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

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!

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

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!

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:

1. Watching a small baby cry hysterically as older children offered her to me for eating (there is a myth that whites eat African babies)
2. The first time I could go to the market and bargain for my food with out having to use English
3. My first Christmas abroad with a fabulous friend, Lisa – Christmas miracles and Christmas crumble
4. Playing yahtzee by candlelight with other volunteers
5. Watching the last Harry Potter movies in the one theater in Uganda
6. Busoga girls nights with the lovely Lusoga Ladies
7. Days of eating – where we spend the day restaurant hopping in Jinja
8. Having my co-workers tell other mzungus that they are visitors, but that I am now a Musoga
9. 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
10. 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…

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

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! :)