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. 

Hi All!

June 17^th (A little late do to lack of internet connection!)

I’m here at the village! So far everything is going very well.  I’m still quite tired from the jet lag and adjusting to life, but I’m sure I will be back to normal in no time.

I left Chicago on Sunday night, stopped in Brussels and landed in Entebbe, Uganda on Monday around 8:30pm.  The Brussels airport was a lot less organized than Ugandan airport!  The conveyer belts of the luggage carrousel were covered in Coca Cola advertisements. Kind of shocking when I was expecting to be greeted by kids with swollen bellies at my feet.

Emily, the volunteer coordinator who worked with Heather at the White House, was there to pick Vicky and I up.  Vicky is another volunteer who was on my flight.  The three of us spent the night in a hotel in the city, and drove back to the village on Tuesday morning. After the 6-hour drive with driver Rashid, we finally arrived.

We were welcomed into the guest house by some of the other American volunteers staying there.  Right now, there are 9 of us living in the house but there are supposed to be more arriving in the next few weeks.   Six of them work in the health clinic next to the school, so I will probably not be working with them much. The guest house is four bedrooms with bunk beds and a living area in the middle.  Jenipher, a local from the village, prepares meals for us and does our laundry (by hand).  Last night we had corn meal, beans, and some plantains.  The market in the larger town about 20 minutes from here sells a few familiar goods like Heinz “tomato sauce” and Neslee drinking chocolate.

All of the volunteers are really nice, good hearted people.  Tomorrow, I’m going to be working in the clinic to get a feel for things.  Friday Vicky and I are going to the market with Jenipher to stock the guest house.    So far our food has been interesting, but I mean that in a good way.  Everyday, the school serves a midmorning meal of tea and chipotie (fried dough).  At lunch, they serve beans, cornmeal or rice, and some type of vegetable.  Today was eggplant and cabbage in some type of seasoning that was really good.  Jenipher made us vegetables, corn meal and beans for dinner.

During the day, we work in the school helping teachers and the librarian. Today, Emily took us up to the school around 7:30am to show us some more things and meet some more people.  She introduced us to most of the teachers, the headmaster, the bursar, and the kitchen staff. 

Vicky and I organized this massive shelf of teaching supplies and added some new supplies.  People from the states have been very generous in donating old books, and teacher guides to text books, but the problem is much of it is incomplete.  Most of the teachers are overwhelmed so the stuff we have is underutilized.  We divided everything up into subjects and then grade levels and made labels.  We are also going to write a memo to the teachers explaining how the shelves are organized, and highlight a few great materials we discovered.  I divided up some posters, stickers, and certificates of achievement for each teacher to take back to their classroom.   Paper is so rare, people will hang scraps of newspaper on their walls as decoration. 

We also got to sit in on a class, P 5.  At lunch today, we got to talk to Teacher Wilson and Teacher Richard.  They have a pretty intricate schedule for every day of the week.  The kids stay in their respective classrooms, P1-7.  The teachers teach three different grade levels and move around throughout the day, teaching different subjects to each level.  The kids are so excited to participate in class.  Its fun to watch kids so jazzed over math and reading.  Today P 4-5 had music class in the library.  They watched a movie and learned a song and dance with the words.  I might have “Jesus, you are so lovely, Jesus I love your name…Jesus you are so lovely…” stuck in my head for a few days, but it was so cute to see the kids dancing.  They were so captivate to see a TV.  Mental note: add television to the long list of reminders that make me happy to life the life I do.

We left school a little early today so we wouldn’t get suck in the rain.  We descended the very steep incline as best as we could after the torrential downpour had washed out much of the road.  After our 10-25 minute mud-covered walk, we made it back to the guest house in just enough time before the next downpour.  Most people wear “gum boots” (rain boots) around so the don’t fall going down the hill.  I neglected my umbrella and jacket so Teacher Wilson offered to give me his rain boots, which I respectfully denied.  I had a 15-minute conversation about weather with Teacher Richard.  After much talking and translating, I finally concluded, “Ok, so there are no season. There is wet, and dry.”  The whole lunchroom erupted with laughter and agreed.  Side note: there are about 3 different dialects of language spoken in our village alone.  Most root back to Swahili and/or French, but it is too difficult to communicate among each other so most communication is in English.  For most people at the school, English is a second language, but it is used as the primary language in all the classrooms.

Anyway, after I left school I finally had to take a shower. That was an interesting experience all in itself.  I got up this morning to take a shower, but I was turned away by a very, very large black spider was in there first.  Mind you, showers consist of a bucket of water, a pitcher to dump on yourself and a hole in the middle of a ceramic room.  After I recovered from my near heart attack, I went back to take a shower.  I really don’t want to go into details.  I closed my eyes most of the time and pretended the spiders on the walls were not there…

After a much needed nap, I woke up to dinner.  After dinner we invited Mike over for cake.   It was beautifully decorated but it was rock solid.  We joked that this thing, purchased in Mbale, could survive a nuclear holocaust.  Mike appreciated it anyway, and we insisted that he make a speech after a loud “cheers”.  Mike, a local who has just earned the title “Che”, has undergone a two-week, intensive training program about public health concerns.  Some of the volunteers and medical students from the clinic have led a group of adults to educate the community about healthy practices, which could prevent some diseases like Malaria.  When they complete their training, they are called Che’s, almost regarded as doctors in the village.  The group in training also created a drama group who presents skits to all the classes about daily health care.  They preached common sense practices like not urinating or defecating anywhere near where food is prepared.  And washing your hands before eating, treating water before drinking, sleeping with mosquito nets.  So many things you would take for granted, but not utilized.  I guess education goes a long way.  

Getting Ready!

Hello everyone!

Thanks for reading this, I appreciate your interest and support.  I am in the process of getting ready for my trip to Africa!  I will be assisting teachers at a school in the village of Bumwalukani, outside Mbale, Uganda.  I am staying at a volunteer guest house through the Arlington Academy of Hope.  I have always wanted to volunteer in Africa because it is the poorest continent in the world, plagued with disease, broken homes, war, and social injustices.  In my eyes, Africa carries a certain mystic which I cannot explain, but I am drawn to it.  I have learned about some of the reasons why there are great pockets of poverty strewn about the continent, and I think we as citizens of the world can do better.  Through coursework, clubs, and talking with friends who have been to Africa, I feel very strongly about going to Uganda to do what I am able to improve the quality of life of others.  I am eager to understand the history of the tumultuous civil wars that surround Uganda.  I want to learn what triggers these massive social injustices and how to improve the conditions in Uganda and surrounding countries.  I want to learn about Ugandan culture, and what changes they would like to see.  I would also like to learn about nonprofit organizations, and their effect on society.  I am prepared to work with an open mind, and I can't wait!

Heavy, idealistic intro aside....

I leave on Friday where I will stop in Indianapolis to hang out with friends before I catch my flights out of Chicago. Sunday, I will fly from Chicago to Brussels (along with another AAH volunteer) to Entebbe.  One of the AAH volunteer guides will meet us at the Entebbe airport and we will spend the night in a hotel because it is safer to travel during the day.  So on Tuesday morning, we will take a bus to Bumwalukani! So, I will be traveling for a FEW days before I will be able to contact anyone. If you would like to stay in touch, I am hoping to blog once a week instead of doing mass-emails to everyone as I did when I was traveling abroad last year. 

Say a little prayer for me and wish me luck! I think this will be a great experience!