And she's back

Got home!


I knew I was reentering the Western world when I heard a little boy on the plane from Dublin yell "Good, we all have our own TV screens!  At least we don't have to share them!"

Closing Time...

Being in England has been fun, Alice lives in an amazing, old, little town on the coast.  On sunday I got to have a great conversation with her mom's house church about Uganda, the girls in Kitgum, the state of the world etc. etc..  They were fabulous and extremely thought provoking.

Last night I tried to cook African food, which I was pretty good at in Africa.  Needless to say, I failed.  They claimed to like it, but probably only because they didn't have the real thing to compare it to.  Anyhow, I'm glad that they pretended!

I'm getting a lot of encouragement about the scholarship fund, people seem to think it will work well and that it's what people would be interested in participating in because they would be able to follow the girl closely and see the end result. I'm really excited to get home and focus on the ins and outs of it so we can get things up and running shortly!

Tomorrow I fly out of London/Heathrow late morning.  I'll be at JFK by 6pm local time where I'll meet my parents and my brother (who will be in NYC for Brian's graduation from grad school).  We'll then drive back to Pittsburgh on Friday.  This trip is quickly drawing to an end!


PS. Yesterday was Dad's birthday - Happy Birthday Dad.
It was a shame that I missed it, but thankfully I'll be home for my dog's birthday on Friday :-)

England

We arrived in London Friday morning, spent the day in the city and then yesterday morning everyone headed to the airport to go back to the States.  I was then picked up by Alice and I'm now in her hometown which is amazing.  I'll be here until Thursday.

Some things about the Western world:

• It's cold.
• There are a lot of white people.
• Things are expensive.

I'm still trying to process the whole being away from Uganda thing but I'm too busy now to dwell on it.

Leaving Uganda

Today is surreal.  It's like a normal day, I went out, walked around town etc.  BUT in one hour I will be on my way to the Entebbe airport.  Our flight leaves at 12:30 am tonight and we arrive in London at 6am their time.  (Thank gosh for sleeping pills.)  We then spend all that day (Friday) in London and on Saturday afternoon the students fly back to the States.  I will be staying in England with my friend Alice for a couple days before returning to the States by myself on the 18th.

Again, I'm not ready to leave Uganda.  My heart is here.  But I have an almost positive possibility for coming back this summer and also for my Education Fund.

Basically everything with providing scholarships for the girls in Kitgum is going well, I now need to sort out specific logistics and find people willing to support this.  I have had a great response and hope to keep working on that!

This will not be the last blog entry.  I promise to keep with it at least until I get to the States.  There is still a lot that I'm thinking about and reflecting on and I will certainly have time to do that here in the next few days!


Good bye from Uganda!

STATUS

Camera: FOUND
Bible: Still lost.

One down, one to go.

Kitgum and Lost Things

I went back to Kitgum again last weekend.  A bunch of people wanted to come so it was great.  Also, we were fortunate to leave early enough in the morning to miss the severe punishment of house/kampala arrest that the other half of our group had to deal with for the weekend due to someone breaking some rules.

So we got to Kitgum and had an amazing time.  The girls were so excited to see us and I just embraced every minute of it knowing that it would be my last time in Kitgum for a while.  We did the normal Kitgum stuff: danced/played drums, hung out with the girls, played with the little kids and did other Kitgum kinds of things.

It amazes me every time I go up there how attracted I am to the area.

We had two former Go-ed students come and talk to us about how after they finished school they moved back to Uganda and started a home for street children.  It was motivating to realize that they actually followed their desire to come back.

I know God has me here and I'm just hoping I follow through with that call.


Another interesting thing about my life is that I lost two items that are extremely important to me:
1. My Bible - Which I can obviously replace but this one has all my highlights and quotes written in it from when I was a baby Christian that mean a lot to me.  Baby Christian means my 16 year old self.
2. My camera which I spent almost a full paycheck on and am in love with.  (Fortunately all my pictures are on my computer)  But I spent a ton of time picking it out and obsessing over it because it was a hefty investment.

Gr.

Anyhow it's weird that I only have a day and a half here.  I'm not ready to go.

Things I've been called

Wow two posts in one night.  Crazy.  Thought I'd write about some of the names I've been called by people here, specifically boda drivers and street vendors.



Hey/How are you/Hello_________ (fill in the blank)

• Mzungu (most common)
• America
• Baby
• Mama
• Wife
• Sista
• Obama
• Obama's wife
• Customa
  
• Jennifer/Sarah/Kate/other very white names
 

Oh and here's a nice text that I got from some guy who was carving a piece of wood for me.  He had my number so he could call me when he was finished - but instead wrote this...

"Baby girl when my eyes did contact with urs my heart was like hoocked up with joy and geuss what u did set my enortions in love because u're beautiful.My dear am  wishing to khow more about u and fall heads over hills love with u.I promise u a bravely, faithfully and cheerfully love as i can.My dear... i khow that words don't matter cause it takes a second to say i love u but a lifetime to show it."

^^^Needless to say, I did not respond to this text, or go back to pick it up without a guy with me.

Have I mentioned....

Pollution

It's ridiculous.  First of all, in the States we do quite a bit of stuff to help the environment even if you don't think we do, we have emission regulations, we recycle and we have garbage dumps.  Now, we do all this while there are still debates about whether or not global warming is actually occurring.

Here, everybody believes in global warming, it's on the radio, in the newspapers and people talk about it.  They talk about how it's because of global warming that the crops aren't doing well.  In the newspaper they always bring up proof for the global warming that is occurring here in Africa.  So with all this "there is global warming and it's going to kill us" you'd think they'd be concerned with their impact.

Not the case.

• Vehicles drive down the road with absolutely black exhaust trailing behind them.
• People burn a ton of charcoal to cook their food.
• Trash is not taken to a dump to be disposed of, it is instead burned.  All of it.  On the side of the roads, in fields and in our backyard.
• When people are in cars or even walking, they don't ever look for a trash can, anything that they have that they don't want they just throw it to the side of the road.  Culturally there just isn't any pressure to keep the environment clean.
  
• And, nothing is recycled.
• The only thing that is good is that they use glass soda (pop for all my Pittsburghers) bottles that you take back to be reused when you want another.

Ironically, the president of Uganda declared that Kampala should be dust free.  Really?  I highly doubt that's going to happen anytime soon.  Anyhow, with them feeling all the effects of global warming, I  don't think they're doing anything to clean the city.


Just my thoughts.

Have I mentioned....

So I realized that there are some things that have become so normal to my daily life that I haven't talked about them here.  So now I'm going to.

Street Kids

They are all over the place.
Just walking down the street, small children (I've seen some as young as 2) come up to you and put their little hands out and look at you with begging eyes.  When you don't give them anything they walk right next to you still begging for a couple blocks before finally giving up.  It's extremely sad and the thing is that giving them anything will just perpetuate the circumstances.  We've been told "do not give the street kids any money" because it just encourages them to keep begging and not get help from the few organizations who have set up programs for them.  But it's so hard.  One dollar would feed them for two days yet it would also encourage them to stay out of schools and out of programs.  It's a lose-lose situation.

The other things is that there is apparently a specific region in Uganda where parents are actually forced to sell one of their children or the children have to leave to try and find a better life.  So they come to Kampala.  They don't come by themselves though, I've heard, from reputable sources, that there is a man/group of people who get the kids, bring them to Kampala and force them to turn in the money they received at the end of the day.  For this they might get a little bit of food and avoid a beating.

This horrendous cycle keeps the kids out of school and robs them of the innocence and childhood that they should have.

Black Friday...

...Is not celebrated in Uganda.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So I'm living with a whole bunch of American's and with Thanksgiving being strictly American, we decided to celebrate at our house.  Every student paired up and made something (I made cornbread stuffing) so we had a ton of food.  We also had a ton of people, I think it totaled something like 30 people... students, staff, our cook and some families from America.  Anyhow it was a good time.

My favorite part was the fact that I won a slap bet last night so I truly got to celebrate Slapsgiving today!  (You would only get this if you watch how I met your mother).


I went to Kitgum last weekend!  It was amazing to go back and see the girls.  It was incredible to see the transformation, some girls that I only saw smile once or twice were laughing with the rest of the girls.  So great.

The education fund I'm working on is getting approved in the higher levels of FH and seems to be going well.  Everyone that's looked at it has said that it should be approved.  So we'll see.  One of the girls even wants to go to secondary school and then nursing school. I just have a lot of hope in this and how it could turn out for those girls.  Again, will update as I learn more.


Andd we leave Uganda in two weeks from today.  Insane.  I can't believe it's so close to the end.

Picture Updates

We went to this place called Kasubi Tombs last weekend which is the largest grass hut in the entire world and it is the resting place for the last 4 kings of Buganda.  The first one buried there was the king who invited the missionaries into the country in the 1860s.  He had 84 wives which seems a bit overkill but whatever.  Anyhow it was pretty amazing and here are some pictures...

We also went to this amazing dancing thing two weeks ago (I think I wrote about it but forgot to add pictures - here they are!)

 

(If this wasn't blurry you'd see that this woman is dancing with 6 pots on her head.)

Phil

One of my good friends, Phil, from Messiah is studying in Uganda with another program and we finally hung out yesterday!

It was fun catching up but it was even more fun to see somebody that I knew from home in situations that we don't have at Messiah.  It was kind of a relief to have one of my friends talking in terms that I know but most people from home wouldn't, being in a context that would be completely foreign to most.  For example, how many of you use these phrases in common speech:
- Boda-boda
- Matatu
- Airtime
- Mzungu
- Museveni
- Old taxi park
- Shillings
- Oweno
- Matoke
- Posho
etc. etc.

I also got to meet Suzan :-)

Phil Wil and me.

Phil Wil and Suzan!

One of many random things to be witnessed in Kampala.

I can not believe that I've already been in Kampala for 2 weeks!  It's weird to think that we leave here in a month.  I was looking at the schedule and next weekend I'm going to Kitgum, the next is free and the next is our last weekend/debrief weekend!  That's insane, I feel like I should have months left.



So, I am officially going to Kitgum on Thursday.

Mom this is for you - Because I am going to Kitgum, I will not be able to go bungee jumping over the Nile as I had planned (everyone is going to Jinja for whitewater rafting/bungee jumping).  Yes, I am sad about this too Mom.  But it's the only time I could go to Kitgum.  Maybe next time.  Actually guaranteed next time! :-)

Other than that, classes are good.  I realize I haven't written much about them and I think it's because they're not political like in Rwanda when each class made me question society.  I'm taking a class on African religion and African traditional religion.


Oh I'm also trying to memorize the map of Africa.  So far I know about the bottom half and the entire East side.  North West Africa is going to end me.

Wedding

I thought this posted on Saturday but apparently it didn't.  So here's it is.

I went to my first African wedding today!  And guess what?  It wasn't much different than an American wedding in most ways.  The bride and groom are both Christians so it was a traditional church wedding.

Differences:
- Nobody arrived on time.  TIA.  I love it.
- The videographer kept filming us (the only 6 white people) which got annoying because he kept holding the flood light in our eyes.
- There was no alcohol (they are both "born again" Christians which means no drinking...ever).
- The bride's family speaks one language, the grooms another, and the bride and groom speak English because they don't know the others local language.
- The bride's clan presented them with gifts like a broom, a pot, seeds, chickens and a goat.
     -Yes.  They brought a goat to the reception.  And yes, naturally it chose that moment to relieve itself.

Anyhow, it was good, the bride and groom are great together (I know the groom because he works with FH and was in Kitgum for some of the time I was there).  Today was good.

So I'm fairly certain that you've been able to tell that I was thoroughly moved by my time in Kitgum.  While I was there I noticed that a lot of the girls want to return to school but financially can't afford it.   Vocational school costs something like 120-150 dollars a year and they only need to go for one or two years to be able to work in that field and support their family.  However, $120 is completely unheard of for them.

I came under this huge conviction.  It is in my capacity to completely change their lives.  To turn a woman who has to labor in the field for a dollar a day into a woman who can tailor or who is educated in another area and who can support herself and her family adequately.

So I spoke with some of the directors in FH and they seemed excited that I was interested in sponsoring two girls (Lilly and Josephine) to go back to school.  In fact, they've been wanting to do something like this at the New Life Center but hadn't started anything yet.  So I'm in the midst of making a proposal that would allow people to sponsor a specific girl to go to vocational school for two years.  The sponsor will hopefully also be able to send money for their kids school uniforms and materials (about 5-10 dollars) or anything else that they want to help with as well as the school tuition.

I hate asking for money from people.  So this is me not asking for money.  But this is me saying that if you feel motivated (I know some people have already asked my mom about this) then by the end of my time here I will know exactly how/if this will work.  Please let me know now (meganclapp@gmail.com) if you are even the slightest bit interested.  I can give you pictures, names, stories, anything that might help you pick someone to invest in.  Both financially and through prayer and communication.

I'm assuming that a sponsor will give anywhere between $150 a year ($12.50 a month) to $200+ a year.  Or any amount that they would want.  Some girls just need someone to help buy some new clothing or other items that could be a one time donation.


But by not going out to dinner one time a month, you can put a young woman through schooling that will change her and her kid's lives forever.

Again, this is not a plea for money.  But if this encourages you, look out for more updates and as I gather more information I will let you know.

No news.

Yes, I am aware that I have failed at updating my blog since I got back to Kampala.  I think I keep waiting for something big to happen to write about.  But I haven't found anything yet.  Basically I'm doing well.  It's been a bit of a culture shock to go from living in a rural area with girls that are in pretty severe poverty to a house full of American students.  I've been feeling a bit down which I think is just Kitgum-sickness (like homesick, but for Kitgum).  I feel like I've left unfinished business there.

Anyhow, that's about all I feel like writing today, I've spent the last 8 hours working on my final project for practicum and that has basically wiped me out.  Next time I write I will hopefully have some information about what I'm planning to do for a couple girls in Kitgum that you may find interesting.

Civilization

Made it to Kampala yesterday.  It was pretty uneventful except the drive to the airstrip takes one and a half hours and my flight was leaving at 2:00; the car that was supposed to get me there decided that it needed tires and didn't come and get me until 1:10.  Anyhow long and short is that we made it on time :-)  The road is so bumpy that I think we four wheeled it the whole way.

Today we went around Kampala, this city is insane.  It's dirty and over crowded, the cars follow no rules, there are millions of shops and street vendors, and the directions just don't make sense.  Anyhow, I think I'll get used to it eventually?  I'm also adjusting to being around 16 American's again.  I forgot how much college students talk about clothes, weight and movies.  I miss my Kitgum girls.

Promised Pictures

Here are some photos of the daily activities at the New Life Center.  I took about 1000 pictures and would like to show you them all but with my internet speed and the fact that you wouldn't want to look at them all, I will just post a few...

Panoramic of where the girls from the center lived.

Our cook/house help/best friend teaching the girls how to make chapatti (which she also taught me (and which I am willing to cook for you))

Learning tailoring.

 

The three of us from my program who went to Kitgum

 

How not to use your mosquito net.

 

Beans and Posho.  Staple food.  Oh and I learned how to eat it with my fingers!

 

 Teaching them games.

 

Free time for the kids.

 

Me and our fabulous, amazing, spectacular house help.

Today is my last day in Kitgum.  I would love to stay here longer but classes in Kampala start on Monday.  It's been really hard for me to leave these girls.  Lilly, with tears in her eyes, told me that I am the only person she has been able to talk with about her past and her struggles and that I'm the only person that can help her.  I am going to help her get back to school.  But I know it is much more than schooling that she needs help with and I wish that I could do more.  Josephine just keeps saying "life is going to be very difficult."

I would love to come back here.  I know that I will be here again, I just don't know when God will provide a way.

I have promised Lilly and Josephine that if they would like to go back to school that I would support them.  I will post about that later and see if any of you would be interested in helping to support either them or another girl here.

Where isn't the US army?

I never wrote about the US soldiers that are here.  Basically, the US, Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya sent soldiers here to do some trainings on pandemics and things like that.  They ran clinics in some of the sub counties in the area (staying at each place for two days).  And then they came to Kitgum Hospital.  Ironically (or not ironically at all), I was there both days that they were there.

Basically when people hear that the US is coming with health supplies they come running.  I passed one of the community clinics and there were probably 1,000 people in line to get into this 4 or 5 room health clinic.  When they came to the hospital people were already there that had slept outside the night before.  I talked with one of the soldiers who said that they estimated well over 4,000 maybe pushing 5,000 people were in - I would say there were even more that were out of the sight of the soldiers.  They were only there for 2 days, from 9-3:30 each day.  And were only able to see a fraction of those people.  People who stood in line for hours and hours, some even days in the blazing hot sun with no water and no food.

While people in Kitgum were really excited that all these countries were genuinely interested in the well being of Northern Uganda, they realized quickly that while they did come to provide some support, they had no where near the agenda to treat everyone.  The activity was more of a training process for the army on how to work with local governments if there is a global emergency.

So yay for including some of the locals but I'm very frustrated that they gave the people a small taste of treatment but didn't even touch the health problem at hand.  The locals were so hopeful.  Even the soldiers said they weren't here long enough or with enough supplies to make any major impact.  Gr.  If you want to help, how about training the people working in the hospital who know next to nothing about sanitation?

The girls.

There have been so many things that have happened this week that I could have written every night and still wouldn't have begun to capture it.

Quick updates:

• Both kids were released from the hospital (thank you Jesus), even the one who had meningitis is now playing with the other kids and feeling just fine.
• The other girls from Go Ed that were here left early Monday morning.
• I am leaving Friday.

I've spent almost every waking hour with the girls from the center.  They all now call me "Anaka Meg."  I've grown much closer with the two girls that I wrote about, Josephine and Lilly.  Both of them have really opened up about what their stuggles are and how hard life is for them in the village.

The funny thing is that our lives are so completely different yet we are able to relate, or just understand because human emotion doesn't change by culture.  They wake up and have to walk 2 miles to get water, struggle to find something for breakfast for their young children, strap their child to their back and go to the fields where they will labor digging from 7am until 2pm.  They will get 2000-2500 shillings (a little over a dollar) to go home with and then struggle the rest of the day to try and find some food to eat or do more work to get food.

Completely different.

Yet when you get us together we just have fun and talk and cry and laugh.  On Cammie's last night we stayed in Josephine's hut with a bunch of the girls showing them the games that we played as kids.  You know the clapping ones or just the random hand games we grew up with.  We were in the middle of the game where you all sit in a circle and the hand slap goes around and whoever ends with it at the end of the song is out.  Yeah you remember.  Anyhow it ended on Josephine and she had this face that was just hilarious.  It was exactly like anybody in the states.  It just hit me then how alike we are.  I've known that this whole time but it was in that moment that it really struck me.

These girls are amazing.

Josephine

So I've been going to the hospital a couple times a day to check on the girls there and yesterday one of the mothers told me more about herself. She is an orphan who is taking care of all her younger siblings.  She has two children, one is four and one is two and a half.  Her husband was killed in an accident when she was pregnant with the second.When she was younger she was advanced in school and was invited to study at an English speaking school here in Northern Uganda. She got to the end of primary school (about the age of 13 or 14 probably.  But then had her first daughter and had to leave school.  Here's the other thing, secondary school is way more expensive than primary and most people can not afford it.  It is 270,000 a year.  The equivelant of $142.11. Which, in the villages, is unheard of.

There was a man from Italy who had agreed to pay for her and her brothers to finish their schooling (which goes up to about age 20).  He was willing to support them (I believe that both she and her brothers are rather intelligent) but right before he did, he was killed by the LRA.  They got nothing.  Josephine would like to go to vocational school (which costs less than $120/year) so she can at least learn tailoring and make some money for them.  She seemed to say that she would like to go back to secondary but doesn't have the money to even consider it.

Here's the thing that amazed me, with everything that she said she expressed how much faith she has in God.  "God didn't will for my husband to stay with us."  "God took away my parents but didn't abandon us."  "The man who was going to pay wasn't chosen by God to be able to help us."  "I wake up and if God wills, I will find work for the day and will eat; if not - I will wait until the next day and see if it's in His plan for me to get work."  "Maybe someday God will provide a way to go to school, but if not now, that is going to be okay."  I can't even imagine not being bitter about everything that has happened to her but she has absolutely complete faith that God is on her side.

What an amazing human being.

haha

 
The girls here are all trying to convince me to meet their brothers so that I can get married to a Ugandan and move into their villages.

African Hospital

I didn't have enough battery power to write about last night in my earlier entry so I will discuss it now.  At about 5:30 last night, Barbara (my supervisor) was informed that 5 of the children were really sick.  We needed to take them to the hospital (as there aren't any doctors offices or anything here).  I've experienced some pretty sketch hospitals in my life.  But I've never experienced an African hospital.

While everything else here isn't at all like the African stereotypes you may assume, the hospital is.  It's made of a bunch of different small one story buildings.  The cement paths between them are broken, uneven or not even there.  They are lined with people.  People sleeping, eating, or just laying there.  Inside and outside the floor is covered in urine and nobody is there to clean it up.  You must have a family member with the patient at all times because there is no one to help them if you leave.  You must feed the patient with food that you bring in, provide them with water, provide them with mosquito nets, and do basically everything for them.

There are a couple wards: the woman's ward, men's ward, children's ward, TB ward, surgical ward and the private ward.  A ward constitutes one big room with about 40 narrow beds that are about 2 feet from each other.  In order to be seen you go to the entrance of your respective ward.

So we took the kids and their mothers to the children's ward.  The wait to be seen by what I guess would be our "triage" was about 50 people deep.  All were mothers with their kids in their arms.  There were no chairs and there was no orderly line. Barbra somehow worked her magic and got some nurse who was just getting off duty to agree to evaluate our kids.  So I stood in the room (hidden because some guy from the psych ward kept following me) where this nurse was.  As the other mothers saw that we were being helped they all wanted to get into the room too and my job was to make sure she saw our kids first.  I felt like such a jerk pulling our girls in front of these other mothers whose children were just as sick but that was what the nurse and Barbra expected me to do.

So after they took their temperatures and such we had to split, some had to get lab tests and some had to wait for medicine.  One of the girls handed me her baby (it was her 2 year old that was sick, not the 2 month old).  So for a couple hours I felt like I had my own child. (And I love black babies so I was happy).  The place  was crazy and so unorganized.  They kept no record of their patients except for some notes in a notebook that the patient had to bring and keep with them.  Crazy.  So after a while I went back to the girl that was just waiting for medications.  She was still in the cramped, pee filled hallway.  She told me they hadn't given her anything yet.  Of course not.  They had no record she was even there apart from the notebook that was still in her hand.

So for the first time in my entire life I feel like I used my skin color to get something done.  I hate to even put this in writing because I know it's going to come off wrong but here it goes... I walked into the room with the doctor (which was stuffed with mothers wanting him to look at their children).  I put the notebook on his desk and said "this child's mother has been waiting for these medications for her extremely sick child, can you please help me find them for her."  Without second thoughts he got up and found the medications.  I hate it because he wouldn't have done that for us if she were the one to go in and ask but because I'm such a foreigner they assume I have money and/or power or something and will go out of their way to help me

Three girls got to leave late last night and two more are still there with their kids.  Thankfully the New Life Center is paying for them to have a private room.  Which, as nice as it sounds, means only that the two moms and children share a 6foot by 4foot room with one bed, obviously no air conditioning and broken windows instead of being in the big children's ward.  I guess that's something.  We've been bringing them food and water from here.

So yeah, that's my African hospital story.
Funny thing is, as horrible as it was, I don't think I'd mind working at a place like that at some point.

Can you just leave a place like this?

Yesterday was intense.
 I met with one of the girls to do this evaluation that we're working on.  The questions range from if they have any income to how they have been abused.  She told me a bit of her story.  How her dad abandoned her and her mother was killed.  How she has 5 younger siblings to take care of.  How she lives with her uncle who doesn't want them.  How she has no means of income.  How she has a 6 month old daughter whose father ran from them.  How she has no money to feed or clothe herself or the other children.  How she never feels joy, has suicidal thoughts, can not sleep, is not accepted by her community and how she feels that things will never get better.  As she sat with me, crying and holding her beautiful daughter, I realized how ridiculous it is that I am going to leave here, to go back to my plush life, to go back to parents, food, a house, an education and more while these girls leave here and go back to nothing.  Go back to struggling just to get by.  I'm not sure I'm going to be able to adjust back.  I feel invested here and I hate thinking about just up and leaving these girls to their difficulties while I get to go back to comforts these girls can't even imagine.

I want to save them all, to pay the small amount it would cost to feed them for a year, to do something.  I don't know what though.  What will help someone without hindering their motivation to work.  I could give money, but will that help the problem or just cover it up or delay it??  I had read Acts 3:1-10 yesterday morning and was thinking about how it's easier to throw money at a situation but that by doing so you are really just delaying fixing the problem.  Just allowing the person to live to the next day.  I want to do something.  I want to change it, fix it.  But it's not that easy and that sucks.

Busted Internet

Once upon a time, I was sitting in my office when I heard some funny noises and smelt some funny smells.  And then heard a loud pop.  And realized that the generator was not happy.  Then the internet box blew.  Sorry I haven't been on!

A Recap

I guess I’ll do a day by day of my weekend -

Thursday
Did some work around the office and the boys from Poder (Ben and Luke) came for the long weekend.

Friday
Well I was able to post a blog in the 20 minutes that we had internet so you know the whole chicken story. Friday was also Uganda’s Independence Day. We didn’t have work and just relaxed and walked around town. Good day.

Saturday
Cammie and Noel had met this woman who volunteers at an orphanage. So Cammie and I (Noel was sick) thought it would be great to go check it out. It’s really an interesting place. First of all, the conditions are pretty deplorable. The people that work there are all extremely motivated and have the best intentions but there are just too many kids with too little money. The only room for the infants smells like the worst port-a-john you can imagine. There were kids all over. Sleeping on the floor, sitting by themselves and keeping themselves entertained. The staff was thrilled to have us and the kids were excited to have people to play with. Well, most were excited. There was this one boy who was completely terrified of all of us Munus (in Kitgum they call us white people “Munu” instead of “Mzungu”). We were also shocked by the complete lack of toys that the children had to play with. They had only one ball, and it was completely deflated. So…..

Sunday
We went to a church service that they actually have in our compound and then all five of us headed to town and bought a bunch of balls, some toys and biscuits (to win their love of course). They were thrilled. Except that one child who still shrieked every time we got within 10 feet of him. It was good though. They just got a well put in so for the first time they had clean water without having to walk a great distance! So we all celebrated that.

Monday
The guys left. And we went and got the girls for the center! I drove to a place called Padible Gem and we got 14 girls and 12 of their children! (we also had four staff and we all fit in one 15 passenger bus) They did some orientation stuff and then we gave them some basic things like towels, mosquito nets, soap, a mattress and other items.  They also learned some things, like how a flushable toilet works.

Tuesday
Was spent making files for the girls and then after they were assessed by the counselors I entered their histories into my computer. This was hard. I don’t even know these girls yet I was let into the most private parts of their lives. I felt like I was invading their privacy but it was my job. I can’t even imagine what these girls have been through though. 10 were formally abducted by the LRA, 10 others are victims of gender based violence, almost none of them got to stay in school longer that 3 or 4 years. And all of them have severe depression. I could go on and on and will tell you more later.

They have a lot of work to do. And fortunately I will be able to stay here with them for 4 days longer than expected!

Oh and there is this one child who is absolutely terrified of me (even more than the boy at the orphanage). I never knew I could instill so much fear by the mere pigment of my skin. I sat in front of him on the bus and he screamed every time I turned around. Now when I get anywhere close to him he freaks out. It’s funny though because I can’t easily communicate with the girls but we all understand and laugh together about his fear of white people. One girl, who I think speaks fair English but is usually intimidated to speak it, said “he fears you!”

Powerless.

The generator stopped working on Thursday (had it for 10 minutes on Friday) and then we just got power back today so sorry about no posts and I will be sure to sit down and write about the weekend!  We are also without gas (for the stove) and water.  It has been fun!  As for now, I'm busy with work!  The girls for the center arrived yesterday!  28 women and 26 children!

Remember, I've been a vegetarian for 10 years.

I just witnessed.  The beheading of a rooster.  And the running of a headless chicken.  Yes, one of the one's that I wrote a post about the other day.

 Happy rooster.

Luke killing rooster.

Rooster running with no head.

Becky teaching Ben how to pluck a rooster.

I will never be the same.


(Disclaimer: I've been eating chicken the last few years as my one source of meat.  This may change now).

 
Tomorrow is Uganda's Independence Day!

Corporate Africa? Not so much.

I've been to enough take-your-daughter-to-work-days to realize that business in Africa works differently than in America.  For instance, the girls (and their kids) for the treatment center arrive on Monday.  Yesterday we called in the teachers and found that two of the four teachers (one nursery, one adult literacy) are no longer going to able to work here.  So my supervisor, Barbra, and I drove to a nearby nursery school and asked them if they had any names of people that applied for positions there but that were not hired.  We then drove to the district office and asked the director of education for another person.  We basically just said, give us someone and trusted that they had interviewed them and would give us the best of their candidates.  So today we drove back to the nursery school.  We didn't even tell them we were coming but they had sure enough brought a woman that they thought we should hire.  So we did.  On the spot.  We also went back to the district and they are giving us a person later today.  Just like that.

I can't even imagine that working in the states.  No background check for someone working with children?  No references?  No interviews?  No discussion about salary?  No check for identification?  Just "okay, come in on Monday."

I think there are a couple reasons for this:
1.  This is Africa.  Everything is on the fly, planning is silly because things just happen.  Nobody is concerned about formalities and nobody gets sued for silly reasons.
2.  This is an NGO.  Non-government Organizations seem to have a rep for being relaxed in terms of business.  You may or may not have found that out, but sometime you will, just wait.



Anyhow, last night we went into town (which is about an 8 minute walk from where we are).  We were on a mission to buy chocolate bars.  We finally found some and we are going to teach two of the women from FH staff how to bake chocolate chip cookies!

Good Morning World.

For the first time in my life I woke up to the sound of a rooster crowing right outside my window.  I then went onto the porch to find Noel chasing a turkey out of the kitchen.  It's going to be a good day.

Day 1

I made it!  Woo hoo!

Today was the first day of my internship (my title is: Gender Based Violence and Peacekeeping Assistant).  My first task was to assemble a whole slew of data into a spreadsheet to make graphs etc.  (I know Dad, gasp now).  If you've ever been around me while I was on excel, you'll know that I hate it.  It typically ends with me cussing and throwing things.  When I need to use it at school I still have to call my Dad and ask about all the shortcuts etc.  Anyhow my 9th grade computer class kicked in today and I somehow managed to remember how to do it and produced a product that my supervisor was surprised at.  :-)

The women for the rehab do not arrive until Monday.  There will be 28 women and 30 little kids.  I'm excited!

The center I'm at runs on a generator so electricity (and thus internet) is sketchy.  I will try to update this often but there are certainly no guarantees.  That was ironic, as I typed the word guarantees we lost power.



PS.  It's got to be 100 degrees here!

So close!

Flew into Pader, which was awesome as it's not an airport but rather a strip of dirt in the middle of some fields.  Then went to the FH office in Pader at around 9:30.

I then learned that when field staff says you will be going to Kitgum shortly they do not mean that.  And when they say they will call your ride, they won't unless you beg them.  And that when they say the ride will be here at noon, it won't.  And when they say the car is only 30 minutes away, it's really 2 hours.  And that when the ride does come, the driver will want to do some business while he's here.

Hopefully getting to Kitgum tonight - rumor is I might be leaving between 4 and 5.  The staff that I'm with here is great, they're all increadibly nice (this is not me complaining about them, just laughing at the situation).  TIA (this is Africa).

At Last

Leaving for Kitgum this morning!
 

Kampala's Quality Coach.

Well there's no real news on my end.  Nothing from the doctor and I feel absolutely fine... Just waiting it out for my flight on Monday.

But I feel like our bus trip from Kigali to Kampala is worth mentioning.

• When we got to the border between Rwanda and Uganda we all had to get off the bus and officially sign out of Rwanda and then walk in no mans land for about 100 yards to go through customs on the other side.  If you've ever been to Canada you realize how relatively organized customs are.  That is not the case here.  Especially on the Uganda side: the line was about 100 people deep, it was in the dirt, the little walking bridge to the building was made of rotting planks of wood and people were freely cutting up to the front of the line.
• As we're standing there I notice that one border patrol guy keeps sliding something small onto a rock, and another man slyly walks up and slips the "thing" behind his back and into his back pocket.  This proceeded to happen more than once; I have no idea what they were smuggling but it made me laugh.
  
• So we finally get all the paperwork done and some of the girls have to go to the bathroom.  So they get the key to the staff bathroom (don't ask how) and hike up the side of this hill to the bathrooms.  The rest of us got on the bus.  And then the bus started to pull away.  We start making a big deal that they are not there yet and they get extremely mad but stop nonetheless.  So they make it on.  We then drive another 100 yards and people in the back of the bus start yelling.  So we slow (not to a complete stop) so about 10 more people can on board.
• We proceed driving.
• We hit a huge bump and the bus filled up with smoke...?  Still not sure what that was about.
• It began to rain.  Outside that is.  And then it began to rain inside.  Not on anyone else but me.  So I sat there with water rushing down the side as I tried to stop it with the feeble little curtain.
• We stopped at this gas station and the "bathrooms" were in the back.  Public bathrooms never mean bathrooms.  They mean holes in the ground.  This one was especially fun.  The men had a nicely built little building with urinals.  The girls had a three walled, no roofed tin structure that was only about 5 feet tall and which had no hole but rather just a slanted piece of cement and which "ladies" was spray painted on the outside.
• As we get on the bus we realize that we're acquiring passengers.  They are now sitting on bags of grain in the aisle.  Our driver is certainly making some extra cash on this trip.
• So finally we're within 100 kilometers or so of Kampala.  The end is in sight.  But traffic is stopped.  From the bus we can see that another bus from the other direction has apparently driven off the road and is slightly tipped to one side in the bush.  So Christina and I got out because there was nothing else to do.  We walked to where they were feebly trying to tow it out.  Needless to say it was not working so they quickly unhooked and the tow trucks pulled away.  Naturally traffic started moving again.  And we realized that there was no way our bus was going to care if it left two Mzungus on the side of the road.  So we start running back. The bus is already moving by the time we get there.  People are walking with it and jumping on.  And then jogging with it and jumping on.  That was fun.  I've never had to board a moving vehicle before, let alone a moving bus.
• All in all the 12 hour bus ride wasn't horrible.

Exploring Kampala today.
And the Pens won last night!!  Good start to hockey season.

Not today.

Slight change of plans.  It has been decided that I should see a doctor here in Kampala before going to Kitgum (where there aren't many doctors).  So instead of flying out this morning I will be flying out on the next flight.  Which happens to be 3 days from now (Monday).

I'm really frustrated which I have no right to be, I know it's in the programs best interest to at least attempt to find out if something is wrong rather than to send me away in hopes that I don't get sick again.  I'm just used to being responsible for decisions like this.  I'm used to being the one to decide if I need treatment, if I need to see someone or if I can just wait it out.  So having others be responsible for that is messing with my control issues.

I think it's also the fact that I've been laying low the last week or so and haven't been out much and haven't socialized much because of the way I was feeling.  So being the only student to not leave today or tomorrow morning will mean I am the only one left.  Which will not only mean I'm alone, but will also mean that I will be (and already am) an inconvenience to the staff. 

Sorry this is a selfish post.  I realize that whether I go to Kitgum today or Monday will not affect anything globally.  It's self-centered that I want to get there now purely so I can experience it sooner, I won't even be starting the work part until Monday anyway.  So I apologize for the vent.  And I will update this when I find anything out.

Kampala

Made it to Kampala (will tell the bus story later).

No Parasites!

So since my stomach hasn't been quite right the last few weeks we decided it would be wise to get checked out for parasites before embarking to my practicum site.  Fortunately tests are easy to come by (and cost less than one US dollar).  Unfortunately they need a stool sample which is not so easy to come by when you haven't been able to eat very much (or keep much down) the last few days.  Sorry if that was too much information but I put that disclaimer in my first blog.

Anyhow today I got lucky and was able to get tested - the results were negative which is great because it wouldn't have been very cool to have a colony living in my belly but a little disappointing because that means I can't take some pills and fix it.  Oh well.  It's part of the African experience to get sick so I'm going to suck it up and not let it ruin my last night in Kigali.

I'm starting to get a bit sad about leaving though.  I cannot wait for practicum but I love this country and could definitely spend more time here.

Leaving already?

I can't believe that it's already time to leave Rwanda.  I feel like I am now adjusted, finally feel comfortable with knowing where I am in the city, comfortable with the people, just all around comfortable with this amazing country.  But we leave at 4:30 am on Thursday and take a day long bus ride to Kampala!  While I am stoked to be in Uganda, I really just wish that we were in Rwanda longer.  I wish the length of time at each location could be exponentially increased!  However, I do not foresee that happening.  So I'm packing up.

We had to say good bye to the girls at PHARP that we are teaching English to.  I felt so proud of them when they said "I am sad" about us leaving (while that is a simple sentence it is a reminder of how much they've learned).

Oh and what better than to spend the last few days somewhere sick?  I've mastered that, I've been having some stomach issues the last few days that will hopefully be resolved by the time I get to Uganda.  We shall see.

I'm also beginning to realize how lucky I am that I brought an extra empty suitcase from the States.  My collection of goods from Rwanda has filled at least half that bag so far.  Uh oh.

More to come, this was a disjointed post I apologize!

Steeler let down.

I thought today was going to be a good day.  I woke up not violently throwing up like I was yesterday.  Great start, right?  No.  I found out that the Steelers lost to the Bengals last night.  The Bengals!  Last week it was the Bears this week the Bengals.  What has my city come to??

Some Photos

4 cents a day.

Today was our last day in Gitarama.

My experience going home to home through the countryside gave me a whole new perspective on poverty.

For instance, we went into one 2 room, adobe brick house. They have 7 people in their family and their monthly income is 5,000 Rwandan Francs or $8.92 a month. That's 29 cents a day. FOR 7 PEOPLE! 4 cents a day per person! Can you imagine what they would do if their crops failed? How in the world could you feed 7 people with 29 cents a day?

Or the family of 6 that has no land, makes less than a dollar a month repairing plastic shoes, only eats once a day and can't pay school fees so their kids work instead of going to school.

Or the family of 10 that has 8 kids in primary school, only eats one meal a day and doesn't even have the resources to boil their water before drinking it.

I was laying in my "bed" feeling a bit overwhelmed on Wednesday night. It was right after dinner and I had eaten a rather large meal (by my standards at least). I sat there thinking how full I was. How I had wished I had eaten less. And then I thought about some of the kids I met that day. Albertine, Eric, Pololine, etc. They would probably do anything to go to bed with a full stomach. Many of them eat at noon and that's it for the day. Some rice and beans to last the entire day. Who am I to wish I had less?

This is Eric.

Eric again.

Cutie.

Pololine loved Audrey's water bottle.

Audrey and one of the households.

How do you shake hands with a killer?

As you know, tons of Hutus killed tons of Tutsis during the genocide here. It’s something like 1.5 million people that played a role in the genocide. So when they had to figure out what to do with all these prisoners they decided that work camps would benefit both the country and the prisoners. So they built work camps all over Rwanda and those who have admitted to killing Tutsis are allowed to leave prison to do manual labor for a few years in order to shorten their sentence. It’s been working extremely well and helped reconciliation.

After a day full of interviews in the small town of Kibaga (pronounced chibaga), Audrey and I were standing on the road with a ton of the local kids waiting for our bus. We had seen one of the camps on our drive to Kibaga and had been told that all the prisoners work around the area and wear navy blue uniforms. Sure enough about 50 men in navy blue uniforms strolled past us. A couple of the first ones braved it and ventured over to shake our hands. I’ve actually been curious about what I’d do if I met one of the killers. Or how they would look and act.

Well I found out today as I greeted about 40 men convicted of killing...

They smile, I smile, I say maraho, and they ask Amakuru? Etc. And we shake hands politely (politely means you put your left hand on your right forearm while shaking). I would have thought that I’d have all this hatred toward them. Yeah hatred is obviously not a Godly feeling, but it’s okay to hate killers’ right? I hate them when I read about their actions so why should it be different when I meet them? I’m not sure what made it different but I had zero hatred in me. I felt pure pity. That they were tempted into something as horrible as murder. And that they had to live under the knowledge that they ended a life - maybe it was a child, a woman, ten women.

But they were so human. I would have thought there would be something about them that screamed “KILLER.” But there wasn’t anything. They were just human. Very human.

I guess this a little example of how God sees me. He's able to look at me with all my ugliness and with all my problems and with everything that I've ever done wrong. Yet he doesn't hate me. If I were Him I'd be pretty pissed at how bad I've messed up. But He isn't. He looks me in the eye, smiles and asks me how I am.