Going back to Uganda... With the fam!

The O'Shea's do Africa!

We're leaving for the airport, off to a pretty good start! First stop, layover in Frankfurt, then Nariobi, then Tanzania! Going on a safari for a few days then hopping on a plane to Uganda! I am do excited to get back to Bududa, FIMRC and AAH! My adventures will continue onward in England where I will be taking some classes and doing research at Oxford!

I've been so busy i haven't had time to update!

BIg news:

- I got an internship in Washington D.C. with Senator Lugar and I start August 31st! I am very excited!
- I leave Uganda on Thursday, so I'm trying to finish up before I leave!
- I'm flying straight to Minnesota to meet my family for our annual lake vacation. I can't wait to see you, family!

So I'll only be in CA for a few days before I'm off to D.C. Miss you all tons, I'll be back in town August 23rd!

I’m getting ready for a field trip with the kids! AAH recently had a music competition where they won, so we were invited to Tororo for the regional competition. AAH will represent the entire Bududa district, so the whole school is very excited. I was just in Tororo and it’s a beautiful town so I am excited to go back. From there I think we will go to Jinja for the weekend. The kids are so talented! The will perform a few traditional dances and sing four sons. In one dance, the boys wear bells around their ankles and literally don’t stop jumping up and down for about 5 minutes straight. It sounds very cool with the drums in the background. The girls are very talented singers. I have gotten to spend more time with them lately, which has been very nice. Some of them convinced me that I should get my hair braided. We’ll see…

Right now the guesthouse is quite empty, but we are getting a new group of volunteers throughout the week. However, it has been a great week. We have had power, so every night we’ve been watching movies on my laptop. It’s going to be so strange to go home and see an actual TV screen!

I’m off, but everyone say a little prayer for Arlington! I hope everything is well at home!

safari time

7-26-09
I just got back from one of the best trips ever! Safari: Murchison Falls. We got to see White Rhinos, Rothschild’s giraffes, kobs (like gazelles), hippopotamus’, elephants, baboons, Ankole bulls, Nile crocodiles, Jackson’s Hartebeest, and Oribi. We also saw lots of warthogs. Turns out, they aren’t as friendly as Pumba might be. However, total blast.
Bryant, Meagan and I went to Kampala and met with the rest of our safari group at this hostel/safari company called Red Chili. Getting to Kampala was interesting to say the least. (Matatu ride to Mbale, then a 6-hour bus ride to the city. The bus ride involved an angry mob in the bus park, overcrowded middle seats, no bathroom stops, sales men walking up and down the isles and chickens roaming the floors all the while in sweltering temperatures.) Anyway, we finally made it to Kampala, and went straight to the hostel.
It was great to be at a hostel and meet other travelers. It reminded me of my Australia days, traveling all over the country and meeting people from all over the world, one dorm room at a time. There were a lot of Europeans traveling by bus. These huge 4WD busses packed with camping equipment go up and down the entire coast of Africa. The “Cape Town to Cairo route” was the most typical. Most people I met just met were taking a gap year in between school, of in between jobs. Always interesting conversation!
Our safari group was 24 people, but 8 people in each bus. Our bus consisted of Danish, Canadian, English, and Americans. We had some great conversations about politics, traveling, health care, Africa, poverty… You know, typical light conversation with strangers.
Day one, we drove for hours and hours and hours out to Masindi and then into Murchison Falls National Park. The “park” is the largest protected area in Uganda (some 3,800 km2). At one point, our guide pointed over some hills and said, “That’s the Congo.” So I can almost say I’ve been to the D.R.C.!
We hiked to the top of the Murchison to the waterfall and took some amazing photos. Murchison is part of the Nile River falling into Lake Albert. The fall is only a few meters wide, but fierce- high volume in a small opening. It was absolutely beautiful.
We wandered around the park for a while, and headed to camp. The campsite was totally what you would picture an African Safari to look like: A small ring of tents set in front of an oversized grass roof hut and eating area, with the Nile River in view. The eating area had some big comfy chairs, perfect for journaling. Not to mention some of the best food I’ve had in Africa!
Day Two: we went on a game drive around the Nile Delta region. I was probably acting like a 5-year-old child at the Zoo for most of the game drive. I was jumping up and down in car (picture that) when we saw a small pack of elephants form a distance. About half way through our drive, we stopped to watch a family of elephants bathing in the river. All of a sudden, one comes running out of the trees and almost ran into our van. Luckily, the driver noticed and jammed the car into forward. Continuing on…
The giraffes were amazing too. They seem surprisingly accustomed to visitors watching them eat out all day. I wish I had a better camera/the ability to take better photos so that I could capture the amazing scenery. Mental picture: rolling hills, spotted with oversized acacia trees, pods of kob running around for as far as the eye can see.
When the drive was over, we had some time for lunch at the camp. Then we went on a boat ride up the Victoria Nile to see the waterfall from the water level. I think the hippopotamus’ are my new favorite animal. Our guide was very informative, and was sure to point out the social structure of the river. We learned that the “loser” end of the river is occupied by lonely hippos without mates, next to the hippos whom are good fighters with mates. Waterbulls are apparently very dangerous and not friendly, so they have their designated watering holes. Baboons also frequent the riverbank. They get along with everyone accept for people with cameras who try to photograph their babies. Then you add in crocodiles into the mix and you get some high quality National Geographic footage. Birds also manage to join the animal social circle, usually sitting on hippos backs. Side note: Hippos kill more people per year than any other animal.
After a fully educational and entertaining ride up the river, I had a Nile on the Nile. (Nile is the most popular Ugandan beer, conveniently brewed in the Nile region.)

Day Three: Rhino Tracking. Picture this: trekking through tall grasslands mixed with trees, in and out of thorny bushes, baboons racing through the trees overhead, chasing an animal on the brink of extinction.
I hate to admit, it wasn’t as cool as it sounds. Our caravan stopped at the gift shop to pick up our guide, who had a GPS device with the rhinos exact location, by his side. The rhinos were actually considered extinct in Uganda in the early 80’s, so Disney Animal Kingdom in Florida sent over a few of their Rhinos to put in the wildlife park. They are complete with GPS dots, and some type of electric device that makes them sit whenever they are directed too. Safety precaution I guess…
We did walk for a while before we came to the Rhinos. Once we found them, we took some awesome pictures. There were three laying down next to a tree, sleeping. We got about to stand about 20 meters away. Close enough to hear them breathing, but far away enough to run if they woke up!
Overall, it was an amazing experience. I was sad to leave, but I think 3 days was sufficient to see everything we saw.
Meg, Bryant and I headed back to Kampala to meet up with some other volunteers for the night. Most of the volunteers left on Sunday or Monday, so everyone was in the city before their flights left. We had a great dinner, stayed in a nice hotel with real showers, and had a great night on the town.

7-27-09
Monday Monday Monday
Today, Emily and I went to visit some secondary schools in Tororo. I am working on writing some profiles on Arlington students who have done well in school. USAid has provided a lot of funds for us, so they require us to submit reports about students’ progress. Before I left for safari, I spent the week interviewing some of our primary students. Today I got to interview students in secondary school who are AAH alumni. Overall, I was so impressed with the schools and the kids. I am happy to report that most of the kids are performing very well academically, so AAH must be doing something right!
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on putting together some research on how Arlington and the Clinic affect the community. I am interested in how the community sees the school/clinic, and how well AAH students do after they leave primary school. I would like to keep in contact with some students long term to see if they end up achieving the goals they have set out for themselves. Since the school is only 6 years old, I don’t have much data to work with yet. So for the time being, I plan on presenting a report to the AAH board about our current students. I guess part of me misses college and writing papers!
I was anxious to get back to the village after so much traveling. Riding back in the matatu’s backed with 20 + people going 80 km/ph on narrow dirt roads is always a treat. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to traveling by matatu, but I’ve learned to get window seats and try to fall asleep. Probably a false sense of security, but it works.
Mission for this week:
Finish all my projects and begin the countdown home! I only have 2 more weeks to get it all done!

7-19-09

It’s Sunday morning, and I’m sitting on the front porch of the guest house embracing the cool morning air. I was awoken by the usual sound of roosters, and a new sound: singing. They built a mosque in the trading center, down the road, which is equipped with microphones and speakers. It’s a beautiful building with cement walls painted bright blue. It sticks out a bit amongst the mud and stick buildings surrounding it, but I think it’s for the community.

It feels good to back in the village! I’ve been traveling so much lately it has made me appreciate our humble abode in Kikohlo.
Last weekend, I had to go into Mbale to price out some materials to renovate the library. A few of the FIMRC volunteers were invited to dinner at a doctor’s house, so we made it a trip and all 11 of us went. The doctor, Dr. Rafi, runs one of the best hospitals in the area. He is originally from Pakistan but has lived in Uganda with his family since he stopped working for the United Nations. Talk about crazy stories! Dr. Rafi is officially one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. One of my favorite stories: Dr. Rafi hosting Angelina Jolie while she was volunteering at a refugee camp in Sudan. Dr. Rafi had her sign everything on his desk, literately. When they were talking, he casually mentioned they needed more cars to get Dr.’s and administrators to and from work. Angelina asked how many and he joked, “We need 25.” The next week, 25 Land Cruisers showed up at the refugee camp. (So maybe I DO like team Jolie…)
Dr. Rafi’s wife cooked one of the best dinner’s I’ve ever had. I was a little wary at first because Mike, the FIMRC volunteer head was asked to bring over 9 live chickens earlier that morning. While we were sitting on the porch chatting, the housekeeper was on the side of the house, plucking, killing, and cleaning the 9 (now dead) chickens. Cute.
At least they were fresh! And very, very free range. Great food, great company, and a great night.
The next day, we wandered around the city collecting bids for all the things we needed to renovate the library. We are working on making a “Kids Corner” in one corner of the big rectangular building. Our plans entail a mural on the wall, some pillows, chairs, and a few new bookshelves. We’re also going to try to start doing art projects with the P1 and P2 students after we have story time. Hopefully it will increase their reading comprehension, and get them to come into the library to read more. Anyway, we got all the prices and talked to a carpenter and we are all set. One of the volunteers at the clinic gave us $100US, which covered almost everything!

On Sunday, all the volunteers were invited to dinner at Salim’s house, one of the cooks at school. I was a two hour hike up the mountain, but well worth it. There were about 25 people there to greet us with song and dance. They prepared a large meal for us, that must have taken all day to cook. We were very appreciative and had a great time.

During the week, Vicky and I went to Bupoto to visit the AAH clinic and the neighboring school, Matuwa. Arlington owns the clinic and AAH has done some outreach work with the staff at Matuwa. A few weeks back, we made a surprise visit to the school and sat in on all the classes. Their school made me appreciate Arlington so much! In most classes, there were over 100 kids in each room, with teachers who show up to teach at their leisure. They go to school from 7am to 5 pm with NO food. They have major problems with kids coming to school, and even more problems getting kids to stay awake in class if they do come. It was really sad. I really want to do some fundraising when I get home to start a lunch program at Matuwa. It would make such a big difference in their lives. The director of the school told us they are beginning to have problems with P7 girls (about 13-14 years old) dropping out of school. Apparently, they walk around the trading center during lunch time, and older men offer them food, but expect something in return. Some girls are fearful of this, and drop out of school. Rumor has it that other girls become pregnant and drop out.

So we had a meeting with all the staff, and presented a report of what we observed. They were very appreciative of out complements and suggestions, and said they look forward to planning a workshop with AAH teachers. Success.

The rest of the afternoon, we played with some kids in the neighborhood. We brought crayons and paper, which were a huge hit. We had a blast too!

When we got back to AAH, we finished grading sponsor letters, took photos of every student to give to their sponsors, labeled and took inventory of new books, and had lunch with some of the P 6 and P7 girls. We decided to have lunch on a weekly basis with the older girls to talk about life and any issues they face. The past few weeks have been fun, and insightful. The girls asked Vicky and I lots of questions about life in the states. My favorite was one girl asking me, “Have you ever cut your hair in your life?” The school requires everyone to have shaved heads for hygiene, so they have never seen anyone with long hair before. I usually have my hair wrapped up in a bun, so I took it down for the girls to see. One girl continued to pet my head the rest of the lunch hour.

In other news, I was the pharmacists at the clinic yesterday! (Not to worry, I was just collecting and counting drugs as the doctor prescribed). Semi-emergency at the clinic and half the staff decided not to show, so I jumped in. I got one of the kids from school to translate for me, and ended up learning a lot.
Going on a hike soon, I have to go! More updates soon! Miss and love you all, hope everything is going well in the States!

Melembe Everyone!

I’m picking up on some Lukisu/Lumaasaba! My favorite phrase so far: Kaasula (no worries).  The locals still laugh, but they appreciate the effort.  They make an effort to speak English too. Almost every child knows, “Mezungu, How awe yooou?” Everywhere you go, you almost feel like a celebrity.

I don’t know where time has gone lately. I’ve been busy with the school and traveling! Lots of adventures, and misadventures…

At school:

AAH has this event every year called the Reading Challenge.  Arlington Traditional School in Virginia (our sister school) also holds the same event each year.   Basically, we ask students to keep a reading journal and challenge them to read 53 books in 3 months.  Vicky, Emily and I worked on the official “Kick-off” event to present the whole theme to the school.  “Reading is a Treat All Across Africa” is the theme for this year.  Each student was given a “passport” to document the books they read, and they are asked to read the information about all 53 countries in Africa.  We went into each class and presented the event, and read a story to begin the challenge.

We also had a big celebration at school to celebrate the 4^th of July and AAH’s 6^th year of existence.  I was surprised that America’s independence day would be celebrated here, but the Board of AAH, and all the staff here look at it as a way to thank ATS in the States for all they have done.   It was a pretty extravagant celebration, complete with a 6-hour assembly of song, dance, speeches, and guests of honor.  Afterwards, we had dinner and a party for the teaching and FIMRC clinical staff. 

Vicky and I have been working a lot in the library.  We reorganized the whole library to make it more user friendly for the teachers and the students.  We’ve also added new materials, donations, teaching guides, etc. and we are setting up an inventory system. We just got a money from USAid so we were able to purchase new text books, which are much needed! Now we’re working on designing a “Kids Corner” with a mural on the wall, some pillows, stuffed animals, and big picture books so the P1 and P2 students can have their own place.  I keep relating back to my first grade days with Mrs. Brown and remembering all the cool things we did and I wish we had the funds to do some of them here.

We had a staff meeting and discussed what Vicky and I would be able to contribute.  Most of the curriculum is strictly aligned with the Ugandan Government, so we don’t have much room for lessons that are not part of national textbooks.  The kids are tested 3 times a year and are then ranked nationally.  AAH is consistently in the top 5 scores in the country, so they take exams very seriously. 

 

We also started making lesson plans to teach first aid, and I am helping with some lessons in sustainable development.  We have started doing reading groups with students who are struggling in reading and English.  Most of the time I work with younger kids (P1-2), but today we started reading a book with P 7 and will do a whole unit on the book.  I have to assign homework to seventh graders! This is shocking!  They are all so willing to work, and eager to learn.  It’s a nice change from trying to teach 5 and 6 year olds how to read when English is their second language.  They are SO cute, but trying to get a group of P 1 boys to sit still and read was one of the hardest things I’ve done here.  Not exactly a success, but I’m working on it!

In other news:

So far I have enjoyed my experience to the fullest.  The other volunteers at the Guest House are amazing people and we have all become close friends.  Right now we are at capacity with 14 of us living in the Guest House.  It’s like a revolving door of people in and out, but there are four of us who are here for the summer.  We are going on a safari in a few weeks, I can’t wait!

More updates on:

White Water Rafting in the Nile

Kayaking on Lake Victoria

Outreach projects in Bupoto

 

PS We just got a wireless router so I have more access to the internet! YAY!

6-23-09

So Its officially been a week since I’ve been in Bumwalukani, and I officially love it.  I can’t decided if it’s the locals, the other volunteers, or the scenery that make this place so appealing.  Pictures really don’t do a justice, not matter how hard my little Olympus and I try. 

The Bududa District (a few villages combined) is set in the foothills of the mountains.  An endless skyline of banana trees surrounds us. The canyons are filled with eucalyptus and bamboo, spotted with corrugated tin roves.   At the base of the hills is Kiholo, where the guest house is located.  People congregate along the narrow strip of mud houses to buy and sell their goods, and to catch bodas (motorcycle rides) out of town…

Mbale, about 90 minutes by matatu, is one of larger cities in Uganda.  Last weekend, we all crammed into a van and headed to the city for a night on the town and to tour a local hospital.  We stayed at a “nice” hotel with great good.  (Nice- A hotel that provides a towel and a mosquito net. Bathrooms are not included.) It took about two hours for the seven of us to get our food, but it was well worth it.  The next day we went to visit CURE, a children’s neurosurgery hospital.  It is the only hospital in the world that treats only children with neurological disorders, and does most of it for free.

CURE is run by a non-profit based in the US, but they have hospitals all around the world.  The hospital administrator, a mezungu from Texas, showed us everything from the operating rooms, the intensive care unit, to the pharmacy.  We saw lots of kids with hydrocephalus, who had severely enlarged heads.  It was heart-breaking at first, but then we saw the outpatient center where most kids leave in good health.  The doctor who performs the surgery to correct the disorder has done more surgeries like this than any other doctor in the world. Pretty cool.

After visiting the hospital, we went to the markets where we met up with Jenipher.  She had a long list of groceries to buy for the guest house.  The markets reminded me of being in the food-mart in Thailand.  People were selling huge bags of rice, beans, corn meal, and barrels of exotic fruit. 

One man was witting in front of his table of pineapple. I thought it would be a cool picture: a bright yellow painted wall covered in muddy handprints from children playing, and the man sitting at a wooden table displaying his perfect crops.  I took out my camera and asked the man, “Is this ok?”, pointing to my camera.  I motioned “OK” to him a few times before he gave me a head nod.  Apparently, the nod wasn’t a sign of approval because after I took the photo, he stood up and told me to give him money for taking his photo.  His friend came over and kept asking if I planned to sell the photo for money, and demanded I give him money too.  Little kids surrounded me asking me to take their picture so they could look at themselves.  It was turning into a scene.  I quickly pointed to the trashcan icon on my camera and showed him that I deleted the photo, which they understood.  We were anxious to leave after that…

We headed back with Jenipher in the car before the rain hit.  Judging by the roads, it had rained. It rained a lot. We took a few back roads to avoid the main road back to Kiholo, which was likely washed out.  Long story short, we ended up pushing the car through remote farming areas. The kids acted like they had never seen mezugus before.  Nonetheless mezungs who were covered in mud pushing a car through their village.

I was happy to return to the guest house. On Saturday, a group of us asked Mike to guide us on the hike up to Mt. Nusu.  I knew the hike was going to be intense, but I think I overestimated my abilities.  Five hours later, we completed the hike.  The view from the top was something like runner’s high.  It was a breathtaking view of the whole district that made the blisters and sweat-pouring journey worth it. 

For a nice lazy Sunday afternoon, all 11 of us (including the new recruits) took a hike up to the mountain next to Nusu.  Again, a hefty workout but worth it.  I am not going to mention that I didn’t make it to the top and opted for a grassy patch half way up the mountain…

 

So, Monday rolled around too fast, but it has been good to get back into the school.