Holla From Kampala: May 2012

No, I was not pregnant (though the recent weight gain might have made you think otherwise). Nine months ago, I began fundraising for Libraries for Life with some fellow PCVs and children’s author, Jean Reidy. We had a target goal of $17,000, but after we joined forces with another volunteer in Central Uganda, we raised over $21,000. As a result, Books for Africa shipped us 22,000 books, 4 brand new computers, and 40 solar lamps. The shipment finally arrived last week, which was a great welcome home gift after Egypt.

As to be expected, there were a few hitches at the Mbale Port when the books arrived. This is Uganda, after all, and it would not be right if there were no problems. We had to argue over excess charges and taxes – it was extremely frustrating. The port workers also decided that they were entitled to some of the books and solar lamps too. They just opened boxes and helped themselves. They took around 7-800 books and 8 solar lamps. There were plenty of books, but I am pretty sure they were taken with the intention of being sold. I was only mad when I heard that one worker took a whole set of the Harry Potter series. Not cool, not cool at all. We were all a little irritated about the solar lamps too, but, as we say, TIA.

This past weekend I went to Iganga to sort the books at Musana Children’s Home. (Jean Reidy was raising the money for Musana and Andrea is the founder). At first, Bryan, Linda, Gary, Andrea, Leah, and I were all a little perplexed with how to go about sorting all the books. (Bryan, Linda, & Gary are PCVs. Leah & Andrea work at Musana). The amount of boxes was intimidating and they took over two large classrooms. We started off by each taking a subject and unpacking the boxes. It only took us five minutes to realize that was a terrible idea because we would run out of space and get really confused. We decided to all work on one subject because it would be more time efficient and organized. Well, so we thought. We all just started to unpack boxes and put the books in piles (there were a lot of sets). We did not realize how many boxes there were and soon the whole floor was covered in a mish-mash of piles. We were all having anxiety, especially because there was no walking room. Thankfully, Musana had a church group visiting for the week and they were extremely helpful.

The boxes were not split up very well between the classrooms – half of each subject was in each classroom. As a result, we had the church team organize the Literature books in the other room and then we had the Musana students bring them down to our room. The students were so eager to help, they would pile them on their head and then come running down the hill to give them to us. It became a contest to see who could hold the most books. After the books were organized, we each decided what we wanted, packed them up in boxes for our school, and moved the boxes to a different room. After Literature, I was exhausted and sore from all the lifting. Literature sort of wiped us all out and we were a little discouraged – we had not expected sorting to be so much work. We decided to sort the Reference books next because it had the least amount of boxes. Also, there was less to organize since we did not have to sort through various types of textbooks and workbooks. After reference, we called it a day!

Sunday was much more productive because we had an idea of what we were doing and we learned from our mistakes. We started off by dividing up the “leisure reading” books because that was the easiest. We just each took the same amount of boxes and did not bother opening them up. We figured we would each get good and bad books, but at least it would be random. We were not up for sorting through thousands of children’s books and novels. Afterward, we sorted the science books and we were really organized. We created rows and organized the books by title and publisher. When the kids brought the books from the other classroom, it was much easier to find their place! We chose our books, packed them up, and moved the boxes. Last was math, which went relatively smoothly. There were a lot of single textbooks that did not have a set, so they took up a lot of floor space. By the end, the room kind of looked like a bomb went off. We finished up quickly, however, because by then we were pros. That or we just wanted to be done!

Bryan and I live relatively close to each other, so we hired one truck to bring our books back to our schools. My school was ecstatic when I arrived. All the teachers came to help unload and they kept saying, “So many books!” and “God bless you!” They were also going nuts over Bryan because he speaks Ateso (another language in Uganda) and he speaks it pretty well. Stephen and Sauya both speak Atesso and they kept calling him their brother. Bryan was clearly better at learning his designated language than I was because I can’t speak Lugwere to save my life. Way to show me up, jerk! (Just kidding…sorta).

My school has hired a carpenter to make brand new bookshelves for the library. We had a little leftover money from the fundraising, so I am paying for half. I will still have a little left, so I am going to buy supplies for organizing. I’m hoping to organize the books using the Dewey Decimal System, wish me luck! I just set up the new computer, which is nice, and the teachers are thrilled. They keep saying, “We’re so modern” and “That computer is smart!” Needless to say, they are very excited about the books, computers, and solar lamps. The P7 students will be able to use the lamps to study for the PLE even when the power goes out, which is great.

Thank you to everyone who donated to Libraries for Life and made this possible. Your support means a great deal to me, and my school is more than grateful. They spent all Monday excitedly asking each other, “Have you seen the books?” I wish you all could have seen the kids at Musana flipping through the books with huge smiles on their faces – they were just excited to touch a book and look at the pictures. I cannot wait to have the books organized so my students can share the excitement. Thank you, again!

Photos courtesy of Bryan:

They needed two trucks to transport all the books to Musana

Kids helping us sort out books

Me, Gary, Linda, and Leah

So many empty boxes!

The first half of the Literature books

The church team was a great help

The kids were so excited to help

The Peace Corps team: Linda, Me & Gary. (Bryan took the photo)

YAY! BOOKS!

I have returned from an amazing trip to Egypt. I had a lot of fun and I am a little sad to be back in Uganda. The trip went super smoothly, which is surprising because there were 11 of us on this trip. We were all kind of expecting some drama – it is almost a given in such a large group. Our hostel, however, took care of everything and we really did not have to worry about much. They arranged all of our transport and bought our train tickets in advance, which relieved a lot of stress and prevented any major drama within the group. We had a tour guide in both Cairo and Luxor, but both of them served primarily as babysitters and making sure we were on schedule (we lagged a lot). Our tour guide in Luxor was awesome, however, and he knew a lot about Egyptian history. I’m not one for tour guides, but I liked him! He was funny and had a lot of great stories. Unfortunately, none of us could remember his name…it kind of sounded like Why.

Egypt is, in one word, awesome! Egyptians are extremely nice and helpful; we were a little caught off guard at first. Ugandans are usually pretty helpful, but they usually expect something in return. For the most part, we weren’t hassled in Egypt – except for the bazaars at the super touristy places (they got annoying!). Since we were coming from Uganda, I think that our perceptions were different than those of someone coming from America. Here were our first impressions:

- “Wow, look at how nicely paved the roads are!”

- “They drive on the right side of the road. Nice.”

- “OMG, there is an H&M – let’s go shopping before we go back!”

- “There are so many nice cars.”

- “Whoa, they have streetlights!”

- “AIR CONDITIONING!?!?!?!”

We also noticed the really cool architecture of the buildings, but mostly we were impressed with how nice Egypt is. Granted, I do not think someone traveling from a developed country would be quite as impressed.

I felt really safe in Egypt; in fact, I felt much safer there than I do in Kampala or any other big city in Uganda. The only time I was terrified was when I had to cross the road. There is no such thing as a right of way or crosswalk – everyone just goes. You hold up your hand, cross the street, and hope everyone stops for you. We always tried to follow behind an Egyptian because we all thought we were going to get hit by a car. One Egyptian instructed Maggie and me, “Just hold up your hand, close your eyes, and may god be with you.”

We were the definition of tacky tourists – all we needed were fanny packs and t-shirts that said, “I <3 Egypt”. After arriving at our hostel, we went straight to McDonalds, which was right around the corner! The smiles on our faces were about a mile long and some even ordered seconds. That pretty much set the pace for the week – the amount we ate was pretty impressive and disgusting. We tried everything that Egypt had to offer – both American and Egyptian.

After stuffing our faces with McDonalds, we walked to the Egyptian Museum, which was awesome. I’m not one for museums; I think they are pretty boring – so if I say it is cool, then it is cool! There were a ton of statues, sarcophaguses, mummies, and other random artifacts. There was an animal mummy section, which was pretty creepy and gross, but still cool. They also had a King Tut section with all of the artifacts from his tomb. We spent a couple of hours walking around and looking at everything. The museum was HUGE! We all couldn’t believe how much stuff was there.

The second day, we went to the Pyramids of Giza, which were amazing. When most people think Egypt, they think pyramids – it was what I was most excited to see. In proper tourist fashion, some of us even paid to ride a camel. I, of course, was one of those people. It was $10 for an hour and a half, which was all the time we needed. We were all surprised by how close the pyramids were to the city; we thought they would be way out in the desert. Cairo, however, is pretty much built right up to the pyramids. You can see them from the highway, which we thought was so weird. After the pyramids, we went to KFC/Pizza Hut for lunch. There is one outside the gates to the pyramids with huge glass windows so you can look out at the pyramids. I do not think you can get any tackier, but I really wanted popcorn chicken.

After the Pyramids of Giza, we went to the Dahshur Pyramids. We got to go inside the Red Pyramid, which was really freaky and awesome. We had to crouch down and go down a steep passage that was 3 feet high and 4 feet wide. It was seriously a never-ending tunnel (200 ft.) and it was really tiring. It is a good thing none of us are claustrophobic. The inside of the pyramid was pretty crazy. However, it smelled like ammonia and was kind of stuffy. It is seriously mind-boggling how they built these pyramids. There were two chambers, connected by small passageways. Inside the second chamber, there was a wooden staircase that lead to the last chamber. Climbing back out of the pyramid was an adventure; we were all breathing hard and saying, “Are we at the end, yet?!”

That night, we took the train to Luxor. We opted for the sleeper train because it is about an 11-hour trip. The train was nice and we were actually pleasantly surprised with how comfortable the beds were. In Andrew’s words, “The sheets were perfect.” We were all pretty excited with the dinner of highlighter yellow rice and fried fish with no flavor, another testament to the fact that we have been in Uganda far too long. For breakfast we got an assortment of breads and we could not stop cracking jokes. We got a croissant, a “cheese” croissant (basically plain), and a dinner roll.

After we arrived in Luxor, we dropped off our things at the Cleopatra Hotel and then headed off to the Valley of Kings. The Valley of Kings was by far my favorite part of the trip; it was remarkable! Unfortunately, we could not bring our cameras inside, so you are going to have to take my word for it. The Valley of Kings lies in a ravine of limestone hills and there are sixty-two tombs (not all of them are royal). The tombs were massive, way bigger than I would have expected. The walls were covered in paintings and hieroglyphics, which represent a guide to the underworld. The tombs were all constructed to have long corridors and shafts to prevent tomb robbers (which didn’t really help). It was really pretty amazing to see how much work went into constructing these tombs. After the Valley of Kings, we went to the Al-Deir Al-Bahari Temple, which is the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut. It’s situated at the head of a valley and almost blends in with its surroundings. There were a ton of columns and statues throughout the temple, which were incredible. We all couldn’t believe how massive it was.

The next day, we drove two hours along desert road to Abydos in order to see the Temple of Seti (also known as the Great Temple of Abydos). Abydos is one of the most ancient cities of Upper Egypt. It was quite a trek to get there, but the temple was really cool. Also, there was hardly anyone there – partly because it is so far out and partly because tourism has really gone down in Egypt (great for us!). After Abydos, we drove to Dandara Temple. This temple is one of the most well preserved temples in Egypt – with huge granite columns inside. The temple also has a tomb – you had to climb down stairs and crouch down to get inside. Our tour guide turned off the lights once we were all inside, which he found hilarious because we all screamed. Our tour guide also told us that he wanted to put me on a leash because I kept wondering off to take pictures. Later that night, our hotel had a BBQ for us and hired an Egyptian band to come play music for us. It was awesome and the music was great. We all showed off our stellar moves too!

The next day, we got to sleep in – Maggie and I were in heaven. We did not get out of bed until noon. We were perfectly content laying in bed with the air conditioning on full blast. We even convinced Chris to bring us breakfast in bed. Nothing too spectacular, just rolls and yogurt, but we didn’t have to move! We finally got out of bed to get ice cream and then shower for the day. In the afternoon, we went to the Karnak and Luxor Temples. They were interesting, but the previous ones were definitely more spectacular. (We were also pretty temple-d out). Afterward, we went to an Irish Pub to gorge in food and drink draft beer until it was time to catch our night train back to Cairo.

When we arrived in Cairo, we actually had to figure something out for ourselves. Our hostel did not pick us up because they told us the hostel was only a 15-minute walk away. Well, that did not turn out to be true, but we figured out the metro system to get to Tahrir Square and then we walked to our place. We were all pretty impressed with ourselves that we did not get lost. Later that day we went to the Citadel of Salah Al-Din, the Coptic section of Cairo, and the oldest mosque, Amr Ibn El-Aas. The Citadel was really cool, but the Coptic section was kind of blah. The mosque was really pretty, but the girls had to wear these ridiculous green, hooded robes. We looked like Jedi and we were trying so hard not to laugh. However, we looked absurd and the boys could not stop making fun of us (especially because they got to go through the front entrance, but we had to go through a different one).

The last day in Cairo was spent doing last minute shopping and eating. I desperately wanted a Starbucks because I had yet to find one (pretty sure everyone wanted me to stop talking about it too). Ryan, Josh, Kelsey, Chris, Maggie and I took a cab to the nearest Starbucks and it was well worth it. The Starbucks ended up being in a really nice mall, which also had Annie’s Pretzels! I got a Frappuccino and a soft pretzel with two things of nacho cheese dip. Kelsey and Maggie got haircuts and I went and got a much-needed pedicure. Before we went home, I got another pretzel with nacho cheese and a Frappuccino…not joking

Our flight was at 9:45, so we went to the airport in the evening. We were all pretty stoked when we saw a Burger King – we hadn’t seen that, yet. And yes, I ate that too (but I only got chicken tenders…). During flight check-in, the attendant asked to marry me. I declined, but I said if he made sure to put no one else in my row, then I would reconsider. Well, he either delivered or I got lucky – I had the whole row to myself and I got to lie out and sleep the way home!

Now I am home and I am not all that thrilled. I miss the air conditioning, constant power, showers, and good food. Students are slowly starting to trickle back into school and I will probably start teaching soon. So I am sure it won’t be long until I get back in the swing of things.