Blog 9.17.
Hello again friends I hope that all is well in the world. I am assuming that everything is ok because no one has told me otherwise. Also, if someone could send me an email telling me how the UVa football team is doing, that would be great.
One of the expectations of every Peace Corps volunteer is that they will become violently ill at some point in the next two years. I have been 85-90% most the time and am ready for my body to explode suddenly. Medical does a good job every week of telling us all of the diseases and bugs that we can possibly get in Uganda. There are parasites, amoebas, diseases, and the three days of uncontrolled diarrhea that can’t be explained but you survive and hope doesn’t happen again. Usually it’s just food poisoning so it passes pretty quickly. So far mostly everyone in our group has felt ill at some point. Two people have been treated for Giardhia and two people (not including myself) think they have it. Fun! In the past few weeks my bowels have made themselves present more than I am used to or appreciate. I like to know that my GI tract is working, but lately it has been reminding me almost every moment of every day. My stomach is constantly rumbling and gas is constantly coming out of both ends (though I have yet to have the “Big D”).
I think that this is a good time to talk about waste management in Uganda. In Uganda there are two acceptable places to use the bathroom. There is the popular and widely known pit latrine for every day use. That was a big obstacle for me as the hole is only 8 inches by 4 inches, a lot smaller than I expected. Squating and aiming is hard but the “satisfying thud” has been one of Uganda’s most pleasant surprises, especially since it's a 30 foot drop (though not hearing it is one of the most horrifying things that happens). At night Ugandans (and therefore me) do not use the pit latrine because they are outside and it is incredibly dark and most people do not have flashlights. So let me introduce you to the susu, which is just a bucket with a lid that you use the bathroom in at night; mine is a purple pitcher. In the morning you walk out to the latrine and empty it out. I think that if you ask any volunteer here, they will have a susu story to share. There are two problems with the susu and therefore usually two types of stories. The first is that a lot of people knock them over which is messy because you have to clean it up, which is its own problem. Families here don’t have paper towels or conventional mops so most people end up using their clothes and you have pee-soaked clothes in your room until you can wash it. On top of that there is usually no electricity so all the cleaning is done in the dark or by headlamp. The second problem is when people get violently sick in the middle of the night and all you have is a bucket. Not pretty (not that it has happened to me, but there have been some stories) but a part of life here.
The food here is great! Actually not amazing, but full of potential. The staple food here is Matooke, which is made from mashed plantains. Basically, the plantains are wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed for hours, then mashed. This is served almost everyday for lunch and dinner. To give it flavor, there is ground nut sauce, which is ground peanuts mixed in boiling water and stirred until enough water evaporates and it becomes a thick sauce. That is the main course. Usually on the side there is a combination of cabbage or eggplant, avocado, papaya, pasta, greens (kale, I think), potatoes and a number of other things that you can plant here. Mostly, the food prepared for me is edible and pretty good, but I am really looking forward to getting to my site and playing with new, fun ingredients. In my next entry I will talk about jackfruit and other foods.
On Saturday we went to jinja to see the source of the nile and explore the east a little bit. It only makes me more excited beacuase the east is beautiful. This is getting long. Later.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Over the Hump
I am now in the middle of my fifth week of training, that means only five more weeks! Hmmmm, don’t really know what I feel.. This is the week that we find out specifically where we are going and I think that I will try to update again next week to tell everyone. Details are nice, but I have no idea what to expect because I do not know what the East is like so to give me the name of a town/village won’t really change anything. I don’t know if that is the right emotion to have, but it’s what I feel and I can’t change that.
Right now my primary concern is what the hell I’m going to do when I am out there. I’ve realized that my political science degree is not as useful as I had hoped when I was in school. We have people in our group with real skills that are immediately useful like nutrition, Health Education and engineering and I feel like all I do sometimes is ask questions. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, I just worry that when I get out to my site I will have to do a lot of assessment before I actually dig in a do something. The trainers tell us that it is going to be frustrating and difficult; I’m really hoping that it’s not. To steal a line from Diana, I have to hands and hopefully for the first few months that’s enough. Also, I am going to be working for an organization so hopefully will have some direction there.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Things are great!
Right now and for the last three weeks I have been in Luweero training to become a Peace Corps Volunteer. As of yet, I am not officially a volunteer, but a trainee. It’s a distinction that I don’t usually make, but the trainers make sure to constantly note. The big question seems to be what we are training for and how is the training conducted. Well, honestly, I don’t know. That is not a criticism, it just seems like the point of training is to prepare us for an unknown, possibly bad situation. At times, that can be frustrating, but I think that’s just preparation for future frustrations. And isn’t that the point?
Training is six days a week from 8am to 5pm (except Saturday when it’s 8am-1pm). I wake up at 6:45 and get two buckets of water from the tank outside for my bucket bath. Actually, in the morning I just wash my face and wet my hair and leave the second bucket for the next person. I then have breakfast which is coffee and an omelet three days a week and bananas or other fruit the other days. Then I cram a little language for fifteen minutes and leave at 7:30 to meet Megan and Karine for our walk to our training site. Language is from 8-10 then we have a break for tea and usually bananas. We then either have medical or security or some other technical training until lunch at 12:30. The afternoon is more technical training, usually in health, which is good because we are all health volunteers. We have been on a few field trips to some local NGOs and other facilities around the communities. If anyone wants to look to work for a great organization I recommend looking into “The Hunger Project”(www.thp.org) based in New York. We got to see the work that they do in Uganda and it’s pretty incredible.
After training we have been trying to do some activity to unwind on most days. As I mentioned earlier, we have a Journal Club but that’s just an excuse to go to the bar and get something to drink before we go home to our families. It reminds me a lot of the end bit from “Bigger and Blacker”. We head home around 6:45 when it starts getting dark. When I get home I usually take a full bucket bath (when I’m good I only use one bucket) then I study or read until dinner which has been exactly at 8:30. I think that my next entry will be about the food and diet here. It’s something I am very excited to play with once I am at site.
Now I feel like I’ve gotten some of the general information out of the way and I can get into some of the other things we have been doing around Luweero. This past weekend was the best one thus far in Uganda. It started on Friday when I was able to get meat on a stick for lunch during training. I think that meat on the stick is and will remain my favorite thing about this country. For 500 shillings (30 cents) you can get a kebab of goat or beef and it’s delicious. I think that once I am at my site I will live on meat on a stick. Anyways, back to Friday. After training Diana and I decided that we would try to share a bike. That is not as weird as it sounds, it’s common here. Here you can grab a ride on the back of a bike and you can find up to four people on one Hero bike (made in India). The plan was that I would ride and Diana would sit on the back side saddle (because she has to wear a skirt). That didn’t work, it wasn’t even close. So we switched and I was on the back and we rode down the main drag of Luweero to the bar. At the bar the whole group got together to make and eat chips and salsa which Diana had a hankering for since Philadelphia. That worked out wonderfully and everyone was happy until the bar ran of beer. Yup, that happens here and it sucks. Most people went home and a small group of us went out to a bar/hotel out of town a bit. We stayed out until 10 which is unheard of during training. That was the most we have been able to let go since we got here and that what made it such nice Friday.
Quickly, the past week has also been a hoot outside of two scary incidents that I wrote about separately. We had a bbq yesterday with hamburgers and other great american foods. I don't realize I miss them until I get them. Here's hoping everything is well at home!
Training is six days a week from 8am to 5pm (except Saturday when it’s 8am-1pm). I wake up at 6:45 and get two buckets of water from the tank outside for my bucket bath. Actually, in the morning I just wash my face and wet my hair and leave the second bucket for the next person. I then have breakfast which is coffee and an omelet three days a week and bananas or other fruit the other days. Then I cram a little language for fifteen minutes and leave at 7:30 to meet Megan and Karine for our walk to our training site. Language is from 8-10 then we have a break for tea and usually bananas. We then either have medical or security or some other technical training until lunch at 12:30. The afternoon is more technical training, usually in health, which is good because we are all health volunteers. We have been on a few field trips to some local NGOs and other facilities around the communities. If anyone wants to look to work for a great organization I recommend looking into “The Hunger Project”(www.thp.org) based in New York. We got to see the work that they do in Uganda and it’s pretty incredible.
After training we have been trying to do some activity to unwind on most days. As I mentioned earlier, we have a Journal Club but that’s just an excuse to go to the bar and get something to drink before we go home to our families. It reminds me a lot of the end bit from “Bigger and Blacker”. We head home around 6:45 when it starts getting dark. When I get home I usually take a full bucket bath (when I’m good I only use one bucket) then I study or read until dinner which has been exactly at 8:30. I think that my next entry will be about the food and diet here. It’s something I am very excited to play with once I am at site.
Now I feel like I’ve gotten some of the general information out of the way and I can get into some of the other things we have been doing around Luweero. This past weekend was the best one thus far in Uganda. It started on Friday when I was able to get meat on a stick for lunch during training. I think that meat on the stick is and will remain my favorite thing about this country. For 500 shillings (30 cents) you can get a kebab of goat or beef and it’s delicious. I think that once I am at my site I will live on meat on a stick. Anyways, back to Friday. After training Diana and I decided that we would try to share a bike. That is not as weird as it sounds, it’s common here. Here you can grab a ride on the back of a bike and you can find up to four people on one Hero bike (made in India). The plan was that I would ride and Diana would sit on the back side saddle (because she has to wear a skirt). That didn’t work, it wasn’t even close. So we switched and I was on the back and we rode down the main drag of Luweero to the bar. At the bar the whole group got together to make and eat chips and salsa which Diana had a hankering for since Philadelphia. That worked out wonderfully and everyone was happy until the bar ran of beer. Yup, that happens here and it sucks. Most people went home and a small group of us went out to a bar/hotel out of town a bit. We stayed out until 10 which is unheard of during training. That was the most we have been able to let go since we got here and that what made it such nice Friday.
Quickly, the past week has also been a hoot outside of two scary incidents that I wrote about separately. We had a bbq yesterday with hamburgers and other great american foods. I don't realize I miss them until I get them. Here's hoping everything is well at home!
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