The Cleanest Place on Earth

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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