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.