Randomness (not due to Mefloquin…I hope)

*Presently, I am using the most expensive purchase I will get in Uganda: wireless internet, but it is totally the most rewarding (when it works!).

*Should have been sung 6 days ago…I tried. Song: la, la, la – warm up (sung by me so not so good…use your imagination) - Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear B (I hope you know who you are), happy birthday to you! Have a superbly fabulous Tuesday birthday!

*Warning: I do realize that fragments are used quite often within this blog entry. However, I think they are needed to make a clear statement. If you think otherwise, please send your comments to the bottom of this blog.

Best Week EVER (EVER = added as dramatic emphasis):
Monday – Going to the clinic in Ssanje and meeting Musawo (doctor) L to do some family planning/pregnancy health education with women from the trading center.
Tuesday – Giving life skills lessons to the kids and being able to tell that they are actually interested in the topic. Going with Musawo L to a secondary school to give tetanus immunizations to girls who are of child bearing age (yes, they can have children at age 15, 16, 17, but no, they should not, however it is a major concern for many of the girls here).
Wednesday – Going to Kyotera to get a little/lotta sente (money) and receiving mail…in particular, a package!
Thursday – Having a great Club GLOW (girl empowerment) meeting where the girls actually express their opinions freely and even have a debate. Then going to Masaka to eat at 10 Tables for dinner-fanciness.
Friday – Going to Kalisizo to visit the Rakai Health Sciences Program and getting contact information to possibly try and start working within one of the departments (amazing fascility, incredibly well funded, very CDC like). Having a mock Thanksgiving dinner with friends and watching Annie Hall.
Saturday – Traveling to Kampala by a coaster which only takes 3 hours, as opposed to the bus, which takes 4. Attending an Introduction (engagement) ceremony (at least the first 3 hours were fun/interesting). Then going to a nice hotel to lounge around with a friend.
Sunday – Taking a hot shower and hanging out for a while. Going to the New York Kitchen in Garden City (mazungu mall) for breakfast/lunch and having a salad (well, more like a salsa salad, but still ewooma = delicious). Purchasing all seasons of Six Feet Under that work on my computer for 5,000ushs each!

Worst Week EVER (EVER = same as above) More Hypothetical than Real-very likely though:
Monday – Being peed on by one kid and realizing I now have to take a bucket bath.
Tuesday – Walking aimlessly around the Sabina compound.
Wednesday – Being peed on by two kids and having to bathe again.
Thursday – Having diarrhea and the pit latrine is about 30ft away from my home.
Friday – Getting bitten by a black mamba.
Saturday – Assuming I survived the black mamba bite, having to eat potia (maize flour mashed into mush) and beans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (not so ewooma).
Sunday – Having my phone stolen (true story).

See a difference? Of course these situations vary from person to person. Some people may enjoy my Worst Week EVER better than my Best Week EVER. Variations in opinions make people who they are, and that is why we are all special in our own way.
FYI: This blog only pertains to events in Ssanje and not at Kiwanga, Seeta (near Kampala) where I am right now. Totally different worlds!

Story Time - Come One, Come All

Once upon a time…A and S went up a hill with 77 children. One of the children decided to run up the hill and fell. S stayed with the injured child while A had to take 76 children back to school without any of them getting hit by a boda boda or a motorcar. Easier said than done. The end. As a result of working with children, I think I am going to start writing non-fiction fairy tales like the one above. (Warning – those who enjoy/like/tolerate Disney should stop reading this blog entry i.e. my sister…you know who you are). Additionally, I recently saw the last half of Enchanted. I think it was an excellent movie to make people realize how ridiculous Disney fairy tales are to real life. Seriously…the fairy princess was completely disconnected from society as a result of her ridiculous ideas of true love and insane happiness. Those who haven’t seen the movie, I will save you the time…it ends with a happy ending. Surprise surprise! I think I need to watch Requiem for a Dream at least 9 times (favorite number – Go Mia) in order to forget the movie. The only good part in the movie is that one of the characters is played by the actor Idina Menzel, who plays Maureen in Rent and Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway (Oh 44th and Broadway in NY…how I miss thee!). By the way, Election Day in the U.S. is about a day and a half in Uganda. If you think about it we have the whole day of the 4th, along with about 9 hours on the 5th because of the time difference. Fun times…ulcerific!

Yay for Obama! Now I am pretty sure I will be back in the states after these two years. I was thinking about staying here or Yemen if McCain was elected. I guess I can stop looking for those plane tickets. It was hard to tell whether I was in Uganda or the United States the day after the election because of the excitement pertaining to Obama’s win. There were parties everywhere…well, not so much Ssanje trading post where Sabina is located, but most everywhere else that is considered a bigger village. Don’t get me wrong, people at Ssanje were very excited, but there is only so much “partying” you can do with 350 abaana (children) around. However, about three days ago, the P7 students finished their two days of testing for the PLE exam, which is the test they take in order to enter secondary school, so they had a big party to celebrate. If the students pass the PLE, they get to go to secondary school or S1, if not, they are sh*t out of luck. Forgiving system huh? Not so much…these same tests occur at S4 in order to go to S5, then at S6 in order to go to University. If the child at some point does not pass an exam, she does not get to continue on with her knowledge based schooling. Rather, at the secondary level, if she does not pass, she is sent to a technical school to learn how to sew and tailor clothes (of course these technical skills are different for women and men – gender roles are overt here).

What Am I Doing Here? - Literally/Figuratively...You Take Your Pick :P

*Happy Halloween yesterday to everyone! Please only tell me about your costume if it was incredibly scary or evil because those are the only two options you should have picked from in the first place (favorite holiday so I mean business). *
Solar power is an incredible invention except during the rainy season in Uganda. No sun = No power. Therefore this time of the year, starting from August until October/November is usually quite dreary/wet. Still, the southwest usually gets much less rain than the northern part of the country. This can be good and bad at the same time. Yes – we do get power, but on the downside we have no water for drinking, bathing (not that this happens often), cleaning, etc. It is a tough choice between a basic necessity versus internet/movie watching. Mpola mpola (slowly, slowly) I am integrating into the community. I slept on a hill/mountain called Katanjovu (named after some cows who apparently died from falling off) near Sabina two nights ago with S, Ssh, and M (nice names I know). It would have been an amazing night except for the fact that it was freezing! In total I probably go about 49.7549432 minutes of sleep the whole night because my skirt, which I used as a blanket (I was wearing pants also…sickos…) was about as thin as a piece of paper. Smooth move on my part. Then yesterday, when I was at the peek of my game due to my lack of sleep, we had parents/family members visiting day at Sabina. After S, with great ease and grace said her goodbyes in Luganda, I fumbled through an introduction as to who I am and what I would be doing. This speech happened about 45 minutes after one of the Fathers from the parish preached to all of the parents about not using family planning because these methods can cause cancer (check – another issue to tackle). Additionally, since CoU works with orphans and vulnerable children, there were some children who did not have family at the school. Teachers, staff, and myself, tried to stay with these children throughout the afternoon when the families all brought there own lunches and sat together. As of now, I am teaching life skills to the P2, P3, P4, P5, and P6 students on Tuesdays. During some of these life skills lessons, I am incorporating a Saturday project along with it. As discussed in a previous blog of its rarity, there is no piped water here. No piped water means…no sinks…which means…no places to wash hands after pit latrine use. Therefore, two weekends ago on a lovely Saturday, a few kids and myself built tippy taps or hand washing stations, after our Tuesday germ and the importance of hand washing session. In addition to Tuesday teachings and Saturday projects, through suggestions, we have decided to start a girl empowerment club called Club GLOW (Girls Leading Our World), which is being modified from a previous peace corps curriculum. There are a lot of issues here in Ssanje, as well as all over Uganda related to young girls getting pregnant or have sex with sugar daddies (cross-generational sex) for monetary/material wealth. D and I had an incredible meeting with some of the teachers and staff at Sabina on Monday, where the club was surprisingly very much supported. Actually it was so well supported that J, one of the head teachers, gave me, the following day, the day we should meet (Thursdays) and a list of all of the girls who should be in the club (78). I am incredibly excited about this club but am a bit nervous about the size because I was definitely not expecting such a large group. Hey - when there’s a will, there’s a way. Currently there are three other coordinators, along with myself who are in charge of the club. I am in the process of contacting partner organizations for ideas, funding opportunities, and supplies. While girls are at great risk here, boys are not completely self-sufficient/perfect (by no means), especially OVCs who have often had particularly hard lives in the first place. While I myself am not going to start a boys empowerment club, I am going to highly encourage the male staff members to take charge and think about branching off of our girl empowerment club. Maybe they will call it Club BLOW (or not). One project at a time…
P.S. Sorry about the sporadic spurts of writing in this blog. I have been meaning to write for about 3 weeks now, but life got in the way. Also, those who have been leaving comments (Uwem – awesome and I hope to see you soon too) I love them and I love you and I love you even more for writing them, so keep it up.

Gender Issues/Children

I am currently at Ssanje at Sabina. The day of our swearing in (Oct. 8) was quite monumentous. Not only did we become volunteers, but many of us voted for president of the US and it was the day before Uganda's Independence Day (Oct. 9, 1962). I realize that I have not written in quite some time and there are a lot of issues which I have not discussed, so here it goes...Early on girls learn that they are supposed to be submissive to their boy counterparts. A lot of this is learned in the schools. When my homestay brothers tell me that their sister does not have any opinions, and she does not say anything against those accusations, I can see this. When I tried talking with my sister one-on-one she often never had any opinions to give. It was only later that she started to voice her opinions and a few feelings, but I had to push them out. My other sister, who is basically the maid of the family, is working in order to pay for school fees which she cannot affort currently. However, she has not been paid since working with my homestay family (about 4 months). I could only give her my support for talking with the head of the household, but she did not want to face her. At Sabina, girls are only given 5 menstrual pads per terms (approximately 4 months). As a result, the girls use whatever they can find as pads, or they just do not go to school. I am hoping to start making reusable menstrual pads with the girls over their holiday break which is coming up in the middle of December. Along with making the pads, a pamphlet related to their body (inner and outer reproductive areas with a diagram) and what happens during menstruation, in addition to how to clean the pads will be included so girls can educate themselves and each other. When discussing gender roles the majority of what I found was that women's roles are to create children (not to mention the hard labor of carrying water, cooking, and raising the children). An average Ugandan family has appoximately 6.7 children. Rather than our American idea of the parents raising the children to the best of their ability so that someday they will help their parents when the children grow older, many Ugandan families utilize their children for labor. Children here are incredibly mature and lack that spoiled quality which develop in many children in the US. Yes - I do enjoy the children here much more than children back home. A huge issue which children face here, especially OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children) is not being able to pay for school fees. While the school may be free, the books, school uniform, and other "musts" which need to be brought each term are not and thus prevent many children from going to school because many parents do not make enough money for all of their children to attend.

New Site Address

Amy Wilson

P.O. Box 271

Kyotera, Uganda



For the next two years I will be working with Children of Uganda.

New Site Address

Amy Wilson
P.O. Box 271
Kyotera, Uganda

For the next two years I will be working with Children of Uganda (CoU). CoU helps orphans and vulnerable children to receive access to education and quality to care. The organization supports OVCs (monetarily through sponsors) through primary and secondary school and in some cases university. Children live at Sabina Home in Ssanje/Rakai. The PCV currently at the site has done some amazing work and will be leaving some pretty big shoes to fill. I am currently at the site and hopefully will get some ideas as to my own focus over the next few days.

Development Issues/Sanitation

Uganda is a very interesting country. The prevalence of malaria here is staggering. There are around 23,000 people living in Wakiso district and approximately 6,000 new malaria cases every 10 months. While peace corps provided volunteers with malaria prophylaxis and mosquitoe nets, it would be impractical and expensive for everyone in the country to take a pill once every week/daily. Therefore, insecticide mosquitoe nets are encouraged and sold at a cheap rate (5,000ushs < $5) especially for OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children) and pregnant women. However, it is very rare to see a household using these nets. Many excuses include the heat and inconvenience of getting in and out of the bed. Still, malaria is highly endemic throughout the country ~95% so the excuse of little or no mosquitoes in a particular area is pretty poor, even if there is no standing water around. Most everyone I know from Uganda has had malaria at least once during her/his lifetime. Additionally, VERY few households have piped water. Most households get their water from tanks, boreholes, wells, springs (unprotected/protected) which they also must boil or add chemicals to (watergaurd) in order to clean the water from any living bacteria. In order to boil the water either coal fires (sitegeras) or wood fires are used. Ovens/stoves are incredibly rare (I have yet to see one in a house - most likely due to cost) but a lot of families have electricity. This does not mean constant power though, especially during the rainy season. The power in Wakiso was off for four days due to 2 power line poles falling over - one killing a dog, the other killing a cow). I have gotten to be an expert at keeping matches near and being able to light my keroscene lamp as soon as the electricity turns off. Additionally, bucket bathing is quite a challenge. At first I took this title literally by bathing while standing inside the bucket. This method was very wrong and very uncomfortable. You actually just keep a cup by the bucket and pour water on your body. With practice and patience I feel I may once again experience the pleasure of being completely clean. Along with very little piped water, there are also very few flush toilets. Pit latrines are the norm in Wakiso and around Uganda (other very very remote places use just holes in the ground). A huge issue with pit latrines is missing the pit (tiny hole - often for just long calls/ number 2 / pooping) which often leads to flies. No piped water + pit latrines = jerry can and soap (often missing) for hand washing. Peace corps awesomely taught us PCTs how to create a tippy tap/hand washing station at our homestays. I attached some mosquitoe netting (which I bought for curtains to keep out the flies, but I cannot tell if it is working b/c the front door is always open resulting in easy entrance) which holds the soap (soap on a rope).

Chop Chop Snip Snip

I just returned from Mbale (eastern Uganda) on Wednesday from visiting a PCV in the field. Mbale is a beautiful and nice sized town (no Chi town of course) with views of mountain ranges, Elgon. The visit was nice because my friend, S, and I had the opportunity to explore the city on our own, unfortunately though without the help of the PCV. N's main contribution to the few days were teaching us that we can cook amazing meals: falafel, guac, mexican beans. The main source of nutrition in Uganda is matooke. Matooke is just another form of a banana which is cooked and then mashed together to make mush. Other foods are just as starchy and include casava, potatoes, and bananas. Luckily our homestayes were briefed on the diets of Americans and know that we like a little color on our plates so I am provided with carrots, tomatoes, and squimich (spinach) regularly. Anyway, back to adventures in Mbale. Tuesday was amazing! It was the most cultural and traditional event I have been to yet. We went to an embalu ceremony (circumcision) which is performed every two years. Hundreds of boys in the village were being circumcised that day. Basically you are not considered a man until you are circumcised. Some are publicly humiliated if they are not cut. Most of the boys were between the ages of 13 and 18. Just getting to the ceremony was an ordeal because we had to climb up a pretty steep moutain. Apparently there is a three day celebration before the actual cutting. We arrived during the end of the celebration with dancing and music. All of the boys who were going to be cut had their faces fainted with a sort of white chalk and some with pink dots. Others had brightly colored beads around their necks. Each boy had their family and friends around them while dancing (stomping up and down). Many families carried around musical instruments. A lot of people were drunk and spitting the local brew in every direction. Let me tell you, we definitely did not come out of this ceremony clean. After the craziness, we waited for the younger boys who would be circumcised the next even year to have mud thrown at them, and then took post at the house we were to watch the boys being cut. Actually, we were specifically assigned to watch the 11th boy. There were 18 rocks laid out for 18 boys to be circumcized at the house. As a curious person (especially when it comes to blood and penis chopping) I made sure to get up front to see the circumcision taking place. This was not an easy task considering most of the family was right up front watching. But we are muzungu (foreigners/white people) with fancy cameras and connections so we were roughly squeezed through the crowd. With the occurence of HIV/AIDS in the country each boy is assigned a different knife. Not sure how clean they were, but mpola mpola (slowly slowly). The chopping of the skin was quick and methodical. None of the boys even flinched. I have heard horror stories about older men getting circumcised and the immense amount of pain they are in afterwards. This was not apparent in any of the boys. Interestingly, this practice mainly occurs in the east and not central Uganda (where I will be stationed). There has been much research out on the spread of HIV/AIDS and circumcised males. The foreskin, which can easily get dirty and lead to friction/tearing and thus increase the chances of spreading the virus. Still, it is still mainly a cultural practice in Uganda. Abuyudaya, the Jewish village, which we passed was right next to the where the ceremony was taking place. I am quite excited to go back there to visit. As in the Jewish tradition, their circumcisions occur when the boys are just babies. Until the next adventure...wheeraba (goodbye)!

Mwasuzeotyano Banyabo ne Bassebo

Hello!
(Explanation of Title) I just greeted you (pl) in Luganda: How did you spend the night? There are approximately 3 main greetings here. Greetings are incredibly important for conversation. Life here has been quite a learning experience...and I have only been here 1 week! I am at an internet caffe in Wakiso right now...spending approximately 750 Ugandan shillings for 1/2 hr. (less than $1; $1=1610ushs) of internet usage. Pretty sweet deal. Our life here right now, and probably for the next two months, is pretty structured. I go from my homestay to the training site every day during the week (8am-5pm), then the "city" Wakiso (more like a very small town). We have language in the morning, then tea (chai), then a lecture (these range from health to the history of Uganda), then lunch, then another lecture. At the end of the day we are all pretty mentally exhausted. Craziness! After the diversity lecture, one of the lecturers (a volunteer already for over a year) came up to me and asked if I went to DePaul. He recognized me and then he told me he graduated with my class in 2006! It is a small world after all. My homestay family is very nice. My jaja (grandmother) speaks no English, so communication with her is difficult, but most of my brothers I, N, A, A, and my sister N speak English pretty well. It is an interesting family dynamic because my jaja's mwami (husband) is no longer living, so there is no male authority figure at all. I actually like it very much this way because many of the other PCT volunteers have fathers who are quite intimidating and rarely speak to them. When I first arrived in my homestay, there were about 13 children ranging in ages from 7 to 19. It is amazing that they have just one maid (O - who is wonderful and helps me with my flashcards in the morning!) for such a large family. Many of my sisters and brothers have slowly disappeared over the week, possibly to school or to their mother/father's house. Family here is incredibly close. Many of my brothers and sisters real mothers and fathers live in Kampala, while they live with their jaja/mama, possibly due to financial circumstances. When I arrive home, around 7pm, we have tea, then maybe play a few games of cards. I taught my family "Bullshit", which they love. It is quite funny listening to them speak in Luganda and then call out "Bullshit" all of a sudden. My sister N also enjoys listening to my music (I knew someone else besides me would like Alanis :P!). For just a week, I can some what get around Wakiso using Luganda. Luganda is the language I am learning, while some of the other PCT volunteers are learning two of the other main languages. Because I am learning Luganda, I will be situated during my two years, around central Uganda. Speaking the language is kind of fun until you realize there are no more words in your vocabulary list to talk with the people in the katali (market). Until I have time to post again...Sula Bilungi! (good night)

Address During Training

Amy Wilson, PCT
P.O. Box 29348
Kampala, Uganda

Exactly 1 month to go!