Poppin' Mango Flies

            If you have been an avid follower of this blog, then you probably recall me mentioning mango flies.  For those that have forgotten, let me refresh your memory.  Mango flies will sometimes lay their eggs in your clothing while it is hanging outside to dry.  The eggs hatch upon contact with skin, and the larvae burrow into the skin and develop into fully grown maggots.  In order to avoid these pesky flies, it is advised that you iron all of your clothing.   The thought of maggots in my skin terrifies me, so I have been adamant about ironing all of my clothes.  A part of me, however, did wonder if mango flies were an actual problem…until now.  Over the weekend, I met up with Bethany, Joe, and John in Mbale.  John asked us, “Do you all want to see the weird bite I got at Joe’s house?”  He raises his arm and there is a boil like spot that is black in the middle – characteristic of a mango fly.  Joe says, “Uh, I think that’s a mango fly.”  Naturally, John freaks out, while the rest of us proceed to check it out and take pictures:

Mango fly bite

            Since we are Peace Corps Volunteers and have been in Uganda far too long, we thought the proper thing to do next was pop out the maggot.  I should probably mention we were in Chat n Chino, an mzungu restaurant in Mbale; neither an ideal nor very appropriate place for popping out a mango fly.  We, however, have been in the village far too long and did not think twice about popping out a maggot in front of other patrons.  We also disinfected with Purell because that's all we had.  Now here is the proper way to pop out a mango fly:

1.     Make sure someone is there to film this because you are going to want to cherish this moment forever.  Thankfully, I had my iPhone and was able to document the whole adventure.

2.     Put Vaseline or clear nail polish over the red bump in order to suffocate the maggot.  It will then proceed to try and wriggle itself out.

3.     Wait a few minutes and then squeeze the maggot out like you are popping a pimple.  If it’s being stubborn, then use a needle to pull out the little bugger.

4.     Let out a sigh of relief…you are now maggot free.

5.     START IRONING YOUR CLOTHES.

I know you are all dying to see this adventure.  Sorry for the poor video quality, but I didn't want to sit here all day.  When I return to the US I'll show it to all of you in high def.  You can click on the video to watch it via youtube and make it full screen: 

 

            Coming home from Mbale that day was also quite eventful.  I was sitting in the front, middle seat of the taxi, which is usually right on top of the engine.  While we were driving my seat started to get hot, but I did not think much of it because I know this can happen sometimes.  I ignored it until it started to become a little unbearable, and I told the driver that the seat was getting hotter than usual.  He looked over, and then we both realized the seat was starting to smoke.  He pulled over; the conductor in the back seat jumped out, opened the door and pulled me and the other passenger out of the front.  The driver lifted up the seats to see the engine and a small fire was starting.  He had a jerry can ready and he poured water on the engine in order to put out the fire and cool it down.  He then put the seats back down and motioned for us to get back in.  I looked at the other passenger with my eyebrows raised and we both laughed and shrugged our shoulders.  I got back in the taxi like this was perfectly normal and no big deal.  After all, this is Uganda and anything goes.  As they say here, “there is no problem.”  We drove for a couple of meters and then the driver pulled over again and he sent the conductor to refill the jerry can from the swamp.  He returned, and we were instructed to get out of the taxi again.  The driver filled the coolant tank with water and then told us to get back in the taxi.  All I could think the rest of the ride home was, “Wow, I hope there isn’t another fire.  I really like these jeans I’m wearing and I don’t want to burn a hole in the butt.”

            This past week was uneventful because the students were slow to trickle into school and the teachers are still on strike.  Things are continuing to get worse here in Uganda, the exchange rate is now 3,000 shillings to the dollar.  It was 2,300 when we arrived!  Food and gas prices continue to rise, and teachers are still only making around 173,000 shillings a month.  That’s just over $50!!  It is rumored that the strike will end sometime this week, but anything goes.  I am going to keep myself busy by going to the health clinic and working on the resource room. 

            On Sunday, I invited my neighbors’ kids over to watch a movie on my computer because I have a bunch of Disney movies on my external hard drive.  We watched the Lion King, and I thought the kids were going to die of excitement.  The only television they watch here is the news and Spanish soap operas that are dubbed in English.  (Only some of my neighbors have televisions and they only get a few channels because they use the bunny ears).  After the movie, they went home and then came back twenty minutes later and asked if they could watch Simba again. While it was a very cute request, I had to say no (I don’t want to set a bad precedent of allowing them to come over all the time to watch TV).  I told them that on Sundays, when I am around, I will have them over for a movie day.  I have a feeling that I will be watching a lot of Lion King because I am not sure they really understand that I have other movies to watch.  Ah, but there is no problem :)

This bug was in our hotel at Lweza.  We don't know what it was, but it was gross!

Beginner Uganda

           I am finally finished with the three weeks of Peace Corps workshops, and it feels great to be home.  When I arrived back to my site, my neighbors were beyond excited with my return.  They had some of the students help me clean my house, and they did an amazing job.  They swept, scrubbed the floors, and dusted everything.  I don’t think my house has ever been so clean – I am so grateful for my awesome neighbors.  I did say in my last post that I was worried I was going to find some critters in my house and/or latrine.  Well, I had reason to be worried.  There was a dead and decomposing rat in my latrine.  It was actually STUCK to the floor and my neighbors had to scrape it off.  It smelled like death in my latrine; I was gagging.  They then scrubbed the floors, so now it’s back to its clean self.  Phew! 

            During my three weeks away, I realized my whole training group has started to pick up a few Ugandan phrases.  While sometimes we are joking, sometimes we cannot help talking like a Ugandan.  In order to understand, I think that I need to teach you a little Ugandan English:

1.     Greetings are more than just a simple “How are you?”  Here is how a typical greeting will go with a  random person on the road:

            A: “How are you?”

            B: “I’m fine”

            A: “Mmm.”

            B: “How are you?”

            A: “I’m fine.”

            B: “Mmmm.”

            A: “How is there?”

            B: “Good.  How is home?”

            A: “Fine. Well done.”

            B: “Mmm.  Thank you for your work.”
            A: “Mmm.”

From there you can continue down the road.  And, yes, the “Mmms” are essential in every greeting.  I actually usually say “mmm” when someone speaks to me in Lugwere and I don’t understand.  In most cases, it will suffice!

2.     You will find yourself saying all of these phrases constantly if you are in Uganda an extended period of time:

-       Well done

-       Thank you for your work

-       It’s okay

-       Eh, sorry (sorry is pronounced more like soddy”

-       “You first wait” or “You first come”

-       If something is broken – it’s “spoiled”.

-       If your phone battery is dead – it’s “finished”

-       If a restaurant ran out of French fries, which are chips here, then the chips are “over”.

3.     I feel like I should elaborate on some of these phrases.  For instance, “it’s okay” is the response to everything.  When I tell my neighbor that I’m off to Mbale to do some grocery shopping, he or she will usually say, “It’s okay.”  If I ask a question, and I’m not understood, then the response will just be “it’s okay.”  It’s a universal response to anything. 

4.     “Eh, soddy” can be used in all contexts.  For example: If you’re sick, you drop your pen, you trip, your phone battery is finished, or if your computer is spoiled. 

            A: “My mom has the flu.”

            B: “Ehh, soddy. I missed your call because my phone is finished.”

            A: “Eh, soddy.”

            Person A drops their pencil accidentally.

            B: “Eh, soddy.”

You get the picture.

5.     If you are gone for a long time, then people will tell you that you have been “lost.”  Since I was gone for three weeks at workshops, people keep coming by to tell me, “Ah! You have been lost.” 

6.     Statements can always be turned into questions.  “The phone is what? It is spoiled.”  “The food is what?  The food is over.” “I am what? I am hungry.” This is a nasty habit we have all picked up – it started out as a joke, but now most of can’t help speaking in statements/questions. 

7.     When you return home, some people say “well be back” instead of saying, “welcome back.” We have not started saying this, but we all want to know why this is said.

For all the people reading this that have been to Uganda, I know you’re thinking, “yup, totally!”  For everyone else, I’m sure you’re thinking, “huh?”  All I have to say is, come visit me and you will understand completely.  Otherwise, in two years you will start to notice that I sometimes speak like this myself.  Kind of like when I picked up a little bit of a Midwestern accent when I went to UW. 

This blog post is now what? Finished. 

Libraries For Life

            For those of you that do not know, I am working on a project called “Libraries for Life” with three other Peace Corps Volunteers.  Libraries for Life is partnered with Books for Africa, and we are working together to build libraries in select schools throughout Uganda.  There is not a big reading culture here in Uganda – books are not readily available and most Ugandans do not read for fun.  We are all working together to try and change that.  I plan to set up a library at Namengo Girls and create a literacy program in order to improve reading comprehension skills.  I will be working closely with a teacher, Sauya, so that the project will be sustainable when I return to the US in two years.

Books for Africa will send us the books, but we need to pay for the shipping and port fees.  We are currently trying to raise $21,000 to cover these costs, and we would greatly appreciate any donations.  You can check out the webpage for Libraries for Life and read more:

https://www.booksforafrica.org/donate/to-project.html;jsessionid=061425D51330A6547D34436583544822?projectId=79 

You can also go to www.booksforafrica.org -> donate now -> donate to a project -> scroll to Uganda and click on Libraries for Life. 

I am almost done with all of my Peace Corps Workshops!  I have been away from my site for almost three weeks, and it is getting a little tiring.  In Service Training was interesting to say the least.  Our Ugandan counterparts had to attend the workshop with us for four of the days, and it definitely provided entertainment.  One of the days we had a gender debate where the men had to ask the women three questions and vice versa.  Well one of the questions for the women was: “If the Bible says God created man first, and all of St. Paul’s helpers were women, then how can you say that men and women are equal?” (I think we can pretty much guarantee one of the Ugandans came up with this question, not a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer).  Here were some responses from the women in my training class:

Erica: St. Paul also had women working in hire positions than men.

Willysha: Men wrote The Bible.

Chelsea: The Bible can be interpreted in many ways, and it’s important that we look at both sides.  God created man first because he is superior OR God created man first and made a mistake. 

            One of the days we had a session on how to do HIV/AIDS education with students and how to do condom demonstrations.  A Ugandan raised his hand in the middle and said, “I have never used a condom, but this seems like a very long process.”  We were all horrified and laughed out of shock!  It was really interesting to see the cultural divide.  After this, a Ugandan asked for the Ugandans in the room to please raise their hand if they use condoms – very few of the 44 raised their hands.  He then asked the Americans to raise their hands if they use condoms – most of us raised our hands.

            The workshop was extremely helpful at times because it gave a lot of us ideas for secondary projects and programs to start in our schools.  It was nice that our counterparts were there because they will be a big help in starting these projects.  My counterpart was very excited and we made an action plan for the next term.  I also was able to talk with him about being MIA and not giving me advanced notice for meeting and workshops.  So I think this term will be a little more productive (hopefully!). 

            I am excited to go back home on Friday…but I am a little terrified to see what creatures have found their way into my house and/or pit latrine.  Don’t worry, I will keep you updated :)

I Know I'm a Bad Person, but at Least I'm Good Looking

            I am sorry that it has been a while since I have updated.  I wish that I had an excuse; like that I was really busy and I have a lot of cool things to write about.  Unfortunately, I’m just lazy.  My counterpart showed up at my site one morning last week to inform me that there was a workshop for the School Family Initiative.  I had just come back from a run and I was sweaty and disgusting.  The meeting, of course, was starting in 2 minutes.  I threw on some clothes and sat in on the workshop.  Now, I feel like I should explain how a typical Uganda workshop operates:

- The workshop was scheduled to start at 8, but it did not start until 10:30 because everyone showed up late.  Surprisingly, this is actually pretty good in Ugandan standards. 

- The workshop started with a prayer, then we sang the national anthem, and then all 30 people had to stand up and introduce themselves.  Some people are quick and mumble, while others talk for about 5 minutes.

- For the next 5 hours the workshop is conducted in a lecture style.  There is time for questions and comments in between, where people usually take this time to speak nonsense, just so they can hear themselves speak.  (Just like what happens in America!)

- This brings me to the title of my blog.  One teacher raised his hand to comment on whether or not teachers should say, “I love you” to students.  How that topic came about, I am not even sure.  He is rambling on and on about himself and his experiences.  All of a sudden he says, “I know I’m a bad person, but at least I’m good looking.”  My counterpart and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows and laughed.  It had absolutely nothing to do with what we were talking about. 

- Statements are constantly being turned into questions.  For example, if I was leading a lecture, I might talk like this: “The students need good discipline.  The students need what?  Good disciple.  If they are not disciplined, then they will misbehave.  The students will what?  They will misbehave.”  The audience will usually join in and answer the question as well – much like the teaching style in Uganda.  A lot of us volunteers have picked up the habit of speaking like this, and it’s quite fun.  Although, I’m not sure that it will be well received when we return to the US.     

- The workshop was supposed to serve food, but that did not happen.  By the time it finished at 3:30, I was starving because I had not eaten anything all day.

I was done with teaching two weeks before term was over because the students had to take their final exams.  I went to the health clinic one day during my time off to help Gowa set up balance sheets to keep track of money and supplies.  While I was there, Gowa asked me if I would go with him to visit a patient.  I agreed, and we walked over to the patient’s house down the road.  We greeted the patient’s wife, and she led us into the bedroom.  At first I could not even tell there was a body in the bed; this man was all skin and bones.  He was curled up in the fetal position and he looked at me with eyes that said, “Put me out of my misery.”  Since I am an mzungu, they immediately thought that I was there to rescue them and take care of their troubles.  I have never felt so utterly helpless, and I stood there trying to find the proper thing to say.  I talked with his wife for a little while.  She told me that her and her husband were diagnosed with HIV a while back.  They were both put on ARVs, but her husband stopped taking them after he felt better.  He eventually got worse, and she said that he only had a few more days to live.  I left their house sick to my stomach – I had just met a dying man in a two-bedroom house made of mud, and there was nothing I could do to help.  While I know that I can’t solve all the world’s problems while I am here, I couldn’t help feeling somewhat defeated.  Gowa and I, however, discussed a plan for HIV/AIDS education in the community when I return from IST (In Service Training for Peace Corps).  I am happy that I will be able to work on that and feel like I am doing my part. 

During my time off, I have spent a lot of time with my neighbors.  Sauya’s son and daughter are back from secondary school, so I hang out with them a lot because they are around the same age.  I did not buy any groceries last week since I knew I’d be leaving for 3 weeks for IST; so I ate pretty much every meal with my neighbors as well.  Sauya has a bad rat problem in her house, and you can hear them running around everywhere.  One night, when I was over for dinner, the power was out and we were eating by the light of one candle.  I felt something on my foot, and at first I thought that it was just my pants.  Then it started to tickle and move.  I thought I was just being paranoid, until I felt something crawl on top of my foot.  My eyes grew wide and I clenched my teeth as I thought to myself, “Don’t make a scene.  It’s going to be okay.”  I casually said, “I think there is something crawling on my foot.”  We all looked under the table with the candlelight, and the rat scurried away.  No big deal; we continued to eat like this was a perfectly normal occurrence. 

I am currently at IST for the next ten days.  We will have a three-day break, and then we have to return for All-Volunteer Conference.  It’s a little weird being back with my training class again in Lweza.  It has been three months since I have seen a lot of them! My neighbors were all very sad to see me go, and I had a lot of tea before I left.  I planned to leave at 9 in the morning to head to Kampala, but I did not end up leaving until 12:30.  I stopped to say goodbye to each of my neighbors, and they all insisted in either inviting me inside for either tea or food.  Living in a country where time doesn’t mean anything can be relaxing at times.  I don’t ever feel rushed; I can just go with the flow. 

A great thing about being in the city is that I now have a great Internet connection.  So I am online a lot now and able to chat with all of you lovely people.   So get on Skype and gchat! 

The Brown Badge

             A sad, and somewhat disgusting reality of the Peace Corps is that volunteers talk about poop…a lot.  It is acceptable to talk about at the dinner table and we definitely don’t spare any of the dirty details.  When my training class arrived in Uganda, we were told that you were not a real Peace Corps volunteer until you earned your “brown badge.”  I’m sure most of you can guess as to how one earns this badge – you have to poop your pants.  Now don’t get too excited; I have not received this high honor, yet.  Ryan, however, earned his badge this past week and has shamelessly allowed me to write about it in my blog.  Here is how our texting conversation went on Saturday morning:

Ryan: “I know we always joke about poop attacks, but the reality is, it’s not that funny when you poop your pants.”

Me: “OMG YOU POOPED YOUR PANTS?!?!?!  What happened?”

Ryan: “I wanted to wait for my water to finish boiling so I could make my tea.  I unclenched for just a sec and then it was all over”

Me: “Hahahahahaha…gross!  Are you ok?”

Ryan: “Yes. But I need a new pair of shoes”      

            I think that sums it up pretty nicely.  Congratulations Ryan on beating me to the brown badge and thank you for letting me post it on the Internet for my friends and family to read about. 

            Term is almost over and students are finishing up their final exams.  I cannot believe how quickly the time has passed!  Teachers at UPE schools (government primary schools) have gone on strike because of their low salaries.  They are only paid 200,000 shillings a month, which is the equivalent of $74!  As a result, the school where my coordinating center is located is closed, and last week was a little slow in the work department.  I spent time with my neighbors and helped the students at my school study for exams.  I gave my neighbors’ kids paper and colored pencils to draw, and now my walls are covered with drawings – the majority of which are pictures of people shooting each other.  (These kids are between the ages of 4-9).  I asked Dennis if they could draw something that didn’t have guns, and he responded, “You don’t like guns?”  I said no, and told him that they should draw me an elephant or a cow.  I got a drawing of a man holding a machete…but hey, at least he wasn’t chasing anyone.  The other kids just copied pictures out of a children’s English book, so I have drawings with labels like “boy” and “girl”. 

            Last week, the neighbor kids were watching me cook peanut noodles through my kitchen window.  They were completely mesmerized and they couldn’t stop giggling to each other.  When I sat on my couch to eat my dinner, they kept peeking in the window and then would laugh at me (they aren’t used to seeing this type of food).  I opened my door and asked if they wanted to try some.  They went nuts and were so excited to try my food.  They devoured their plate and when I went to dump out the extra sauce, they stopped me and drank it like a soup.  Either they really liked my cooking or it was just nice to eat food that wasn’t rice, beans, or matoke. 

            This past weekend Caroline, Chelsea, Audrey, and I went to Sipi Falls, which is about an hour and a half away from Mbale.  We decided to go on a whim, so there was not much planning involved.  A five-minute Internet research landed us in “Crows Nest,” which was one of the cheaper places to spend the night.  Our room was a mud hut with three bunk beds squished together, and it looked like a fort with all of the mosquito nets.  There were papyrus mats on the walls, which I assume was to hide the mud and make it look more “homey.”  There was also a bit of plastic flooring, which covered some of our mud floor.  We could not stop laughing at the ridiculousness of where we were staying, but we thought it was pretty cool.  After all, we were expecting to have mud huts as our houses at site – so we felt like we were finally getting the real Peace Corps experience.  The lodge arranged for a guide, Malisha, to take us on our hike through Sipi Falls.  (You need a guide because there are no marked trails, and at some points you’re walking through home compounds).  Our hike was a little disastrous, which made it all the more fun and funny: 

            As we were hiking, Malisha warned us that there were safari ants up ahead, and he said to run and hop over them.  (If you read The Poisonwood Bible, then you know what safari ants are.  The Maasai use their pincers as sutures).  We were in a single file line and we all started to run in order to get away from the ants.  I was in the back of the line, and Audrey was in front of me.  In slow motion, I saw Audrey trip and face plant right into a big pile of safari ants.  Of course my first reaction was to laugh because I am mean and it just looked funny (plus she was laughing too).  She got up and started to wipe off the ants, while the rest of us started yelling at her to move.   She started screaming, “OMG they are biting me!!” and continued to frantically wipe off the ants.  We continued to yell at her to move because she was standing in the pile of safari ants – so was not doing any good to wipe them off.  It took her a few seconds, but she finally got the picture and moved. 

            We continued hiking and we had to go up a steep part of the hill with a lot of low hanging branches.  Caroline’s backpack got caught on one of the branches, which caused her to slip and fall straight into a hole on the side of the path.  It sounded and looked pretty painful, but she just cracked up laughing…and so did the rest of us.  A few minutes later, Chelsea slipped and fell while going down a steep part of a hill.  At this point, I am pretty sure Malisha thought we were completely uncoordinated and crazy because we couldn’t stop laughing at each other.  Chelsea turned to me and said I should stop laughing because pretty soon it was going to be me. 

            It started pouring rain during our hike and it got really muddy.  Unfortunately, at this point we were going downhill.  Malisha told us we should take cover until it let up a bit, so we stood under the awning of a random person’s house.  After the rain stopped, he told us that if we continued to go down to the last waterfall, then we would have to climb down ladders that would be slippery from the rain.  We realized he was insinuating that he did not want to take us because he didn’t want to be liable for an injury.  We agreed that it was best to skip going to the bottom of this waterfall, and decided to just see it from a different viewpoint.  We were going downhill and it was really slippery and muddy from all of the rain.  We were sidestepping and trying really hard not to eat it.  Well, of course, Chelsea was right.  I slipped and landed smack on my side – I was caked in mud!! 

            We returned to the lodge, muddy and freezing.  They supposedly had hot showers from 5pm-8pm because they heat the water over a large fire.  Well, since we were the only four at this lodge who wanted to shower, the lodge did not really care to heat the water for the showers.  We were so cold and the water from the tap was freezing – so we convinced them to heat water for us to bucket bathe.  All the other mzungu at the lodge looked at us like we were crazy, but we’re Peace Corps volunteers, so we are experts at this!  Plus, we were disgustingly dirty and we needed to wash off all of the mud.  The rest of the night was great in our mud hut fort.  Since we were up in the mountains, it actually got really cold at night.  It was nice to be able to sleep with a blanket for once!  

And finally, some photos: 

Bujagali Falls in Jinja

Boat Ride: Maggie, Bethany, Me, Willysha

Bethany, Me, Maggie, Willysha, Ryan, and Caroline

Our boat - looks sturdy, right?

Kobe is in Uganda

I could not get this chicken out of my house.

This lizard was waiting for me when I opened my door.  Terrifying!

Dennis eating his noodles

Our fort in Sipi Falls

Our door to the mud hut

Crows Nest Lodge

Sipi Falls - the view from Crows Nest

The biggest pig I have ever seen!!

Audrey, Chelsea, Caroline, and Me

Cabbage Field

Malisha gave us these leaves in case we needed toilet paper

Behind

Audrey was terrified crossing the slippery bridge

We're finished!  And soaking wet.

Bedtime in the fort :)

One of the many drawings I received