The Highs: Tanzania safari, Wendy visiting!; The Lows: Christmas away from home

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year! Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays, the big snowstorm in the northeast that just happened and all the cold weather! I miss it!

To start with the good...

Everyone is probably wondering first how my sister's visit here went. Well, it went really good. It was so great to see her, and we had a great time. We went on a safari in Tanzania the first week she was here - through the Serengeti, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire Natl. Park. It was amazing! We saw all the Big 5 (rhinos, elephants, lions, leopards and buffalo) and lots of giraffes, zebras, warthogs, cheetahs, flamingos and probably some other animals I'm forgetting at the moment. I highly recommend this safari - the Serengeti and the Norongoro Crater (often called the world's "largest wildlife zoo") are great places to see all the major animals. Everything on the safari was perfect - we were in a Land Rover with our own driver and two other people (an Italian couple on their honeymoon who turned out to be great - we were a bit worried who we may be placed with for the entire week). The lodges/hotels we stayed at were amazing! Great buffets at almost every meal, awesome rooms, beautiful views from the rooms over the national parks, top-notch service, the works. This was no camping-in-tents safari. Thank you to my sister for paying for my safari - obviously could not afford it on a PCV salary!

When we got back from Tanzania, we spent some time in Kampala (the capital) and Kumi (my town). In Kampala, we stayed at the Sheraton and then switched to the Serena Hotel, which is ten times nicer than the Sheraton...and let me just tell you how much harder this made it for me to come back to my life in Kumi after Wendy left. The swimming pool, amazing food, nice beds, bathtub, everything - it was great living this life for a few days! Thanks again to my sister for paying for it. While in Kampala, we went to Lake Victoria for fish and chips, went to a couple craft fairs and met up with a lot of my PC friends. In Kumi, we went to Soroti for a day (the larger town an hour north of me) to visit some other PCVs there and climb the rock (not exactly "rock climbing", more just an easy 15 min walk up a rock with man-made steps and hand-railing). We also went out to dinner w/ my Dutch friend and four of my Ugandan friends (all males). It was quite an interesting dinner - but glad my sister got to meet my friends here. And she actually really did like all of them.

Now, how did my sister do here in Africa, especially living at my house for a few days? Well, not too bad to be honest. She was pretty good. There wasn't much of a problem for her during the safari or staying at the Sheraton or Serena Hotels. I think she liked my house, despite the lizards. The first night at my house, she freaked out in the middle of the night when she saw a lizard crawling on the wall near her bed. Here in my area, lizards are so common (they're harmless), and I've come to completely ignore them...they don't come anywhere near you, just climb the walls. One night, my sister yells to me and asks me if she can come sleep in my bed with me...haha. I was not a very happy person, being woken up, and so I yelled back at her, "NO! go to bed!". Totally a role reversal here (as many PCVs have told me before) - when your family comes to visit, you are now the parent and they are the "child." So true! Other than that, she was pretty good. Granted she didn't have to use a latrine or do a bucket bath.

So my sister's vacation here was great! I think she enjoyed it for the most part, despite the lizards...oh, and the insane taxi parks and driving in Kampala. That she hated as well, especially when we went out to visit my homestay family one morning. When my Dad comes, I'm pretty sure we'll have to take a private taxi everywhere. But other than that, she really liked Kampala/Entebbe (only the nice parts our hotel was located in).

After my sister left, I came back to Kumi with an awful cold/flu. I was pretty much stuck in bed for most of the week. Two of my friends, Lizzie and Rachelle, did come to visit for a night, which was fun, but unfortunately I was feeling so sick so I couldn't do much. It was also a bad week, and much more difficult than I ever expected, after my sister left and having to go back to my life in Kumi - washing clothes by hand, cold showers, etc. I know my life here isn't that bad at all, trust me, I realize that, but going from enjoying the finer things in life and having your family here and then them leaving, it's hard. When I came back to Kumi, my European friends were also gone (the Dutch girl had just left a couple days before my sister did) so I came home to new Ugandan neighbors and wasn't feeling too social. Fortunately, I still have a German girl, Daniela, who is volunteering with the Catholic Church in Kumi for at least another 7 months or so. Also, realizing it's now Christmas time, seeing all the decorations (and very, very tacky decorations, might I add) everywhere, it was tough. I definitely wanted to go home that week. But I got through it...eventually.

After recovering from my cold, I had to get to work on planning a 2-day VSLA training for our CBT volunteers for work. I spent that whole next weekend planning it, and then my friend and fellow PCV, Laura, came on Monday to help me plan and lead the training. We made binders, handouts, example scenarios, quizzes, etc for the participants. Took a lot of work! The training was for 2 days - Wed and Thurs - that week. I think it went pretty well. We were training my organization's 3 field volunteers and 2 employee coordinators for the project. They still need work on it, as we did an example scenario case on the last day, and realized they still need much practice. But overall, I think Laura and I did a good job teaching it. I definitely could not have done it without her!

Now, it is the week of Christmas, and it is a bit slow. The office is closed so I haven't had too much to do. I've done some work on the VSLA project and the next steps to hopefully launching the project in January. I'm working on uploading all the safari pictures to my Webshots site, but that will take a long time. Doing wash, cleaning the house, etc all take some time too. Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, my friend, Jade, will come to my house (w/ her puppy!) to spend a few days here for Christmas. Jade lives in Soroti, and she was volunteering here w/ her husband, but unfortunately he had to go back home to work out some things w/ his business so he will not be returning to Uganda. I didn't want Jade to spend Christmas alone, and I was tired of traveling anyways from the last few weeks so I offered for her to come to my house for Christmas. Most of our other friends in our PC group are going back to the US for the holiday; a few are traveling (Egypt, for example, or Kenya for a mediation retreat), but I've been there and just traveled for a few weeks so I'm happy to stay in my town for the holiday. Jade and I are going to cook coconut curry, potato salad, carrot soup, chocolate truffles and "Christmas punch" for our Christmas-day dinner. Probably sounds quite strange, but hey, its our dinner and that's what we wanted! (and there was no way either of us would be cooking any meat here!). As for New Years, I think for that week, I will go to Sipi Falls on Mt. Elgon (just an hour south of me) with some friends for camping, bonfires. Should be a good time!

I'll briefly explain Christmas in Uganda: First of all, I thought it was a huge deal here, but it really isn't. In the village, it is. Many people do go back to their home village to spend the week with their family. But in town (where I live), life really goes on as it was any other day of the week. People go to church in the morning, but everything is still open - even the internet/office supplies shop, the fruit/veg market, supermarkets, etc. Nothing really closes. Most of my Ugandan friends have gone back to their towns/villages for Christmas, but a few of them, who own businesses here, are staying and working, and maybe just going to their village for Christmas night dinner. I found this to be a bit surprising. I was trying to explain to them that back home in the U.S., everything is closed on Christmas day, except for a few gas stations. They didn't understand this.

Oh, one more thing about this week...I finally found the gym that is in my town! For the past month or so, this one guy in town, who sees me running every morning, would tell me about this gym that supposedly existed in Kumi. I didn't totally believe him that it was an actual gym, and I was a bit scared to see what it looked like. But surprisingly, it is great! I found out that my friend, Daniela, has been going to this gym regularly for the past month. So I went with her the other night for the first time. It's seriously like having a personal trainer for $1/visit. A doctor here in Kumi got a weight machine (one of those machines that has multiple arm/leg, ab workouts) and a weight bench and decided to let the public use it. He has two guys who run it, and when you come, they give you a good 2-hour workout. We did all sorts of floor exercises and then the machines. Although my arms and back did hurt quite badly for the next day after our workout, it was well worth it! I will definitely be going there 3x/week from now on. And it's something else for me to do - we go in the evening so at least a few nights a week, I will be out and about now, not going to bed at 7:30 pm per usual, hah. Daniela and I also went to the pool in Mbale (large town/city an hour south of me) last weekend for the first time, and that was so relaxing! I think we're going to try to go there every other week (only $2.50 to use the pool). And there's great food!

A few friends from back home have asked me what my daily life is here in Kumi. So I will give a brief summary of a typical day for me: I wake up between 6 and 6:30, go for a 40-60 minute run (I do this religiously everyday; some days when I know I don't really have any work to do, it's the only thing that gets me out of bed that day), come home and do a small workout, shower, get ready for day (by the way, I finally bought a good straightener here, and it's great!!! Best decision ever to buy it. I use it everyday, and I just feel so much better with straight, longer hair!). Between 8 or 9:30, I'll either go to the office, go to town do some errands, or just stay at home and do some work. I don't have to go to the office everyday; I can do most work at my house, and I usually prefer that. Our office, while very nice, only has 2 computers (and really just 1 working one usually), and they are quite slow. I prefer to work from the comfort of my home, unless I have to work with my fellow colleagues on something. Sometimes, I also go to this guesthouse/hotel near my house. It's brand new and very nice and quiet (not too many customers yet). Some days I'll go there and set up my computer, do work, have lunch, etc. Quite nice. Some days (and much more in the near future as this VSLA project progresses), I have to go to Kachumbala, a village about 45 mins away, to work on the project and visit our groups there. Some days, we have meetings in our office, especially for our education projects, and especially recently, a new project that we are in charge of and is quite exciting. Almost everyday, I will go to the supermarket in my town for yogurt or something else I may need. I'll usually end my day around 5 or so, sometimes spend some more time in town using internet (if I don't have my office's internet modem), having a drink with some friends. On Tuesday evenings, I have a Swahili lesson for an hour with my friend, Sam. As for the weekends, now it's quite different. For the last few months and even before, I was going to Kumi Hotel most Friday nights for their weekly dance party. I always had other white friends to go with (the Build Africa volunteers or the Red Cross girls). While I could still go now with my Ugandan friends (they don't always go though), it's still a bit strange to me. I like having the company of other white friends at this party. I've only had 2 weekends since getting back from the safari and my European friends leaving so I'm not sure what my weekends will be like anymore. Probably more weekends away visiting other PCVs (we're allowed to leave site 2 weekends/month). Other than that, I'm not sure what will happen. I know my life in Uganda sounds quite boring...and it is at times, but that is the life of a PCV. Most PCVs are in villages, not towns, and even have less to do (and less other white short-term volunteers to hang out with) than me. So I really can't complain. If I were living in the village, I would not have a weekly dance party to go to, or Ugandan friends to hang out with who are university-educated, most likely. I look forward to next summer when hopefully more white volunteers will be coming to Build Africa in my town.

So what do I eat on a daily basis? Well, that has really been changing a lot lately. I used to cook once a day - a mixture of fresh peas, carrots, eggplant, tomato, green pepper, Thai sauce, Parmesan cheese. Doesn't sound too exciting, eh? But it was my favorite. For breakfast, I'd have juice and yogurt. And then I'd just have a late lunch and since I go to bed so early, I wouldn't really eat dinner. It's too much work here to cook and then clean dishes for more than 1 meal/day (at least for me). But for the past few months when the Dutch and Italian girls were here, we would have lunch in town at the restaurant (usually rice and beans or chicken) and I wouldn't cook at all. It was at this time that I realized I really, really despise cooking. I'm not sure why. I have a gas stove (much quicker than even cooking back home). Some days I just have no energy to cook. So the past couple weeks since coming back from the safari, besides not having much of an appetite at all due to being sick, and then totally stressed out about the VSLA training, I've been making oatmeal or cheese and crackers or pumpkin (which, by the way, is amazing, if you've never cooked it!) or having lunch out. Quite boring, I know. Even making pasta, which I could very easily make here, doesn't ever sound appetizing to me. I've made it about 2 times in the 8 months I've lived in Kumi.

So that's my life here in Kumi for anyone who was wondering how exactly I spend my time here. I hope everyone has a great holiday! I will try to post safari pics soon. Thanks for the packages!

November...it's my birthday!

First off, I finally updated my pictures online. Look to the right for the link to webshots. It took forever to upload them. I’m not looking forward to having to do it all again when I come back from the safari/my sister’s trip here. And there are pictures posted of my house (including my new bathroom, which is finally completed…and working!). It was a long process and in the end my landlord didn’t come through with the money as he said he would to finish installing the water into the bathroom. Not a big surprise here in Uganda, but I had hope. He says he will refund all the money by the time I leave here…we’ll see about that. At least now my sister and dad will have a working toilet and shower, as they wanted, when they come to visit.

This past month has been quite busy. In short, I helped Red Cross with food distribution in one of the villages in Kumi (quite an experience!), attended a week of life skills workshop with Peace Corps, worked on launching our VSLA project, did strategic plan-writing with my organization and celebrated my birthday! I will highlight on just a couple of those activities:

At our life skills workshop (each PC groups has this workshop after 4-5 months at site). I’ve talked in my previous blog entry about life skills and how I have been teaching them at a girls’ primary school this past school term. Well, this workshop brought my PC group together along with our Ugandan counterparts at our jobs. Basically, we played games all week – the same games/activities that we play with the children (or adults) in order to teach them about developing good life skills. Some of the topics include HIV/AIDS, health, sex, gender vs. sex roles, among several others. This made for quite an interesting week, to say the least. Few examples: the Ugandans admitted that being faithful with your partner is not currently a reliable method in teaching how to prevent HIV/AIDS. This is because Ugandans cheat on their significant other. Almost all people do, they said. Maybe one day in the future, “being faithful” will be common, but not today. (Sad). Next, we had conversations on masturbation as a possible method to teach students how to abstain from sex. A few of the Ugandan men asked for a detailed discussion on what masturbation is. They claimed they didn’t know what it was…(it is somewhat of a “new” concept here that isn’t widely taught). But yes, that was an interesting conversation. Lastly, we had a session where the women and men were divided, and each group could ask the opposite sex any five questions. The 5 questions the females asked the men were: why do men neglect their kids, why do men think they’re superior to women, why do men treat their sons better than their daughters, what do men think of women who say ‘no’ to sex and why do men cheat (or have several girlfriends/wives) when they claim to be so religious and the Bible says ‘do not cheat’? That last question is one I wonder about ALL the time. Their response (which I can sort of understand) is that Christianity and the “western” religions came after their culture and customs were established a long time ago, and their culture includes polygamy.

Still, Uganda needs to move away from this and their practice of having kids at such a young age, and having too many children. Currently, over 50% of the population in Uganda is under the age of 18 (I think it may even be under 16). And I was just talking with my friend, Emma, the other day about this, and he told me that (I think I remember it correctly) in the next 10 years, that percentage is expected to rise to 80%! If I can do anything in teaching life skills, I want it to be to convince these young kids to wait to have children. Having sex is one thing – I don’t believe in teaching abstinence, but please do it safely and use protection…not only for HIV/AIDS purposes, but also to prevent pregnancy. I sware almost every Ugandan girl I know who went to university has a baby within 2 years of graduation (and is not married yet). And not only that, but the boyfriend is always out of the picture. It’s just the girl raising the baby, which I have no problem with. Because as my colleague pointed out to me the other week (she has a 7-month old baby and is not married but is engaged to the father), maybe she doesn’t want to get married to the father because she sees her sister, who has two kids and isn’t married, happy and successful in her career…and if she were to get married, she would just have to wait on the man, cook for him, clean for him, etc., and why does she want that extra stress? I totally agree with that. But what is the rush to have kids at such a young age before you even get a job…why do these girls want so much responsibility (not to mention, an enormous limitation on their freedom)?? My friend, Amanda, and I were discussing this the other day, and we both agree that women here want someone to look up to them, to love them, to need them…and that is achieved through having a baby. Ok that’s my rant on how many darn kids there are in this country! I can’t wait to see my sister’s reaction when she sees it…especially if I take her to the village where there are a million kids running around (seriously!).

Onto the next activity…VSLA implementation. My NGO finally got the money it had been waiting for in its account about two weeks ago so we are now putting two million shillings (roughly about 1,000 USD) towards the project. My two colleagues, Harriet and Clare, and I have bought all the materials for the kits (metal “safe” box, notebooks, pens, rulers, stamps, calculators). We are just left with buying the bicycles now for our CBTs (community-based trainers). Unfortunately, the arrival of this money has been at an inconvenient time as I was away for a week for life skills training, and then I’m leaving this week for 2 weeks of vacation with my sister, and then it will already be December when I get back, and Decembers here are basically an entire month of holiday. Schools are all out; people are in their villages for the holidays with their family (for most of the month). Seldom work gets done. So we’ve been using these last couple weeks to do planning amongst ourselves. When I get back in December, we will have a 2 or 3-day training for our CBTs (they are the people who actually go out to the villages to oversee the savings and loan groups). It’s been a bit stressful lately. Basically, I am entirely in charge of this project. My supervisor (the director of the NGO) handed over the 2 million shillings to me to budget for the project, and I am leading my two colleagues, who are the VSLA project coordinators, and essentially the ones who will be in charge of the project after I leave. I don’t really have anyone overseeing me. It’s a lot of responsibility. Yes, I know VSLAs – the concept, but I have never actually done one before, in practice. I have a great manual, which I’m reading over and over, but I feel if this project fails, it’s entirely my fault. I want so much for it to succeed. Hopefully, we’ll have the groups up and running in January…that’s my goal, but I’m thinking it may be more like February.

Finally, this past Friday (Friday, the 13^th!) was my birthday. I was in Kampala for a PC grants committee meeting that Wednesday and Thursday. I went out to lunch there with a few of my friends for my birthday, and then my friend, Amanda, came back to Kumi with me for the weekend. It was a good time! I had the chance to show her around Kumi, and we also finally visited these “famous” rock paintings that is halfway between Amy and I. The rocks and the scenery are beautiful, but the paintings…ehh, barely able to see them anymore. But still cool. Then at night, Amanda, Amy, my Dutch friend and I went to dinner at the main restaurant in my town. My counterpart, Rosset, also came with us to dinner, and she gave me a birthday gift from her and the rest of my colleagues at Transform. It was so sweet of her. The gift was some fabric to make an African dress, which I have yet to do since I've been here so it should be interesting. Good birthday! And thank you for all the texts, calls, facebook messages and packages! Love them!

Currently, this week is a bit crazy. Lots of meetings (my organization is also in the process of revising our draft strategic plan for the next 5 years), packing, cleaning my house (in preparation for my sister’s visit), wash, etc…it does take a lot more time to do things (like wash) here. Friday morning I will leave for Entebbe, spend the day with my friend, Celeste, and then leave at 5 am on Saturday for Tanzania to go on a week-long safari in the Serengeti with my sister. She will then come back here to Uganda to see Kampala and Kumi. She’s only here for two weeks, and we have a lot of people to see so it’s going to be quite busy, but I am sooo excited to see her! And I really do need a vacation right about now. Most of my friends in my group are going home for Christmas (yes, home as in the U.S.). So a safari sounds equally as good! I can’t wait!

Have a great Thanksgiving and Christmas if I don’t write before then. I’ll be sure to post pictures from the safari as soon as I can.

October!

It is October already! Seriously, the time here passes so quickly. It’s already mid-October, and in a month it will be my birthday, and in 5 weeks, I will see my sister! I was just thinking the other day about what I was doing a year ago – had just moved home to my Dad’s house, was working for my friend’s consulting firm doing some really interesting work and enjoying my last few months in the U.S. It honestly seems like just yesterday. And already a second group (since I arrived) of PCVs here in Uganda are COSing (close of service), i.e. their two years are finished. It’s crazy to think the next group leaving will be the group just 1 year ahead of us, and many of them are my friends as some of them are also here in the Teso region with me. It makes me a bit sad to think about it; two years really will go very quickly. I feel like I already have to start thinking about grad school, finding a job, etc. And that really scares me!

In the last month, I have kept quite busy with work. In a nutshell, I’ve been working on getting our 18 initial VSLA groups organized in Kachumbala, and I’ve started teaching life skills at an all-girls primary school. Starting VSLA groups have taken longer than I hoped due to funding, logistics and many other factors. First, my organization along with two others in my town – Build Africa and UWESO – have had to sort out the parishes and villages where each of us will implement VSLAs. This would seem like a simple task, but it has taken many meetings and discussions since May to finally arrive at a resolution. Build Africa and UWESO have been working with VSLAs previously so it was easy for our organization to simply say, “we’ll take parishes and villages where you both are not working yet.” But to write, and agree upon, the MOU among the three of us was a big task. Finally, as of two weeks ago, it is complete. My organization will start its work in 6 parishes in Kachumbala sub-county, Bukedea District. I’ve met with our CBTs (community-based trainers) and organized the groups, based on their location, and desired size of the groups. Unfortunately, due to an issue with some missing funding from one of my organization’s recent projects, the money we were supposed to use on VSLAs was used on this other project for the mean time until that money finally comes into our account. At this point, I’ve priced all the materials needed for the toolkits – just can’t buy any of it without the money. As soon as I know we have the money and are able to therefore buy all the materials within a matter of a couple weeks, I will start training the groups, which should take about two weeks, and then the groups can start saving and lending. I had hoped to have this up and running by November, when my sister comes, but it now looks like that won’t happen. It is quite frustrating, to say the least.

Teaching life skills is a different story. I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it, but I actually really do thus far. The girls boarding school, where I’m teaching, is located just about a three-minute walk from my house. It is associated with the Catholic church, which makes it a bit tricky to teach some lessons. For those of you that don’t know exactly what life skills are – they are skills that are used to empower children to make wise decisions, have self-esteem, remain healthy – basically to help them make the right decisions, reach their goals and lead a good life. Peace Corps puts a big emphasis on life skills, as they are very important and even if children drop out of school at some point, they still have these skills to use in their lives.

As a result of recognizing the importance of life skills to Uganda’s child population, I decided to go to two primary schools (Kumi Girls and Kumi Boys-which actually isn’t an all boys school) to offer to teach life skills, and possibly another club, at their school. At both schools, I will be teaching life skills, and starting a math club with the students. So far, I’ve only started teaching life skills at Kumi Girls, to a P7 class (about the ages of 11-14, depending on when they started school). My first lesson went well, I think. I was quite nervous, but the girls understood me, asked questions, and responded to my questions – all of which I was afraid wouldn’t happen! At the end of the lesson, I told the girls they could ask me, and my friend, Maaike (Dutch friend, who came along w/ me to help) any questions. What I meant by this was, questions for them to get to know us better – such as, “what is life like in America (or Holland)?” But instead, the first question that was asked was “What is sex?” Holy crap, I almost died right there. Without thinking, I said, “Maaike, you want to answer that?” I’m not even sure what we said. Following that, we got questions like “how do you suppress sexual urges?” I was definitely not prepared to answer these questions yet. I, of course, know I will have to discuss these things with the girls during life skills lessons, but it was the first one, and we were just trying to keep it to an introduction of life skills and an introduction of us, as the teachers. I’m going to have to get better at answering these questions, without laughing, and without turning red in the face, myself. I never thought in a million years I’d be teaching kids about sex! The funny thing is these girls know the exact words and phrases that their teachers use regarding these subjects. For instance, the question, “how do you suppress sexual urges?” – what kid would ask that? Only one that has been told over and over by their teachers to “avoid sexual urges or temptations.” Even when I asked them to come up with a list of obstacles or issues that children in Uganda face, all the answers were exact words/phrases of the signs that cover their school’s lawn and walls such as “avoid lonely places,” “defilement,” etc. I’m not sure the children really understand these ideas, rather just repeating what they hear all the time from their teachers.

I also now have two new neighbors in the other half of my house – a Dutch girl (Maaike) and an Italian girl (Carola). Both are here volunteering with Red Cross for 2-3 months. It has been great having them here! They arrived about a month ago, and it is so nice to have people to talk to all the time, hang out with, watch a movie with at night, go out to dinner. We’ve been to Kumi Hotel a few Friday nights with their supervisor, attended a graduation/baptism party, had dinner parties – all things that are more fun to do with other muzungus, instead of being the only one at these functions. Last week, Maaike and I also went to Kampala for a couple days. I had a grants committee meeting at Peace Corps (I’m now on the grants committee for 3 months; we review other volunteers’ grants for funding small-scale projects in their villages). I showed Maaike around Kampala, and we went out with one of my Ugandan friends, who moved from Kumi to Kampala to go back for his master’s degree, ate lots of good food, spent too much money. All in all, a great time. Carola will be leaving after my birthday in November, and Maaike will leave in December. Not sure what I will do without them, or my Build Africa volunteer friends. But there is, fortunately, a German volunteer here with the Catholic Church just a few minutes away from me. She just arrived in September, and she will be staying here for one year so I will have more muzungu company for awhile! She is also teaching life skills with me at Kumi Girls, since the P7 class is so large.

This week, I also helped Red Cross with registering people in a few villages for food distribution that will take place next week. In the village I was working in, we registered 150 people – mostly women, elderly and the disabled. There has been a famine in this part of Uganda because of the lack of rain, which has resulted in a poor harvest season. Fortunately, in the last few weeks, it has been raining almost every day – just for an hour or so in the evening, but at least it’s something! It was really interesting to take part in this, and I’m looking forward to next week when we distribute the actual food.

Other than these updates, I don’t have much else to add. In a week, I will be leaving for a week of life skills training with Peace Corps. It’s our last training until our mid-service conference in April/May. By the time I get back to Kumi, it will be November already! I think two of my PC friends will be coming up to Kumi for my birthday, along with Amy, me and the two Red Cross volunteers, and my Ugandan friends – should be a good time! Then the week after, I will be leaving for Tanzania to go on a week-long safari with my sister! I’m so excited, but also nervous that my sister will hate Africa, because she’s already being melodramatic about all the shots and medicines she has to get.

Picture update: Sorry, still haven’t posted pictures yet. I hope to get to it in the next couple weeks, and at the very least, definitely before I leave for Tanzania. Bathroom is complete, except for the running water. Landlord is still trying to find the money to install the water. I really hope it’s done before my sister arrives, or it will be bad.

Thank you for all the recent packages! They have been arriving much quicker than usual! I really do appreciate them. Congrats to Tina and Jeff on getting married! Happy birthday to all those with October birthdays – too many to list! And enjoy the fall weather for me; I miss it!

4 months down...20 to go!

No, I'm not really counting the months I have left 'til I leave Uganda. I really do love my time here. But as of August 22, my group has officially completed 4 months at site…wahoo for us! It’s a big accomplishment, considering I worried before I came here, if I could even complete just 1 or 2. As I will tell the recent discussions I’ve had w/ my Dad and sister, I think I’ve changed quite a bit since coming here…at the very least, adjusted to these new living conditions quite well. A few weeks ago, as my sister and I are finalizing her plans for visiting me in November here, she e-mails me to ask me for a list of things she should pack. In my reply e-mail to her, I tell her, among many things, a “loufa” for the bucket baths. She responds to my e-mail saying, “Bucket baths??” This sparks a rather hilarious e-mail chain back and forth between her and I (at this time, I was at the internet place and she was at work so it was a direct exchange). I reply to her, saying “yes, that’s what you’ll be taking when you come to my house…and using the latrine…looks like the landlord won’t be finishing my bathroom before you come.” On a side note, my house is supposed to have a “real” bathroom in it – flushing toilet, shower, sink…but since I moved in, all work on it has completely stopped. In the landlord’s defense, it is very expensive to have the septic tank installed, along with completing the inside of the bathroom. My landlord doesn’t have the money now, or probably within the next 2 years, to finish it. Anyways, our discussion continues back and forth, with her joking for me to give her the landlord’s number, and me joking, “well, would you like to donate to the ‘lauren gets a bathroom fund?'” (completely joking, never actually thinking she would take it seriously!). My landlord had just asked me that past weekend if I could help him pay for it (1 million UGX, about the equivalent of 500 USD); I told him, no, I didn’t have the money for it – which is true. Well, my sister says “okay, fine, if I give him the money, will it actually get done?” My sister and I continue to exchange e-mails – me telling her I didn’t think it was a good idea to pay for it; it only enforces the whole idea that “muzungus” have money – an issue I have to combat on an almost daily basis here, and her saying that there is no way she’s going to rough it like me. I lovingly joke with her her that I’ll even buy her, her very own little “night bucket” (hopefully, you can guess what that is so I don’t have to go into detail). She then freaks out, tells me she will stay at the local hotel near my house and that she needs a real shower and toilet – no way will she do the latrine and bucket bath…and the “night bucket”, which she couldn’t believe actually had a name. I start to get really mad at her at this point, telling her she’s offending me, because I do this everyday, and I don’t complain ever…I’ve gotten used to it, and so therefore, she can too! She doesn’t believe me. So she then talks to my Dad about it, and he later calls to tell me that there is no way he will stay with me either when he comes for a month or so in Feb./March if there’s no toilet or shower. I get really mad and tell both of them that they are pathetic and are acting so incredibly spoiled! Then I realize this is coming from me…the same person, who my sister so nicely reminded me of, acted this same way up until about 6 months ago. When I went to Nicaragua and used a latrine and bucket bath for the first time in my life, I freaked out and cried (in my defense, the latrine was awful, so different from what I have now). Anyways, my sister and Dad offer to give the bathroom to me as a “gift” – for my upcoming birthday and Christmas. I told them that I’ll think about it. I thought it was quite funny, they want to give it to me as a gift, when really it’s a gift for them! Yes, of course, I will appreciate having a real bathroom, but I didn’t come to Uganda, ever expecting to have a real toilet and shower, and now that I haven’t had one for 6 months, I’m quite used to it, and I know I could do it for 2 years. In the end, I conceded and told my landlord that my family would pay for it. It was a really hard discussion to have with him; I hated telling him essentially, “yup, muzungus have money, and once again I’m proving that…here’s the money you asked me for.” Whatever. At least, work has finally begun on my bathroom this weekend, and it will hopefully be done within the next 2 weeks. Oh and by the way, I still think my family will be disappointed to find out that the shower may not always work…especially, in the dry season, which is when they will be here. There may not be running water some days, sometimes only in the mornings, sometimes not at all during the day. Can’t wait for their visits – it’s going to be interesting, for sure :)

As for other updates on my life here in Kumi, not too much has happened since I last wrote. After the Dutch teachers left, I had about a week to come back to my house, clean it (spider webs develop overnight here, and when you’re gone from your house for more than a few days, it’s not a pretty picture), do loads of wash (by hand, may I remind you) and catch up on some much needed sleep from the previous 3 incredibly busy weeks (which I appreciated, no complaining – I much prefer to be very, very busy rather than bored). My Build Africa friends were leaving that week too so I hung out with them a lot. We went back to Kumi Hotel that Friday night one last time and then said goodbye on Sunday. It was sad to see them leave; I really enjoyed having them around my town for the past couple months, and I truly enjoyed their company and friendship. We’ll definitely stay in touch.

On a happier note, that same day that they left, my friend and nearest PCV, Amy, finally came back to site after 2.5 months of being away for some unknown virus that attacked her liver and they never could quite solve what it was. So happy to have her back, but even more happy that she’s healthy and that it was just a virus, that she could recover from. I was a bit worried as I know everyone else was too.

We then left for about 2 weeks of training. In Peace Corps, after you finish 3 (or in our case, 4 months) at site, you have a week of technical training and a week or so of language “refresher course” training. Our entire group was in Kampala for a week, with our supervisors, for the technical training, and then my Ateso language group of 4 was in Soroti for the next half-week. All in all, a good time. We were all kind of dreading the training – workshops are never really that fun…don’t you agree!? But it was great to see everyone in our group once again, hear about what others were doing at their site. We went out in the evenings, had fun, were able to survive the week successfully.

I am now back at site; I arrived back on Wednesday, had to clean my house…again…do all the laundry…again…and now that I’m finally all caught up that, I can re-focus all my attention on work. I had a meeting with my supervisor on Friday to discuss our upcoming projects. Starting Monday (tomorrow), I will be begin our VSLA (Village Savings & Loan Association) project. I’m meeting with one of our volunteer coordinators for that sub-county, who will help me actually launch the groups. I’m hoping to work with CARE International to have a formal training for our volunteers, who will be in charge of the groups. My supervisor and I also agreed that we want to start a SACCO (Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization), i.e. microfinance. He also took me to meet the person in charge of development work at our local district’s office. They have some interesting projects going on, including entrepreneurship and IGA (income-generating activity) training with youth in the villages. I really hope to become involved with that! That was one of my primary goals coming here was to work with youth entrepreneurship, especially since about 50% of Ugandan’s population is below the age of 18. My NGO is also having a meeting on Monday with SNV (a Dutch donor organization, similar to USAID) to discuss some other projects we want to do. I really hope this is the start of some good economic projects for my NGO that I can take a leadership role in developing.

I also hope to start back up with my Swahili lessons. And I've decided to start Ateso lessons, which Peace Corps will pay for. I figure if I’m going to start working in the villages, I should probably learn more Ateso, since I don’t get to use much of it, living in town. Some of you know what happened with my Swahili lessons – I only had one before I had to stop them. I may continue with the same tutor or ask my friend, Angela, who is also from Kenya, to tutor me…just to avoid any possibility of a problem again. I really do want to learn that language so I’m going to make a concerted effort to keep up with it. That and also my GMAT studying, which I just received my study book in the mail from my Dad. Lots of plans. Hopefully, it will all keep me very busy!

Finally, on a little less pleasant note, there have been some armed robberies in my town in the past few weeks. My Dad, if reading this, is finding this out for the first time. Don’t worry, Dad, I’m okay! But it has really scared me. About a few weeks ago, when I was in Soroti for the week with the Dutch teachers, armed thieves robbed the supermarket at 8 A.M. Normally, every morning I go for my daily run, stop on the way back for yogurt at this very supermarket store, which is usually around 8. Thank goodness, I was away that week. I heard about it when I got back to town – scared me a bit, but didn’t think too much of it. Then this week, armed thieves attacked again. This time, it was Build Africa, an NGO in my town. They went into the office, around lunch time, had all the staff lie down on the floor, stole cell phones and money, then hijacked their NGO’s car, drove it to the phone store in town (which is right across from the police station), robbed the store, escaped from police, ditched the car some miles away and ran. They didn’t get caught, from what I heard. I found this out that evening, after it happened. I really freaked out. Not only do I know all the staff at Build Africa, but I started thinking about how I live in this compound, without a fence, in the back part of town, sort-of secluded, no neighbors in the other half of my house. Everyone knows where I live. Normally, I think my house is quite safe – metal doors and bars on the windows. But if they’re armed, they could probably break the locks and manage their way inside. I texted Amy as soon as I found out; she had been in town that day, around the time of the robbery. It freaked her out, as well. After much contemplation, she convinced me to call my supervisor (APCD) at Peace Corps. It was 9:30 at night; I felt bad doing it, but I was honestly so scared. I was worried these guys were still out there, in town, knowing where I live. The electricity was out, which prevents me from having the security light on outside my house, making me feel less secure. I knew I was not going to get any sleep that night. I even considered calling my counterpart and going to sleep at her house for the night. My APCD was very understanding, didn’t make me feel bad about calling so late and promised that the security coordinator at PC would call me the next morning, which he did. His advice was to have pots and pans, or something similar, at night so I would be able to make loud sounds so my neighbors could hear, and also to learn “danger” words in the local language so I could scream those, as well. Yes, all good advice, but in the end, doesn’t make me feel much better about the situation. He did, however, say he would call the police in my town to ask them to do more patrolling. Ironically, although I’m not sure it was directly related to his call, there have been more police walking around the town during the day. I guess that’s a bit reassuring.

However, a couple days later, I was talking with my Ugandan colleague, Harriet, at our office, and she was saying how scared she was – she hadn’t slept the last few nights either. She lives at our office, in the house behind, so she’s even more worried that something will happen at night. I actually think she may be more scared than myself. Although that’s not at all good, it did make me a feel a little bit better that I wasn’t totally overreacting, since a Ugandan was just as scared as I was – since up until that point, all my Ugandan friends kept telling me, “oh, don’t worry Lauren, you’re okay.” That’s easy for them to say! They’re not the “muzungu” girl in town that everyone knows where you live! My colleague also informed me that she had heard that the thieves are targeting NGOs – great, since I work at an NGO, and our office is actually the old office building of Build Africa – the very NGO that was robbed that day. My colleagues and I were joking that it’s not good for me to stand outside on our porch with them, in case the thieves were to see it, they would think that our NGO has money (which it doesn’t) because there’s a white person working there. She also thinks she saw the thieves that day, racing by our office in the Build Africa truck, because then police drove by, coming to our office, thinking that it was still Build Africa’s office, until someone informed them that they were going the wrong way.

I also just heard this morning that BRAC (a major microfinance institution worldwide, and has a branch in my town) was robbed Friday night. Not sure if it’s really true – still haven’t heard the exact details. In addition, I heard a rumor from Amy that a widows organization was robbed yesterday in Kumi. Also, not sure if that’s true. Then, I also heard stories about armed thieves going to a village about 20 km outside of my town and robbing a man of 2 million UGX (about 1,000 USD) and also robbing a place in Soroti, the town an hour north of me. There are so many stories floating around, and it’s so difficult to know which ones are really true, and which details are accurate, since there’s not the abundance of news stations and reports as is the case back home. Supposedly, the story about Build Africa is on the BBC, since they’re a British NGO – but I haven’t been able to find it online there. Let me know if you do! All in all though, it is kind of scary. But there’s really not much I can do, since it keeps happening during the day, and I have to be out in town during the day, of course, so the most I can really do is be careful. My house is a different situation – I want a fence. I’m going to talk to my landlord about that, and maybe Peace Corps. Especially, now that 2 muzungu girls are moving in to the other half of my house this week for the next 3 months – I’m afraid we’re going to attract even more unwanted attention, and possibly be less safe. I hope it all goes well though.

And by the way, regarding my last statement on the previous blog about Melarone not being effective in treating malaria. I’m not sure that’s true. My three friends who I wrote about all getting malaria while they were here for 2 months, despite religiously taking their Melarone, may not have actually had malaria. Before they left Uganda, they went to an expat medical office in Kampala (also the same one we get sent to for anything serious), and the doctor said there is no way they could have had malaria – it would have been the first cases of anyone getting malaria while taking Melarone. This doctor is known to be quite an interesting guy; he called the one girl “stupid British girl” for believing the medical clinic in Kumi who tested them for malaria and as a result, had her spending 3 days in Kumi Hospital on a drip for the medicine. Anyways, I’m not sure what to actually believe. This doctor misdiagnosed my friend with a UTI, when really she had parasites, and the same doctor kept telling my friend, another PCV, that “it was all in his head” when he complained of knee problems from all of his insane amounts of biking for work (he actually does have a real knee injury, which they later found out by sending him to a specialist). So before coming to Uganda to visit me, you decide if you want to believe the odd doctor or a Kumi medical clinic (which it is a widely known fact that many people at these types of clinics don’t really know what they’re looking for in the microscope when trying to diagnose malaria from the blood sample slide). Does Malarone really work? Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is mefloquine (the drug that can give you crazy dreams) works quite well for me. So I suggest that one when choosing an anti-malarial.

Lastly, our Country Director for PC Uganda was fired last week. No one knows why, but it seems like it’s a serious disagreement among PC staff. None of us PCVs really know what happened, and some are launching a campaign to bring justice for him, who was reportedly given no reason for his firing. I’m not getting involved – he was a nice guy, and seemed like a good CD, but since none of us really know what happened, it’s wrong for us to assume his firing was an injustice. And I like our current acting-CD; she's the one I called the other night after the armed robberies so I don't really have a problem with the change, if it was the right decision. Why I bring this up though – we find out this week that our group is technically not Peace Corps Volunteers, since our CD changed the swear-in oath (supposedly, after notifying PC HQ of the change) for our swear-in ceremony. All PCVs around the world have to take the same oath, which is approved by Congress. So since we did not take that oath, we are not actually PCVs; therefore, we have to re-swear-in this week. Politics. Bureaucracy. If you ask me, it’s ridiculous. The e-mail we received from a higher authority in PC stated something to the effect of, “I’m happy to inform you, although you are not technically a PCV, your benefits, pay, etc will not be affected.” I took this statement as being so dramatic, as if she was saying she was so incredibly happy to inform us that because of these stupid bureaucratic politics that we had no control over, it was all going to be okay because she had protected us from losing our benefits. I can only imagine the outrage from our group had we been informed that our service had to be extended by 4 months or that we were weren’t receiving benefits from the last 4 months because we weren’t really PCVs. Oh, Peace Corps. Love it, but oh so ridiculous at times.

That’s all. Til next month, most likely, have a great September. Happy 60th birthday Dad! Time is really flying by here. Miss you all! Oh, and check my webshots link (on the right-hand side of this page) for pictures I will be uploading this week! Including of my house - finally furnished and decorated!

July in a nutshell

It's been over a month since I last wrote. And it's been quite a busy month of July. First, at the end of June, we had an all volunteer PC conference. It was a 5-day conference in Kampala with all the PCVs in Uganda. We had various sessions each day that we could choose from to attend. One of the sessions was done by a Grameen Foundation employee, with a program they started here in Uganda called "AppLab." I had been trying to meet with this person for the past few weeks to discuss their work, since I used to work with GF, so it turned out well that he was actually speaking at our conference. They do mobile phone applications that are useful to people in the village. For example, farmers can find the selling price of matooke, rice, potatoes, etc by just using their mobile phones with the MTN network. This way, they know what the local price of that commodity is and how to price theirs, in order to gain the largest profit. Farmers can find buyers through the network, as well. AppLab is also working with farmers on how to fight disease and pests on their crops through teaching them various methods to control it, stop it from spreading and ruining their income. Another example they are looking at is allowing people to search for local health clinics using their phone. And they are in the process of developing more applications for use by villagers to obtain such information that would otherwise be difficult to receive in the village. In fact, I had the chance to go out to the field in Mbale District (1 hr away from me) with a field officer from Grameen Foundation/AppLab this past week to see how the CKWs (Community Knowledge Workers) are working with the farmers. Currently, they are doing pilot projects on some sample applications, which they may adopt into the mobile phone MTN network, if they find it is useful to people. It was great! I learned so much about the projects and how it works. He took me to visit three CBKs, who were meeting with their farmers on how to combat the diseases, which are attacking their matooke crop. The field officer was evaluating the CBKs on this particular day. Not only did I learn alot about the GF projects, but I learned a whole lot about crop maintenance and farming, in general, which I don't think I would otherwise have learned had I had not went on this field visit. I hope to go out to the field again with him in a couple months to see other pilot projects AppLab is trying out with farmers.

Back to the beginning of July - After the all-volunteer conference, I came back to Kumi, and had some meetings. One was with World Vision in Soroti to discuss a possible partnership with my NGO on some projects. Through World Vision, I was also introduced to their microfinance institution called MED-Net (Micro-enterprise Development Network), which gives loan specifically to WV clients in the village. A couple weeks later, I went out to the field with them to see a loan meeting being conducted. Although it was in the local language and I couldn't understand much (besides what they translated for me), it was great! I absolutely love seeing microfinance in action out in the villages. I'm hoping to work with them as a secondary project - I think I could assist them in some ways, as they are a very new MFI, while also learning a great deal from working with a start-up MFI.

The following week, my NGO was facilitating a workshop in Soroti (the town 1 hr north of me). It was a 4-day workshop for some NGOs in Lira (northern Uganda), on strategic planning and proposal writing. It was extremely informational for me as well, since I have not done much in this area previously. That Friday evening, I also had my first night "out" in Kumi. My counterpart had told me that there were some "muzungus" (white people) in Kumi for 2 months this summer, and that they were staying at the guest house just a few minutes from my house. So that Friday after returning home from Soroti, I went over there to meet them. 2 volunteers here with Build Africa - Will, from the UK, and Kat, from the U.S. (went to GW - weird, right?!). A third volunteer, Rosalinde, also from the UK, has arrived since. They are all great! It is so nice to have people to talk to and hang out with - especially at that time when I was really starting to feel lonely in my town. We went out to Kumi Hotel that night with some of their Ugandan colleagues from Build Africa. Every Friday night, Kumi Hotel has a dance party that lasts until the morning hours on Saturday. I will sum up that night briefly - beer, lots of dancing and arriving home at 4:30 am. It was an interesting experience though, at times a bit awkward, but I had a really good time with Will and Kat. And I became friends with some Ugandans, which is a really important aspect here. Up until that night, I really had only been acquaintances with Ugandans in town, but I was able to actually hang out normally with some of them, as well as meet other professional Ugandans around my age. All in all, a good time.

The next week, I had to write a process report of the workshop we did 2 weeks earlier in Soroti, along with my Ugandan colleague, Harriet. Harriet is around my age, recently graduated from University, is related (somehow) to the Executive Director of my NGO, and is a project coordinator for the organization (none of the staff is paid yet, but soon, I hear). It was definitely a test of my patience. Harriet is wonderful, but I didn't want to simply sit down and write the report myself; I wanted to include her in the thought process, and assist her in structuring and typing the report. Our job as PCVs is to build capacity within an organization so that in 2 years when we leave, the Ugandan employees at the organization are able to do the work without you. It would be too easy to just sit down and type out the report. In the process, she also, of course, taught me a lot. But taking our time writing the report included showing her how to create and insert diagrams and drawings in the paper, how to structure the report in an organized manner, what things to focus on from the notes we took at the workshop, etc. Through interactions like this, I am learning patience...and everyone at home knows I have always had very, very little patience. In 2 years, I'm going to be the most patient person ever! (probably not, but I will have more patience, which is definitely a really, really good thing).

That weekend, I went to Kampala to hang out with my first visitor in-country!! It was exciting. Ally, a friend who I worked with at the Grameen Foundation, came to visit me. She now works at ACDI/VOCA, and her projects are in Rwanda and Haiti. So she had been in Rwanda (next door to Uganda) for the last couple weeks on business and decided to come to Kampala for a weekend to see me. I honestly can't say how much this meant to me. It was sooo nice to see someone from home, and to share my experiences here with someone face-to-face. We went out to dinner with some of my PCV friends who live near Kampala, went to Lake Victoria to have amazing fish and chips and enjoy the great view, shopped at the African craft fairs and relaxed. Great weekend! Thank you, Ally, for visiting me!! Can't wait for my next visitor, my sister, in November! Only 3 months!

The following Monday, I came back to Kumi, along with 13 Dutch teachers who arrived to do a 3-week "World Teacher Project", funded by edukans and hosted by my NGO. They were also staying at the guest house/hotel right next to my house, along with the Build Africa volunteers, so I hung out and had dinner there every night for the past 2 weeks. That week we were in Kumi District, visiting 2 schools (half of the group at one, half at the other). Last week we were in Bukedea and now this week, we're in Soroti District. The project basically consists of conversations between Dutch and Ugandan teachers. The four sub-areas are 1) reading lessons in the mother tongue, 2) classroom management, 3) cooperative learning and 4) creativity and personality of the learner. Ugandan teachers, Dutch teachers, the 3 Dutch group leaders, my NGO's staff and Ugandan school administrators are divided into the 4 groups and spend the entire week at one of the two schools. Classes are observed, then discussed in detail about ways to improve and structure the lessons in regards to the sub-topic assigned to that group. Then the new ideas developed between the Dutch and the Ugandans are tested in a lesson later in the week and more feedback is given. After seeing 2 weeks of the program, I think it's a pretty good program. It's the first year for the project, but I think it's going pretty well, and I feel the Ugandan teachers really are learning a lot...but it is a bit difficult to get them talking in the beginning. Our NGO is then charge of doing follow-ups at the schools for the next year until the program comes back again next summer. It will be interesting to see if these teachers we work with this these 3 weeks pass along the newly learned methods to their colleagues and truly implement them in the classroom. All about the sustainability factor!

One other thing I will say about the last 10 days is that I learned the Dutch really like to speak in Dutch as much as possible! I find myself feeling at times even more lonely than usual, when I'm just with Ugandans from day to day. Not only do I have to deal with not speaking the local language, Ateso, that well, but I now also don't speak the language spoken by the 13 people I'm with each and every day for 3 weeks - Dutch. They're a great group, very nice, and I really like them, but wow, never heard so much Dutch in my life. I'm amazed at even how much they speak Dutch in front of the Ugandan teachers they're trying to integrate with. I can deal with it, but I think it's a bit uncomfortable for the Ugandans who are sitting in silence at lunch with the Dutch, not knowing if they're being talked about the entire time. I really believe it's quite unprofessional, but that's a debate that I suppose will always exist when 2 different nationalities are placed together.

I think that is the complete update on the last month of my life. I am really quite happy here. I truly feel that I have friends here in Kumi. I have been hanging out a lot with the Build Africa volunteers, but I also feel I have Ugandan friends - to an extent. At the very least, I am meeting many, many more Ugandans in Kumi, both through spending time with the other "muzungus" at the guest house near my house, but also through the visiting of the schools the past couple weeks. All in all, it's been a great month. The Build Africa volunteers leave in a few days (one more trip to Kumi Hotel this Friday night before they leave). However, I recently learned I will be getting 2 more European volunteers (both girls) - from Italy and the Netherlands - in September and October for 3 months each. They're volunteering with Red Cross in my town, and I'm friends with the Director of RC so I've been trying to convince him to have the girls live in the other half of my house, which is still vacant (it's a twin house). I have successfully convinced him! The first girl, the Italian, will arrive on Sept. 6th, and they will both me living right next door to me in the same compound.

This week, I am in Soroti for the week with the Dutch teachers, then home for the next week, then to Kampala for a week of technical training and finally, Soroti for a half-week of Ateso langugage training. And at that point, it's already September, and the first Red Cross volunteer will arrive. In September, I hope to really start some projects - get the VSLAs underway w/ my NGO, start some life skills training in the local schools, MAYBE teach a class at the schools. I think I will be staying busy for the next few months, at least. And I have been staying illness-free, thank goodness. Especially, no malaria! Unfortunately, Kat, Will and Rosalinde all got malaria in the last 3 weeks. And I hear everyday about at least 1 or 2 Ugandans who have malaria. Of course, some of them self-diagnose themselves as having malaria and never get tested so I'm not really convinced they all have it, but still, nonetheless, malaria is very, very prevalent here. But if you come to visit me here, do not take Melarone - it doesn't work! So nothing bad to report! Hope all is well at home! I miss everyone.

I still love bananas!

I have to apologize for not writing in the last month. I don't really have any excuse besides just not ever wanting to sit down and write a blog entry in the internet cafe. I was waiting to write one until I had my counterpart's internet modem flash-drive again. There's something much better about writing a blog entry in the comfort of my own home.

As for the past month, nothing too exciting has happened. I even had to go back and read my last entry to remember what happened a month ago. Since then, I have been trying to keep busy w/ work stuff as well as trying to keep happy here. Overall, I think I've done a good job. About a few days after I wrote the last post, I did have a slight breakdown. It was the first (and only) time that I actually thought about going home. This is how it happened... I had my counterpart's internet modem for much longer than the one day I expected to have it. This turned into me having copious amounts of time to browse facebook, pictures of my friends, the jcrew website, talk w/ my friends on gchat and become really, really bored since there was no real work to do w/ my organization. This was not good. Since it was the beginning of the summer back home, I was seeing all the plans people had made for the summer - beach, shopping, late nights out in the city - and there was evidence of my friends doing all these things through pictures posted on facebook- to make me even more jealous and upset that I wasn't home, living the same life. This really brought me down. Then there was the jcrew website with the new, cute spring/summer fashion-line. At this point, I even started looking for jobs on idealist.org, just for the fun of it (more like, torture, not fun), to see what jobs I could have at home if I weren't here. And I even found a perfect one - program assisant in the small enterprise dept of a major intl organization in DC - one that I would love to work w/ in the future - oh, and also one that my friend currently works at. I refrained myself from even applying to it. I thought about it, but knew I couldn't. It would be taking this short mental breakdown too far. Now, in all honesty, I knew I wouldn't actually go home...at least not that quickly. I would have to be unhappy for weeks before I made that kind of decision. But it was my first real breakdown here, which included tears. But after about a day and a half, I felt better. I realized I really do love it here, and I knew that day would come - where you cry and want to go home...and then the next day you love Uganda again. It happens to all PCVs, and they all told us it would happen...in fact, quite often throughout the 2 years. But this was the first time for me, and I'm sure there will many more of those days to come. And in the end, I realized I can NOT get the internet modem for at least my first year here. It is bad news when all you have is free time. Amy and I had been comtemplating on whether to get it or not and share it (1 week hers, 1 week mine), but no, I will not get it. Maybe the second year, when I'm more busy, and will need internet for applying to grad school and/or searching for jobs. But not now, no way.

That same week, I went around to all the NGOs in my town with my colleague. We visited Red Cross, Build Africa, Self-Help Africa, UWESO (Uganda's Women's Effort to Save Orphans) and ActionAid - all pretty prominent NGOs. I really enjoyed these meetings. All the people we met with were so gracious with their time and explaining to us about their work and how we could possibly partner with them on some projects. That Friday, UWESO invited my colleague and myself to attend a meeting out in the village with one of their VSLA (Village Savings and Loan Association) groups, who were hosting this meeting to thank UWESO for all their support. Now, the meeting was supposed to start at 9:30 am; we, the guest of honors, were supposed to arrive by 10, which we actually did arrive promptly. However, the meeting did not start until 1:30 pm. Yes, me, my colleague, and some other girls who work with UWESO sat under a mango tree on some really hard benches for over 3 hours. But this is a typical African meeting in the village - nothing ever starts on time. But once it did get started, it was really great. We heard testimonies from the women, and even some men, about how the VSLA helped them start a business, build a roof on their house, pay for their children's school fees, etc. It was very inspirational, to say the least. It was about 4 hours of talking, many, many speeches. Nice, but long. I then ended the week by spending most of the weekend with my friend, Amy, who also had a not-so-good week (being sick). It definitely helps to talk with other PCVs about the difficulties and hardships we all have to face - I think we even came up with ways to keep busy and entertain ourselves when there's no work to be done and we can't hang out with other PCVs. After that week, I realized I would really be okay here.

As for my NGO, things are okay. I really like my colleagues - they couldn't be any better. We do have some promising partnerships with some major NGOs (SNV and edukans), but both are in the education sector, not economic development. However, I've been trying to change that. In fact, that next week (after my "bad" week), I was at lunch at a restaurant in town with my friend, when up pulls a vehicle for the same NGO that I had just found a job posted on idealist.org for their DC office. Weird, huh!? I knew they worked in Uganda, but not in my town, and I had never seen their truck around. So I finally decided to go up to the guy and introduce myself. Good thing I did! He was so nice; we had a good discussion about a possible partnership with them, as well as me going around with him when he's in my town visiting project sites. His office is in Soroti, the town 1 hr north of me. I refrained from telling him that earlier that week I almost applied for a job with his NGO in DC. But how ironic. This same week, my NGO also had a meeting with Build Africa and UWESO, both located in my town, to discuss the areas where we would each be doing VSLAs. Now, it was pretty cool, because this meeting took place because of the meeting that my colleague and I had with Build Africa a week prior, when we first went to introduce ourselves. They didn't know anyone else was doing VSLAs in Kumi until we talked to them so they called this stakeholders meeting. Although my NGO doesn't have any money yet to do the VSLAs, it was a good, informative meeting...especially for me to see how a professional meeting works in Uganda, which is much different, actually, compared to the US - at least in some ways.

Last week, I went to Kampala with another PCV, LaVera, to meet with some NGOs to discuss a possible partnership with our NGO. We met with World Vision, CARE International (who founded the whole "VSLA" idea and sponsors them across Africa), Catholic Relief Services and ACDI/VOCA. I won't go into detail about the meetings - probably not too interesting for most of you - but they were very fruitful. It will still be some time until we can form a partnership with any of them, if at all, but at least they know us...and me. While in Kampala, I also got to see some of my friends from my training group who are based around the Kampala area. I went out to see my friend, Amanda's site. She's a primary teacher trainer at a primary teacher college (helps primary teachers to become good teachers), and she lives on the grounds of a Catholic primary school. All I have to say is the nuns in Uganda are great - fun, hilarious and well-educated. Catholics are much different here than in the U.S. - that is, in a very good way.

And now we're up to this past week...it was fairly boring, but I managed to keep myself busy, which I am proud of. Lots of movies, books, running. I walk into the center of town once a day (besides my runs) to pick up fruits/vegetebales at the market, use internet maybe, etc. This is basically to just show my face so the people in my town know I'm still alive. They all notice when I've been gone for a few days - like the week before when I was in Kampala. When I returned from that trip, many people said to me, "I did not see you last week...I thought you flew back home." I'm still not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

Ayways, on Monday, I went to Mbale with LaVera to meet with another NGO - one that my former boss actually passed along its info to me. But when we got there, we found out they actually have a PCV there, at their vocational school in the village. Really great NGO, very nice staff. I may volunteer w/ them in the future on their MF project as a secondary project for myself, but we'll have to see how it works out. Other than that, somehow the week and weekend passed by fairly quickly. Oh, and besides my brief trip to Kampala the other week, I really have had to keep myself entertained because my friend, Amy, has been in Kampala sick for the last few weeks so without her regular day trips to my town from the village, it has been quite uneventful. But she is feeling better now, thank goodness. And yes, I am really becoming much better at being bored and happy and finding things to do all at the same time.

And finally, this week, I am going back to Kampala for the much-anticipated "All Volunteer Conference." All PCVs in Uganda will be getting together at a nice hotel (with a pool!) in Kampala for 5 days of meetings, discussions, learning sessions and fun. It's even more exciting for our training group since we've only been at site for 2 months, and usually we're not allowed to take any vacations for the first 3 months, so we get a brief vacation through this conference. And not to mention, we get to meet all the other PCVs in country that we haven't met since we're the newest group in-country. Should be a fun time.

So all in all, I'm doing well still. Trying to keep busy, trying to finish equipping my house with furniture (one big purchase/month). Next month - sofa cushions for my sofa (more like wooden bench and chair, and with cushions, will become a sofa). Oh, and I will also be starting Swahili lessons next Monday! I'm excited to learn it - because I'm out east here, most people do speak at least some Swahili. And if I can't French while I'm in the Peace Corps, then I might as well learn the 2nd most useful language to know in Africa, in preparation for my career in African MF.

And as for the title of this blog entry, it is sort of a metaphor, I guess. I am still eating tons of bananas - about 10-15/week, and I haven't gotten sick of them yet! Same with Uganda. I'm hoping neither gets old, as bananas are the best fruit here, aside from pineapple, which is expensive right now as it's out-of-season, and if Uganda gets old, then that's not good for me. So in summary, I still love both! Hope you are all doing well at home and enjoying the summer - beach and all!

Address and phone number change!

Update:

Changing my phone number (better company, cheaper price). New number is 0783378683. If you're calling from the US, dial 011-256-78-3378683 (leave off the "0" when dialing from out-of-Uganda).

Address change: So my NGO does not have PO Box 23. There was a mix-up at the post office in my town so we are still waiting to receive new PO Box. I will update it on here, to the right, when I receive it. Until then, use PO Box 110. Still Kumi, Uganda. For the packages that I know that have already been sent to Box 23, I notified the post office, and they will set them aside for me. I think they're pretty good, considering it's a smaller town.

Thanks!