly amazing PC group, full of great people and great friends – and that all 45 of us are still here! :)

ttfn!

So Peace Corps isn’t ALL fun and games…

2011-06-25T03:39:00.000-07:00

I know I mostly post about vacations/non-work related things, but that’s mostly because I figure those posts make for a more interesting read. Also, I think pictures make for more interesting posts :) However, I realize it may come across as if I don’t ever work. So I wanted to make it clear that while the work here is slow and very often punctuated by fun and games, there is still work.

Case in point: I’ve been teaching life skills/health/whatever at a local secondary school. Since the kids are often shy around the muzungu (and in front of their classmates), I thought it would better to set up an anonymous questions box, where students can ask questions about health, etc. without having to ask them in front of everyone. Well, no one else seemed as excited about this idea as I was, so I thought the box would just be forgotten about, or maybe even stolen by a trouble-making student. Imagine my surprise when I came back to the school two days after setting up the box to find it overstuffed with questions. I was a bit overwhelmed by the volume of questions posed to me, so I told the students to let me take them home and prepare my answers for next week. Well, here are some of the questions that I got:

If you have sex during your menstruation, do you get pregnant?
Is it true that if you kiss someone who has HIV, you’ll also get HIV?
There are some boys who disturb me during my leisure time, but if I see them I feel like vomiting. What can I do, please help me?
Is it true that if young people play sex before menstruation begins you can still get pregnant?
How can I know when playing sex that sperm is coming through the penis?
Is it true that if you delay having sex you become an abnormal person?
Is it bad to practice homosexuality?
People usually tell us to have sex when we are still young in order to become perfect in sex. What is the meaning of perfect in sex?
I am 17, but my fellow students say that I can’t get somebody pregnant because I do not erect. What am I going to do? Because I like studying more than playing sex.
Is it true that menstruation breaks your virginity?
How many times can you use a condom before it gets destroyed?
If your uncle admired you and you stay in the same house and he pays your school fees and his intention is to fall in love with you, how can I avoid that?
If you are disliked at home because you were raped by a certain man you don’t know, and your guardians and neighbors are harsh, and you are shy, what knowledge do you give to that person who is in such a condition?
If your father takes drugs, how can you avoid that problem if you want to study?
If I am a boy and I have not experienced wet dreams, am I infertile?
I am a girl of 12 years. I have aborted 2 pregnancies. Can I manage to give birth the next time?
I have AIDS, but I feel like I’m in injury of playing sex. What can I do?

This is just a sampling of the questions I received after two days. TWO DAYS. Some of the questions can be addressed with sessions on facts about HIV, menstruation, safe sex practices, etc., but some of the questions are more difficult. How do I address the issue of homosexuality in a country where it is illegal, and gay activists get beaten to death? There are still discussions of passing a bill penalizing practicing homosexuals in Uganda with the death penalty. How do I address questions of rape and stigmatization, drug use, and a relative who wants sexual favors in exchange for school fees? Good grief! Well, that’s the challenge of the day, and only time will tell what questions I’ll get next time!

On another note, I recently visited an orphanage near my town. My presence was requested by the orphanage’s director, who saw me at an event at my health center. After making it clear that, although I’m white, I’m not hear to give their organization money, I went for a visit. While it’s still a new organization, I was shocked (and I thought I was over being shocked in this country) by what I saw. The students have class under a wall-less temporary structure (so of course, no class when it rains). They sleep 40 students per room, with no mattresses, on a dirt floor. They fetch their water (for washing, drinking, cooking) from an open pond with gray water a 15 minute walk away. On the weekends they have to work in the garden to grow their own food to eat. Sometimes they perform songs/dances/skits about HIV and family planning around the district to earn money for the organization. They walk miles each way to the performances because they can’t afford transport. When I talked to the kids, one girl asked me to be her mother.

The director told me they need money to fix the place up (no-duh). Since the students perform (they performed at my health center) to make money, I was a bit confused about where the money went. Are the kids seeing any benefit from the money? Why are they still sleeping on a dirt floor then? I told them I would try and help the organization develop some income generating activities (clearly not something I know much about though) if I could have full access to their financial reports. We’ll see how this turns out!

ttfn :)

The Cleanest Place on Earth

2011-06-04T02:55:00.000-07:00

This past week, I went on vacation to Rwanda with some other volunteers, and we had a blast. Rwanda borders Uganda in the very southwest of the country, so Lisa and I, being the only ones to come from out east, had the longest to travel. The trip started out a bit rocky: we sat on the bus in Kampala for almost 3 hours before it filled up enough to leave the bus park. Luckily, we did meet an up-and-coming rap artistic named Rastor Pastor on the bus selling photos of famous people. He even gave us pictures of himself so we wouldn’t forget his visit to the bus.

Finally, the bus takes off for the west, but only 20 kms outside the city the bus breaks down. While we’re waiting for the mechanic to come and fix the bus, what else should happen but a hailstorm. That’s right, a hailstorm on the equator. The storm does pass, only for us to find out that the bus can’t be fixed, and the bus driver had lied to us about calling back to Kampala for another bus to pick up all the stranded passengers. At this point, it’s been over five hours since we arrived in Kampala, and we’ve only made it 20 kms west of the city. Well, this is Africa.

Lisa and I decide maybe we’ll have better luck hitching a ride in one of the local aid vehicles passing by. Not 30 seconds after we make this decision, a vehicle headed to Mbarara (our destination for the night) pulls up behind the bus. We’re saved! The kind drivers take pity on the two stranded mzungus and we get a free ride into Mbarara in the much more comfy car.

On the way to Mbarara we do actually pass right through the equator. Of course, we had to document the moment:

The Equator!

The next day, after meeting up with some other volunteers/travel buddies, we continue our journey south towards Rwanda. We finally make it to Kigali, and we discover that it’s the cleanest place on earth! Or at least it’s the cleanest place we’ve seen a long long time. Apparently, once a month the entire country has a community day to clean up the country. All businesses shut down for the morning, the police put spikes in the street to prevent taxis from driving around, and people actually go around cleaning the city. The event did make it difficult for us tourists to get breakfast, transport around, or access to museums, etc., but it was astonishing to witness the program in action. What was even more astonishing was comparing this beautifully maintained city to Kampala, where the roads and sidewalks are all covered with potholes and trash.

The deserted city center during community day

Waiting until the city opens again

Pretty Kigali

Once the city was finished cleaning and opened again, we went and had lunch at Hotel Des Mille Collines, the hotel that was the inspiration for the movie Hotel Rwanda. After the European managers of the hotel were evacuated, the Rwandan manager Paul Rusesabagina provided shelter to over 1,200 Rwandans escaping the genocide. The four-star hotel still operates as normal today:

Hotel - poolside

Our group

Afterwards, we went to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial, a beautifully done museum and memorial for the victims of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where about 250,000 of the genocide victims are buried in mass graves.

Kigali Memorial Center - the flame is lit for the 100 days of mourning

Mass graves at Kigali Memorial Center

We also visited a memorial a little outside the city in Nyamata. This memorial was set up in a church where over 10,000 victims died in one attack during the genocide: 5,000 died inside the church itself and the other 5,000 who couldn’t fit in the church perished in the surrounding areas. The experience was very emotional. The church is filled with the clothing of the victims, and the sheer mass of them gives some indication of the multitude of people who were killed here. In the crypts out back there are piles and rows of skulls and femur bones of the victims. It’s a very graphic memorial, but it really imparts upon you the magnitude of what happened.

After experiencing the “big city,” we decided to go and relax along the shores of Lake Kivu. Yes, it really is paradise:

Lake Kivu

Enjoying the lake

A cool lizard-dude with cool flowers

ttfn! :)

Standfast...again

2011-05-02T02:43:00.000-07:00

You may remember that the presidential elections in Uganda were held in February, and they went off rather peacefully, with the ruling president winning another term. Well, now that the elections are over, the opposition parties have started holding “walk to work” demonstrations twice a week in Kampala and some other large towns to protest the rising costs of goods in the country. These demonstrations are, to say the least, NOT going off peacefully. There have been riots, tear gas, firing of rubber and real bullets, and just all-out chaos, particularly in Kampala. As one Ugandan colleague says: “Kampala is on fire!” I, of course, thought this literally meant people were burning the city. In fact, it just means more tear gas and rioting. You know, the usual. (Sidenote: as I learned later, the news coverage does show people burning tires and things in the streets in Kampala, so I guess the city is really on fire).

As a result, when things have been getting particularly bad, Peace Corps has been putting us on standfast, meaning that we have to stay put and not leave our sites. Not to worry though, my small town is very quiet, and I often don’t even hear about the violence except when Peace Corps updates us. Keep your fingers crossed that things calm down!

ttfn - ta ta for now! :)

Happy Easter!

2011-04-30T01:30:00.000-07:00

In Uganda, both Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays, so the long weekend was a perfect excuse to get together with some other volunteers to celebrate the holiday.

Not only did we get to eat delicious food (including chicken mole, pizza, and pancakes), but we also got to visit some waterfalls and enjoy a nice picnic lunch:

For Easter dinner, we had a lovely pork dinner, and in Uganda that means slaughtering your own pig and grilling it over a fire pit on a metal bed frame. My role in the dinner cooking involved grating cabbage and carrots for the coleslaw rather than killing the pig, but observing was quite the experience. About halfway through the kill, one PCV yells "IT'S DYING!! IT'S DYING!!" to which another PCV responds "that's not the same as dead!":

The before shot

The after shot

Just grilling up some pork on a bedframe

World Malaria Day 2011

After Easter, I traveled back to my site to celebrate World Malaria Day with an event I coordinated at the health center III in my town. A local NGO came to conduct an education session about malaria and sell long-lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets at a reduced price. After their session, we wrapped up by playing a malaria jeopardy game testing the crowd’s knowledge of malaria.

Women and babies watching the malaria presentation

Teaching people about malaria

What better way to show people how to use a mosquito than to put children under one!

People lining up to buy mosquito nets

Malaria jeopardy

ttfn - ta ta for now! :)

Live like a PCV challenge

2011-04-18T00:08:00.000-07:00

Can you hack it and “Live Like a Peace Corps Volunteer” for a week? Check out this innovative Challenge launched by a team of currently serving Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) around the world, along with the growing support of others including the National Peace Corps Association. The "Live Like a Peace Corps Volunteer Challenge" started with a simple dare to a PCV’s family to give up a microwave for a week. That dare wasn't accepted, but the story of it inspired another Volunteer to make a game of the whole thing and tie it into the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps and the 20th anniversary of Peace Corps/ Mongolia where this all started.

The goal of this project is to raise awareness of Peace Corps in America and give those participating in the Challenge a small taste of Peace Corps life, hopefully while having some fun. PCVs in Kenya adapted the challenge to reflect realities of serving in Kenya. The challenge celebrates our 50th anniversary while at the same time addressing our 3rd goal. Perhaps the only things missing from this challenge, things that are extremely difficult to replicate in other settings, are the inherent benefits of service- the sense of accomplishment in mastering your new language, the joy of making a new friend in spite of massive cultural differences, the beauty of the environments in which we serve… Nevertheless, this is a great activity for stimulating discussion about how two-thirds of the world lives.

The Challenge: Kenyan Rules (There are no Ugandan-specific rules yet)

For one week you are asked to give up some of the everyday conveniences that we PCVs and our communities do without. The levels are arranged from more common to less common living conditions of PCVs in Kenya while also taking into account the difficulty of completing the challenge in the US. So while none of us here have a car, it ranks quite high in the challenge as it is much more difficult to do without one in the states. Kenya is known for its beautiful safaris in which you can spot the “The Big Five” animals, for which we’ve named our levels (they are in order of rareness in the Mara).

First, decide which month you want to participate. The first week of the month you choose (the 1st-7th) will be when you need to forgo certain items.

Next, look through the list below and decide which one of the five levels of difficulty you want to take on, and which items you will abstain from (although your items may come from multiple difficulty levels you are only trying to complete one level, the most difficult you think you can manage).

Finally, let us know that you’ve taken up the challenge by completing the Accept the Challenge section of the general “Live Like a PCV” at www.LiveLikeaPCV.org

Lion: Difficulty Level I

(choose two)

Forgo the use of the microwave.
No checks, no debit cards or credit cards, cash only all week.
No washing machine or dish washers - plus you must attempt laundry by hand once. (Let’s be honest you probably have enough clothes to easily go a week without washing.)
Cook dinner by candlelight.
Keep a journal or write a handwritten letter to a friend about your experiences this week.

Buffalo: Difficulty Level II

(choose two plus one item from Level I)

No television (This includes Hulu and Adult Swim online, they are not available outside the US)--You can listen to the radio and read local newspapers.
Baths or showers allowed only every other day- You can wash yourself at the sink with a cloth each day.
No fast food, no restaurants (this includes coffee places, bars, and delivery).
Internet only every other day. (You can use the internet for your job but you're on the honor system here.)
Start and finish a book this week.
Buy your fruits and vegetables for the week locally.
Wild Animals! You can't leave your yard between 7:30 PM and 6:30 AM unless accompanied by 3 or more people.

Elephant: Difficulty Level III

(choose two plus one item from Level II or two items from Level I)

You can use your toilet but you must manually fill the tank or do a bucket flush. (Turn off the water to the toilet.)
Lack of temperature control - No heater or air conditioner in your car.
Greet everyone you know with a handshake and genuine questions about their family, home, and health.
You can only use one burner on your stove and no oven.
Ration your water to only 10 gallons a day. This includes cooking, drinking, bathing, and washing clothes.
Teach someone the 4 ways the HIV virus is transmitted

Leopard: Difficulty Level IV

(choose two plus one item from Level III, or two items from Level II, or three items from Level I)

Reduced living space. You may only use your living room, bathroom and kitchen.
Bathe only once this week. (You may wash yourself with a cloth at the sink each day.)
No driving. You can use public transport, bicycle, and walking.
Internet one day this week. (Again, you can use it for your work only.)
Power outage. Throw a dice (6 sides) every day for how many hours you will be without power sometime between 5.00pm -11.00pm (turn off your power breakers).

Rhino: Difficulty Level V

(choose one item from each Level)

No running water from your house, you must go fetch it from somewhere else (a neighbor’s house is fine).
No English for the entire week. (You can speak English at work only.)
You can’t use any toilet in your house, you must go somewhere else or improvise.
No refrigerator.
Spend the whole weekend in one room of your house. Using no electricity - you are allowed 3 books and the battery life of your computer (no recharging).

Questions for Reflection:

How did you find this challenge- difficult? Easier than you had anticipated?
What surprised you about participating in this challenge?
What did this challenge teach about how people in developing countries live?

When you’ve successfully completed your Challenge check out our “Show Support” page at www.LiveLikeaPCV.org for gear to let others know of your triumph and help us spread the word.

Peace Corps turns 50!

2011-04-09T05:36:00.000-07:00

March 1, 2011 was the 50^th anniversary of Peace Corps – In 1961 JFK created the Peace Corps to send American volunteers to countries all over the world. To celebrate, we held a service event and reception last week with about 120 current volunteers and 20 RPCVs in Uganda. It was a great day where I got to help paint (mostly help kids paint, since my painting skills aren’t great) a mural at a primary school and hang out with a lot of other volunteers. Other projects volunteers participated in included planting a garden, teaching students about waste management and life skills, training teachers, painting classrooms, repairing rain water catchment systems, building an improved air quality stove, and playing sports with the students. Here are some pictures from the day:

120 volunteers gearing up for the event

Some primary school students painting the mural

Students posing in front of the mural

Me, Christy, and Jenny

The finished project!

In other news...

Why I’m lucky to have great neighbors

For a few weeks there had been a large spider making my bedroom his home. This spider was huge, particularly ugly, and on one occasion even crawled over my foot. However, I let the spider be for a while because I only saw him at night, and it’s too difficult to chase and eliminate a spider in the dark. One day, the spider made an appearance in the afternoon, and I stared him down. I decided that this was it: the spider was going down. I wanted to simply sweep him outside, quick and easy. I took my broom and aimed carefully…and the spider ran off. He was much faster than I anticipated, and I swept the broom around the room frantically trying to get him. In my eagerness, I hadn’t realized that I was making quite a racket until my neighbor came to the door to ask if I was all right. I told her, breathlessly, that I was trying to get rid of a spider. She calmly walked past me (while I was looking disheveled and still clutching my broom), grabbed the spider by one of his legs, and tossed him outside. She walked back to her house laughing at the commotion I had made over a spider.

A few weeks later, I was held hostage under my mosquito net by a small bat. I was innocently reading a book one evening when I saw my mosquito net make an odd flutter. I turned my head to see a bat clutching to the side of the net, inches from my face. I poked him to see what would happen (it seemed like a reasonable idea at the time), and he flew off spastically. He refused to settle down, and I spent the night listening to the bat fluttering around my room and crawling over my stuff. Worst of all, every ten minutes or so he would fly, torpedo-like, into my mosquito net, forcing me to grab a light and make sure he hadn’t infiltrated the net. I decided the darkness and the ferocious energy of the bat made it unlikely that I would catch him that night, so I patiently waited (curled up under the safety of my mosquito net) until morning. The first thing I did when I woke up was, of course, tell my neighbor about the bat. Her reaction: why don’t you just fight it? I tried to explain that I have no experience fighting a bat, and I was afraid I would lose. Once again, she calmly walked into my house, grabbed the bat in a scarf, and took him outside to beat him to death with a stone.

The moral of these stories: I am a wimp and my neighbor is an awesome pest remover. I’m lucky to have her around J

When it rains, it pours

Also when it rains, life in Uganda seems to pause. Things you can’t do when it rains:

Drink milk – my neighbors don’t milk the cows in the rain
Travel – taxis get stuck in the mud
Charge electronics – the power usually goes out
Charge a solar light – too cloudy!
Call someone – phone networks go out in the rain
Use the internet – same networks as above
Use the latrine without getting your clothes and toilet paper soaked
Sleep in peace – rain makes quite a racket on a tin roof
Walk down the street without falling in the mud (this may just be me and my clumsiness…)
Bathe – it seems like the rain would only help the process, but my feet always get very muddy on the way back, making the bath useless. Also, I’m more likely to fall, making the bath even more useless.

ttfn - ta ta for now! :)

No longer a mzungu

2011-03-08T01:30:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, a huge thing happened. I mean HUGE. A child, maybe 4 years old, called me by my name: Nangobi! Most of the adults in town have called me by name for several months now, but the children were slower to come around and continued to call me “mzungu.” This may seem like a small accomplishment, but when I heard that child screaming “NANGOBI BYE!” at me, I felt overjoyed. It really is the small things that count. This week, no fewer than 5 children have remembered my name. Now, in a country with a fertility rate of 6.7, there are still a lot of children calling me mzungu, but it’s definitely a start!

In other news, I’ve survived my first African election! In my town, things were quiet – and I mean eerily quiet. In the week leading up to the election, things had gotten progressively more chaotic in town: lots more people around, campaign speeches, large trucks sporting candidates faces and loud music. But when election day finally arrived, it seemed that most people took the “holiday” to heart and stayed home. Other towns weren’t so lucky: a fellow volunteer got caught in the crossfire of tear gas when a riot broke out in his town. Overall though, the elections were peaceful and to some extent anticlimactic. I have to admit I was hoping for a bit more action!

In completely unrelated news, I'm about 70% done reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Peace Corps mandated "stay at your site" policy during the elections left me with a lot of time on my hands. I'm also making my own mat. Ugandans make floor mats out of papyrus, so I decided to learn the process, start to finish. I went to the valley and collected papyrus with a machete, dried the leaves for three days, died them different colors (purple, pink, blue, green) with dye I bought in the market, dried them again, cut the pieces to size, and finally started weaving the mat. I still have (realistically) months of work ahead of me until the mat is finished (Ugandans complete a mat in about 2 weeks, but I'm a bit slower), but I'm excited for the project! My neighbors think it's hilarious when I take my materials outside with them to weave my mat.

Fyi: the rains have not yet come, and I think I might die from too much dust inhalation. Just thought I'd let you know.

ttfn - ta ta for now! :)

Some thoughts on life in Uganda

2011-02-11T03:03:00.000-08:00

To many Ugandans, being a mzungu means that you are qualified to do many things. When you are at a health center, this usually means that you are most often seen as a doctor, or at least a nurse. Many times I’ve had to explain to my colleagues that I am not qualified to perform medical procedures (I’m barely qualified to observe!). For example, while visiting a health center IV in my district, I stopped by the theater to observe a circumcision. I imagined that I would observe from a good distance, preferably behind a window. Instead, the health workers had me suit up in a surgical gown and stand not less than a foot from the patient during the procedure, (during which only local anesthetic was used, by the way) and the nurses kept telling me to come closer in order to get a good look at what was going on. Why was it so important that I observe so closely? Well, I found out as I left that the nurses were hoping that next time I came to visit the health center I would actually perform a circumcision myself. Ummm…..no thank you.

Hospitality is very important to Ugandans, and being a mzungu most often means being treated like royalty (did I mention that my Busoga name means princess?) I’m always offered the best seat in a room, the front seat of a taxi, and first servings of a buffet lunch. In fact, if I’m not first in line to get food, I’m often pressured to cut everyone else in line in order to get my food first. Such treatment is both frustrating and flattering. It definitely takes some getting used to though. As a side note: this special treatment doesn’t always mean getting silverware to eat the food you were served first at an event (there is very rarely silverware at meals for large functions such as introductions and parties), so it’s important to practice eating with your hands before making a complete fool of yourself in public. Rice is particularly challenging.

Nonverbal communication is very popular. For example, raising your eyebrows means “yes,” and people will give directions by pointing with their lips. It took me a while to get used to it, but now I’ve started using these nonverbal communication methods as often as my Ugandan friends.

Public transport here can be quite the experience. It consists mostly of matatu taxis (vans that are supposed to seat 14 but often seat 25 or more), Toyota corona taxis (small cars that seat 7-10 people instead of the usual 5), and motorcycle taxis (called boda bodas, these often seat 1-2 passengers in addition to the driver as well as ample amounts of luggage). Peace Corps doesn’t allow volunteers to ride boda bodas, for good reason. They are particularly dangerous, especially since most drive much too fast and passengers never (and drivers only rarely) wear helmets. Since being in Uganda, I’ve already witnessed several boda boda accidents, some of which were particularly bad. I was on a matatu taxi once when I saw the consequences of a motorcycle accident on a main road to Jinja – the police had to scoop up the remains of the body with a shovel off the road and into a bag. Just a few days later, a pregnant woman died in a boda boda accident on the main road in my town. She fell off the motorcycle onto the road and a taxi hit her, killing her and her baby. Not even a week later, the husband of a midwife in my town died when the boda boda he was driving was hit by a car. Sometimes I feel like it is safer to stay at home rather than brave the public transportation to move around! Today when I arrived in town, I was greeted with “kuli ko lugendo,” which translates to welcome back from your dangerous journey on the road.

Matatu taxi

Small car taxi

Kampala taxi park - quite the experience

Boda boda - and yes, the women ride side-saddle!

Meals in Uganda consist of “food” (matooke, potatoes, rice, posho) and “sauce” (literally a soup-like sauce, meat such as chicken, fish or beef, beans, etc,). I realized I was truly adjusting to life in Uganda when I got a plate of beef and vegetables at a nice restaurant and immediately thought: “but where is the food?!”

The dry season started about a month ago, and I REALLY miss the rain. When it is dry, it’s also sweltering hot and extremely dusty – even the Ugandans say so! It also means that my rainwater tank is emptying, requiring me to carry water from the borehole (about 1 km away) for drinking, bathing, washing, etc. It rained once last week, and even though it was very short-lived, I almost wept in relief at the brief reprieve from heat and dust.

Ugandans take stealing VERY seriously. They believe in a concept called mob justice, so when someone is caught stealing, everyone around will attack the culprit. I witnessed this for myself this week. I never found out what the man stole - all I saw were dozens of hands, feet, and sugarcanes hitting him everywhere. Even a legless man wailed on this man. They stripped off his clothes and dragged him into an alley for more beating. I couldn't stand to watch, but I heard that eventually he ran away from the crowd. The moral of the story is: don't steal in Uganda!

ttfn – ta ta for now! J

Muzungu Central

2011-01-24T01:21:00.000-08:00

The past week and a half has been quite a change of pace from village life. We had a 10 day in service training (IST) with the other volunteers from our training group at a nice hotel near Kampala. I’ve gotten so used to the electricity, hot showers, and so many muzungu that I’m worried it will be hard to adjust to life in my village! As for IST itself, it was really great to catch up with the other volunteers, most of whom I hadn’t seen in three months. We also got to reunite the fabulous team Lusoga for some extra language class! This past week was also the first time I went to a Ugandan comedy show. Let’s just say that Ugandan comedy is a LOT different than American comedy, and a lot of it involves people dressing up and lip-synching to various songs. A fellow volunteer went on stage himself to introduce American stand up to Uganda – much miscommunication ensued. For example, a joke about asthma was translated as malaria. Whether or not the Ugandans understood, we all found the night very amusing.

As a small aside, I realize I never blogged about a somewhat traumatic experience I had at site about 6 weeks ago – I had not one, not two, but three mango flies. On my butt. What are mango flies you might ask? You can try googling them for more details, but basically they are flies that lay their eggs in your wet clothes. When you wear these clothes the eggs hatch in your skin and develop into maggots. Yes, I removed three maggots from my butt. Only 6 weeks later can I actually appreciate the humor in this. At the time, I was pretty grossed out. It also helps that at IST I found that another volunteer currently had three mango flies himself. Since I was the only person in our group who had experience in this department, it was up to me to remove them. You might wonder how you remove a mango fly? Well, you squeeze it like you’re popping a zit and the maggot just pops out. Yup, fabulous. I have now extracting 6 mango flies and am the resident expert. Great title to hold.

On a more uplifting note, after IST I joined the majority of our training group on a rafting trip on the Nile. Now, you might think this is a silly thing to do since I can’t swim and this all day trip involves several class 5 rapids…I also am completely useless as a raft-mate since my single handedness prevents me from paddling…but I didn’t want to miss out on the fun! Instead, I rode down the Nile on the safety raft – the goal of the safety raft is to NOT flip and spill me into the Nile, and I fully supported that goal. Therefore, I got to enjoy my own private raft, rowed by a great guide/rafter, have the front seat on all the rapids, and head down all the rapids before all the other rafts and watch them come tumbling after. AND I didn’t flip. YES. My local Busoga name in my village is Nangobi, which means princess (it’s the name of the Busoga royal line). My fellow volunteers thought it was a fitting name for me on my private raft hehe.

That's me under all that water

SO much water

My princess wave to the camera

The cat fell in the toilet

2011-01-10T09:53:00.000-08:00

Now, this might seem like an amusing but relatively harmful anecdote if it happened in America – the cat fell into the toilet, meowed pitifully, then was rescued and returned to the comforts of home. Well, in Uganda this story goes a little differently…

Here, the “toilet” is a 10-foot deep pit latrine. And yes, one of the cats that live on our compound/farm fell in one night. The next day as I was squatting to do my business I heard the pitiful wail of a cat. I assumed the cat was outside the latrine door or maybe behind the building, but I noticed that its wails turned rather indignant when I relieved myself. Surely, I thought, the cat COULDN’T have fallen in the latrine! I got my flashlight and tried to find the cat down below. My Ugandan neighbors noticed me peering inside the latrine and laughed hysterically. It turns out they had already discovered that the cat was indeed inside the latrine and had tried, but failed, to rescue him. All I could discern about their rescue attempt was that they had lowered a rope into the latrine and the cat “refused” to grab on. My thoughts on this: he’s a cat! Do you really expect him to grab on to a rope for the 10-foot ascent!? So I executed a second cat rescue attempt.

My first idea was to lower a bucket into the latrine, but the bucket was too big to fit down the hole. My second idea was to tie a loop in the rope, grab a hold of the cat’s leg, and pull him up, but it turns out that you can’t really distinguish between different cat body parts from 10 feet up. My third idea was to lower a plastic bag into the hole and hope that the cat got inside – so we jimmy rigged a bag into a bowl-shape, used sticks to keep the shape intact, and added some leftover rice to attract the cat’s attention. Well, the cat “refused” to get inside, so my neighbors told me we must “just forgot about him and pray.”

Now, this story wouldn’t be nearly as tragic if the cat had died upon impact or within the first few hours or even days, but instead the cat is slowly perishing in a 10-foot deep toilet that several people still use on a daily basis…what a way to go. A colleague told me she once had a chicken fall into the pit latrine and survive for three months! Only time will tell how long a cat can survive in a pit latrine – hopefully it’s less that three months. RIP mukwano gwange (my friend).

Isuka Omwaka!

2011-01-09T03:41:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year from Uganda!

I rang in this New Year from the shores of the Nile in Jinja. I met up with some other volunteers, and we celebrated in town and along the river. We visited the source of the Nile, enjoyed delicious food, watched fireworks from a rooftop, and relaxed on a beautiful beach island on the Nile. In summary, it was a pretty fabulous holiday! I think pictures can communicate the experience much better than I can:

At the source of the Nile River

At the Nile

We took these boats to reach a beautiful island on the Nile

Our over-filled boat

The Ugandans carried us weak-mzungus off the boats

View from the beach on the island

Sunrise over the Nile

Our fabulous new years group!

Funny asides:

I recently bought a few mugs in the market in town. It took me a while to find ones that I liked and that weren’t the same three mug designs found all over the country. I happily went home, glad that I had found some pretty, unique mugs, only to discover that I had just purchased Starbucks mugs, circa 2008. There may not be an actually Starbucks in Uganda, but its influence seems to permeate everywhere!

I was eating dinner outside one evening when a lizard jumped on my chest and tried to crawl down my shirt. Needless to say, this was unexpected, and I spent several seconds frantically expelling the lizard from my shirt. Out of a table of six people, only one noticed this exchange at all. Either my encounter was not as frantic as I imagined, or my friends are really unobservant…

ttfn - ta ta for now!

Christmas in Uganda

2010-12-29T03:43:00.000-08:00

My friend Lisa and I spent Christmas in her village (about 15 minutes away from my village). We had a great time cooking great food and “enjoying life” as the Ugandans say. Our menu included French toast, pancakes, creamy potato soap, grilled cheese, sesame noodles, paneer curry, and homemade chapatti. For dessert we (tried) to make no-bake oatmeal peanut butter cookies (from the Peace Corps cook book) and rum balls (a traditional family favorite of my mine). While neither of them turned out quite as expected and therefore had to be renamed as crumble 1 and crumble 2, they were delicious and a big hit with the Ugandan neighbors.

Lisa with our homemade paneer

Making Chapatti

We also enjoyed Christmas lunch with my supervisor, Maria, and her children at her home. As soon as we arrived, my supervisor asked us if we could make a cake. She had tried the day before to bake her first cake and it didn’t turn out great….or even good. So Lisa and I made a delicious cake using her fabulous gas oven/stove combo (oh how I wish I had one of those) to enjoy after our Christmas lunch.

Maria, me and Lisa making cake

Christmas Lunch

Maria cutting the cake

All the kids!

Christmas afternoon we went back to the village and enjoyed some traditional Busoga music and dance, where, of course, the two mzungus had to demonstrate our (not-so-good) Busoga dancing skills! Lisa has decided to take lessons J

Enjoying Christmas and the mzungus

Our Ugandan Christmas card picture - this backdrop was set up at the trading center

Enjoying local brew

Ugandan dance party!

Some other things I’ve discovered about Uganda in the past month or so:

It’s important to keep my door closed at all times. ALL TIMES. I found a chicken lounging on my neighbor’s bed on more than one occasion, and when I asked her about she simply said “he likes to lay his eggs there.”

I love the stars. With no electricity around and no buildings taller than one story, the stars create a blanket around my house every night: my very own planetarium.

I seem to discover new types of ants every day. Lisa and I discovered 2 new types over the Christmas weekend alone. That’s when I discovered that Peace Corps tried to prepare us for this via an entry in my Lusoga phrasebook:

Stink ant?! I haven't seen that one yet...

You can get any piece of furniture you want made in my small town. You just give the carpenter the dimensions of what you want, pay a boda boda driver to deliver the finished product to your house, and in a few days you can enjoy your custom furnished house! I'll post the house pictures once it's fully outfitted.

ttfn – ta ta for now!

TIA - This is Africa

2010-11-28T23:48:00.000-08:00

Some things I’ve learned in Uganda:

In America, we often say “time is money,” but in Uganda, it’s more common to say “eh, there is always time!” I think I like the Ugandan philosophy better.

Carrying a 20L jerry can of water on your head is hard. Really hard. Carrying 10L is easier, but only slightly.

Children are a lot stronger than me, and therefore end up doing a whole lot more work than me. For example, if I don’t want to carry the 20L jerry can of water back from the bore hole (see above about it being really hard), a Ugandan woman will often yell “boy!” at the nearest child and commandeer his bicycle to take back our water. What if the child doesn’t have a bicycle? Well then, he will go fetch one.

Kerosene lamps can burn. Oww.

As the only white person in my town, I often get overcharged for everything. A Ugandan friend told me that I should say: “Eh seebo! You are putting me in an oversized shoe!” when this happens.

My current favorite Uganda song goes likes this: O baby, oli vitamin. Omusuja gunuma. Oli chloroquine. Which translates to: O baby, you are my vitamin. I am suffering from malaria. You are my chloroquine.

ttfn - ta ta for now! :)

Officially a PCV!

2010-11-24T03:40:00.000-08:00

So I know this update is super long overdue, but keeping a blog has become increasingly more difficult without electricity!

A lot has happened since I’ve last written, so I’ll try to summarize the past month or so as best I can.

Our last week in Wakiso concluded with a party thanking all of our homestay families for hosting us these past two months. As part of the festivities, each language group presented some form of entertainment that demonstrated what they had learned about Uganda during training and also shared something about America for the Ugandans present. Some of the Ugandan entertainment included traditional songs and dance. For the American component, groups performed things like the chicken dance, the YMCA dance, and taught the group how to make rice crispy treats. My language group tried (not so-successfully) to sing the Busoga anthem and then sang (more successfully) the 50 state song. In addition, I was asked about 5 minutes before the program started to lead the group in the national anthem, since somehow word got around that I enjoyed singing…sheesh

After leaving Wakiso, we all gathered at the Peace Corps office in Kampala to get the official tour and get some books from the library (yay!) Then we went to a hotel outside of the city where we spent our final week of training, which consisted mostly of workshops introducing us and our supervisors/counterparts to expectations for the next two years.

The week ended with the official swearing in ceremony at the ambassador’s home where we officially became Peace Corps Volunteers. The ceremony included fabulous speeches by two volunteers (both from my fabulous language group!), the country director, and the ambassador. I had also found out the previous day that traditionally, the volunteer who sings the national anthem for the homestay thank you also sings at the swearing in….not sure how I got roped into all that hehe.

All the new PCVs

The above mentioned fabulous Lusoga language group!

We were told that we were indeed a unique training class (something we already knew!) because all 45 of us made it through training and became volunteers – usually a few trainees go home during training for various reasons. I have high hopes of seeing the entire group still here at in service training in 3 months!

The next day, all of us new volunteers departed for our sites…well, except for me. There was a snag with the paperwork and housing with my organization and Peace Corps, so I instead traveled to another volunteer’s site. Thankfully, she is an AWESOME person and friend (from, of course, my awesome language group), so we had a fabulous week and half together, where I helped her settle into her new home.

Finally, I did arrive at my site only about a week and half late, and now I’m settling into my home for the next two years.

My new house!

So far, my house has a bed, a tall cooking table, and 4 chairs. Other than that, I’m attending some meetings with the district health office staff, such as planning meetings for upcoming mass polio immunization campaigns, observing the immunization and HIV clinics at the health center, getting to know the town, and adjusting to life without electricity (I go to bed very early and read lots of books…)

I’ll try and update again when I can.

ttfn – ta ta for now!

So remember that flexibility thing….

2010-10-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

Last week we all went to visit our future sites (with the exception of two of our trainees who had their site fall through at the last moment – actually about 12 hours before they were to leave), and here is the updated information about my future site:

I will indeed be working at the District Health Office in Mayuge, but I am actually working for an organization called URC (University Research Company). Here is a brief overview of URC (from their website):

University Research Co., LLC is a professional services firm dedicated to helping clients use scientific methods and research findings to improve program management and outcomes and achieve organizational and behavioral change. For over 40 years, URC has helped government and private sector clients design, operate, and evaluate programs that address health, social, and educational needs.

With its non-profit affiliate, the Center for Human Services, URC works in the United States and abroad on projects that span five core practice areas: Communications & Outreach, Education & Training, Health & Population, Quality Management, and Research & Evaluation. CHS and URC share the same capabilities, staff, and facilities and provide the flexibility to work under for-profit or non-profit contracting arrangements.

I will be working specifically on the Health Care Improvement Project. Here is another internet blurb about HCI:

The USAID Health Care Improvement Project builds on URC’s technical leadership of USAID’s global efforts to improve health care quality since 1990 through the Quality Assurance Project (QAP) I, II, and III. The five-year project, which was awarded on September 24, 2007, supports the USAID Global Health Bureau and country missions to address significant challenges in raising the quality of health care in developing and middle income countries. The contract’s task order mechanism allows USAID country missions and other U.S. Government agencies to issue separate task orders within the HCI mandate. The first task order, effective September 28, 2007, covers three years and the transition of field and centrally funded work from QAP.

The goal of the HCI Project is to improve quality and outcomes of health care in developing countries by adapting and applying modern methods of quality improvement (QI). The project is guided by a vision that health care quality can be significantly improved by applying proven QI approaches to curative, preventive, and chronic care.

Priority areas for HCI are scaling up evidence-based interventions and improving outcomes in child health, maternal and newborn care, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and reproductive health. Other significant goals include expanding coverage with essential services; making services better meet the needs of underserved populations, especially women; improving efficiency and reducing the costs of poor quality; and improving health worker capacity, motivation, and retention.

· Document interventions implemented to improve the quality of health care, how quality is measured, and the impact of the interventions

· Institutionalize modern quality improvement approaches as an integral part of health care in USAID-assisted countries

· Expand the evidence base for the application of QI to human resources (HR) planning and management

· Expand experience with the improvement collaborative approach in USAID-assisted countries

· Expand experience with the spread collaborative approach in USAID-assisted countries

· Expand the experience base for other specific QI approaches

· Improve the cost-effectiveness of QI in USAID-assisted countries

· Provide global technical leadership for QI in USAID-assisted countries

More specifically, I will be working on a pilot project in my district on palliative care in health facilities, focusing on patients with HIV

Lastly, I actually do not have electricity or a water tap; therefore, once I move to site, blog posts are likely to be even fewer and farther between – my apologies! However, I have an adorable blue roof on my house. Pictures (hopefully) to come relatively soon.

In other news, since I recently celebrated my 23^rd birthday, I would like to reflect on the differences between this birthday and my previous one:

The day I turned 22:
I was a graduate student in Baltimore
I had 7 AMAZING roommates
I woke up to find a wall of balloons barricading me into my room, followed by a breakfast of pancakes and cookies, courtesy of the above mentioned amazing roommates
The amazing roommates also made me a delicious meal of fajitas followed by chocolate cake and gifts
The festivities ended with an evening at the symphony with, you guessed it, the amazing roommates J

The day I turned 23:
I was a Peace Corps Trainee in Uganda
I was spending my first night alone in my soon-to-be home: Mayuge
I attended a Village Health Team (VHT) training in one of the villages outside of town
I greeted several groups of Ugandans in Lusoga, and all of them were extremely amused that I could do such a thing
I ate lunch huddled in a hut during a monsoon-type rain
On my way back to Wakiso, I treated myself to a delicious meal of Indian food followed by a coffee milkshake

In conclusion: my life has changed a bit in the past year J

This week marks our last week in Wakiso, and we’re all surprised that it has come so soon. For the past several weeks we’ve all been eagerly counting down the days until training ends, but as the end approaches, a lot of us are filled with some anxiety about the transition to come as well as sadness at leaving our 44 new muzungu friends. The next two years are finally about to begin: scary/exciting!!!

I’d like to leave you today with an amusing tidbit: one my favorite sites in my village is the ice cream man. Yes indeed, the ice cream man. He rides a boda boda (motorcycle) with a cooler strapped to the back, and he plays music (usually of the Christmas variety) while driving down the street. It makes me smile every time I see it. J

ttfn – ta ta for now!

Oh Happy Day

2010-10-02T09:53:00.001-07:00

Today there was a collective rise in the morale of the training class – a general sense of excitement and joy. Today was the day we’ve been waiting for since we arrived in Uganda. Today we got our site announcements.

Now, some of you might be thinking “so what? – you’re already there.” Even though we’ve been in Uganda for about two months now, we’ve had pretty much no idea where we’ll be living or what work we’ll be doing for the next two years. Today we were finally able to start putting together a picture of what our new lives will look like.

Having said that, there’s still a LOT of information that’s unknown, and we’ve all been warned that placements often fall through at the last minute. The main requirement for Peace Corps service = flexibility.

Here’s what I know so far:

- I’m working for the District Health Office in Mayuge (in the southeast of the country, close to Lake Victoria), whose goal is to improve delivery and access of health services to its population

- The health office supports 183 facilities and 39 District Health Teams

- I will live about 2 km from the nearest town and post office

- I will have electricity and a water tap at my home

This may not seem like a lot of information, but I’m super excited to start getting information on what the next two years will look like, and I’m even more excited about the organization I’ll be working for. Next week we get to visit our future sites where we can meet our colleagues and get to see our new home. Yay J

In other news:

This week we had a talent show, which showcased the fabulous skills of the trainees and trainers. Some of the acts included a skit of a “Ugandan” Hidden Passions (a soap opera that many families here watch on a daily basis), an African fashion show (including my male language trainer modeling a lovely dress), and lots of dancing (both American and Ugandan). I think training should include a talent show at least once a week.

Today after site announcements we went on a field trip to Zika forest and the botanical gardens. We all had a nice relaxing afternoon enjoying the beautiful wildlife. A great ending to a great day.

Hopefully next time I post I’ll have more details about my site.

ttfn – ta ta for now J

Some random thoughts

2010-09-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

Ode to Ugandan yogurt: Oh delicious dairy, thick, creamy and strawberry flavored. How I love drinking you out of your bag with a straw along my dusty walk home.

Eating Ugandan children: I didn’t believe the apparently popular folk tale that white people eat Ugandan children until a few days ago. As I walked to training, I was offered a terrified two year-old to eat, so that I would spare the older children accompanying her. No wonder the shouts of MUZUNGU are sometimes punctuated by screams of terror…

Mist: It’s beautiful, mysterious, and makes me stop and stare on my walk through the jungle to training.

Mosquito nets: Sometimes I feel like I’m in a dome of protection. Sometimes, it strangles me in my sleep. We have a love/hate relationship.

Mefloquine: Disappointment. I was hoping for the advertised vivid dreams/hallucinations/night terrors. Sadly, all it does is prevent me from getting malaria. Sigh.

ttfn friends :)

More than half way there!

2010-09-22T06:10:00.000-07:00

This blog is written in two installments, dated from when I wrote them and listed oldest to newest:

September 12, 2010

Today marks the end of week four of official training – one month down! This week has been pretty eventful, with some field trips during the training week, a Muslim/national holiday that the entire country (include the PC office in Kampala) had off except for us, and a fun filled weekend.

On Monday we drove for several hours east to a current volunteer’s site to visit village health teams (VHTs) and ask them questions about their work. VHTs are meant to be a first line of health care/referral for communities, especially those that are far from health centers. They provide education on hygiene, sanitation, HIV/AIDS, malaria prevention/distribution, and refer people to facilities when needed. VHTs are chosen by the communities, and are usually people who are well trusted and respected within the community.

We also got to visit a woman who raises poultry and grows mushrooms. She demonstrated how she creates her mushroom gardens in plastic bags, and then we got to see her room full of mushroom gardens – bags hanging all around with mushrooms growing out of the sides. Pretty cool! The ride back to town was also eventful since one of our trainers bought a live chicken to take home, and she carried in back in the bus in a plastic bag – his worried little head stuck out of the bag-handle the whole way back!

This week I also got to co-facilitate a medical session on STDs and HIV with two other trainees and a Peace Corps medical officer. Some of you might know that I volunteered with Peer Health Exchange (PHE) in college and taught workshops on this very topic to high school students in Boston. Proof that this is indeed a small world: one of my fellow trainees also did PHE and taught the very same workshop! So we got to pull out our old activities and use them with the PCT class. Great fun J

Saturday was a designated cooking day – within each of our language groups, we prepared a menu to cook at one of our homestays lunch for our class and the host family. We made a delicious three course meal: egg and cheese sandwiches, chapatti burritos with guacamole, salsa, ground beef, rice, and beans, and pineapple and brownies for dessert (one of my brilliant classmates rigged an oven out of two pots and some sand – I love my language group!) The meal turned out great, and I had an absolutely amazing time cooking with my Lusoga team – I really and truly could not have asked for a better group of people. Freeze frame moment: after our meal while waiting for the brownies to cook, we all laid out on a mat on the back porch, and digested our delicious meal while enjoying a gorgeous view of lush Uganda in the midst of the rainy season. Life just doesn’t get much better.

Sunday I went with a few other trainees to a local secondary school event to cheer on our friend’s host sister during their “field day.” She won the cross country race (go Stella!). and we stayed to watch some of the other events: sack racing, long jump, jaggling, matooke peeling (my favorite event! girls had to demonstrated peeling and wrapping matooke in the banana leaves for cooking, but boys only had to demonstrate fast and correct peeling), and bottle filling (a race where kids filled their mouths with water and ran across the field to spit the water into a bottle, repeating until the bottle is full). Since these events took until 1 pm, and there were 32 total listed on the schedule, we left to get lunch instead of watching all the events. However, I was sad to miss some of the events-to-come, such as the laughing and crying contests…not quite sure what we would have experienced with those! Afterwards we enjoyed a delicious meal of fried chicken and fries with a bag of strawberry yogurt for dessert. Mmmm mmmm good.

September 22, 2010

There’s a general feeling of restlessness among our training class: in just over a week, we’ll be given our site placements. We’ve been anxiously waiting for that day since training started (and honestly, since we applied to the Peace Corps), but the wait has become even harder since we’ve just returned from our immersion week. Week 5 of training was our “tech immersion.” We all got placed with current volunteers and spent 4 days at their site. Not only we were all excited for a vacation from the usual training schedule, but it was a great chance to cook our own food: no matooke!

I went with another trainee to visit a volunteer just east of Kampala. Sadly our site was not in my language region, but at least we were close to Wakiso, so we didn’t have to spend 10 hours on a bus like some of our training class. Part of the excitement of the journey came from the chance to spend some time on the way to and from the site in Kampala. We savored the opportunities: coffee, smoothies, burgers, fries (with real ketchup!), Indian food, etc. We even got to use a real flush toilet! Woohoo!

The community we visited was right on the shore of Lake Victoria, and we got a beautiful view by hiking up a hill and looking out over the village. We also got to feed some local monkeys along the lake. Some were shyer than others, but they were eager for our bananas!

In terms of cooking, we learned that the locals are much, much better at preparation than we are. One of the PCV’s secondary students helped us one evening, and she peeled and chopped sweet potatoes, tomato, cabbage, and pineapple faster than I could blink. I have to admit, after using the locally purchased knife the PCV had, I am glad that I brought a set of good kitchen knives with me! We also got to cook some luxury foods: sweet potato fries, peanut butter cookies, and pancakes. Mmmm.

Needless to say, after the freedom of immersion week, it was hard to come back to training. We’re also all starting to realize how little training we actually have left, and we’re all scrambling to finish our self-exploration projects and study for our language exams. We’ve been told that failing the exam is no big deal (you still swear-in as a volunteer and just retake the exam in 3 months), but we’re all a little worried about being that ONE TRAINEE that fails…

Some things that have become “typical” in my Ugandan life:

- Sweating. All the time. Even at night. What I wouldn’t do for a screen on my window so I could get some fresh air while I sleep!

- Rain. The rainy season is in full swing, and sudden downpours are commonplace. Last week I enjoyed a peaceful walk to training in the pouring rain: even though it happens all the time, the Ugandans all stay in doors when the rain comes, so I was met with strange looks on my walk from people looking out their windows, but few shouts of MUZUNGU!!!

- That brings me to the “SEE YOU MUZUNGU!!” and “BYE MUZUNGU!!” shouts that every child yells, at least a dozen times, at the sight of a foreigner. Muzungu means traveler or white person, and I still haven’t figured out why seeing one inspires such excitement in Ugandan children. They scream, run toward us, and often grab our hands or hug us. It can be sweet, funny, or overwhelming depending on my mood.

- Dust. There’s constantly a layer of it all over my body. It bothered me for a couple of days, but now I’ve accepted that I will be dusty for the next two years. Embrace the dust!

- Christmas music. They start playing it even earlier than back home!

- Pizas/Rolexes - similar delicious street foods. A piza (not to be confused with pizza, which has the much missed cheese) is a small chapatti with fried egg and onion on top and costs the equivalent of about a dime. A rolex is a large chapatti served burrito style with fried egg, onion, and tomato, and it’s a bit pricier: about 30 cents.

- Cadbury chocolate. It’s readily available in town, and has sadly become part of my daily routine.

Well, I think that’s all to report at the moment. I’ll update again when I get a chance. ttfn – ta ta for now!

The good and the not-so-good of Africa

2010-09-05T11:45:00.000-07:00

Let’s start with the not-so-good so that we end on a high note:

The not-so-good:

1. The smell of burning trash. The only real public land fill is in Kampala, so for people not in the city, trash tends to get burned or simply tossed on the ground. Now, it would seem better (to me anyway) to burn trash at night, so fewer people have to breathe in the toxic fumes and oh-so-delicious smell. Unfortunately, I walk by at least 2 or 3 piles of burning trash every day. I’m pretty sure this is knocking some years off my life…

2. The cockroaches. They are HUGE (and therefore nice and juicy when you squish them). Now, I expect to see these critters in the latrine, but I am oh-so unhappy when I find them in my room. My host family thinks it’s hilarious that I “fear” the cockroaches, and my 5 year old host sister keeps telling me “Rashida, they won’t eat you!”

3. The mosquitoes. They seem to think I am quite tasty, and the bug spray PC gave me seems to only be icing on the cake for them. At least I’m taking my antimalarials!

4. The ants. They are also much bigger than should be allowed. And they bite. My feet. All the time.

5. The matooke and posho. These are staple foods in Uganda, but they are unlike anything I’ve eaten back home, and I have to say I don’t enjoy them. They are basically dense, flavorless starches…that I eat everyday. On the plus side, we got a PC Uganda cook book with lots of different recipes that I can’t wait to try out once I get to site.

The good:

1. The weather. It’s beautiful, sunny, and in the 70s just about everyday. Never too hot or too cold. The rainy season is starting, making the roads very muddy, butI’m still extremely grateful for the moderate weather, especially since we’re on the equator!

2. My host sisters. They are SO cute and adorable. The eldest decided she was going to love me even before she met me. It took the youngest a few days to warm up to me, but now she also never leaves my side. It’s pretty great.

3. The scenery (minus the burning trash and the cockroaches, of course). It honestly feels as though I’m walking through the jungle every day on my way to training. It’s lush and green and just about everything that urban America is not.

4. My fellow trainees. They are absolutely fabulous, through the good times and the bad. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people.

5. The pineapple. It was already my favorite fruit before I came, but the pineapple here is the best I’ve ever eaten. I could eat it everyday (and I keep hinting to my host family that I want too…)

6. Dancing to the Ugandan version of VH1 with our house girl. It’s just so much fun. She’s also teaching me some Busoga dances (from the region I’ll be going to), but my host family tells me I’m “not so good,” and I need to practice so I can dance for them at the farewell party at the end of training. No pressure!

There’s lots more I could add to this list, but I’ll leave it here for now and update it as time goes on. ttfn – ta ta for now J

Wow, I've been here for a while now - time to post!

2010-09-03T11:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry to all of you who have been following my blog for the last few weeks hoping for an update – internet (and sometimes even electricity) has been difficult to come by. Anyway, here is a very long post about my first few weeks in Uganda J

Staging:

My journey started with an orientation (called “staging” in Peace Corps-speak) in Philadelphia. I had to arrive the night before because I came from the west coast, so I was able to enjoy a fabulous tour of the city and dinner with a friend of mine from college. Thanks again Jason! After arriving back at the hotel, I met a few of my fellow PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees). They are all amazingly wonderful (of course), so I enjoy a long night’s rest (my last for quite a while).

Staging involves a lot of paperwork/logistics/get-to-know you activities. I finally get to meet all of my training class (although it will take me a while to learn all of their names), and we get to share are common fears and excitements about the next 2 years. It’s very comforting to know that we all have very similar anxieties about traveling to Uganda! Staging ends with some logistics for our journey to Africa, and we’re all told that we should pack our carry on luggage to last us our first 6 days in Uganda because we may not get access to our luggage until we get to our permanent training site. This causes a bit of a panic among the group, as we’ve all spent hours carefully packing our bags before coming to Philly, only to find out we need to re-arrange it all. Several people make a mad-dash to the Target that is (thankfully) right across the street, and then we all share a last-American meal at California Pizza Kitchen before delving into the re-packing task.

After a “restful” 0-2 hours of sleep, we all pile onto buses at 2:30 am for JFK airport. The journey: 15.5 hour flight to Johannesburg + 6 hour layover + 4 hour flight to Entebbe = 45 very tired/slightly smelly PCTs. Also, fyi: it is currently winter in South Africa, and their airport seems to not be at all heated….so if you happen to have a 6 hour layover there, you might consider packing some warm clothes or a blanket, as I did not.

We arrive to a warm welcome by the PC staff and pile into a coupler of buses for the ride to Lweza Training & Conference Center. We drop off our bags, eat dinner, and stumble to bed.

Arrival week:

Our training in Lweza starts with some introductions of each other, the staff, and Peace Corps. Oh, and of course we get a couple of immunization shots. The next few days involve meetings with our program coordinators about expectations and job assignments, preparations for moving into out homestay, and survival Luganda language lessons. The first week has a “summer-camp” feel because of the (fabulous) morning and afternoon tea breaks, the dorm-style living (complete with running water!), and the continual “bonding” activities. We even get a gorgeous view of the Ugandan landscape in out backyard, complete with monkeys. All in all, it was pretty great.

Our week in Lweza ends with a tour of Kampala. We split up into small groups and explored the city with a Ugandan PC trainer. We went to Kampala on Sunday so it would be less crowded, but the city center was still a bit overwhelming. Not only is the city packed full of more people than I thought could possibly fit into such a small space, but the amount of dust and fun odors in the air was a bit of a shock to my system. After some shopping, we rode back to Lweza on a public taxi and repacked our bags (again!) for our homestay.

Week 1:

Our first week of real training starts with us moving into our homestays in Wakiso, a “suburb” of Kampala. After storing some of our luggage at RACO (our training site), we wait for our families to pick us up. My host mom picks me up in her car and drives me to her home. I had no idea what to expect from my new home, but I am surprised to find that in many respects, it is not very different from a home in America. There is a garage, electricity, and even a television. However, there is no running water, so I get to learn how to use a pit latrine and bucket bathe outside. I have to say, the pit latrine is not nearly as bad as I expected. It’s still not my favorite thing in the world (or even my top 100), but it’s completely do-able. The bucket baths are pretty even nice, except that it’s hard to get all the shampoo out of my hair (since there’s so much of it!). It’s also difficult to explain to my host family why I need more water to bathe than they do since they all have shaved heads…

I’ve also improved upon using just a jerry can for hand washing by constructing a tippy tap at my home (something we learned in training). It’s basically a jerry can tied to a pole (where our clothesline is) and to a stick on the ground. When you step on the stick, the jerry can tilts down, and water pours through a hole poked through the side of the can, creating an easy way to wash hands after using the latrine. Simple yet effective!

I’m staying with a Muslim family: a mother, father, and three kids (a 13 year old boy, and two 5 and 2 year old girls). There’s also a house-girl who stays with the family and helps with the cooking and cleaning. It’s Ramadan, so my family’s schedule is quite a bit different than mine. I eat dinner around 7-7:30 and then go to bed around 9-9:30 (since training starts at 8), but my family stays up until around midnight eating and praying while it’s dark, and then they wake up again to eat around 4:30. By the time I get up at 6, everyone has gone back to sleep. In fact, I haven’t yet met my host dad because he gets home late from work in Kampala after prayer, and he’s always asleep when I leave in the morning. Other than the mismatch of schedules, I adore the children in the house. The eldest son goes to boarding school, so he’s often not home, but the younger girls are the same age as my niece and nephew back home, and they are so much fun to play with.

Training classes involve a lot of language study. We’ve all been assigned to language groups based on the region of the country we’ll be placed in. While we won’t know our specific site placements until close to the end of training, our language group gives us an idea of where we might be. I’m learning Lusoga, which is very similar to Luganda (the language spoken in Wakiso and the central region of the country). Lusoga is spoken in the southeastern part of the country, around the town of Jinja and the heart of the Nile River. There are 4 other (fabulous) trainees in my language group, and I’m pretty excited to have them as “neighbors” after training.

This first week involves learning greetings and introductions in our language and getting some overviews of our program areas: community health and economic development. We also get our bikes to use during training. As many of you probably know, I had to learn how to ride a bike before coming to Uganda, and one of my biggest fears upon arrival was how well I would be able to get around on my bike (especially after all the horror stories I’ve heard about bikes falling apart and poor-quality African roads). Needless to say, I got my bike and promptly put it in storage for safe keeping. After seeing my fellow trainees (with many more years of bike-riding experience) struggle on the rough and bumpy dirt roads, I was glad to be walking. The walk to training everyday is beautiful. It’s about 30-40 minutes (depending on my energy level), and it’s like trekking through the jungle. I’ll try to post pictures when I can.

Week 2:

In week two we get more language and more shots, but we also get to do a field assignment. We met with members from one of the local villages in the community, and we executed an assessment tool that we’ll likely use at our sites. My group constructed a community map, so we had community members draw a map of their village and point out important places, places they like/dislike to go, and places they would like to see in their village that aren’t there. It was a great way to get to know the community, how they spend their time, and their own priorities for improvement in their village.

This week we also learn about perma-culture/perma-gardening and as a group we construct a garden of vegetables at our training site. I have absolutely no previous experience in gardening, so it was great to learn about it, but I’m still unlikely to be my community’s perma-gardening expert.

The week ended with another visit to Kampala: this time to visit the Ugandan Museum and go to Garden City (a nice shopping mall) to test out our new ATM cards, which will enable us to access our PC living allowance while at site. The highlight of the trip for me was getting pizza for lunch – oh so delicious! I hadn’t realized how much I missed cheese…and flavor! The typical Ugandan diet consists of a lot of bland starches: matooke (mushed, cooked plantains), posho (a mushy, flavorless white starch made from flour), rice, potatoes, etc. We usually get some fruits/vegetables thrown in (a PC requirement for our homestays), but the food got old really fast. However, the pineapple here is beyond amazing. Mmmm mmmm good.

Week 3:

This past week has been pretty great, mostly because I finally feel like I’m settling into a routine here – things are just feeling a lot more familiar. Training consists of the same: language and technical sessions, but we also get several opportunities this week to go out into the field. On Thursday we got to visit the local health center and get a tour of the facilities. We even got to see their daily child health activities, where they offer immunizations, growth recordings, and vitamin supplementation to babies in the community (they’re following the EPI schedule recommendations!!). It was interesting yet sad to hear about all the local health issues plaguing the community. Today we also got to visit a local community based organization that works on HIV testing and counseling in their community and hear from the staff and counselors about their work. Overall, it’s been a pretty interesting week. I’m really exciting to start seeing first hand all the things I’ve spent the last year studying.

On a side note: tonight for dinner I got buttered pasta (or “macaroon” as my host mom called it), and it was DELICIOUS. Pasta’s never been one of my favorite dishes, but it was just so exciting to get something new!

I’m still not sure it’s hit me that I’m staying here for the next two years. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not at all planning on getting on a plane home tomorrow, but I just keep thinking about what I’ll do when I get “home.” I need to start getting my brain to think of Uganda as my new home. I’m sure once I get to my site and can settle into my own place I will feel more “settled in,” but it’s hard to really feel at home here while I’m still living out of a suitcase.

I think that’s all I have for now. For those few who actually read this entire crazy-long post – good on you mate, and thanks for reading. Until next time - ttfn, ta ta for now!

So what's this training thing all about?

2010-08-08T22:46:00.000-07:00

So some of you must be wondering what all we're supposed to learn in this 10 weeks of training. Here's an overview of what our first few months will be like:

Orientation (Arrival Week)

Accommodations

August 11, 2010: Airport arrival, transfer to Lweza Training and Conference Centre and a welcome meal. Lweza Training and Conference Centre quarters will be shared with other members of your training group.

August 12, 2010: The Country Director will welcome you, and the Program Managers will give you an overview of your sector programs. Activities include an overview of Peace Corps Uganda by the Country Director, the Role of Volunteers in Development (RVID) and Introduction to Project Plans by Project Managers. In the afternoon, there will be individual meetings with the Program Managers, the Country Director, and Medical Officers. During the same period, there will be “survival” Luganda lessons – the language commonly spoken in Kampala, Entebbe and Wakiso. You will also have your passport photos. A small amount of walk-around money will be given to help you buy some few personal requirements.

August 13, 2010: Interviews will continue as necessary; running hand in hand with the survival Luganda lessons and introduction to Ugandan English. You will fill in immigration forms to trigger off the immigration process and please bring enough passport photos (12) and your Peace Corps Passports will be collected by a staff member.

August 14, 2010: The day’s activities include an introduction to home stay living with a panel of current Peace Corps Volunteers to help you prepare for the intricacies of life with a Ugandan family.

August 15, 2010: You will have an opportunity to meet with some of your trainers. They will take you around the city- Kampala to give you an orientation of how business is conducted in the city and for you to identify key areas that you will need to pass through.

August 16, 2010 You will depart Lweza Training and Conference Centre for the town of Wakiso, at the Raco Country Home, where you will meet your Uganda host families. At 2.00pm you will depart to your lodgings of the next 8 weeks with your home-stay family.

August 17, 2010: Return to RACO Country Home in the morning by 7:50 AM, to start your Pre-Service Training. You will do language and have a session on bicycle maintenance. Remember bicycle transport may be your major means of transport once a Volunteer and you will be expected to demonstrate your competency in riding and maintaining a bicycle during training. Many Peace Corps Uganda Volunteers ride a bicycle to do their work, and please know that the wearing of a helmet, which will be issued, while doing so is mandatory.

Pre-Service Training

Training Site

Wakiso is in central Uganda about 45 minutes from Kampala. Trainees live in home stays that are within a six kilometer radius of the training center. You will receive during PST a simple, single-gear bicycle for use during training to assist you to go to and from training sessions and to your home lodgings. You will also be given a helmet to wear when riding your bike, the use of which is mandatory while riding the bike. In Wakiso, international calling is possible from payphones, though it may take a few days for you to have the energy and time to figure out the system. PLEASE make sure your loved ones have realistic expectations regarding this before you leave the U.S.! Postal services are available in Wakiso, but letters take about three to four weeks to arrive at their destination after they are sent. This is the case for mail going either direction. As such, it may be thought best to get your “pipeline” of letters started right away. Family and friends can use this address during PST and PST only:

Your name, Peace Corps Trainee

P.O. Box 29348

Kampala, Uganda

After PST, you will have access to a P.O. Box closer to your site.

Overview of Training Schedule

The Pre-Service Training follows a community-based approach. This means that, after a few days gathering at central points for large sessions, we will then begin to hold our sessions in the communities, in smaller groups, using the trainer houses, or places where community members gather. It emphasizes hands-on training and learning by doing. You will practice working with community groups to enable you get acquainted with Ugandan learning styles The initial weeks of training are as follows:

Arrival / Week 1: Overcoming jet lag, and conducting individual Program Managers and Medical informational and familiarization meetings:

This week involves community entry, as Trainees begin to understand how to communicate with their Ugandan families and communities. We will explore Uganda’s history, issues of community development and the Volunteer’s role in that development, personal health, and cross-cultural issues. The focus is on community entry skills and techniques, the concept of HIV/AIDS, at the global level and the Ugandan situation.

Week 2, 3, and 4 Center and Field-based training:

In these weeks you will be exposed to many different relevant technical areas and issues regarding the health and development of Ugandan communities which will be presented to you through a combination of classroom and experiential learning activities. You will practice community entry techniques and you will learn how to work with grassroots development partners. The relationship between socio-culture and HIV/AIDS will be conducted and understanding a participatory approach to development using Participatory Analysis for Community Action (PACA) tools.

Weeks 5- Tech immersion/PCV visit

During this week, all Trainees will be in the field experiencing some of the responsibilities they will assume as Volunteers. You will travel using public transport by your own self to visit a current Peace Corps Volunteer. During this period, you will shadow the volunteer, you will learn about their way of life and their work and community integration skills.

Weeks 6-7: Other key activities

You will be assessed mid way in training using Round Robin assessment method and also practice your language though a mock interview.

In week 8: future site visit and Language Practice:

You will have an opportunity to visit your future site and have a good understanding of where you will be for next two years. You will meet your supervisors and future colleagues and start building your work relationships from then on. You will have an opportunity to speak your target with your community members.

Cross-training:. Community Health and Economic Development Trainees will receive cross-training in such areas as integrating HIV/AIDS education with sports for youth; PACA practice where the Peace Corps’ approach to development is promoted; construction and promotion of fuel-efficient cook stoves; Life Skills promotion and Cross-culture lessons etc. You will be exposed to Peace Corps initiatives of Women and Gender in Development, ICT as well as youth empowerment initiatives. All of these sessions will be integrated with improved livelihood and capacity building development activities

Building Community Relationships:

You will explore work opportunities using an asset based approach and how to extend PCV work to reach all the beneficiaries of the project. Overall, you will redefine your role as a development agent. In addition you will be required to demonstrate your readiness to embark on your technical work by presenting a model workshop based on the needs assessment you will have done in a Ugandan community through a Qualifying Project.

Language Proficiency Testing

Peace Corps regards learning a local language to enable you integrate in the community. You will take a language proficiency test to gauge your proficiency in a Ugandan language that you will begin to learn during the arrival week.

After undergoing pre-service training you will be sworn in. The Swearing-In event is normally presided over by the U.S. Ambassador and Uganda Government Officials, which formally marks the end of pre-service training. You are expected to depart for your future site that very afternoon.

Basic methodology and assessment criteria for PST

Peace Corps Uganda’s Pre-Service training emphasizes 1) hands-on experience, and 2) developing an ability to live and work comfortably and effectively in a rural Ugandan setting. While the initial week of training involves coming together at a central site, as the training progresses we move sessions more and more into the community. We find this is the fastest way to get you acclimated into the culture, so that you can become a more effective volunteer.

“Competencies” are the skills, knowledge and abilities that we have identified as necessary for effective service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uganda. In each component of training, we use “competencies” to help focus the sessions and to help you monitor your progress. The trainers have the responsibility of recommending you to our partner organizations (NGOs and Government Ministries) and to your program Associate Director as ready to be sworn–in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. You will be advised of these competencies during the first week of training, and you will be asked to take part in several assessments during the PST in order to monitor, 1) the effectiveness of training, and 2) your progress toward acquiring the necessary competencies. You will sit a language proficiency interview and you will demonstrate to the training staff your ability to survive in the community by demonstrating your survival skills such as cooking, and presenting a qualifying project.

Overview of Training Components (see Welcome Book for details)

Training components are:

Cross Culture
Community Development
Language
Safety and Security
Technical knowledge and skills
Administration
Medical

Sample Day’s Schedule

A sample Trainee day usually begins at 8.00a.m. and ends at 5.00 p.m. for formal training – which includes four hours of language sessions, usually two in the morning and two as community practice, and then a technical session. There is a strong emphasis on integration, so the specific aspects of cross culture and safety and security are incorporated into language and technical sessions. After 5:00 pm trainees are expected to return to their home stay families. There you will continue learning language and cultural skills through participating in home chores and in interacting with family members and neighbors.

Swearing-In Date

The swearing-in ceremony date will be October 21, 2010.

The departure

2010-08-08T14:40:00.000-07:00

So I've been putting off starting this blog for a while now (as all of you who have asked me about it over the past several months know!), but since I have arrived in Philadelphia for orientation, I think it's safe to say that the journey has begun. Time to blog!

I had every intention of chronicling the entire packing process (mostly because I appreciated when other bloggers did the same thing!), but time got away from me. All I have to show for the long and painful packing process is my desperate attempt to pack my niece and nephew to take with me:

While they would fit under my 80 lb weight limit, there might be some trouble getting through customs, so I thought it was best to leave them home :(

The trip to orientation: well, it was early and long. I had a 6:30 am, 5.5 hour flight from San Diego to Philadelphia. The good news: it was WAY shorter than the trip we'll be taking to Uganda on Tuesday!

We're staying in a hotel about 7 miles outside of the city, but I'm meeting a college friend for dinner, so I should get to see some some of Philly before I leave!

As for staging itself, this is the schedule we got a few weeks ago:

Monday

12:30 pm: Registration, turn in completed forms

2:30 - 4:25: Who we are, what's expected of you

4:25-4:45: Break

4:45-7:00: What you expect, what's next, closing

Tuesday

2:30 am: Check out of hotel

3:00: Depart for JFK

11:15: Flight departs for Uganda

It's a pretty vague schedule, so I'll post more once I know what it's all about. Now: off to explore Philly!

ttfn - ta ta for now!