Snakes on a Plain

     It looks like my two years in Uganda will be spent overcoming my fear of snakes.  I’m not sure why no one mentioned the prevalence of snakes in the Eastern region the past two times I was here, but I guess they knew there was a possibility I wouldn’t return.  I officially moved to my site on Friday, and as soon as we arrived to my place Bethany says, “Hey Aubrey, I don’t mean to freak you out or anything, but take a look at that.”  I look to where she is pointing and there is snakeskin lying in my garden area.  The look on my face was sheer horror as I said, “Um, there aren’t supposed to be snakes in Africa.”  The Ugandans could not stop laughing and making fun of how scared I was.  Francis (one of my neighbors and a teacher at Namengo Girls) said I shouldn’t be scared because it was obviously a small snake that left the skin.  I said I didn’t care because a black mamba could kill me big or small.  He said not to worry because there are no black mambas in this region, only cobras and puff adders.  Oh right, like that makes me feel better!  I was then warned that I should watch out for “night cobras” because they can spit.  Looks like I will be utilizing the night bucket after all.  The times I have braved the pit latrine at night, I usually come back sweating because I am so nervous.

          I’m sorry that I have been incommunicado for the past week, but I was busy after we moved out of homestay and my Internet does not work at site.  This post might be kind of long, so I hope you don’t get bored with me!  Last Monday we all moved out of our home stays; and I was so sad to say bye to my family.  They were really great to me and I felt like a part of the family.  Monday morning was hectic because we had to load the luggage of 44 people onto a truck, and we have all accumulated more things during these two months.  We were put up in a hotel about an hour outside of Kampala and it was so nice.  There was a pool, hot showers and good food.  I guess Peace Corps likes to give you a little luxury before you move out into the bush.   After we checked in, we were supposed to go shopping and take a tour of the Peace Corps office in Kampala.  Unfortunately, the “Walk-Out” protests that have been happening across Uganda broke out in violence.  There were riots, tear gas and rubber bullets – so roads were blocked and Kampala was pretty crazy.  As a result, we were not allowed to leave our hotel.  (Side note: For the past two weeks there have been “walk-outs” as a protest to the rising food and gas prices.  People walk to work every Monday and Thursday.  There have been a few instances of violence, so we have to take extra caution.)  Anyway, we were all kind of happy we did not have to drive all the way back to Kampala in the first place.  We spent the day laying by the pool and eating the good food.  We were a little ashamed of ourselves that we were enjoying ourselves at a nice hotel, while only an hour all hell was breaking loose.  It’s like something from Hotel Rwanda.  Thankfully, everything settled down and we were allowed to leave the hotel the next day.  We went to the American Embassy for a presentation by the Ambassador, Deputy Ambassador, Security Representative and two people from USAID.  It was really interesting and now I think I might want to pursue a career in the Foreign Service after Peace Corps.

          Wednesday we had an all day workshop with our supervisors, which was really boring for the most part.  It mostly covered everything we have learned the past nine weeks and most of us were just anxious to be done.  Also, my counterpart didn't even show up.  Thursday we were officially sworn in, and the ceremony was at the house of the Deputy Ambassador.  This officially sealed the deal of why I (and the rest of my group) want to be in the Foreign Service – the house was amazing.  Clearly I'm in the wrong line of work.  The swearing in wasn’t long, and there were delicious hors d'oeuvres afterwards.  There was a basketball hoop in the driveway and a few of us got a game of knock-out going.  I am sure I looked ridiculous playing in my dress, but I won three times.  I guess I still have my high school basketball skills.

          I moved in to my site on Friday, which went smoothly.  Thankfully, Bethany and my supervisor had a car, so he was able to drive our luggage and us to our sites.  It was great to not be squished into a taxi, and our travel time was cut down.  We ran into some terrible traffic along the way, but our driver followed behind the Ministry of Defense car that had its sirens on, and we got to bypass a 2-hour traffic line.  Our supervisor said that we only got away with it because Bethany and I are white and people automatically think we’re important.  I guess being an mzungu really has its perks sometimes.

          Since being at site, I have spent my time getting settled and introducing myself to people in the community.  I spent Easter Sunday scrubbing my house and latrine from head to toe.  I think my grandma would be proud by the amount of bleach I used!  Sister Goretti stopped to tell me “well done,” and then invited me over to the convent for Easter dinner.  Sunday night was probably one of my favorite experiences thus far in Uganda.  When I get to the convent, Sister Goretti said, “So we will eat dinner, have some cake, maybe some dancing and then if you feel like it, we’ll set up a bed for you and you can sleep here.”  Dinner was amazing and the cake was even better (it was pumpkin, so it tasted like pumpkin bread with icing!).  There was no dancing, but there was some really good wine.  We had a huge storm that night, and they all kept telling me it was a sign of good luck and a good visitor.  They didn’t want me to walk back to my house in the rain (it’s about 50 ft away), so they set up a bed for me.  I got my own bedroom and bathroom!  It was a pretty great sleepover.

          I am really enjoying my site so far and I think it is going to be a great two years.  I have been riding my bike a lot to meet up with Ryan and Caroline.  Ryan also informed me today that I have a fan club with the boda boda drivers in town.  He said that when he went to Budaka they hounded him about the “other mzungu” and asked him how they could get me.  Awesome.  I always love walking by them and they shout, “Mzungu mzungu, just my size!”  It’s a great pick up line if you ask me, but I’m not sure of its success rate.  Anyway, that is all I have for now – and I will try my best to update as often as I can.  It’s difficult with the limited Internet access and the nearest cyber café is 30 minutes away.  Hopefully I will be able to find an Internet provider that works way out here!

I AM DONE!!

            I am finished with training that is.  I cannot believe that I have been in Uganda for over two months already.  I am so happy that training is over with and I can finally start working.  This week we will be in Kampala to finish up some last minute things.  We get to visit the embassy, go shopping, have a workshop with our counterpart and then we are sworn in on Thursday.  We leave for our sites on Friday, which is going to be interesting considering all of the stuff I have!  I had my language exam last Thursday and I passed!!  I took it a day early because the guy giving the exam was testing two different language groups.  The test went way better than my practice exam, which was nice.  I did run into one slight problem during the exam.  The tester asked me what activities I liked to do during my free time.  One of the activities I said was play soccer – clearly not true, but I knew how to say it in Lugwere.  Well instead of asking about the other activities I listed, he asked me questions about soccer.  He asked me what my favorite team was and all I could think was, “Oh crap, do I even know any soccer teams?”  I said the LA Galaxy because it was the first thing to come to mind.  Then he asked why.  This is when I decided to get creative.  I proceeded to talk about David Beckham and how I thought he was good looking and I wanted to marry him.  He could not stop laughing, and I think he finally realized I don’t know anything about soccer. 

            We had a home stay thank you for all of our families on Saturday.  Each language group had to prepare a ten-minute and a five-minute presentation.  People did a whole range of things: taught the Macarena, chicken dance, electric slide, while others sang songs in their language.  A few people talked about what states they were from and had a power point presentation.  Now of course CRAB (Caroline, Ryan, Aubrey and Bethany) did not take this seriously, and went in a different direction.  I came up with the idea of doing “summer camp skits” for our ten-minute presentation.  Our first skit was called the “shoe psychic.”  I’m not sure how many of you remember this skit, but it goes pretty much like this: Caroline was the shoe psychic.  She smelled each of our shoes, and then tell us our “future.”  Things like you’re going to be rich, live until you're 100, etc.  With Kenneth she said, “You are about to pass four students on a very important language exam”.  Well, after that we called up Kevin (another volunteer) to try out the shoe psychic.  He took off his shoe, Caroline smelled it, and said, “You are about to go on a very long journey.”  She threw it to me, and I then proceeded to chuck it as far as I could outside of the conference hall.  Pretty brilliant if you ask me, and the Ugandans seemed to think so too.  Our second skit was called “Captain of the Ship.”  Ryan was the captain, and I ran up to him yelling, “Captain, a ship is coming!” 

Ryan: “How many guns and how many men?”

Me: “20 guns and 20 men”

Ryan: “Bring me my red sweater so they won’t see me bleed.”

Bethany followed next, and the scene proceeded the same way, except she said “50 men and 50 guns”.  He still asked for his red sweater so they wouldn’t see him bleed.  Caroline went last, but it went like this:

Caroline: “Captain a ship is coming!”

Ryan: “How many guns and how many men?”

Caroline: “100 guys and 100 men.”

Ryan: “Mmmm…bring me my brown pants.”

I mean, really, we should be in show biz – I think our performances were Oscar worthy.  How we managed to actually keep straight faces is beyond me.  People laughed, so that was good!  I still can’t believe we performed these in front of our host families.  For the five-minute presentation we introduced ourselves in Lugwere and then we individually thanked our families.  Bethany then read a speech that Kenneth wrote, but cracked up laughing the whole time.  The rest of us didn’t help either because we were snorting trying to contain ourselves.  The speech started with “When you touch a rock, you touch the past.  When you touch a flower, you touch the present.  And when you touch a child, you touch the future.”  Not our finest moment on stage because we couldn’t take it seriously…whoops! 

            I am really sad to be leaving my home stay.  My host mom has showered me with gifts: a dress, a mat for my house, a battery powered lamp, hot sauce (she knows I put it on everything here!) and tea.  I guess it’s safe to say that she is going to miss me too.  I have just been hanging out with the family today; I even went to church at 6:30 am!!!  My mom asked me to go because it’s Palm Sunday, and I felt bad turning her down.  It was packed in the church, and of course I was the only white person.  I was stared at the whole time and I didn’t know what was going on because it was in Luganda.  The singing was really pretty though, so that kept me entertained. 

            I have to attempt to pack up my things now.  I wrote this blog post in an attempt to procrastinate, even though I had no news!  I am not sure how my Internet service will be at site, so it may be a while before my next post. 

How do you Solve a Problem Like Maria...er, Aubrey

            It looks as though I will need to watch "The Sound of Music" because I am living at a school that is funded by nuns and next door to a convent.  I just got back from my site visit and I had a great time.  It was, however, a bit of a reality check.  I have been spoiled at my homestay (which we all knew) and it was strange to be isolated from Americans for three days.  Overall, I loved my site though and I am really excited to move in two weeks!

            Peace Corps finally told us our sites on Monday, and we could all hardly contain our excitement while we waited for the announcements.  We were given where we would work, a brief description of our responsibilities, our counterpart’s name and contact info and instructions for how to get to site.  Bethany and I are going to be working at different Coordinating Centers, which are both under the same PTC – so we have the same supervisor.  I guess this caused some confusion with site announcements because I was given her counterpart’s info as well as instructions on how to get to her site.  Thankfully, I realized we had the exact same instructions and was able to clarify with Mary (the head trainer).  She said she would give me the right information the next day…she didn’t.  I asked her for the information and she said she forgot to bring the paper (even thought I was leaving the next day!!).  She said that I should just take a bus to Budaka and my counterpart would meet me there.  So I said, “I’m supposed to take a bus to Budaka, get off and someone will just be there to meet me.  I don’t have any contact information, how will they know when I will get there?”  Mary assured me that it would be fine and someone would just be there, and I could ask Bethany for the supervisor’s contact info if I had any questions.  To me this didn’t seem like the greatest idea – heading off to a small town with not a clue as to whom I was meeting and where exactly I was supposed to meet up with him.  But hey, this is the Peace Corps.  Ryan, Caroline, Bethany and I all decided to travel together since we were heading in the same direction.  We stopped off in Jinja on the way with some other volunteers in the east and ate lunch.  Jinja is a pretty touristy town; hence we had some great American food!  I was also able to get a hold of my supervisor who gave me my counterpart’s contact info.  After lunch, we took a taxi heading towards Mbale and one by one we got off at our designated sites.  We all sort of looked like lost puppies, and it was quite entertaining.  I was the third stop and I got off in Budaka.  I got off the taxi, and looked around as boda boda drivers kept shouting “MZUNGU MZUNGU” and “Where are you going!?!.”  I tried my best to walk with a purpose, but really I was thinking, “WTF am I doing right now?”  I called my counterpart who said, “I see you, walk towards the red motorcycle and I will meet you there.”  I looked around trying to spot this person who could supposedly see me, but there were too many men on cell phones to pick him out.  Of course he could spot me though, I don’t exactly “blend in” being the only white person in this town.  I finally met my counterpart, Cosmas, within the next few minutes, and I started to relax and feel more comfortable.   

            Cosmas first took me to the Budaka Coordinating Center where I will be working as a Primary School Teacher Trainer.  A Coordinating Center overlooks schools in its catchment area (12 to 200 schools) and provides training and support for teachers.  The Budaka CC has 25 schools in its catchment area, including the “model school” in which the CC is located at.  I will be working closely with Cosmas, who is the Coordinating Center Tutor (CCT).  I will help him organize and provide in-service training to teachers through workshops, create a resource room using local materials and ensure schools are following the curriculum set by the Ministry of Education. Since the CC is located at the Budaka Primary School, I will also be teaching a few classes.  Cosmas showed me around the school, introduced me to a few teachers and gave me a basic run through of my responsibilities.  Afterwards, he took me to see where I would be living.  Usually Peace Corps Volunteers will live in teacher housing at their CC, but Budaka CC did not have any accommodations for me.  So, I am living 4km away (yup, I have to get a bike!) at St. Clare’s All Girls Primary School (more commonly known as Namengo Girls) in teacher housing. 

            My house is way bigger than I expected.  I have a sitting room, huge bedroom, a “washroom” and a kitchen.  I have a bathing area attached to my house, and then a pit latrine.  It's a little awkward to have to go outside to get to my bathing room - I can't walk outside in just my towel.  I also usually have to make two trips: 1. Carry in my bucket of water; 2. Carry in my change of clothes, towel, soap, shampoo, and conditioner.  I need to get some sort of shower caddy - college dorm style!   I do not have running water, but I do have electricity (occasionally).  I wish you could all see the wiring of my house; it looks like a four year old set it up!  I would not be surprised if it started a fire one day or if I electrocute myself.  Other volunteers from different organizations have stayed in the house before, so there were a lot of paintings on the walls as well as some furniture.  I really liked the house, but I cannot wait to thoroughly bleach the place when I move in. 

            Cosmas did not actually know I was coming for site visit, so he was not able to show me around the next two days.  He felt bad, but it worked out really well in the end.  I was able to hang out at Namengo and meet my neighbors, the teachers and a lot of the students.  They want me to teach P6 and P7 math a few times while I am there, and Cosmas thought it was a great idea – so I’m pretty excited about that.  I met with so many people during site visit, I’m not sure I kept all of the names straight.  I also got a lot of tea!  Everyone insisted that I take tea, and it’s seen as rude to refuse.  I think I made a good first impression because they were all sad to see me leave and said they were excited for me to come back and move in.  I think I am really going to like my site, and I cannot wait to officially move in! 

            The ride back home was interesting, as it always is when riding a taxi.  I met up with Ryan and Caroline because their sites are relatively close to me.  We piled in a taxi and thought we had filled it to capacity.  Wrong.  Just because a taxi is made for 15 passengers, this is the village and anything goes.  The driver kept stopping to pick up more people and cram them in.  At one point a lady got on and moved to sit next to Ryan, he looked at her and gave a face like “You honestly think you can squeeze in here?”  Well, turns out she could because the conductor insisted.  Another man came on with a live chicken that he put under my seat.  I kept accidentally kicking it and it would flap its feathers and peck me.  I could not stop laughing - I was crammed in between two Ugandans, my overstuffed backpack on my lap and a chicken pecking me.  Not to mention, we had 23 people crammed in this van.  I really wish I had been able to move to take a photo.  I forgot how much I loved public transportation in Africa.  Also, taxis will usually turn off the car when sitting in traffic (to save gas, I think?), but they won’t turn off the engines to fill up for gas!  When I asked about this, I was assured that it was fine because there is always a fire extinguisher on every corner.  Right… 

            I am so excited that this is the last week of official training and we get sworn in next week.  We take the LPI on Friday, and hopefully I’m a little calmer this time around.

Here are some photos of my house.  I made a video, but it was not uploading because the internet is too slow. 

My dinner one night - posho and greens.   

Sitting Room

The "washroom" - I'm not so sure what I am supposed to wash in here

Kitchen

My bedroom

View from the front of my house

My digs for the next two years

St. Clare's Primary School

The kids filling up the jerry cans from the borehole

They wanted to take a real picture

The Beauty of a Rolex

           I’m not talking about the high quality, luxury watches because I am going to assume everyone knows those are beautiful.  I am, of course, talking about food.  Street vendors sell something called a Rolex, which is a fried up egg with onions, tomatoes and peppers rolled up in a chapati.  As my sister would say, “It is life changing.”  I heard about the Rolex, so I am not sure why it took me over a month to finally try one.  I’m probably going to eat one a day for the next two years because it is fried, greasy and delicious – I don’t need anything more. 

            On Friday we had a celebration for the 50^th Anniversary of Peace Corps, which was a great break from our training sessions.  It was also great to meet all of the current Peace Corps volunteers in Uganda.  During the day, we went to St. Javira Primary School for a service day.  We had several stations: sports, life skills, planting a garden, mural painting, painting the dorms, building a rocket stove and repairing the water system.  I was assigned to help with Life Skills, so I got to work with kids of all different age groups.  Our first group was P6 and P7 students, so they were about 11-13 years old.  First we played the “Best Response Game,” which was aimed at trying to teach kids skills to deal with peer pressure and sex.  I worked with the P6 students, and at first I felt extremely awkward playing this game with them because they seemed really young.  I was also a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to play the game with a straight face (yup, I’m really mature!).  Thankfully, I was able to act my age and the kids had a lot of fun with the game.  We divided them up into four teams of ten and we gave them phrases like “Everybody’s doing it”, “If you don’t sleep with me, then I’m going to leave you” and “Girls need to have sex because boys give them vitamins that help their boobs grow.”  The object of the game was for them to come up with the best response, and then we chose the winner.  It was interesting to see that most of the responses followed along the lines of  “No, you might have HIV/AIDS”.  I would be curious to see what the responses would be like if the game was played with American students.  The students also learned a little more sex education with the game.  One of the phrases we gave was, “If girls don’t have sex, then they will get a rash.”  3 of the 4 groups actually thought this was true, so we had to explain that it most certainly was not. The game was a lot of fun, and they started to get really into it and come up with good responses.  My favorite to the phrase “boys give you vitamins” was, “My boobs can grow without sex and without you”.  We also taught them the limbo, but played it as the “pressure game”.  We said that as the bar got lower, it represented all the pressures in life bringing you down.  With the younger group of kids, P2 and P3, we read short stories.  We also made homemade paints from flour, water and food coloring, and had them paint afterwards, which they loved.  Friday night we had a reception at the Lubowa Gardens.  I almost felt like I was back in America with all the white tents set up and good food. 

            On Saturday we had to cook with our language groups at one of our home stays.  We decided to cook at Bethany’s home stay because she just lives with two sisters.  We were originally going to make pizza, but the head Peace Corps trainer made us change it because she said we were supposed to cook “local” foods and didn’t approve our budget.  It was probably for the best, as making a pizza using a Dutch oven is probably easier said than done.  So we opted for making chicken burritos.  Beans, rice, and chicken are local foods!  We fried the chicken up with bell peppers and onions, made chapati in place of the tortillas and whipped up some guacamole.  It was amazing, and Bethany’s sisters along with Kenneth loved them.  They thought it was amazing how we used the local foods, but changed it up from the usual meal.  We, on the other hand, were so happy to have cheese!!  (Ugandans do not typically like cheese, so we rarely ever get it). 

            We had our mock LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) on Wednesday, and it was beyond nerve wrecking.  Even though it was practice, I was so nervous and sweaty!  Kenneth could not believe it and kept telling me to calm down.  I had to talk with him for about 30 minutes and I completely blanked on everything.  I would also sometimes respond in Swahili or Spanish.  Thankfully, everyone felt the same way I did, and we all ended up failing. I don’t think they wanted to give anyone a pass for fear they wouldn’t study for the real LPI.  I got the “highest F” with novice high.  If I get to the next level, then that’s a pass.  Kenneth told me, “You need to get over your fear of test taking.  Your job depends on it.”  Oh thanks Kenneth, that’s really going to help me relax!  I do think that since I know what to expect now, I will be better prepared for the real LPI and do just fine. 

            Tomorrow we all find out our sites and where we will be working.  I’m really excited, and then we get to have a site visit from Wednesday to Saturday.  Training is almost over, yay!  

And some more pictures...

My backyard and the pit latrine I have yet to use.  My mom says I need to practice.  Ha, ya right!

The garden

I found this in my room when I woke up one morning

My puppy!  I'm debating getting a dog after training and hopefully this little guy is still available for me to have.

50th Anniversary Service Day.  Kenneth said my camera is racist and doesn't like to show him

Best Response Game - there's Kenneth.  My camera DOES like him

Mad rush to do the Limbo

An enormous pot of BEANS!  Our lunch at the school for the 50th Anniversary.

Caroline and I made a flag for our language group with the homemade paints - we call ourselves CRAB.  And Bethany is "Beefany" - we call her beef for short.  (She really likes it too...)

Lugwere group: Caroline, Me, Ryan and Bethany.  

Alright, real picture.  50th Anniversary Reception

Willysha and me

Cooking time - Bethany cutting up the chicken

Our stove

Ryan said I looked awesome hunched over and picking at the food.  Also, notice the stove in the background...it doesn't work.

Ryan wanted documentation that he was actually helping in the kitchen

My messy and delicious burrito #1

Time to prove I can ride a bike!

Ok, maybe not - Ryan had to hold it for me.  I forgot everything I learned before I left...

About to do it myself, with Ryan cheering me on