The list of things I never knew I had:
Electricity
Being able to see at night
A night life
Clean water
Running Water
Toilet seats
Hot water
Shampoo
Open communication
The ability to learn about world news
Transportation
Couches
Comfy chairs
Carpet or wood flooring
Fruit
Vegetables
Tofu
Deserts
Milk
A balanced diet in general
Sunscreen
Listening to music
Having an understanding of technology
Having an understanding of the modern world
Being able to travel
Clean air
Going Green
Organization
Traffic lights
Seatbelts
Big busses
My rights as an American
clean towels
sunrise
having time to reflect
peace and quiet
being able bodied
snow
family
lightning bugs
free public education
being able to talk to strangers
toilet paper
My Life
I will be adding to this list indefinitely as I continue to realize how absolutely lucky I have been my entire life.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Week 1
My first week at my placement in Nsanje has been a completely mixed bag. The location is absolutely beautiful and fairly rural with a lot of cows, goats, and tea farmers. The people that I have had the chance to meet so far have been fairly excited to see a Mzungu so I have received countless warm welcomes during my stay so far. The family is an absolute joy to be around. The younger boys, Sam and Mark are fascinated by my hand-crank radio and camera. I don't think that Mark has ever seen himself before because when I showed him his picture, he pointed at himself and said, "Sam." The girls, Especioza and Tina were shy at first, but opened up when I offered to help them work, hoeing weeds. Edward, the oldest family member is not actually a relative, but a boy they are helping to put through school. He is incredibly bright and showed me around Katosi, a neighboring village. I enjoy his company and the fact that he can speak English rather well. I plan on asking him to teach me some Luganda while I am here.
On the other hand, I have been somewhat bored this past week. I think this was mostly due to the fact that my work will not begin until Monday so the combination of having nothing important to do with myself and not knowing the area well enough to get around on my own put a bit of a damper on my spirits. The parents of the host family I am staying with weren't around the house very much and since the kids aren't strong English speakers and the only thing I can say in Luganda is "I don't speak Luganda," I felt a bit lonely. Finally, on Wednesday night I realized that I had to take more control of my own happiness. I walked across the street and visited a woman named Caroline. Caroline is from Kenya and is a wife of one of the teachers at the school. She is an incredibly welcoming and talkative woman with an adorable baby gir and I ended up staying at her place talking until the mosquitos were biting. I learned about her transition from Kenya to Uganda and that she converted from being Born Again to Seventh-Day Adventist in order to be involved at the school. I am very excited to have a new friend and I have the feeling that I have a lot to learn from her when we spend time together in the future.
The next day, I had David, my director, show me the CODEAPS office where I will be volunteering when I am not teaching. They have some awesome programs, but David feels like they are going to need a lot more funding to really get off the ground. For example, they provide goats to families with HIV positive members, but are unable to provide any to over 45 of them. They also sponsor orphans to go to school, but can only cover the expenses of 7 out of 93 of them and the numbers continue to grow. It is clear that I have my work cut out for me. After visiting the office, I headed to a neighboring town to spend some time with some of the other volunteers, Kendyl and Spenser. I accompanied Kendyl to local clinic where she plans to do a majority of her volunteering and was lucky enough to actually get put to work in the maternity ward. It was amazing. I was taught how to determine how far along the pregnancy was, whether the baby was properly positioned, and how to listen to a baby's heart. It blows my mind away how women go through pregnancy here. They have far fewer accommodations for a woman's comfort here than they do at home and carrying a child is considered to be a difficult task even in the states. One woman was on her 7th child and wants to get her tubes tied after that one because she thinks 7 is definitely enough. While that same woman was there, we had a hard time getting a heartbeat from the baby. One of the more experienced nurses spent what felt like an eternity trying to find it and the entire room was paralyzed. I can only imagine how hard it would to lose a child...even a child that you weren't necessarily planning on.
Despite how difficult pregnancies seem to be out here, I was also to learn a few things that absolutely lifted my spirits. I think the best thing I have heard since I got here was from one of the nurses. She said that she has delivered 500 babies to mothers who are HIV positive. Out of those 500, 3 of them have had HIV themselves. This small bit of information gives me hope that those children can have a much better future than I think most would expect for them.
I also went with Kendyl and Spenser to work on a village health survey. Their program director, Festus, is trying to encourage the community to live a more healthy lifestyle by surveying the surrounding area on their living conditions and encouraging them to make improvements. It was frustrating work because most of the work seemed to fall to our translator. However, it seems that they have more success when a couple of Muzungu are around. It makes it seem more important to actually clean up your latrine or to get a mosquito net for everyone in the house.
I hope to post pictures of my home-stay family soon, but this will probably not be possible until next week at the soonest.
On the other hand, I have been somewhat bored this past week. I think this was mostly due to the fact that my work will not begin until Monday so the combination of having nothing important to do with myself and not knowing the area well enough to get around on my own put a bit of a damper on my spirits. The parents of the host family I am staying with weren't around the house very much and since the kids aren't strong English speakers and the only thing I can say in Luganda is "I don't speak Luganda," I felt a bit lonely. Finally, on Wednesday night I realized that I had to take more control of my own happiness. I walked across the street and visited a woman named Caroline. Caroline is from Kenya and is a wife of one of the teachers at the school. She is an incredibly welcoming and talkative woman with an adorable baby gir and I ended up staying at her place talking until the mosquitos were biting. I learned about her transition from Kenya to Uganda and that she converted from being Born Again to Seventh-Day Adventist in order to be involved at the school. I am very excited to have a new friend and I have the feeling that I have a lot to learn from her when we spend time together in the future.
The next day, I had David, my director, show me the CODEAPS office where I will be volunteering when I am not teaching. They have some awesome programs, but David feels like they are going to need a lot more funding to really get off the ground. For example, they provide goats to families with HIV positive members, but are unable to provide any to over 45 of them. They also sponsor orphans to go to school, but can only cover the expenses of 7 out of 93 of them and the numbers continue to grow. It is clear that I have my work cut out for me. After visiting the office, I headed to a neighboring town to spend some time with some of the other volunteers, Kendyl and Spenser. I accompanied Kendyl to local clinic where she plans to do a majority of her volunteering and was lucky enough to actually get put to work in the maternity ward. It was amazing. I was taught how to determine how far along the pregnancy was, whether the baby was properly positioned, and how to listen to a baby's heart. It blows my mind away how women go through pregnancy here. They have far fewer accommodations for a woman's comfort here than they do at home and carrying a child is considered to be a difficult task even in the states. One woman was on her 7th child and wants to get her tubes tied after that one because she thinks 7 is definitely enough. While that same woman was there, we had a hard time getting a heartbeat from the baby. One of the more experienced nurses spent what felt like an eternity trying to find it and the entire room was paralyzed. I can only imagine how hard it would to lose a child...even a child that you weren't necessarily planning on.
Despite how difficult pregnancies seem to be out here, I was also to learn a few things that absolutely lifted my spirits. I think the best thing I have heard since I got here was from one of the nurses. She said that she has delivered 500 babies to mothers who are HIV positive. Out of those 500, 3 of them have had HIV themselves. This small bit of information gives me hope that those children can have a much better future than I think most would expect for them.
I also went with Kendyl and Spenser to work on a village health survey. Their program director, Festus, is trying to encourage the community to live a more healthy lifestyle by surveying the surrounding area on their living conditions and encouraging them to make improvements. It was frustrating work because most of the work seemed to fall to our translator. However, it seems that they have more success when a couple of Muzungu are around. It makes it seem more important to actually clean up your latrine or to get a mosquito net for everyone in the house.
I hope to post pictures of my home-stay family soon, but this will probably not be possible until next week at the soonest.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Smiles are Free
I have finally reached Uganda! We arrived at the Entebbe Airport yesterday around 2:00 made the two hour drive to Mukono town, which is close to where I will be teaching. We have met most of the volunteers who will also be working in villages and I love getting to know all of them. My personal favorite, a lady named Dee, is actually a middle-aged Australian and probably has the most energy out of anyone I have ever met. We met Dee initially as we were boarding our plane in Addis Ababa and she really knew how to get things moving so that the entire flight would make it onto the plane. She also provided Ashley, Aureliene, Madyline (the volunteers with GlobeMed) and I with money to buy much needed water at the airport. She also gave me what was probably the best advice of my life yesterday as we were driving through Kampala. A little girl had approached the car with an infant sibling on her back, hoping for money. If you know me, you know that not having anything to give her was incredibly hard for me to cope with. Dee turned around from the front seat and said, "I know it's hard, but smiles are free and you can give away as many, many of those as you like."
In the short amount of time that I have been here, that has been my motto, and it really seems to work. After staying at the guest house last night, Leslie (one of the coordinators for the Real Uganda) took us on a tour of Mukono. People here think that white people look incredibly funny and jokingly refer to us as "Mzungu." I have found that the best response to this is to just smile. The people that I have met here are very friendly. One man, David (a friend of Leslie's) almost scared me out of my skin when he came up behind us and introduced himself with a big booming voice and proceeded to give each of us a bear hug.
On the other hand, the "facilities" are less friendly. Our bathroom consists of a hole in the ground and there is no running water. The power at our house also went out last night and has not gone back on since then. I know this may sound a bit odd, but since it's me I'll just go ahead and say that I really enjoy having fewer conveniences. I really feel like this trip will help me to get in touch with the way the seeming "other world" lives and also, to get in touch with myself.
I will move to my placement tomorrow, which means that I might be a bit out of touch for a week or so, but I hope to make it back into town in a week or so. I hope you are all doing very well.
~Catie
P.S. Mom and Dad-I will not be able to get a phone until tomorrow because the shops are closed today. Know that I am well and that I will text you when I am able to.
P.P.S. My apologies for how abrupt these blogs are, I have only limited time in which to write. Hopefully, I will be able to post pictures sometime. I want you all to see what I am using as a bathroom.
In the short amount of time that I have been here, that has been my motto, and it really seems to work. After staying at the guest house last night, Leslie (one of the coordinators for the Real Uganda) took us on a tour of Mukono. People here think that white people look incredibly funny and jokingly refer to us as "Mzungu." I have found that the best response to this is to just smile. The people that I have met here are very friendly. One man, David (a friend of Leslie's) almost scared me out of my skin when he came up behind us and introduced himself with a big booming voice and proceeded to give each of us a bear hug.
On the other hand, the "facilities" are less friendly. Our bathroom consists of a hole in the ground and there is no running water. The power at our house also went out last night and has not gone back on since then. I know this may sound a bit odd, but since it's me I'll just go ahead and say that I really enjoy having fewer conveniences. I really feel like this trip will help me to get in touch with the way the seeming "other world" lives and also, to get in touch with myself.
I will move to my placement tomorrow, which means that I might be a bit out of touch for a week or so, but I hope to make it back into town in a week or so. I hope you are all doing very well.
~Catie
P.S. Mom and Dad-I will not be able to get a phone until tomorrow because the shops are closed today. Know that I am well and that I will text you when I am able to.
P.P.S. My apologies for how abrupt these blogs are, I have only limited time in which to write. Hopefully, I will be able to post pictures sometime. I want you all to see what I am using as a bathroom.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Preparing to Launch
Yesterday, my dogs jumped in the car and refused to budge until they were literally dragged out of the driver's seat so I could use run errands. If nothing else drove the point home, this moment was the one that indicated the most pointedly that I am going to be gone for a long time-this is probably because my dogs know me better than I know me. However, I still feel like I have been a bit too busy to really make sense of what this trip means to me. I have been saying I was going to go to Uganda for just about 4 years now and now that I am taking off in less than 24 hours, I feel like I haven't had very much time to absorb the experience. Even though Uganda seems rather far away (which refers to time in this case), I am still very excited about the trip.
Ashley and I met with Marcellina and Albert Otii from Uganda last night. We went to their house and had a traditional Ugandan meal. We were able to talk about Ugandan culture, some of the logistics of traveling in the country, and (most exciting of all) what kind of activities we can do with our students. The food and conversation were both fantastic, which made me a lot less nervous and a lot more excited. Marcellina says that students in Uganda will be dedicated and eager to learn and that teachers are revered in their culture; students will even kneel before teachers until they are lifted up and given permission to continue walking. While I'm not sure how comfortable it will be to have my students kneeling before me, I am happy to hear that they will really want to learn. We talked a lot about what topics and lessons would benefit the students and I am now looking forward to a lot of different identification activities (for colors, numbers, animals, etc), posters of my students' favorite names, words, and colors; and a lot of singing and dancing. Ashley and I made plans to swap books halfway through the summer so our students can be exposed to the widest variety of learning materials possible and will be planning more lessons while on the plane from Texas to Dubai.
I am really pleased at how my flight itinerary worked out. Even though it will take 2 days to get to Uganda, the flights work out in favor of rest and relaxation. Apparently, the Dubai International Airport provides free hotel rooms for all of its passengers with layovers between 8-24 hours long. This means that I will actually get to shower and sleep halfway through our trip there....and I won't have to pay for it. I will also get to see more of the city than I was expecting, which is also a plus.
I apologize for rambling so much in these first couple of blogs. I can guarantee that future posts won't be nearly as long due to exhaustion and the price of Internet access in Uganda ($1 per minute). My future posts will also be infinitely more interesting because I will actually be traveling as I write them.
Ashley and I met with Marcellina and Albert Otii from Uganda last night. We went to their house and had a traditional Ugandan meal. We were able to talk about Ugandan culture, some of the logistics of traveling in the country, and (most exciting of all) what kind of activities we can do with our students. The food and conversation were both fantastic, which made me a lot less nervous and a lot more excited. Marcellina says that students in Uganda will be dedicated and eager to learn and that teachers are revered in their culture; students will even kneel before teachers until they are lifted up and given permission to continue walking. While I'm not sure how comfortable it will be to have my students kneeling before me, I am happy to hear that they will really want to learn. We talked a lot about what topics and lessons would benefit the students and I am now looking forward to a lot of different identification activities (for colors, numbers, animals, etc), posters of my students' favorite names, words, and colors; and a lot of singing and dancing. Ashley and I made plans to swap books halfway through the summer so our students can be exposed to the widest variety of learning materials possible and will be planning more lessons while on the plane from Texas to Dubai.
I am really pleased at how my flight itinerary worked out. Even though it will take 2 days to get to Uganda, the flights work out in favor of rest and relaxation. Apparently, the Dubai International Airport provides free hotel rooms for all of its passengers with layovers between 8-24 hours long. This means that I will actually get to shower and sleep halfway through our trip there....and I won't have to pay for it. I will also get to see more of the city than I was expecting, which is also a plus.
I apologize for rambling so much in these first couple of blogs. I can guarantee that future posts won't be nearly as long due to exhaustion and the price of Internet access in Uganda ($1 per minute). My future posts will also be infinitely more interesting because I will actually be traveling as I write them.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Hey guys,
I started this blog so I can (hopefully) keep in touch with all of you over the summer. I want to be able to keep you all in the loop about how I am doing, but I also want to hear what is going on at home so feel free to post lengthy comments about what you're up to. I am going to miss you all a lot while I am gone. In fact, I think I am looking forward to coming back home just as much as I am looking forward to going away. I think this is going to be an awesome summer and I can't wait to share it with you!
Love,
Catie
I started this blog so I can (hopefully) keep in touch with all of you over the summer. I want to be able to keep you all in the loop about how I am doing, but I also want to hear what is going on at home so feel free to post lengthy comments about what you're up to. I am going to miss you all a lot while I am gone. In fact, I think I am looking forward to coming back home just as much as I am looking forward to going away. I think this is going to be an awesome summer and I can't wait to share it with you!
Love,
Catie
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