Busy!

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

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

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?

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!

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

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

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).