Last 5 months!

So I must first apologize for my lack of blog-writing in the last 5 months. To be honest, I really don't like keeping a blog and I feared, before coming here, that I would end up "forgetting" about it half-way through service - which is essentially what happened. So here goes a semi-brief recount of my last five months here...(and for future blogs, I hope to be back on the one-per-month schedule I previously kept).

To start, Christmas and New Years were difficult - but fun. Many PCVs in my group had gone home to the U.S. for a few weeks for the holidays; the remainder of us had various plans. With my sister just leaving before Christmas (and me not going home, which was my choice), it was rather sad at times. But Jade and I spent Christmas together at my house, making a mess out of our below-average cooking skills. For New Years, about 10 of us from my group went to Sipi Falls, near Mt. Elgon (which is near Mbale) for camping. Let's say it was unlike any other New Years I've ever had. We hiked the beautiful waterfalls, had bonfires at night, complete with s'mores and drinking...and even went to the local "nightclub" for midnight on NYE. This "nightclub" was basically one very small square room with way too many (sweaty, might I add) people crowded in, dancing and drinking. We had 12-year olds trying to grind on us - that was a little too much for me! This was in no way shape or form a nightclub...it was in the tiny, little trading center at Sipi - complete with a few dukas (shops) to buy toilet paper, salt, oil, etc. I will leave out the details of what all went down that night, but let's just say it was an interesting night, complete with my fellow PCV (who has since gone home due to illness - we miss you!) spending the night dancing with a fine tooth-less Ugandan lady. Oh, can you imagine the night we had?!

January was slow to start as most people are still taking their time coming back to town after spending the holidays in the village. Children are still on holiday from school. My colleagues and I spent the month mostly prepping for our launch of the VSLA project. Some other highlights of January - attending a traditional Ugandan wedding ("introduction ceremony") of my best friend's sister, briefly visiting a Ugandan Jewish festival (did you know there are Ugandans who are Jewish?? Amy and Steph, this one is for you :), went to an R. Kelly concert in Kampala ($15 tickets, most chaotic thing I've ever experienced in Uganda thus far).

In February, the VSLA project finally took off, and I was busy! We trained our first 6 groups for the first two weeks and then the groups began saving weekly - they are now in their 15th week (a cycle is about 40-52 weeks). For the most part, the groups are doing really well! We are up to 7 groups, although we have 18 ready to go. We're just waiting on funding to finish training the remaining groups. It's always about the money factor, unfortunately. We have 3 CBTs (community-based trainers) who are the ones that oversee the groups, train them, and then 2 project coordinators (myself and my Ugandan colleague, Clare) who supervise the CBTs and the groups to make sure they are being trained, and carrying out procedures, correctly. We did have a 3rd coordinator, but she was fired. Some of you may have heard the story from me months ago, but while this girl's work ethic, in my opinion, was mediocre at best, and the Director knew this and had talked to her about it before, she was not fired for that reason. She was fired because she got involved with witchcraft. Long story short, she started going to see the local witch doctor (who ironically lives not that far from my house), started sleeping there and worst of all, supposedly trying to put herbs onto the chairs and into the teas of my counterpart and the Director, in order to create fighting in the office. I don't even know what that all really means, but that's the explanation I got from my counterpart. My colleagues were frightened...witchcraft is taken very seriously here; people are scared by others who become involved in it. So it became a very serious issue in our work place, and well, the result was, my colleague was fired. Interesting human resource issues here in Uganda, eh?

Back to the VSLA groups - they are doing alright, some better than others. I would say that most members in the groups are saving a consistent 5,000 UGX per week (that's equal to about $2.50), which based on the groups' Constitutions, is the maxiumum that any individual can save per week (1,000-5,000 UGX/week). So, not too bad! We are up to 7 groups currently, and hoping next week we can begin training the next 6-9. My colleague and I have meetings 6 days a week (everyday but Saturday). It's rather exhausting. We have to take a taxi (think mini VW bus with 18 people squeezed in) 45 minutes to Kachumbala, where we keep our bicycles at our Director's church. We then have to ride those bicycles 30-50 minutes into the village where the groups meet. And if it rains, it can be a disaster. Mud galore, no way to ride a bicycle through that. And lately, it has been raining almost every afternoon (usually perfectly-timed to when we are leaving the group and having to ride back to the church). Clare and I've had some interesting situations in the mud!

Taking a break from the VSLAs, I went home for a few weeks in April, as most of you already know. It was a surprise to my Dad, at the time, however. My mom had not been doing well at that time so I decided I should go home for 2 weeks. It turned out to be 3 weeks due to the volcano in Iceland disrupting all flights through Europe. It was a great trip home though! I visited my Mom almost everyday, spent time with my Dad and sister, got to celebrate Wendy's birthday, saw many of my friends in Philly, Harrisburg and NYC and even got to teach a 5th grade class about Uganda and PC (thanks Meg!). I never expected to go home during my two years here, unless my mother passed away; I knew it would be really difficult coming back, and two years really isn't THAT long! But a trip home was great. Driving and running in shorts in cool/warm weather, without kids yelling "mzungu!" were glorious. My friends were amazing, with all the drinks, lunches, dinners, presents they gave to me...and the time they took to come home for a weekend or work around my schedule. Thank you!!

Coming back was a different story. It was hard. I won't go into much detail here, because it will just sound like complaining. But it was really difficult. I had been gone from site for about four weeks (the week prior to leaving for the U.S., I was in Kampala, helping with the pre-service training for the new group of volunteers who just arrived in country). So coming back to "village" life (and I don't even really live in the village!) was a bit of a shock. It was ironic though. I had been wanting to come back to Uganda so much so towards the end of my trip home (I was beginning to feel useless - just waiting for a flight out, going out, shopping, eating, not doing any work for 3 weeks). But when I returned to Uganda, all I wanted to do was go back home...honestly. I definitely had to take some time to myself when I returned to Kumi, sometimes staying inside for the whole weekend. But it was what I needed. I finally bounced back...sort of.

After being at site for two weeks, I had to leave again for my group's mid-service training (after completing one year, we get together for a few days to share our experiences, give feedback to PC, etc). I was excited for that, to see everyone in my group, especially those who I don't have the opportunity to see that often. After mid-service, I went to Rwanda with my friends, Amy and Amanda, another volunteer (non-PCV) Carolyn and Amanda's sister who is visiting for a couple months. We went to the southwestern part of Rwanda, near the Congo, on Lake Kivu, stayed with another PCV in that area, and then spent a few days in Kigali, the capital. It was nice to see another East African country (besides Uganda and Tanzania). All I have to say is Rwanda has done a remarkable job with the enormous influx of donor money in the last decade. They are almost completely civilized, compared to Uganda! Ha, okay that may be a little over-the-top, but it is true that Rwanda actually has laws...and abides by them (motorcyclists must wear helmets and vests and they have an extra helmet for their passenger!), is trying to reduce their impact on the environment (no plastic allowed - all paper bags!), values safety and keeping their citizens alive! (crosswalks are actually used and cars actually stop for pedestrians!). It was encouraging to see that a country can truly bounce back from a genocide that wiped out over 1 million of its people (about one-seventh of total population at the time), do good with the donor money (when it easily could've all "disappeared" - not to say there isn't some corruption occurring, I'm sure).

Since being back from Rwanda for two weeks now, I'm continuing with my VSLA project, hoping to expand it next week. I've been spending time with friends - pool in Mbale, friends' birthdays, new PCVs who arrived at site a month ago (many are very close to my site). It's getting easier, most days, to be back here. But I still sometimes wonder if I can finish the last 8-11 months of my service here (we may have the chance to leave early, before Uganda's presidential elections in February...updates on that in future blog postings). I know I need to find additional projects to work with. While yes, VSLAs are keeping me very, very busy, I am slowly losing the interest. Not the interest in the groups or the project exactly, but I like work to challenge me, and currently, I don't feel very challenged. And the traveling we have to do each day is also wearing on me. Even though I'm developing an M&E system for the project in order to track the group's successes and the true effectiveness of VSLAs, I need more. I think I want to get involved in youth entrepreneurship. Now, only if the local government officer who is in charge of that, and who I met with a long time ago, would actually call me to help! That is sometimes a very frustrating thing here. People say they want you to help them; they beg you, at times, but when it comes to them making the first move, they are no where to be found. And if people aren't motivated to work with us, why should we bother to make such an effort with them? I also want to find a real MFI to work with, at least to get some more knowledge and experience while I'm here - I mean Uganda has so much microfinance efforts going on, it would be a shame to waste it! I'm happy that I'm still teaching life skills 1 day/week to girls at the primary school near my house. And this Saturday, my friend, Lizzie, is coming to teach them how to make re-usable menstrual pads - very cool! I hope, when I learn too, I can take this project to possibly a few other schools, perhaps ones even worse off than my current school. It's a real problem here for girls. Often they have to miss school when they have their period because they have nothing to use for it.

Finally, I'd like to close this entry by sharing another project that PC Uganda is implementating. My friend, Amanda, and I are starting and coordinating the committee. It's called "Gender and Development" (GAD); many PC countries throughout the world have the same committee. Its mission is to promote gender-related activities throughout the country, in order to ultimately achieve gender equality. One of GAD's main activities has always been Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). Essentially, it is a week-long camp for girls (there is also one for boys) to promote the empowerment of girls and women. We are planning to have this Camp in December and would like 300 girls from across Uganda to attend. It will most likely consist of sessions on HIV/AIDS (of course), self-esteem, assertiveness, professions/careers, health - anything we can do to empower these girls to become future leaders of Uganda! If you have any ideas or would like to donate to this Camp, please let me know. It is definitely a worthwhile cause, I promise! Many other PC countries have done this camp since it was first founded in Romania in the 1990s, and it's proven to be very successful! The problem we have currently is that we have no funding. We are looking for any and all financial means. If you would like to know more, please e-mail me!

Oh, and one last thing that I think everyone should read: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/opinion/23kristof.html
Another PCV sent it to all of us, and it's really quite true! Sad, but true. And the "microsavings" the author discusses at the end of the article (the ones supported by CARE) are the VSLAs that my NGO does. They do work!

I hope everyone at home is doing well and enjoying the start of the summer! I will surely miss it.