Here is Your Hen!

Ogamba ki? Ki kati? What’s up?

Since I have reached the resource center at 6:45 AM, after having left for school at 5:55 and waking up at 5:15, I thought it would be a good time to catch up on my blog. For some reason, my little brother had to be at school at 6:30 AM and thus we had to leave very very early. The resource center wasn’t even open by the time we got here at 6:25. I don’t understand my family sometimes, especially when they wake me up at 5:30 and expect me to be ready to leave ASAP, so I’m starting to become REALLY excited about the prospect of living on my own by the start of next week.

But anyways, about our Eastern Excursion! The purpose of this excursion was to learn more about life in rural Uganda, and to spend 3 nights in a rural homestay in the county of Busia near the border of Kenya. Our first day of driving brought with it many interesting adventures, the first of which occurred as we crossed the bridge over the Nile river. We had been informed earlier in the semester to be careful when taking pictures of Ugandans and other government buildings and structures. HOWEVER we were definitely not informed that this bridge and the dam were part of the government structures that we weren’t supposed to take pictures of. So when a boy on the program named Eric pulled out his camera and took a picture from the window of our van, all three of our taxis were pulled over by an army official who proceeded to take Eric’s camera away from him and tell us that he would take us all to be locked up for the day! After A LOT of discussion (and hefty bribing by our Academic Directors), they finally deleted the picture and gave the camera back. When we were on our way again, Martha (one of the ADs) shared with us that bribing of government and army officials, as well as policemen, is such a way of life here that our ADs can write it off to the office in Vermont and be reimbursed!

After this crazy adventure, we finally reached Mbale, where we had the chance to go to the Child Restoration Outreach organization that rehabilitates and resettles street children in the Mbale area. It turned out to be a really cool program – the kids take classes at the organization, receive meals during the day and basically have a chance to just be kids while they are at the center. After learning about the organization, those of us who wanted to could stay with the kids until lunch time, which of course I did. Together we danced with whichever little child had latched onto us and declared us their favorite Mzungu (my little girl’s name was Sandra). We also took many pictures of them, but I forgot my camera so I’ll have to steal someone else’s once they put them up. I’m so happy I’ll be doing something with children for my practicum in less than a week!

Aside from that, the most exciting thing about the trip was our rural homestay! I was paired with a girl in our group named Lara, which worked out so well for me because she’s very easy going and hilarious, making our interactions with our family who didn’t speak any English much more interesting and enjoyable. It’s very hard to describe what the village that we stayed in was like – it was spread out over many kms, and each family’s compound had between 3 and 6 little huts/houses in it for different activities. Like most other members of the community, our dad was a peasant farmer who did mostly subsistence farming. Lara and I had a difficult time figuring out what our family’s income was like – while they living with mostly only basic necessities, they also owned a radio and a few guitars and could afford to send all of their children to school. Our mom did report though that poverty is a problem with sending kids to school, so they must still struggle. Oh! Basically none of the compounds had electricity or running water, so at night it was dark enough to see the Milky Way! It was the most gorgeous experience that I’ve had since being here and I wish I could have captured it on film.

There were many comical things about our experience in the rural homestay. In Uganda, when you are a guest in someone’s house, the way that they show you that they are happy to see you is by bringing you endless amounts of food and beverages. Luckily, we had a translator help us on our first night there to tell our family that neither Lara nor I ate meat. Over the course of our 3 days with the family, we were brought heaping bowls of: posho, rice, tomatoes, eggs, beans, greens, gnuts, biscuits, sesame balls, donuts, sweet bread, bananas, green oranges, and these weird grape things that made our lips go numb! That’s not even including all of the milk tea and soda that we were brought every few hours. Each night at dinner, Lara and I would take turns finishing different things so as not to be rude and insult our mom who had spent all day cooking these meals for us. There would be times when we thought we could manage the amount of food that we had been served and then 5 minutes later our mom would bring out 3 more heaping bowls of food! It was epically comical.

By far, however, I have to say that my favorite experience was organizing bicycle boda-bodas to take Lara and I illegally across the Kenyan border! We rode through the farms and the marsh for only about 2-3 kms before we reached the border of Kenya, which was marked only by a small stream cutting across the papyrus stalks. Of course there was no one guarding the border, and we passed many women walking to the market in Busia, Kenya, carrying foodstuffs and other goods on their heads (a skill I still want to learn!) to sell in the market. Lara and I even bought some of our own fabric in the market in Kenya using Ugandan shillings! It was the most surreal experience that I’ve had, and one of the ones that I will look back on and say, “That’s right, I really was in Africa.”

I also think that we met basically every single member of the community in Buyengo (the parish that we were staying in), including the born-again pastor who preaches to pretty much all of the families. He was an interesting character who had been doing seminary work since the age of 15 (he was 22). He asked us so many questions about the US, including many of the rumors that we heard throughout our stay. Apparently people in rural Uganda are under the impression that: if you have more than 2 children, the US will chase you out of the country; when couples get married they sign a contract for a 6 year marriage and when they have a certain number of kids then they get divorced…just many many misconceptions about the US. I have no idea who’s spreading these rumors, but even our family did not believe us when we told them that we had never ever heard of such things happening in the US! Another thing about this pastor: we were convinced multiple times that he was about to try to save us. On our last night together, he gathered us all in our family’s main house and said a prayer for everyone. The prayer started out quiet but fast, interjecting “oh my father” and “oh my lord” in between every 3 words. It started to get faster and faster, like you would imagine any born-again prayer sounding, except the way he was talking was so creepy in a hilarious way that I kept silently bursting into laughter and I kept forcing myself to think about slaughtering chickens because it was all that would come to mind that would make me sad enough to stop laughing! What an experience.

I think that covers just about everything from our excursion. As always, check out the pics (aka “snaps”) on facebook! I’m not sure when I’ll be posting next, because in about a week we’ll be starting our practicums, and I’ll be headed to Gulu to work with some organization and hopefully researching different traditional and alternative methods of psychological and psychosocial healing for former abductees/child soldiers. I’ve heard that internet in Gulu could be pretty unreliable, so don’t worry if I don’t respond to anything for awhile. Until the next time!

Siiba bulungi! Weeraba!

Living the Life - Uganda Style

While I still feel an extreme dislike for Kampala and its hustle and bustle, I am definitely feeling more adjusted to it, and I sometimes even feel like I can fit in! Well, maybe I wouldn’t take it that far, but I can definitely hold my own when navigating the city and interacting with my family. Especially when I am at home, I think I have a much better connection with my brothers and my family. The past 2 Sundays I helped my family make lunch and some desserts. Want to know what we had for lunch? PIZZA!! It was quite possibly one of the best pizzas I’ve ever eaten, with vegetables and homemade crust and even cheese (which we never get here). My mom also made a really good pea and carrot soup cooked with eggs, which was also delicious. And to top it all off, I helped to bake an apple pie and a cake! I have to say, Sundays are the most enjoyable eating days, that’s for sure.

This past week I also spent some time just hanging out with my brothers and I actually am startling to feel like they are my true brothers. Especially when I want to kick them out of my room for beating each other up on my bed! Some nights they come home late and I’ll just be reading or journaling in bed, and they come plop down on my bed and start telling me stories or riddles or asking me questions about why American governments have no corruption. These talks have come to be one of my favorite things about my evenings.

I learned some cool things about my family this week. For one, when I was doing my family tree assignment, I learned that 3 of my brothers were actually adopted from my dad’s brother, who passed away when the boys were very young. The thing is though that none of my siblings know that any of them have been adopted – my mom did not want to tell them and make them feel sad or different from my other brothers. Isn’t that crazy! So some of my siblings are actually cousins, but they all just act like brothers. I don’t even know which ones are the ones that are adopted. I guess it is a good way for none of them to feel any different. OMG and on Sunday my dad was in the newspaper for being one of Kamapala’s BILLIONAIRES!! Meaning that my family is probably worth at least a few million US dollars! I’m pretty sure it’s unfair to be staying with a family here that makes more than my family at home, but that totally explains why we have 2 cars and an expensive stove and 3 house helpers and a gate keeper…I could go on. But really, my life here – it’s just ridiculous.

About getting around in the city – I can totally use my Luganda to ask for a bottle of water and pay for it, all without speaking English! I also bargain for my ride up the hill to my house on the boda-boda every night without using English, and tell them when they are overcharging me, how much I can pay, and where I am going. Those boda rides are also one of my favorite things about the evenings, because they are so different that they remind me that I am in a different county in a very exhilarating way.

And finally, I can proudly say that I have explored the night life in Kampala as well! On Saturday, a huge group of SIT students went to Garden City (the Western type mall and surrounding area of Kampala with a lot of nice restaurants) to eat Sushi and Indian food. The restaurant that we went to was called Kyoto, and we sat outside in what felt like a candlelit, backyard garden. The food was great (I had Miso soup!), the atmosphere was peaceful, and even the bathrooms were nice! The meal was way expensive (for Kampala – I think I paid around 12 dollars for a huge bento box with noodles, potato pancake, avocado sushi, veggies, salad, rice, miso soup and fruit) but definitely worth it for a one time thing. After dinner, the group of us when to a popular bar and restaurant called Matteo’s, where a lot of mzungus and more young Ugandans go. They had popular music, and we drank a few Nile beers (you’re right Michael, everyone has picked their favorite one already!) and tried the Rwenwaggi – a type of gin made out of sugarcane which is only 2,000 USh for a shot…the equivalent of about $1! After having our fair share of the crowded bar, we walked across the street to a club called Ruge (sp?) that had dancing, loud music, and free champagne for the ladies because it was international women’s day! All in all, it was a great way to let off steam from the week.

Sadly, it turned out that letting off steam was not so great for my immune system, and I spent Sunday in bed feeling like I was either going to throw up from coughing so much or faint from being so overheated. Since I woke up feeling even worse on Monday, I went in to the clinic where they basically told me I have an upper-respiratory infection, whatever that means, and gave me some prescription ibuprofen, cough syrup and some other antibiotic to take at night. As most of you know, I usually wouldn’t be taking medicine for feeling a little flu-like, but it’s impossible to function here when feeling even slightly sick, so I gave in and I’m glad I did. Ben and I spent the day in the resource center yesterday, alternating naps on the couch, and it paid off. Today I feel human again! I’m so happy. I think it also helped to receive my abroad package from AXO yesterday, with a magazine and some candy to get me through the day! I don’t think it could have come at a better time =)

Time to get ready for our in-depth public module. The modules are really cool – there are 7 of us in each module, and today for ours we get to go visit a traditional healer’s clinic! On Thursday we get to go to a school to participate in teaching the children about some aspect of public health. If I don’t fall ill again, it looks to be a very promising week!

Hotel Rwanda

Phew! After a week long adventure to western Uganda and Rwanda, I am home! I sadly have to say that coming back to Kampala did not make me very happy – I really enjoyed being out of the city where you can breathe fresh air and drive without traffic and not be called Mzungu every 10 seconds. I am happy to be back with my family and sleep in my own bed and not live out of a suitcase, though. So much happened this past week, and we saw so much, so be prepared for this entry to be quite long.

I think out of everything that we did this past week, we spent the most time in our caravan of taxis, driving all over Uganda and Rwanda. Each day we spent anywhere from 4-8 hours in the cars, and let me tell you, those vans do not have very much legroom. It was a great way to bond with other people though, and we spent a lot of time telling relationship stories, playing psychiatrist (I introduced them to it, Kir!), and many other fun things. Other than that, I guess I should start from the beginning of the week and work from there.

The first interesting thing that we saw was a Millennium Village Project in Uganda, which was funded by the UNDP and was started in response to the Millennium Development Goals. Before the UNDP came in, the village was like a typical poor rural village – many diseases, few kids in school, poor water and sanitation, etc. But the UNDP came in and funded the education system, providing computers (?!) for the schools. It also set up a water system so that people could collect clean water in a more efficient way. Among other things, the UNDP helped the people to set up a bank, a clinic and a nursery garden. Seeing these things that have changed these people’s lives SO MUCH made me rethink the way I view the UNDP and the MDGs. While this project may not be sustainable without the UNDP, especially under this current government, it has certainly helped the people in terms of development. The only issue I have with this project is that the attitude of the UNDP workers seemed to be that these people could not have done this on their own, and that the Westerners had to come in and provide all these things or else it never would have happened. I do see though that regardless of the mentality behind it, the project has been very good for the village.

Another cool thing about the trip was going to Orchunga Refugee camp, which holds many people who fled from Rwanda during the genocide. The “tour guide” that we had did not speak very much English, and none of the Ads went with our group, so I actually didn’t learn much while we were in the camp. We spent the time being led around by the little kids in the camp who also did not speak any English, but enjoyed talking to us anyway. I learned from other groups that many of the people in the camps had fled because they were perpetrators of the genocide in 1994, and that some of the refugees are not ready to go back to Rwanda because they “are not ready to avenge yet.” The sentiment in the camps was one of general hostility, and many intellectuals throughout the trip seemed to be quite convinced that genocide will come again in the future.

About Rwanda: it is amazing how a country so close can be so different. The infrastructure in the country is the most shocking difference – the roads have much fewer potholes than in Uganda and there are stop lights (that people actually obey!) which makes traffic pretty much nil. There were even real malls with coffee shops and ice cream stores – it seemed like many things were tailored for Mzungus. However, even having all of this, after hearing what we did from the people in the camps, and having that view repeated in Rwanda, I came to the conclusion that the physical development and infrastructure of a country says nothing about the social relationship between the people.

As soon as we got to Rwanda, we were taken to a genocide memorial at a church that kept Tutsi refugees until the Hutus came and killed everyone there. We weren’t really briefed at all before we went in about what we would see, which made it really difficult. The church was filled with rows and rows of benches, on which were piles and piles of clothes that the victims had been wearing when they were killed. As if that was not hard enough to process, being surrounded completely surrounded by something like that, we were then taken behind the church to a mass grave, which consisted of an underground hallway housing hundreds of coffins that were all full of skulls and bones from the people who had been killed. After seeing all of this (and at this point, I already was crying uncontrollably), the man leading us around told us his story of being at this church during the genocide and how he survived. I can’t remember another time in my life when I have felt so sad.

The next day, we were taken to the Genocide Museum, which gave us a lot more information about the genocide and made processing the events of the day before much easier. Of course, the genocide comes back to colonialism, when the Belgians basically made the genetic distinction of Hutu and Tutsi which had previously been something changeable depending on a person’s class. Just one more reason for me to hate colonialism.

Last thing about Rwanda – we visited the Kigali Prison, where there are between 800 and 1000 people who took part in the genocide. After learning about the prison, we were told that we would have the chance to talk to 2 people who had participated in the violence. Instead, we were lead into a church on the prison grounds, and we found our selves face to face with upwards of 2000 prisoners, all staring back at us. Apparently, since it was Ash Wednesday, there was a huge Pentecostal worship service, and we were treated to a “performance” by the choir. The songs they sang were fun and joyous and everyone in the choir was laughing and having a good time, but it was hard to reconcile my feelings about the songs with the idea that we were surrounded by people who had killed people during the genocide.

The coolest thing about our trip home from Rwanda was that we got to go on a game drive through Queen Elizabeth National Park! The park seriously reminded me of the Lion King, especially because we saw mostly antelope (or Kob) and warthogs! We were lucky enough to also spot some hippos, water buffalo and a strange little lizard/snake thing. It definitely made me positive that I want to do a safari when the program is over.

Okay, sorry that this was so long! I have a million pictures to put up, so watch for those sometime this week!