Pictures

Yeah, I may have found a way to upload pictures! Here is the baboon I was talking about. Stay turned for more pictures if this post actually uploads properly. 

Internet Connections, Baboons, and other Ugandan Challenges

It seems like quite a while since I have been able to update this blog. I've been at me site for almost six weeks and in some ways, the time has flown in a whirlwind of activities, and in other ways, I feel as though time is standing still and I have accomplished very little so far.

My greatest challenge has been the ability to sign onto the internet. I've tried different carriers, bought computer modems and data packages, and convinced the estate management that I needed access to their wi-fi to do my job; all with very little success. In the US, that would have taken a day or two and I would be happily surfing the internet; in Uganda it took a month and I'm still unable to connect!

The time problem was mainly because I had to go to town for the modems and data packages. "Going to town," entails a full day of travel, which is so trying on its own that I am only able to manage it once a week, or every other week. If I am lucky, I can catch a ride with the clinic's driver when he makes a run to pick up supplies or transport a patient to the hospital. This means I have to plan my day around his schedule and of course, he does not speak English. Coordinating schedules with a language barrier can be added to the list of challenges I have encountered.

Back to the internet problem, I've discovered that I am so far out into the hills that the signal strength is too weak to use a commercial carrier. With that not an option, I requested to use the estate's internet and management wanted a formal request from Peace Corps. I requested that Peace Corps requests, and after a week, the IT manager signed me onto the wi-fi. Strange, but he would not give me the password, he required that I give him my laptop and he entered the password. I'm not sure why the hassle but the password is saved and my computer tells me I am online. Only problem is the connection is so slow that web pages time out before they can be opened. In other words, it's useless. Agh!

Right now I am using the clinic's computer which I hate to do. They need it for their work and I feel a little guilty about using it to update my blog. I could do Peace Corps research for my volunteer projects, but would prefer privacy when typing personal emails or updating my blog. Well, I may have to get over that.

So, other than internet connection and transportation issue... my house is still not complete! I'm in a guest house with kitchen staff serving me fried dough and potatoes every day! Yes, another challenge, my clothes are getting tight!! Six weeks with no control over my own diet is too much. I've tried communicating the preference for healthier food, but between the language barrier and the cultural prejudices (veggies are for poor people and it is insulting to serve them to a guest unless they are drowned in some kind of fattening sauce), I've resigned myself to eat whatever is put in front of me. Oh yeah, the house, the workers keep telling me the house will be ready on Sunday. Five weeks in a row, they say Sunday. I think there may be a language issue again and the only word they know is Sunday.

My last challenge that I will gripe about in this post is the baboons. One of the issues in Uganda is malnutrition and my supervisor at the clinic wants to start a project to encourage mothers to plant vegetable gardens to supplement the diets of their children. The problem is actually very sad and much more complicated than I can explain here, but the simple solution would be to grow veggies, cook them, and eat them, right? We can deal with the cultural issues and personal taste preferences later. Well, I've been to the worker villages and every time I bring up the idea of gardens and hear, "eh, the baboons." They can't grow vegetables even if they wanted to. The baboons either eat or destroy everything that is planted.

OK, I have just sat here for 30 minutes trying to upload a picture of a baboon that was crossing the street in front of the guest house I am staying in. Since you do not see a picture, I'm sure you can guess, my internet challenges are continuing even though I am on the clinic computer. I have learned that I am not a patient person by nature and these challenges are extremely frustrating! My next post will contain many pictures, I promise... well, I hope.

Road Block on the Estate

Life on the tea estate will be very different than anything I could have imagined. It is a one hour walk to the nearest store (I do not have a car so if I want to go anywhere, I walk, and nothing is close!), there is very limited internet access (which means fewer blog posts than I would like), and I must learn to share the road with cows (I sure hope they can't smell fear like dogs can, because they totally freak me out!).I've been on the estate for a week now and all is fine. My house is still not ready so I am in a guest house. I have kitchen staff catering to my every need. It is very nice, but I am ready to settle down and unpack my bags. I'm told, maybe next week. Once I am in my house, I will post before and after pictures. I don't want to show pictures of my house as it is now, because it's quite a mess. They are replacing windows, the front door, the flooring, fixing the roof and replacing the ceiling (yes, it was leaking and there was terrible water damage), tiling the bathroom, building a kitchen (original cooking area was outside), and painting.  A lot if work! Thank goodness   they did not plop me down in the house "as is".

There is not much to report on the work front. I am just visiting villages and observing the daily happenings at the clinic. I'm not quite sure what my role will be... feeling a little inadequate at the moment, but once I'm truly settled in, I'm sure I will be up for the job. The first three months are suppose to be observation and assessment anyway. In November, all of the volunteers will regather for another week of training, and then we are expected to start work. 

I must practice patience! 

Wabale kusoma. (thanks for reading) 

Which reminds me, I start with a language instructor next week so I'll have more Rutoore for you! Actually, my instructor is a teenage girl, maybe 16, 17, I'm not sure. She has finished Senior 4 (10th grade for us) and does not have money to continue her education. So, as far as I can understand, she has returned home and does odd jobs to earn money. She speaks ok English, but we may have difficulties understanding each other at first. The Peace Corps will pay a tutor up to five hours per week at 6000 shillings per hour. That's about $10/wk. Not much in US standard, but here it will easily buy a weeks worth of groceries, so not bad for five hours of work. I would like to find out what the tealeaf-pickers make, just to compare and to understand a little more about how they manage. Once I start teaching in the villages, I'll have pictures and stories from the workers for you. 

Jinja

For the past week, we have been in Tech Immersion. Which means being paired up with a seasoned volunteer to experience the true life of a Peace Corps volunteer. My Tech Immersion has been in Jinja. We are on our final day! A free day, so time to upload my pictures!

Main Street in Jinja. This town is in the east, right on Lake Victoria, where the Nile River starts. It is hot, dry, crowded,  dirty, and noisy (can you tell I was not impressed?). In this picture, on the right, do you see the mini van with the blue and white checks down the side? That is a Ugandan taxi, called a matatou. It is a bit of a joke here to see how many people you can fit into a matatou. My highest count has been 22, plus two chickens. Mind you, it is a mini van that should seat maybe 15. Squishing in, sitting on other's laps, leaning over top of people, and holding stranger's children are all acceptable behaviors in a matatou. These are not taxies, in the American sense, they are more like buses. They drive a set route and pick people up/ drop people off along the route. They have "stages" similar to our bus stops. Unlike American buses, the matatous have a conductor to set the price, depending on how far along the route you will travel. They see white people, and the price often doubles. One of the important lesson while in Uganda is to learn the correct prices of things, and haggle with the seller when you are given the muzungu (white person) price.

My tech immersion leader was Stephanie, and our group consisted of myself, Tyler, Kelly, Anita, Harmony, and Anna. We each had to prepare and present a topic. Mine was Maternal Nutrition, given to new and expecting mothers at a health clinic. Tyler gave WASH, Kelly gave HIV/AIDS, and Anita gave Tippy Tap, all to a group of children and young adults at an orphanage in the deep village. Harmony gave her presentation on Preventing Malaria to 20 children at a Primary school. And Anna gave a talk on Leadership to 15 young men at a community center.

This is a shot from my presentation. I had to work with a translator, which is very difficult. It is hard enough to connect with your audience, but imagine trying to do it when you do not speak the language! Most educated Ugandans speak English, but I suspect my audiences over the next two years will not be educated. Peace Corps volunteers work mainly with the very poor villagers that survive hand to mouth and only speak their own tribal language.
In this picture, the three with G's on their fronts, are Kelly, Harmony, and Tyler. They were acting as my "food group super heroes". In Uganda, they do not teach the food pyramid. They teach three food groups, Go (carbs), Glow (fruits and veggies), and Grow (protein). Malnutrition is a big problem here because people load up on carbs and eat very little of anything else. Rice, potatoes, maize, and millet are cheap and readily available. They also believe that fruit is for kids and meat is for men. This means I will be giving lots of talks to young women about their personal nutrition. Especially expecting and breastfeeding mothers.

These are pictures from the orphanage in the village. They gave us an awesome musical welcome.

Typical home in the village. Thank goodness, mine is not typical. I'll have pictures of my house soon. I'm told it's still being worked on so I may be in a guest house for a couple of days.

Can you see this boy's shirt? It's Boy Shouts of America! There are a lot of donated American clothes over here... our charity shop rejects I suppose, or church cloths drives.

Here is our Tech Immersion group with a few of the community members where Anna gave her presentation on Leadership. 

Of course, the week was not all work. These next couple of pictures are from the Source of the Nile. This is where Lake Victoria flows into (turns into) the Nile River. We took a boat ride to the mouth of the river and some actually got out of the boat to stand in the head waters. Not me... the water is contaminated and we are told there is a 30% change of contracting schistosomiasis (disease caused by  parasitic worms in the water... caused by open deification... so no, I was not getting in).

Where the water is moving, that is the Source of the Nile! They have tourist shops set up and many boaters will take people out. I'm told that during the dry season you can walk out there. Obviously, this is not the dry season. The water was moving pretty good and the motor on our little boat was struggling.

Of course, in true Repeta fashion, I found a bar overlooking the Nile and enjoyed a few beers as the sun went down.

The Tea Estate

My future site: Mcleod Russel Uganda Limited Tea Estate, Mwenge Health Center III.

First impression of the tea estate is awesome, how lucky am I, I can't believe I can call this place home for the next two years, and wow, I hope I can work effectively enough to earn my place here. And all of that was just the scenic beauty of the countryside.

Miles and miles of tea fields.

As far as the clinic is concerned, my first impression is holy crap, they do amazing work for the villagers, it is clean, calm, organized, well equipped, and the services they provide are far beyond anything I could have imagined. Since they are a Health Center III, most critical cases are sent to the neighboring Health Center IV. That leaves them to focus on supporting health living and preventative medicine. They work closely with the Village Health Team in outreach programs and education. They target expectant mothers and children, advocate a well balanced diet to combat malnutrition, provide family planning, malaria treatment, immunizations, and free testing and medications for HIV and other STDs.

I am a bit apprehensive about how I will fulfill my duty as a health volunteer. I can teach young adults the basics of nutrition, proper hygiene, and the importance of safe sex... well, I could if I could speak the language!

Oh yeah, the icing on the cake, I saw monkeys in the trees on my first night! It was close to sunset, I went for a short walk hoping to see some birds, and I spotted monkeys. They were very close and jumping through the tree tops to get a better vantage place to look at me. There was maybe 15 that I could see. They were black and white (mostly short black fur with two white stripes of longer white fur down their sides), they had a long black tail with a puff of long white fur at the tip, and they were medium size, bigger than a capuchin but smaller than a baboon. They were very cute, hoping around the branches and peering at me through the leaves.

Homestay Farewell

I've made it through homestay and language class!!!

The last couple of pictures of my homestay family. I will miss the children at the home. They were very sweet to me and worked very hard to ensure I was well cared for and always fed. I hope to see them occasionally during my two years in Uganda. My future site is about an hour drive, which may seem simple enough to navigate, but the hardest thing in this country to master will be the transportation. I don't have a car, the roads are too dangerous to ride a bike, I am not authorized to ride the motorcycle taxies (boda bodas), and the walk to the main road to catch a public taxi would take me about five hours (or however long it would take to talk 20km).  More about all of that later.

These are a few of the orphans. They seemed very positive and happy. I never heard fights or complaints, just lots of laughing and teasing one another, even though they had so little. Many of the aspects of my homestay experience were a challenge, but the kids are what kept me going.
Thanks guys!

Here is a game the younger ones played in the yard. Look how high they can jump! As a going away present I bought a couple of jump ropes so they can add more jumping games into there free time activities (the rope they were using in this picture was just regular old rope).

Runyoro/Rutooro Language Class

Here are a few pictures from my past week in Kyenjojo. Language training and homestay have both been a tremendous challenge for me. A week and a half to go!

Here are the nine of us that will be serving in the western part of Uganda. From left to right: me, David, Tom, James, Becca, Hope, Coy, Katie, and Danielle. We will be spread throughout the region, but I think remaining within an hour or two of each other. It is a wonderful group and I am thankful to have their support during this portion of the training. The language is getting the best of me and beyond simply greetings, I am lost. In all honesty, it's a difficult language because it's a spoken language, past down through the generations (not taught in schools), and I'm not the only one struggling. The grammar, spelling, and pronunciations are bizarre. 

These are some of the girls from my homestay family. They are playing with a deck of Uno cards that I brought from the US, but they prefer to play some kind of matching game rather than the actual Uno game. I tried to teach them the real game, and they will play it with me, but left on their own, they play the matching game. I think my homestay has been difficult because there are so many girls coming and going. They are all orphans and bounce around from homes to shelters. There are about ten regulars at the house that I have gotten to know, and another ten that may look familiar, but I couldn't tell you their names or backstory. The parents (pastors and the founders of the actual shelter that houses 90 children) are rarely home either, so the girls fend for themselves and do their best to take care of me. They are very sweet, I'm just overwhelmed!

My new yard pets. I'm enjoying the chickens that run around. It the comic relief at the end of a hard day in language class. I hope to have a few when I get to my own home. 

This is Moreen. She came to the home at age 11. She is now 20, finished with school, and stays at the house to do the cooking and cleaning. I would be lost without her!

I saw this bamboo fence while walking around the neighborhood. I thought it was well made, very pretty, and a welcome relief to all of the barb wire strung up around here. 

Ugangan cake... Can you tell from the picture how horrible it was?!!! Hard and dry. That was the worst cake I have ever eaten. We went to a wedding and there was one if these cakes on every table. The Ugandan guests seemed to be enjoying them. It was only the table of American guest that were unable to choke it down. 

This was a fountain at the hotel we stopped at before the wedding. A monkey spitting water! The bride and groom actually got pictures taken by the fountain. Now that's class!

I'll finish with a beautiful pineapple plant. There are two kinds of pineapples here; the one found in our US grocery stores and a smaller, sweeter one. The fruits are the only saving grace for me as far as food is concerned. I will have to do a blog entry at some point on what the locals eat. Hint... Don't come to Uganda for the food! You will be crying for home by the week's end.