Yesterday I tried talking to our day guard sam. He is in his early twenties and doesn’t have much education so his English is not the best but he takes care of the compound as well as lets us in during the day. I feel guilty because we are technically paying him about a dollar a day, thus perpetuating extreme poverty…but he does have an apartment in the back so I’m hoping that it is okay. Anyway, yesterday morning I showed him another huge ant trail. The ants are merciless here. They maneuver and smash themselves inside your shoes and out of nowhere a searing pain (mostly because of the shock value)causes a mini freak out when they bite.

Last time we had an ant incident he took care of it quickly. He got gasoline and watered it down, then splashed the ants and killed them really effectively. So we had another broken conversation about killing the ants which included me promising to give him the equivalent of a quarter to buy a little bit of gasoline. I totally spaced it until we came back in the evening. I brought it up with him again and apologized for not giving him money. The conversation went something like this.

“sam, I’m sorry for not giving you money, can I now give you money?”

The respondant look of confusion caused me to make the universal money sign by rubbing my fingers together.

“you know, money for the gasoline? Petroleum? To kill the ants?”

Still confusion.

Melissa and I made little motions as if we were ants crawling

“Can I give you money for the insects?”

Sam responded

“Sex?”

sorry it's been a while, I'll do better

This week was insane. Part of the delay in my blog update is explained below. I would have updated in the past three days but we had a huge storm one day, power outage the next, and then internet was down another.

Last week on Monday we had 9 sick volunteers who had been throwing up through the night and 3 who had diahhrea. Tuesday I took Stacy to the doctor who had a throat infection. Wednesday I took Andrew to the hospital who is now being treated for malaria. Thursday we took Becca to the hospital in Kampala because her back is hurting her a lot and she previously needed surgery on it. Brook was in bed for three days with heat flashes and the chills. People had things stolen this week, more people got sick in waves, elections happened and were really intense, and a group went to kampala on Friday for domino's,lost two wallets and didn’t get home until 2am. It was a rough week. But give us a week and we will hopefully be able to laugh it all off.

When we went to Kampala on Thursday, Becca, Ivan, Mellissa, and I bargained for a while and waited for a taxi until we finally started our trek into the city. We arrived in kampala about 90 minutes later and hopped on two boda’s who were to take us to the international hospital. Sadly, Ivan told them the wrong hospital and so after swerving in-between cars and busses and even hopping a medium and turning into oncoming traffic (a policeman drove up next to the motorcycle after that maneuver and yelled at him and then yelled at us for not yelling at him) we ended up across town at the wrong hospital. When we finally reached the international hospital, the boda drivers charged three times as much. We argued and eventually had to give them a little over twice as much as we initially bargained. Instead of $1.50 each motorcycle, we paid $3.50. We entered the westernized hospital and Becca saw a phillipino doctor around 2:30 pm who referred her to a specialist at 5. So we went to the embassy on more boda’s. The consulate was closed so we went to a grocery store self titled “the embassy grocery store” and were really excited about buying oatmeal.

At this point Melissa and ivan had other errands to run and needed to make it back home, so went their separate way. Becca and I saw the doctor, got xrays, a prescription, and the name of a hotel that had a store underneath it where we may be able to buy a back brace. It was basically a scavenger hunt, racing against the sun. We hopped on yet another boda and went across town, ironically close to the first wrong hospital of the day and were dropped off, got a brace and went back outside with vague directions to where to pick up a cab back to Lugazi. Ironically we had to motorcycle to get becca a back brace, but just pretend that is logical. I was getting nervous as the day came to an end because we had a long trip home and Uganda at night is a completely different place than Uganda during the daylight. We started walking in the direction of a man’s waving hand and then asked someone else who sent us walking perpendicular to our trajectory. Finally I asked a girl who was about our age to take us. She was a saint and walked through alleys and through a night market to get us to a hectic taxi park. There were hundreds of taxi’s (aka minivans that have four seats of three but somehow manage to frequently squeeze in well over twenty people). She helped us ask and found that we can’t get directly to Lugazi. So, we went halfway home, waited again in the dark, and then got on another very crowded bus to town. It was election night and there was a lot of partying going on so we jumped on boda number…I don’t even know, and booked it home. Besides being stopped by a group of drunk twenty something year olds who were up to no good (yes I'm embracing that I sound like a grandma with that statement), had our boda driver not taken off with a jolt, we arrived home safe and sound. I am grateful for our no traveling after dark rule and plan to obey that.

Friday night before we saw a bunch of kids perform traditional African dance which once again made me in awe at the African gene to dance. It’s got to be genetic. They had rattles on their ankles, some half hula skirt and a fur around their waist and would put shakira to shame if she were to see how they shake it. There were a few boys playing the drums who were equally as talented. The dance troop performs, most are orphans, and the money they make from performances fund their school fees.

On Saturday we went rafting on the Nile. It was amazing. Probably one of the top ten things I’ve done while on vacation in my life. Yes, I realize I made another sweeping absolute statement, I just can’t help myself. Some went bungee jumping before but around 10 am we all separated into boats of 8 people and my group included our Ugandan guide Sadun who is hilarious and awkwardly gave me a hug at the end and asked for my number infront of all of his other rafting buddies. We rafted through three class 5 rapids, two class 4, and about five class 3. We flipped during one where I got hit by drew and then by the boat. I thought I might die.
That being said, It was so fun and I’m going to go again with the mindset of what sacrifice I’m going to put my body through. I once again had to face the reality that 1. My arms are really weak. 2. Doxycyclene + 8 hours in the sun without any shade = major sunburns. 3. Inhaling Nile water causes my body to naturally cleanse itself. I have been daydreaming of the good old days when I was a little more comfortable. Days when I took for granted things like, being able to choose when I go to the bathroom instead if it choosing me. I’m also thinking back to this time last year when I actually PAID for a cleanse. I’m ridiculous.

We ended up going down about 17 miles of the Nile which was breathtaking. (if you are curious, which I was, it takes 3 months to raft to Egypt). And I always assumed that rivers should run north to south because of a gravititational pull. It’s just logical. But the Nile obviously missed that physics lesson.

During our trek we paddled past lush Ugandan countryside with hills and mountains on both sides. We also passed villages with people washing their clothes (pronounced clothe-ez here). There were places we were able to get out and swim and tried to overtake another boat pirate style.

We were able to stop for sandwiches, potato salad, pineapple, and watermelon at lunch time and we all felt like we were in heaven.

The weekend was great. We officially have a day guard who I need to keep reminding of his responsibilities considering I spent ten minutes banging on our fence in a really heavy rainstorm to eventually get let in by a sick volunteer. We should have a refrigerator tonight, and we are taking legal action against the guy that we think stole from us. Such are the adventures here in the pearl of africa.

bugs

Yesterday we all were having a good time together. We celebrated Aly's birthday and went to church, ate etc. but in the middle of the night something got us.

Basically a virus is wiping everyone out. We have 9 volunteers at home, 6 throwing up, 2 with diarrhea, and one with a sinus infection. Not only that, but our computer is also infected with something funky because it wont work.

awesome.

Luckily we have good contacts and talked to the mission president who said it's totally normal and should expect about 24 hours of sickness to get whatever the bug is out of everyones systems. for now we left out the BRAT diet snacks and are hoping for the best.

After cleaning out a bucket of throw up and bleaching the bathrooms again, melissa and I walked, disheveled, out of our house. When we closed the gate, we looked at each other and just started laughing. We remembered the fact that last night we were discussing the potential of this week being smoother than last week. :)

The sick people are in high spirits despite their un-comfort and we are taking the sinus infection volunteer to our landlord the doctor this afternoon (he practiced in australia for many years). We also can get good antibiotics over the counter here so we will get these guys better.

p.s. Andrew Harrison is not sick.

May 15, 2009

Our group is here! All 28 of us. It’s kind of out of control but also pretty fun. We now have running water which is a great improvement and Melissa and I anticipate the day our mattresses that we washed about 10 days ago will dry completely. Everyone seems to be getting a long great so far. It could definitely be the honeymoon phase but we are all having a really good time together and will hopefully have some good projects coming up in the near future. Some of the things Melissa and I set up for this week included meeting with the Sanyu school.

Prosper grew up an orphan but was sponsored by a school for school and board and really loved by her teachers. When she married Pastor Francis she wanted to give back through education. So, they started Sanyu (that is her Ugandan name) school from a seven room house. They lived in three of the rooms and started with 6 students. Each year they expand a classroom to fit the senior class and have one more year to expand to make it seven years with seven classes. They are struggling to find the finances for this last building. In Uganda you have to take a standardized test to get into middle school and need a “hole” or a hall for both the seventh grade and to administer the standardized test at your school to be considered legitimate and eventually be sponsored by the government. The problem is, they need $3000 USD to do it. Micro credit loans will only give up to $300 with almost a 30% interest rate. The bill for complete funding is currently over half of all of our project funds for the summer so we can’t do it alone. They would also want to use it as a meeting place for women’s groups and a community center. So, I’m going to try to find other NGO’s around Uganda that specialize in schools and see if we can partner with them.

When Melissa and I arrived and were struggling to find housing for 28 people in a poor community, Pastor and Prosper took us around for 7 hours one day, completely dropping what they were doing to help us find housing. Prosper stayed with us for almost three days straight helping us get the best prices on all the house supplies and teaching us how to clean the house here. They have four kids of their own and have adopted three orphans. I am amazed with this couple and know that they sincerely just want what is best for their community. We are going to do some teacher training, fix their adobe stove, build square foot gardens for each grade (so they can learn math and incorporate some more nutrition with applicable life skills) and teach business classes to the 53 moms whose children go to Sanyu school but who can’t afford the small tuition fee. Sanyu and Pastor Francis can’t turn them away and in turn, can not make enough money to expand. Although their school is humble, they have been getting recognition from the community because they try to instill in the children a love of learning and also really grow attached to the kids.

To get the community involved we were thinking of having those families who cannot afford tuition donate labor to building to pay for tuition. We were also thinking of having the kids work on the school for about an hour a day so they also have ownership. We haven’t promised anything, but I am also hoping for a miracle so we can help them with their school.

Kizza


Kizza is a man whose love of life radiates from his countenance. We built something like 15 adobe stoves with him last year and in the year since HELP Intl has been gone, his community built about 35 more. Adobe stoves are important because they save on fuel costs and time, but most importantly, women traditionally cook over open fire in their homes and get respiratory disease and very irritated eyes. Children would suffer as well. We are helping him now build a mushroom house for his womens group which after about $200 of investment, it would help support up to 16 families. I want to include in the contract that a percentage of the money earned must be saved for their children’s schooling. Kizza is so excited about life and one day said, “I may not be rich, but I am happy.” When I heard that statement, I was really impressed by its simplicity. For some reason it is such a puzzle for most of the world. He has found happiness through his family and giving back to his community.

The whole time I’ve been here I’ve wondered if it is our place to get involved in these peoples lives. I’ve been trying to partner as much as possible with the community and figure out feasible ways for more of a loan system instead of hand outs to help foster self sustainability instead of dependency. There is a woman from Kampala that Melissa met who goes around to schools and communities and gives speeches to Ugandans about the need for them to step-up and give back to their communities. She says that they need to stop waiting for Muzungu’s to come in and if they see a problem, figure out a way to fix it themselves. Melissa’s friend Clint was in Uganda for a conference and said something similar to us, he said, “stop thinking that you can’t do something. We put way too many limits on ourselves and when we say we can’t, our brain shuts down. Instead turn it into a question and ask, HOW can I do this. This forces your mind to work through the problem and you continuously ask how, you will attain much more in your life.” I like this organization because we can incorporate that by ideally “helping them help themselves”. We try to ask them how they want to solve their problems and then see if we can offer any assistance. All of our projects need to have a lasting impact to foster self sustainability and if we can help speed up the development process, even just a little bit to help small businesses, or increase health, it’s worth it. I think I will always question our involvement in the development process. There is a very delicate balance of how much we should give vs. how much we should expect from the people we are helping. One project I’m excited about is an HIV/AIDS youth outreach group that has 100% volunteers who go to schools and talk about protection, abstinence, and the importance of getting tested. We are partnering with them to build a HUGE adobe stove in the local, very under-funded, hospital. I think the more there are partnerships, the better. We are planning to run with their ideas and to mostly just support them in their mission.

I love it here. Being over the logistics of the group cuts my ability to pursue my own projects, but I love where I am. I'm excited to learn from our volunteers and continue to learn from the people we are working with.

5/10

Our volunteers are here!! Well, all but 5 who are coming in tonight. 18 of them arrived, a little frazzled, after over 24 hours of travel. We had to rent 3 mini busses to get everyone back and naturally, in my car, there was a spontaneous combustion of about 10 minutes of lion king songs. I am sure it was all the condensed oxygen in the airplane.

Everyone is excited to be here and Melissa and I have laughed at ourselves wondering if we are going to chill out at all this summer. Probably not. We are quite a conspicuous group walking around Lugazi. Before our group arrived, Melissa and I were the only muzungu’s around. Now we move in an overwhelming pack that looks like a colorfully dressed ghost parade to all those we pass. We are naturally quite entertaining to the cute little kids around town who pause to get up enough courage to yell, “muzungu!” at us.

Speaking of people yelling muzungu (white person) at us, I was talking to our compadre Ivan who was laughing about the inverse and was sure that if he were to go to America how everyone would yell “BLACK PERSON!” at him. I tried to explain that most likely, that would never happen in America.

The 18 volunteers got in Friday night to no running water (they might turn it back on Tuesday or Wednesday) and we’ve been using a lot of well water to do everything. Saturday we woke up and the newbies went on a scavenger hunt throughout the town to the bank, buy fruit from the market, buy water from the grocery store, and email home. We then met for lunch and went back to the house to get ready to ride to jinja, the source of the nile. We road a boat across lake Victoria to where the nile river begins. It has a 400ft deep spring that mixes with the lake water to start the river. I never really thought about how rivers begin so it was really interesting. Some of the group went back to swim in a swimming pool at a hotel and the rest of us stayed out and swam in the lake. There are some areas of the lake with alligators, but luckily considering how huge lake Victoria is, there are plenty of swimmable areas as well. I wouldn’t have gone swimming if there was any chance of an alligator sighting.

We got back, ate dinner, and then went to African Paradise, which lived up to its name in rhythm and groove. Just kidding. It’s a small-town dance club that was a lot of fun. Auntie Peggy’s daughter Barbara came with us and we spent the night jumping around and laughing. We have one volunteer in particular who dances like no one I have ever seen. It’s pretty amazing and I’ll keep trying to learn moves from him to bring home. He’s able to move but somehow stay really stiff at the same time. When we walked in, they played this regae song about obama, and then continued to replay it about 8 times. The lyrics include “hero,hero, hero, obama is our hero. Hero, hero hero, an African warrior…”

Our group is already bonding a lot. It’s a pretty eclectic group of people but no one with a sand paper type personality. Everyone is leaning on people they knew before but also willing to have fun together and get to know other group members. It’s going to be fun. Melissa and I scheduled a lot of activities for this week and hopefully people can use them as a spring board for next week.

I was talking to our cook Mary last night for a while. She’s from southern sudan and saw a lot of fighting in the war before she left with her three children. She left her husband in Sudan to work and sees him about every three months. We were talking about Al Bashir and how evil he has become and I asked what she thinks needs to be done. She said simply, “he needs to be stopped.” I continued to ask if she thinks that there should be international help and she said yes. She’s just waiting for him to die or imprisoned so she can go home. It is so ironic that I went to a couple of darfur rallies, a convention, and read a book last year in DC but I will never really understand what the conflict has been to people on the ground.

Well, I have five minutes to get ready for the day. Happy mothers day to all you mothers that read!

5/6

5/6/09

Yesterday:
1. We moved all of the HELP gear from storage in Mukono, a town 30 minutes away. The highlight of the adventure was almost having my hand bitten off by a mouse when I reached into a garbage bag to pull out our kitchen stuff. Its whole family had been nesting all over our stuff and the mom darted out so fast that I only caught a glimpse of something grey. The baby that tried to bolt fell out of the bag and hit the floor in all the commotion to scurried away after the mom. There may have been more family members but I was too busy trying not to freak out to notice. The mouse family really made themselves at home in our stuff aka, mouse poo on everything. We are now cleaning everything: 12 bed frames, 10 mattresses, a lot of cords which were eaten through, chairs, kitchen things, games, books, etc.
2. We then got our stuff from the mayor’s house and hauled it out to our new place.
3. The following 6 hours were kept us busy killing spiders, cleaning spider webs, nests, and insect wings off the bed frames and washing the floors African style, by using rags on the floor. I also tried to carry a big tub of soapy water on my head and lasted about 10 seconds before spilling down the front of me and our friend Prosper (awesome name I know) coming to my rescue.
4. We then went in to town. We got food, got frustrated with dail-up internet, and signed our housing contract with the mayor.
5. Upon returning home, we sat down for a few minutes to eat and then tried to move our beds upstairs and failed…miserably. It was exactly like the friends episode where Rachel and Ross are trying to move the couch.
6. I then went into the upstairs bathroom. There was a leak in the sink and we had 3 inches of water that gathered in a puddle in the corner. So I got even more dirty (hard to believe at this point) and used the towel mopping method to squeeze the water into the tub.
7. I then tried to shower. The water ran for about 30 seconds and then drizzled to nothing. While standing in my towel over the tub with dirt lines that resembled tan lines, I just stared. Waiting. Hoping for a drip of water to fall out of the faucet. After our day of insanity this experience almost put me over the edge. Luckily, Melissa is even tempered and suggested that we shower outside. It ended up being the best thing that has probably ever happened to me (I find myself speaking in absolutes a lot lately). So, we went outside and showered in the rain-water stores. My bad mood of standing in my towel complaining to a patient Melissa turned into a refreshing fun experience as we bathed in our bathing suits under an almost full moon.
8. We came back in and caught a glimpse of a huge cockroach living in our bathroom. In the US of A I tend to talk to insects that I see and cut them a deal with the, I won’t bother you if you don’t bother me mentality or I’ll put them outside more frequently than I kill them. Here, I’ve digressed to Lord of the Flies tactics, every man for himself. These little guys are the African breed. So instead of getting some funky incurable disease, I hunt them down and destroy them. He, the roach, was elusive last night but Andrew Harrison just arrived today with Jake and killed him tonight. I still talk to insects but it’s more trash talking than deal striking now a days.
9. The final hurrah of last night was the beautiful moment my mosquito net fell down on me and then the ensuing debate of malaria vs. suffocation enter my delirium. Suffocation won and I woke up in a sweat at 5:45 to start another day!

One other experience. There are a crowd of kids throughout Namengo, the area of Lugazi that we are living in, who are adorable. I don’t know what they do day to day but they seem to always be outside and always drop whatever it is that they were doing, which could have very well been minimal, and yell either “How are yoou?” “Muzungu! Muzungu!” or “Bye Muzungu!” when they see us. There was a group of three little guys, all under five years old, who were in a pasture area by our house yesterday. We walked out of the house and when they saw us they waved fervently and yelled “BYE MUZUNGU!” We laughed, waved and said “bye!” We then passed a tree and blocked their vision of us for about 2 seconds, they then, upon seeing us again yelled “BYE MUZUNGU!!!” We smiled, waved and said “bye!” Then we passed a cow and guess what happened? Well, you can probably guess. Yup, for the third time we got an equally enthusiastic, waving as high in the air as their little arms could reach, “BYE MUZUNGU!” by this point we were laughing out loud. The kids here are so adorable.

The men on the other hand usually have some marriage comment or proposal associated with the Muzungu comments. I could be the ticket to a lot of green cards. Maybe I’ll have my own side business. I’m trying to beat Melissa in proposals and so far, am dominating. She is winning in other events of the overall competition. She is dominating at little children crying or running away when she makes eye contact with them (3) and drunk men wanting to dance with her (2) there are others who have proposed to her as well.

Andrew and Jake arrived today. I’m excited for them to be here.

I can't believe how much we pack in.

Happy May Day! I want to write about two experiences we’ve had in the past 2 days. Yesterday the mayor, Deo took us on a tour to the sugar plantation in Lugazi. We drove up behind the plantation to a village (called Kowolo or Kowoto) on the top of a mountain. It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. We could see a panoramic view of valleys of sugarcane, tea, and some scattered housing. The clouds were vibrant as the sun was starting to set. There were a group of men playing soccer on a field with three pieces of wood pieced together as a goal. The people who lived in the village are of the Acholi tribe, or northern Ugandans. They look different than southern Ugandans. Very dark, thin, and tall. The women are very beautiful. This was the first place where I saw kwashiorkor, or children with protruding stomachs. The workers in that village earn less than a dollar a day and are migrant. They move every couple years to different plantations. They also don't seem to see very many white people or "muzungu's." When Melissa looked at a baby, probably about 6 months old, the baby screamed and started crying. I think she thought Melissa was a ghost.

As we sat and Deo talked to the women who were making brooms from wheat(?) or some similar looking weed, he talked to us about the government not providing any resources for these people. He asked and found that if we were to build a chicken coop or something to get the children more protein that their employers (the sugar company) would not allow it. As we talked about business and asked them what type of businesses they would like to start, more women came out to show us their skills; beautiful crochet and knitted table settings, chair pads, and hot pads, intricately woven mats, and then a woman told me that she knows how to sew and wants to teach other women those skills. After Deo prompted us, we gave a speech and it was humbling to see how much hope the women had just from us being there. It’s overwhelming to think about them connecting US to their attainment of their dreams. We want to work up there and set up some business, ideally through loans, but I’m not sure how to do it in four months.

Today we went on some errands, ate our first rolex…which was amazing. It’s chippati (a thicker tortilla thing that is pretty greasy) with fried egg and tomato all rolled up. We also had avocado sandwiches with probably the biggest and best avocado I’ve ever eaten.

Today we went to Deo’s rally to support him and once again got better treatment than we deserve. I don’t know why it is in people’s minds here, but without this coming across weird, they think that westerners are inherently superior than they are in some way. At least they treat us that way. It makes me feel bad. Then again, we are here to “teach them” how to help themselves. So, we do take on that role to a degree. I wish that we could emphasize more that this is a mutually beneficial exchange. We are getting just as much if not more from our interactions with them as they are from us.

Anyway, enough on that tangent. We went to the rally. They said it started at two but it turns out, it really started at 3. Within that hour of waiting, we found ourselves all decked out in Deo gear and fully entertained by a couple of mentally well, unstable people dancing. It was VERY entertaining and the MC on this truck with huge speakers also kept giving us shout outs. He made some comments like “Deo is uniting the world” or “welcome to all races and colors” “we don’t care about if you are black or white…” it was awesome. When the crowds really started to gather, they escorted us up to the “important people” section and we ended up sitting with the town council members and right next to Deo. We were feeling a little uncomfortable considering by that point we had yellow bandanas and flags representing him and I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that we shouldn’t get involved politically. Anyway, the rally was exciting with some professional singers who preformed and a lot of speeches, all in Luganda. When the mayor got up he invited Melissa and I to come to the little stand/stage. We stood up there and were in awe at the number of people all gathered. There were probably around 2,000 people. He then told them all that we are here from America to help them. He had us introduce ourselves (both our English and Ugandan names) and everyone cheered. It was all a little odd and yet hilarious at the same time. We got down and experienced Lugazi’s version of paparazzi with one guy taking pictures of us from a cannon digital camera. After Deo’s speech, there was some more dancing and we got up and tried to not embarrass ourselves. I don’t think my body can move even the way that their 3 year olds can here. It’s amazing. We were hoping to be done with our festivities at that point but Deo told us to go with “madam” who looked stunning in a beautiful orange dress with gold embroidered throughout. Anyway, we got in the car with her and continued for the next half hour to parade…literally, around the town. We waved and I had to stop myself from giving his thumbs up sign to everyone we saw. I guess with all our waves and smiles going out the window we also threw out our impartiality in Lugazi politics.