Seriously!?

No...your eyes are not deceiving themselves and whether you are on some type of narcotic or not...this chick really is PURPLE! Quite possibly one of the most miraculous sites of my life (Ugandans say that it is due to some type of medicine, but I am pretty sure this is a completely natural phenomenon).

This may be the only blog entry for February or ever (of coure I am not being serious about the "ever" statement...no need to panic). I am almost positive nothing else that has happened or is going to happen this month can compete with this chick. Now, what should we name this little thing? Suggestions welcomed.

A New Year with New Beginnings and Endings

An Ode to Fene (jack fruit)

Knock, knock…no answer.
Knock, knock…hello…hallow.
Ponga time – chop.
Off the branch it goes.
Careful placement on the ground.
Chop, chop, chop.
See the white sticky sap.
See the yellow of the fruit.
Wipe, wipe, wipe the sap.
Pull the fruit off of the shell.
Eat the fruit and not the tough deceiving outside.
Sweet, chewy, yummy.
Fene, rare and delicious.

Traditional Healer (Musawo – sort of).
FYI - Not a witchdoctor…bummer. Therefore, she does not caste spells on people. She only tries to heal them. Sitting on a white goat skin (the white and the black invoke different spirits) the traditional healer spoke of her profession in Luganda, translated by H, our language teacher. She told of how, using shells and coins, she can determine whether a person is bewitched or sick by flipping them within a sheet of back-cloth (a thin material retrieved from tree bark). I was relieved to hear that she is often considered the in-between when a person is sick. She will provide that person with some medicine (liquid herbs) within the village and then the patient will be taken to a clinic or actual medical facility. Additionally, she believes in God and is very religious (Christian) like most every Ugandan in the country. Overall it was a very interesting session. However, she did lose a bit of credibility at the end of the discussion when she told us that the advice she provides to women for avoiding conception is to wrap a tight band around their wastes…REALLY!? What would that provide besides a constant pressure on the bladder? Maybe these women are peeing their pregnancies away. Ha!

The Inauguration
Powerful and intense.
What a day/night (depending on where you live).
Change is upon the US.
P.S. In case you did not notice…Obama’s a lefty!

January 23rd - My First (unfortunately, I am being realistic) Death
Death is not uncommon in Uganda. People commonly die of malaria, HIV, car/boda accidents, plus many other reasons, you name it. Most households have at least 3 or 4 graves to the side of their property of family members who have died. The spirits of the dead are thought to live on and therefore family members do not want their own dead to be far away. In the back of my mind I knew that I would have to go to a burial eventually, but I did not think that it would be of one of our own CoU members. M.P. was a member of CoU who lived at Philips House in Kiwanga. Philips house is a home for people who are mentally disabled and are unable to take care of themselves on their own. M.P. had been experiencing serious stomach pain for a while, but had never been diagnosed for his symptoms after being taken to the Surgery (where scarily many Peace Corps volunteers are sent for unknown symptoms…no wonder they are never diagnosed with a cause!) Thursday morning when he could not stop vomiting and having diarrhea he was quickly sent to Mulago, a good hospital in Kampala. During the evening, Aunt M received a call that he would have to go into surgery. The next morning I find out that he did not live through the surgery. His body was too weak from expelling so much nutrients and liquids. Apparently, he had a hole in his intestine, probably from an ulcer, which was found from an x-ray…the first he had received since becoming sick! The next day we had a prayer ceremony with his family. The two priests who came were from the Consolata located next to Kiwanga where all of the members are originally from Kenya. Since they do not know Luganda fluently they spoke in English, which was good for me, but not for the rest of the crowd. I felt this Language barrier was a bit inappropriate for such an important occasion. Luckily, Aunt M and M, the CoU director, both spoke in Luganda when they talked about M.P. The casket was in the middle of the room the whole time. There was an opening in the casket which contained a glass piece. When we looked through, his body had already been wrapped in back-cloth, which is the traditional burial cloth. When the prayer ceremony was over, we quickly ate and then drove approximately 3 hours (due to traffic) to Wakiso district where his family home is located. We arrived and they were still digging the grave and had not yet retrieved the sand for the cement to be put down. While in the hospital, he was not given clothes. Therefore, he was wrapped in the burial cloth naked. As soon as we arrived, his family and others helped unwrap the burial cloth in order to put clothes on him. Those who could handle it watched this occur. I viewed the dressing from the ground (his casket was still on the truck). His body was very stiff (rigomordous - no idea how to spell the word - it is not even coming up in Microsoft Word!...a little help please) and therefore those putting his clothes on had to work together to lift up his arms and legs to put on his clothes. After being dressed, his body was rewrapped in the burial cloth and the top of the casket was put back on. Since we did not want to get stuck in terrible traffic or the dark, so we decided to leave after the sand was retrieved and then taken off the truck. As this was happening the kids were singing prayers around the casket which had been placed on the group, near the burial site. We left around 6:30pm and arrived back at Kiwanga around 9pm (yes – we hit both traffic and the dark). The day was draining physically and emotionally for everyone. Most of us went to sleep very soon after arriving home.

Back in Rakai. Good: a set routine and things to do. Bad: previously mentioned (I do not want to start being repetitive). There are two new permaculture volunteers here from Australia, K and C. They are a beautiful couple in so many ways and we are lucky to have them. There is also a new volunteer from Holland at Sabina, E (very similar to my own name…you can probably guess), who will be staying until the beginning of April. She will be helping the kids with their school work, as well as starting a pen-pal program (along with my help) with S’s (obvious) 4th grade students and the P5 students here. Therefore, S’s students should write two letters now, one to me, and one to their new pen-pal friend. My favorite comment from a letter which one of S’s students wrote was that if I am bitten by a mosquito, he is sorry and hopes I get better soon. S – well done for teaching your students about malaria and awesome that at least one of the kids picked up the concept…if this kid doesn’t receive an A, then no one should!

Welcome 2009!

Happy New Year 2009! This year is going to be amazing! How can a year with both the numbers 2 and 9 not be?!

By the way, the last blog entry, where I wrote about my “worst day ever” was basically ALL hypothetical except for the phone being stolen. I was never bitten by a black mamba…you would for sure know because I would most likely be dead or in the process of dying and thus unable to write a blog entry ever again. Therefore, if the blog entries stop, you will know why. I am SORRY if this entry caused any confusion to the few readers of this blog.

So it has been approximately 1 month since I have last written and I can say a few things have happened during that time.

Written on 14/12/2008
So here is the real story…in case I am framed for murder, abduction or something else. I came back to Rakai with a kid today because she was supposed to stay with her sister for the holidays in Rakai. The kid, out of her own free will, got into the truck with all the other kids to go to Kiwanga (Seeta-Mukono) when she was not supposed to (yay for accountability). Anyway, I left her on the bus while I got off in Kyotera (the town before Ssanje) BUT made sure all of the conductors knew she was supposed to get off at the church. When I return to Ssanje they ask where she is. Awesome…thoughts of horrible deaths and traveling all the way to Tanzania cross my mind. I go to the link station in town (for a second time…did not want to make the story too long – language barriers etc.). We call (someone)…SHE GOT OFF, but she did not go back to the school. SO she is now running somewhere around Ssanje at the moment. I also find out from her sister, whom we visited after we found out she left the bus that she had stolen 100,000ushs. No one told me this kid was a felon! There is no way she is going to return to her sister’s house and most likely the reason she left for Kiwanga was because she did not want to get her ass beaten when she returned. Crap. The End.

Written on 1/1/2009
The next day I woke up and met Deborah to ask what we should do about the missing girl. She tells me that we need to contact the police and then goes on to explain all of the beheadings and child kidnappings/trafficking which has been going on in OUR area for a while. Well, at this point I feel “great,” so I quickly walk with Peter, the librarian and an amazing help with anything and everything, to the station. I tell the police the story…they then have us wait so that I can give the story again to another person. They said the reason for obtaining the story again was because they wanted more details…whatever (tells you a little bit about the police here). Anyway, after the 1.5 hour police station “run” we go to the loud speaker station in town and have them announce all day that this girl is missing and if seen to bring her to the police station or Sabina. Of course just because it was a missing girl doesn’t mean that the announcement was free…no, no…I paid them 15,000 shillings for the day (I am sure that is muzungu price but at the time I could give a s***). Once back to Sabina I go to the parish clinic to talk with Jackie about the inventory which we did together and issues which the clinic needs to work on (A LOT!). Probably about 10 minutes after returning to the parish I get a call from Peter who tells me the missing girl is at Sabina. She had hid, the day before, until late in the evening and then secretly snuck into the dorms without telling anyone! She was in the dorms the whole time! At that time I had no interest in talking with her. If her sister does not kill her for the money she stole, I might have at that time from the worry which she put me under. Anyway, I call the police and tell them she is found. I then try to get my money back from the loud speaker station because they only announced her missing status for about 30 minutes. That worked out well…not. Long story short – she is found, alive, and with her head.

Living around the Kampala area has been amazing, not just because of the electricity and wash room attached to my room (such luxuries), but also because of the amazing organizations which I have connected with for our girl empowerment group. I was able to enter non-profit Mecca. Thus far I have met with 4 different organizations: Reproductive Health Uganda (who also came to Kiwanga and talked with the kids about sex, pregnancy, and condom usage…it was fabulous watching all of the kids open a condom), Raising Voices, Akina Mama wa Africa, and Mentoring and Empowering Young Women. I am still trying to connect with SHARE, which is part of the Rakai Health Sciences Program and does amazing work with domestic violence issues within the villages.

So if anyone ever wants to know how to get kicked out of the Peace Corps, all you have to do is go on a Christmas vacation before you have completed your first 3 months of service. Fun times! So basically my whole PEPFAR 3 group (which is speedily diminishing…we started with 26 and now have 18) decided to go to Kabale, or actually an island around Kabale called Bunyoni Amagara where one of our other Peace Corps friend, S, is doing her service. Most of us arrived around the 23rd, chilled out, did a little canoeing, and a little swimming (this is one of the only lakes in Uganda that does not have something harmful in it so it is safe to swim). We (well, most of us) get a text on the 24th which says that we have the 24th through the 27th off and if we are traveling we need to tell Peace Corps. Well, this was a shocker to all of us. Whenever any of us tried to travel at all during our first 3 months of training we were immediately shut down, so we had no idea that just by telling Peace Corps we would be traveling that would be okay. Anyway, we talk to the heads and end up having a meeting on the 27th with the big wigs in order for them to determine an appropriate punishment. So, the rest of our time on the island was sort of relaxing, at least when we were not joking about what we are going to be doing when we get back to the states (this rule breaker could have sent us home…however, there were 10 of us). Blah, blah, blah, blah…we got vacation days taken away and a very stern warning that next time, pack your bags. Our life now revolves around permission for anything and everything from Peace Corps. Yay government control for the next 2 years!

I am a big fan of New Years Eve, so I decided to take all of the CoU kids (about 16) to the Rider Hotel for fireworks. We arrived around 8pm. Awesome…there are only so many games of Uno one can play (by the way…that game is incredibly useless for anyone over the age of 3). So I decided to buy everyone a soda and hoped that the caffeine would entertain them until midnight. Luckily though, the regular dance troupe which performs at Rider every Sunday performed until around 11:15pm. They are fabulous. They not only dance, but they also sing and play instruments. By the way, the reactions to the fireworks were hilarious. I think there were approximately 5 blasts and each time one went off, everyone (I am pretty sure it was not just the kids) would scream. Hey, if nothing else, I was entertained. Overall, I think the kids had a fun night. They actually were kind of mad at me when I told them that we had to leave at 12:30. Most wanted to stay for the dance party afterwards…too bad, so sad.

And then I texted…to the United States…and received a response! What a sign! It’s going to be a great year.

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.