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!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
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!
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!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
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!
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!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
My Name is Not Mzungu!
Been having a bit of difficulty adjusting to the city this week, although it has gotten better over the last few days. I think the excitement of being in a new city is over, and now I’m just frustrated with always being stared at and yelled at and grabbed on my walk to the taxi park. There’s also always so much traffic and so many people on the street and it’s tiring by the end of the day. I’m trying to accept that this is the way things are here and trying to embrace them instead of being frustrated, and it’s kind of helping so far. Cross my fingers!
One thing that has helped is that my mom here came home from Dubai on Tuesday! She brought me back a bunch of candy, and I shared with her the presents I brought for the family like the Obama buttons and the pineapple bookmark (did you know pineapple is the fruit of Virginia? Just so happens they eat a ton of pineapple here, too!) and I showed her some pictures of my family and such. It’s nice to have her home, as I feel like I have someone to mother me again which I was definitely missing out on while she was gone. She promised that we would make chipati pizza one night, so I think I will have a lot of fun with her learning how to cook and do other things here. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
The most exciting thing about this week has been going to visit a women’s group funded by Action Aid that provides services for extremely poor women and children who are HIV +. Most of their clients live in the slums of Kampala, and we had the chance to visit some of these people. Seeing the slums was like nothing I had expected – of course we’ve seen pictures of the slums in our classes, but I didn’t expect them to be smack dab in the middle of Kampala. They literally were right down a road in the center of the city. So much for this whole core-periphery framework. What was expected were the poor living conditions – each family had a one room house with a sheet of tin over top for a roof. There weren’t any sort of drainage systems, so when it rains the water just rises and brings many diseases to all of the people. The most striking thing about the slums was the number of children. I’d say over half the population of the slums were children – a frightening thought to think about what will happen when these children grow up and have 4-6 children themselves…there’s no way that a slum/country/environment can sustain that many people. I got a chance to play with some of the children, and I taught them how to “high five.” Even though these children live in such poor conditions they are still so much more joyous and free than many children in America. I’m now positive that I want to work with kids for my practicum.
I suppose this is my last post before we leave for the Western excursion. I know I will have many stories after that’s over, as I’ve heard so much about how great the government of Rwanda is, and how in Rwanda there are no potholes in the roads and people do not live in slums and the government does not ignore people who have suffered from its internal war. I guess I’ll make my own judgments and report back. See you in a week!
I haven't been able to upload any pictures here, but I've been slowly putting them on facebook, so check them out there!
One thing that has helped is that my mom here came home from Dubai on Tuesday! She brought me back a bunch of candy, and I shared with her the presents I brought for the family like the Obama buttons and the pineapple bookmark (did you know pineapple is the fruit of Virginia? Just so happens they eat a ton of pineapple here, too!) and I showed her some pictures of my family and such. It’s nice to have her home, as I feel like I have someone to mother me again which I was definitely missing out on while she was gone. She promised that we would make chipati pizza one night, so I think I will have a lot of fun with her learning how to cook and do other things here. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
The most exciting thing about this week has been going to visit a women’s group funded by Action Aid that provides services for extremely poor women and children who are HIV +. Most of their clients live in the slums of Kampala, and we had the chance to visit some of these people. Seeing the slums was like nothing I had expected – of course we’ve seen pictures of the slums in our classes, but I didn’t expect them to be smack dab in the middle of Kampala. They literally were right down a road in the center of the city. So much for this whole core-periphery framework. What was expected were the poor living conditions – each family had a one room house with a sheet of tin over top for a roof. There weren’t any sort of drainage systems, so when it rains the water just rises and brings many diseases to all of the people. The most striking thing about the slums was the number of children. I’d say over half the population of the slums were children – a frightening thought to think about what will happen when these children grow up and have 4-6 children themselves…there’s no way that a slum/country/environment can sustain that many people. I got a chance to play with some of the children, and I taught them how to “high five.” Even though these children live in such poor conditions they are still so much more joyous and free than many children in America. I’m now positive that I want to work with kids for my practicum.
I suppose this is my last post before we leave for the Western excursion. I know I will have many stories after that’s over, as I’ve heard so much about how great the government of Rwanda is, and how in Rwanda there are no potholes in the roads and people do not live in slums and the government does not ignore people who have suffered from its internal war. I guess I’ll make my own judgments and report back. See you in a week!
I haven't been able to upload any pictures here, but I've been slowly putting them on facebook, so check them out there!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
In Uganda, There are Strips of Road in our Potholes
^Apparently that is a joke that they tell in Uganda, and I have to say that it’s true. They also say that “if you see a car swerving all of the road, you know that he is sober, but if you see him driving in a straight line he must be drunk because he will hit all of the potholes!”
Into the second week of classes! I have a feeling that this week will be one of the hardest weeks to get through, because now that we’ve already had a week of classes and I’m aware of how boring they are, there’s no longer any excitement to get me through the days. At least not until this weekend, when I have plans to bake with my little brothers on Saturday and we go to Rwanda on Sunday!
We did have the opportunity to do some cool trips last week instead of sitting in boring lectures. First we got to go to a malnutrition center for children at one of the local hospitals. It was by far the most interesting and eye opening thing that we’ve done so far. First we listened to a talk by one of the nutritionists about what the children go through upon being admitted to the center. All children admitted there are below 70% weight for height, meaning that they are seriously malnutritioned. After the talk, we walked through the wards. It was unbelievably heartbreaking. There were babies less than a year old and you could see every one of their ribs. Babies so malnutritioned that all they could do was lay there and cry. Seeing those children brought up so many questions for me – how can parents let their children get this way? Extreme poverty and not being educated about what to feed your child, I suppose. I also wonder what can be done…that I don’t really have an answer for. I’m considering doing my Practicum (research project) with a center like this one up in the North because it would be something different and I think I would learn a lot.
We also got to visit the tombs of the Buganda kingdom and Buganda Parliament. In Uganda there are like 2 ruling parties: the president and the current Buganda king. The president has more power, but the Buganda king also rules the Baganda people. It all seems very complicated and I can’t imagine how having 2 people in power would help a country. The tombs were very pretty though – they were inside a GIANT hut and they were surrounded by all of these spears that had been given to the king as a gift. It was mostly just exciting to get out of the classroom and do a little site seeing.
The other fun parts of my week were spent playing around with my brothers – playing cards, showing them my gymnasty skills, including doing back flips off of little cement ledges onto the grass and doing handstands in their basement. They want to learn things before I leave, so I guess my coaching skills will come in handy here too! I also taught my brothers how to play MASH, and they had so much fun with it! Of course my little analytical brain was thinking about all of the responses they had in comparison to what mine were – for example they wanted to only live to be in their 50s because after that you get to old and someone has to take care of you. Also, none of my brothers chose to live in Uganda – they all wanted to live in places like Spain or the UK or New York. I can see where this whole “brain drain” thing comes from, seeing as how my brothers will probably be those children that grow up to be doctors and lawyers and priests and move to America. We also had to alter the word shack to slum because they didn’t know what a shack was. They were cracking up over everyone’s futures, but it was still another one of those eye-opening experiences for me. Everything here is (except for when we sit in class, ugh.).
Not too much else to report on here. Hopefully something new and exciting will happen this week!
Into the second week of classes! I have a feeling that this week will be one of the hardest weeks to get through, because now that we’ve already had a week of classes and I’m aware of how boring they are, there’s no longer any excitement to get me through the days. At least not until this weekend, when I have plans to bake with my little brothers on Saturday and we go to Rwanda on Sunday!
We did have the opportunity to do some cool trips last week instead of sitting in boring lectures. First we got to go to a malnutrition center for children at one of the local hospitals. It was by far the most interesting and eye opening thing that we’ve done so far. First we listened to a talk by one of the nutritionists about what the children go through upon being admitted to the center. All children admitted there are below 70% weight for height, meaning that they are seriously malnutritioned. After the talk, we walked through the wards. It was unbelievably heartbreaking. There were babies less than a year old and you could see every one of their ribs. Babies so malnutritioned that all they could do was lay there and cry. Seeing those children brought up so many questions for me – how can parents let their children get this way? Extreme poverty and not being educated about what to feed your child, I suppose. I also wonder what can be done…that I don’t really have an answer for. I’m considering doing my Practicum (research project) with a center like this one up in the North because it would be something different and I think I would learn a lot.
We also got to visit the tombs of the Buganda kingdom and Buganda Parliament. In Uganda there are like 2 ruling parties: the president and the current Buganda king. The president has more power, but the Buganda king also rules the Baganda people. It all seems very complicated and I can’t imagine how having 2 people in power would help a country. The tombs were very pretty though – they were inside a GIANT hut and they were surrounded by all of these spears that had been given to the king as a gift. It was mostly just exciting to get out of the classroom and do a little site seeing.
The other fun parts of my week were spent playing around with my brothers – playing cards, showing them my gymnasty skills, including doing back flips off of little cement ledges onto the grass and doing handstands in their basement. They want to learn things before I leave, so I guess my coaching skills will come in handy here too! I also taught my brothers how to play MASH, and they had so much fun with it! Of course my little analytical brain was thinking about all of the responses they had in comparison to what mine were – for example they wanted to only live to be in their 50s because after that you get to old and someone has to take care of you. Also, none of my brothers chose to live in Uganda – they all wanted to live in places like Spain or the UK or New York. I can see where this whole “brain drain” thing comes from, seeing as how my brothers will probably be those children that grow up to be doctors and lawyers and priests and move to America. We also had to alter the word shack to slum because they didn’t know what a shack was. They were cracking up over everyone’s futures, but it was still another one of those eye-opening experiences for me. Everything here is (except for when we sit in class, ugh.).
Not too much else to report on here. Hopefully something new and exciting will happen this week!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Maama and Ttata
Today is day 3 of staying with my host family. I have a host mother and father named Robin and George, and 6 brothers and sisters, although only 4 of them stay in the house right now. Their names are Roger, George, Martin and Mark. I spend most of my time with the boys and really only talk to my host dad in the mornings on the way to school. My host mom is SUPER friendly, but she left soon after I arrived for Dubai. I hope when she returns I’ll be able to spend more time with her.
A typical day for me so far includes waking up at 5:30 am to wake up my brothers who go to school, then going back to sleep for 20-30 minutes until my next alarm goes off. Then I get ready for school and eat breakfast. Mealtime is the most awkward part of the day for me because of the house helpers who serve it. I feel like I get special treatment, especially during breakfast and evening tea because I get served more food than my brothers. For example, for evening tea last night I got a rolex (Chipati, which is like Indian naan bread, with a fried egg on top and some lettuce and tomatoes, rolled into a long tube then cut into pieces like sushi…it definitely is delicious) while my brothers got popcorn. It’s uncomfortable for me to always feel like I am being served and getting better treatment, but I don’t know how to address it. I know that other students have the same issue with their familes, and I hope that maybe it will go away as they start to treat me less as a guest and more as a family member.
Oh right, but about my day. We leave for work/school/classes at 6:30 am. We drive 2 of the boys to school (the other 2 go to boarding school which starts next week) and then my host dad drives me to his shop. From there I have about a 15 minute walk through downtown Kampala. So far we have had different classes all day, learning Luganda in the morning at the resource center, then going to the University to listen to some guest lectures. Some of the professors are good – well one has been very funny, but the one we had yesterday afternoon was just obnoxious. At the end of every sentence he would say “the what?” and then finish the sentence. Even when we obviously didn’t know what he was going to say at the end of the sentence. For example, he would say “And the neo-classicalists believed in a what? A free market. And they believed that governments should what? Should not what? Should not interfere.” Listening to this for an hour and a half gave me a headache!
After all of my classes are done, I walk back to my dad’s shop (from the University it’s about a 30-40 minutes walk) and catch a taxi back home. It’s not such a long drive, but the traffic makes it take over an hour. Last night was my first night trying it by myself, and while I didn’t have any trouble finding the taxi to get on, I completely missed the stage (stop) and went all the way to the end of the line! It was getting so dark, and I had to ask the conductor when we passed the “pump stage.” Luckily he was very friendly and understood that I was a lost Mzungu, so he let me stay in the car and told me where to get off on the way back. After all of that, I still had to walk up the ENORMOUS hill in the dark to get to my family’s house – which I almost couldn’t find! It was a scary adventure, and my brothers made fun of me for getting lost, but now I think I will know what to do in the future.
When I get home the boys and I usually take evening tea (just like the Brits!), I shower, we play cards, we eat dinner, and then I’m in bed by 10 pm. I think this schedule may get somewhat monotonous day after day, but luckily we only have 3 weeks max at a time with this schedule. As it is, we only have 2 weeks until we go to Rwanda and Western Uganda, where I’m hoping we’ll at least get to sleep in til 7:30!
About my homestay family: I think that they are very wealthy, comparatively. For one, they own 2 automotive shops and 1 motel. They have 2 house helpers, a cook and a gate keeper at night. Their house is bigger than mine at home! It’s something that I feel kind of awkward about, as well. Their house is built among other smaller, slum-looking houses, which seems to be a theme among wealthy Ugandans. All of the boys want to be doctors or lawyers or priests or business men, and it seems that with the track that they are on in terms of education, it will not be very difficult. Being with this family does not really correspond with what I have learned about Ugandan culture, so I hope that maybe my rural experiences will show me a different side of Uganda.
I guess that’s all for now about my family, I’ll have more to write when my host mom comes home!
Weraba!
A typical day for me so far includes waking up at 5:30 am to wake up my brothers who go to school, then going back to sleep for 20-30 minutes until my next alarm goes off. Then I get ready for school and eat breakfast. Mealtime is the most awkward part of the day for me because of the house helpers who serve it. I feel like I get special treatment, especially during breakfast and evening tea because I get served more food than my brothers. For example, for evening tea last night I got a rolex (Chipati, which is like Indian naan bread, with a fried egg on top and some lettuce and tomatoes, rolled into a long tube then cut into pieces like sushi…it definitely is delicious) while my brothers got popcorn. It’s uncomfortable for me to always feel like I am being served and getting better treatment, but I don’t know how to address it. I know that other students have the same issue with their familes, and I hope that maybe it will go away as they start to treat me less as a guest and more as a family member.
Oh right, but about my day. We leave for work/school/classes at 6:30 am. We drive 2 of the boys to school (the other 2 go to boarding school which starts next week) and then my host dad drives me to his shop. From there I have about a 15 minute walk through downtown Kampala. So far we have had different classes all day, learning Luganda in the morning at the resource center, then going to the University to listen to some guest lectures. Some of the professors are good – well one has been very funny, but the one we had yesterday afternoon was just obnoxious. At the end of every sentence he would say “the what?” and then finish the sentence. Even when we obviously didn’t know what he was going to say at the end of the sentence. For example, he would say “And the neo-classicalists believed in a what? A free market. And they believed that governments should what? Should not what? Should not interfere.” Listening to this for an hour and a half gave me a headache!
After all of my classes are done, I walk back to my dad’s shop (from the University it’s about a 30-40 minutes walk) and catch a taxi back home. It’s not such a long drive, but the traffic makes it take over an hour. Last night was my first night trying it by myself, and while I didn’t have any trouble finding the taxi to get on, I completely missed the stage (stop) and went all the way to the end of the line! It was getting so dark, and I had to ask the conductor when we passed the “pump stage.” Luckily he was very friendly and understood that I was a lost Mzungu, so he let me stay in the car and told me where to get off on the way back. After all of that, I still had to walk up the ENORMOUS hill in the dark to get to my family’s house – which I almost couldn’t find! It was a scary adventure, and my brothers made fun of me for getting lost, but now I think I will know what to do in the future.
When I get home the boys and I usually take evening tea (just like the Brits!), I shower, we play cards, we eat dinner, and then I’m in bed by 10 pm. I think this schedule may get somewhat monotonous day after day, but luckily we only have 3 weeks max at a time with this schedule. As it is, we only have 2 weeks until we go to Rwanda and Western Uganda, where I’m hoping we’ll at least get to sleep in til 7:30!
About my homestay family: I think that they are very wealthy, comparatively. For one, they own 2 automotive shops and 1 motel. They have 2 house helpers, a cook and a gate keeper at night. Their house is bigger than mine at home! It’s something that I feel kind of awkward about, as well. Their house is built among other smaller, slum-looking houses, which seems to be a theme among wealthy Ugandans. All of the boys want to be doctors or lawyers or priests or business men, and it seems that with the track that they are on in terms of education, it will not be very difficult. Being with this family does not really correspond with what I have learned about Ugandan culture, so I hope that maybe my rural experiences will show me a different side of Uganda.
I guess that’s all for now about my family, I’ll have more to write when my host mom comes home!
Weraba!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Mzungo in Kampala
Time for a real update, finally. Where to begin? It's only our 3rd day here, but I finally feel like I have a good feel for the city. I'm even using the little Luganda that I know to talk to other Ugandans. I can have the most basic conversation, but it's a start. I know how to say:
How are you - Oli Otya
I'm fine - Gyendi
Thank You - Weebale
Goodbye - Weraba
White Girl - Mzungo (kind of similar to "Gringa")
And that's pretty much it. It's a start! We start our classes tomorrow, which is really exciting because we'll finally start having a little bit of a routine. I have my first Luganda class at 9 am tomorrow, with only 6 other students, which is a little daunting, but I hear that I have the best teacher and that he is very funny, so I'm looking forward to that. Even though we start our full schedule of classes tomorrow, we still only have less than 2 weeks until we go on our Western excursion to Rwanda! I've also learned today that we get to go on a game tour on the way back from that, so we'll get to see lots of cool animals.
Tonight we're meeting our homestay families. I know so far that mine is a bussiness man and woman and that they have 6 children - 3 who are 6-13 and 3 who are 18+. 5 are boys and 1 is a girl! It will be very exciting to meet them and I hope they speak at least a little English so I'm not completely lost trying to communicate.
My camera has been locked up in the resource center ever since we got here, so I haven't been able to take any pictures here yet. We've also been advised that Ugandans don't like to have their pictures taken, especially without asking, so it may be awhile before I can get some good pictures of the city and everything else around here. Since I don't have pictures though, I thought I would just say a few things that I've learned about Uganda so far.
First of all, there are no stop lights or street signs pretty much anywhere, other than signs that say "give way" which aparently means yield. Sometimes there are cops out directing traffic, but most of the time the taxis and cars and boda-bodas (motorcyles that are like taxis that take people around the city) just drive wherever they feel like it. It makes being a pedestrian kind of scary, especially when taxis drive over the medians and boda-bodas drive on the sidewalks! Most of the time we try to follow other Ugandans because we figure they know best where they're going.
I've also discovered that while most places do have electricity and running water, it doesn't really mean too much, as the running water is usually only a trickle and the electricity goes on and off during the day due to the rolling blackouts. It's still better than nothing, however, and we've been spending most of our days outside, so I don't mind.
One kind of scary thing - almost every kind of security guard or policeman or authority figure of any kind carries an AK-47 around everywhere. They're posted all over the city, mostly in front of banks or fancy stores. It was kind of freaky to see the first time, but now I'm used to it. It's interesting that that's the kind of detterent that is used to prevent crime and theft, at least at important economic places.
Lastly, there are many people here who say "You are welcome" before you say thank you. It's an interesting way of doing things, but at least it lets you know when you're supposed to say thank you!
Other than that, I think that Uganda is a beautiful place - the trees are green, the roads are brown (although there are plenty of paved roads), and the people are so friendly and helpful, even with the language barrier. Especially when you start speaking to them in Luganda, it makes their faces light up. It's really neat to hear everyone's story and be able to say that we are students at the University here, rather than tourists. I can't wait to see more of the country!
Oh, and good news! We have permission to go to parts of the North to travel or to do our Practicums, and Gulu, Lira and Kitgum are three of the districts that we're allowed to visit. I'm SO excited, given that there are so many other restrictions on things that we can do. I'm starting to get ideas for my project - maybe something with kids and education in the IDP camps. In any case, I'm just so excited to get to go to the North.
I'll write again at the end of the week to talk about my classes and my family! I miss you all!
How are you - Oli Otya
I'm fine - Gyendi
Thank You - Weebale
Goodbye - Weraba
White Girl - Mzungo (kind of similar to "Gringa")
And that's pretty much it. It's a start! We start our classes tomorrow, which is really exciting because we'll finally start having a little bit of a routine. I have my first Luganda class at 9 am tomorrow, with only 6 other students, which is a little daunting, but I hear that I have the best teacher and that he is very funny, so I'm looking forward to that. Even though we start our full schedule of classes tomorrow, we still only have less than 2 weeks until we go on our Western excursion to Rwanda! I've also learned today that we get to go on a game tour on the way back from that, so we'll get to see lots of cool animals.
Tonight we're meeting our homestay families. I know so far that mine is a bussiness man and woman and that they have 6 children - 3 who are 6-13 and 3 who are 18+. 5 are boys and 1 is a girl! It will be very exciting to meet them and I hope they speak at least a little English so I'm not completely lost trying to communicate.
My camera has been locked up in the resource center ever since we got here, so I haven't been able to take any pictures here yet. We've also been advised that Ugandans don't like to have their pictures taken, especially without asking, so it may be awhile before I can get some good pictures of the city and everything else around here. Since I don't have pictures though, I thought I would just say a few things that I've learned about Uganda so far.
First of all, there are no stop lights or street signs pretty much anywhere, other than signs that say "give way" which aparently means yield. Sometimes there are cops out directing traffic, but most of the time the taxis and cars and boda-bodas (motorcyles that are like taxis that take people around the city) just drive wherever they feel like it. It makes being a pedestrian kind of scary, especially when taxis drive over the medians and boda-bodas drive on the sidewalks! Most of the time we try to follow other Ugandans because we figure they know best where they're going.
I've also discovered that while most places do have electricity and running water, it doesn't really mean too much, as the running water is usually only a trickle and the electricity goes on and off during the day due to the rolling blackouts. It's still better than nothing, however, and we've been spending most of our days outside, so I don't mind.
One kind of scary thing - almost every kind of security guard or policeman or authority figure of any kind carries an AK-47 around everywhere. They're posted all over the city, mostly in front of banks or fancy stores. It was kind of freaky to see the first time, but now I'm used to it. It's interesting that that's the kind of detterent that is used to prevent crime and theft, at least at important economic places.
Lastly, there are many people here who say "You are welcome" before you say thank you. It's an interesting way of doing things, but at least it lets you know when you're supposed to say thank you!
Other than that, I think that Uganda is a beautiful place - the trees are green, the roads are brown (although there are plenty of paved roads), and the people are so friendly and helpful, even with the language barrier. Especially when you start speaking to them in Luganda, it makes their faces light up. It's really neat to hear everyone's story and be able to say that we are students at the University here, rather than tourists. I can't wait to see more of the country!
Oh, and good news! We have permission to go to parts of the North to travel or to do our Practicums, and Gulu, Lira and Kitgum are three of the districts that we're allowed to visit. I'm SO excited, given that there are so many other restrictions on things that we can do. I'm starting to get ideas for my project - maybe something with kids and education in the IDP camps. In any case, I'm just so excited to get to go to the North.
I'll write again at the end of the week to talk about my classes and my family! I miss you all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)