Among the Acacias

Population Multiplication

2011-10-13T15:30:00.004+03:00

In Uganda, the population is exploding at an incredible rate. This small country, about the size of the state of Oregon, has one of the fastest-growing populations in the world. The average number of children per woman is 7, and while that number is actually a decrease from a previous 10 or 11(!), it doesn’t change the fact that, by 2050, Uganda’s population is expected to grow from its current 33 million to 100 million. 100 million people in a country the size of Oregon! Kampala, the capitol city, is already very over-crowded – a PCV friend told me it was initially designed for 500,000 people but is already at around 3 million. The increasing population will burden Uganda’s already inadequate infrastructure and development solutions, including:

Land. The majority of Ugandans are currently subsistence farmers who are reliant on owning enough land to grow food for their whole family. Land is already becoming a scarcity for many farmers, and while most still have enough food, that could easily change for millions in the coming years. Subsistence farming is by definition extensive and has much lower productivity then modernized or commercialized farming. While modern, mechanized farming has caused many problems in the U.S., namely environmental, there is no denying that some level of scaling-up of agriculture is necessary to feed a growing population. But can this be done fast enough in Uganda, and effectively enough, to keep up with the increasing number of people?

Waste management. All Ugandan roadsides, towns, and cities are covered with trash because there is no formal waste management system. Even in the capitol city, there is trash strewn everywhere, clogging gutters and adding to an already-poor sanitation situation. While most rural Ugandans don’t produce nearly as much household waste as Americans, as they buy most of their food fresh and rarely buy packaged items, the influence of Western societies and increased urbanization is also increasing the amount of trash produced. I still find it shocking, 14 months after arriving here, when people throw their trash out the bus window or even into their own yard… but then I think, where else are they supposed to put it? The main method of dealing with rubbish here is burning it in piles. Even the U.S., with its reliance on landfills, does not have the perfect waste management solution, but at least we have some method to keep trash off our streets and out of our waterways.

Education. The education system is already rife with problems, with one of the biggest being too many students and not enough teachers. There is also a lack of actual school buildings and classrooms, with students often squeezed onto small benches in a crowded room that is not conducive to learning. Even within the next decade, there will be millions more children to educate than the system has to currently deal with. Without an education, people are forced to remain subsistence farmers, which, as detailed above, will become increasingly more difficult. Uneducated women will also continue to have many children. It’s hard to say how a timely solution will be found to this problem.

Electricity. Uganda already experiences regular rolling blackouts, sometimes for days at a time – and there are still many parts of the country which have no electricity at all. Not only will a larger population require more electricity, but people are increasingly moving to urban areas, and rural areas are demanding that they also be put on the grid.

Health. There is already a shortage of doctors, nurses, hospitals, medical equipment and supplies, etc. for the current population level. While an increase in population size will hopefully result in more people also being trained as health workers, it is likely that the increase will not meet the demand.

This list could really go on and on. While Uganda has problems now, I can only see them becoming much, much worse if the population continues to grow as it is. Honestly, within a relatively short amount of time (possibly a decade or two), I believe that there will be widespread chronic hunger and that Uganda will once again descend into chaos as people literally fight each other for survival. (And as a quick plug against foreign aid, can I just say that in 2010 alone, Uganda received almost $1.8 BILLION in foreign aid to fix these problems, and nothing ever seems to get better? And President Museveni can hardly blame this lack of results on his predecessors, a common American presidential tactic, as he's been in office since 1986 and has received $31 billion in foreign aid during that time)

What’s one solution to slowing down the population explosion? While the provision of family planning (contraceptives) is of course the main tool to reduce the fertility rate, it means nothing if people still desire a large family size. One of the most successful strategies at lowering fertility rates worldwide has not been provision of family planning, forced sterilization, a “one child rule”, etc. but rather increasing girls’ education. By ensuring that girls receive a full education, they are provided with an alternative to simply being a housewife. Women who are educated not only understand the health and economic benefits of having fewer children, but if they work outside the home, they also know that they must have fewer children or forfeit their career. Of course, men also have to be educated to see the benefits of a smaller family and to “allow” their wives to have fewer children, as many women in my village have to hide their contraceptive use from their husbands or risk being beaten. Many refuse to take The Pill, as it is easy for their husband to find out, and only come when the health center has Depo-Provera, the injectable contraceptive they get every 3 months. Gender equality is not just some feminist, 70’s, flower-power concept – it’s absolutely vital for development and even, in Uganda’s case, survival.

Kenya - Safari Njema

2011-10-01T09:07:00.011+03:00

Since my last post, we had an All Volunteer Conference near Kampala where all the PCVs currently serving in Uganda came together for a couple of days to meet and greet, catch up, and share our stories and ideas. I thought I knew a lot of volunteers here, but it felt like almost half the faces were new to me (we have about 160 PCVs in Uganda). I presented a session on animal husbandry which went well, and we all ate delicious food and enjoyed spending time with one another.

After All Vol, I went with 4 other PCVs from my training group (Becca, Chelsea, Lisa, and Rashida) to KENYA! The trip was absolutely incredible. Nairobi was an impressively-large, much more developed city than Kampala. As we were passing through, I remarked, “Wow, look at all the traffic lights they have!” just as our taxi driver ran a red light. Oh well, nice try Kenya. The people seemed much less muzungu-crazed than in Uganda, and we were called ‘muzungu’ only a handful of times – a very nice break for us.

We saw many amazing things in Kenya, but our main objective was the Masai Mara National Reserve, which was probably the most amazing safari I’ve ever been on (and I’m privileged to have been on safaris all over East and Southern Africa). On our 4-day safari (with only two full days in the park), we saw 54 lions(!), 4 cheetahs, a leopard, elephants, giraffes, hyenas, ostriches, and hundreds of zebras. While this was all super impressive, the main reason we chose to go to the Masai Mara at this time of year was to see the wildebeest migration, which is featured in countless Discovery Channel and National Geographic documentaries. We were SO lucky to not only see the migration, with literally hundreds of thousands of wildebeest stretching up to the horizon, but we also saw them cross the infamous Mara River! After our safari, we had a chance to visit a Maasai village, which was interesting but of course touristy – at least it was a way for us to take unlimited photos without offending anyone. Overall, this was a once in a lifetime experience, and we are so lucky to have seen all that we did.

All those black dots? Wildebeest, as far as the eye can see

Wildebeest crossing the Mara River

Zebra being attacked by a crocodile!!! (surprisingly, the zebra got away and seemed fine)

An elusive leopard

A Maasai woman

The “Kenya Kitties”

When I came back to site after Kenya, the road into my village was flooded! I thought the taxi drivers had been joking when they said the road was impassable, but when I arrived at dusk, I had to wade through 100+ yards of water that sometimes reached halfway up my thigh (I’m short, but still!). Thankfully my house was nowhere near the danger zone and the water soon receded.

The water the next morning, after it had already gone done significantly!

I also recently had a chance to help train the newest group of trainees (who will soon swear in to be Peace Corps Volunteers). I talked about malaria prevention and what PCVs in Uganda did to celebrate World Malaria Day and raise awareness in our communities. I’m also coordinating with two local schools to do the World Map Project, through which the students will paint a giant map of the world on a wall of the school. One school is definitely on board, so we should start work next weekend. I’m really excited to get this going, as this is a project I’ve wanted to do since the beginning of service. The goal of the project is not only to increase the students’ knowledge about geography (which is very limited for even educated Ugandans), but to help them with critical thinking, creativity, mathematical methods such as drawing a grid system, and to build confidence by completing a big project that will be a beautiful, permanent fixture of the school. I’ll post photos as our map develops!

Camp GLOW

2011-08-21T18:39:00.002+03:00

Last week was the most rewarding experience in my Peace Corps service yet – Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) for southwest Uganda! Camp GLOW is designed to help empower girls in their early teens and give them confidence, leadership skills, and help show them the fullness of their potential. It was started by Peace Corps Volunteers in Romania in 1995 and has been spreading around the world ever since. Uganda had its first nationwide Camp GLOW in December 2010, and this camp was meant to target girls from all over the southwestern region.

It was an intense week – the counselors all arrived on Saturday to prepare for the camp (there were 8 PCVs plus 8 young Ugandans who are studying to be primary school teachers (PTC students), then co-directors/staff that included 6 more PCVs and 3 Ugandans). The campers arrived on Monday evening in the school truck (a big lorry/truck where the students stand in the back), and even though it was cold and pouring down rain, all the counselors ran out to greet them cheering. Girls were assigned to groups named after animals, and each group was led by one PCV and one PTC student (we were the Elephants). However, chaos quickly ensued as the girls tried to find their counselors, we realized almost none of them had brought blankets and some of them didn’t even have sheets or sweaters, and we knew that night would be cold. Eventually, we got things sorted out, and went for dinner and a sort of “opening ceremony”, including a song that the counselors sang about GLOW and girls’ empowerment set to the tune of “Rude Boy” by Rihanna (awkward original lyrics for kids but really awesome new lyrics for

GLOW written by one of the co-directors – “Come on GLOW girl girl show us what you’ve got – show it show it, lady lady, show it show it, shinin’ shinin’!). More chaos happened at 3AM when yours truly went for a “short call” to the latrine – the campers heard the dorm door open and thought it was time to get up (none of them had watches or phones to see the time), so started bathing, getting dressed, etc. We were all sleeping in triple-decker bunk beds so when a few people are up, everyone gets woken up.

The days were so busy after that! Wake up call was at 6AM (unless the girls woke up early at 3 or 4:30 haha), then activities ran until 10PM every day. The camp was filled with sessions about health (HIV, reproductive health and sex, nutrition and sanitation), life skills (goal setting, decision making and assertiveness, self-esteem), leadership (gender roles, public speaking, bringing Camp GLOW home), and arts and crafts (making a team flag, piggy banks/money jars, and a vision board – “Picture Yourself in 10 Years”). In addition, we had tons of games and competitions like the human knot, telephone, a blindfolded obstacle course, relay races, sports, and more. All of them helped the girls develop leadership, communication, and problem solving skills in addition to being lots of fun. (Although for my team, the blindfolded obstacle course was a disaster – only two girls from the group of 8 led the blind-folded girl and didn’t really guide her, meaning she fell off chairs, aimlessly kicked at the soccer ball because nobody guided her

foot or held the ball, and when they got to the potato/rice sack, simply stopped her in front of it and told her to get into it…). The education system here is all lectures and rote memorization, even from the age of 4 or 5, and there’s really no critical thinking or problem solving to be had, so these skills are so important to foster in these girls. By far their favorite game was Capture the Flag at night – so fun! I felt like I was back at YMCA camp or band camp, haha. The best part was that the quietest girl in my group was the one who captured the flag – talk about a confidence booster! But we all joked that the PCVs had a disadvantage – it took moving to Africa to realize white people glow at night even when there’s no moon.

Blindfolded obstacle course

The Floor is Lava! Getting teams of 20+ people across the hall with two basins, two rice sacks, and two pieces of cardboard

We also had reading time, speeches by strong, successful women, trivia, and even a fashion show where the campers dressed up the 3 male PCVs in women’s clothing and the boys strutted their stuff – soooo funny (and I don’t think Ugandans have ever seen cross dressers before). We even had a Disney movie night and watched Mulan, which has a strong message about gender roles but unfortunately most of the girls didn’t understand what was going on. I think the PCVs may have enjoyed the Disney night more than the campers, and we realized we’ve been in Africa wayyy too long when the main male (cartoon!) character takes his shirt off and we all swooned hahaha. Whenever we weren’t doing a formal activity, we were playing little games, singing songs (each animal group made their own theme song), and trying to stay busy and energetic.

My Elephant Group

The most amazing thing was the change we could see in the girls. I really didn’t think we would see a tangible difference in 3 days, but it was like night and day. When they arrived, they were quiet, shy, didn’t make eye contact, and frankly looked scared (part of it just being in a new place, part of it being the way most Ugandan girls are). Over the course of the camp, you could see the girls making friends, taking pride in accomplishing something completely new for them (like any of the team competitions/games), and started to become more vocal. After the closing ceremony on the third day, the girls had so much energy, they were bouncing off the walls, danced without a care in the world, and even at 11pm it was hard to get them to stop talking, giggling, etc. to go to bed. It was so amazing to see this difference in them. My favorite girl, a very intelligent and well-spoken girl who always smiled at everything I said even when the other girls were shut-off and non-responsive, wrote me a letter at the end of camp that almost made me cry, thanking me for everything and saying I was “the best counselor of all the rest” and “I promise that I will always remember you and always take into account what I have learnt from this camp…I wish you a safe stay throughout your life till ends meet. Your loving elephant, Joventah.”

By the end of Camp GLOW – full of energy and confidence

During the camp, I felt like who I used to be before Peace Corps (a sentiment expressed by other PCVs, too). I felt like I was needed and necessary, constantly busy, and full of energy and enthusiasm. All of these were feelings I haven’t had in a very long time. I was exhausted by the end but felt like my sense of purpose had been refilled. Considering how low I’ve felt about service for a couple of months, this was just what the doctor ordered. I also enjoyed feeling like a little kid again for a few days – summer camp rocks. :)

World Spins Madly On

2011-08-06T13:25:00.016+03:00

A couple of weeks ago, we got a TV and satellite at our Epicenter to act as an IGA (income-generating activity) for our programs. People are supposed to pay 500-700 shillings (20-40 cents) to watch a program, usually football matches, yet, unsurprisingly, there have been several times lately when nobody paid and so The Hunger Project is footing the bill for the generator’s fuel, rather than actually making money as is the whole idea behind an IGA. Regardless, I realized when we turned on the TV for the first time, and people were treated to music videos, news, and National Geographic, that this small window to the rest of the world changes everything. I watched as the villagers gasped at women wearing shorts, nice cars, and rich nuclear Ugandan families in commercials, and this view of life outside the village is one that most of these people have never had before. Viewing these things is exposing them to the modern world, which is a double-edged sword – on one hand they are learning about the bigger picture and gaining new ideas but they are also losing a part of their way of life along the way. Whether you think this exposure is positive or negative, it’s definitely a change that will be there forever.

Also, newly-named game popular among PCVs that I had unknowingly been playing for months: “Goat or Baby?” Here in the village, there are lots of goats and lots of children (the average family has 7 children around here!). I frequently hear loud, high-pitched wails coming from nearby, and it always causes one to pause and think, “Goat or baby?” because the two sound remarkably alike sometimes. Just another way to pass the time.

We recently had a 1st birthday party for Amanya, my next-door neighbor (Gertrude)’s daughter. I made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting all from scratch, and without a real oven! I’m using a tried-and-true PCV technique of using a dutch oven (big pot with a lid, then inside you put the cake pan on big rocks or sand for conduction and airflow), so I baked a cake over firewood! It was delicious. After having tea, popcorn, peanuts, and cake, we all watched Beauty and the Beast, although I think they found the movie just plain confusing (a big creature they've never seen before? Dancing candlesticks and clocks? What is this?).

Tiny baby, big knife

Baking the cake gave me confidence, so the next day I tried making pita bread using yeast (I have never made bread before in my life) – pretty easy and it came out super delicious! I dipped it in olive oil and basil with some balsamic vinegar that I splurged on in Kampala. If I can do all this in an African village with like 4 ingredients, imagine what I can do with access to an American grocery store!

Homemade pita bread… mmm mmm good!

Projects! I’ve got a few things going on, including trying to start a support group for HIV-positive community members. I decided to try to start a support group while at the funeral of a friend who died of AIDS. As I was at the burial, I looked around and saw at least 2 or 3 other people I know to be HIV-positive, and I’m sure many others were in attendance, and I just couldn’t imagine the fear, loneliness, and hopelessness they must have been feeling. I also asked people to submit proposals for a Peace Corps grant we can apply for, and the general consensus was to do a goat project, where we distribute goats, and those recipients pass on the first female offspring to another person in the community. I feel unoriginal with this since a neighboring PCV just did a similar project with goats, but I’m happy to have an animal project to work on! I’m still teaching health and life skills at the primary schools, and am planning to do the “World Map Project”, which was started by a PCV in the Dominican Republic in 1988, with one of the schools next term. We will paint a huge map of the world on the side of the school, increasing awareness of geography and the world but also instilling in the students a sense of accomplishment, leadership, critical thinking, etc. since they have never done anything like this before. I recently visited a friend’s site where they were completing the World Map Project, and I noticed that the girls doing the project were outgoing, independent, not afraid to ask questions, etc., which is very unusual for young Ugandan girls in the village. When I mentioned this to my friend, he said they used to be shy and never spoke up, but this project had completely changed them.

In true Peace Corps style, though, I haven't been super busy at site (although I've been attending all kinds of workshops, etc. away from my village lately), so I've gotten into quite a few TV shows - currently catching up on The Office and Grey's Anatomy, finished the 2nd seasons of Glee and Modern Family (probably my current favorite show), getting into 30 Rock, and have a few more on the docket.

Also it's official - I'll be home for Christmas!! Counting down the days - in just over 4 months I'll be State-side! I'm imagining holiday decor everywhere (especially wreaths on streetlamps, since we don't even have streetlamps here), hopefully snow for the true winter wonderland (come on Cincinnati), decorating the tree, eating amaaaazing American food, and seeing how I react to freezing temperatures now that I have turned African and put on a sweater when it's 68 degrees out. Can't wait!

Maama Wangye omuri Uganda

2011-07-14T18:33:00.007+03:00

Mom’s visit was fantastic. She flew into Entebbe, then we spent one night at a beautiful boutique hotel before heading to my house the next day. When we arrived in my village, I was amazed by our reception – a big group of women (and a few men) singing, dancing, and drumming, and repeatedly saying how thankful they were that I brought my mother to visit them. My neighbors and a few friends also prepared a welcome dinner of traditional Ugandan foods for us. Amazing! I was so proud of my village and felt incredibly loved.

While we were in my village, we actually stayed pretty busy, which is rare haha. One day for lunch we went to the house of the Epicenter Chairman (basically the community leader for The Hunger Project’s work) for lunch and were treated to an amazing spread – matooke, posho, millet, potatoes, chicken, dodo (greens), and delicious pineapple fresh from his garden. His wife even gave each of us a handmade necklace. Another evening, we walked deep into the village to see a friend’s newborn baby who they named after me (Kamusiime). Mom also brought a donated microscope with her which we presented to the community – they are really excited about the potential to have malaria and TB testing in their village very soon. Mom also came with us to one of the immunization outreaches. Every night, we watched movies curled up on my couch – felt like old times from my childhood.

One of our adventures away from my site took us across the border to northwest Rwanda at the base of the Virunga volcanoes (most of which are inactive). First of all, Rwanda is so much cleaner and more organized than Uganda! The roads are paved with streetlamps and shoulders that have gravel (i.e. not muddy grossness). Every Saturday, people are required to close their shops for 2 hours and clean up their communities, so there is virtually no trash, whereas in Uganda the amount of ‘rubbish’ on the ground is disgusting. Also, the boda boda (motorcycle taxi) drivers wear helmets and safety vests, are limited to carrying one passenger (whereas in Uganda I have seen 3 adult passengers plus the driver on a motorcycle before), and they carry an extra helmet for their passenger! The president, Paul Kagame, has also outlawed plastic bags. These little differences are like night and day between Rwanda and its northern neighbor Uganda.

But the main highlight of our trip to Rwanda wasn’t the cleanliness or struggling through speaking French or remembering which way to look when crossing the street (I automatically now look right before I look left, but Rwandans drive on the same side of the road as Americans) – it was seeing the mountain gorillas!!! Our adventure involved an easy hike through farmland and then through the forest as we entered Volcanoes National Park (part of an ecosystem spanning Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo). We had heard that finding the gorillas can take hours of hiking through ankle-deep mud up steep hills and hacking through stinging nettles, but our experience was more like walking in the park on a sunny morning. After only about 45 minutes of walking, we found the Kwitonda gorilla group. Our first sighting was a young blackback male, and it was astounding to see this massive black ape sitting only yards away from us – no fences, no barriers of any kind.

During the next hour, we were continuously amazed by what was happening. While we are supposed to maintain a 7-meter distance between us and the gorillas (mostly to prevent disease transmission between humans and gorillas), at times the gorillas walked right up to us. One silverback wandered right through the middle of our group – I could have literally reached out and touched him had I thought it a wise idea. We saw three silverbacks, youngsters of all ages (including a five-month-old infant), mothers with ‘toddlers’ – all in all, the group has 21 members, the 3^rd largest gorilla group in the park. The gorillas were mostly moving around and eating and, incredibly, just about completely ignored us. We were entertained by watching one youngster hang from a vine and use his/her foot to push off from a tree to spin around, presumably just for fun. Gorillas make a deep “Hmm-hmmmm” sound to mean “everything is okay”, and it was amazing to sometimes hear it coming from all around us, even from gorillas we couldn’t actually see.

Just as our hour was almost up, the head silverback, Kwitonda himself, got up and walked within feet of us, all 400 or so pounds of silver and black bulk, and headed off for a new section of the forest as the rest of the group followed. The fact that they, too, were moving on made it easier to leave. I could have easily spent all day watching them, and it felt like we had just arrived when we started heading back to the trailhead. This was easily one of the most amazing animal encounters I’ve ever had.

After Mom left, it was a rough transition back to site. I had been frustrated with things before she came, then everything was wonderful while she was visiting until I got a phone call from my organization on Wednesday telling me to come to a staff retreat in Kampala on Friday, my mom’s last day in Uganda, prompting a huge wave of frustration (this is the first staff meeting they’ve ever asked me to come to in the 8 months I’ve been at site) and actually made way for waves of fairly serious depression in the week or two following that. At home, I’m a normally bubbly, happy person all the time, so depression of any severity is abnormal and a bit scary for me. However, now I’m getting busier again, and I got support from Peace Corps and other volunteers on how to push through this low (and talking to them, I realize most of us are in a rough spot right now, probably the “mid-service slump” a little bit early or the 6-month-slump a little late). It’s nice to hear I’m not alone.

Things have been getting back to normal now and I finally feel I’ve leveled out – part of it may be that I stopped taking mefloquine, the original malaria prophylaxis I had been on, which is known to have psychological side effects. I finally bought a guitar after talking about it for months and am starting to learn how to play – even though I’m just picking out a few notes and chords, it’s already fun and relaxing. I’ve been going on walks with Kibo through the village which are not only relaxing and fun for both of us, but also seem to be the only way her anxiety issues seem to get better. I am already researching how to bring her back to the U.S. with me – seems pretty straightforward, just need to get proof of rabies vaccination and an approved crate to ship her in.

This week, I’ve been at a Peace Corps conference with many of my best friends in-country to learn about malaria as part of the new Presidential Malaria Initiative (PMI). Some of the sessions have been disappointing as they often are when led by Ugandans – not sure why I expected anything different. One of the main speakers, the director for Uganda’s national malaria control program, was not only pompous, but was giving false information, including stating that DDT not only prevents cancer, but that it didn’t kill bald eagles, the “Red Indians ate them.” He also indicated that where you take a blood sample (fingertips vs. arm) affects whether you can detect malaria parasites upon testing, which is completely false. Thankfully, most of us knew this and called his bluff, but we all were quickly fed up. Perhaps it is because this man is so prominent in the public health field in Uganda, and that I kept calling him out, that the Peace Corps community health program manager told me I should get a Ph.D. in public health and write a book, haha. Some of the other sessions were much more worthwhile, and the conference is great simply from the fact that I get to see some of my closest friends who I haven’t seen in several months, and we get hot showers, DSTV, and a swimming pool, all on American taxpayers. Thanks!

We did bring up more issues of foreign aid and dependency at this workshop, though. We discussed how people given free mosquito nets (the norm from things like Global Fund and USAID) sometimes use them for things like bridal gowns or fishing nets, and the fact that the nets are procured abroad means that local businesses are severely hurt by this influx of free nets. There’s a small mosquito net factory in Kampala – how are they expected to compete in such an environment? Also, since malaria drugs at government health centers are free, people have little incentive to prevent malaria by sleeping under a mosquito net, covering their windows and vents with screens, clearing stagnant water, etc. Why make the effort to prevent malaria if treatment is free? I am now pretty much completely against any type of handout or free anything (including foreign aid in the form of grants, and possibly even loans since the debt gets forgiven) and think the future truly lies in investment and supporting local businesses. My friends and I joke that Peace Corps is actually making us more conservative (at least in the economic sense).

The next couple of months are busy! In a couple of weeks, I have a training near Kampala to teach me how to train the new group coming in August, then hopefully helping with a Peace Camp in the north, teaching the new group of trainees, going to the All Volunteer Conference (every volunteer in Uganda comes together for a few days), then off to Kenya for the migration in the Masai Mara and delightful modern delights in Nairobi (including several rumored sushi restaurants!). After that, it’s only a little while until our mid-service conference at the end of October. The days here move slowly but the weeks fly by.

Recent Photos

2011-06-05T12:27:00.008+03:00

Waiting to go pick up my mom at the airport (she lands in an hour!) and our super-nice hotel has super-fast internet, so I'll upload some pics I've been meaning to for a long time:

Mural painted at the Peace Corps 50th Celebration

Queen Elizabeth National Park

Lioness, Queen Elizabeth National Park

Elephant with the Rwenzori Mountains, Queen Elizabeth National Park

Peace Garden - our team's project at the Peace Corps 50th

Children dancing in my village

Kibo

a HUGE puff adder at the agricultural college where I've been teaching (it's dead)

The kids at the Epicenter nursery school

My supervisor, James (left), with our Epicenter chairman at his matooke plantation

Women weighing their babies at our monthly immunization day

Banywani na Nshonga

2011-06-05T06:32:00.000+03:00

PCVs currently serving have all heard stories of how rattling reverse culture shock can really be. Reverse culture shock refers to returning to your home country/culture after spending time abroad and finding that you don’t quite fit in as well as you used to, at least at first, and that the way Americans do things is actually now shocking to you. I’ve heard stories of RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers) breaking down in the cereal aisle, amazed by the ridiculously huge variety before them. Others have become “that weird guy who greets everyone” because in many of the cultures where PCVs serve, greeting neighbors or even people you don’t know on the street is just what you do. I was watching God Grew Tired of Us, a documentary about refugees from Sudan who are relocated to the U.S., and I felt so bad for them when they went up to people’s houses just to greet them and ask about the neighborhood, and the homeowners were so nervous they called the police. Whenever a group of PCVs gets together at someone’s house, we spend hours raving if that person has a toilet and running water (I’ve even heard rumors that a few lucky PCVs even have things like ovens and one person has a fireplace?!), so I wonder how long I will marvel at modern conveniences when I get home – at our house we have three toilets, three hot showers, a refrigerator, a microwave, an oven, several TVs, heat, air conditioning, a fireplace, fast internet… even the thought of all those luxuries is overwhelming right now. It’s hard to say what will cause me to break down, but a cry fest at the grocery store or Target (another PCV and I have a specific fantasy – driving to Target in our own car while drinking a Starbucks latte) doesn’t scare me as much as the idea that I will be some kind of weird maladjusted citizen who doesn’t fit in.

Kibo is doing great – she’s now 8 months old and pretty big! I was worried about whether I’d be able to take her back to the U.S. because of how nervous she gets around new places and strangers, but I’ve discovered a few important things. First of all, she’s racist (lol). She is super afraid of Ugandan men she doesn’t know (barks her head off then runs away when they get too close), is curious about Ugandan women she doesn’t know, but she almost instantly loves any white PCV that comes to visit, man or woman, and is all over them right away! She’s already very affectionate with people she is familiar with, Ugandan or American, man or woman. And I think her anxiety with new places or walking through the trading center is the number of strange Ugandan men that she doesn’t know. I’ve been taking her on walks up little paths, between farms and where there aren’t too many people, and as soon as we’re away from the main road she visibly relaxes, becomes her happy-go-lucky self, and has a great time running around. The other evening we took a long walk and somehow picked up a caboose of 5 or 6 small children walking with us for over an hour. They didn’t say much but mostly just giggled at Kibo and ran away screaming if she tried to play with them. Definitely an “I live in Africa” moment when you walk through the village with a bunch of kids. Plus, I just don’t think I have the heart to leave Kibo here when I go back to the U.S. – she’s sometimes a piece of work but I love her and she’s coming home with me.

In my village, my best friend is probably my next-door neighbor, Gertrude, who is one of the nurses at the health center. She speaks the best English, understands most of my jokes and just seems to get me more than most Ugandans. She has a 10-month-old daughter named Amanya Ruth, and she is soooo cute! I’ve never watched a baby grow up like this, as I’ve seen her almost every day since she was 3 months old, and it’s so cool to watch her learn to stand, start to say words, learn how to smile, etc.

I was recently traveling by taxi (aka crowded minibus) to my friend’s site in the central region near Kampala. The woman sitting very close beside me kept nodding off to sleep, and every time her head thunked into my shoulder (not just brushed by actually head-butted me), she wouldn’t exactly pull away and would sometimes linger there. I know she was aware of what was happening, and was astonished because I know that I would be mortified if my sleepy head kept landing on a stranger’s shoulder. So I decided to start shoving my shoulder back into her head every time she lingered for more than a few seconds. Well, the ladies in the row behind me noticed it and burst into laughter every time I bonked the lady’s head away from me, and pretty soon my friend and I were also laughing hysterically. It was a very happy moment after a rough week – despite the fact that I didn’t want the lady to actually be sleeping on me, the fact that I had a moment with some Ugandan women without saying a word – a completely cross-cultural, all-humans-are-the-same moment – just made me so happy that I can’t describe it in words. It’s little moments like that, usually a shared laugh, that help put things in perspective and see the goodness in people, despite all the frustrations that naturally arise when two cultures collide.

I needed something to help me feel good about Ugandans and my life here, and remind me of the positive side of things. This last week was very rough because of so many different thing adding up to frustrate me. First of all, my counterpart and supervisor haven't informed me of very important things (such as not being able to translate for a women's health workshop or that the new country director was coming to visit). I bought a new lock for our rainwater tank (which is finally full! no more going to the stream for me for a while) and gave keys to my neighbor and the maintenance man, who sometimes does his laundry here, and who I thought I could trust, and found out that he had given more than 5 people full jerrycans of water without asking us about it (and most of the people who received water were young pretty girls...). The word on the street was that Kahinda was now giving everyone free water from the tank. I felt like my trust had been so betrayed and I was irate. Finally, I had already had greediness, etc. on my mind (see my previous post), so when an NGO came to build two 20,000 liter rainwater tanks for the community's use and asked people to help haul lumber and water for construction, and people were refusing to help without payment, I had just about had it. The community is getting a free source of safe water and they won't give up 10 minutes of their time to help?? And I gave up 2 years of my life (and delayed vet school by 3) to volunteer to help these same people? Ugh! I've rarely been so frustrated and fed up. This week was when I most seriously considered ETing (early termination - quitting) because of how frustrated I was by how irresponsible/selfish/whatever people were being. However, I'm happy to report that spending a few days with PCV friends has drastically improved my mood, so I won't be quitting anytime soon. It was just one of those weeks - they happen to everyone here.

And another mood booster - my mom is flying in today and I am soooo excited!! I’ll pick her up in Entebbe this afternoon and then head to my village with her tomorrow. Updates on our adventures together in a few weeks!

Foreign Aid, Dependency, and Corruption

2011-05-28T17:13:00.002+03:00

Being here in Uganda, I have lost a great deal of faith in large NGOs and foreign aid. While I am still (and always will be) learning about international development, my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer has helped me to see the harm which can come from international donors, and has me questioning almost every type of foreign assistance currently being provided. I apologize if this post comes across as overly negative, but this is a huge problem here and I can’t emphasize the importance of how these issues are impacting Uganda’s future.

One of the biggest problems I see is the mentality of people here in regards to how they see themselves and their communities, which I believe mostly stems from the large influx of foreign aid into Uganda. The mindset is one of powerlessness and dependency. Whenever I make a suggestion on a different way of doing things (like that the community work together to conserve their water supplies for the dry season, or even simple requests like starting a meeting on time) people say things like, “We Africans can’t do that. Black people don’t behave that way. Our problem is…” For instance, many of the most successful and lucrative small businesses, such as supermarkets, are owned by Indians, which many Ugandans chalk up to Indians being “business people” and alluding to the idea that Africans lack some natural ability to run good businesses. I don’t know if this mindset is a product of lack of education, foreign aid providing everything, having the perception that all white people are rich and all black people are poor, being told they are “poor uneducated Africans” making them believe themselves to be at the lowest rung of society’s ladder, or a combination of a variety of factors, but this mentality is very troubling. In fact, I would hazard to guess that this is a major reason the much of Africa continues to lag behind most other parts of the world in terms of development (the word “development” has a different definition for everyone, and there are countless books that try to define exactly what “development” is, but here I use it to refer to indicators of human rights and quality of life, such as life expectancy, access to health care and prevalence of communicable diseases, literacy and education rates, access to clean water, etc.). Rather than trying to solve problems themselves, Africans have been told they are poor, they are uneducated, they need the help of Westerners to make their lives better, etc. so many don’t even try to improve their lives without outside help. Many even describe an epidemic of laziness stemming from being given so much from outside. Why would anyone work to improve their lives when they can just get a handout? As several people have pointed out, Uganda (and many other African countries) has plenty of natural resources, land for cultivating, enough rainfall, good soil, mineral wealth, etc. but yet people go hungry and live in poverty. One Indian man who has been living here for 5 years boiled it all down to laziness.

When a Western donor comes to visit to check things out, the local branches of the organization he/she is funding of course rave about their work and make it sound like they’re doing amazing things, sometimes even lying about activities – and it makes sense when you realize that the very well-paid jobs held by staff members of these organizations would be jeopardized if the donors realized how ineffective many of their donations have truly been. Yes, we always talk about ourselves and our work in the best way possible (I’m also guilty there), but it is commonplace for NGOs to blatantly lie about programs they have been conducting so that the aid money keeps coming. A lot of money seems to be spent on paying a driver to lug around “field officers” in a shining white SUV, spending an exorbitant amount of money on a vehicle and fuel that could be instead shunted to community projects. For example, my organization drives for hours every day to conduct field work because the staff members live in a major urban center more than 1 hour away from the catchment area of their projects.

I also feel that foreign aid contributes to corruption, even down to the level of the individual within society, due to the huge influx of money that everyone wants to get their hands on. Community members sometimes don’t attend educational events hosted by my organization, such as workshops about HIV or malaria, if they know they won’t receive something tangible (a soda, lunch, or just plain money) in return, and villagers know how to beef up a budget proposal for their community-based organization (CBO) to get more money than they actually need for their operations – some of which ends up spent on new clothes, alcohol, school fees, soda or street food, etc. While things like school fees and clothing are needed by the local people, it doesn’t mean that lying about the allocation of funds, and thus using corrupt practices, is acceptable. Several Peace Corps Volunteers who are working for NGOs have complained that budget proposals sent to international donors are blatant lies or include figures which the organization has purposely padded and made no attempt to make cost-effective. For example, we asked some community members to draft a proposal for funding a fruit demonstration garden. Their original proposal suggested far more plants than could fit on the land where they want to grow them, budgeted about $350 to transport seedlings from Mbarara when we already have most of the seedlings in our nursery bed here, and asked for a very large salary when these workers are volunteers and are working for their own benefit and the improvement of their own community. Their original proposal called for $4,677, while my supervisor figured we could meet all our objects for about $1,200 (which is probably still more than is necessary).

A lot of community projects fail because when a project is started to generate income for the community/NGO, someone ends up pocketing at least some portion of it. Maybe it’s impossible for me to understand the type of desperation that comes from poverty due to lack of personal experience, but the level of dishonesty when it comes to money in almost every situation in Uganda astounds me. We’re currently trying to come up with some income-generating activities that the community can do to continue The Hunger Project’s programs after we pull out (each Epicenter is only supposed to receive 5 years of external support before being self-sufficient) but I’m realizing that there is absolutely no way to prevent the committee leaders for our programs from pocketing any income for themselves – and based on what has happened at other Epicenters, this is exactly what has happened. I simply don’t know how to function in a system with such an overwhelming level of corruption from top to bottom. Yes, there’s corruption in the U.S., but not nearly to this extent.

African society is considered more community-oriented than in the U.S., yet a lot of the things I see happen are very individualistic. For example, we have tried to start a vegetable demonstration garden at our Epicenter before but people have always stolen the vegetables. Taxi drivers and shop owners are always trying to rip people off, and not just the muzungu who they assume is rich – fellow Ugandans, too – and they can do it because there are few price tags here, you just ask how much something costs and have to know whether it’s a fair price or not. Theft is very common here, and one house in my village was violently broken into during the night when the thieves knew the homeowner had sold cattle that day and had 1.5 million shillings (about $650) in his house. He and his wife were beaten badly and took a long time to recover. I can’t even leave things like my buckets or towels outside overnight because someone is likely to take them. There are certainly aspects of society that demonstrate how much Ugandans care about the greater community – people greet everyone, my neighbors get worried if I don’t come out of my house all day, and I recently attended a funeral where well over 500 people were in attendance because everyone attends, not just the people who knew the deceased. However, a lot of what I see is counterintuitive to what I would expect to see in a community-oriented society.

Another thing I don’t really understand (and that is not completely related but I want to discuss it) is poor job performance. When it comes to government “public servant” jobs, there is no accountability because everyone is on a permanent pension and virtually nobody gets fired. Another Peace Corps Volunteer works at the District Health Office, and a co-worker of his remarked that in 16 years of working for the Ministry of Health, they’ve never known a single person to get fired. Thus, poor job performance is rampant, not only among health care workers, but in every position in Ugandan society. Nurses show up to work hours late and leave hours early, forcing patients to wait a long time for health care, sometimes until the following day. Secretaries fail to deliver important messages. Groundskeepers simply don’t show up for work, yet are still somehow paid. I continue to be amazed at the quality of “customer service” here – almost all shopkeepers, hotel staff, waiters, etc. give off the attitude that you, the customer, are bothering them and they wished you would just go away so they can get back to their nap. Such job performance would never be tolerated in the U.S., so I simply can’t wrap my head around why in Uganda, where the unemployment rate is astronomically higher, employers continue to put up with this when so many other people would be available to fill the position. A big part of the equation is low salaries, but with the level of poverty here, even a low salary is something worth working for.

Despite all this, I still believe that people have a moral obligation to help other human beings who are suffering or in need. So how do we help developing countries without squandering money in ways that are ineffective and actually create problems of their own, like dependence on outside resources? One way is investment. If foreign investors spent their money on rewarding good Ugandan businesses and encouraging entrepreneurship, rather than just donating things and money, we would get past a huge host of the current problems, including fostering creative approaches to ending one’s one poverty rather than waiting for an outside handout, and creating a sustainable way to boost the local economy. However, as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I’m struggling with what kinds of solutions I can bring to the table as just one person (along with other PCVs and my community).

Like I mentioned earlier, I am still learning and am trying to get my hands on books such as Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa by Dambisa Moyo. Friends have raved about this book and I’m hoping to read it soon, as well as similar books, to help flesh out my new perspective on foreign aid.

Amagara ni Marungi (Life is Good)

2011-05-14T09:03:00.008+03:00

I spent Easter in my village and went to church with my neighbors. The service was long but had music and dancing. The best part was that they had a translator so most of the service was given in both Runyankore and English – otherwise, it would have been a painful 2.5 to 3 hours of not understanding much at all. A young woman from the area was launching an album so gave a “concert”. The music and dancing were good but the girl needs to learn how to lip synch better – it was very obvious she wasn’t singing. I entertained everyone during one song by getting up and joining the dancers on stage. Afterwards, we came home and I ate lots of local foods with my neighbors for dinner (matooke, sweet potatoes, millet, and some very tough beef. Even Gertrude, my neighbor, said the beef was tough, and when a Ugandan comments on the toughness of the meat, you know it’s really tough. And they wonder why I rarely buy meat in this country…).

Villagers buying beef the day before Easter. They slaughtered 4 cows that day, and they sell the meat by the kilo by just hacking away with a machete – no such thing as real cuts like sirloin or T-bone steaks here.

Easter church service with music and dancing. Even the pastor gets into it.

A couple of weeks ago, we hosted a World Malaria Day event at my site. 5 other Peace Corps Volunteers came to help out, and the day included music to draw people to the event, lessons about malaria transmission, prevention, and treatment (some of which was taught by yours truly), speeches by local government officials, a youth poster contest, and a raffle for several mosquito nets and a bottle of insect repellant. Although I had worked hard preparing for the event, I decided that morning to have no expectations so as not to be disappointed if we had a low turn-up (a survival mechanism I’m learning to have in Uganda – be pleasantly surprised if things work out) but was very happy when over 225 people showed up for the event. The District Health Officer was our guest of honor, and he was very impressed by the size of the crowd and wants to help us do more health events like this around the district. The event lasted far longer than I ever anticipated – speeches from every local government official imaginable, guest speakers showing up 3 hours late, etc. – but everyone deemed the event a huge success. While I really enjoyed planning and hosting the event, and acting as the country coordinator for all the Peace Corps events for World Malaria Day in Uganda, I was very glad it was over because of how much work and time it had taken to prepare for the day.

A representative of the District Chairman addressing the crowd at World Malaria Day

The next day was my birthday, April 28. The actual day was spent in the village, and was lazy in a wonderful way. Some of my Peace Corps friends were still at my house (including my friend Jesse, whose birthday is also April 28!), so we had French toast, watched a movie, then just chilled all day. For dinner, my friends Gertrude and Janephur cooked us millet, posho, and g-nut (peanut) sauce. The food was nothing out of the ordinary but the gesture was so nice. The following day, I went to Mbarara for the weekend to meet new PCVs, who had just finished training and moved to their sites around the southwest, and to celebrate my birthday. I enjoyed a few days of eating good food, watching the royal wedding (everything looks even fancier when you live in an African village), lounging at the pool, getting a full-body massage, buying a ton of clothes at a big weekly market (4 skirts, 2 shirts, and a cardigan for about $11), and dancing with friends at a popular nightclub, Heat, which is outdoors and has fire pits and music videos playing on big screens.

The weekly market in Mbarara where I bought way too many clothes. Shirts go for 20 to 50 cents, so a shopping spree here isn’t quite as expensive as in the U.S., and since Ugandans don’t know the good American brand names, you find shirts from The North Face or Banana Republic for the same price as everything else.

However, that Friday also marked the biggest riot that has occurred since demonstrations began in Kampala and other cities several weeks ago for the “Walk to Work Campaign”, which the opposition is heading to protest rising fuel and food prices. Downtown Kampala had tires burning in the streets and riot police everywhere. One of my Peace Corps friends was on a bus in central Kampala during the riots and described a scene of pure chaos, saying that no vehicles were entering the city and taxis and buses were all heading away from downtown as fast as possible, even without passengers. A man almost threw a brick at his bus until the driver made a pro-opposition hand gesture. Despite this major riot, during which time the main opposition leader, Dr. Kizza Besigye, was seriously injured by police and has been recovering at a hospital in Kenya, things have been fairly peaceful since, and all PCVs are safe.

I’ve continued teaching at Kyera Agricultural Teaching College, and last week was my lesson on goats and sheep. When I asked the students what a female sheep is called, they said “Eee-way”. I wrote “ewe” on the board and explained that it is pronounced “you”, but only later realized the irony – the word for “you” in Runyankore is “iwe”, which is how they were pronouncing the word for a female sheep. Maybe they’re right after all. Also, although I regularly watch movies with Ugandans, probably the most entertaining movie-watching experience happened when Jesse and I showed the college staff two extreme sports videos. The first was of our training group’s white water rafting trip on the Nile. Whenever a boat flipped, they would matter-of-factly exclaim, “And now you die!” with the typical Ugandan noise of disbelief and amazement “Eh eh eh eh eh eh…” They just couldn’t believe people actually do such things on “water which is like smoke.” Hilarious and made me realize how crazy white people really do look sometimes. We followed that with a video of really extreme skiing that even amazed me, which produced many more hilarious comments from the Ugandans.

My house has suddenly been raided by mosquitoes and is a buzzing hotbed of the bloodsuckers every night. I’ve taken to walking around my house for a good 20 minutes or so before going to bed just killing mosquitoes by clapping my hands together or slapping them against the walls. Kibo watches me while this happens with wide eyes and a confused expression, and I can tell I look crazy and slightly disturbed during this now-nightly ritual. I’m hoping that the coming dry season, my recently-cleared compound (it had tall grasses before which can harbor mosquitoes), and the fact that I now kill 5-20 mosquitoes every night will soon get rid of my problem.

I’ve started calling everyone who calls me muzungu either black guy or omweraguju, which means black person in Runyankore. A lot of times they don’t really know how to react and are stunned into silence, but others around them always laugh. It’s difficult to explain to people that where I come from, it is racist to call someone by the color of their skin, so if they don’t like being called “black guy”, they shouldn’t call me muzungu. I also made an entire taxi full of people laugh (again – this always happens), but this time because the driver tried to get me to take aboda boda (motorcycle taxi) past a police checkpoint because I had been sharing the front seat with another woman and it is illegal to have two passengers in the front seat (even though they often squeeze in three). People laughed when I vehemently refused and told the driver I would not help him do something illegal, but if all passengers would refuse illegal practices, the roads here would be so much safer – however, nobody ever seems to stand up against overcrowding or bad driving.

I began a health education series for mothers at our child immunization outreaches. Our first session discussed family planning options, including a condom demonstration using matooke (a green banana/plantain) which always makes everyone laugh. The lesson was only about 15-20 minutes but I feel it was effective, and afterwards at least one woman asked for a Depo Provera injection. Feels good to see results from my work! I’m also planning on doing a women’s health day next week with information about family planning, HIV and STIs, pregnancy and breastfeeding, and menstruation, including selling Afripads, a low-cost reusable menstrual pad that saves girls and women a lot of money, keeps girls in school (many stay at home during their periods because of embarrassment from using towels, rags, feathers, etc. when they are unable to afford a pack of Always), and is environmentally friendly.

I officially ate the first thing I have grown myself – green beans from my garden! Amazingly fresh and delicious, and 100% organic. Maybe I’ll continue a garden back in the U.S.?

Finally, one last interesting anecdote. I knew before that the people in my region, the Banyankore, are split into two ethnic groups, the Bahima, who are the prestigious minority who have traditionally been the cattle owners and therefore the group with money and power, and the Bairu, who were traditionally the agriculturalists and lower in society than the Bahima. President Museveni himself is Bahima. The two groups often look physically different, with Bahima people known for lighter skin and thinner noses (also, Bahima women tend to be very large! People say it’s all the milk they drink). However, what I was recently told is that these two groups are actually the same ethnic groups as the Hutus and Tutsis of Rwanda, who are now famous for being the focus of the Rwandan genocide. The Bahima are essentially Tutsis, and the Bairu are Hutus, the difference being that they are now part of different language groups so have different names.

I am going to try to write more frequent, shorter blog entries to make it easier on my readers. It doesn’t feel like very much happens here on a daily basis but when I sit down to write a blog post it always gets so long!

It's a Weird, Weird World

2011-04-25T21:36:00.001+03:00

The other night, I’m watching Legends of the Fall and suddenly realize that the way the soldiers stare at Brad Pitt when he rides back into the WWI camp, his dead brother’s blood smeared in war paint on his face and a necklace made of German scalps around his neck, is the way that Ugandans often stare at me – a sense of wonder, confusion, and a hint of unsettled, disapproving curiosity, like they’ve never seen something as crazy-weird as you. I first laughed at the realization, then was depressed by the fact that for two years, I’m looked at in the way that one might look at a person who has brutally chopped apart bodies, isn’t exactly mentally stable, and is no longer recognizable as a civilized human being and needs psychiatric counseling.

I really need to learn not to give any contact information to Ugandan men, period. I thought I was being sneaky by giving out my e-mail rather than my phone number, but a) I forgot that I have an automatic e-mail signature with my phone number in it, and b) I just received an e-mail from one of my students at the agricultural college saying, “your are my fiance i like you from bottom of my heart and i like you with my soul heart i would request you to be my best Friend What about you dear?” All other differences in culture and wifely expectations aside, I prefer dating guys who understand the definition of “fiancé” and realize it’s not a term that means “The girl I find pretty who I would like to be friends with.” Unless we begin with that type of understanding, I really can’t see this working out, fellas. Additionally, crying, “I love you!” to a Western woman with whom you’ve literally never spoken one word is a sure way to get her to run immediately in the opposite direction. It doesn’t help that the local language has no distinction between “like,” “desire,” and “love,” but given the other problems I’ve encountered with men being extremely forward with what they say and vocabulary confusion about words like “fiancé”, I doubt it makes a huge difference. In a relationship in the U.S., if you say “I love you,” too soon (for some this means after the first few dates, for others it means months or years), it’s a sure sign that you’ve just made things too awkward to continue. Just watch the pilot episode of How I Met Your Mother, a TV show that is becoming an obsession in certain Peace Corps circles – it proves my point. One of my best friends, Andrea, is in Peace Corps Paraguay, and while Latin American cultures are widely known for their machismo culture, I think Uganda should qualify as another flag-bearer for ridiculous male declarations of love.

ATTENTION all lazy and/or eccentrically-dressed people: come to Uganda. Here, one of the common greetings is, “Gyebale!” or “Webale/yebare emirimo!” which both mean “Thank you for your work!” This is a very nice sentiment, to thank everyone you meet for just doing what they do, and speaks highly on how Ugandans value other people, but using this as a standard greeting could very well (and often does) mean thanking people for sitting and drinking a beer, walking down the road, or taking a nap. People recently thanked me when I bought a sofa set. If your goals in life are less than overachieving, or you’ve had too few people appreciate all your hard work, Uganda could be good for you, or at least make you feel good about yourself. Additionally, just about any time I wear a new outfit, I am told by someone, “You are very smart!” meaning well-dressed. One day I was wearing a black tank top with a pair of brown capris, which are actually getting pretty washed-out, stained, and gross-looking (and by mixing black and brown I broke one of those fashion rules which someone once created but probably doesn’t actually apply anymore, like the whole “white after Labor Day” thing) but someone still said, “Eh! You are so smart.” I think this is partially due to the fact that I rarely wear pants in my village, but regardless, if you wear some type of clothing a Ugandan has infrequently seen, is very unique (also sometimes known as “really weird”), or has bright colors, you will be complimented on your wardrobe.

However, other compliments here I can go without, namely any remark about my body. In Africa, being called ‘fat’ is a good thing, similar to being called beautiful, and people will sometimes say, “You are growing fat!” to mean that you are looking rich and healthy. Unfortunately, Ugandans do not understand that such comments have been known to cause eating disorders in Western women, who are bombarded with images of celebrities and models with long, lean figures. For instance, when I first arrived at site I was chatting with some women in the village who were saying, “Oh you are so pretty! Your nose is small! Your face is nice! And you have a great figure!” Just when I was about to be flattered, they added, “You have big legs!” It was in that moment that I realized I never want a Ugandan to honestly compliment my body because of their preferences for junk-in-the-trunk and everything that jiggles.

One fashion trend that I really don’t get is that men here sometimes wear ridiculously short ties. While most Ugandan men adopt a typical Western suit for work or special occasions, including a tie of normal length, you occasionally see a man wearing a short, fat tie stretching down no further than where I imagine his nipples would be. I’m not sure if the actual tie is shorter or they just tie the knot differently, but the effect, at least from my perspective, is probably not what the wearer was going for. I was at a hotel with another PCV once when our waiter had a tie that extended literally only 3 inches past the knot. She and I couldn’t help but bust into hysterics every time he came to refill our drinks or bring our food. It just looks so strange and comical, as if someone stepped into a futuristic machine that makes you bigger (whatever the opposite of a shrink-ray is) and everything got 5 times larger except for the tie. If a man wears shorts in this culture he’s considered to be dressing like a young boy, but apparently wearing a tie that is meant to be on someone standing no more than 3 feet tall is a fashion statement.

If you put an American kid within 3 miles of a puppy, he/she will find that puppy, play with it, squeeze it half to death, and cry out, “Mom, can we keep it, please?! I promise I’ll take care of it,” and other similar pleas to keep the good, cute and furry times rolling. If you put a puppy near a Ugandan child, the kid will scream bloody murder and run away crying, as if he or she is being chased by an 800-pound Grizzly bear (or for an African example, a pride of hungry lions) rather than a 4-pound hairball of joy. Ugandans are not dog lovers, and I realize this, but it still never ceases to amaze me how absolutely terrified of dogs, and especially puppies, Ugandan children are. Kibo has lately taken up the hobby of terrorizing small children on their way to fetch water by charging at them at full speed. I think she knows they don’t want to play, but despite their screams, their tears making channels in the dirt on their cheeks and snot bubbling out of their noses, they still run away and provide something to chase, so the game is still fun for her. Dogs here are for security purposes only, so most Ugandans are raised to fear dogs as much as American children are raised to fear strangers offering them candy or… a cute puppy. Huh. Maybe these cultures are more similar than we think.

Speaking of similarities, at the Easter service at one of the local churches, the LC1 Chairman (basically the village mayor), an older gentleman, was giving a speech and addressed the children, telling them to appreciate their education and study hard. At one point, he actually said something like, “I used to have to walk for miles to reach school,” (which I would like to point out that some of these children still do) then said something about how kids these days have it easy and they should appreciate what they have. I didn’t hear anything about walking uphill both ways in three feet of snow, but the correlation to those stereotypical stories we all heard from our grandparents was not lost on me. Maybe Uganda and the U.S. are more alike than meets the eye.

Live Like a PCV!

2011-04-08T11:20:00.003+03:00

I highly encourage everyone to take part in this challenge - Live Like a PCV. It's designed to give you a taste of what life is like for PCVs (and most other people) in the developing world. It's actually pretty hilarious for me to read the criteria (extremely true!) and I would absolutely love to hear stories of any of you who attempt the challenge! I suggest trying the set of rules for Kenya as it's probably most similar to my situation in Uganda.

http://www.livelikeapcv.org/

Happy 50th Birthday, Peace Corps!

2011-04-08T10:28:00.000+03:00

Time here seems frozen. Yes, there is some seasonality between rainy and dry seasons, but for the most part the weather is constant. It feels like spring or summer all year. Being on the Equator, the day length doesn’t change – the sun comes up and sets at almost the same time every day. I can’t decide if life in the U.S. seems like just yesterday or a million years ago, a distant memory that could have been a dream, one which stills seems real when you first wake up.

Speaking of the passage of time, this past weekend, many volunteers attended a service day to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Peace Corps. We did lots of projects at a primary school near Kampala, including creating a ‘peace garden’ (which was my group’s project), rehabilitating the rainwater collecting system, painting classrooms, collecting trash, painting a mural, teaching life skills, etc. It was a lot of fun, and I got to see lots of great friends and meet many new people, both PCVs already in the field and trainees in the newest group that arrived in February. Although some of the work was outside the ideology of Peace Corps (which emphasizes building capacity and empowering people, not doing things for them like painting schools and building water systems), it felt good to actually do something with a visible, tangible, almost instant result. That evening, we had a super fancy reception – we arrived to big band Frank Sinatra-style music while everyone was having drinks on the lawn, then had dinner and watched films/listened to speeches about Peace Corps under some fancy tents while seated on chairs with chair covers. Super swanky. Kudos to the planning team! Then we danced and danced and danced…. I don’t think I sat down for 4 hours. You can see the video we watched at the reception featuring PCVs and staff in Uganda and what Peace Corps means to us (include a short quip by yours truly) here on Facebook.

Liza, a PCV from my training group who lives in the next village over, is applying for a grant to start a goat project, so she and I would be working together if we get the money. I would teach the recipients about goat care, and she would teach them about financial management and help them to open an account at the Farmers SACCO (microfinance bank) where she works. Keep your fingers crossed that the money pulls through!

I will soon be teaching at an agricultural training college (Kyera Farm) near Mbarara with Jesse, another PCV from my training group. He’s teaching a permaculture class, while I get to teach various animal husbandry topics. This term, I’m in charge of teaching a class on pig, small ruminant, and rabbit production (which is good since I’m also helping other PCVs with goat and rabbit projects – it will help me brush up on what I know). Next term, I could be teaching dairy and beef production. I’m so excited since this is more what I envisioned for myself in Peace Corps than what I have been doing so far, and I also think this might make me a professor. The staff members at Kyera are also really nice, fun people. When I was there last time, one of the veterinarians, who is also a lecturer, was showing the students how to treat pigs for mange – man was it loud! If you’ve never heard a pig scream, your eardrums are thanking you. My first class is on Monday (currently preparing my swine lessons, hahaha) – wish me luck!

I recently received FOUR packages from home, including such wonders as JIF peanut butter, granola bars, Velveeta Mac & Cheese, a ton of issues of The Horse magazine, scented candles, a solar shower, a can of baked beans, Valentine’s Day candy, white-chocolate covered Oreos (unbelievable!), and Eat, Pray, Love on DVD. I also got a big bundle of holiday cards made by Betsy (my niece)’s classroom, with whom I am corresponding through the Peace Corps World Wise Schools Correspondence Program. I should have video-taped myself opening the packages, I was so excited. A big thanks to Mom, Dad, Joy, Sean, and Betsy’s classroom!

Also, the bats in my ceiling/attic are GONE! All it took was to wait for the bats to leave at dusk one evening, and then my neighbor climbed up in the ceiling and stuffed thorny branches into the holes where the bats enter and exit. Now nights are nice and quiet – no more squeaks, creaks, feet scratching on the ceiling tiles, and very-loud thuds when the bats re-enter and jump onto the ceiling from above. If I had known it was this easy, I would have done this months ago – they were so loud they would wake me up at night, and my first few nights at site (and a few select times since then) I literally thought someone was breaking into my kitchen. However, there is now a rat/mouse that sneaks into my kitchen every night and wreaks havoc on my food stores and any level of cleanliness I had managed to create. Might be time to set some traps.

Lately, whenever I’ve been away from site, I get easily frustrated by the actions of people around me (mostly due to impersonal shouts of “Muzungu!”, creepy men, people just trying to rip me off, and another level of annoyedness that I can’t explain) and it’s a huge relief to get home. This manifestation is probably not healthy overall, but I think it speaks volumes to how integrated I feel at site and how kind the people in my village are towards me. When I’m having a bad day, I’m reminded of a quote from a PCV in Peru in one of our reference books:

“There comes a day when all this suddenly becomes apparent, all at once. Things are no longer picturesque; they are dirty. No longer quaint but furiously frustrating. And you want like crazy to just get out of there, to go home.”

When I was traveling in Africa in 2008, things were picturesque, villages were quaint, people were fascinating, and life was an adventure. Life is still an adventure, but in different ways than I could have anticipated (but isn’t it always that way?) but of course I’m still enjoying the ride. I’m learning how to deal with frustrations, and I’m trying to perfect the art of turning the other cheek and of not sweating the small stuff (which is difficult when being cat-called on the street or when a bus company openly admits they have ripped you off and are refusing to give your money back). I also want to show some Ugandan men what a determined, independent woman looks like and what happens when you try to mess with her (it’s not pretty. Ask some of my friends who have been around when someone tries to rip me off or does something really rude). I do wonder how things will be when I get back to the U.S., because reverse culture shock can sometimes be the hardest adjustment of all. Will I actually find things about this culture and way of life that I miss? I’m sure there will be a few, like how people value greeting each other here and take time for their families, and even the fact that I stand out so much will probably be partly missed (I’ll be wondering where my celebrity status went once I get home). Other things, like the treatment of women or open corruption in society, will not.

As a fun addendum to lighten the mood, I just bought a zebra print soft set and will post pictures when I get it delivered to my house. I’ve kinda wanted one ever since I saw one from a bus window a few months ago. When else in my life can I have a zebra print couch without looking completely insane except when I live in Africa? All the couches in Uganda are ugly, anyways (no seriously, they’re REALLY ugly) – might as well get one with some flair!

Busy!

2011-03-19T11:53:00.005+03:00

So much has happened since my last entry (so this will be a long post)! The rains have finally come again so things are cool, I’m bathing regularly, and now my water is from a safe source (rain, as opposed to a disgusting, stagnant stream where the cows drink). I’ve been in a consistently good mood for about 2 weeks, which is almost unheard of for most of the PCVs I know, including myself. I think it’s largely due to the fact that I’ve had lots of things to work on, and I’ve done a couple of activities with other PCVs, which always re-energizes me and makes me want to get down to business. One of my biggest responsibilities right now is acting as the World Malaria Day coordinator for Peace Corps Uganda. It’s becoming a lot of work but I’m enjoying it, and we’re hosting one of the events at my site on April 27!

A few weeks ago, I went into Kampala and Entebbe for a Gender and Development meeting with other PCVs. I got to see a lot of great friends, celebrate two birthdays, stay overnight at the Entebbe Zoo, have sundowners on the beach on Lake Victoria, eat pizza, go to a night club, get some new books from the Peace Corps library, and eat Mexican food (chimichangas, queso dip, and frozen lime margaritas!!! Completely worth the splurge of 30,000 UGX – about $13.50. That’s a lot of money in Uganda, even when I’m making a very respectable Ugandan stipend of about $250 a month). Definitely a much-needed vacation!

Another volunteer came to my site last week to present Afripads to my life skills class. Girls here are sometimes unable to spend money on disposable menstrual pads, such as Always, and end up using towels, clothes, rags, etc. These are uncomfortable, bulky, and sometimes even fall out, making the girls too embarrassed to attend school when on their period. Afripads is a company based in Masaka, Uganda that makes a washable, re-usable menstrual pad that costs only 3,500/- (about $1.30) and lasts for a year. This way, girls are able to continue attending school without the fear of embarrassment.

I also helped at another volunteer’s site in Ibanda (a beautiful place surrounded by mountains not very far from me) for her health and sports workshop. There were a bunch of us teaching about reproductive health and sex education (with another Afripads talk) to female students at a Primary Teachers’ College (and the male PCVs taught the boys), which was really fun – they had SO many questions! It was good to dispel some scary myths, too. In the afternoon, I had a booth about malaria where people could come and take a True or False quiz. The next day was devoted to sports, and after forced into taking part in the America vs. Uganda volleyball game, I actually enjoyed it! I’m usually so terrible at volleyball (and most sports, for that matter) that I get embarrassed, frustrated, and just don’t want to play, but I found myself doing okay and didn’t want to sit out when another volunteer asked to take my place.

A company called Barefoot Power manufactures solar lamps which come with a small solar panel. Peace Corps provided each of us one of these during training, and the company recently came out with a new product so wanted to test it in the villages. They gave all the interested PCVs 9 solar lamps to distribute, and the people I gave them to were SO appreciative – it saves them money they would have to spend on kerosene. They get to keep the lamps for free if they fill out and return a 15-day survey. I’ve had at least 10 other people asking me for a lamp, and it’s good advertising for another PCV up the road who is trying to start a program to sell the lamps at her SACCO (Savings and Credit Co-operative) and also provide loans with which to pay for them. She also wants to start a goat program, for which I would give goat husbandry lectures to the recipients, and another PCV wants help with a rabbit project.

I’ve started my own garden – the first time I’m ever attempting to grow my own food. I bought some strawberry and green pepper seedlings, and plan to also plant eggplant, carrots, and green beans. I’m also trying to grow cilantro in my kitchen – fresh, homemade salsa, here we come! I even planted sunflowers along the front of my house and they’re just starting to sprout – I know when they grow they’ll remind me of my friend Andrea, who’s in Peace Corps Paraguay, because she loves sunflowers. :)

Yesterday I helped facilitate our first HIV/AIDS and Gender Inequality Workshop. We (The Hunger Project) are supposed to host these on a quarterly basis, but as far as I can tell, this is the first time our Epicenter has hosted one of these workshops. I first covered facts about HIV/AIDS (most people don’t even know exactly what HIV and AIDS are, or that they are even different from one another, they just know AIDS makes you sick and eventually kills you), transmission, prevention, etc. We then had a condom demonstration, during which a lot of giggling ensued when I pulled out the wooden…ummm… models. Some things are funny the world over. Some of the questions I got were so frustrating, like how it seems so many women have tried to go for HIV testing but their husbands refuse to go with them, making testing worthless, and I can’t really get a definite reason why men won’t go with their wives for testing. My theory is that since a lot of men have extramarital affairs (it’s almost expected in this culture), they are afraid of going for testing because of what they might find out. That guess is not based in any facts, just my theory.

Women learn how to properly use a condom (men are in another group)

At the same workshop, we also did an activity from my Life Skills manual that highlighted the differences between gender roles and biological sex in which the participants were given cards with words on them (like “Cooking”, “Love”, “Strong”, “Family Decisions”, “Doctor”, “Nurse”) and asked to put them under either Male or Female, whichever came to their mind when they read the word. It led to a good debate, and I think it’s probably one of the first times many of these people have openly discussed gender roles. Then, we went through each one to show that most of these roles are social, not based on physical capabilities of men or women. For example, men and women both can be a nurse or a doctor, pursue an education, cook, care for children, make decisions, etc. One of the only words left that couldn’t be either was “Pregnancy”, and everyone agreed that “Violence” was purely a masculine term (although I wanted to beg to differ, this was their activity and I tried not to guide it too much). We were doing well until we got to “Sweeping”, which both men and women agreed that men “can’t do.” It’s probably largely a language barrier, but I was trying to explain between “can’t” and “won’t”. Also, people kept insisting that “Authority” belongs on the male side, even though my counterpart, Janephur, was there helping us conduct the meeting and she is a local councilor (government representative). We explained the difference between gender roles (a social construct) and sex (a biological fact) then related this back to the spread of HIV, showing that women lack the power to say ‘no’ to sex or insist on using a condom, while men lack the sense of responsibility to do what their wives ask them to since they are the ones with the authority in this culture. People seemed to really enjoy the workshop and wanted more similar trainings, also requesting other workshops on topics such as sanitation and making water safe to drink. Even my supervisor said (for whatever reason) that he didn’t think they could pull off this workshop in the past, but now he sees it is possible and he was really happy.

Men and women do an activity to learn about gender roles

I had a vet come and spay Kibo at my house a few days ago. I have rarely been that stressed-out in Uganda, despite all I’ve gone through. He knew what he was doing, and Kibo now seems fine, but watching him set up a moderately-sanitized surgical table using my desk in my yard, no masks, no gloves, sanitizing his instruments in a basin of water and some disinfectant, the anesthesia wearing off too early, watching him come close to ligating a part of the intestine with the ovary, watching her intestines lay on her unsterilized fur on her belly… I was not calm, to say the least. When I got sterile gloves from the clinic and put them on to assist, the vet said something along the lines of, “Oh yes, you can use gloves, I know the ladies are sensitive to these kinds of things.” Bringing up a sexist argument about how women fear blood did nothing to calm me down. We drew a small crowd of curious people (many of whom came back later in the day to check on Kibo), and I actually assisted on my dog’s own procedure (does this violate those medical rules against operating on family members?). The injectable anesthesia took forever to wear off, which worried me – 9 hours later she still couldn’t walk in a straight line – but by the next morning she was doing well, eating, wagging her tail, etc. My neighbors were so excited to see her up and walking around, they dropped what they were doing and came over to fawn over her. My friend Amon, who helps me with yard work, gave me 5 eggs with the specific instructions “for Kibo only.” I don’t think anyone has ever given me more than 2 eggs for free. Ever since the surgery, people in the village have all been asking about Kibo even more than they normally do. I have to re-emphasize how unusual it is for Ugandans to care about a dog this much, to treat it as well as they do – it continues to surprise me, and I feel so blessed that my community really loves my dog.

Avert your eyes for the next picture if you have a weak stomach:

Random Snippets

2011-02-24T09:47:00.004+03:00

Elections were remarkably peaceful (a few isolated incidents around the country with some injuries and a few deaths, but nothing major). A bit anti-climactic for all the hype we were giving it. Looks like I won’t be leaving Uganda soon after all. Friends and family, that means you should start planning to visit me here. ;)

There are some things here I’ll never get used to, like how people will turn up at my front door, we clearly can’t understand each other (language barrier), but they continue to just stand there, saying nothing. Or when I’m walking down the street and people not only stare, they stop whatever they’re doing and stare. They almost never smile, not even when I clearly see them staring. Sooo awkward. Sometimes if I wave, it snaps them out of their “Look at the strange muzungu” trance and they might smile or continue on their way.

This is a conservative society (I’m not even really supposed to show my knees!) but I come home the other night after dark and there’s a full-grown woman bathing in the front yard. Stark naked. She lives next door, and I know there’s an indoor bathroom just like mine where she could be bathing.

I found a black widow spider in my house last week. Gave me the heebie jeebies for a few nights. I keep checking corners to see if I find any more – none so far.

I was at a big market the other day shopping for clothes (I’m SO sick of wearing the same 5 outfits all the time) and one man goes, “Muzungu, you come back, I want to eat on your money.” It’s actually funny to see the clothes in the market – half of them still have Goodwill price tags on them, and a good portion are t-shirts from American sports camps or church retreats which you know the participants wore a few times and then realized they no longer wanted a shirt from a retreat 7 years ago. A good chunk of those clothes you donated to charity last year? They wound up in Africa, being sold for $1.

One of my friends in the village, Chief (his nickname, he’s not a chief), owns a bar where I sometimes go for milk tea or to buy bread. I usually end up talking to him, and he keeps asking me why I don’t buy land here and stay in Uganda forever. There are so many answers I could give him (family, a general creepy factor from Ugandan men, sushi, my career, lack of infrastructure of any kind, etc.) but I usually just say, “We’ll see.” Sometimes I want to tell him that I occasionally doubt my ability to even stay here for 2 years.

The other day, I was walking about 1-2km to one of the primary schools, and one of my neighbors sees me and says, “Eh! Noomanya kutambura?” You know how to walk? Why yes, yes I do. Been doing it about 22 years now. I think they’re just surprised whenever they see me doing something that requires exercise, like walking, fetching water, or doing laundry.

Speaking of water – what a disaster! I never knew what the dry season really meant until now. Our rainwater tank continues to be pretty much empty (although it has been raining more often lately, hopefully rainy season is soon here!), and the stream where I was getting bathing/washing water finally got stagnant, gross, and very low. I found a shallow well, and when I pumped the water into my jerrycan it looked clear, but when I poured water for my bath later that night, it was a gross reddish color. Not really sure what happened there. I told myself it just had a lot of iron in it and still bathed. I had no other option, and already had been procrastinating on a bath. Makes me think about all of my neighbors, and the majority of people across Africa and the developing world, who don’t have a rainwater tank, so are always getting their water from unsafe sources that could dry up at any time. In America, we use drinkable water to wash clothes, bathe the dog, and even power-spray the house.

I’m learning to just sit and do nothing, and sometimes that worries me. One of my Life Skills students asked me to come to her house. She speaks very little English, and I speak very little Runyankore-Rukiga. Therefore, I sat for about 3 hours at her house saying almost nothing and staring at pictures on the walls. I was good enough at procrastinating before Peace Corps – now will I procrastinate by just sitting and staring at a wall? I’m also picking up the bad habit of tuning people out, a product of not understanding conversations about 90% of the time.

Kibo is doing great – she’s now 5+ months old (and when I told my neighbor when she turned 5 months old, he sang “Happy Birthday to Kibo”, in his limited English, for the rest of the day). She continues to be pretty afraid of strangers and strange places, but is getting a little better and a little braver, probably because she’s proud to be sporting a fashionable collar and leash from the U.S. (thanks, Mom!). I try to take her into the trading center any chance I get, and she’s going on an excursion to another PCV’s site soon – a little tough love to get her outside of her shell. I’m going to have her spayed soon by a vet who will drive to my house from Mbarara.

Things have been emotionally hard in the past few days – I think I was watching too much Grey’s Anatomy, which made me realize how much I want to practice medicine, which made me question why I’m here doing work I didn’t really sign up to do (NGO capacity-building and community health, not animal husbandry), which made me actually want to be studying my ass off in vet school right now, etc. I’ll find things to keep me busy for a few days, then be faced once again with not enough work. Can I do this for 19 more months? The one thing that makes me want to stay during these low times is remembering the amazing friendships I’ve formed, both with other PCVs and with Ugandans.

Watching the sunrise after an early morning hike with friends

Sunset in my village. No matter how my day went, this sight brightens my mood and warms my heart.

Shameless Request for Magical Treasures from America

2011-02-24T09:37:00.009+03:00

I present to you my Care Package Wish-List. I would appreciate any or all things on this list (and really anything not on this list, too). Some things you just can’t find in Uganda! Thank you to everyone who has already sent cards, packages, etc.. Every piece of mail I get is like Christmas morning. Also, almost everything I’ve received has been addressed to “Sister Britt Larson”, so it seems that technique works. I’d suggest you do it, too. Mwebale munonga (thank you all very much)!

Granola bars (CLIF bars, Quaker Chewy bars, etc.) – esp. with peanut butter and chocolate
Velveeta Mac & Cheese
Magazines
Scented candles
Travel-size bottles of hand sanitizer
Duct tape
Aussie 3-Minute Miracle deep hair conditioner
Beef jerky
Crystal Light To-Go packets
Cashews, almonds
Cans/packets of meat (chicken, salmon, etc.)
Yoga DVDs – 30-minute-ish videos would be great
Beginner's guitar books/DVDs (so I can teach myself)
Any type of chocolate-y candy (like Reese's Pieces)
Shower scrunchie/loofah (the big puff-ball thing… don’t know what they’re really called)
CoverGirl Perfect Point Plus eyeliner - Black Onyx color (just because I'm a PCV doesn't mean I can't try to look pretty! just ignore the 5 layers of dirt on my feet)
Single-serving packets of salad dressing (honey mustard, caesar, bleu cheese, and raspberry vinaigrette sound spectacular)
Orbit Gum - Sweet Mint flavor
Sunflower seeds (to plant)
Romaine lettuce seeds
Books – any book would be great, but here are a few I want to read:

- Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa – Dambisa Moyo

- The Motorcycle Diaries – Ernesto Guevara
- Equine ER – Leslie Guttman
- A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson
- Pathologies of Power – Paul Farmer

Uganda Votes…Uganda Decides?

2011-02-18T08:57:00.000+03:00

One of the unique experiences I’m having right now is the chance to witness an African presidential election first-hand. Elections in Africa are notorious for being unfair, non-democratic, split along ethnic lines, rigged, and even violent, whether on the part of the candidates (who throw each other in jail or worse) or on the part of citizens who are angry with the results, often because they suspect the results have been altered in favor of the ruling party. The current president, Yoweri Museveni, has been in office for 25 years (after he changed the constitution to eliminate the 2-term limit), so no matter the outcome of the elections, I can imagine people will be upset.

So far, things in my village have been peaceful and celebratory. One of the candidates for Member of Parliament (like a Congressman) came to our village the other night and a big crowd showed up, everyone excited to hear speeches and then dance/celebrate afterwards. However, I was slightly appalled by a story my neighbor had told me earlier – she and 9 others had met this candidate before and told him they were a women’s group raising goats and needed money to buy more goats for the group. He gave them money to help their cause, not realizing (or at least not admitting) that it was a fictitious group and they all spent the money on clothes, beer, etc. Now they’re all going to vote for him. While candidates in America spend a large part of their campaign money on commercials, tours, billboards, etc., here they literally buy votes, whether with money or just things like t-shirts (which are not even affordable for some people here). People often say they won’t vote for a candidate unless they are given something directly. It frustrates me that people seem to care less about the issues and beliefs of the candidate than what type of hand-out they’ll get prior to voting, but if you’re impoverished it might be more important to get money to feed your family this week than how the next president will increase the number of children in school or improve national security.

It’s interesting to hear the opinions of people around me. Some openly admit that their elections are not free and fair, others say the opposite. Most deny that violence ever occurs during elections, while others say there will be trouble. While I can’t take an open political stance, or show favor for a certain party of candidate, due to my affiliation with Peace Corps and the U.S. government, I can say that I hope Uganda can make improvements on previous elections and make the entire governmental system more democratic.

Elections are today, and the results will be announced on Monday. If there are any riots or trouble with elections, it will mostly likely not occur in my small village but rather be in the towns and cities. President Museveni is voting in Kiruhura District, where I live (he’ll vote about 45 minutes away from me but right where one of my PCV friends lives so I hope it goes well). I will keep you all updated on how things go in the next few days. I’m hoping that it all goes smoothly and we can continue serving in Uganda as Peace Corps Volunteers.

6 Months and Going Strong!

2011-02-12T14:35:00.000+03:00

Time has really flown by – it’s been 6 months since I arrived in Uganda with a group of 45 new Peace Corps Volunteers, and we’re all still here! That’s a big deal – it’s pretty common for a few people to drop out during training or within the first few months at site. I absolutely love my group and honestly can’t imagine life without knowing them. They are incredible, wonderful people! While the days move slowly, and sometimes America seems like it was years ago, I still can’t believe we’re already 6 months in. We’re also now Peace Corps “sophomores” as the newest group of volunteers arrived yesterday, exactly 6 months after us. Only 19 more months to go!

While I still feel like I’m on an emotional rollercoaster (some days I’m super happy to be here, other days I dream of going home, even if just for a few minutes), I know I wouldn’t trade this for anything and I’m praying that presidential elections on February 18 go smoothly so we can all stay here. While it would have been different leaving a few months ago before getting settled into my community, I’m finally becoming pretty busy at my site and have a lot of projects I am starting – leaving now would be heartbreaking and I would feel like I left so many things unfinished. I can’t imagine leaving within two weeks. Everyone at home, please keep your fingers crossed and pray that I can stay and finish what I came here to do.

So what am I working on these days? I’ve just started a girls’ group at a local primary school to teach life skills, English, and health, I’m planning an HIV and Gender Inequality workshop put on by The Hunger Project, I’m trying to coordinate a group of PCVs to do something big for World Malaria Day on April 25, I’m organizing the dairy farmers to apply to become a formal group, I’m soon hosting a composting demonstration, and I’m planning visits to other PCVs’ sites to help them with dairy cattle and rabbit projects. I’m trying to motivate myself to work more on learning the language, and I have a lot of little things I’m pushing for, too – things as simple as an announcement board where we post a calendar of events at The Hunger Project, or finding new ways of storing the beans we collect from farmers to avoid pest damage.

I’m debating whether to bring my SLR out in my village. It would take such better pics than my little point-and-shoot, and I could spend hours taking photos, showing people, getting prints made for friends (which would be SO appreciated here), and have photos I could really cherish for a lifetime. I don’t really want to reveal that I have a nice camera, but people here already know I have a computer, an iPod, solar power, a small camera... and I feel very safe in my house and in my village. I also have insurance on all my valuables. I’ll probably give in soon and share the photos with you.

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned my Ugandan name, given to me by my host family during training – Kamusiime (Kaam-see-may), which basically means “Giving thanks to God.” Since Ugandans often have difficulty pronouncing my name, I often tell them they can call me Kamusiime. I also get called “Betty” a lot because the “Br” sound is somehow hard to pronounce.

I’m savoring the ability to make an entire crowd laugh with just two words in Runyankore-Rukiga (sometimes nothing more complicated than “I don’t want” to a persistent seller or “We are here” to emphasize that we don’t want a taxi) because people can’t believe I’m speaking the local language. It will be strange to go back to the U.S. and never get noticed in a crowd (although it will also be a relief).

Speaking of life after Peace Corps, I can already see myself changing, although I’m sure the full extent of these changes won’t be visible to me for some time to come. I’m more patient but also more clear about my personal boundaries on what I’ll put up with and what I won’t. I’m learning to pick my battles, when to push to get something done and when I need to realize that something should just be left alone (the perfect quote for this is “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference) . I know I’ll be shopping at more farmers markets when I get back and trying to live a simpler lifestyle. I’m learning to somewhat enjoy cooking, and I’m not too bad at experimenting in the kitchen. I’m also realizing just how good the American life really is.

Women in Ugandan Society

2011-01-30T09:10:00.001+03:00

We’ve all heard about how women in many parts of the world are still marginalized and considered second-class citizens; we even continue to struggle with gender equality in the United States. However, before moving to a developing country, I never really understood what it meant to be a woman in such a culture. This post will be a bit graphic, but no apologies – this is reality.

Here in Uganda, the men are definitely the decision-makers, the ones with the power. While urban areas are becoming more gender-equal than before, most people still consider women and men to hold very distinctive gender roles, with the household work left to the women but the household decisions and prestige being given to the men. Women are seen as weak, yet they are the ones doing most of the manual labor for the home, such as fetching water (jerry cans are heavy!) and firewood. The women care for the children, but if the couple ever separates, the children generally belong to the father (who never actually cares for them – he either hires someone or already has another wife). Here, there is no such thing as rape within marriage, legally or culturally. Men pay a bride price (often paid in cows or other in-kind payments), which means the man has a huge amount of leverage over his wife. While becoming less common, “marriage by abduction” does happen, in which a man kidnaps a girl who has refused to marry him and rapes her. The girl’s ‘purity’ is then ruined, and out of shame, she accepts to stay as his wife – she usually feels she has no choice, as many families and communities would disown her at this point, and few other men would want her. If a woman wants to use a condom with her partner or go for HIV testing, she is accused of sleeping around (even though it is commonplace for men to have extramarital affairs, thus putting women at risk for HIV infection from their own husbands. 42% of all new HIV infections in Uganda are intramarital).

As a female Peace Corps Volunteer, my struggle is mainly from issues of harassment. Many Ugandan women (unfortunately) have become used to sexual harassment or even assault, so consider it a normal part of life. For myself and my fellow female PCVs, however, harassment is probably one of the biggest issues we face. It can be everything from cat calls (“Hello baby!”, “I love you!”, “My size!”) and blatant inquiries for sex to sexual assault. I have never been assaulted, but several of my friends have. The emotional effects have serious consequences for us as volunteers – some are afraid to leave their houses for fear of unwanted attention or worse. I find that I avoid most Ugandan men, which is something I wish I didn’t resort to because of the potential for positive, professional relationships. Unfortunately, I’ve heard too many stories of female PCVs thinking that they have great friendships and working relationships with co-workers, only to later be propositioned for sex. I have faced very few issues in my small village – everyone knows me and respects/looks out for me. The main challenges occur when I go to bigger cities.

This post wasn’t meant to make anyone at home worry about me, but only to point out one of the biggest challenges we’re facing as PCVs and the reality of life for Ugandan women. Since this blog is supposed to be a window into my experience, I decided to share this with you. A lot of these issues were brought up in a recent 20/20 episode about the murder of a volunteer in Benin and the sexual assault and rape of other volunteers, which I watched with my training class. It prompted a several-hour discussion within our group, after which we spoke with the Country Director about our concerns and priorities (and he has responded to everything positively. I really think Peace Corps-Uganda is already doing an excellent job in being proactive about these issues). The reaction to the 20/20 episode, and our action about it, made me so proud of my fellow volunteers.

As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I’m trying to improve the lives of the girls and women around me. I’m going to start teaching life skills (such as setting life goals, communication skills, decision-making, healthy behaviors, etc.) to girls in my community soon. As a health volunteer, I’m promoting family planning options, such as condoms or birth control, to try to curb the high fertility rate of about 7 children per woman, but I believe that the only way to truly reduce family size is to empower women and give them other options in life besides having lots of children. Make sure they get a good education and are able to make their own life decisions, allowing them to pursue a career or envision a different path for themselves, and then they will probably choose to have fewer children. This opinion was solidified after reading Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn – highly recommended book. Peace Corps Volunteers in Uganda have started an annual program called Camp GLOW – Girls Leading Our World – which is a week of empowering activities for young girls which I hope to be really involved with at the end of 2011; I can even nominate girls from my village to attend. Of course, to empower women, you must involve men and change their ideas about gender roles, so ‘women empowerment’ should involve both men and women. While I won’t single-handedly change the gender roles and treatment of women in Uganda, I hope I can help improve the lives of a few women and girls around me.

Life is a Raging River

2011-01-30T09:06:00.006+03:00

Probably the most exciting thing to happen recently was when most of our training group headed to Jinja for white water rafting on the Nile! The night before was the booze cruise at the source of the Nile (where Lake Victoria flows into the Nile), where we had beautiful sunset views of the area. We stayed in a campsite/hostel run by the rafting company, and were all overwhelmed by the number of attractive muzungus there – we hadn’t seen that many Westerners (besides each other) for months. I remembered why I love backpacker places so much – in an hour or two, I met people from Scotland, Canada, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and Denmark. Makes me excited to backpack again after Peace Corps and before I get strapped down with vet school loans.

Drinking a Nile on the Nile

Our training class on the Nile booze cruise

The rafting itself was soooo much fun (although a few people were feeling the effects of the booze cruise the night before – the guy who organized our trip almost literally missed the boat because he overslept). Not only were the rapids crazy (it’s really like a water rollercoaster), but because we knew almost everyone else on the river, we really had a blast. I was in a raft with some of my favorite people and we were cracking jokes the whole time. Our mantra was “Stay in the f***ing boat”, and we only flipped once and nobody drowned, so the mantra seemed to work for us. Between rapids, we would jump out of the raft in the calm stretches of water and just drift down the Nile, thinking about how we were on our way to Egypt. At one point, we were on a Class V rapid and were told there were two routes – one to the left, which was some ‘normal’ Class V rapids, and one to the right, which went over a waterfall. We ended up on the right, but got stuck on a rock at the top, allowing us to tremble in fear as we looked over the edge of the 8-10 foot drop. We were the last raft over, so everyone else was waiting at the bottom, watching us – and it was actually fun! We didn’t jackknife and flip over like I thought we would, and now I can say I went over a waterfall while rafting on the Nile. That night, we all watched the video as a group back at the campsite and laughed hysterically at the ridiculous flips, the facial expressions, and the crazy antics of our whole group.

Going over the waterfall!

The one time we did not "stay in the f***ing boat"

However, while being a tourist around Jinja, I was acutely aware of the impoverished people we were passing and felt very uncomfortable, despite the fact that I’m not strictly a tourist and I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer trying to help Ugandans. I don’t remember feeling this bad about my tourist excursions in Africa in 2008, and I’m actually glad I have more than just a twinge of guilt now. But what am I to do? I want to do the touristy things when I have the money saved up, and I am pretty much completely against hand-outs to local people. Still, it feels awful to be driving by in a big truck on the way to rafting, or waving to people in a dugout canoe while I’m on a booze cruise having a great time, trying to be friendly but also feeling like I’m sticking my tongue out at them by waving.

Between Christmas, New Years, and the workshops in Kampala, I’ve been away from my site entirely too much lately, so now I have no plans to travel for at least a month. We had almost two weeks of workshops on language, project design and management, and teaching life skills in Kampala before rafting (staying in a nice hotel with hot showers, TVs, delicious buffet meals, and a swimming pool along with my 44 friends from training was amazing), so I’m working to implement new skills at site. I’m trying to move away from my previous duties as “pill counter” in the clinic (with some resistance from my organization, but full backing from Peace Corps) and am now working on lesson plans in Runyankore-Rukiga for health education at our clinic and the primary schools, hopefully starting life skills classes for adolescent girls, still working to start a dairy cooperative, plans for demonstrating compost piles and SODIS – solar water disinfection using only regular water bottles, continuing my hand washing/tippy-tap ‘campaign’, and preparing for the arrival of a donated microscope from the U.S.! Thank you to Mom and her neighbors for finding one – now we’ll be able to do malaria testing at our health center. My head is still swirling with ideas for projects to work on but putting ideas into action isn’t always easy here (and it probably shouldn’t be if I’m doing it right and getting full community involvement with the activities).

Thank you to everyone who sent a Christmas package, and Kibo thanks everyone who sent dog treats (there were several! We are now fully stocked with Pupperoni, Milk Bones, and Beggin’ Strips). Kibo is now 4 ½ months old and is definitely in an awkward teenage stage. My counterpart’s two dogs now come by on a daily basis, or she sometimes goes to visit them at their house up the hill – really adorable. It's like watching 6-year-olds go over to each other's houses to play - "I'll be back for supper, Mom!" They’re always really happy to see each other, and I’m glad my dog has friends. :)

Random thoughts:
I recently splurged on the expensive, imported American peanut butter and have eaten almost the entire jar by the spoonful in 5 days – I’m essentially vegetarian while at site so I need my protein somehow!

I continue to have random people, usually kids but sometimes adults, show up at my door and just stare in my doorway, and don’t seem to get the problem when I ask, “Nooyenda ki?” (“what do you want?”) and they just shrug and continue to stare.

There are a ton of bats living in my ceiling, and I have no idea what to do about it.

It’s been really hot here lately and we haven’t had rain in weeks – I can’t wait for the wet season to roll around. It’s supposed to be raining at this time of year but global warming has altered the timing of the wet and dry seasons, causing lots of problems for farmers (and everyone is a farmer here).

Pictures of My House!

2011-01-13T18:49:00.002+03:00

My living room. A sofa set and picture wall are in my near future!

My bedroom

My indoor bucket-bathing room

My kitchen. I cook on a gas stove and have a sink! No running water, but a sink!

Pit latrine with my beautiful tippy tap for washing my hands

Where the important business happens.

Health Care in Uganda – Problems determined, solutions unknown

2011-01-12T17:41:00.001+03:00

Here's my latest blog post for SCOUT BANANA, the awesome organization I was involved with at MSU:

The health care system in Uganda is overrun with problems. As a community health volunteer for Peace Corps, I have been working with a Health Center II (a basic-services clinic) and have been assessing the state of health care here in Uganda.

While government health care is intended to be free, there are so many hidden costs that patients are often still unable to afford health care. The government provides free drugs and care, but when those drugs run out (which is all-too-often), the patients are responsible for going to a private drug shop and buying their medicines. Women who want to deliver at a government health center are often required to bring their own “mother kit”, a set of supplies which can include such things as cotton, gloves, needles, etc. At our small Health Center II, we have no capability of running tests such as urinalysis, blood smears for malaria, or even taking blood pressure, and often have to refer patients to either a larger government health center or a private clinic for the care they need. Many people cannot afford even 4,000 Ugandan shillings roundtrip (less than $2) to the Health Center III, a few kilometers away, for testing or maternal care, let alone a trip to a private clinic where all costs are out-of-pocket. Some of our patients walk several miles to get to our clinic.

Malaria is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality, and is severely over-diagnosed. Practically everyone with a fever is given anti-malarial drugs, and subsequently health centers often run out of the drugs before the next shipment arrives from the government. The cost of these drugs in a private drug shop can be 15,000/- (about $7), which is too expensive for the average rural Ugandan. The nurses at the health centers have little choice when they have no way to test for malaria before dispensing drugs – if the patient does have malaria and is not treated, he or she could die. Better to be safe than sorry, but being safe in this situation causes its own host of problems.

There is also a big problem with motivation among health workers. Salaries are very low, and some workers feel no obligation to give good ‘customer service’, which is a huge concern in privatized health care systems such as the U.S. Health workers often show up whenever they feel like it, and leave the clinic hours before the official closing time, leaving some patients to wait for hours to be seen. A small aspect of this stems from the culture where family comes first – if the nurse has to harvest millet or help a family member out, they don’t see a big problem in staying home.

So what, as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV), can I do? It’s a difficult question to answer – if there were an easy fix, Uganda would have great health care. PCVs don’t come with any funding or external assistance, we come to act as change agents and co-facilitators to mobilize local resources and work with what is already available. While it’s difficult to make system-wide changes or improve facilities and equipment without funding, I am working to encourage healthy behaviors, build capacity among health workers, and provide people with the knowledge they need to keep themselves and their families happy. Another PCV I know is working at the district health office, so he can encourage health officials to improve efficiency and make positive changes in the health care system. These are small steps, not a big NGO project with millions of dollars backing it, but these small steps are (hopefully) sustainable, using local resources and requiring the community to get involved to make changes in their own lives.

Hati ndi Mukiga! Well, almost...

2011-01-12T14:37:00.003+03:00

Life in Uganda isn’t easy. One of the reasons that Americans can focus so hard on being productive and getting lots of professional work done is that their daily routines are easy. They don’t spend several hours hand-washing their clothes, cooking over firewood or charcoal, or waiting for what could be hours for a car to come by in order to get to the market. I’ve never appreciated washing machines as much as after spending a couple of hours scrubbing away in the hot sun and only getting a few outfits washed. Please viciously shake me if I ever complain about doing laundry in the U.S. ever again – you throw it in a machine, add some soap, hit a button, and come back in an hour. Amazing. My neighbors are all busy harvesting millet, groundnuts (peanuts), maize, etc. There is always something that needs to be done in their fields – thus the life of the subsistence farmer, and here everyone is a subsistence farmer, even the nurse next door and the businessman up the road. I was helping to harvest millet and spread it in the sun to dry, and this simple act threw the groundskeeper into hysterics, especially when I said, “Hati ndi Mukiga” – now I am a Mukiga (person of one of the local tribes, the Bakiga – half of the name of the language I’m learning, Runyankore-Rukiga). That happens a lot – when I was learning how to harvest the millet the other day, people stopped and stared/laughed at the muzungu. Imagine! A white person doing manual labor and working in the fields!

I just met with the local dairy farmers to do a needs assessment, and they have decided to start a cooperative to increase their bargaining power (the middleman who buys their milk just dropped his buying price from 500/- Ugandan shillings (about 23 cents) to only 250/- per liter). I’m going to be helping them form the cooperative, come up with marketing strategies, and I’ll also be teaching them different management systems and husbandry techniques. I want to host a lecture series at their meetings and teach them about such things as hay/silage making for the dry season, zero-grazing systems, cow health and nutrition, breeding, etc. I also found out there is no veterinarian close by, so I might even get to implement the Community Animal Health Worker training program I designed during training (and that I also researched for my Specialization in International Development senior capstone project at Michigan State). I’m so excited!!! I’m finally doing something that I envisioned for myself when I joined Peace Corps.

It’s mango season! The other day, I went for a beautiful walk up to the top of a hill with my neighbors to someone’s house (I still don’t know whose house it was), where we ate our fill of mangoes (and it was a lot of mangoes), took in the views of the distant mountains, then brought home a huge sack of mangoes, which we used to make fresh mango juice! Sooo delicious and no added sugar needed. Too bad we have no refrigerator – the juice is only good for a couple of days.

Making homemade mango juice with the neighbors

Kibo is doing great and getting huge – 4 months old now, probably weighs 25+ pounds, and a little calmer but sometimes still a little terror (especially to the neighbor’s chickens – she loves to chase them). She’s wary of strangers, but in general likes women way more than men. If she doesn’t know a man, she barks viciously before running the other direction. Her latest stunt happened when I was getting water at the stream (the rainwater tank is low so we’re saving that water for drinking only, and water for bathing and washing is coming from the stream). I was standing knee-deep in the water, filling my jerry can. There’s a big rock in the stream, and Kibo was standing on top of it. I was thinking how she looked pretty regal up there, and what a good-looking dog she is in general, when she decided to jump to the opposite bank…except she was about two feet short and came down in a magnificent belly flop right next to me, soaking both of us. Terrorized, she quickly swam/ran out of the stream and back towards the house. I haven’t laughed so hard in days – definitely some much-needed comic relief. She’s a great, affectionate dog (she loves to cuddle and she still follows me everywhere when I’m near the house), and I’m definitely planning to bring her back to the U.S. after service.

The next couple of weeks include Peace Corps workshops in Kampala on language and project design/management – very excited to see people I haven’t seen in a few months. Then, our entire training group is going white water rafting on the Nile!

P.S. Our first patient the other morning, a 1-year-old baby, was named Obama.

Photos from Christmas and New Years

2011-01-12T14:34:00.003+03:00

With some of my Peace Corps besties :)

Our beautiful Christmas tree. The Yankee Swap gifts have such classy wrapping.

We're on a boat! PCVs heading to our private island at Lake Bunyonyi for New Years

Lake Bunyonyi

Lake Bunyonyi from our private island :)

Yankee Swaps and Private Islands and Skinny Dipping, oh my…

2011-01-05T20:00:00.000+03:00

It’s beginning to feel a lot like…. summer. It always feels like summer here to me, so it’s hard to believe that it’s truly Christmas time without freezing temperatures, streetlamps decorated with wreaths and lights (there are no streetlamps), sweaters and scarves, fireplaces, decorating the tree with family, people bustling around for shopping, etc.

For Christmas, I headed back to Kasese to spend the holiday with some of my best friends in Peace Corps. Along the way, the road passes through Queen Elizabeth National Park, and I saw at least 60 elephants, including one huge bull that crossed the road right in front of the taxi! Merry Christmas from Mother Africa.

We went swimming on Christmas Eve – felt a little out of place, but the pool had gorgeous vistas of the mountains and the plains below, and we listened to some good American tunes, courtesy of a former PCV who had her wedding there and left the CDs behind. For dinner, we went back up to Hotel Margherita, where we waited forever for our food but it was worth it – FILET MIGNON! Best meat I’ve had in Uganda, hands down, and only 9,000 (about $4). Good meat is a rare thing to come by here – usually it’s tough, fatty, and full of bones.

On Christmas Day, we had French toast and scrambled eggs, then went to lunch at a friend’s supervisor’s house. A Ugandan holiday isn’t complete without really cheesy 80’s-style music videos playing, so we were treated to an hour or two of some random African music group singing in fur coats with various scenes set in Russia, the Caribbean, etc., followed by a video of the supervisor’s wedding. The food was good, typical Ugandan fare – matooke, chicken, goat, pasta, potatoes, pineapple, etc. I got a wonderful text from my host family wishing me a Merry Christmas, so called them to reciprocate – so good to talk to them. In the afternoon, we had a Yankee Swap gift exchange with such coveted items as JIF peanut butter, pirated DVDs, or Annie’s macaroni and cheese. For dinner, we went to a nice hotel in town for a delicious buffet, then returned to Skype with family and friends. I also got my first guitar lesson from one of my friends and am planning to buy a guitar soon – I really want to learn to play while I’m here.

For New Years, a bunch of PCVs rented out a private island at Lake Bunyonyi, a gorgeous spot in the mountains near the Rwandan border. The island is a basic camp with bandas and tents (yours truly was camping), pit latrines with seats, really delicious buffets, and beautiful views across the lake – all for about $10 a day. We spent our days swimming in the cool water (hello schisto!), getting sunburned after about 20 minutes in the equatorial sun, reading, napping, playing Euchre with other Midwesterners in the group, and just chilling. So nice. I’m not sure why just chilling felt so nice because I already have so much downtime at my site, but I definitely felt like a tourist – a very nice change of pace.

On New Years Eve, we all split the cost of a generator and speakers so we could have a dance party. During dinner, our music was switched off so we could watch some traditional Bakiga (Ba-chee-gah) dancers and even joined in for some of the songs. After that, we danced the night away, and had our own countdown to midnight. This might be the first time I haven’t watched the ball drop on TV (except the one time I was actually in NYC for New Years). A little after midnight, a group of us decided to ring in 2011 by skinny dipping! Thank God there was no moon so it was pitch black – you literally couldn’t see anybody else if you tried. It takes living in Africa to realize that white people glow in the dark. Also good to know that there are no (known) crocodiles in Lake Bunyonyi.

Possibly the most exciting thing that’s happened lately is returning to my village after the holidays to discover that a local pastor has set up a chapatti/rolex stand about 300 meters from my house!! Seriously, I don’t think anyone except for PCVs in Uganda would understand the excitement. I can now get a delicious egg-and-chapatti roll (rolex) for 800 shillings (about 35 cents). Amazing.

Other recent activities: learned how to make a compost pile from a fellow PCV which I hope to do as a demonstration in my village, and watched the installation of a biogas digester at my counterpart’s house (takes cow dung and captures the methane to use for cooking and lights). One of the most shocking things that happened lately was when I was teaching HIV fact vs. fiction with another PCV at a youth conference. One of the fiction statements was, “White people brought HIV to Africa to kill Africans.” The kids burst out in an enthusiastic “Yes!” even clapping and laughing. It was the biggest reaction we got from them during the whole session. While a Ugandan facilitator explained that it was a joke, my friend and I were really upset by it. I sort of get why they would make a joke like that, but regardless, when two white PCVs have dedicated their lives to helping Ugandans and the kids decide to laugh and say white people brought HIV here, it hurts.

We’re all a little nervous about the upcoming elections in mid-February. Presidential elections in Africa are rarely peaceful, and Peace Corps has had to pull out of a number of countries before, whether for just a few weeks or even sometimes permanently, due to political violence. Some of my Ugandan friends say it will be peaceful with no problems, while others are convinced there will be riots. Museveni has been in office since 1986, and he remains very popular in my area, which is his home district. However, other areas of Uganda have grown tired of him and are ready for change. While we’re all hopeful that things work out for the best, it’s something on our minds, and we’re mentally preparing ourselves for the possibility that the elections might not go so smoothly here. Time will tell either way, and for now we just have to keep on keeping on.

I’ll post pictures from these adventures another time – the internet is just too slow and spotty at my site.

Random Notes on Ugandan Culture

2010-12-15T22:26:00.007+03:00

Breastfeeding in public is not just normal, it’s everywhere. Boobs everywhere. I’ve heard that male PCVs serving in Africa complain that for them, breasts lose their sexuality because they’re just out, all the time, feeding babies. I mean, that’s their function, but it’s so taboo to do out in the open in the U.S. that it’s a shock here to see it on a daily basis. Sometimes the women have finished breastfeeding but just leave the girls out, flapping in the wind. But God help you if you wear a skirt that shows your knees – completely inappropriate.
Today, the nurse I was working with decided to play music out-loud from his phone. His choices? Enya and Celine Dion. Back to back. Not kidding.
Small car taxis. These are the only vehicles which come to my village for which I have Peace Corps approval (we are not allowed to ride boda-bodas, the ubiquitous motorcycle taxis). They’re essentially an older Toyota Corolla that fits quite literally ten adults in it on a regular basis – 6ish in the back, 2 in the passenger seat, and – probably my favorite part – a passenger sharing the seat with the driver (who is driving a stick-shift). Definitely safe. There’s often a few small children sitting on laps and a poor chicken thrown into the trunk for good measure.
I’ve been asked before such things as, “Are you from America or Italy?” as if there are no other choices. I even had one person in Kampala yell at me, “Hello, Japan!” Perception of foreigners is funny, and my guess is most people think that all muzungus are from the only country that they themselves have met people from.
The security guard at a friend’s site offered me his 5-year-old son to take back to America with me. When I said, “Won’t you miss each other too much?” he replied, “I have three other children.” While I know he has his son’s best interests in mind (an education in America is an opportunity most people here would never dream of), his response shocked me.
I've been told by several Ugandans, "Your English is very good." I usually think the statement is so ridiculous, English being my first language, that I just say "Thank you," but I think they mean I speak clearly and they can understand me. I adopt my own "Ugandan voice" when speaking with local people - speaking more clearly and slowly. Maybe that's what they mean. Some Americans/foreigners just keep blabbering at their normal speed and nobody understands them.
The ideas determining what is rude and what is not are almost reversed from the U.S. It is rude to confront someone directly about a problem you have with them (better to go through a friend or relative), but it is perfectly okay to walk into someone’s house without asking (for instance, my house) while that person is eating or otherwise preoccupied – thus leaving me in a conundrum about how to tell said person to leave. It is rude not to greet someone, but it is not rude to inquire a perfect stranger about their religion, their marital status, and why they aren’t yet married. It is rude to eat while walking on the street, but it is in fact good manners to tell someone they are fat (it’s a compliment). It’s not rude to slap someone’s arm to get their attention, inquire how much someone else’s stuff costs, arrive two hours late to a meeting, or to stare openly. It’s sometimes very hard to remind myself the cultural differences and not get irate at certain behaviors I consider, from my American perspective, very rude.
Ugandan English is funny and often throws me for a loop. It’s amazing how many variations of “English” there are in the world, and how even native English speakers from different countries sometimes struggle to understand each other. Words/phrases of note:

“Extend” – move over, we have to fit a 7th person in the backseat of the taxi, and no, you don’t get a discount for losing feeling in your left leg
Ugandans like to insert a rhetorical “what?” into the middle of a sentence to see if you’re listening. For instance: “We are meeting in Kampala to do what? To go shopping.”
“Hmm/ehhh” – I’m acknowledging what you’ve just said. For instance, if you ask someone “How did you spend the night?” and they reply “Very well”, you say “Hmmm” to prove you were listening.
“Smart” – well-dressed. “Clever” means intelligent.
“How do you find the place?” – do you like it here? How’s life?
“You increase” – you’re paying too little, you’re white and rich, please pay more
“You reduce” – you’re overcharging me, I’m white but I’m a volunteer, bring your price down
“It is finished/it is over” – we’re out of stock. This phrase is heard far too often in this country
Non-verbal "words" - instead of saying "yes", Ugandans often just quickly raise their eyebrows. I've started subconsciously doing this. I'm afraid I will be so weird when I try to have a conversation back in the U.S. Ugandans also will point with their lips when you ask where something is.

At my post office in Mbarara. This pretty much sums everything up.

Kasese and Queen Elizabeth National Park

2010-12-15T22:03:00.005+03:00

This past weekend, I traveled to Kasese to meet up with friends. The town sits at the base of the Rwenzori Mountains, which form the western border with the DRC (Congo), and the views are absolutely stunning. I actually now, in reflection, find it a little strange that one of the biggest things I remember is the fact that Kasese has a quasi-grid system, so they have actual blocks and street names. Revolutionary for Uganda. That evening, we had dinner at Margherita Hotel in the foothills, and had beautiful panoramic views of the mountains as the sun went down. On the ride up to the hotel, with the wind whipping through my hair, surrounded by good friends and staring at the mountains in the pre-dusk glow, it was one of those perfect moments in life when everything feels right – just pure euphoria.

The Rwenzoris

On Saturday, we headed to Queen Elizabeth National Park. It was so nice to feel like tourists for a day. Along the way, we stopped for photos at the Equator – I was in two hemispheres in one day (actually I jumped back and forth a few times in 48 hours).

The Equator!

Once in the park, we took a $15 boat trip along the Kazinga Channel which links Lakes George and Edward. Definitely worth the money! For a couple of hours, we cruised within meters of hippos (reportedly the world’s largest concentration of them), buffalo, a big bull elephant, waterbuck, bushbuck, African fish eagles, yellow-billed storks, pelicans, herons, egrets, etc. When we reached Lake Edward, the sun was going down and the views of the fishermen on the lake, and the pelicans soaring over the water’s surface, were beautiful. The lake forms the border with the DRC (Congo), and it was insane to think how close we are to a place that is still in serious conflict. Honestly this has been one of the hot beds of conflict in the world – Uganda has weathered Idi Amin and had rebel groups killing people in the north until very recently, the DRC still has mass murder and rape occurring, Sudan to the north is famous for the genocide in its Darfur region and could see more conflict soon when the country votes whether to split in two, Rwanda to the south is famous for its own genocide, and Kenya to the east has had its fair share of conflicts. All the more reason Peace Corps, and other organizations, are here to help re-build communities.

Bull elephant in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Pelicans on Lake Edward

The excitement didn’t end after the boat ride – while driving back through the park at night to Kasese, we literally almost ran into a herd of elephants. Only in Africa – gotta love it.

Sunday was a lazy day around Kasese (including listening to Christmas music – totally surreal when the weather hasn’t changed in months and there is nothing around to remind you that it’s the holiday season), but the real event happened that evening – I was drifting off to sleep when suddenly I woke up to the bed shaking beneath me. We had an earthquake! Apparently it was a 4.9 quake centered near Lake Edward in the DRC, not far at all from where we had been on safari the day before. Crazy!

Random moment today: a boy walked into the clinic wearing a Santa hat.

Romance vs. Reality

2010-12-15T21:59:00.000+03:00

Peace Corps has such a romantic image. Before coming here, I imagined such exciting and idealistic images like traveling the world, laughing all the time with local children, building schools and wells, spending my days in the field vaccinating cattle and helping livestock farmers, making a tangible difference every day, etc. Picture Angelina Jolie in aviators and khaki pants, working in a refugee camp, an independent, worldly woman actively fighting poverty – that’s the image of Peace Corps that comes to mind for many people, including my own pre-Peace Corps self. While it’s a wonderful experience, and I wouldn’t at all change my decision to come, this is not reality. Of course, it’s not reality anywhere – we aren’t always living meaningful thrilling lives no matter where we are. But I’d just like to dispel the myths.

The truth: nothing like that former vision. Village life is pretty boring. Not much to do for entertainment – good thing I grew up as an only child and know how to keep myself occupied. Work is excruciatingly slow right now (as I understand it is for most PCVs at first) – I’ve been trying to meet with my supervisor for weeks to create a workplan and re-evaluate my job description (aka I’m not here to count pills for the nurses) but he’s always off doing something else, or doesn’t call to tell me when he can’t make a meeting we have together. You really have to create your own work here, and I’m trying. While my Facebook status updates (and even this blog) always sound so exciting, those really thrilling days happen maybe once every two weeks – the rest of the time I’m just here, trying to find work to do, getting frustrated with my inability to understand most of the people around me (my Runyankore just isn’t that good yet), avoiding harassment from men, wishing I could be doing more meaningful activities and interacting with more people. And the food – oh! I’m afraid I’m becoming anorexic (not really, Mom, don’t worry) because of the monotonous diet. I’m not keen on making some of the local foods myself (they take hours and aren’t even that tasty), and have been subsisting mostly on rice, pasta, potatoes, PB&J, milk, eggs, bananas, and some other fruits and vegetables. The diet is just so routine. Case in point – you go into a local restaurant and they never have a menu because everyone knows what will be on it – matooke (steamed plaintain-like bananas), posho (maize meal), maybe rice, maybe millet, maybe meat, maybe groundnut (peanut) sauce. That’s about it. It makes sense to not have a huge variety of foods when most people here grow their own foods (and how many different things can you really grow in one garden?) but it’s still getting old for me. I’m convinced I’ll gain 30 pounds in the first month I’m back in the U.S. just because all I’ll want to do is eat!

But despite these challenges, that’s life – not every day is an adventure. This isn’t a vacation, this is where I live and work, and I’m learning a new rhythm of how to carry out my days. I’m learning that the little accomplishments, like understanding 30% of what someone says to me in Runyankore-Rukiga, holding a meeting on the same day we planned for it to happen, networking with another organization in the area, or learning to cook something new, are what really get me through. If I look at the big picture, I get frustrated by how slowly things are going – but if I live one day at a time, things are manageable, life is good, and I can see the small impacts I’m having that, over time, accumulate to be something truly meaningful.

Solar Panel!

2010-12-01T10:06:00.004+03:00

Here's a photo of the solar panel on the roof! My house is the right half of the duplex. Once I get a little more furniture and decor, I'll take pictures of the inside.

The small window is my kitchen, and the blue door goes into the main house. Note the good-looking puppy on the porch. :)

Let There Be Light!

2010-12-01T06:29:00.012+03:00

Thanksgiving was fantastic! On Friday, I headed through Kampala, where I did some Christmas shopping at the craft market (although no guarantees that packages will get there by Christmas, or ever even arrive), then headed back to my friend Becca’s house with Bryce, Alexi, Maggie, and Evan. We spent the evening marveling at her house (it’s huge! and has electricity!), eating Velveeta macaroni and cheese (heaven!), and a pumpkin pie given to us for free by the owner/chef at I <3 New York Kitchen, our favorite pizza/dessert place in Kampala (soooo good!). We bought a DVD on the street earlier that we thought would be the new Harry Potter movie since we couldn’t make any of the showings at the real theater in Kampala, but when we played it, it was just a cheap Bollywood film. Wahh wahhhhh...

Saturday morning, Becca and I woke up first, so we made banana pancakes, M&M pancakes, and scrambled eggs, with real Maine maple syrup! (Becca is a Mainer). I went to work with Becca for a little while, but was called away to go help gut the two chickens we were going to eat for dinner. It was pretty successful, although I’m sure my animal science professors would cringe at my technique. The rest of the afternoon was spent cooking – and man was it worth it! BBQ chicken, wine-and-herb chicken, stuffing made from bagel chips, mashed potatoes, vegetable medley, spicy pumpkin soup with cranberry jelly, yummy bread and butter, guacamole with chapatti, and a fruit salad with passion fruit glaze for dessert. Amazing!!! All of this laid out on a beautiful banquet table complete with candlesticks and autumn-themed napkins from the U.S.

After dinner, Maggie and Evan brought over the turkey piñata they made, and so for the next 20 minutes or so we watched as blindfolded, dizzy people tried to hit a cardboard turkey that kept falling, the broomstick broke in half, and the clothesline snapped, leaving us all in stitches. Definitely a new Thanksgiving tradition! Afterwards we had planned to stay up and party, but the food coma spell hit hard, and we fell asleep watching new episodes of Glee.

In the morning, Bryce made us delicious French toast (with more Maine maple syrup), then we all headed into Kampala. They all went to see Harry Potter at the theater, but I had to catch a 5-hour bus back to Mbarara, so skipped the movie. I also inadvertently skipped lunch, so was starving, and the first vendor who got on the bus to sell us food had only fried grasshoppers. So, naturally, that’s what I ate. I had tried them last week for the first time and they’re surprisingly pretty delicious... you just can't think too much about what you're eating. The woman behind me hesitantly says, “Madam, did you know those are insects?” probably expecting me to scream and throw them in the air upon discovering what I was really eating. I told her yes, I know, but thank you, causing her and a few others around us to start laughing.

On Monday morning, I went with a co-worker to his cousin’s solar shop in Mbarara for an estimate. He quoted me a price 300,000 shillings lower than another shop I had gone to (about $140 cheaper), and when I said I’d like it installed as soon as possible, he said, “How about today?” So I now have solar power at my house! As a thank-you to my neighbor in the next duplex unit, who always cares for my dog when I go away, I paid the relatively small extra charge to string a light into her house, too. She and her family were so excited, and that night we all just stood around staring at the light. They kept laughing and saying, “Kampala!” joking that now they live in the city, and when I eventually said, “No, America!” they all roared with laughter. We all celebrated by watching a movie at my house (The Princess Diaries, since it has nothing really culturally inappropriate here in Uganda, although it’s amazing how many things I had to explain while watching it. A movie is a whole cross-cultural exchange in itself). I even made popcorn! A huge thanks to Mom at home for helping me to make this happen. :)

I do have to say, it’s so weird after living at homestay and then at site for a total of 4+ months without electricity to now be able to charge my laptop and flip on a lightswitch. It definitely changes the experience, and a (small) part of me misses how basic things were when I based my day more around the rhythm of the sun, and how it was probably a more genuine Peace Corps experience. I feel a bit like a spoiled brat, paying to have solar power in a village where a fair number of people live in mud-walled houses. However, a number of people came to thank me for bringing solar power here, and I know that installing it in the staff quarters here will make it much easier to attract workers in the future. And to be fair, there are also a few other people in my village who have solar power, too, which makes me feel a little better. Also, on a personal note, I am ecstatic to be able to work on assignments for Peace Corps, do research online, catch up with family and friends more often, maybe write that book I’ve always wanted to write, and even just unwind with a movie at the end of the day. And if I feel too over-the-top with solar power, I remind myself that I still hand-wash my clothes, bathe from a bucket, and pee in a hole in the ground.

Giving Thanks

2010-11-25T22:54:00.009+03:00

Happy Thanksgiving! Today is emotionally difficult since Thanksgiving might just be my favorite holiday, and thoughts of the whole family of 25+ people gathered around the table is almost too much to handle. Despite that, I just had two wonderful Skype sessions - one with my amazing friend Chelsea, who is studying abroad in Spain, and the other with Mom and Pappo. Definitely something to be thankful for! I'm hoping to get solar power at my house very soon so that I can stay in better touch with the rest of the world (already helped by my discovery of the BBC on a local FM station... world news! wow!). While I debated whether getting solar power is really in the true Peace Corps spirit, I reminded myself that a) most of my PCV friends have electricity at their houses (or at least do when the power isn't out), and b) that I will be much saner and happier, and therefore effective as a volunteer, if I can keep in closer contact with friends and family back home, be able to do research for work, do workout videos, watch movies, etc.

Two weeks ago, I enjoyed a weekend in Mbarara with other PCVs - some from my training group, and others I was meeting for the first time. It was great to swap stories from site, eat good food (although with ridiculously long wait times), and just be around other Americans for a while, with no one staring at the strange way we do things. However, when I returned to site, I surprised even myself when I got that wave of relief, that "I'm home" feeling. I think having a dog really helps with that, but regardless of the reason, it was great to realize I'm getting used to things and feeling like, in some aspect, I belong here.

Kibo, 10 weeks :)

As far as work goes, I've been busy doing lots of needs assessments, both within my organization and in the community. The highlight happened this past Saturday when I met with a group from the community who came after I requested the local chairman (mayor-type guy) to mobilize people for a needs assessment activity. I did two activities - Community Mapping (asking people to draw a map indicating the resources they value in their communities, what they'd like to see that isn't there, etc.) and Needs Assessment. The mapping exercise started out as a trainwreck, mostly because I followed one of the guidelines from a Peace Corps manual - "start with a familiar landmark, such as a river, road, etc." So, naturally, I asked them to start by drawing the road that runs through our trading center. This turned into the men and women collaborating (after I'd asked them to work separately) to draw a roadmap to all the neighboring villages. Not the goal. After reassessing again and again, we finally got a usable resource map, but by that point I just wanted to move on to the more straight-forward Needs Assessment. But! Despite all these difficulties, we came up with a list of priorities, ranked in order, that the community feels it needs. #1 was a technical school (#2 was to get Holstein/Friesian cows, which I hope to come back to at another time, but the meeting was already 4 hours long...). So, I explained that as a PCV I come with no money, only ideas, so how can we mobilize local resources to start a technical school? We started listing resources such as a brickmaker, land, teachers, etc., but then realized that construction would still be costly. So I proposed an idea: rather than build a physical school, why not try a community-based apprenticeship program, where students go directly to the carpenter's shop, the salon, etc. to train? They liked the idea and within a few minutes, we had a committee of women who would go out to find prospective teachers. Some people argued that we should first ask for "help" (aka money) before we start, but others reiterated what I had said - that if we wait for outside help, it might never come, so we have to act first, ask for help later if we need it. We're supposed to meet again in 2 weeks, and I really hope they follow through with their commitment - I couldn't believe how immediately dedicated they were to the idea of starting this technical school. That's my whole goal - have the community take ownership. That's a famous quote about leadership, "Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. But with the best leaders, when the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will say, 'We have done this ourselves.'" (Lao Tzu, ~500 BC). Perfect quote for Peace Corps. But that doesn't exclude the fact that on the inside, just to hype up the excitement about the situation, I'm telling myself that I started a technical school the other day. P.S., I apologize for the length of this paragraph.

Also, I did teach handwashing and tippy-tap building (see my last post) at the two local primary schools this week, and it was a huge hit! The kids seemed really into it, especially when I got them to all sing "Happy Birthday" while they tried out the tippy-tap to make sure they washed their hands for the right length of time. I encouraged them all to go home and build tippy-taps at their houses so their families have somewhere to wash their hands. I even went so far as to promise I would visit their house if they came and told me they had built a tippy-tap (a promise I may soon be regretting when 83 children show up at my doorstep asking me to come to their homes), but I didn't want to give the kids candy, as some of the teachers and my co-workers were telling me I should do, as that would just reinforce the stereotype that white people bring candy and pens for kids (it's bad enough that I get asked for sweeties from kids in bigger cities when walking down the street). I asked the teachers to invite me back next term if they would like me to teach other health topics, and they expressed great interest - they also added they want me to teach PE, with lots of American games and songs. So, I'm going to try to find a creative way of combining health messages with fun games and songs. Their next term starts in February so I have a few months to start brainstorming.

I've read quite a few books in the past couple of weeks (having no electricity will do that to you), and one that I really recommend is Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux. A former PCV, he details his overland trip, by any means possible, from Cairo to Cape Town. He isn't afraid to offend the reader and dole out criticism, whether to foreign aid or local conditions, so reading this book is a trip into his uncensored mind as he traverses the continent. His attack on foreign aid definitely got me thinking, and the ideas that foreign aid makes things worse (which are not unique to Theroux) are definitely something I struggle with. Also, I'm halfway through The Horse Whisperer and thought it was hilarious that the husband and wife met when she was a VSO volunteer and he was in Peace Corps. However, I lost faith in the author's vision of Peace Corps when he first described the PCV as owning a jeep (ha!), and second when he said that "most [PCVs] are dope-heads or bores or both." Maybe that used to be true, but the majority of our group here in Uganda is amazingly motivated and qualified to be here.

I made peanut butter no-bake cookies last week (soooo good, especially after weeks of practically only rice, potatoes, beans, and sometimes pasta), and invited my neighbor and counterpart to come have some. At first they were very skeptical (and I'll admit, they look a bit like cow shit - flat, amorphous globs of chunky brown goo) but after tasting them they couldn't stop eating them, and practically demanded to be present the next time I make them, which I can tell you will be sometime very soon.

I've been getting up early to go running (okay, I'm pretty slow so I guess it's jogging, but running sounds so much more serious) and the views of the sunrise are worth every lost minute of sleeping in. If I pass kids on their way to school, they start running with me, which right now is pretty comical, but I enjoy running alone to gather my thoughts and have "me" time, so this will probably wear on me. But nothing can detract from the beauty of a sight like this out my front door in the morning:

I had a frustrating moment the other day when a complete stranger showed up at my doorstep, trying to pretend he wanted to have a conversation but was really just asking for money. It made me incredibly irate (and this wasn't a homeless man in rags, he was wearing a nice dress shirt and slacks), so I had to remind myself that most people here are more than generous towards me - a friend of my neighbor's bought me muchomo (grilled meat) and eggs for no apparent reason, people bring me fruit all the time, one of the primary schools gave me a HUGE bag of fruit and beans as a thank-you for teaching about tippy-taps... most people here show me their thanks for my presence in huge ways.

Ironic moment of the week: Seeing a young girl walking on the side of the road carrying a shopping bag from Bata, a big shoe store chain, but wearing no shoes.

Tomorrow, I'm heading through Kampala (meeting a friend for lunch at our favorite pizza/dessert place and shopping) and then meeting up at another friend's site, about an hour northeast of Kampala, for the weekend. We're cooking all day on Saturday and having our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night. The proposed menu: chicken (few turkeys available and no oven to cook one in), homemade bread, stuffing, mashed potatoes, salad, cranberry sauce, spicy pumpkin soup, vegetarian gravy, rice, veggie medley, apple pie, mango crumble, and pumpkin pie. YUM! Next blog entry: detailing the success (and hopefully no lack-thereof) of preparing a huge Thanksgiving feast in Uganda.

First Few Weeks at Site

2010-11-13T10:27:00.002+03:00

Wow, I haven't blogged in forever! Sorry, things were very busy at the end of training, and I don't have electricity at my house so computer time is very limited. But a lot has happened since my last post:

For one thing, I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! We had a swearing-in ceremony on October 21 at the US Ambassador's House. All 45 of us who met in Philadelphia and starting training together made it to swearing-in, which is actually a big accomplishment - it's not uncommon for a few people to decide during training that Peace Corps is not for them and go home. We also held a Homestay Thank You event on the weekend before swearing in to thank the families that have been hosting us. The highlight was when our language group did a traditional Banyankore-Bakiga dance and probably 40+ Ugandans joined in with clapping, jumping, stomping, singing.... so much fun.

The whole training group - official Peace Corps Volunteers!

My language group, Runyankore-Rukiga, with our teachers

I moved to site the weekend after swearing-in, and things get better every day. I still have moments (that were especially numerous during the first few days) where I semi-panic, think "Why the hell did I come here?", and have thoughts of going home early. But those moments are short-lived, and I'm just taking things one day at a time. One of the challenges we have as Volunteers is that we don't have an exact job description, and some of our organizations don't really know what to do with us. You have to make work for yourself, which in the first month or two at site is not easy. So for now, I've been mostly dispensing drugs that are prescribed by the nurses in the clinic, and helping with baby immunization and weighing outreach events. We are encouraged by Peace Corps to "do nothing" for the first 3 months - and by that, they mean just learn, observe, do needs assessments, integrate into your community, etc. before you come up with grandiose ideas on what types of projects to start/implement. A project that I work on should never be entirely my idea - it should stem from the needs and desires of my community members. This is very difficult for me, both as an American not used to pursuing what I see needs to be done and as someone used to taking charge and getting the ball rolling.

However, a few ideas for projects have started to come out. I built a tippy-tap, a makeshift handwashing station, during my first week at site (since there is no easy way for me to wash my hands without running water), and my counterpart and others were very interested in it, and when I expressed my desire to teach hygiene and tippy-tap-building at local schools, they seemed very receptive to the idea. So that might be one of my first projects! Also, I've been doing needs assessments within my organization and one of the biggest problems at our small health clinic is the lack of ability to test for malaria - we simply don't have the equipment for either a blood smear or a rapid malaria test. The result is that anyone who has a headache, fever, body aches, or generally doesn't feel well gets diagnosed with malaria. As we currently have the drugs in stock right now (provided by the Ugandan government), we are giving them out to everyone showing these symptoms. The nurses don't really have a choice not to - if they don't prescribe the drugs, and the patient does have malaria, he/she could die. Everyone seems to know that some people are faking the symptoms, knowing they can get the drugs for free from our government-funded clinic now and stock up later for when they don't feel well at another time. We're about to run out of anti-malarial drugs (Coartem), and we won't get any for at least another month, when the government may or may not show up to deliver more. Thus, for anyone suffering for malaria after we run out of drugs, they have to buy them at drug shops/pharmacies at a cost of around 15,000 shillings (about $7.50), which is too expensive for many of the people who live here. Very tough situation. So even though as a PCV I am supposed to encourage mobilizing local resources instead of looking for outside funding/materials, this is a huge need and I'm going to explore the options to get a microscope (doesn't even have to turn on - we don't have electricity so you just set the microscope in the sun) so we can test for malaria.

In happier news, I am now the proud parent of a beautiful Ugandan puppy. Her name is Kibo (named after the main peak of Kilimanjaro) and she's now 8 weeks old. She came from a litter of puppies at my homestay, and since I got to handle them from 1.5 weeks of age, and I really like the mother's personality, I was hooked. I picked the most beautiful, biggest, outgoing puppy (of course!) and returned for her a week after getting to site (along with another friend who got a dog from his homestay). Public transport with puppies wasn't as bad as we anticipated - we were expecting negative reactions, since it's okay to bring chickens and goats on a shared taxi but dogs are feared and often have a negative connotation in this culture. However, people were all just curious and thought it was so funny, the bazungu with their dogs. Kibo has been settling into site great - my neighbors love her (they even let her sleep in their house when I'm gone! HUGE for a Ugandan family, never expected that), people now come to my house to see my dog and not me, she follows me everywhere when I'm home but surprisingly stays around the yard when I leave, which saves me from having to tie her up. She knows how to sit when she's paying attention or thinks I have food, and can be a bit stubborn, but she's affectionate and playful and just pretty darn adorable. So far she's been very healthy, and I hope it continues - my friend's puppy got parvo, a very nasty virus that often kills the dog, and we were very worried he wouldn't make it. I went to give him IV fluids and dextrose (he is only about 40-50 km from me), and when I had to leave my friend gave him some SQ fluids. And the little guy is doing great! He didn't eat for about a week, so he's super skinny, but apparently now he's running around, eating, and doing great. Amazing!

Kibo! 7 weeks old

The Role of the Volunteer in Development

2010-10-05T17:40:00.006+03:00

While here in Uganda, I have been asked to blog for SCOUT BANANA, an excellent organization I was involved with at Michigan State University that gets young people involved with health and development issues in Africa. Here's my first real post for their blog:

As a Peace Corps Trainee in Uganda, I have learned a great deal during the 10-week training period about topics from language (I’m learning Runyankore-Rukiga, but there are 7 other languages being taught to other Trainees), cross-cultural issues, income generating activities, community health, agrobusiness, water and sanitation, etc. However, no matter which topic we are discussing, it is all based on the Peace Corps’ approach to development, which is a grassroots, assets-based (rather than problem-based) approach. Essentially, as Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs), our role is to act as change agents and co-facilitators to help communities realize the resources they already have to change their lives. The idea is to break the traditional cycle of dependency on outside aid for development to happen, and to empower people to stop thinking of themselves as ‘poor and helpless’, as the Western world has so often labeled them, but rather to believe that they have control over their own lives. We are here to share skills and ideas, and to motivate people to use what they do have rather than thinking about what they don’t.

However, this approach is not without difficulty. Since so many NGOs and short-term volunteers have already been working here in Uganda, and indeed throughout Africa and the rest of the developing world, many Ugandan communities have come to expect that a muzungu (foreigner or white person) brings money and outside resources. While monetary aid does have its place in certain contexts, this dependency on resources that come from outside the community is unsustainable and discourages people to rely on themselves and take charge of their own development. While the problem exists all across Uganda, I have heard PCVs serving in Northern Uganda complain of the “war tourism” occurring there as short-term volunteers and tourists flood the region in the wake of the devastation caused by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The existence of war tourism makes their job as PCVs much more difficult because of the expectancy that the muzungu will come, build a school or make a donation, and then leave, while the PCV comes for two years with motivation and skills but no funding to speak of.

My purpose is not to bash foreign aid, more traditional development work, or short-term volunteers (indeed, most PCVs have been short-term volunteers themselves at some point, which could have been the spark that inspired them to serve in the Peace Corps), but rather to encourage people to think differently about the impacts that these approaches have on the communities which they are trying to ‘develop’. Sustainability is key in any development context, and the assets-based approach that Peace Corps takes aims for sustainability through community-driven development. After all, only when people take ownership of their actions in order to continue improving their own lives long after an NGO or volunteer leaves can development work be truly sustainable.

MY SITE!!

2010-10-05T17:30:00.002+03:00

I finally got my assignment!!! I will be working for The Hunger Project in Kashongi town, Kiruhura District! This is just north of Mbarara, a major city of 100,000+ people, about 5 hours southwest of Kampala. The Hunger Project is a huge international NGO and I am so excited to be working for them. Here's the information I was given:

Purpose and goals (for my chapter/office):
- To eradicate extreme poverty
- To achieve Universal Primary Education
- To promote gender equality and empower women
- To reduce child mortality
- To improve maternal health
- To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
- To ensure environmental sustainability
- To develop global partnership for development

Proposed job description:
- Adult literacy education
- Health education on malaria prevention and control, nutrition, HIV/AIDS
- Hygiene promotion
- Community outreaches on immunization and health education
- Involve in income generating activity projects
- Assist in reporting
- Sports for children

I'm incredibly excited about the variety of projects I could work on. I think it's a relatively new branch of The Hunger Project, so it sounds like I get to help them gauge which projects would work best in the community (and what I would like to work on, too). I'm going on a site visit tomorrow to check out my organization, meet my counterparts and superviser, and see my house! I've been told it's a 2-room house with no electricity or running water. It's supposedly next to my counterpart's home on the compound where my office is located (yay for a short commute!).

The area where I'll be living isn't quite in the mountains like I had been hoping, but it's supposed to be in a beautiful hilly region nicknamed "The Land of Milk and Honey" because of how many cows and how much honey is produced there. YUM! I'll post pictures and let you know the real details of my site when I get back in a few days!

The end (of training) is in sight...

2010-09-23T15:45:00.005+03:00

The last few weeks have brought some exciting (and not as exciting) things. Everyone is starting to get pretty tired of training, so the next few weeks will probably be tough to push through. But soon we'll be swearing in as real Peace Corps Volunteers!

I had some talks with the trainers about my concerns over being placed under economic development (which is where they place people with animal husbandry backgrounds), but we had only been talking about business management and crop agriculture during the training sessions, neither of which I know anything about or am interested in. They took my concerns, as well as my preferences, and have officially switched me to being a Community Health volunteer. I still don't have the details of my site (we find out in ONE WEEK!) but they gave me a vague description when they switched me that I'd probably be working with an organization that has a broad focus on community health and food security, and that the organization partners/staff are interested in starting animal husbandry work. If that's the case, it sounds ideal - a great blend between health, agriculture, animal husbandry, etc. So glad I said something and that they aren't placing me as a primarily business/econ volunteer - ask and ye shall receive! Even if animal husbandry becomes a secondary project, it sounds completely feasible. Just about every household keeps some animals for subsistence, so there's plenty of opportunities, especially since my organization is apparently interested in doing more work in that area. BUT I don't have any solid details about my organization at all yet, so I shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch. Getting so anxious to hear about it!

In other news, spent last week staying with 2 Peace Corps Volunteers in Kyotera in southern Uganda. It's actually two girls - one community health volunteer, one education - who share a duplex. They each have their own "house" on either side of a dividing wall (which is very nice - bedroom, bathroom, guest bedroom, living/dining room, and kitchen, electricity most of the time, and limited running water that comes from a tank on their roof). It was so great to cook American-style food (pan-fried noodles, spaghetti and garlic bread, eggs and toast, etc.), have girls nights, watch movies, take naps, etc. We did do some work too, but unfortunately the interpreter who usually works with her to teach nutrition at the health center wasn't around, so we mostly taught English at the local vocational school. On the way back to Wakiso (where I live now), a few of us stopped in Kampala for shopping and delicious food, including iced lattes. Yummmm!

Other events recently: one of my friends got a puppy from the neighbor and I helped him get dewormer/tick and flea bath, I've been doing a project about Community Animal Health Workers (which I did research for in college and now I'm looking at how to implement a program here in Uganda - very cool), we're having weekly trivia nights at a local bar with our fellow trainees which are really fun, finding an amazing bootleg DVD store in Kampala where you can buy movies or even entire TV seasons for 1,200 shillings (50 cents), learning our way around Kampala and using public transport, trying to diagnose the neighbor's goat (I think it has footrot, it won't put weight on it and its hoof is super hot to the touch but I don't want to try to fix it on my own)... pretty good times! It's not all fun and games - I'll be honest and say I'm getting tired of homestay curfews and having to explain why I want to just read in my room by myself, monotonous training periods, etc. - but in general things are good. Already looking forward to people visiting from the States... if you're not thinking about coming to Uganda, you should be!

These last few days we've had intensive language practice for a mock-LPI (language proficiency interview). The real LPI is at the end of training, and we must be at an Intermediate Low level to "pass" training. I felt like I was struggling a bit during the practice with native speakers, but everyone is saying I'm doing great, speaking Runyankore-Rukiga "like a parrot". Glad to hear! Romance languages will be a piece of cake after this (and I want to work on Spanish and French when I'm out at my site). I'm excited to actually practice the language when I finally go to the southwest, as people here in central Uganda don't really speak Runyankore-Rukiga.

I'll post again in a week when I get my official site placement, which will include where I'll be, my organization/job, what amenities I may or may not have, etc. Sooo excited! All my love to everyone at home.

Getting into the swing of things...

2010-09-06T17:24:00.000+03:00

Well here we are during the fourth week of training and things are going pretty well. We’ve had so many different sessions on Ugandan culture, safety and security, health talks about the scary tropical diseases that some of us will pick up (40% of volunteers get schistosomiasis??), business management, HIV and malaria, permaculture, participatory community assessment tools, our roles are volunteers, etc. I’ve been learning a lot, but the days are long and the weeks are exhausting. All of the current PCVs say that the experience gets a lot better after training, although I’m enjoying being close to all of the other trainees, and I’m sure I’ll miss this time when we’re all scattered across the country. Less than a month until we find out our sites! Couldn’t come soon enough.

Things with my host family are great. My dad and I have the best conversations every night, from the political situation in Uganda and the U.S. to ebola and the education system. We have a running joke that I have an “American stomach”, not a Ugandan stomach because they serve soooo much food here. He’s great and never pushes me to eat more than I want. The food is already getting pretty routine but I’m finding a few favorites (like G-nut, aka groundnut, aka peanut, sauce), and the street food is fantastic. You can get a rolex (omelet-like deliciousness) for 700 shillings (about 40 cents), samosas for 100 shillings (5 cents!), chapattis, “pizza” (egg and onion in a little latke-like patty) for 300 shillings… I might never cook in this country.

My ‘siblings’ are also great, and I’m in love with 7-year-old Tracy (as is everyone else) who is the smartest thing ever. I often forget she’s 7 years old. She’s so incredibly mature and already pretty much fluent in English. Yesterday, she told me I’m her best friend (cue major “Awww!!” now). I don’t get to see my host mom very much – she works in Kampala and so doesn’t get home until around 9:00 on most nights, and sometimes I’m even in bed by the time she gets home. When I do see her, she is so much fun – always laughing at what I have to say. Last night, we all ended up dying of laughter when my host dad recounted my language faux pas this week. Instead of asking for “enyama y’empunu” (“meat of pig” aka pork), I asked for “emanya y’empunu” (vagina of pig). I didn’t learn what I had really said until language class the next day, and now it makes so much sense why my sister was laughing so hard and my dad was so adamant about correcting my pronunciation. But the list doesn’t end there. 2 nights later, I was trying to say “I’m eating” which is “Nindya”, but I said “Ninya” which basically means “I’m getting it on”. Ohhhh lordy, good thing they know I don’t always mean what I say. It definitely provided for some great laughs and great stories!

This past weekend was a great recharge from the routine we’ve been having. On Friday, we visited some groups of women who are working towards income generation and empowerment through craft making. I bought a beautiful bead necklace and basket for amazingly low prices. It was just so great to get out into the community and do something. When we pulled up to one group, it seemed like the whole village erupted into song and dance – everyone was SO excited for the muzungus to arrive! On top of all that, the scenery on the way to the NGO visit was so beautiful. I can’t wait to see the southwest (my future home), which everyone says is stunningly gorgeous. On Saturday, we went to Kavumba Rec Center to go swimming!! The water was the perfect refreshing temperature (you just have to ignore the fact that it wasn’t chlorinated… we had already paid to swim and walked 2 miles to do so, there was no turning back). We all got a nice sunburn from the equatorial sun, even with multiple applications of sunscreen. At first I was upset that they were charging 2,500 shillings for beer whereas the regular price in town is 2,000, then realized that it was equal to $1.25 vs. $1.00. Add on a plate of BBQ chicken and chips for 6,000 shillings ($3.00) and I was a happy camper. But I have to stop thinking in terms of US Dollars since we calculated that we’ll be making somewhere around $3,600 per year (about 3 times higher than the national average salary in Uganda). That night, we went to a local hotel to watch the Uganda-Angola football game (3-0!), and ended up having a dance party and celebrating a PCT’s (Peace Corps Trainee) birthday. But the night ended early, as always (by 7:00ish) since we all have to get home around dusk. Wah wahhhh….

On Sunday, my friend Becca came over to help me cook brunch for my family, which was my first time cooking in Uganda from start to finish. I think they were extremely skeptical during the cooking process (this muzungu doesn’t know how to peel potatoes very well, and I would never dice up potatoes that way… and why does she need so many pots?) but it seemed to be a success – scrambled eggs with tomato and onion, hash browns, toast with butter and jam, and mango juice. YUM!! After weeks of the same food over and over, this was pure bliss. My family even wants to make hash browns again next Sunday, which is impressive since these weren’t even really good hash browns. After brunch, I read a book, took a nap, did some laundry, then headed to a friend’s house to exchange movies and music. A group of us watched a Russian bootleg copy of Salt on my laptop, and the moment (and day) felt so American that it was a shock to look up and see cattle being herded by the window. Yep, we’re still in Africa. We’re all joking that life here starts to feel pretty normal until we remember we have a bucket in our rooms to pee in at night (since there are guard dogs/who knows what roaming around and it’s not safe to go out to the latrine).

In general, I’m so happy here. The training days get long, and life isn’t without its frustrations, but I am so blessed to be in this beautiful country and be given this chance. Looking forward to an immersion week in my region next week, then 3 weeks later I get to visit my actual future site!

Mwebare kwija!

2010-08-21T15:00:00.003+03:00

I am in Uganda and so far everything is going so well! Don't want to waste too much time online so I'll quickly go through everything.

Staging in Philadelphia was a great time to reflect on the incredible commitment we have all made. All the people in the group are fantastic (I mean they are signing up for a 2-year Peace Corps stint in Uganda). I've already made a lot of wonderful friends. After an extremely long flight from JFK to Johannesburg, and then another 4 hours up to Uganda, we landed at Entebbe just at dusk. As soon as I stepped onto the tarmac on the shores of Lake Victoria, all my fears and homesickness were temporarily washed away as I stepped back into Africa. I was nothing but happiness that night.

Since then, training days have been long but productive. We've had lectures on the role of volunteers in development (emphasizing people-to-people empowerment at the grassroots level... awesome!), participatory techniques, info about Uganda and it's economic and health status, basic Luganda lessons, etc. I am exhausted by the end of the day. We just moved to Wakiso a few days ago (about 30 minutes from Kampala) and I am loving the 45 minute walk to training every morning. I'm living with a huge, wonderful host family - Dad, Mom, 6 siblings (5 have lived at home so far, but 2 are soon going to boarding school), an uncle, and a cook. They have welcomed me with open arms, are feeding me entirely too much, and have a beautiful house (even if it lacks electricity and running water). They have their own subsistence garden with matooke (plaintains), bananas, papaya, passion fruit, oranges, avocados, chickens, rabbits.... it's beautiful. I have a fantastic view every morning when I come over the crest of our hill and see the rising sun over miles of undulating hills intertwined with valleys of mist. 2 nights ago, I had a push-up contest with my family and last night the kids wouldn't let me stop taking pictures of them. I've also had such wonderful conversations with them, about everything from how muzungus (white people) blush and sunburn to how my brothers and sisters feel about caning (beating) students in school and the status of the health care system in Uganda.

The weather is so far perfect (in the 70s and sunny every day). I could definitely get used to this. The food is pretty much the same at every meal - a ton of starches (matoooke/mashed plaintain, rice, posho/maize meal, irish potatoes, sweet potatoes...), beans, sometimes meat or fruit. Already looking forward to cooking for myself at my site.

I am learning the language Runyankore-Rukiga (I'd never heard of it either), which means I will be living somewhere in the beautiful mountainous southwest after training. I couldn't be more excited! I have a great language teacher and only 3 other students in my class (although 8 of us are learning Runyankore-Rukiga, pronounced Roon-yawn-core-a Roo-chee-gah).

More updates soon! (and by soon, I mean within a week or two. Not enough time in the day to get to an internet cafe very often!).

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

2010-08-08T23:20:00.005+03:00

The reality of my departure finally hit last night (aka the crying finally started). As much as serving in the Peace Corps fulfills many of my dreams, it is never easy to leave behind your life as you know it, especially family and friends, for so long. In an attempt to look toward the future rather than dwell on the depressing aspects of leaving, I continued reading The Price of Stones by Twesigye Jackson Kaguri, a book detailing how the author started a free school for AIDS orphans in his hometown in western Uganda. On the page where I left off, the author is leaving his family to return to his home in the United States. His words were so comforting because they resonated perfectly. "Morning came too quickly after a final evening with friends and family... We will all be crying shortly. It was probably the same for all families around the world. An awkward silence before leaving when one does not want to say goodbye, when the pain of family being pulled apart is too much to bear." And finally, the quote that restored my hope in seeing my family again soon is what his mother says to him whenever they say goodbye: "May the Lord keep you safe until we meet again." Indeed, I think God does work in mysterious ways - I mean, what are the odds that this would be the particular passage that would greet me as soon as my emotions began to get the best of me? I'm not an especially religious person, but you can't ignore a message like this when it stares you in the face.

Speaking of which, while I was writing this, a TV commercial came on for an initiative in East Africa being carried out by Johnson & Johnson, and those images reminded me of exactly why I can't wait to get back to Africa and get down to work. Meaningful work, and in turn, a meaningful life, hardly comes without personal sacrifice.

When I first started to think about Peace Corps almost 2 years ago, I e-mailed one of my professors, who is from Kenya, for his opinion on whether I should do Peace Corps, work for an NGO, or try some other volunteer experience. Reading his reply again gives me pride in what I am about to do (and hopefully he doesn't mind being quoted here): "Do the Peace Corps. Nothing would be as valuable. Nothing else would allow you to realize what you are capable of and what role you want to play. You should never perceive of yourself as helping 'others' by treating them as something different. 'Those' other people have something to say as well and you should align yourself to understand what they want to say and the rich histories and contexts that 'they' have. Development institutions, by their nature, always treat local peoples as 'others' not individuals. That is why we give them labels such as the 'poor'. I think that you would start to see things very differently if you were able to dwell in place for 2 years... I strongly believe that you have a unique ability to make a significant difference. That is why I am being very frank with you."

Thank you so much to everyone for all the well-wishing, phone calls, and positive thoughts as I depart! Without your support, I couldn't do what I'm about to do, or be who I am today (cheesy but completely true). May we all stay safe until we are together again. Or, in Luganda, beera bulungi, tunaalabagana! (Stay well, we will see each other!).

The logistics of the next few days: I leave my house around 5:15am tomorrow to catch a 7:40am plane to Philadelphia. I have "staging" (orientation) meetings all afternoon and get to know my fellow volunteers. Then we depart the hotel by 3:00am (yes, you read that right) on Tuesday to drive to JFK airport. There, we catch our flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, and then connect to Entebbe, Uganda. It's really happening! The bags are almost packed (hopefully they will zip!), and I can't wait to be back on African soil in just 3 days from now!

6 days and counting...

2010-08-03T18:06:00.005+03:00

Less than 6 days to get ready now... still feels unreal. Today was my original departure date... thank goodness it got moved back! While I've been working on my preparations for departure, I've also been trying to enjoy all those aspects of American life I'll really miss. In the past week or so, I've been horseback riding, went to the John Mayer and Train concert, I've been eating lots of Ohio sweet corn, getting my fill of sushi, seeing friends and family, went to Kings Island for the first time in years (despite the fact that I can see it from my house), hanging out with my dog, going to the movie theater, eating pizza, went to the Dayton Celtic Festival, perused Borders and Barnes & Noble.... basically a really good time!

Now to the serious business. Everyone's been asking me what I'm packing, so here's a basic run-down (it looks very long, and it is, but a lot of these things are small so I'm hoping I'll fit in the 80-pound limit for checked baggage, plus whatever I can fit in my carry-on).

Packing List for Uganda:

Clothing

Several basic below-the-knee skirts

1-2 pairs of gauchos or capris for bike riding and fieldwork

Several short-sleeved (not sleeveless) tops

1 below-the-knee dress for special occasions
2 pairs of jeans

1-2 pairs of longer shorts for sports or running/jogging

Several cotton t-shirts

1 long-sleeved shirt

Cardigans

Tank tops and camisoles

1 pair sweatpants

1 pair black leggings for under skirts

Good supply of underwear (handwashing is hard on clothes and apparently the quality available in Uganda leaves a lot to be desired)

Good supply of durable bras

4 regular bras

1 sports bra

1 strapless bra

Socks

Gym socks

Hiking socks

1 half slip
Rain jacket (REI Women's Ultra Light Jacket)
Pajamas
Sweatshirt
North Face Fleece
2 pairs of hiking pants (can be used for field work)

Swimsuit

Nice clothing for going out to a bar or dancing in Kampala

Gloves for field work (Carhartt Women's Chore Gloves)

Scarf/shawl

Shoes
Leather sandals (Merrell Siena)
Dress shoes (black ballet flats)
Teva sandals

Flip-flops

Hiking boots (Scarpa Kailash GTX)

Gym shoes
1 pair of closed-toe flats (Naturalizer NaturalSport Scatter)

Toiletries

Toothbrush

Hair ties, bobby pins

Hairbrush

Travel hair dryer

Straightener

Razor and extra blades

Lotion

Deodorant

Nail clippers

Mirror

Chapstick with sunscreen

Facial sunscreen

Sunscreen – 30 spf

Makeup

Face wash

Nail polish and remover

Foot scrub/pumice stone

Hand sanitizer

Bath towel

Hand towel

Glasses

Contacts

Contact solution

Qtips
Feminine products

Electronics

Travel alarm clock

Watch

Shortwave radio (Grundig G4000A)

iPod and charger

Small battery-powered speaker (Altec Lansing iM-237 Orbit - highly recommended!)

Camera equipment

Camera Bodies (Canon T2i and XTi)

Lenses

Lens cloth

Lumix point-and-shoot camera

Filters

Extra camera batteries and SD cards

Travel drive for photos

External hard drive

USB card reader

DVDs

Laptop and charger

Outlet adapters

Power strip – charge multiple items at a time if I have to charge away from home

USB flash drive

Camping/outdoor equipment

Sleeping bag
Small packable pillow

Solar-powered headlamp

Solar-powered flashlight

Water bottles

Trekking poles
Sleeping pad (if room in bag)

Tent (if room in bag)

Office Supplies/Books/etc.

Twelve passport-size photos

Reference books

Introduction to Animal Husbandry in the Tropics (thank you to Wiley-Blackwell Publishing for the discount!)

Where There Is No Animal Doctor
Where There Is No Doctor

Novels/fun books

Duct tape

Journal

Calendar/planner

Post-it notes

Scissors

Scotch tape

Peal and seal letter, small-padded package envelopes

Sharpies

Pens

Folders

Small stapler and staples

Solar powered calculator

Addresses of friends and family
Detailed map of Uganda
World map to hang on my wall and show my neighbors where I'm from (or plan trips!)

Travel books

Uganda

East Africa

Food/Kitchen

Gum

Spices

Lawry’s

Mrs. Dash

Crystal Light packets

Can opener

Ziploc bags

Plastic spatula

Tupperware

Recipes

Pot holders

Personal stuff

Driver’s license

ATM card

Credit card
All Peace Corps paperwork, handbooks, packets, etc.
Yellow WHO vaccination record

Bank contact info

Copies of all of the above (leave one at home, bring one copy)

Misc.

Photos from home – family, friends, etc.

Swiss Army knife

Leatherman

Sheets – 2 full-size flat ones are the most flexible as bed size can vary widely

Shower scrunchie

Umbrella

Sunglasses

Money belt

Luggage locks

Non-valuable jewelry

Laundry bag

Tissues (3 travel packs)

Bug spray

Playing cards

Gifts for host family

Postcards from Cincinnati
Coloring books and crayons for the kids
Will probably buy something in-country once I realize what my family would like/need

Luggage

Kelty backpack (Coyote 4570)

Big duffle bag

Daypack as carry-on
Small purse? Still deciding on this

Whew! It seems like a lot (it's all spread on my floor right now) but with some careful packing it will hopefully all make the cut!

What does a Peace Corps Volunteer do?

2010-07-15T05:38:00.005+03:00

I've been given a job title, program, and job description, but nothing about the details of my job are clear yet, and probably won't be for a long time to come. Part of the model of Peace Corps, and any type of grassroots participatory development work, is doing needs assessments in your community and doing what the people there are interested in and need, not what your international organization deems necessary (radical thinking, I know). So the details of my work are still yet to be determined, but here is the general idea of what I'll be doing:

Program: Community Health and Economic Development (CHED)

Job Title: Agricultural Extension Volunteer

Your Primary Duties: Volunteers in our Community Health and Economic Development Program work as staff members in a variety of host organizations in Uganda. Uganda's Ministry of Health, and local and international organizations request Volunteers to assist them with developing and implementing programs with the goals of improving overall levels of community health and economic development, preventing HIV/AIDS among adults and youth, caring for orphans and vulnerable children, and supporting people living with AIDS, their families, and their caregivers. As an Agricultural Extension Volunteer it is important for you to know that more than 80% of Ugandans depend on subsistence agriculture for livelihood.

The info packet then goes on to explain a number of activities with which I could be involved with the overall goal of improving livelihoods through agriculture, especially for people affected by HIV/AIDS and youth. I'm really hoping for a livestock/animal husbandry post! However, volunteers always get involved with secondary projects, as described below:

While your primary assignment will be work in an advisory role full-time with a local host organization or government agency, there is little that goes on in your community that falls wholly outside of your role as a Community Health and Economic Development Volunteer. Your primary assignment will be the door through which you enter and initially come to know your community, allowing you to identify activities that are of interest to your community as a whole, and that further enhance your sense of fulfillment and professional development...

Oftentimes, secondary projects are among the most fulfilling to Volunteers. Such projects may include working with a local women's group to improve their health practices; teaching adults basic computer skills; teaching English or basic reading and writing to low-literacy adults in your community; setting up girls' empowerment or sports camps with students in local schools, to name a few such possible secondary activities.

Hopefully that gives you some insight into what I'll be doing! Peace Corps just sent me even more info on the first few months of training, what to bring, what to expect, etc., so I'll relay more soon! As for now, starting to pack and square away what feels like the last details. I just filled out a homestay questionnaire... it's almost here!

Tragedy in Kampala

2010-07-12T23:36:00.004+03:00

As many of you have probably heard, there were two terrorist bombings last night in Kampala, the capitol city of Uganda, which killed upwards of 64 people who were gathered to watch the World Cup finals. The attack was carried out by Al-Shabaab, a Somalian terrorist group with links to Al-Qaeda. Somalia is a country with no functioning government, and as such, the African Union has sent peacekeeping forces there, a number of which are from the Ugandan Army. Al-Shabaab, which "controls" much of Somalia, does not appreciate Uganda's presence, and supposedly this is why the attack was conducted. The African Union summit will also be taking place in Kampala next week, so this could be why Al-Shabaab chose to carry out these attacks now - to make a statement and try to shine negative light on Uganda during this important time.

While at first I was concerned about the safety of traveling to Uganda at this time, and whether we would even be departing for training, I have since been reassured my numerous sources. This is an isolated incident, and Kampala is considered to be one of the safest capitol cities in Africa. All 120 Peace Corps Volunteers currently serving in Uganda are fine and have been told not to leave their sites (most of which are pretty far from Kampala) until further notice. One of my fellow trainees called the Peace Corps headquarters and was told that this will not affect our departure, and we will leave as planned. I trust Peace Corps' decision, especially with the knowledge that they are usually quick to pull volunteers out of volatile situations, such as political violence in Kenya and Madagascar in recent years. During my service, I will never be stationed in Kampala - the closest is during the first few months for training when we will be living about 20 km outside of Kampala.

So, we'll keep an eye on the situation, but it seems that this will not affect the beginning of my Peace Corps service. My heart goes out to the victims and their families. I hope that during the next 2 years, I can somehow bring a degree of hope and positive changes to help counteract such terrible events that happen not only in Uganda but around the world. The Peace Corps is aptly named, as I truly believe that intercultural, global understanding can help to make this world a more peaceful place.

UGANDA!

2010-07-01T03:52:00.009+03:00

On April 19, I finally received an invitation to serve in the Peace Corps! And for some reason, I haven't blogged about it for over 2 months... so here it goes! I will be leaving for Uganda on August 9th to serve as an Agricultural Extension Volunteer within the Community Health and Economic Development program! My original nomination (a tentative placement) that I received in August 2009 was for Animal Husbandry, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can get involved with livestock work during my service. However, no volunteer works on solely one project; we are encouraged to take on secondary projects, which are anything your community may need and varies widely - after school clubs or programs, water system or latrine construction, building a library, HIV/AIDS education... the possibilities are endless.

Uganda is a land-locked country in East Africa. It is relatively small (about the size of Oregon) and is bordered by Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan. It shares Lake Victoria with Tanzania, and has many other smaller lakes within its borders. Uganda is bisected by the equator, but temperatures are moderated by the altitude (highs in the 70s and 80s, lows in the 60s... aka summer year-round!). Rather than hot and cold seasons, there are rainy and dry seasons (which is true in many tropical regions). In the southwest, the higher rainfall supports central African rainforest in the hilly regions bordering Rwanda and the Congo. This is home to the small population of remaining mountain gorillas, which you can visit on an expensive trek through the mountainous jungle (definitely on my to-do list!). The western border also boasts the Rwenzori Mountains, the highest mountain range in Africa (although the highest peak is Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, the world's tallest free-standing mountain). The land becomes increasingly arid as you travel north towards Sudan and the Sahara Desert. The source of the Nile is at Jinja in eastern Uganda (and offers awesome whitewater rafting which I plan to do at some point!). While Idi Amin remains Uganda's trademark to most people in the West, the country has come a long way since the 1970s, and since the cessation of most rebel activity in northern Uganda within the last few years, Uganda can be considered relatively peaceful. However, as Peace Corps Volunteers, we are not permitted to visit the northern area towards Sudan or the western border with the DRC due to the turmoil in these areas. I would love to be in the southwest, surrounded by mountains - but would of course be happy to serve anywhere; all the photos I've seen of Uganda are gorgeous!

When I first arrive in Uganda, I will be in training through mid-October with all of the other new Peace Corps Trainees, during which time we will work on language, cultural, and technical skills. Luganda is the most widely-spoken local language, but I could be learning a different language depending on which region I will serve in (Uganda has about 40 languages currently in use, although English and Swahili are the official languages). I will be living with a host family during training. At the end of training, we will swear in as Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) and will then proceed to our individual posts, where we will volunteer for 2 years. There, I will have my own housing (whether my own separate house or an apartment within another compound).

Less than 6 weeks to go! I'm making a packing list, sorting out finances and paperwork, and trying to also mentally prepare myself for this journey. More posts to come soon!

Pokes and Prods

2009-10-09T19:01:00.004+03:00

Just went through my medical evaluation for the Peace Corps - boy, is it extensive. I don't think I've ever had so many medical tests in my life. I'll get the results back soon, and then I can finally send in the forms. After that, I just wait to receive my nomination, the formal acceptance to Peace Corps with a specific country, starting date, and job title!! So hopefully my next blog post will be to announce my nomination! Keep your fingers crossed. :)

Back at the beginning of August 09, I was nominated for Animal Husbandry in Africa leaving in August 2010! I'm incredibly excited - exactly the nomination I had been hoping for. Once this entire process is complete, I'll sit down and write a full timeline of my Peace Corps application process for all those who are interested.

2009-04-23T18:16:00.003+03:00

Hello, all!

This blog will be changing functions to be a journal of ALL my future travels because I am currently in the process of applying to the Peace Corps!

I submitted my application on April 11, and was contacted yesterday by the MSU Peace Corps office for an interview (on my birthday! April 28. I'll take that as a good sign). I'll let you know more details once my interview happens, after which I get a nomination, which is how the Peace Corps recruiter suggests a geographic region and work position. I'll keep my fingers cross for sub-Saharan Africa, but really, going anywhere would be incredible. I'm hoping to be placed in the animal husbandry program, which goes along with my goals of being a veterinarian and working in international development.

So keep this blog bookmarked! There will be lots of adventures to come.

2008-11-20T20:27:00.003+03:00

Thank you to everyone who read my journals about my journey through Africa. Please see a gallery of some of my photos at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/spartanlarson

I would love to tell stories and talk about my trip any time. I love to share my experiences and my passion for traveling and that fascinating place that has captured my heart. I can't wait to return to Africa, and I hope to do so within the next few years.

Last Day in Africa

2008-08-01T15:21:00.003+03:00

Sorry for the lack of updates - a combination of very limited internet access, time constraints, and having a blast means that I haven't had a chance to write at all. Since my last post, I have:
- white water rafted on the Zambezi River below Victoria Falls
- met an amazing group of people on my overland tour
- visited Chobe National Park
- taken a mokoro (dug-out canoe) safari through the Okavango Delta in Botswana
- taken a scenic flight over the Okavango Delta
- looked across the Namibian border to Angola
- been to Etosha National Park
- pet a cheetah and a baby giraffe
- been to Spitzkoppe, an amazing place in the middle of nowhere in Namibia
- been to Swakopmund, Namibia
- went SKYDIVING over Namibia's Skeleton Coast!!!
- rode a horse through the Namib Desert
- went sandboarding near Swakopmund
- been to see the highest sand dunes in the world (Namibia's Sossusvlei region)
- seen the second largest canyon in the world, Fish River Canyon in Namibia
- did a wine tasting in South Africa's wine-growing region
- returned to Cape Town

Now I'm spending my last day in Africa in Cape Town with the great new friends I've just made on the overland tour. I don't want to waste any more time on the computer, so a more thorough update when I arrive home on Sunday (I fly out from South Africa tomorrow afternoon). Cheers!

2 hours in Zimbabwe

2008-07-12T14:46:00.002+03:00

This morning, I decided to go to Zimbabwe just to see Vic Falls from that side of the border. I'm glad I did - the view is more extensive and, I think, better than from Zambia. I can also add another country to my roster! I took a local minibus for 60 cents to the border, walked from Zambia across the bridge to Zimbabwe, then strolled around at the Falls for a while. It was amazing coming back to Zambia and realizing how many Zimbabweans are not just fleeing the country, but simply coming over the border to buy food because there's no good food in Zimbabwe. I held a 50 billion dollar note in my hand from Zim - that's how bad inflation is there. And that note? Worth about $10, if you're lucky.

I watched a few bungee jumpers from the Victoria Falls bridge and got nervous just watching them. Tonight, I'll meet my overland group (although I've already met a few girls in my group and they seem really fun). Then tomorrow is white water rafting, and then onwards to Botswana.

Other events in the past few days: a microlight flight over Vic Falls (incredible!!! such a beautiful view of the falls, the setting sun, and animals on the Zambezi River, including a bunch of elephants. I even got to fly for a minute, which is another item on my Bucket List!), curio shopping (spent too much money. again.), hanging out at Jollyboys with new friends, and changing lots of Zambian kwacha into US dollars. Niagara Falls cannot compare to Victoria Falls - Vic Falls is twice as high, I think twice as long, the forest around it is lush and pristine, and it just evokes a sense of power and raw nature that Niagara can't even touch. Just breathtaking. You also get completely soaked by the spray coming off the falls - it's literally like being in a monsoon. The locals call it "Mosi-oa-Tunya", which means 'the smoke that thunders' - and that's probably the perfect description.

Livingstone, Zambia

2008-07-10T09:25:00.002+03:00

I spent my last couple of days in Tanzania staying in Stone Town, Zanzibar. I met a couple of Scottish med students, and between our various tours and activities, we managed to get dinner and drinks together a couple of nights in a row. I'm glad I met them, as they gave me some much-needed company. Two days ago, I flew from Zanzibar to Johannesburg. At first, I wasn't too keen on spending a night there (horror stories of violent crime, at least in the city center), but I stayed in a backpackers lodge for the first time about 2 kilometers from the airport. It actually was great to stay somewhere fairly Westernized for a night - the shower was so hot, and the water pressure was so good, that I was nearly scalded and knocked over at the same time. Wonderful!!!

Yesterday, I flew from Joburg to Livingstone, Zambia in the center of Southern Africa. We were greeted at the airport by traditional dancers (who were there to greet someone more important, but that's okay), and I was picked up by a shuttle, along with two other girls, to the Jollyboys Backpackers Lodge. What a great place! A pool, lots of places for lounging, a bar/restaurant, gift shop, internet, a desk where you can book all your activities, a book exchange, and it's full of people. This is my first time backpacking, and I have to say, I rather like backpacker 'culture'. I'm staying in a dorm room - 4 bunk beds which hold 8 people - for $10 a night.

Last night, I very spontaneously decided to go on a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River with an Australian girl I met on the shuttle from the airport. I'm glad I went with her, and didn't decide to go another night when I didn't know anyone, because it was a very small crowd. It's nicknamed the 'booze cruise', and we had unlimited drinks for the 2 hour cruise, along with a barbecued dinner. We met a couple of Japanese guys who are in Africa volunteering for 2 years. After the cruise, we had a few minutes at a campfire with a few performers playing marimba and other instruments in the background. The ride back to Jollyboys was interesting, but so much fun - riding in an open-sided safari car along a fairly bumpy road, belting out songs at the top of our lungs (and sounding terrible while we did so) and laughing a lot. We chilled with our feet in the pool for a while when we got back, then hit the sack pretty early.

In a little over an hour, I'm going to see Victoria Falls! More updates soon.

Stone Town

2008-07-05T16:03:00.003+03:00

The past few days on Zanzibar have been great. If you can get around the touts always hawking you for business, the atmosphere still retains an age-old aura. Diving was wonderful - lots of really gorgeous fish. It felt great to be diving again. Saw a few dolphins during our surface interval, but unfortunately none while we were in the water. Matemwe was a beautiful, quiet little village, and every morning we watched dozens of people wade into the water to gather seaweed and fish. It seemed so timeless, with the feeling that they've done this for centuries - which they probably have.

We've been in Stone Town for the past few days, taking in the sights and shopping (and spending entirely too much money). We stayed at the beautiful Tembo House Hotel, right on the waterfront. Yesterday was our Spice Tour, which took us into the countryside to show us how various spices, fruits, and medicinal plants are grown. Zanzibar is nicknamed the Spice Island because it's so famous for these spices. Finally, last night we celebrated Mom's last night in Africa, and my onward journeys, with dinner at the Tower Top Restaurant at a fancy hotel in the center of town. It literally is on the top of a tower, with a circle of low cushions and little tables where you sit cross-legged like a Sultan. I wore a new dress and sandals I bought in Stone Town, and it felt nice to dress up a bit after roughing it and being pretty dirty and rugged for weeks on end. We watched the sun set over the tin roofs of Stone Town from what seemed like the highest point in the city. It was a fixed menu, and we had so many courses - hummus and pita to start, then soup, king fish, sorbet, chicken massala with coconut rice, and finally a chocolate cinammon mango cake. Mmmmm! Way too much food, but delicious. In between courses, there were several local dancers and musicians that performed for us. A wonderful way to top off this portion of the trip.

This morning, we visited a museum in the center of town and did some last-minute shopping. After saying goodbye, Mom headed for the airport to fly home. I'll be in Stone Town for a few more days, including more diving tomorrow, before continuing on. I'll be on my own until July 12, when I join an overland tour (description of what my overland is at http://www.africatravelco.com/. Basically, you travel with up to 30 people in a "truck" that carries your food, water, camping equipment, etc. Camp out in tents every night, travel to a new place almost every day, help shop for food in local markets and prepare it, too).

Good news that I got today (and that relieves a lot of my anxiety) is that my overland tour, which was supposed to start from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, has been re-routed to avoid that country (due to the major political unrest) and will begin from Livingstone, Zambia, just over the border and where I was planning to stay for a few days prior to the trip anyways. It's sad that Zimbabwe is in such a terrible situation right now, but I'm glad I am now able to avoid it.

So, here's my general itinerary for the rest of my trip:

July 5 - July 7: Stone Town, Zanzibar
July 8: Fly from Zanzibar to Johannesburg, stay overnight
July 9: Fly from Johannesburg to Livingstone, Zambia (Victoria Falls)
July 10-12: Enjoy the sights at Victoria Falls from the Zambian side
July 13: Overland trip begins from Livingstone, Zambia
July 14-15: Chobe National Park, Botswana
July 16: Maun, Botswana
July 17-19: Okavango Delta, Botswana
July 20: Rundu, Namibia
July 21-22: Etosha National Park, Namibia
July 23: Cheetah Park, Namibia
July 24: Spitzkoppe, Namibia
July 25-27: Swakopmund, Namibia (sleep in a real bed!)
July 28: Sesriem, Namibia
July 29: Fish River Canyon, Namibia
July 30: Orange River, South Africa
July 31: Cederberg, South Africa
August 1: Cape Town, South Africa (another real bed!)
August 2: Fly home from Cape Town

Whew! I can't believe what I'm able to do in this trip. I'll see most of Africa's famous natural wonders - Kruger National Park, the Kalahari Desert, the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar, Victoria Falls, the Okavango Delta, the Namib Desert, and Fish River Canyon - among many other wonderful sights. I continually feel so lucky to be on a journey like this. While I've felt a few twinges of homesickness lately, I know the next few weeks will just fly by. In less than a month, I'll be back in the States! I'm not sure I'll know how to take a normal, 10-days-or-fewer vacation again after spending 3 months traveling.

Zanzibar!

2008-06-30T10:18:00.003+03:00

Yesterday, we flew from the Kilimanjaro airport to ZANZIBAR, the spice island! Just the name Zanzibar conjures up so many romantic connotations, and so far, I'm finding that they're pretty well-founded. This place has the architecture and music of Arabia and clothing and people from Africa, the Middle East, and India. Last night, we walked along the waterfront and saw an Indian music video being filmed, very fresh fish and octopus being sold in a market, a Muslim man praying on the beach at sunset, and traditional dhow sailboats skimming across the water as the red sun illuminated the western sky. I'm not exaggerating - it really is that magical. Of course, it still has dirty streets and run-down buildings like mainland Africa, but there's a sense of charm and history here that masks the ugly and makes it exotic and vibrant. We met up with Victoria and Jenny, two girls from my climb who are staying at the fanciest place in town, and had sundowners and dinner while listening to Middle Eastern music and watching some local people play in the surf. While our hotel wasn't quite as nice, it's still beautiful, and I'm happy to have any sense of luxury after living in a tent for 9 days.

Today, we head for Matemwe and scuba diving on the northeast coast of the island! We'll be back in Stone Town (where we are now) for a few days to wander the streets and go to the Festival of the Dhow Countries, an annual event that celebrates Zanzibar's unique history of trading between Africa, the Middle East, and India by joining together these cultures for a big party of music, art, dance, a film festival, and more!

THE ROOF OF AFRICA!!!

2008-06-28T17:17:00.005+03:00

Now that I have a space bar that works, I can elaborate more...

I MADE IT!!!! On June 26th at 2:26 PM Tanzania time (7:26 AM at home), I made it to the summit of Kilimanjaro! It was easily one of the greatest experiences of my life. After nearly a week of climbing, and a net gain of over 12,000 feet, I reached Uhuru Peak, the Roof of Africa, at 19,340 feet.

This time of year, there's quite a bit of snow on top, which makes for both pretty pictures and tricky climbing - thank God for trekking poles and mini-crampons. The weather throughout our journey was excellent - sunshine every day, with a few clouds and misty weather at lower altitudes. Apparently, it was rainy in Moshi (at the base of the mountain) all week, but we were literally above the clouds, so it didn't matter. We began at about 7,000 feet in rainforest, sometimes almost knee-deep in mud. On our second and third days, we passed through a heather and grassy moorland zone - the heather reminded me a lot of the fynbos of South Africa, and then I remembered it's because they have a lot of the same plants since they originated from the same place millions of years ago. Finally, we left living things behind as we climbed through the dusty alpine desert and eventually came to the snows of Kilimanjaro.

After summiting, I was one of three in our group (out of ten people) who felt well enough to camp at Crater Camp at 18,370 feet! It was just the three of us girls, a guide, and a few porters at the top of Africa. The next morning, we hugged a glacier and hiked up to see the inner crater and the ash pit, which still spews out sulfur gas, so we couldn't stay long. I'm really glad we spent extra time on the top of Kibo - we didn't just run up and down to bag the summit, we enjoyed the views and savored the moments that were our reward for a week of hard hiking.

Our climbing company, Tusker Trail, was excellent. The twice-daily medical checks, where they asked how we were doing, checked our pulse-ox, and listened to our lungs, helped put me at ease since I'd never been about probably 11,000 feet. They were very proactive about solving any health issues, and at the first sign of a high-altitude headache, they gave me some dexamethasone, which relieved the problem and meant I never felt really bad, even at 19,340 feet. No nausea, no hallucinations that I know of - just a mild headache.

The people I met were great. We had quite a diverse group - I was the youngest, there were a few other college-aged girls, and the oldest were two guys in their 60's. Despite the age range, we all got along really well, and I sincerely hope to stay in touch with all of them. They are all so accomplished, too - one of the other girls has been living in Oman for the last year teaching at a school there, a couple of people have climbed Mt. Rainier, one was a plastic surgeon, the other two girls just graduated from Yale, two women are marathon runners and one recently quit her job and sold everything to travel and live in Italy for a while. Seriously, amazing people.

I never saw the mountain before I climbed it, but the day we got back to our hotel, the skies were clear and Kili was in full view. Looking at the mountain, I couldn't believe I had just climbed it, and that I spent at night at the top - it's huge! I stared at Kili for probably an hour and watched the setting sun illuminated Kilimanjaro's southern glaciers. It was the perfect ending to my expedition. I felt almost like it was Kili's reward for me, for having made it to the top - I finally got to see the mountain in its full glory.

Leaving was hard. I haven't let myself get emotional on this trip (or haven't had time), but leaving Kilimanjaro and Moshi behind left me with a few tears in my eyes. I've dreamed of Kili for so long, and now that it's over, it's hard to move on. It was a milestone, and it made me realize how blessed and lucky I am to be able to do these things in my life. No matter how many more mountains I climb in my lifetime, Kilimanjaro will always hold its own place above the rest.

It's really hard to summarize my climb in just a few paragraphs and a photo or two. If you'd like to hear more about my climb, I'd love to tell you more, and I could go on for ages if you want - just ask me and I'll tell.

Back in Moshi

2008-06-18T15:05:00.008+03:00

We've spent the last two days in a village on the lower slopes of Kilimanjaro with the doctor that Mom is volunteering for. The little house we stayed in was bustling with people, mostly children from neighboring houses and a few Mama's. We were all dancing to the radio last night and it reminded me that kids here are just as silly as we always were (and are). The people in Tanzania are so, so friendly and beautiful. I watched my mom see a few patients, then a few of us went to a waterfall. The dirt roads wind up and down hills, and it felt great to walk around for a few hours. The forest is so lush and green, and with all the waterfalls, it feels like the Garden of Eden. We're seeing a side of Tanzania that tourists rarely see - our experiences at Gonja with the church services, getting traditional food served to us, staying in very rural villages up in the mountains, etc. It's wonderful - this country is beautiful and peaceful, and our time here is just flying by. My Swahili is slowly, but surely, getting better - I know a few key phrases now, but still can't hold a conversation.

I've been thinking a lot over the past few days about how health care is so needed in places like this, and maybe I should be a physician... but when a skinny dog showed up at dinner time and stuck his head in the door, wagging his tail and hoping for food, my heart when out to him, and all I could think about during dinner was how to sneak food to him (but the people we were staying with did feed him). I realized I really am meant to be a vet; no matter what kind of medical doctor I become, human or animal, I'll be saving lives and making a difference. And in a developing country like Tanzania, the health of your cow or your chickens can mean that your family gets proper nutrition, stays free of disease, and is able to sell the animal to buy your kids a pair of shoes or pay for them to go to school. People always assume veterinary medicine is all about the animals, but really, it's about serving the people who depend on those animals, too.

I've thus far survived the transportation system in Tanzania. Africa is notorious for bad road safety. We initially rode big buses, like Greyhound, which were pretty decent, although they drove too fast. In the last few days, we've started to use daladalas - mini-vans that they stuff full of 20 to 30 people. They seem to average 25, and by the end your limbs fall asleep and you really can't tell where you end and someone else begins. Quite an experience - and cheap, too. An hour or so ride costs about $1.50.

Now we're back in Moshi, at the foot of Kilimanjaro, and the clouds have cleared below the peak, above the peak.... but I still have yet to see Kibo, the top of the mountain. Hopefully I get to see it before I actually climb - it's hard to believe I'm really here when I can't see the mountain. Just a few clouds are between me and the mountain I've dreamed about for so long. Tomorrow, I meet with my guide and fellow climbers, and then on June 20th, I hit the trail! I should summit on the morning of June 27th if all goes well. Here's the route I'll be taking - 9 days total. Thoughts and prayers are appreciated as I try to reach the Roof of Africa!

Very brief update

2008-06-15T14:19:00.002+03:00

I don't have much time, but we've spent the last couple of days around Same and the Gonja Hospital visiting with the missionaries who have helped me coordinate the shipment of medical supplies. It's been an amazing and inspiring experience, and we've even gone to a confirmation and a worship service at the church. The people here are thankful, beautiful, happy, and a real joy to work with. I'll have to update more later - just wanted to let everyone know that things are going well!

Layover in Arusha

2008-06-11T21:26:00.003+03:00

I'm back in Arusha after a wonderful safari! The Serengeti is beautiful, and Ngorongoro Crater is simply breathtaking. We've seen, among other things, 28 lions, 8 cheetahs (including 4 cubs!), a leopard with its kill in a tree, a few servals, an elephant 20 feet away from me in our campsite, huge male lions a few feet from the car, and heard the sounds of lions and hyenas in the night; one hyena even stole the camp trash can and dragged it up a nearby hill. Our driver, David, was great, and the cook, Jof(rey), made some delicious food. I've picked up a few phrases of Swahili, and David called me 'dada', which means 'sister'. We visited a Maasai village which, although much more commercialized in feel than we would have hoped, was still neat. I've been more covered in dirt and dust than I remember being for a very long time - but personal hygiene has a new definition when there are no showers available for a few days and everybody else is just as, if not more, filthy as you are. A few curio vendors have taken us for more money than their wares were worth, but I've still bought some beautiful souvenirs. Despite a few hassles, be it pushy street hawkers or a stubborn tent zipper, I love Tanzania and I can't wait to see more of this beautiful country. I still haven't seen Kilimanjaro (too cloudy), but hopefully I'll get the chance when we go to Moshi tomorrow, which is at the foot of the mountain. We head off to Gonja Hospital, the center I fundraised for, the day after tomorrow, and then I begin my climb in just over a week. More updates soon!

Goodbye South Africa, hello Tanzania!

2008-06-06T16:30:00.002+03:00

My last few days in South Africa were awesome. Great white shark diving was absolutely amazing. I thought I'd be scared out of my mind, but once the sharks came and I saw other divers in the cage, all I wanted to do was get in the water! Being 6 inches from the gaping jaws of a great white... there's nothing like it in the world.

Cape Town was a lot of fun. We went bar hopping on Long Street, where we taught at least one person in every bar "Go Green! Go White!" I've met quite a lot of South Africans on this trip while out on the town, and they all seem to want to talk about their country, the U.S., politics, and development/poverty issues, which is fine by me - I love to hear the opinions of people here in Africa about the problems they're having and any solutions they might see. I even got to talk to a guy from Malawi about the recent xenophobia, and his insight was very interesting.

We went to the Cape of Good Hope, which is beautiful, and saw the African penguins! Every time they waddled by me, sometimes inches away, I broke into giggles. They remind me of 2 year old children learning to walk. Sort of like baby elephants, too, who don't know what to do with their trunk, their ears, their tail... so they run around as fast as they can holding all of these up in the air. On Wednesday, we went to Robben Island and saw where Nelson Mandela and all of his anti-apartheid comrades were held in prison for decades. When we entered their cell block, I felt like I was entering a hall of champions, where even when the jail guards tried to segregate by giving non-blacks more food than blacks, they shared and overcame the segregation. We went out at the waterfront for our last dinner in South Africa, then returned to an Irish pub for live music and a round of drinks. Since I had to leave for the airport at 4:45 am, everyone decided to just stay up with me and hang out in the hotel, which was awesome. I'm really going to miss everyone.

Yesterday was spent on planes all day long, from Cape Town to Joburg to Dar es Salaam to Kilimanjaro. Even from the air, Tanzania seems much more vibrant and lush than South Africa, and it feels like I'm actually in the "real" Africa now. Everything is green here since the rainy season just ended, and I can no longer blend in being a mzungu (white person) - I stick out like a sore thumb, and all the street vendors take advantage of that. I met Mom at the airport last night, and we headed for Arusha this morning. We've spent all day shopping, and already spent too much money. A few times we've discovered that we've really overpaid for something when we see it a lot cheaper elsewhere, but I guess that's how you learn, right?

I loved my study abroad program in South Africa, but if I was not continuing on to other parts of Africa, I would have been disappointed by the lack of cultural immersion... but no longer! I am immersed and loving it. I didn't have much culture shock when I went to South Africa, and I never truly left my little bubble of American friends, but I definitely felt some culture shock here. I wish I had learned more Swahili before coming, but even the few words I'm picking up here and there are helping. It might even be more of a culture shock once I get back to the U.S. after being here for 3 months than I'm experiencing just now - I'm not sure I'll even remember which side of the road to drive on.

Tomorrow, we head for the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Lake Manyara on a 5 day camping safari. Then after that, I'll visit Gonja Hospital, and then on June 20, start climbing Kilimanjaro! I really do love Africa, and I'm having the time of my life.

The Southern Tip of Africa

2008-06-01T23:28:00.002+03:00

I've been in the Western Cape of South Africa for a few days, and I absolutely love it. It feels what I imagine Ireland or Scotland is like - not Africa. While I wasn't sure I could handle living in some of the other areas of this country, whether due to the arid climate or crime or whatever, I could definitely live here with no problem.

We visited De Hoop Nature Reserve for a few days in the fynbos, a very unique ecosystem that is only found on this coastline. It's full of over 8,000 species of plants, many of which are found nowhere else. We've been staying in some beautiful places. I thought I'd lose weight on this trip already, but not with the way they've been feeding us! We're living like kings. When we arrived on Thursday, we headed straight for the beach where I got my first view of the Indian Ocean! Yesterday, we hiked up Potberg Mountain in the morning, which felt great after a few weeks of sitting in the safari van. In the afternoon, we headed back for the beach, where we saw two southern right whales and swam in the frigid Indian Ocean - it's winter here in South Africa!

Today, we headed for Cape Agulhas, the southern tip of Africa, where I had my left foot in the Atlantic and my right foot in the Indian Ocean. Now, we're staying overnight in Hermanus, and tomorrow we go cage diving with great white sharks! Then, it's off to Cape Town tomorrow night, Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was held in prison) and Table Mountain the next day, and the Cape of Good Hope and penguins on our final day in South Africa. On Thursday, June 5, I'll fly to Tanzania. This has been an incredible time in South Africa, and I can't believe it's nearly over. I love this country, and I already am looking forward to returning someday soon.

Quick update after the Kalahari

2008-05-28T14:16:00.005+03:00

So much has happened since my last update, I'm not sure where to begin! If you've heard about the riots in Johannesburg and Cape Town, don't worry about them - it hasn't affected us and we won't be in the townships where they are happening.

Since Kruger National Park, we've been to Pilanesberg National Park, a beautiful place in an ancient, collapsed volcano, where we saw more amazing wildlife, including more than 40 white rhinos, lots of hippos, hartebeest, tsessebe, and lots of cool birds.

Then, we headed off to the Kalahari Desert, and on our first night, saw a huge thunderstorm that brought more than 1/4 of their average annual rainfall. We had some spectacular stargazing, and we watched the moon rise over Botswana - we also officially entered Botswana when we weaved through the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Our second night in the park, we were sitting in a wildlife blind/hide when the moon came up and a lion was roaring in the distance. We've been cooking for ourself in the Kalahari and managing to scrounge up some pretty good meals.

On the way out this morning, we stopped and bought some really neat things from a San bushman, including a bow and arrow, a carved ostrich egg, and a carved stone. The bow was probably a bad purchase, since it's a pain to get back, but one of my friends is taking it back for me, since he bought two himself. I've also managed to try lots of game meat, including eland, impala, ostrich, kudu, crocodile, gemsbok, and springbok.

Tomorrow, we head to Cape Town! Only about a week left in South Africa before I head to Tanzania. This trip has gone so fast! I can't believe this study abroad is nearly over. Our days have been jam-packed with activity, so maybe things will take a slower pace when I'm traveling on my own schedule and I have time to relax.

This internet cafe is expensive, and there are people waiting, so more updates later!

Back to Pretoria

2008-05-19T18:08:00.004+03:00

I don't have much time to update, but I'm back in Pretoria tonight after leaving the Southern African Wildlife College and the Kruger area this morning - bittersweet since I loved it there but now we move on to new experiences. Tomorrow, we head west towards Pilanesberg National Park, then to the Kalahari Desert, and finally the Cape Town area for the last segment of my study abroad program. I probably won't have internet access for the next week or so, but the next time I update, I should have some great stories to tell! I'll make sure all my photos from this trip go online at the end of the summer, but a few snapshots here and there will have to do for now.

First Week in Africa

2008-05-16T21:49:00.010+03:00

Since I can't update every day, I'll just post on here some journal entries I had and extra thoughts along with the correct date.

5/10/08 (on the plane, 2 hours from landing in South Africa)
I just woke up to my first view of Africa. The rest of the plane is still asleep, but I turned on the channel that shows the view from a camera mounted on the plane's tail looking down (so cool!), and just beyond a blanket of clouds was the clear, beige Skeleton Coast of Namibia. That's when the reality of this trip set in - when I realized I really am just 2 hours from landing in Johannesburg and starting this whole adventure. If I wasn't surrounded by a tightly-packed motley of sleeping passengers, I would probably be crying with amazement right now. After months of planning and a lifetime of dreaming, I'm finally here - AFRICA!

I can already tell our study abroad group will have so much fun. We've already managed to take silly pictures at the airport with cardboard cut-outs of the presidential candidates, mess around with the sleeping masks they gave us on the plane... and we haven't even technically started the trip yet.

The airline service is amazing. They bring around refreshments all the time, probably every hour, and with our sleeping masks we got socks so we can walk around the plane without putting our shoes back on or ruining our own socks.

Back to the textbook - I don't think anyone has finished the required reading yet.

(later in the flight): Apparently, the reason the entertainment system kept malfunctioning last night was that we were STRUCK BY LIGHTNING just past the U.S. coast. I'm glad the pilot waited to tell us until we were over land and just about to arrive. Sheesh.

5/11/08
I've only been in this country for a day but I'm already having the time of my life. After arriving in Pretoria, we all went out to Hatfield Square, a big courtyard of bars and pubs where all the local young people hang out. After ordering drinks - legally! - and trying Castle, the South African beer, we ate at an Irish pub. We migrated to another bar, then we somehow met these people who took us to a club called Good4. Apparently, South Africans really like American music because that's all they played. One of the South Africans girls we were with had the
DJ give us a shout-out. We migrated (eventually) to the bar upstairs with one of the girl's friends. At this point, it was me, Jordan, Kaye, Lindsay, and Teresa, who wasn't really there as she had the tendancy to meet people and wander off. Also, South Africans don't bump and grind. To pop music, the girls dance in a circle, the guys in their own circle. But to rock music, the ballroom dance! The South African guy, Christi (short for Christian?) asked me to dance, and we did. I was horrible, but he kept asking me to dance! And he's a cute surfer boy from Cape Town - kind of the epitome of an attractive foreigner.

Today (May 11) we had a a beautiful drive to Kruger in the northeast corner of South Africa. We passed through the Drakensburg Mountains and eventually reached the lowveld. Form the road, looking into private game reserves, we saw giraffe, zebra, eland, warthogs, and baboons!

The Southern African Wildlife College is beautiful. I didn't expect phones or internet, but they have both. Our room has a screen door that faces the bush so we can listen to the sounds all night. I finally feel like I'm in Africa.

Before dinner, we tried walking the perimeter fence in the dark to look for game. We saw bush babies in the trees in the compound, and thought we heard warthogs calling. After a half hour of looking for them, we were told the sound was male impala. Still, game tracking on foot at night, even through a fence, is still a "Wow, I'm in Africa!" moment.

At the start of our braai (barbeque), we were treated to dancing and singing from local children. I tried pap at dinner, which is the local staple made from maize. Tastes halfway between rice and potatoes, and it's pretty good. Met some students here, found the Southern Cross constellation, and tried to watch if the toilet flushes the other way.

South African is beautiful, but the scars of apartheid are still raw. There were no blacks at the club in Pretoria, except in the kitchen, and there seems to be little intermingling. I haven't seen anyone other than blacks serving food or cleaning bathrooms. I find I like talking to black South Africans more than whites sometimes - a different experience, accent, and perspective.

Surprised Mom with a Mother's Day phone call. I didn't think they'd have phones out here, so she was happy to hear my voice a week earlier than expected.

They also call traffic lights "robots", and my ears are ringing, it's so quiet out here. I can't believe the names of all the places I'll be - so exotic, yet so familiar. Today, I've reached the first of these places - the Timbavati and Kruger.

5/12/08
Today we started with a talk about Peace Parks, which is a brilliant idea. Then we went to Moholoholo Rehab Center where I got to hold a cape vulture! The handler asked if I'd done it before, and when I said no, he told me I was a natural. We also saw lots of big mammals up close, including a hyena. I didn't know they were so big!

Afterwards, we headed to the Khamai Reptile Park, where we learned about all of Africa's major venomous snakes, most of which can be found right in the camp at the Wildlife College where we're staying - boomslangs ("tree snakes", one drop of venom will make you bleed to death over a course of seven days), puff adders (one of the quickest strikers and the one that kills the most people in Africa), black mambas, and cobras. This trip is intense! We could probably die at any given moment, so it's a wonder people can live in villages out in the bush. It seems there is nowhere else on Earth with such a high concentration of deadly animals. Quite a comforting thought.

At the reptile park, I also held (get this!) a scorpion and a baboon spider (aka a tarantula)! Who'd have ever thought I could with my arachnophobia? It seems this trip is all about pushing my limits, facing my fears, and living to the fullest. However, I won't promise I'll be happy if I find a scorpion or a big hairy spider in my room.

Tomorrow we enter Kruger National Park proper! (though I discovered the Timbavati, where we are, is one of the private reserves adjacent to Kruger with no fences between).

5/13/08
This morning, we left at 5:30 am for Kruger and saw our first African sunrise on the way. Along the road were 3 hyenas just before we reached the gate. On our way into the park, we were talking to a Kruger staff member, Willie, who is apparently Robert Mugabe's cousin! (Robert Mugabe being the president of Zimbabwe, and has been for 28 years). Even though he's a terrible president, meeting his cousin was cool. Willie, when I asked if he liked Mugabe, said yes as family, but no as anything else. Zimbabwe's preparing for a second round of voting soon, and I hope the country is in decent, non-turbulent shape when I'm there in July.

The morning was spent on a great game drive - jackals, giraffes (including a young male), elephants, baboons, kudu, waterbuck, crocodiles, hippos, hornbills... and of course, impala around every bend. We drove out to the bush to look at fire and herbivore research sites and talk to a scientist about these things.

Satara is a beautiful camp in the heart of Kruger. Our "huts" are very nice, there's a great gift shop (though naturally overpriced), and we cooked our own dinner tonight outside our hut with a braai for everybody.

The crowning piece of the day was the night game drive. Not only is going out at night seemingly more exciting and adventurous, we spotted four of the Big Five in just two hours - elephant, buffalo, lion, and leopard. The lionesses had young cubs, and we saw one nursing, but they seemed sickly, so they probably have TB, a big problem here. A big male lion was just up the road, and we got within 15 feet of him. The leopard was wonderful, especially since I wasn't sure I would see any, they are so elusive. We also saw a giraffe, waterbuck, wildebeest, a few hares, and more impala.

5/15/08
Yesterday we were supposed to help with a giraffe capture (!) but helicopter problems forced them to reschedule, which means we weren't able to participate. It would've been soooo cool. Despite the disappointment, we had a good day of drives, seeing a lioness and cubs as well as a secretary bird, among other game. We watched hippos from a blind for a while, and saw lots of cool birds.

Later, by pure luck, we saw the burn team start a fire in the open savanna. It was very cool to watch. Though Smokey the Bear would have us believe fire is bad, it's actually an integral part of the ecosystem, so there were quite a few prescribed burns today - on an annual basis, about 1/3 of Kruger burns, which is a huge area. The smoke from the extensive fires gave us a brilliant sunset and I got lots of gorgeous photos.

I was put in charge of dinner, so I delegated tasks, and apparently dinner went well. We tried some South African wine, and most of us, on Roger's suggestion (one of the South African instructors) tried Amarula. Great stuff! Tastes like a blend of chocolate milk and fruit. Mmmm! We all hung out in our hut last night so we didn't keep the neighbors up,. I've only known these people for six days, but we already seem so close.

This morning we finished off our Big Five sightings with four white rhino! It was really cool to see all the Big Five within 36 hours. In the afternoon, we had a lecture on bovine TB in lions from Dr. Keet, one of the Kruger vets. It was really interesting, but a little disheartening - not much can be done for the animals. That's one reason I'm not sure wildlife/conservation medicine is for me - despite my medical abilities, there will be nothing I can do for many animals.

I learned how to sex elephants by looking at their head - adult females have an angular forehead, while males have a domed head. Also, an elephant nearly ran into our van, or we nearly ran into it, when our cards startled it as it was about to cross the road.

After driving through the last beautiful stretch of Kruger, we re-emerged to "civilization". It seemed like it had been ages since we had seen real roads, houses, business, buses, and hordes of people, even though it had been only a few days. We all fell asleep as soon as the last excitement of our Kruger safari was over, and woke up to see the sun setting behind the gorgeous Drakensburg Mountains.

Dinner was at the Wildebeest Lapa, and was excellent. We all ordered drinks on a group tab which, although the money comes out of our program fee, felt like Jim was buying everyone alcohol. I went with amarula on the rocks and two Hunter's dry ciders. For dinner, I had "venison" pie, made from impala, and tried a bit of someone's eland filet. Both were quite different from any meat I'd tried before, but I really like them, they were delicious. After a great time sharing laughs, we headed back to the wildlife college and enjoyed each others company before getting to bed.

5/16/08

This morning we headed out to Manyeleti, a provincially-owned park that borders Kruger. The park was originally established during apartheid for blacks, since they couldn't go into Kruger. The main camp is in a state of disrepair and felt like a ghost town - a stark contrast to the well-maintained camps inside Kruger.

An even great contrast came when we visited Tintswalo, a luxury safari lodge in Manyeleti. Wow, what a gorgeous place! There were elephants and buffalo just feet away from the fence surrounding the Manor House, where we had a lecture on ecotourism. We also got a tour of the Presidential Suite, one of the nicest hotel "rooms" I will ever enter - it was practically its own luxury lodge set off by itself in the bush. Just beautiful - I think I found my honeymoon spot. :)

Despite the smiles of awe the fancy rooms and perfect atmosphere brought, the stark contrast between this fantasy world and the true Africa, where just a few miles away people live in abject poverty, did not escape me. Our guide to Tintswalo mentioned he even gets uncomfortable when a staff member from a nearby village has to take a client's expensive steak back to the kitchen because it isn't prepared just right, yet the server eats simple pap/maize every night. But he also said the workers are proud to work in an upscale resort. Some things - actually most things - in this world are just backwards and unfair.

I'm also realizing that white conquest has created inequality and ruined lives all over the world, from Africa to the Americas, and as far as the South Pacific. What did we think gave us the right to come and take what was never ours? And why have things still failed to change?

Later, we got a lecture on wildlife diseases and the human/livestock/wildlife interface from a vet. Then, we did a postmortem on an impala! I definitely jumped right in, from feeling the shattered mandible from the bullet when it was shot to cracking the ribs open with hedge trimmers! While I've done dissections before, hearing the perspective of a vet, and the procedures of a necropsy and pathology investigation, was really cool.

Basically, I'm having the time of my life.

The Trailhead

2008-04-02T01:55:00.001+03:00

In a little over a month, I'm leaving for what will probably be one of the greatest adventures of my life: three months on the African continent.

"Every dreamer knows that it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you've never been to; perhaps more homesick than for familiar ground." I cannot think of a better way to phrase my longing to travel to Africa, or a more perfect description of how anxious I am to go there. A childhood fascination for African wildlife has blossomed into an outright yearning to go to Africa and feel for myself the red dirt beneath my feet, watch herds of animals sweeping over the savanna, visit with Maasai, and climb to the top of Kilimanjaro, the Roof of Africa. It is hard to say how I was first inspired by the animals and people of Africa, but I feel, as strange as it is, that I have a passion for a place to which I have never been.

I'll first journey to South Africa on a month-long study abroad program through MSU, learning about conservation and biodiversity while traveling to some of the most beautiful places in the country, including Kruger National Park, Blyde River Canyon, Pilanesberg National Park, the Kalahari Desert, De Hoop Nature Reserve, and finally the Cape Town area.

Then, I'll head to Tanzania for another month, where I'll meet up with my mom and see Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti, visit the hospital for which I've been fundraising for the past few months, climb Mt. Kilimanjaro (Africa's highest mountain at 19,340 feet), and spend a while on the exotic island of Zanzibar. Even the names of these places - the Serengeti, Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar - conjure up such romantic, mystical connotations that it's amazing they actually exist - and that I'm going there.

Finally, I'll top off my journey with an overland trip from Victoria Falls to Cape Town. Traveling in a truck, converted to carry passengers, eating local foods, meeting local people, and camping out in the African bush every night, I'll get to white water raft down the Zambezi below Victoria Falls, visit several game parks, spend a few days in the Okavango Delta of Botswana, and see the amazing sand dunes of Namibia.

Altogether, I'll be in six countries - South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia - totaling 85 days in Africa. While it seems I've made a complete list of what I'll see and do, I hope spontaneity sweeps me off my feet and brings adventures both unexpected and unforeseeable. I chose to travel to Africa not only because I've always wanted to go there, but because I don't want a typical vacation. I don't want to stay at fancy resorts, eat in fancy restaurants, or experience yet another developed, Western civilization. I want to be uncomfortable - to see poverty on a daily basis, camp for weeks at a time, do things that scare me or things I've never done before. I want my eyes opened to new cultures and places, the harsh reality of inequality and what it means to be an "underdeveloped" country. As one of my new favorite quotes emphasizes, "A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for." I know already that this will truly be a life-changing experience, even though I cannot yet predict exactly how.

I hope not just for the journey of a lifetime - that would suggest that this is the type of thing I'll never do again. I look forward to this trip as a catapult into a lifetime of journeys, as an experience that sets a precedent for positive, global action as well as adventure.

So, here's to a summer of exploration, revelation, and transformation.

Here's to Africa.