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! :)