Independence Day

Happy 4th of July! I hope everyone had a memorable celebration.

Danielle's home stay is the house were we held our celebration. They had the cutest baby goats! 

I had a very memorable day. The volunteers here in Kyenjojo and I got together for an American meal. Of course we were limited by what we were able to find at the market, so our American meal consisted of guacamole, potato salad, and beef stew. It was all very delicious even if it was not hotdogs and apple pie. There are no chips here either, so we ate our guacamole with carrot sticks. I have two years to figure out how to turn yellow corn meal into tortilla chips. Send recipes!

After our meal, we went for a walk through the countryside and found a herd of cows. As we walked closer, I realized that the cows were not in a fenced pasture, they were free to roam anywhere they pleased. I asked the others, "is anyone concerned that there is no fence separating us from the cows?" They all said "na" and we kept walking.  Well, sure enough, not five minutes later one of the cows thought we had gone far enough and commenced loudly mooing... a very angry mooing. A few more steps and we pushed too far, the cow came after us. We promptly turned around and briskly walked back the way we came. The cow followed us, angrily mooing, at a slow trot. There was a tree line and a tea field beside the trail we were following, so our escape plan, if the cow got too close, was to run into the bushes or climb a tree. The guys farthest behind kept saying "don't run, he's still coming, don't run". It was terrifying and hilarious all at the same time. Eventually the cow stopped, we had walked beyond his territory, and he went back to the others in the herd. Hahaha, how many Americans can say they got chased by an African cow on Independence Day?!

Enjoy the pictures. I miss you all. 

An African cow - check out those horns! This is not the cow that chased us, but it's the same type. This one was wondering through the field near my home stay house. I asked one of the girls if the owner worried about losing him and she said no, he would find him. Weird, this thing was just tromping through everyone's property. 

Here I am at the market. Very primitive; no fancy tents or advertisements, no delicacies or homemade treats, and no ready-made, prepackaged food, just piles of produce set up on make-shift stands. 

These are shops that line the main road in Kyenjojo. They have everything you could need, maybe not everything you want, but I'm doing just fine. Running water and a refrigerator would be nice, but that's not going to happen in this town. 

Homestay

Here are a the first few pictures of my homestay family. They are not glamorous, quite poor actually. The father is a pastor and the mother works at the orphanage founded by the church. They have many children living in their house that are also orphans. They say they just cannot turn anyone away, they are all God's children. I am having a hard time remembering all their names, especially the one with names that are not common to me (i.e. not American names, ones I cannot pronounce or even try to spell).

The yard. The wooden structure to the left is the kitchen, the cement structure in the middle is the bath house and pit latrine. No running water, when I say bath house, I mean room with a slanted floor and a hole to the outside at the bottom of the slant. We take a bucket of water, a cup, and all of our shower essentials into the room and "bath". It works and I am clean, I even have one of the girls heat water for me so I can have a warm bucket bath!

As you can see from the picture, we have dogs and chickens in the yard. I wish we had grass, when it rains, the dirt get very slick.

The front of the house. There are only three rooms inside, a sitting room in the middle, my bedroom to the right, and the parent's bedroom to the left. The children sleep on the other side of the house that has a different entranceway, it's like a duplex. I'm still not sure how many children they are housing on the other side. New face seem to appear each day, and like I said, I cannot remember most of the names, I feel terrible asking all the time then not understanding what they've just told me! Ugandans are very soft spoken and the children are very shy with me.

Here I am asking one of the girls how to pronounce a word in Rotooro. They all seem to find it funny that I am trying to learn their language. They speak very good English, but I need to pass my language courses so I'm studying. Looks like the potatoes and rice are already adding to my midsection!

Here is Omega (on the left) and Sharon, both nine years old. Omega is their youngest biological child; Sharon is one of the orphans they've taken into their home. They are very sweet and have been a tremendous help getting me settled into their way of life and making me feel welcomed.

Lots more pictures to come. I must get ready for school now... not that my brain can take in any more information!

Boda Bodas and Street Venders

Just a few pictures from my trip to Kyenjojo, which is where I will be staying for the next month with a host family. 

Boda Bodas are motorcycle taxies. As Peace Corps volunteers, we are not authorized to use these, too dangerous, but Ugandans think nothing of loading up armfuls of stuff and hopping on for a cheap ride home. I've seen mothers with babies, three or four people on one bike, drivers carrying loads better suited for a pickup truck... if there's a will, they make it happen. It would be comical to watch if I were not fearful for their lives!

The street venders are cool to watch too. Our bus stopped in this roadside town and we were swarmed with people selling food and sodas. Our trainers told us not to buy their food because it would be old and dusty. If you want street food, you need to go to the person doing the cooking and buy it hot off the grill. The vender in the next picture is standing on the roadside with a platter of stewered chicken on his head. In the third picture, another vender is holding up a platter to the truck driver and the Boda Bodas are just waiting for their next customer. People are just all over the street. And this is not a side road, this is the main (only) road from Kampala to Fort Portal. No highway system here! 

I will post pictures of my host family soon when I can figure out how to buy more internet access for my computer (those pictures were taken with an actual camera and uploaded to the computer). This post is coming from my iPhone because I took these shots with the iPhone. The technology is here, I just haven't quite figured it all out. 

Ogenda kurungi (wish you safe travels). 

Construction in Uganda

The few trips outside of the training facility that we have been able to go on, have left me wondering why there are so many half constructed buildings. I’ve seen these types of buildings in Kampala, the country capital, and also in Mokono, our closest town. I was told it was because Ugandan dream big. They get some money and want to build a large, beautiful structure, but nearly always run out of funds before they have finished. Then they just leave it as is, and tenants move into the lower floors. I asked why they didn’t build something they can afford and was told that nobody wants to construct a small building. Seems strange to me. I would rather have a competed one or two story structure rather than a third floor that was open to the sky. 

Here is our closest grocery store. They seem to have everything you need. I bought peanut butter, saltines, a Sprite, and nail polish remover; while I’m in training I really don’t need anything, just went to see what I could see. Took me an hour to walk there, but when you are operating on Ugandan time, that’s pretty good! Also note in the picture, this is a two lane road, but most time they drive three and four across. There is no regard for staying in one's own lane and the motorcycles will drive anywhere! 

This Saturday we leave for a month of home-stay/language immersion training. I can’t wait to get out to the west! I’m told it is very beautiful. On a clear day you can see the snow topped mountains. I am also told it is cold. Of course, I packed thinking I was going to a country that straddled the equator. No way was I going to be cold, but I have to admit, even here in Mokono, at night, I am cold. 

We have started language training. In the west, they speak Runyoro-Rotooro. They roll their r’s like the Spanish, which I am not very good at. Hopefully, I will be able to pronounce a few phrases properly, but I am off to a shaky start!

Siiba kurungi!  (stay well)

Site Assignments

We received our permanent site assignments last Friday. The Peace Corps staff and a few current volunteers made quite a show of the announcements. All of the trainees in my cohort seemed very pleased with their future locations. I will be working out of clinic that serves a community of tea farmers in the west. I’m told the area is beautiful, but very rural. We’ll see how I am able to cope living among the tea fields! I suspect there will be no running water and no electricity at my home and I will need to rely on the clinic to charge my laptop. We still have about two months of training until we move to our permanent sites so I can only speculate for now.  

After our site announcements we were treated to a show by some local musicians and dancers, which was amazing. Lovely afternoon. What I really wanted to highlight in this picture, besides the cool drummers, is how the gardeners turned a bougainvillea vine into a shade tree. They built a hexagon shaped support system around the trunk and trained the vines to grow up then outward to form the tree shape. There are a few of these on the property. I just love the idea and want to try to duplicate it when I get back to the states.  

Ugandan drummers under a bougainvillea "shade tree".

Ugandan clothes line.
It is a little strange to see clothes draped all over the trees and shrubs, and even laid out on the lawn, but I guess it does the trick if you don't have a line. We are washing our cloths by hand too, in a bucket, but our dorms have proper clothes lines out back. Hopefully my future site will as well. This building houses some of the workers here at the training center.

Welcome to Uganda!

It has been quite a first week and I have tons of thoughts and impressions. Maybe too many to get together into one post. 

My first impression is just how helpful and kind the Peace Corps staff is. I was a little surprised, at first, that all but three of the staff members are Ugandans. I guess I thought they would be Americans since the Peace Corps is an American organization. Now that I think about it though, it makes much more sense that our support staff is comprised of both Americans and Ugandans. I was also surprised at how much the climate and the vegetation reminds me of St Petersburg. Many of the plants look familiar which is comforting. However, the birds are very  different, and I can’t wait until I am able to do some birding.

The entry road to our training center. We have beautiful palms and other tropical vegetation.

The food is a bit different. We seem to be served lots of carbs. And multiple variations of carbs. It is typical to have four or five different starches with a small amount of meat or chicken, then pineapple or watermelon for dessert. You are not expected to select which carb either (rice, potatoes, pasta, chapata, matooke, posho), you pile them all on your plate together, then cover the whole things with sauce and beans. (I’ll get more into the local foods, what they are, how they’re made, and how they are actually spelt when I have time to do some research) The food is good, but it never changes. What you had for lunch will be there again for dinner and what you had yesterday will be there again today. 

A custom I love is the tea time! Twice a day, once around 10am and again around 4pm, we stop class for tea and a snack. Sometimes the snack is just popcorn, or it could be bananas or samosas (veggie filled, fried dough). I will definitely be gaining weight! 

I also love the fact that the weather here is beautiful. Tea times and many of our classes are held outside under the shade of a tent or a tree. The mornings are cool and foggy, then the sun comes up and the clouds start fluffy white, gradually darkening as the time approaches noon. It seems to rain once a day; a down pour for 30 minutes, then the sun comes back out and all is wonderful.

We have had very little time outside of the training compound so I only have a few pictures to share with you.

Veg stand right outside of the training center. 

Ugandan Bike Shop... Not sure about the selection but the roads are so poor, I'm now hoping I will not be required to ride a bike to work. The traffic is ridiculous too, no fancy bike lanes or trails like the States and no one observes any kind of  right-of-way rules.

Untethered cows walking down the road. They just seem to know where they're going because honestly, they are not held, their ropes are dragging freely behind them! This dirt road leads to the entry way to our training center.

Staging Complete!!!

My group of new and wonderful Peace Corps Trainees (we won't be actual volunteers until after swearing in upon completion of the three-month in-country training). 

Can you spot me? I'm far left, front row. 

Now off to our flight... Uganda, here we come!!!