Live Like a PCV!

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!

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!

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.