We are putting several entries in this one post since the Internet here is so slow and it is way easier that way…enjoy!!
7/6/05
Continuing on
The last two days I spent in a small village outside of Mukono with Travis/MACRO and Yusaku, a Japanese gentleman my age that has been here for one month and leaves Friday. We left Monday afternoon and headed to this small village in a Ford Pickup (a good one, since the road was pretty much right out of the rally sport challenge video game with added 1-2ft potholes!) We spent the first 2hrs playing football (soccer) with school children who probably had never seen any mzungus ever. The kids had a lot of fun challenging a mzungu in a good game of football. After this, we had dinner which composed of white bread, peanut butter, trail mix, cookies, and water. (That’s what happens when an American and a Japanese guy go to the local Ugandan supermarket for “Camp Food”). After this, we had a meeting with some of the villagers. First Travis asked them what their expectations of our meeting were. Next, he asked them what problems they were having. After this, I got up and explained what MACRO is and what problems it could address. These areas were some small support to get the school kids some flip-flops since they have to walk to and from school each day. Also, we could offer them education about HIV/AIDS and try to provide condoms from time to time to help in prevention. Finally, we could work with them to get some youth in some of the MACRO programs. After this Travis and I had a dialogue about the U.S. vs. Uganda and the goods and bads of both countries. Once I was finished, Yusaku talked about some contact we have for Vanilla buyers for the farmers to get a fair price, some membership forms, and other things. We had some condoms to hand out but Travis wanted to have the women and children leave first and have the men come back in an hour or so to get instruction on how to use them, and then hand them out, because otherwise giving them out would just be throwing them away since the villagers don’t know how to use them. We set up our mosquito nets and mats and got a fire going for us to sleep outside. After a few hours, we decided that no one was coming which was frustrating, but somewhat expected being that we were in a remote African village. To finish off the night, in true Ugandan style, our kerosene lantern that we had paid a guy for 2-3hours ago showed up by bike 30 minutes after we had all gone to sleep along with the tea from a local villager. Ah, Uganda!
7/7/05
Planning and Relaxing
Today Travis, Yusaku, and I had planned to meet with a newspaper reporter to do a story about MACRO, but instead the day went a little off. First off, let me backtrack to last night….Travis took Esther, Tiffany, Yusaku, and I to a place called the Eagle’s Nest. The place has a dance floor, a stage, and a restaurant area. We were there to see some Mukono Youth perform music. Our expectation was probably something like a band or some sort of local music. Instead what we got was a sort of karaoke except the singers only did lip syncing. After we got over our initial shock of actually going to a place to watch people lip sync, we started to enjoy the acts. Some of them had dance routines and were very good. We learned later that this type of lip syncing is very popular in Uganda and probably other places in Africa. Tiffany, Esther and I left early and had a restful night. The following morning we found out that after Travis had gone to sleep, someone broke into his room and used some chemical or something to knock him out and stole his clothes, stereo, and other items. Because of this he was busy with the police, hospital, and his parents today to take care of things. He is done well as far as we know but I’m sure we’ll be able to contact him soon.
Because of this I started on some of my specific contributions I will hope to make to MACRO. The format for MACRO volunteers is to first spend time in Mukono and with Travis and get to know MACRO and the problems and needs it has. Then, depending on what your individual skills and passions are, you can pick an area to spend time on while you are here and take steps to accomplish those goals. Now that I’ve learned about MACRO and seen what it needs and such, I will want to help Travis with some pamphlets that can be handed out to villages and others that have information on HIV/AIDS, hygiene, and other basic needs. Also, I will help him with their constitution and plan to help document different rules and laws that MACRO will follow to prevent corruption and protect them as an NGO. Finally I hope to improve the internal structure of MACRO so that Travis can build up other leaders in each sub-county that can organize members and coordinate events and teach what MACRO teaches. Travis then can still do what he does but the demand on him is less. I think what I need is a good local, trustworthy lawyer to assist in legal documentation and writing to protect MACRO.
Today I started editing and creating documents and came up with a logo for MACRO. I hope to see Travis soon to see how he is doing and get back on track with MACRO.
Nalusse Success Primary School
Today (Thursday) was my fourth day of teaching at the school. It is the same school that Nantale Caroline and Nakalema Christine go to (the adorable girls that I play with every night and dream of taking home). School life is a lot different here, of course. Very laid back. I was told to arrive at 7:30am, when the kids are supposed to get there. I was there at 7:30 the next morning, along with a handful of kids, but no teachers or the headmistress. =) Most of the teachers take taxis to school, so they can not control how many stops are made. The woman I am teaching with is called Ndagire Mary. She is so sweet to me. She has been buying me chapat (cha-pot-ee) for break time, to go with hot tea. Chapat is made by boys on the streets. It is similar to an elephant ear without the sweet stuff. It is just dough and grease. Yummy. Teacher Mary is very interested in life in America, like most of the people here. They are convinced life is better there. I’m not quite convinced of this myself. Mary has two children, a little girl, Diana, who is in the nursery class at school (she is five), and George is one and a half years old. Since I am white, the children are mesmerized by me. Children spend their play time pointing at me, laughing, and inching closer to me. They push one another towards me and dare each other (it seems) to touch me. I’ll look out the “window” and see like ten kids just waiting for me to notice them. The smiles are priceless. Mary’s little boy George came to school for the first time today. He was scared at first, but soon just stared at me and laughed. He even sat on my lap and held my hand! (so cute; but he already has a good mom). Yes, women teachers just bring their children to class with them if no one is at home to care for them.
Yesterday I asked the teacher of P7 (ages 12-14) if I could come in and watch her class after lunch. When I went there the students were working on their exercises, no teacher. After they greeted me “Good afternoon, Teacher Acker (“A-ka”), I asked where their teacher was. They told me she was at home (near the school) caring for her little girl. Indeed she was. There is no tight schedule to follow at this school; it is a nice change of pace. Although, when the teacher did come back she had expected me to just start teaching her class. She told me she wants me to teach English and Science (the latter I am not so sure about, but it seems to be what all the teachers want mzungus to teach). I told her that I had not prepared anything, since I just wanted to watch her class. So she told me to do Science, which was reading out of a book and dictating to the students for their notes. This was definitely interesting. I was dictating to them about civil, religious, and customary marriage. And then on to the topic of young parenthood. Note: as I was reading from this curriculum text made by the country, I had to change the grammatical errors as I went along. Okay, so I am making these students write down the following:
-Reasons young parents have trouble: They may not raise girls that know how to control themselves and have premarital sex. (nothing said about the boys)
-Problems being a young parents:
The parents may not be able to care for the baby.
(and two lines down)
The girl may not be able to care for the baby. (again, just the girl)
-Why kids should not have children young:
Obstructive delivery
Possibility of abortion, C-section, or vaginal tears. (When I finish reading this to them, I said: or you could just write “ouch” or “pain”. I’m not sure they got it.)
So, between these topics in P7 Science and poultry keeping and birds of the world in P1 and 2 Science, it is interesting. The resources are so limited I am trying to find things to bring in. I couldn’t really prepare before coming, since I didn’t know what I was going to be doing. If anything, I am here just to entertain the kids as a white person.
Long days
From the cock-a-doodle-doo in the morning to the honk-honk of taxis in the evening, the days seem long. We get up and have breakfast which consists of pineapple, bananas, bread, hardboiled eggs, and peanut butter. Then I am off to school and Chris does his MACRO thing (which is random). I do not get out of Mukono town much, but plan on it this weekend.
Chris and I are going to Murchison Falls with a small group. We will go into Kampala on Sunday night and stay at Red Hot Chili Hostel (sounds fun!), and take off Monday morning for the six hour drive to northwest Uganda (we are in the southwest). There we will see the Nile River and hopefully many beautiful wild animals. We will let you know, and I can guarantee we will have gorgeous pictures from our photographer, Chris.
Before we came to Uganda we had on our agenda all of the tourist activities and sights to see. But now that we are actually here, if we go a couple places we will be content. It is the people and daily life that we are loving. Chris and I are also figuring out how to spend our money. The housemaid, Esther, is working to save for school. She needs to complete Senior 5 and 6 (two years). It costs about 1,000,050 shillings a year, which is about $600. This includes boarding. But she only gets paid 50,000 shillings a month. So if you do the math, it is clear that it would take her awhile to achieve this. She is the firstborn of her family and has ten siblings. She helps support them a bit too. So I know that we would like to give some money towards Esther’s schooling. Even a small amount in America goes far here. Chris and I exchanged $200 upon arriving here and still have a lot left. We only pay for water, transportation, mangoes =), and random expenses.
