One month down...

So I have officially been here for over a month. This time 31 days ago I was sitting in a large awkward circle of people all trying to make good first impressions.

While I by no means fit in even a little bit, I think I am starting to find my stride. I've gotten over being embarrassed to ask random strangers how to get to a location I can't pronounce, and I was assertive enough and spoke Luganda well enough on the taxi a few days ago that the conductor asked me whether I knew Luganda. I've even gained enough confidence in the kitchen that I bought grilled cheese ingredients to make as a tea time (evening tea. There are 2 tea times a day) snack tomorrow.

While I was prepared for this semester to throw my world view for a huge loop, actually having it happen is impossible to prepare for. I have started to feel connected to the people and culture here in a way I didn't expect, there's something about fighting to pile into the same taxis, slipping down the same muddy hill, bargaining with the same fruit sellers in the market, and being coated in countless layers of rich, red dust at the end of the day that makes me feel a sense of acceptance and belonging. Obviously I stand out a lot, but there is something to be said about not doing the typical "muzungu" thing and traveling in special hire taxis and eating in overpriced restaurants that automatically gains me respect from most of the people around me. I've developed a sense of when to stand my ground and when to just let things be, despite disagreeing with them. Of course, I get at least one curve ball thrown at me every day and, while I like to think I've gotten better at rolling with the punches (can I use those 2 sayings in one sentence?), I've learned to accept and even laugh at the fact that no matter how hard I try, it is impossible to always keep my composure.

Ugandans, as a culture, have been incredibly accepting. I actually think Americans have a lot to learn from them. While parts of Ugandan culture are definitely oppressive and stuck in tradition, I have yet to meet a person who is at all distant and serious. The concept of a stranger is just different here. Everybody smiles and jokes with each other even if they are just passing by each other. I don't think I am doing a good job explaining this at all, so I will just leave it at Uganda is a family.

A thought that I've been mulling over in my mind since I've been here is the idea of "developed" and "developing" countries. I won't elaborate on this too much, but the Ugandan lifestyle is much more sustainable than the American lifestyle. The creative frugality, non-consumerist culture, and sense of community responsibility of Ugandans often seem far superior to the flashy, competitive world view of Americans. It definitely makes me think about how I define development.

This is not to say that I plan on coming home and self-righteously scorn hot showers, trips to the mall, or splurging a little to go out to dinner with friends. Rather, as of now what I really would like to bring home with me is the ability to be able to just sit, doing nothing, and just enjoy being. I like where my life is headed and I don't feel a need to slow down. I would just like to get better at more often finding quiet and contentment in the eye of the storm.

My mom sometimes laments that she raised such a city girl who doesn't appreciate nature as much as she should. And it's kind of true. Despite my experiences here, I would still agree that dirt and bugs aren't really my thing. Lately though, I have found that I have more of a connection to nature than I (and maybe mom, but since she's reading this I won't speak for her:-)) expected once I get past the dirt and bugs. I really thought that the hardest thing for me would be constantly feeling dirty and not as generally put together as I like to think I usually am. Surprisingly, the "roughing it" aspect of this program has not been something I've noticed much. If anything I've just started to channel my 5-year-old self that didn't pay any attention to tangled hair and grass stained pants. One of my biggest frustrations right now is that I am pretty much never allowed to take off my shoes because of the wonderful little worms in the ground that like to burrow up through the bottoms of your feet.

Truly though, I am not totally roughing it (which is relative anyway since most of the world lives like this). At least I have a bed, most of the time electricity, and sometimes even a toilet. Michelle, my roommate studying with SIT in Tanzania, put this all into perspective when she texted me the other day that she was currently in a tent on a safari with wild animals all around. And even she has a cell phone. That is one of the weirdest parts about this. Even though I am living in the middle of Africa without running water, I can check the news, do a google search, type and post this blog, text with friends in Tanzania, Morocco, France, and St. Louis, and check and respond to email all from my bed thanks to the invention of the blackberry world edition.

Anyways, since I am clearly not far enough outside my comfort zone, my new (and hopefully permanent) proposal for my 6 week research/ practicum is something along the lines of emotional sadism. The plan, as it stands, is to work with women (and sadly also teenagers) in northern conflict areas who were raped, or kidnapped and then raped by rebel soldiers and now, as a result, are pregnant or have children. I want to study their reintegration into society, despite huge stigmas and isolation from the community and their families. Not exactly sure of the research question yet, but I think it should form pretty easily once I do a little more research...

I feel like my posts lately have been pretty serious. I actually am having a good time and have some pretty funny stories so I will make an attempt to be conscious of including these as well as the serious stuff, because the fun stuff is impacting my experience here as well. Here's to a fantastic 2nd month!

And with that, I am signing off for today. And that's the way it is
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Abeka (family)

So this week and next week we split up into groups of 6-7 students to focus on a certain topic. For obvious reasons, I am in the gender and development concentration. It's been super frustrating for the past few days because we've been having lectures at the university and the teaching style is soooo different here than in the US. It really puts all of my complaining about american teaching practices into perspective.

First of all, it feels like they think we are 13 years old. I am not entirely sure whether they think we are all just really uniformed, whether this is how they teach all of their students, or whether this is really the level they think at. For the sake of uganda, I really hope it's the former... We spent literally 20 minutes yesterday defining human rights. Even when we move past basic definitions, most of what we are taught are large generalizations and concepts with no case studies. Even the other students in my group who do not have any background in gender studies are learning very little.

Also, the teaching style itself leaves pretty much no room at all for critical analysis. Lectures consist of a professor standing in front of us, reading off of a powerpoint. When we ask questions of clarification they either repeat what they just said or say they will cover it later in the presentation and never do.

They do, however, bring us tea and snacks every day, which I'm not sure they do for all students, but most definitely do not do in the US. Wash U, if you're looking for something to really make the school stand out, I highly suggest imposing a university-wide tea time at 11am every day.

Hopefully next week will be better though. We are doing a bunch of site visits instead of going to the university. We never really know what we are doing though ahead of time so instead of speculating, I'll just write about it next week.

After having a really long conversation with my host dad last night, I have basically decided that my research plans for the second half of the semester are not going to work at all. I was thinking that psychological empowerment of married women could be done simultaneously as they gained economic independence. It turns out though that economic independence needs to happen before women are even going to be willing to discuss going against culture norms. It makes sense, but is kinda a bummer. And as much as I realize the necessity of working to help them gain independence, I have very little interest in working with economic stuff. Its just not my thing. Oh well. Back to the drawing board... I still have 10 days to come up with a final written proposal... Very few other students have a real plan yet either so that makes me feel better.

These chats have kind of become a nightly thing with my host dad and I've really been enjoying it. Tonight's topic was loosely centered around the family and we talked a lot about how inclusionary (is that even a word?) the ugandan family is. It's kind of a mixed bag in that there are so many orphans here (mostly from war and AIDS) and extended families often take them in. On the other hand, in these families the orphan children are often treated like second-class family members (we did not actually discuss this side.) I find it very interesting that familial bonds and traditional family structures (read: heterosexual) are so important, yet polygamy is widely practiced and the average birth rate is over 7 children per woman, so most people have upwards of 20 siblings. Talk about a fun family reunion! But seriously, how can you even keep up with that many people? A man could end up having like hundreds of grandchildren.

The topic actually came up because we were talking about how odd it is that right now I have 2 families who are so separate. Not talking about my mom and dad's sides (though explaining the logistics behind THAT was kind of amusing for me), but my family in the US and my family here. I really am feeling like a part of this family, which is pretty cool. I have a routine down and have mostly figured out how stuff is done here and how I can contribute. Even my little brother seems completely used to me being around. When we go out, they always introduce me as their daughter (which people get a huge kick out of) and yesterday my host mom took me to her tailor and helped negotiate getting a dress made for me like I think she probably has done with her other daughters. I showed them pictures from the US of my friends and family last night, which I think helped them feel closer to my other life. They say that one of the biggest cultural differences they have is that they are surprised my parents don't want to talk to them more to bring my 2 families closer. It hadn't even occurred to me, so that will most definitely be happening soon, so more on that later.

Tomorrow I will have officially been here for a month. Today after classes, me and 5 other students went to one of the bars to celebrate and reflect. In some ways I feel like I just got here, but in many ways it feels like it's been way longer than a month. I'm really surprised at how I've adjusted. Some things were much harder to deal with than I expected, and others that I had braced myself to have a really hard time with turned out to be not a big deal at all. More reflection tomorrow. For now, some much needed sleep.
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Audience participation!

So I've decided to cook an "american" meal for my host family. They mentioned that most previous students have made pasta with some sauce, so I don't want to do that. Here is the situation:

I have one pot of coals on which to put a pot or pan (but can heat one thing and put it to the side while I heat something else), some cooking spoons, knives, and a rolling pin.

While I can probably find some other things in an american grocery store, the foods that are sold everywhere (ie should make up most of my meal) are potatoes, rice, flour, millet, spaghetti, bananas, green plantains (does that mean they are not ripe? We make matoke out of them), beans, peas, peanuts, tomatoes, carrots, avocados, onions, milk, eggs, bread, all tropical fruits, yogurt, cheese (not common but I know where I can get some), fat (I think this is actually margarine, but that is what they call it), chili powder, and lots and lots of sunflower seed oil.

I am definitely going to make guacamole because the avocados here are the best, biggest, AND cheapest I've ever had.

I would like to make something with cheese (I know a store that has some), as it came out tonight that my host mom doesn't even know what cheese is, and my host dad has only had it like twice in his life. I'm worried about having anything that has cheese though (eg mac and cheese) because I don't know if cheese is something that everyone likes if they didn't grow up with it... Also, if you've never had cheese for like 45 years can you digest it? They do have milk, yogurt, and ice cream... Thoughts?

Ooh. And also, after a brief stint as an omnivore, I reverted back to my vegetarian ways. Lemme tell ya, there's nothing quite like seeing live chickens in cages at the market, giant slabs of raw meet hanging on hooks at the butchers kiosk, and baby goats wandering around your yard to make you swear off meat forever. And that's not even why I was a vegetarian in the first place!

I'm not such a pro at the cooking thing, so any help would be greatly appreciated. When I told my host dad that I didn't know how to cook very well, he just looked at me kind of confused and asked "but how will you be able to feed your husband?" I had a tough time deciding whether it would be more socially acceptable to say that I planned on my husband doing as much cooking as me or to explain the idea of takeout... Haha

Anyone who contributes gets a giant hug from me when I get back (you'll probably get one anyways even if you don't contribute, but humor me.) Anyways, thanks in advance for the advice!!
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Happier things

On Thursday evening we left Rwanda. You have to walk from one side to another, and there's this awkward middle place in between where it is not clear that the land belongs to any country. So I decided that since most people straddle borders to be 2 places at once, my time in between borders I was in 0 places at once, and therefore actually managed to disappear for about 2 minutes:-)

Friday morning we woke up and went to this place that is kind of like a nature center. They grow plants for traditional medicine and teach children and adults how to most efficiently grow and maintain these plants. Someone asked which medicines they sold the most of, and they replied that by far it was their medicine for "male performance enhancement." I will not comment on that...

The place also had a small school for AIDS orphans and a place where AIDS widows could learn to sew and have access to a sewing machine in order to male a living. They had deals with many schools in the region to provide their uniforms.

In the afternoon, we went on a boat safari, which was AMAZING. We saw water buffalo, hippos, crocodiles, baboons, and about 15 elephants. All from about 10 feet away. I got some great pictures too, though I have now given up on posting them until I get back in May. I also met this man on the boat who had the most gorgeous camera lenses I may have ever seen. It turns out he works 11 months a year (not anything to do with photography) and then travels for a month. He's been pretty much everywhere in the world. Sooooo jealous.

Saturday morning we were supposed to go on a safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park at 5am. We woke up and piled onto our buses. In the distance, we could see a large light, which we soon decided was a fire. Sure enough, we were headed straight for it. As we turned down the road that was the entrance to the park, there was a line of fire on the road ahead of us stretching from the road to as far as we could see to the east. The 2 vans in front of us kept going down the road, despite having to pass fire reaching to the side of the road. I, however, was in the van with the 2 students from California, who had slightly different attitudes towards wildfires in dry brush than local Ugandans did. After a lot of yelling and confusion, we decided to head back and skip out on the safari, as we did not know how controlled the fire was. I couldn't decide whether or not I was really comfortable continuing or not, as the biggest fire I'd ever seen prior to that was something I roasted marshmallows over. However, there were a few people who were clearly not comfortable with the situation and I am of the opinion that as soon as somebody is not ok with a situation, you get out right then and there regardless of any other factors. We missed out on seeing a small group of lions, which I am a little disappointed about, but not really enough to dwell on at all. During our independent time (the last 6 weeks of the semester) I may decide to go on another safari anyways up north where there are also leopards and giraffes and I can go on an ATV instead of a tour bus.

After our "safari" we had a 9-10 hour bus ride ahead of us. We've all pretty much gotten to be pros at passing time on the bus because nothing in Uganda is close together. We probably averaged about 4 hours per day throughout the week. Thanks to my 80 gig iPod (thanks grandma and grandpa. Fantastic high school graduation present) I brought a bunch of movies with me and watched like 4 movies this week. I've also played a ridiculous number of word games and have developed a really quite extraordinary talent at finding secluded places on the side of the road to "check the tires"-- not that it's exactly polite in the US, but ever mentioning that you have to use the restroom in Uganda is a serious social faux pas.

We got back too late for me to go back to my home stay (it's not so safe to ever walk alone in the dark here, especially if you are a young, american girl with a huge camping backpack) so I stayed at Hotel Jeliza (the place we were for the first week) with a few other people and worked on our Luganda homework for hours until we all fell asleep. I may have mentioned this before, but hotel rooms split 4 ways here come to $8 each, so you can stay in a hotel, eat dinner at a restaurant, and go out to a club for less than $20 for the whole night. Not bad! Not that we really have much time for that anyways, but still...

Did my first big homework assignment today, and ever since have been hanging out at home alternating between watching Asian soap operas dubbed into English, a documentary about Australian billabongs, and Christian gospel music videos... Don't even get me started on how random the stuff they have on TV here is. They have Care Bears, Greys Anatomy, and America's Got Talent as well...

Also, I have been trusted to be left at home alone for the first time ever, which is a pretty big accomplishment in my book. My host dad is at a funeral (still working on the socially correct way to ask for whom) and my host mom had to go to the store, so it's me and Jerry. While Jerry naps I'm just sitting here shelling an egg, taking tea (I've become an avid tea drinker), typing this, and thinking about how much I missed this place during the past week. I really do just feel so comfortable and peaceful here.

On my way home, some guy approached me and said he had ridden the taxi with me a few times in the morning. Then, after a brief conversation about what I was doing living in an average suburban village, he asked me if I could be his reference to get a visa. This isn't the first time it has happened to me but it still shakes me up a little bit every time. I guess it beats being asked to marry someone though?

One of the girls on my program has a host sister who works in the city as a hairdresser specifically for people with muzungu (ie me) hair. She does weaves, extensions, braiding, and some other things that are traditionally done with African hair. The girl asked me today if I wanted to go with her next weekend to get our hair done with extensions into braids. Not like 2 braids, but tiny braids all over our whole head. Apparently the extensions help the braids stay in place and make it so that you basically never have to wash your hair. It stays un-frizzy and looking nice for about 2 months. I am still pretty emotionally scarred from a Mexican resort corn rowing "incident" in middle school. Yet, I am seriously considering just getting this done and wearing a wrap/scarf on my head for the next 2 months, as many people here do anyways. I have a week to think about this so if you have any strong feelings about it either way, let me know:-)
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The land of 1000 hills

Wednesday and Thursday were spent in Rwanda, which is beautiful. To my surprise, it is much nicer than Uganda. This actually makes sense though due to the influx of foreign aid and focus on development that the country has experienced since the genocide in 1994.

If you don't know what the genocide was (as many of you were 5 years old in 1994) it's pretty important to at least know a little about, so google/wiki it. The main idea though is that the Tutsis (wealthy minority) oppressed the Hutus (majority) during colonial times. Then when the country gained independence and the Hutus took control, there was animosity towards the Tutsis which climaxed in 1994 when the government organized a mass killing of the Tutsis by the majority of the Hutu population. Over 1 million Tutsis were brutally murdered, often by their neighbors and colleagues. This is not a hard fact, but one speaker guessed that around 90% of the Hutu population was somehow involved in perpetrating the genocide.

The real purpose of our trip was to look at reconciliation between the Tutsis and the Hutus, but most of what we did was more towards the historical side. On the first day, we went to the genocide museum, which was incredibly intense. It is fairly small, but much more graphic than anything would be in the US without about 50 warning/ disclaimer signs outside the museum. I won't go into the details, but there were countless stories about torturing and brutal murders by bludgeoning, machetes, being buried alive, among others.

Then, we went to the prison where many genocide prisoners are held. They've almost finished holding all of the trials, and since over 120k people were tried, the only ones that actually have remained in prison (instead of being sentenced to community service) are the ones who had a crucial part in organizing the genocide. We thought we were going to end up just talking to a few of the prisoners about their stories. What happened was a little bit more... Bizarre? We entered the prison and were led some way down to a building. As we filed in, we entered a large room filled with about 300 prisoners and 32 empty chairs for us on a stage at the front of the room. After we were introduced, a few men came up to give their testimonies, which were basically just short speeches about how now they thought everybody was equal and that we should go home and tell everybody that they are not bad people. One of them invited us to stay with them until the evening- an offer which we politely declined. Then, the prison traditional dance troupe came in and performed. At the end they pulled us up to join them. Soon a few of the other prisoners joined in and I found myself dancing with one of the men who minutes before had told us he had a high government position in organizing the genocide. I had a pretty strong moral dilemma in whether to insult the people who had clearly gone to a lot of trouble to organize this event or to dance and act friendly towards a person who was personally responsible for the brutal murder of probably thousands of innocent people. I decided to avoid insulting anyone and just take the situation as a learning experience while insulting the man in my head.

After the show, we went to a smaller room and spoke with the Tutsi prison director who (like almost all of the other people we spoke to) denied any current conflict or animosity between the Tutsis or Hutus. I'm no expert, and it really isn't even my place to say, but I just don't buy that. What I buy is that so many people committed crimes, and much of it was through propaganda and mob mentality, that it is overwhelming and impossible to get adequate retribution for everybody as if each murder was an isolated incident. People's experiences are so horrible that 16 years later they just want to move on. Not forget about it, but put it in the past. I also just don't buy that if these men truly understood and regretted that they had done they would not have such an easy time living with themselves. Not saying they should die, but that they should never be in a place where they can coolly stand up in front of hundreds of people and pretend like everything is now ok because they have apologized.

On the opposite side of the spectrum from moving on, on the second day we visited two churches that are among the main genocide memorials. In the first church, around 5000 people were surrounded and attacked as they sought shelter. From that attack, something like 10 people survived. The church has been preserved in a similar condition to the way it was after the attack. There are clothes, pots, books, etc on the pews, the doors are hanging off their hinges, and there is still a blood stain on the wall of the sunday school from a child being thrown against it. Then, along one of the walls of the main hall are shelves and shelves of skulls and other bones that were collected from around the compound.

In the second church, where 10000 people died in one day, the main hall again had the clothes and other personal items. Then, a sunken in area had a few shelves of bones, but not nearly as many as the first church. As I ventured outside I discovered why. I went down a staircase into the ground behind the church and found myself in a series of hallways flanked on each side by coffins stacked from floor the ceiling: the mass graves. They were incredibly creepy and I honestly couldn't get myself to even step down off the bottom step of the staircase. In addition to the 10000 people buried there that died in the church, there were 40000 that had been murdered in the surrounding area.

So maybe this description makes it clearer why I am so angry at the perpetrators of the genocide, despite their apologies and public forgiveness.

Before I conclude though, I want to give a quick nod to Clive Owen, who we ran into twice, who has helped fund the preservation of the genocide memorial sites.

Outside of both of the churches is a banner that changes occasionally and currently (in the local language) says something that roughly translates to "if you had known yourself and known me, you would not have killed me."

Ya know. That's a good point to end on. Much happier things in the next post.
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Heavier things

Today was a pretty intense day. It's 10pm and I'm already in bed at the hotel (which has a shower!) instead of watching the optional movie.

I'm not sure exactly where we went, but it was somewhere near the Tanzanian border because we all got automatic texts on our phone welcoming us to Tanzania and giving us the phone number for the Uganda embassy. Even my blackberry doesn't do that...

But I digress... Today we visited a refugee settlement (which differs from a camp in that it is much more permanent) that has around 50k refugees from all over Eastern Africa including Rwanda, Sudan, The Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea (though when talking to them we found out that the nationalities live separately and have very little contact with each other). We got to pick which group to go talk to, and since they all seemed equally interesting and distant to me I picked Ethiopia cuz I figured that it might be nice to actually know something about Ethiopia since I frequent those restaurants in the US so often---

Side note: pretty much everybody else here seems to have a strong background in African history and politics. I am constantly kicking myself for not having done more reading before I got here, considering that the only courses I'd ever taken relating to africa were The AIDS Epidemic and African Civilization to 1800---

Ok. Back to the point: talking to the ethiopian refugees was definitely the most powerful experience I've had in uganda. They had a lot to say about their feelings of complete helplessness because the kids only had minimal access to education, and the adults had no access to education, books, or other methods of self-education. Also, the refugees had little access to ways of making a living so most of them just sat around all day doing nothing and living off of the small amount of food they received for free. Many of them were successful businessmen in Ethiopia but when they fled (for political reasons) their money was all taken by the Ethiopian government. It was really horrible to see the conditions they were living in and the general state of idleness that blanketed the settlement. One of the men we were talking to (the chairman of the village, I think) said that it often felt similar to jail, except that in jail people were at least given opportunities to increase their chances of success once they were released. The Ethiopians in particular also expressed frustration that they were being forgotten while the rest of the world focused their aid onto much more prominent issues with larger numbers of IDPs (internationally displaced persons) such as the Sudanese.

The refugees in general were pretty disgruntled with their current situation and a few outright said that they felt hopeless, but when we asked if there were any positive things about the settlement they did say that they were thankful they had a safe place to be. I am glad that they seemed to be completely honest with us without making us feel like we would have to push to get any substantial answers.

There was one woman off to the side who we asked to breifly just tell us about life as a woman in the settlement. She very matter-of-factly told us that her husband got a job in Kampala (which is at least a 5 hour drive... I'm not great at all this geography yet) and can't come home very often. She decided that she needed to make a little money to feed her children so she openned a small dry goods kiosk in the settlement. Her husband, however, does not like the fact that she is making her own money, and every time he comes home he beats her. Our guides (all men) translated this story for us and then explained in less academic terms that this was common because it is a characteristic of PTSD, basically using this excuse as justification for this woman's husband.

The refugees were not like any other people I have ever talked to in how honest and assertive they were about their frustrations with those in power/ anybody with money (as I sat there guiltily holding my backback with camera, ipod, blackberry, and bottled water inside). When we asked them if they had any questions for us, expecting inquiries about American perspectives, they instead asked us why this was still happening to them after years of complaining and basically why we weren't doing anything about it. At least I don't think that the people we were talking to actually expected us to be able to provide an explanation-- though they did ask for money later, to which we honestly explained we had been instructed that we were not allowed to leave anything behind (so that future visitors would not be swarmed). Other groups did not have such lucky experiences. Some refugees were very resistant to having us as visitors because visitors always come and ask for information but never do anything in return to make refugees' lives better. It was sort of a "why should we help you if you won't help us" attitude. A lot of students had trouble taking it as a general frustration instead of personal attack. While I didn't take it personally, I still left feeling guilty and like a generally horrible person.

We spent about an hour on the bus afterwards discussing whether it made more sense for us to just go talk to them or whether we should have done some sort of service project instead. While I think most of the other students would not agree with me, I think that just talking was the best thing to do. We are here to learn about issues and really understand the lives of the people living in Uganda so that we can come back home, finish getting all grown up and out of college, and then, with a true understanding of the needs of these people from their level, coordinate action to improve their lives and do infinitely more good than we would by spending a few hours helping build a house or plant seeds.

Another nagging thought: there are just so many idle people here who are contributing far less to the community than they take out of it. It just doesn't seem like it makes a lot of sense to pump all this aid money into the economy if it's just going to end up going out again to the large, international companies that provide all of Uganda's many imports. More on that later though. I don't think I know enough about it yet to be able to defend that thought. Just a first impression.

With that thought, I am going to go try to sleep this off a little bit and mentally prepare myself for the Rwandan genocide memorial on Wednesday (we travel all day tomorrow). Sorry to post such a depressing note, but that's kind of the place I'm in right now. I don't have any pictures. I think we objectified the refugees enough for one day...
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ZEBRAS

ZEBRAS ZEBRAS ZEBRAS ZEBRAS ZEBRAS ZEBRAS ZEBRAS!!!!
(And the extremely rare national symbol of Uganda: the crown crane)

Soooooo coool!!!!

That is all.
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Happy Valentine's Day!

About 10 minutes ago I was in both the northern and southern hemispheres posing for a very touristy picture. It was a short stretch break during our drive to our week long western excursion. It's something between a 5 to 7 hour drive, but people here are horrible at estimating time or distance so who knows. I snagged an awesome seat on the bus in the front row next to the driver. The scenery here is incredible. Uganda is called the pearl of africa because the soil is so fertile and the climate provides lots of sun, rain, and warmth. I am still trying to upload pictures so you can see, but haven't been able to find any strong enough internet to handle file transfers.

Apparently the city we'll be in when we are in rwanda has free wireless internet for everyone, so I'm hoping that means the internet situation will be better than I've seen. Also, I find it pretty entertaining the rwanda has figured out how to provide free wireless throughout a city cost-effectively before anywhere (that I know of) in the US.

Yesterday I did my first real homework assignment we've gotten, which was to walk around our village with a host parent or local leader, map it out with key points of interest, and then write about the things that stuck out to us. I got lucky because my host father is on the village council. Kisota Zone (my village) is mostly residential is almost entirely residential but it was still so interesting to notice the diversity of the people living there. Besides one small, wealthy neighborhood and the slums, Uganda does not really have geographical separation of socioeconomic classes. You get a large, well maintained house with walls around it right next to a small 2 or 3 room house with bars on the windows. I think that mostly it is good that there isn't such a SES separation or concern with how others perceive ones status here. However, I really dislike the giant walls with razor wire on top and iron gates built around many of houses. It really feels like the houses are separate from the community around them.
The really interesting thing to me is that many people have gardens by their homes or rented plots to grow food in large fields. Yet, none of these are sectioned off to stop others from stealing food. My host dad says that theft like that isn't really an issue at all. Yet I would assume that these houses turned fortresses are protected for a reason... I'll investigate and get back to you on the deal w that.

In other news, I am quickly getting over my fear of bugs. Liza and melissa: have no fear. Next year I can deal with any puny cockroaches (compared to here) that may appear in our apartment:-) however my standards of cleanliness have significantly decreased out of necessity, so you have that to look forward to as well...

Alright. That's all for now. Gonna return to my ipod and watching banana trees and cows with giant horns and go by...
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Ndi muizi. Nsoma eby'enkulakulani ne Luganda.

(I am a student. I study development studies and Luganda)

What a night! I just got back from a graduation party for who I think is a good family friend of my host dad's cousin. The party itself was really nice- almost like a small wdding reception. Apparently graduating from college here is a bigger deal than in the US, which makes sense since scholarships here are virtually non-existant, even primary school is not compulsory, and public pre-college schooling is pretty bad (think 70 or 80 students per teacher and bribes to get teachers to pay extra attention to particular students).

We were told that the party started at 5, but taking "ugandan time" into account, we left the house a little after 6. We still, however, were the first ones there and the actual program didn't start til around 8. The program lasted about 3.5 hours and included congratulatory speeches from about 15 different people (including a really awkward one from his uninvolved father who thanked the people who raised his son), a half hour speech by the graduate thanking everyone who was there (including me because I was his new friend and people kept asking him why there was a white person at his party), and dinner (all delicious except all of a sudden there seems to be an abundance of millet in my life, which, if I get an abundance of some food would probably not rank very highly on the list). Also, they had a giving of gifts, where the main ones announced were a bible in their tribal language, a large goat (I asked what they do with it and was told that basically all they raise goats for is meat. I guess that makes sense but it seems like an awful lot of patience and work for just a few meals), and 2 friesian cows.

The best part of the night though was that I finally met a real live Ugandan who is roughly my age and who I connected with. And it turns out she is the daughter of my host dad's cousin and lives just a few houses down the street from me. I'll be out of Kampala all next week (more on that later) but we agreed to go out when I get back. It'll be nice to have someone to show me around and to hang out with. Plus, I can ask her awkward cultural questions that I'm not sure it's appropriate to ask adults about.

Today in Luganda class (which will not even help me get around IN uganda because only this small part of the country speaks it and I will probably be somewhere else for the majority of the semester) we had to go to the market and bargain in Luganda for some food. I overpaid (osela) but ended up with the single (emu) greatest avocado (ova) in the world.
I also saw all the meat stands, which made me feel better about being vegetarian. That's right. After a brief stint as an omnivore, I'm back to the veggies. Lemme tell ya, there is nothing quite like market meat stands, cages stuffed with lives chickens, and cows and goats just kinda wandering around to make you swear off meat forever.

I tried to upload pictures again today and failed again (also in the process lost my usb drive which had the only copy of this really good blog post that I was waiting to post and will never accurately be able to recreate). The internet here may just be too slow for that, but I haven't given up yet so let me know if you have any ideas. We'll be in rwanda for a few days next week and apparently the whole city we'll be in has free wireless internet (crazy how Rwanda has that before basically anywhere in the US) so maybe that will work? Fingers crossed!
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Laundry

Today I gained a newfound appreciation for washing machines. In the process I was laughed at and then outshined by a 2 and a half year old. I have clean clothes though, so the raw knuckles were worth it-- pretty sure that means I do not have the proper laundry technique. Good thing I have 13 more weeks to get the hang of it...

Today I also got my first sunburn. Ick. The bright side is that it is only my shoulders and not my face. Was totally worth it though because I got it from walking around lost for about half an hour trying to find the Family Planning Association of Uganda, only to eventually figure out that they changed their name 3 years ago to Reproductive Health Uganda. I'm starting to solidify my proposal for the practicum/ independent study project that I will spend the last 6 weeks of the semester on, and that organization is near the top of my list so I was assigned to go check them out.
Side note: almost everyone here is so helpful and open. I have had no problems any of the times I've showed up at a nonprofit without an appointment and wanting to talk with someone. I would like to take a moment to thank CITYterm for teaching me how to handle these situations without seeming like an idiot or offending somebody.
Anyways, I am thinking for my practicum/ISP I am going to focus on women's sexual empowerment in relation to family planning and use of contraception. The average woman in uganda has 7 children, which makes uganda one of the fastest growing countries in the world. One thing that lecturers have discussed is that because of gender inequality, men are the ones who really have most of the say over how many children a woman has. I am still working on what Im actually going to DO with that for 6 weeks, but I'll keep you posted. If you're really interested I'll even let you read my 20-40 page, 1.5 spaced final paper on the issue.

We fiiiiinally have internet at school, but I couldn't utilize it today because I had to rush home to get the laundry done before dark. I'm gonna try to get there early tomorrow so I can try to write another update to catch up on everything that's happened the past few days, and to figure out where to upload my pictures.

A little bit of housekeeping: I would like to formally apologize for the informal nature of this blog, the fact that I ramble and sometimes fail to finish a thought before moving on to something else, and my likely repetition of stories that I forget I've already posted. In fact, this exact same apology may appear a few more times before the end of the semester.

Thank you so much to everybody who has been commenting on my blog. It is so nice to feel at least a little in touch with all of you. I am so happy I'm here, but that doesn't mean I'm not missing everything/body back home (or, for all you study abroaders, all over the world). Not missing the weather though. I hear the east coast and stl have been getting slammed with snow recently. Not to brag, but its in the 80s and sunny with a breeze pretty much every day here.

Stay warm!
Lily
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I live with the Kisembo family off Kisoto road on the taxi route to Kisaasi in the Kawempe district.

Note: this post is from 2/2. I just didn't have internet access until now. Can't figure out how to upload my pictures but as soon as I have time to figure it out, I will post them. This is the post:

I had to repeat that about 1000 times before I could get all of the words right. Serious, I am the worst language student ever. I have been practicing with my home stay family though, so I am getting better. I keep getting tripped up by words that I recognize from Spanish, which is not something I expected. For example, “si” means “not” in Lugandan, and the root word “tu” refers to “we.” We started grammar today (flashback to espanol uno in 6th grade) in my Luganda class, so that should be fun. Hopefully I’ll come back able to formulate at least a few sentences…

But enough about academics (I’m ready to finish up orientation already and get to some substance!). I have a lot of time to write because I am at school waiting to meet with the Academic Director to talk about my final project (yes, already!).

I moved in with my home stay family on Sunday, and have really enjoyed the time I’ve spent with them so far. The house is not, as I was told, just a few blocks from my school. It’s only about 30 minutes away though by walking/ taxi, which isn’t bad considering that some people have commutes up to 2 hours each way. It still won’t be fun though once the rainy season starts, which should be sometime soon. It’s a little bit outside the city center so it is a lot quieter and cleaner, and the air is a lot fresher than the area where the school is.

I have 8 siblings, though only 3 of them are still in school and 2 of those are in boarding school. So really, it’s just me, my host mom (Eva), my host dad (Julius), and the cutest 2.5 year old in the whole world (Jeremiah, or Jerry).

I’m kind of sad that Jerry doesn’t speak much English but we’ve already had some bonding time and he has started following me around the house sometimes. I brought sparkly pipe cleaners to play with. At first he didn’t know what to do with them so he just waved them around in the air and danced. Then, his sister and I showed him how to make hats and other designs. We made fake glasses for him, which he refused to take off. Hopefully I will get a picture of him soon so you can understand just exactly how adorable this kid is.

One of the other children, 16-year-old Daphne, leaves for boarding school tomorrow. It has been really nice to have her around these past few days. She has been so helpful explaining everything to me and just being someone my own age-ish that I can talk to. She told me that at boarding school they have to wake up at 4am to do chores and get ready for the day. The days are super structured, but it seems like they pack a lot in. It doesn’t seem like she is very happy there, but the alternatives are local day schools, none of which provide as good an education. I gave her the magazines I had left from the plane ride over here, which she seemed to enjoy. Oh, except I kept Glamour cuz I want to send in my picture with it to be in the front of the magazine in the “where has Glamour been” section☺

Julius is a fantastic father. Most fathers here are really hands off and absent from the home. Many students have barely talked to their host fathers at all. One of the first things that happened once we got seated at the house, was that Julius gave me a speech (well, a discussion with him doing most of the talking) about how he thinks that women should be considered equal in Uganda, and the ways in which he feels they need to be empowered. One of these ways is that the husband should take equal responsibility for the household. In all honesty, Eva does a lot more housework than him, but I think he is fantastic compared to most households in Uganda. He makes breakfast every morning and clearly has been extremely involved in raising his children. He is super social, and the first day instead of just dropping me off at school, he came in with me and said hello to all of the other students. I am the 13th student they have hosted, so clearly they are good at it.

Eva is very quiet (or as she told me the first day “I do not have many words”). She is very nurturing though and has been very patient with my complete incompetence in the ways of Ugandan life. For example, she had to show me the technique for bathing with just a basin of water and a drain. The whole experience was highly amusing and only a little awkward. I have also already learned how to handwash mass amounts of dishes in a very short amount of time. She has started to teach me cooking, including lighting the charcoal pot where we cook everything. So far I have helped with Matoke (the signature Ugandan dish of kind of sticky mashed bananas cooked in banana leaves, which only tastes good if you put a lot of g-nut or bean sauce on top of it) and Chapati (a lightly fried pita-like dough, which I am utterly pathetic at rolling into an evenly shaped circle). I will get better at it though.

Speaking of which, I ended up in one of the family’s of lower socio-economic status as compared to my classmates, though it is still definitely middle class for Uganda. We have electricity… most of the time. It goes out for periods of 20 minutes or so every once and a while but we just light lanterns. We don’t have running water (which means no sink, no bath/shower, and no toilet), which I thought was going to be pretty rough, but I am actually managing without much trouble. It’s kind of nice to live so uncomplicatedly. It still takes a lot of effort, but I am getting better at just sitting without feeling like I need to be accomplishing something. My stress levels are pretty much nonexistent in that sense. I got my iPod to work again though so I do allow myself about 10 minutes of movie watching before I go to sleep at night under my mosquito net, which, by the way, startles me less and less every day when I wake up.

Some one liners:
-One person in my program already got malaria. It has a 7 day incubation period. This means she got it the first day here.
-To talk about something coming up, like when driving, people here say “in the future.” For example, “after you pass the mango tree, you can see in the future the street you should turn on.” I LOVE this.
-The vans here that serve as buses/taxis all have names on their rear window. Today I saw one that said Puff Daddy. I also saw one that said Hezbollah.


Ok. Just realized how absurdly long this is getting. As interesting as Uganda sounds, you all have interesting things to be doing too so get off the computer and go outside and play! Oh, except that it is winter where you are (it’s 80/85ish here). So don’t go outside, but go do something fun!

Also, THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!!! I finally got a cell phone with free incoming calls. SO get a skype account and hit me up at 0701080373.

Off to find an internet café and get this posted!

Long time no talk?

Ok. I think it may have only been like 2 days but it seems like its been a lot longer since I last updated. Just a quick note to let everyone know I'm alive and happy. I'm staying with my homestay family and they don't have a computer, the school internet is broken, and I can't seem to find an internet cafe anywhere. I'm writing blog entries though on my flash drive so as soon as I find access to internet I will post them all. Meanwhile, it turns out I can email in blog posts to from my blackberry. However, this is about as long as I have patience to type on this.

I got a phone though! The country code is 256 and the phone number is 0701080373, so get a phone card or get on skype and gimme a ring:-)

Hope everything is fabulous in the usa!
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