The Ugandan Version of a Taxi - It's No NY Cab

            If you ever visit Uganda, or any East African country for that matter, then you need to ride in a taxi in order to get the full experience.  Depending upon where you are, they are called different things: Kenya = matatu, Tanzania = dala dala, and Uganda = taxi.  In a few of my posts, I have mentioned a few particularly eventful taxi rides - whether it was chickens pecking at my feet or my seat catching on fire.  I mean, who wouldn’t want to ride in a taxi?  For those that have forgotten or for those that are not avid followers of my blog, a taxi is a mini van that serves as a sort of bus.  Along with the driver, there is a conductor who sits in the back and he is in charge of looking out for more passengers, collecting the money, and opening and closing the door.  A taxi is supposed to seat about 14 people (4 rows that seat three people and then 2 people up front with the driver).  In most places, however, traffic police doesn’t regulate taxis.  Thus, conductors usually pack in about 20 people in order to get more money.  Here is how a typical ride will usually go for me if I’m heading to Mbale:

 I wait on the side of the main road in Budaka for a taxi to pass.  I usually don’t have to wait very long – 15 minutes max.  There is no set schedule for taxis, but there are plenty of them running along the main road.  A taxi will arrive and I will usually have to haggle with the conductor over the price.  It’s 2,000 shillings, but I’m an mzungu, so they love to try and rip me off.  After agreeing on the price, I’ll squeeze my way into a seat.  Taxis are usually pretty rundown and have at one point been filled with chickens, goats, fish, puking babies, and/or multiple people with BO (most Ugandans don’t wear deodorant).  As you can imagine, they usually smell pretty bad.  I consider it my lucky day if I get a window seat with a window that actually opens (30% of the time they don’t open and it’s such a tease!).  Every now and then, I will sit next to a Ugandan who asks me to marry him and take him to America, which was funny at first, but now I jut get annoyed.  We head down the main road and stop multiple times in order to let people on and off.  Sometimes, I have to get out myself in order to let the person next to me off.  As I said, there is no set schedule or stopping points for taxis, so they stop wherever and whenever – it’s probably the most inefficient form of public transport.  We may stop for one passenger and another may want to get out 50 meters ahead.  Does that passenger get out and walk?  No.  We drive forward and stop again.  (As I said, it’s inefficient).  In addition, if a taxi is fairly empty, then we will usually wait in a bigger trading center for me people.  Overall, the 30km trip to Mbale can take anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour – it’s really just the luck of the draw.

            My taxi ride to Mbale the other day was particularly eventful.  There was a taxi already at the “stage” in Budaka when I got to town (score!).  Unfortunately, this taxi was in pretty rough shape – the seats were falling apart and it smelled of fish and gasoline.  The floor had some holes, so I could see the road passing by below (always comforting).  I did not have a great feeling about this taxi and I figured it would be one that had to get a push start (oh yeah, this is quite common.  Ryan has even been asked to get out and help push before).  Well, this taxi ended up completely dying after ten minutes.  We all had to get out and sit on the side of the road.  We were in between towns, so there was no place to wait for another taxi - we all had the shade of one tree.  A few boda bodas (motorcycle taxis) passed by and people boarded those and soon it was just down to me and two other guys waiting under a tree.  After twenty minutes, no taxis passed and I was getting impatient.  I decided I would just start walking towards Mbale and hopefully a taxi would pass by.  After another ten minutes, a taxi finally passed and stopped for me.  I was so happy, until I saw that the taxi was completely full.  I gave the conductor a confused look and he gestured for me to sit on another passenger’s lap.  I could not help but to raise my eyebrows and laugh.  Uganda has a culture where men and women shouldn’t display any signs of affection, but this conductor wanted me to sit on this young man’s lap? And I didn’t know him?  Well, I was hot and I wanted to get to Mbale – so screw being culturally appropriate – I was getting in.  I sat on the man’s lap like it was no big deal and everyone in the taxi proceeded to chuckle.  I can’t blame them – an mzungu girl sitting on a Ugandan male’s lap – I’m sure it was quite a sight to see.  Thankfully, after about five minutes, someone got off the taxi and I was able to get off the man’s lap.

            I have been fairly busy now that school has started up, again.  After my “Safe School Environment” workshop, Sister Goretti wanted me to help facilitate the workshop at Namengo Girls (all the teachers that attended were in charge of rolling out the workshop at their own schools).  Thankfully, we cut down the workshop to one day and just covered the basics for the teachers.  I was in charge of talking about corporal punishment and alternative discipline – a topic that always sparks a lot of debate.  Caning (hitting a child with a stick) is a pretty common punishment here in Uganda and it has probably been the most frustrating and hardest thing to deal with since living here.  Students are caned for various reasons: tardiness, talking in class, wrong answers, failing tests, bullying, hitting other students (ironic), etc.  Namengo Girls is one of the better schools when it comes to caning – all of the teachers know I’m strongly opposed to this form of punishment.  Nevertheless, I sometimes hear the slap of a stick and a student’s cries.  Teachers walk around waving a stick in order to intimidate students to get to class.  Even the head girl (like a prefect) carries around a stick and sometimes hits other students.   Teachers justify caning with the following phrases:

1.     “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” – This is from the bible and it’s pretty hard to refute.  I try to explain that this should not be taken literally and that the bible is instead emphasizing that children should be disciplined or they will be spoiled. 

2.     “An African child hears from behind.” – Ugandans are convinced that children can only learn from being hit. 

3.     “No gain without pain.”  - Again, I say this should not be taken literally.

Unfortunately, most Ugandans take most things they hear at face value.  Critical thinking is not taught in schools, so when I say, “don’t take this literally,” most Ugandans don’t understand my point.  As a result, I am sure that most of my fellow teachers only half listened to my presentation.  I talked about the effects of caning and why it is wrong.  I followed up by discussing alternative discipline and gave some examples of appropriate consequences for misbehavior.  The teachers were polite and participated in my activity, but they still continue to carry around sticks today.  I have to accept the fact that I cannot change this behavior with one presentation.  In all likelihood, teachers will probably still cane after I leave in a year.  I try to remind myself that corporal punishment did not start being banned until the 1970s in the US, and in some states, it’s still legal!  Nevertheless, I continue to cringe every time I hear the deafening crack of a stick as it hits a student. 

Last week, I had my first Life Skills class at Budaka F.H.P., which is the school where my Coordinating Center is located.  Technically, this is the school where I am supposed to work, but I have played favorites, and do most of my work at Namengo Girls.  (I’m awful, I know).  Anyway, last Thursday happened to be the day teachers do “guidance and counseling” with the students, so my schedule was messed up.  I am supposed to teach two streams of 40 girl P7 students once a week (one stream on Tuesday and the other on Thursday).  Well, the teachers decided that they wanted me to attend the guidance and counseling sessions instead.  The first session they lumped all the P1 and P2 students together (boys and girls) – so there were about 400 students with limited English speaking skills.  The teachers asked me to talk to them about life skills, but instead I introduced myself in Lugwere and taught them the “Peel Banana” song/dance.  (You all wish you could have seen that!).  The P3 and P4 kids were placed together and I just said hi quickly and introduced myself.  (I’m really not sure how these teachers expect to guide and counsel such big groups of students…TIA).  Lastly, the P5, P6, and P7 students were grouped together, but the girls and boys were separated.  The teachers thought I could definitely start my first Life Skills lesson, even though it was tailored for 40 students, not 200.  Nevertheless, I tried, but it was pretty much a flop.  It started raining and we had to move inside a room meant for 50 people, not 200!  The room was LOUD and the rain smashing against the tin roof didn’t help matters.  I made the session quick and let the eager students go home.  Hopefully this week will prove to be more successful since I will have smaller classes like I planned! 

On Sunday, Ryan, Caroline, Max and I had a BBQ.  For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to have it at Ryan’s.  So we sat on the floor and there were a lot of communal bowls and eating off of newspaper (which also served as toilet paper because Ryan doesn’t buy that anymore.  He says he prefers newspaper because then he has something to read and it’s cheaper).  My standards of hygiene are pretty low these days, so I didn’t really mind us all eating pasta salad out of one big pot.  I felt pretty sick after all the food: pasta salad, goat with BBQ sauce (sent in a package from Caroline’s awesome parents!), fried bean balls, and chocolate, peanut butter covered popcorn for dessert.  I wanted to puke after all the food (or maybe I picked up a parasite from Ryan’s house, who knows).  Either way, the food was delicious and we had a great time.  

The kids coloring

They LOVE when I bring out my camera

Communal bowl of pasta salad (notice the king of the castle gets the only chair...)

Kids were putting their hands in the windows because they wanted food...so Ryan gave them some through the window.  It was a funny to watch.  PC volunteers aren't normal...

One Year!

            I have officially been in Uganda for a year – I do not think I have ever gone this long without In and Out or Starbucks.  At the beginning, a two-year commitment seemed like a long time, but it is amazing how fast time has flown by.  I cannot imagine having to come home right now. 

            School has officially started and it is nice to get back to work.  Of course, it took about a week or so for school to get organized.  Kids slowly trickled in and the timetable took a while to set up.  While it is nice to be busy, I do miss my days of lounging around and reading.  Last week, my counterpart and I facilitated a three-day workshop on “Safe School Environment”.  The workshop was held at my Coordinating Center and it was for all the government schools in my district (20 schools).  Three teachers from each school attended, so there were a lot of participants.  The workshop focused on child abuse, corporal punishment, and how to create a safe learning environment for students.  Here were a few of my favorite moments from the workshop:

            In every Ugandan meeting or workshop, there needs to be a chairperson, spiritual leader, timekeeper, and a secretary.  (The timekeeper position always makes me laugh because I have yet to attend a Ugandan workshop that keeps time.)  The chairperson is in charge of keeping the participants in check and the spiritual leader is in charge of the prayers before and after the workshop and before meals.  The secretary is in charge of taking down the minutes and they literally have to write everything down.  My counterpart asked for a volunteer to be a secretary, and one of the male teachers said, “Ok, come on all female teachers.”  I snapped and said, “I don’t think so! You now have the position of being secretary.”  Thankfully, my counterpart laughed and backed me up in my decision. 

            Later in the day, we were discussing some of the causes of child abuse - such as, lack of education and cultural beliefs.  One of the teachers raised his hand and said, “Beauty.”  I was a little confused and I asked him to elaborate more (even though I was pretty sure I knew where this was going).  He replied, “Sometimes these girls are just so beautiful, and us teachers cannot help ourselves.”  I was horrified and I think my eyes nearly popped out of my head.  Even worse, there were some words of agreement amongst the teachers.  I responded, “As a teacher, you are required to abide by a code of conduct.  If you cannot practice self-control, then you have no business being a teacher.  A child can never be blamed for their abuse, even if she is beautiful or dresses indecently.  The blame always falls on the abuser.  It is because of comments like those that I am teaching girls life skills.”  A lot of the teachers clapped afterwards (especially the women).  Once again, my counterpart backed me up and said, “Yes, so maybe we could say a cause of child abuse is ‘lack of professionalism’.”  I guess I really am my mother’s daughter… 

            On the second day, a woman from the Ministry of Education came to observe the workshop (the ministry sponsored this workshop across the nation).  She gave a little speech about the importance of the workshop and then asked for questions.  For the next hour and a half, teachers raised their hands and said something along the lines of the following:

“Thank you, Madame.  We are just appreciating you coming.  We are all working hard, you see.  But you see, us teachers have this problem.  There has been little reimbursement for this workshop and we must travel long distances to get here.  Ah, and there is no support for when we take this back to our schools.  There must be support from the ministry so we can talk to the community and parents.  And you see, us teachers are not paid enough.” 

            While the teachers did have some valid complaints, they kept repeating each other and all their complaints would be accompanied by an anecdote.  My patience was wearing thin because it was past lunchtime and I was so hungry.  I could see and smell the overcooked, fatty meat and rice littered with tiny stones.  I jut wanted everyone to be quiet so we could go and eat.  (Uganda is no different than America: everyone loves to hear themselves talk before lunchtime).  Thankfully, my counterpart finally cut them off and said we should not take any more of the ministry’s time and we should go eat.  At lunch, my counterpart said he was so hungry and he almost didn’t survive the last session.  I said, “Ya, everyone was complaining.  I didn’t like it and I was so hungry!”  This leads me to my favorite part of the workshop: 

            On the last day of the workshop, we had time for questions/comments before lunch.  We started at 12:30, and people were still raising their hands at 2:00.  It was an hour past lunchtime and I was hungry and annoyed.  At 2:15, my counterpart finally says, “Alright ladies and gentleman, Aubrey doesn’t like to listen to us Africans complain.  Let us go take lunch.”  I could not stop laughing, but I have never been so happy with my counterpart.  I was so hungry; I was about to chew my arm off!

            This past weekend, a bunch of people from my group went to Jinja to celebrate our “one year anniversary.”  Of course, the weekend was pretty much devoted to eating too much food and a dance party complete with glow sticks.  The place where we stayed also had a rope swing that went into the Nile.  It was really fun, but on my last turn, I slipped, and now I have some lovely rope burn on my hands.  

            That’s pretty much all that has been going on with me!  This term I plan on teaching Life Skills at my Coordinating Center and at Namengo Girls.  I am also hoping to do a reading comprehension class once a week.  I am going to continue to help out teaching P6 and P7 math.  I have a lot of things to look forward to after this term too: Egypt in 3 months, my awesome cousin Jane comes in 4 months, and I get to see my bestest, prettiest friend in the whole wide world in 6 months in Rwanda!