Posts
Hello everyone! I hope all is happy and well with you on your side of the world! I want to apologize for the enormous amount of grammatical and spelling errors in last weeks blog. I promise to proofread this one to some extent before posting.
I cannot believe I had forgotten to write about this earlier, but a few weeks ago I was conducting a workshop on thematic curriculum. Upon my arrival at the school I was greeted by the headmaster who greeted me with a couple of slaps on the face. I was absolutely flabbergasted and I can only imagine what my face had to have looked like. To my surprise I ended up really liking this man at the end of the day.
Last weekend before Jackie and Sam left Lisandro and I took them out dancing at a club in Masaka town. While a decent amount of people were drinking alcohol there was also a decent amount of people drinking milk out of box with a straw. It was like a juice box of milk drank by grown men at a club. How often do you see that in the states?
Every week I do something and realize that I am becoming a bit more Ugandan. Most of the time I think it’s funny until I realize what consequences this will carry once I return to the states. Yesterday small children were playing with magnets (which they love Kelly!) and I decided it would be a good idea to give them five rusty nails to play with. I was a teacher and a nanny before I came to Uganda. I spent most of my time keeping things like rusty nails away from children and now I am giving them to them.
When I first moved to Kiyumba my supervisor and I stopped at the police station to introduce myself. One of the first things they said to me was that Kiyumba is very dangerous and that I needed armed guards. Amber and I laughed about this for the past two months because it seemed ridiculous to us. Well, the other morning the local chairman, the deputy of the school, and two armed guards showed up at my house. Apparently they are going to start patrolling the village at night. I’m not sure if the are going to be patrolling all of the village or just my house, but I was in shock. I have armed guards wondering around outside of my house at night. I have no idea who’s idea this was or who’s money is paying for these men, but hey, I have armed guards.
I think I had mentioned last week that Sam had witnessed a male teacher beating some of the students and that I had a talk with him about copral punishment. On Monday I was walking over to the school and I witnessed a female teacher with the students lined up beating them with a stick because apparently they were not cleaning the compound as they were supposed to. I really like this teacher and she was completely mortified when she saw that I was upset and promised it would not happen again. On Tuesday I made myself lunch and was on my way to my front porch to eat when I saw a student laying on his side and a girl in his class beating him with a stick. She seemed uncomfortable about it, but the same male teacher I had a talk with on Friday was encouraging her to hit him harder. On top of this, the entire class was purposely gathered around to watch. This time the male student had stolen sugar cane from the girl’s farm. I again talked with the teacher and he was completely baffled. He said, “But you said that I couldn’t beat the children. I didn’t know they couldn’t beat eachother.” It seemed ridiculous to me. Can you imagine giving a student a stick and having him beat another student? We talked for awhile and he asked what he should have done with the student. I told him that he should have to go and apologize to the girl’s father and pay for the sugarcane taken and if he could not pay he should do some work at the man’s house to make up for the cost. He seemed to agree with me. When I asked him if he felt that beating the children was working he agreed that it was not. Later on that day I was walking through the school and this same teacher and another female teacher stopped me. They had just found a group of girls that were out in the bush picking jamula (similar to grapes) while they were supposed to be at school and they wanted to know what an appropriate punishment would be. I told them that the girls should not be allowed to play during their lunch time the following day and that they should instead be kept inside writing sentences. They agreed and wrote the girls’ names down to miss free time the following day. While the past week’s events have been rather frustrating I am hopeful that change will come about. I talked with my counterpart and we are going to plan a workshop on classroom management/discipline. I am a big believer that a well managed class will not need discipline and I have been been posting my procedures, classroom rules, and consequences in my own classroom. The classroom I have been using in the same room that we hold workshops so it is good that I will be able to show them partly why my students are so well behaved.
Today I taught a couple of the teachers and students how to make the paper beads and they loved it. It is great because they are all very eager to learn and contribute to the library through the profits made off of the beads. They are a bit difficult to make at first and some of them turned out rather bad. I know they are capable of making really good beads with a bit of practice, but right now they are not as good as I want them to be and it is hard for me to tell them they are not as good as they need to be. I have learned that many of the people I work with tell me what I want to hear, but never follow through with their promises. I have one teacher who has really surprised me with her enthusiasm with the project and has even brought me some beautiful seeds from some plant that she was hoping that I could find something to do with. Luckily, the day she brought the seeds Jackie happened to be wearing a beautiful bracelet made out of the same beads. Today after school some students came over to my house and made the paper beads while Paulo made bracelets out of the seeds. So far this project is going just as I would like it to. I have shown them how to make the things, but they are taking complete ownership of the project and I am mearly supervising.
Jackie and Sam I just want to tell you what I have witnessed this week after you have left. The other day I was standing in my kitchen cooking and outside my window I hear “ch ch ch ch ch ch woo!” They were singing the part of singing in the rain that they remembered. I watched Martin place three sticks in a row and play the jumping game by himself. I found out Madagascar was a boy, despite the fact he only ever wears dresses, and he actually talks and smiles all the time. He must have just in muzungu overload. Oh, and as I expected I have received a numerous amount of requests for the photos you took of them. Lastly, I have also finally tired of “Wagon Wheel,” somehow. Believe it or not, as of Monday, it has only been played forty-three times.
I got mail and tons of it the other day; seven packages in total! Thank you Julie, Carla X2, Kelly X2, and Lindsay X2! You are wonderful and the kids and I are really enjoying everything! Geoffrey that postman now also knows that I am incredibly loved!
Peace and love,
Autumn
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
I Love Uganda
Hello everyone! My last blog took me so long to post that I was able to post again soon after! I hope all is happy and well with you and that you are enjoying your summer weather!
Last week Amber and attended a workshop that was training tutors on how to train teachers to teach students about life skills. The first question asked was how STIs were transmitted. The Ugandans all agreed that the only way that STIs could be transmitted was through sexual intercourse. I raise my hand and add that STIs can be transmitted through any sexual act, not only intercourse. They all get a confused look on their face and someone refers to instruments. At this point Amber and I are baffled about what they are talking about so I take it upon myself to clarify what I mean. Mind you, Ugandans are incredibly indirect. I stand up in a room full of fifty adults and say, “For example, lets say I have oral sex with one person and contract herpes. Afterwards, I kiss another person and they now contract herpes. That is one way an STI can be transmitted without sexual intercourse.” If I did not have everyone’s attention at the beginning, I definitely had all eyes on me by the end. I sat down and Amber burst into laughter. Everyone was shocked that I would say such a thing. On top of that I think they now believe that I have herpes. But hey, if it gets them to teach correct information then I will let them believe that I am promiscuous and have herpes.
After the workshop I headed to Iganga to stay with a friend of mine and visit another volunteers women’s group that makes the paper beads I want my students to make. I got there Saturday afternoon and met up with the volunteers in that area for lunch and headed over to meet Cate’s group and learned how to made beads. The work these women is absolutely beautiful. I tried to make one and it was a disaster. The worst part about trying to roll the paper is that you notice how dirty your finger nails are in this country. I think I need to invest in a bottle of black nail polish so I will never have to accept how dirty I am on a regular basis. On my way back to Masaka I stopped in Kampala to get some things from the Peace Corps office. During this time I get a call from my friends Jackie and Sam telling me that they are at the airport a half hour away from Kampala. Jackie and Sam are my friends from the states who have spent the past four weeks making their way up to Uganda from South Africa. I knew they were coming sometime soon, but I haven’t been to the internet for a while so I had no idea when they were coming. So that was a big wonderful surprise for me! When I got them to my village my villagers were on muzungu overload. They were going nuts over Jackie and Sam.
This week I started teaching English to the P6 and P7 kids and I was thankful Jackie and Sam were here to help me out for the first week. The first day we taught the P7 students and for the most part it went really well. I had them do a writing sample and realized that many them are having much trouble with forming basic sentences. The next day we taught P6 and it was a bit rough; they were having a really hard time understanding what we were asking them to do, but by the second lesson they were doing really well. Because both P6 and P7 were having a difficult time forming basic sentences we decided that we should start with the basics. The next day we went over what a noun was and had them work in groups using some flash cards of nouns and adjectives and had them pick out which ones were nouns. It was a great lesson because children here are not taught to work in groups and some of the groups were doing a really great job of discussing and thinking critically together. I also really liked it because we were using a resource we found in the box of unused resources and the children loved them. We had them do some fun appreciation cheers for right answers and at the end of our lesson they thanked up for teaching by doing the cheer for us. It was wonderful and I absolutely love teaching them.
I didn’t visit schools this week because I am teaching English at an odd time of day. We got to spend a great deal of time with the kids during their breaks. They have always known that I was a bit goofy, but once we added Jackie and Sam to the mix we were all kinds of weird and the kids loved it. We were teaching the kids silly songs, dancing, and just making fools of ourselves. The teachers thought we were nuts, but it was great to show them how teachers in the states interact with their students. The other day one of the teachers asked me to teach the students how we dance in America. I just laughed, I cannot think of anything worse than me teaching kids how we dance in America.
While I was developing instructional materials in the resource room Sam witnessed one of the teachers beating the children. I asked him about it later and he saw nothing wrong with it, although it is illegal. We talked for a bit about why, especially in a country with a history of violence, it is important that we are not being instigators. He did not agree and tried giving me the excuse that Africans are different from Americans and that they must be beat or they will not behave. He keeps claiming that other methods would not work and that beating them is the only way. However, beating them is not working either. What I find the most interesting is that the students he has the most trouble with I have no trouble with at all. He says that when he tells them to carry water they refuse. However, these children beg to carry my water. He says that in class they refuse to listen. However, in my class they are incredibly well behaved. I think the difference is that they respect me because I don’t believe in this whole hierarchy that Ugandans love and because I treat them as I would a friend. In fact they are my friends. If a child respects you they will do as you wish, but why would a child willingly do something for someone that beats them and pays no attention to them? I mentioned to the boys that I was told that they have bad discipline and they were mortified. On Monday I told that teacher that we could talk about alternative discipline methods so hopefully that will go well.
The other day Jackie and Sam offered to paint a wonderful quote on my wall that says, “I never knew of a morning in Africa when I woke up that I was not happy” by Ernest Heminway. I was joking with Jackie about looking out for Patu if she leaves the black paint on my back porch because last time he smeared orange paint all over my back porch. Well, I walk out on my back porch a bit later to find Patu sitting there with a big paint covered grin on his face. I am not sure what he was doing, but it looks as if he was tasting the paint. He is outrageous, but I love him more and more everyday. I am so glad that Jackie and Sam had the opportunity to understand why I love this naughty and strange little boy so much.
I have always loved my village and I hate when I have to leave it for more than a day at a time, but it was not until this week that I realized how attached we all are to one another. The other day I was talking to an older student and he told me that he was sad because his mom was going to die. She is in the hospital next to my home and has not ate, drank, or talked in the past week. He tells me that she is suffering from malaria, but he asked me to tell him about HIV/AIDS so I suspect that she may have AIDS. His Dad lives about four hours away and is a fisherman and his sister and brother have been taking care of him while she has been sick. It broke my heart to hear him talk about his mother and what he thinks will happen if (but as he says, when) she dies. I have noticed that he waits around until six or seven until he leaves the school, he is always wanting to help me, and very curious about my own mother. He is doing everything he can to take his mind off of his mother and I believe I am the only person he has told about his mother. When he left me the other night to visit his mother I burst into tears. Sometimes the reality of these children's’ hardships is too much to handle. Their strength is inspirational.
Yesterday when Jackie and Sam where leaving they were telling some of the students goodbye and even though the boys only knew them for four days they had tears in their eyes. I made a horrible joke with Martin, the boy I have known the longest, about how I was also leaving with them to go back to the States. Martin, a fifteen year old boy, burst in to tears; I cannot think of a time I have seen someone so upset. It took me a good five minutes to get him to calm down. It did not help that I did not know the word for “joke” in Luganda. Needless to say, I have learned my lesson about making jokes when you don’t know how to tell someone you are joking. I have often thought about how hard it will be for me to leave these people in two years, but this was the first time I really realized what my leaving is going to do to this village and how much of an impact I am making on these children. I have no idea how I am going to leave these people in two years.
Anyway, thank you again for taking the time out of your lives to read about my little life here in Uganda! I hope all is happy and well on your side of the world!
Peace and love,
Autumn
Last week Amber and attended a workshop that was training tutors on how to train teachers to teach students about life skills. The first question asked was how STIs were transmitted. The Ugandans all agreed that the only way that STIs could be transmitted was through sexual intercourse. I raise my hand and add that STIs can be transmitted through any sexual act, not only intercourse. They all get a confused look on their face and someone refers to instruments. At this point Amber and I are baffled about what they are talking about so I take it upon myself to clarify what I mean. Mind you, Ugandans are incredibly indirect. I stand up in a room full of fifty adults and say, “For example, lets say I have oral sex with one person and contract herpes. Afterwards, I kiss another person and they now contract herpes. That is one way an STI can be transmitted without sexual intercourse.” If I did not have everyone’s attention at the beginning, I definitely had all eyes on me by the end. I sat down and Amber burst into laughter. Everyone was shocked that I would say such a thing. On top of that I think they now believe that I have herpes. But hey, if it gets them to teach correct information then I will let them believe that I am promiscuous and have herpes.
After the workshop I headed to Iganga to stay with a friend of mine and visit another volunteers women’s group that makes the paper beads I want my students to make. I got there Saturday afternoon and met up with the volunteers in that area for lunch and headed over to meet Cate’s group and learned how to made beads. The work these women is absolutely beautiful. I tried to make one and it was a disaster. The worst part about trying to roll the paper is that you notice how dirty your finger nails are in this country. I think I need to invest in a bottle of black nail polish so I will never have to accept how dirty I am on a regular basis. On my way back to Masaka I stopped in Kampala to get some things from the Peace Corps office. During this time I get a call from my friends Jackie and Sam telling me that they are at the airport a half hour away from Kampala. Jackie and Sam are my friends from the states who have spent the past four weeks making their way up to Uganda from South Africa. I knew they were coming sometime soon, but I haven’t been to the internet for a while so I had no idea when they were coming. So that was a big wonderful surprise for me! When I got them to my village my villagers were on muzungu overload. They were going nuts over Jackie and Sam.
This week I started teaching English to the P6 and P7 kids and I was thankful Jackie and Sam were here to help me out for the first week. The first day we taught the P7 students and for the most part it went really well. I had them do a writing sample and realized that many them are having much trouble with forming basic sentences. The next day we taught P6 and it was a bit rough; they were having a really hard time understanding what we were asking them to do, but by the second lesson they were doing really well. Because both P6 and P7 were having a difficult time forming basic sentences we decided that we should start with the basics. The next day we went over what a noun was and had them work in groups using some flash cards of nouns and adjectives and had them pick out which ones were nouns. It was a great lesson because children here are not taught to work in groups and some of the groups were doing a really great job of discussing and thinking critically together. I also really liked it because we were using a resource we found in the box of unused resources and the children loved them. We had them do some fun appreciation cheers for right answers and at the end of our lesson they thanked up for teaching by doing the cheer for us. It was wonderful and I absolutely love teaching them.
I didn’t visit schools this week because I am teaching English at an odd time of day. We got to spend a great deal of time with the kids during their breaks. They have always known that I was a bit goofy, but once we added Jackie and Sam to the mix we were all kinds of weird and the kids loved it. We were teaching the kids silly songs, dancing, and just making fools of ourselves. The teachers thought we were nuts, but it was great to show them how teachers in the states interact with their students. The other day one of the teachers asked me to teach the students how we dance in America. I just laughed, I cannot think of anything worse than me teaching kids how we dance in America.
While I was developing instructional materials in the resource room Sam witnessed one of the teachers beating the children. I asked him about it later and he saw nothing wrong with it, although it is illegal. We talked for a bit about why, especially in a country with a history of violence, it is important that we are not being instigators. He did not agree and tried giving me the excuse that Africans are different from Americans and that they must be beat or they will not behave. He keeps claiming that other methods would not work and that beating them is the only way. However, beating them is not working either. What I find the most interesting is that the students he has the most trouble with I have no trouble with at all. He says that when he tells them to carry water they refuse. However, these children beg to carry my water. He says that in class they refuse to listen. However, in my class they are incredibly well behaved. I think the difference is that they respect me because I don’t believe in this whole hierarchy that Ugandans love and because I treat them as I would a friend. In fact they are my friends. If a child respects you they will do as you wish, but why would a child willingly do something for someone that beats them and pays no attention to them? I mentioned to the boys that I was told that they have bad discipline and they were mortified. On Monday I told that teacher that we could talk about alternative discipline methods so hopefully that will go well.
The other day Jackie and Sam offered to paint a wonderful quote on my wall that says, “I never knew of a morning in Africa when I woke up that I was not happy” by Ernest Heminway. I was joking with Jackie about looking out for Patu if she leaves the black paint on my back porch because last time he smeared orange paint all over my back porch. Well, I walk out on my back porch a bit later to find Patu sitting there with a big paint covered grin on his face. I am not sure what he was doing, but it looks as if he was tasting the paint. He is outrageous, but I love him more and more everyday. I am so glad that Jackie and Sam had the opportunity to understand why I love this naughty and strange little boy so much.
I have always loved my village and I hate when I have to leave it for more than a day at a time, but it was not until this week that I realized how attached we all are to one another. The other day I was talking to an older student and he told me that he was sad because his mom was going to die. She is in the hospital next to my home and has not ate, drank, or talked in the past week. He tells me that she is suffering from malaria, but he asked me to tell him about HIV/AIDS so I suspect that she may have AIDS. His Dad lives about four hours away and is a fisherman and his sister and brother have been taking care of him while she has been sick. It broke my heart to hear him talk about his mother and what he thinks will happen if (but as he says, when) she dies. I have noticed that he waits around until six or seven until he leaves the school, he is always wanting to help me, and very curious about my own mother. He is doing everything he can to take his mind off of his mother and I believe I am the only person he has told about his mother. When he left me the other night to visit his mother I burst into tears. Sometimes the reality of these children's’ hardships is too much to handle. Their strength is inspirational.
Yesterday when Jackie and Sam where leaving they were telling some of the students goodbye and even though the boys only knew them for four days they had tears in their eyes. I made a horrible joke with Martin, the boy I have known the longest, about how I was also leaving with them to go back to the States. Martin, a fifteen year old boy, burst in to tears; I cannot think of a time I have seen someone so upset. It took me a good five minutes to get him to calm down. It did not help that I did not know the word for “joke” in Luganda. Needless to say, I have learned my lesson about making jokes when you don’t know how to tell someone you are joking. I have often thought about how hard it will be for me to leave these people in two years, but this was the first time I really realized what my leaving is going to do to this village and how much of an impact I am making on these children. I have no idea how I am going to leave these people in two years.
Anyway, thank you again for taking the time out of your lives to read about my little life here in Uganda! I hope all is happy and well on your side of the world!
Peace and love,
Autumn
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Muli mutya! I hope this message finds you all happy and well. I am so sorry my entrees have been becoming farther apart. I feel that this is for two reasons. 1. I have been rather busy with work and find it difficult to find time to get to the internet. 2. The longer I am here the more normal things become to me and I do not think to relay them to you. Therefore I am running out of things to talk about.
When I leave my village I am constantly being overcharged at the market. The color of my skin determines the price in which I pay. I try to assimilate as much as possible into the community and live like a local and I find it, at time, frustrating that the color of my skin signals to locals that I have plenty of money to give them. The other day I was washing my clothes and had them hanging on the line out back. On my way to my house from the well I noticed what others in my village must also see. I had not only taken up my line but the line of another teacher’s with a total of three skirts, a pair of pants, and six shirts. This may not sound like very much to you at home, but let me just say that I recognize most of the people in my village by the outfit they are wearing. Most people in my village wear the same one or two items everyday. I started thinking about the fact that I am able to go to Masaka town at least once a week which is much more often than most go. I noticed that I am able to travel around this country much more than those in my village would ever dream of doing. My friend Gerald’s dream is to go to country he was born in, Rwanda. Rwanda is right next to Uganda and does not even charge fees for a visa, but he is still unable to afford to go. My friend Julius has not been at school all week because he could not pay the school fees for the term of ten thousand shillings, an equivalent of about five American dollars. I have talked to many adolescents who have said that they have had to quit school due to the lack of funds. It is times like these that I become both grateful and guilty for the amount of resources I have been given my whole life. I have never had to worry about not having food to eat, a place to sleep, quality education, or shoes to protect my feet. How is it that some of us are given so many resources to succeed while others are given so little?
While I have hope for Ugandans, I recently came upon some facts that were startling. Uganda is the size of Oregon and it has one of the fasted growing populations in the world with the average women having seven children. Over half of the population is under fifteen years of age. Schools already have classrooms occupied with over one hundred children, land is scarce, and jobs are hard to come by. What is going to happen when the population doubles? It is part of the Uganda culture to have large families. A man who does not produce many children is thought to be weak. Unless the government, who currently supports large families, creates a law to limit the amount of children a family may have, I fear that Uganda will face a grave future.
Last week I spent a four day at a conference with all other Peace Corps volunteers in Uganda and I cannot tell you how beneficial it was. It was a chance for us to share what we are doing in our villages with one another. Talking with the one hundred and twenty-eight volunteers and learning about their projects has completely inspired me. When you talk with a volunteer individually they will say that they are not doing much, but when you listen to all they have accomplished it is quite impressive. When you take into account that any given time there is around one hundred and thirty volunteers stationed around the country doing various projects it is quite astonishing to realize the amount of impact the Peace Corps has on the lives of Ugandans. Many volunteers have initiated projects that help Ugandans manage their money through their own banking systems, others have started computer labs and trained students on how to use them, there income generating groups, latrines and libraries being constructed. On top on the tangible things, the connections that we are making with the people here in Uganda are indescribable. For me, I have spent most of my time with the kids. Just by allowing children to freely visit my home, giving hugs, and letting them know what they have to say is important has seemed to make them a bit more confident than when I first met them. If in the next two years I do not do anything else, but love the children in the same way I was lucky enough to be love, I will have done what I came here for.
I have been visiting schools with my counterpart for the past few weeks which is always fun for me to see the many different schools. Yesterday we went to a school located on the shores of Lake Victoria; it was beautiful. On the beach there were fishermen pulling fish trapped in nets from the lake; others could be found napping in their boat. The school was constructed of old wind worn boards with tin roofs and the floor was filled with sand. While they had so little, I couldn’t help but feel jealous that this was their school.
The other day I helped conduct a workshop for the head teachers of fourteen different schools. Of course the meeting started a hour late and only five out of eighteen were present. However, over the next few hours nine more showed up at various times. Sometimes I feel that my counterpart is working against me. He is really pushing to get electricity at the coordinating center and was encouraging the teachers to donate. However, in doing so he told everyone that I had a computer. I have done a good job of not letting anyone in my village know that I have a computer because I do not want to come across as the rich mzungu anymore than I already do nor do I want to encourage those in desperation to steal from me. However, now I am sure everyone in fourteen different villages now know about my computer. During that same meeting he began telling the teachers about a conversation we had about how teachers are not held accountable. However, he changed the story to say that I told him that because teachers are not held accountable that we should not waste our time with them, but how he told me that he must go and help them. I was shocked; he had completely made up a negative story and told it to a group of head teachers in my presence. I am not sure if he just doesn’t realize what he is doing or if this is a power struggle. I have noticed that he feels that men are better than woman. The other day he told me that my father must be very miserable to have only girls. I told him that he was in fact not miserable and that we are all strong and clever women, but he just laughed. The more I speak up and the more opinionated I am the better it seems to be. I am usually not a very opinionated person, but I find it entertaining when I do it with my counterpart.
One of the things that make the Peace Corps stand out from other volunteer organizations is that it encourages volunteers to make sure their projects our sustainable. It happens often that short term volunteers will come in and throw money into a community and once they leave the project falls apart. A perfect example of this is the borehole in my community. It was donated by an organization, but the villagers were never trained on how to maintain the borehole nor did they feel any ownership over the borehole and now that it is broke it sits there. I have been thinking a lot about how I can make the library at Kiyumba sustainable and the one thing I want to do is have the community contribute financially. However, as I mentioned before most people do not have money to contribute, but Ugandans are incredibly talented craftsmen and women. I recently bought some beautiful handmade necklaces made out of magazine paper. I showed some teachers and students the necklaces and we decided that I would teach the children how to make the beads and we would make jewelry that we could sell both here and in America. I, as well, as the students are incredibly excited about the project; I really hope it works out. My hope is that the school will take ownership over the library and see it as a product of their own work and not as a library contributed by me.
I cannot believe I have not talked about this earlier, but the stars in my village are absolutely stunning! The entire night sky is lit up and the Milky Way can be seen from my back porch. Sometimes when I walk out my back door at night I forget that we do not have electricity because the moon is shinning just as bright as a street lamp.
Every time a new month begins I find myself wondering what happened to last month. Time seems to be flying by; I cannot believe I have already been in Uganda for six months. Everyday is a good day and I must say that I have never been happier!
Anyway, I hope everyone has had a wonderful and safe 4th of July! I love you and miss you all dearly!
Peace and love,
Autumn
P.S. Happy 50th Birthday Dad! I love you and am sorry I am not there to drink a beer with you in celebration! : )
p.s.s. Carla I got your package! Thank you so much it was absolutely wonderful! Apparently I have three other packages waiting for me at the post office and I will let you know when I find out who send them! :)
When I leave my village I am constantly being overcharged at the market. The color of my skin determines the price in which I pay. I try to assimilate as much as possible into the community and live like a local and I find it, at time, frustrating that the color of my skin signals to locals that I have plenty of money to give them. The other day I was washing my clothes and had them hanging on the line out back. On my way to my house from the well I noticed what others in my village must also see. I had not only taken up my line but the line of another teacher’s with a total of three skirts, a pair of pants, and six shirts. This may not sound like very much to you at home, but let me just say that I recognize most of the people in my village by the outfit they are wearing. Most people in my village wear the same one or two items everyday. I started thinking about the fact that I am able to go to Masaka town at least once a week which is much more often than most go. I noticed that I am able to travel around this country much more than those in my village would ever dream of doing. My friend Gerald’s dream is to go to country he was born in, Rwanda. Rwanda is right next to Uganda and does not even charge fees for a visa, but he is still unable to afford to go. My friend Julius has not been at school all week because he could not pay the school fees for the term of ten thousand shillings, an equivalent of about five American dollars. I have talked to many adolescents who have said that they have had to quit school due to the lack of funds. It is times like these that I become both grateful and guilty for the amount of resources I have been given my whole life. I have never had to worry about not having food to eat, a place to sleep, quality education, or shoes to protect my feet. How is it that some of us are given so many resources to succeed while others are given so little?
While I have hope for Ugandans, I recently came upon some facts that were startling. Uganda is the size of Oregon and it has one of the fasted growing populations in the world with the average women having seven children. Over half of the population is under fifteen years of age. Schools already have classrooms occupied with over one hundred children, land is scarce, and jobs are hard to come by. What is going to happen when the population doubles? It is part of the Uganda culture to have large families. A man who does not produce many children is thought to be weak. Unless the government, who currently supports large families, creates a law to limit the amount of children a family may have, I fear that Uganda will face a grave future.
Last week I spent a four day at a conference with all other Peace Corps volunteers in Uganda and I cannot tell you how beneficial it was. It was a chance for us to share what we are doing in our villages with one another. Talking with the one hundred and twenty-eight volunteers and learning about their projects has completely inspired me. When you talk with a volunteer individually they will say that they are not doing much, but when you listen to all they have accomplished it is quite impressive. When you take into account that any given time there is around one hundred and thirty volunteers stationed around the country doing various projects it is quite astonishing to realize the amount of impact the Peace Corps has on the lives of Ugandans. Many volunteers have initiated projects that help Ugandans manage their money through their own banking systems, others have started computer labs and trained students on how to use them, there income generating groups, latrines and libraries being constructed. On top on the tangible things, the connections that we are making with the people here in Uganda are indescribable. For me, I have spent most of my time with the kids. Just by allowing children to freely visit my home, giving hugs, and letting them know what they have to say is important has seemed to make them a bit more confident than when I first met them. If in the next two years I do not do anything else, but love the children in the same way I was lucky enough to be love, I will have done what I came here for.
I have been visiting schools with my counterpart for the past few weeks which is always fun for me to see the many different schools. Yesterday we went to a school located on the shores of Lake Victoria; it was beautiful. On the beach there were fishermen pulling fish trapped in nets from the lake; others could be found napping in their boat. The school was constructed of old wind worn boards with tin roofs and the floor was filled with sand. While they had so little, I couldn’t help but feel jealous that this was their school.
The other day I helped conduct a workshop for the head teachers of fourteen different schools. Of course the meeting started a hour late and only five out of eighteen were present. However, over the next few hours nine more showed up at various times. Sometimes I feel that my counterpart is working against me. He is really pushing to get electricity at the coordinating center and was encouraging the teachers to donate. However, in doing so he told everyone that I had a computer. I have done a good job of not letting anyone in my village know that I have a computer because I do not want to come across as the rich mzungu anymore than I already do nor do I want to encourage those in desperation to steal from me. However, now I am sure everyone in fourteen different villages now know about my computer. During that same meeting he began telling the teachers about a conversation we had about how teachers are not held accountable. However, he changed the story to say that I told him that because teachers are not held accountable that we should not waste our time with them, but how he told me that he must go and help them. I was shocked; he had completely made up a negative story and told it to a group of head teachers in my presence. I am not sure if he just doesn’t realize what he is doing or if this is a power struggle. I have noticed that he feels that men are better than woman. The other day he told me that my father must be very miserable to have only girls. I told him that he was in fact not miserable and that we are all strong and clever women, but he just laughed. The more I speak up and the more opinionated I am the better it seems to be. I am usually not a very opinionated person, but I find it entertaining when I do it with my counterpart.
One of the things that make the Peace Corps stand out from other volunteer organizations is that it encourages volunteers to make sure their projects our sustainable. It happens often that short term volunteers will come in and throw money into a community and once they leave the project falls apart. A perfect example of this is the borehole in my community. It was donated by an organization, but the villagers were never trained on how to maintain the borehole nor did they feel any ownership over the borehole and now that it is broke it sits there. I have been thinking a lot about how I can make the library at Kiyumba sustainable and the one thing I want to do is have the community contribute financially. However, as I mentioned before most people do not have money to contribute, but Ugandans are incredibly talented craftsmen and women. I recently bought some beautiful handmade necklaces made out of magazine paper. I showed some teachers and students the necklaces and we decided that I would teach the children how to make the beads and we would make jewelry that we could sell both here and in America. I, as well, as the students are incredibly excited about the project; I really hope it works out. My hope is that the school will take ownership over the library and see it as a product of their own work and not as a library contributed by me.
I cannot believe I have not talked about this earlier, but the stars in my village are absolutely stunning! The entire night sky is lit up and the Milky Way can be seen from my back porch. Sometimes when I walk out my back door at night I forget that we do not have electricity because the moon is shinning just as bright as a street lamp.
Every time a new month begins I find myself wondering what happened to last month. Time seems to be flying by; I cannot believe I have already been in Uganda for six months. Everyday is a good day and I must say that I have never been happier!
Anyway, I hope everyone has had a wonderful and safe 4th of July! I love you and miss you all dearly!
Peace and love,
Autumn
P.S. Happy 50th Birthday Dad! I love you and am sorry I am not there to drink a beer with you in celebration! : )
p.s.s. Carla I got your package! Thank you so much it was absolutely wonderful! Apparently I have three other packages waiting for me at the post office and I will let you know when I find out who send them! :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)