Holla From Kampala: August 2011

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

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 :)

Saturday, August 20, 2011

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!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

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: