Grasshoppers: They're Just Like Chips

            Last Saturday, we were finally taken to Kampala and given a tour of the city.  It was as I expected – busy and polluted.  It reminded me a lot of Nairobi, but bigger and a little dirtier.  I felt like there were more options for the “mzungu” places where you can get American food like burgers, pizza, steak etc than there were in Nairobi.  We walked around the outdoor market, which is where I finally got to taste grasshoppers.  Grasshoppers taste like overly salted chips with a face.  They weren’t great, but they weren’t bad.  I’m not really a fan of eating foods that can look back at you. 

            We had language immersion this week, which was a lot of fun!  We left Sunday morning for Budaka, which is in the east, about 20 minutes outside of Mbale.  We took a taxi there (or matatu as they are called in Kenya), which is basically a van that holds 15 passengers.  When we got to the taxi park, I asked our language trainer, Kenneth, “So this taxi is going to stop for food along the way, right?”
           He looked at me with his eyebrows raised and responded, “It’s a three hour drive; are you really going to need food?”  Oh Kenneth, clearly you don’t know me very well.  He then added, “It will stop for food, but you can’t eat it.  You will get diarrhea.”
           Ryan, Caroline, Bethany and I could not stop laughing because it’s pretty uncommon for Ugandans to talk about anything toilet related.  He did have a point though.  Taxis will usually stop on the side of the road where they have vendors that sell food and water.  Usually about thirty or so people will rush up to the taxi and wave things in your face to buy.  It’s not the smartest idea to eat the food though because 1. It’s not the most sanitary, 2. For meat products, they aren’t always fully cooked.  Once the vendors see a taxi, they just pull it off the grill in order to make money and beat another vendor from selling their meat.  So yes, diarrhea is probably in the cards.  (For those of you wondering – yes, this is why I was always sick in Kenya.  I definitely ate from these vendors!).  I knew Kenneth was not going to let me eat this food though; so Bethany, Ryan, Caroline and I stocked up on the biscuits they were selling at the taxi park. 
            The drive to Budaka was not too bad, except for the fact that it was a little squished and the driver drove like my mom (for those that don’t know, that’s terrifying!).  Along the way, we did make a stop for food.  As we were pulling up to the stop, Kenneth told Bethany that she might want to close her window.  Not having been to Africa before, she was a little confused and slow to close the window.  In about five seconds, 20 or so people rushed the taxi to sell things and were waving meat on a stick and bottles of soda through the window.  Closing the window does not really do any good because they will just slide it back open.  All of us really wanted to get the meat on the stick because it actually looked pretty good.  Kenneth gave us the evil eye and told us we better not because he didn’t want to take care of us if we got sick.  We then saw a kid selling chapati that looked AMAZING!  Now chapati is just flour and water, so it doesn’t matter if it’s undercooked, right?  Well, that’s the argument we used, and Bethany, Ryan and I bought some.  Kenneth saw and just gave us a look like, “are you kidding me?”  He then raised his hands as if to say, “If you poop your pants, not my problem.”  Caroline refused to eat any because the kid handed us the chapati with his bare hands, which were extremely dirty.  She said, “Um, did you see his hands!  His fingernails were black!”  While she did have a point, it was seriously the best chapati I have eaten – and none of us got sick! 

            Budaka is a really small farming town and pretty rural.  Our “hotel” was interesting to say the least.  We each got our own room with a bathroom, so that was nice.  There was no running water though and the toilet didn’t have a seat.  Since there was no running water, you had to pour water into the toilet to have it flush.  My toilet was absolutely disgusting; I don’t think it had ever been cleaned.  We had to bucket bathe since there was no running water, and you had to do this basically on the toilet because the bathroom was so small.  Let’s just say, we were all pretty filthy by the end of the four days.  We, however, found it absolutely hilarious.  My language group is pretty easy going, and we just find the humor in everything.  Even though the town was small and out in the boonies, we are all pretty excited about our region.  It was really green everywhere and there was no pollution.  The people were also very nice and welcoming.  Since it’s so small, we know that our sites will most likely be relatively close to each other, which means it will be easy to meet up and hang out.   It also means, however, that our sites are going to have the bare minimum.  I don’t think I’ll have running water and I might have electricity.  Thankfully, Mbale is close, which is a bigger city and I will be able to buy anything I need there. 

            We got a lot of practice speaking Lugwere during immersion, but we also realized we have a lot of work to do these last few weeks of training.  Everyone spoke so fast!  Everyone we met was shocked when we would greet them in Lugwere, but really excited we were learning. Kenneth is from the Budaka area, so he had some family there.  His cousin Mark showed us around and introduced us to people, which was really nice.  Kenneth is probably the best language trainer and really fun to hang out with!  He told us that whenever we are feeling down about learning the language, we should listen to the Mariah Carey song “When you Believe” or R. Kelly’s “I believe I can fly.”  He loves these songs.  He also says phrases like “Jesus Christ on a wooden bicycle.”  Not really sure what that means…  We taught him a few card games and he taught us how to play pool using Ugandan rules.  He also taught me how to play Uganda Chess, which is actually nothing like chess, and more like a complicated math version of Mancala (it was fun, but he kept beating me!).

            One of the greatest moments during language immersion was at lunch on our last day there.  A man came over to us and apologized for interrupting, but he said he just had to come say hi to us because we were in the Peace Corps.  He said that he had a Peace Corps volunteer as a teacher when he was younger, and he still remembers him to this day.  He said he was so happy that we were there and that we were going to be teachers in the Lugwere region.  He said we were most welcome and he knew we would do great things.  It was good to hear that Peace Corps can leave an impact, and we are going to be doing something worthwhile.  Another great moment was when a 16 year old proposed to me.  Actually, it was more of a demand than a proposal.  He said, “We get married and then you take me to America.”  I had to let him down by telling him that’s illegal where I come from. 

            Overall, we had a great time in Budaka, and we are excited about our future site visit in two weeks.  We get to spend a week at our exact site, where we will meet people and figure out what we will need to buy before we move.
            And I'll end with some photos...

Caroline and me

Could he be any cuter??

My brother, Matia, making Chapati

Look at me!  I'm helping.

Frying up the chapati - this is where all of the cooking is done.

Heading to Budaka

My room.  See what I mean about the bathroom?  That bucket is my bath/is covering up the nasty toilet

Lugwere group.  Walking around with Kenneth and Mark

A store in Budaka.  We were a little concerned about the security...

One of the roads in Budaka

These lizards were EVERYWHERE!  I hate lizards.

Kenneth being a pimp

Our hotel

Eating jack fruit - so good!

Crazy lightning storm in Budaka

The taxi park - yikes!

Power Thighs

            In America, it is scandalous to show too much cleavage, but in Uganda, it is scandalous to be showing your thighs.  A woman’s thighs are her “power.”  Obviously I knew this, which is why I spent endless hours searching for long skirts before I left.  Nevertheless, some of the other volunteers and I still managed to embarrass ourselves.  This week we went to a Primary Teachers College (PTC) in order to learn how they operate and get more practice teaching.  When we were not teaching, we hung out in the staff room and practice language or read.  On our second day there, one of the Peace Corps trainers, Ven, came up to us and whispered to us to uncross our legs.  We were all a little confused, but we did as we were told because Ven is Ugandan and knows all of the cultural customs.  She later told us that when we crossed our legs, our “Power” was showing.  Let me just say I did not think she was referring to my thighs, and I was mortified.  We were actually all a bit horrified, but then Ven clarified and told us part of our thighs were showing, and it was making the other teachers extremely uncomfortable.  They told Ven who had to relay the message to us.  It’s apparently culturally inappropriate for a woman to cross her legs here…who would have thought?  Lesson learned.  I’ll try not to show my power and not to cross my legs anymore.

            We went to the PTC on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and it was very…interesting.  First of all, the PTCs were outside of Kampala, so we had to leave really early to beat the morning traffic.  We had to be at the Training Center by 6:30am because that is when our transport left.  So I had to leave my house at 6am and it was pitch black outside!  It was not fun having to walk to school with a flashlight.  Also, it rained this week, so I was walking through mud (it's all dirt roads here).  Additionally, it took 2.5 hours to get to our PTC!  The first PTC was an hour away, but after we dropped off the first group, it took us another hour and a half to get to our PTC.  It was mainly due to all of the traffic, we would literally sit in the same spot for 15 minutes.  However, we were placed at Shimoni PTC, which is brand new and extremely nice – so we had that in our favor at least.  We were only at Shimoni for a half-day on Tuesday; we took a tour and met with teachers to discuss lesson plans.  I think we were actually on the bus for longer than we were at the PTC.  Wednesday I was supposed to teach a math lesson, but of course that fell through.  So I observed a few classes, and then just sat around studying language and read my book. 

            Thursday I was finally able to teach, and I taught two math classes.  It was intimidating to teach because the students were 18-22 years old, and I was supposed to teach them how to teach primary school math.  My lesson was about percentages and turning fractions into percents and vice versa.  The students did not actually remember how to do this, so I basically just taught the math lesson.  There were 70 students (yikes!), but overall it went really well.  They weren’t so keen to participate, but once they realized I wasn’t going to back down – a few brave souls started the trend of raising their hands.  During my second lesson it started to pour down rain: rain + vaulted tin roofs = extremely noisy.  I pretty much had to shout and write everything I said on the board.  After finishing the lesson, it was still pouring down rain, so none of us felt like leaving the classroom.  To pass the time, I told the students they could ask me any question they wanted about America or me, which was a lot of fun.  A few my favorite moments: 1. I was asked what the weather was like.  When I told them about the snow/freezing cold in Wisconsin, they could not believe it.  They asked me how people survive.  2. They asked how Uganda is treating me.  I told them how much I loved Uganda so far, and I was really excited to be here for two years.  I then said, “I also hear mzungu about 45 times a day, that gets annoying.  If you see a white person, don’t shout mzungu – go talk to them and introduce yourself”.  They could not stop laughing, but kept telling me it was not meant to be offensive.  I told them it would be like people shouting “Mu-Uganda” all the time if they came to America.  They found this hilarious, but also finally saw the point I was trying to make.  3. “We would like your Facebook and email.”  This was met with both cheers and laughter from the whole classroom.  I was not quite sure how to respond, as I did not want to give my information to 70 students nor was I sure if it was even appropriate.  I told them I was not going to give out my email, but if any of them could properly spell “Aubrey Marsh,” they were welcome to find and add me on Facebook.  So far, I have received no friend requests.  Overall, I got a lot of great questions and it was fun to tell them more about America. 

            I showed some photos I had of my family yesterday to Dan, Fred (another cousin who always hangs around here) and my mom.  Well, Dan never fails to say something amusing!  He looked at the first family photo and says, “Ay, your mom is too skinny!  She needs to come to Africa to learn to eat properly.”  He also said that Robyn and I were too small, but my dad looks “big and strong!” and we should try to take after him.  My host mom on the other hand said we looked “smart,” so that’s good!  My computer ran out of battery, so I wasn’t able to show them that many photos, but they are really looking forward to seeing more.   

            Next week we have language immersion, and I will be gone from Sunday-Thursday.  We are all going out to our regions with our language trainers to practice speaking.  I am really excited to go because I will get a general idea of where I will be living for the next two years.  I won’t be seeing my actual site, but it will still be nice to see the region I am in.  I’ll let you all know how it goes when I get back!      

What Would You do if Your Pit Latrine Collapsed?

            I have been haunted this whole week by a story about a Peace Corps volunteer who fell into a pit latrine after it collapsed.  I am aware that this story could be an urban legend, but I also know that it’s a possibility – pit latrines do collapse.  I do not consider myself to be very high maintenance in Uganda; I can handle the bugs, rats, snakes (sort of), dirt and bucket baths.  However, if I fall 30 feet into a pile of poop, I will be on the first plane home.  Apparently Peace Corps staff utilizes the “three jump test” in the pit latrine during site checks; so hopefully I should be okay. 

            I have officially been in Uganda for a month!  I saw my first snake walking to school on Wednesday, and I nearly had a heart attack.  As soon as I saw it, I screamed and leapt about five feet backwards.  A few Ugandan men saw, and they could not stop laughing.  They went up to me saying, “Madame, madame, it is dead” and then continued to crack up.  I took a closer look and realized that it had been chopped up.  (Ugandans, like me, are terrified of snakes and will chop them up if they see any).  I was a touch embarrassed, but I laughed, said thanks and walked away.  I could tell they were talking and laughing about me because I could hear them say something about the scared mzungu in Luganda as I was walking away.  Oh well!  I don’t like snakes…

            This week went by fast because we were at the Coordinating Center (CC) for three of the days.  It’s always nice to get out of the training center for a little break and change of scenery.  On Friday we had to give a two-hour workshop for teachers on the importance of learning aids.  We were told that 40 primary school teachers were invited, but since this is Africa, we were a little skeptical as to how many of those would actually show up.  Well, surprisingly enough, 32 teachers showed up and it was a huge success!  We started the workshop by introducing ourselves/explaining Peace Corps and gave a little shpeal on the importance of learning aids.  We designed the workshop to have three stations: math, science and literature.  The teachers split up and then rotated every twenty minutes.  Audrey, Bethany and I were in charge of the math station and we had prepared various learning aids to show.  We made a couple of simple posters targeted at lower level math (numbers with pictures, easy fractions, etc) and we brought in bottle caps to show how they could be used as a learning aid to add and subtract.  We also made a math bingo – we had numbers on the bingo cards and then we would say simple math equations that they had to figure out.  The teachers had never heard of bingo before, but they played and loved it!  We explained how it was a great way for students to practice mental math.  The teachers agreed because even some of them had trouble mentally figuring out the problems like 17 + 5 while playing.  We didn’t show math flip cup because the workshop was mainly for P1 and P2 teachers – we thought younger kids would have a tough time flipping the cup.  The science and literature stations also came up with some pretty great learning aids that the teachers also loved.  At the end of the workshop we raffled off the learning aids by randomly selecting names from the attendance list because so many teachers requested to keep our learning aids.  So the workshop went really well, and we were all pretty happy – especially after hearing that other group’s workshop wasn’t as successful and the attendance wasn’t nearly as high. 

            Tuesday was International Women’s Day, so it was a public holiday.  We, however, still had training.  We had a training session on gender roles in Uganda since Uganda is a patriarchal society.  (For instance, women are expected to kneel to men!!).  We started the session by having the men in our group pretend to be women and the women pretended to be men for five minutes.  It was great, we made them get our water, kneel, “sit like a lady” and basically just bossed them around.  Naturally, I was great at this game.  We obviously took it to a bit of an extreme, but I think the guys got the idea of what it feels like to be a woman in Uganda.  Funny enough, later that night, Dan and I had a discussion about women’s rights.  He asked me how I felt about it being women’s day, and I jokingly said, “It’s great, but I think every day should be women’s day.”  He looked at me with the most confused face and said, “Why? Men are superior to women, so women should not have more days then men.”  Now it took a lot in me to bite my tongue and not completely lash out at him.  However, I talked with him about how in America men and women are seen more as equals.  He seriously could not comprehend this, and he didn’t believe me when I told him that my mom actually wears the pants in the family.  He also thought it was shocking that a woman can make the first move and ask out a guy because in Uganda, the woman would be seen as a prostitute.  We talked for about an hour with him telling me how it is Uganda, and I telling him about how it is in America.  It was actually really interesting and I think we both learned a lot, even though neither of our views actually changed. 
             Today, I was cutting up some fresh mango in the kitchen, and Dan made fun of how poorly I was cutting it up.  He told me that he hopes I marry a Ugandan because then I will be forced to be better in the kitchen.  HA!  Keep in mind though, not all Ugandans have this same point of view - just some are more traditional than others, especially in the villages.  There are also people who believe that men and women are equal, it just all depends on who you talk to.   

             That’s all I have for now.  Weraba!  (That’s goodbye in Lugwere). 

A few photos :)

Preparing Flip Cup

These signs are real, just in case you thought I was joking

Chillin

Nikki and me

Rhino

Zebras

Crocodile

Giraffes

Lake Victoria

Bath time!

Lisa, Bethany and me

My baller house

Sudi - the cutest kid ever

My bedroom

Willysha and me - getting ready to go to home stay!

Best candy bar...ever

This is where our training center is

Who wants to go down first?

Doing laundry

My room for the first two weeks at Lweza

Flip Cup for Primary School

            Leave it to a Badger to turn a popular drinking game into something educational; UW really did teach me something.  Let me just start off by saying this learning aid did not actually include alcohol, in case any of you were wondering.  Today we went to a Coordinating Center (CC), which is a resource center for schools and teachers.  The CCT (Coordinating Center Tutor), Moses, showed us some of the learning aids teachers use that are made out of local resources – many of them being models made from paper-mâché.  He taught us how to make them, which was cool because they even make their own paste!  Afterward, it was our turn to come up with our own learning aids with the materials he provided, which included a stack of recycled plastic cups.  I initially joked and said, “Let’s teach them beer pong or flip cup!”  However, soon an idea sparked that actually used the concept of flip cup.  Mental math is a problem here among students, so my game was based on trying to improve these skills.  This is the educational version of flip cup: We wrote simple multiplication equations on the bottom of each cup.  Students would be split up into two teams and it would be a relay race like regular flip cup.  The object of the game is to try and flip the cup upside down with just your two fingers so you can see the equation.  Once you have done so, you have to shout out the equation and the answer (i.e. 2 x 2 = 4), before the next person on your team can go.  The team that finishes first wins!  We demonstrated the game for Moses, and he played a round as well.  He thoroughly enjoyed it, made us write down the instructions and took the cups!  So flip cup was a hit. 

            I’m still enjoying my time here in Uganda, even though the training has been long.  We were taken on a bit of a field trip on Thursday, which was a nice break.  First we went to TASO (The AIDS Support Organization) in Entebbe.  TASO was formed in 1987 and has grown into one of the largest organized national responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.  We learned about the organization and the type of support and education that they provide.  They staff also sang a song for us, which was amazing.  (I took a video, which I will one day upload).  One of the patients also gave his personal story of becoming infected with HIV, which was extremely depressing.  I know that I will encounter many more of these stories while here, especially when I start working in the village.  I’m sure that is one of the reasons why our trainers brought us to TASO in the first place.  After TASO, we were taken to the Uganda Wildlife Education Center (UWEC)…probably to cheer us up.

            UWEC was awesome; we got to see a lot of animals!  Giraffes, lions, rhinos, crocodiles, zebras, a python and a cobra – just to name a few.  There were also tons of monkeys roaming around.  Monkeys here are like our squirrels in America.  However, the monkeys around UWEC were clearly used to being around people because they would get super close.  After walking around, a few of us bought food to eat while we waited for the bus.  One of the monkeys got a little too close for comfort and actually jumped on two of the girls in order to try and snatch their food!  We also witnessed a “monkey robbery.”  One of the cars in the parking lot left their windows open, and about 15 monkeys went inside, started stealing things, and ran out.  It was hilarious and we all took tons of photos.  I feel bad for whoever had to walk back to their car to find everything missing and monkey poop all over the seats! 

            I still love my home stay and my family.  Dan has been very entertaining, as we have had some interesting conversations/debates.  My top three favorites have been: 1. He told me I should have a child by now since I am 22, and he would pray for me.  He says a woman cannot be successful unless she has a child, so he hopes that I have one while I’m in Uganda (ha!) 2. He is going to come to America and campaign to have people stop having cats and dogs sleep in beds with people.  (In Uganda, and most of Africa, there isn’t really the idea of pets.  Ugandans fear dogs because they are usually used as protection.  Dan thinks it’s weird that we treat cats and dogs like part of the family).  3. I am on the path to hell because I don’t go to church on Sunday.  It’s all a part of the cultural exchange, so it’s interesting to hear his point of view.  I also have fun debating with him, even though it usually ends with me laughing hysterically.
            My host brother came home for the weekend, and it was great to meet him.  He is 22 and goes to university in Kampala.  My mom had him help me with my laundry because she said I needed to learn the "right" way to hand wash.  He was ridiculously fast and way better at it than I was - he would finish five shirts before I finished one.  He made me wash my dirty clothes bag, and then my mom made me IRON it!!!!  My mom actually made me iron every piece of clothing, including my socks.  And no, this wasn't because of mango flies, it's just because I have to look "smart".  I don't think I have ever ironed a piece of clothing in my life, but I am getting practice here.  I also helped my brother in the kitchen: we made fresh squeezed pineapple and passion fruit juice and we made a salad for dinner.

            I taught another science class on Friday, which went even better than the last time.  I remembered not to make any sarcastic jokes, and I watched the phrasing of my questions.  I even played a trivia game with the students in order to test their knowledge of the classes of animals, which they seemed to really enjoy.  So I am starting to feel more comfortable with teaching, which is good.

            I tried to upload photos the other day, but it went so slow, and then I ran out of time on my Internet.  I will probably try again this weekend when I have the patience, but no guarantees.  

             

Avoid Bad Touches, Lonely Places and Gifts

           I’m sure most of you are a little curious as to how I came up with the title of this post, but even more of you will be curious when I tell you that I saw this sign at a primary school.  It’s actually a part of PIASCY (Presidential Initiative for AIDS Strategies and Communication to Youth).  PIASCY was started in 2002 in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Uganda, and it’s known to have a very direct and blunt message.  As a result, you will often find signs like these posted around both primary and secondary schools.  Another personal favorite that I have seen is “Be Wary of Sugar Daddies”.  

            For the next three weeks we are getting more hands on training, which has been great.  This week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we were all split up and assigned to different schools in order to observe classes and teach.  On Monday, I just observed in order to get a feel of how classes are run in Uganda – and let me tell you, it’s very different.  It’s much more of a lecture style, and you have to write everything on the board.  Students don’t have very good note taking skills, which is why you have to write everything down (and it has to all be in complete sentences).  Usually you give the lesson, and then let them copy all the notes down at the end because they can’t multi task.  Also, they love to repeat everything you write down in unison.  I had worked out a schedule of classes to teach for today, but this is Africa, so of course nothing went as planned.  I got to school today and the class I was supposed to teach had already been taught.  Thankfully, I was able to teach a P5 (ages 12-15) science class, where they are learning the classes of animals.  The topic for today: reptiles.  The class wasn’t until the afternoon, so I was able to look through a book and create a quick lesson plan.  Overall, my teaching experience went well.  The kids were SO excited to have an “mzungu” teach their class, and they were all very attentive and participated.  I ran into problems a few times because I used words they didn’t understand or didn’t format my questions properly.  (I was at a primary school, so their English still isn’t superb).  So sometimes I would ask a question, and they would just respond yes, even though it wasn’t a yes or no question.  Whoops.  Also, they do not get sarcasm!  I asked, as a joke, “So a gorilla is reptile, right?”  They all responded “yes!”  (Students usually agree to anything a teacher says here because if they don’t, they may get the cane).  I have to keep that in mind next time I teach!  I am supposed to teach math and science on Friday, but we will see which one of those actually pans out – TIA (This is Africa).

            Our language trainers arrived this week, so we have also had a lot of language study.  The Lugwere trainer, Kenneth, is awesome and I think he is going to be a really good teacher.  It’s kind of hard to learn Lugwere and have my host family speak Luganda – they are somewhat similar and I feel like I am going to start mixing them up.  My host family is still awesome though!  My only complaint so far is that they eat dinner so late, like 9:30-10.  They offered to make my dinner separately, but I said no because I enjoy eating with the family, and I don’t really want special treatment.  The electricity also goes out ALL the time here, so the kerosene lamps we use are starting to get to my head.  They smell so bad!

            We had another medical training session this week, and they told us just about every bad thing we can get in Uganda.  Schistosomiasis, bacterial infection, rabies, tuberculosis, mango fly and jiggers!  Awesome.  The one that freaked me out the most is the mango fly.  Apparently it lays eggs in your clothing while it air dries, and upon contact with human skin, the eggs hatch.  The larvae burrow into the skin and develop into fully-grown maggots!!!  If you notice one forming under your skin, you’re supposed to put Vaseline on it in order to suffocate the maggot, and then pop it out. Um, no thank you.  Apparently, this isn’t very common among volunteers, and it usually only happens if you dry your clothes on a bush or on the grass.  It’s recommended you iron all your clothes because the heat kills the eggs, but that just isn’t happening.  I don’t even iron my clothes in America!  I’m going to risk it.  I’ll let you all know if maggots start growing under my skin… 

            Mmm, well, that seems like a great place to end it.  Love and miss you all  :)