The Monotony of Everyday Life

So I know it has been awhile since I posted anything but to be honest I have just gotten into so much of a routine I haven't felt like I had much to say.  Last I wrote anything  I was staying in a hotel in Lira Town.  Now I am in my house and I must say I am quite set up.  Electricity has been working quite consistently and it's becoming cozy as I add more furniture and furnishings to the place.  I have been playing hostess quite a bit and I don't mind at all, I actually quite enjoy it.  The volunteers in the area came to stay with me and there were 8 of us crammed in my home.  I bought a 5x6 bed that 4 of us crammed in it and I have another bed in the sitting room with 2 extra mattresses and a couch so it wasn't too bad.  I have a pretty large kitchen as well which we utilized to make some of the best meals I have had in Uganda thus far including beef stir fry and tacos with homemade seasoning!  The water isn't working in my house yet but there is a tap right in my yard so at least I don't have to hike to a borehole to collect water which is convenient.

So I am going to start teaching next week.  S2 math and S5 organic chemistry.  I will also be helping out with computer training since my school has acquired 10 new systems this year and they want to learn how to use email and microsoft programs.  I am going to be officially "teaching" 12 hours a week which isn't so bad and I have thursdays and fridays off which is nice for traveling.

I had my first staff meeting which was.... exactly what I expected.  Full of protocol and overall filled with unnecessary conversation.  For example... "Councilman I believe we should change the word in the notes to "led" and not "said"..." yeah they love to debate miniscule issues like this for hours.  But we only started 2 hours late and met for 4 hours which is more successful then some meetings I have heard about from fellow volunteers thus far.  They did serve some amazing pork, rice and cabbage after so it wasn't so bad.  Then I caught a ride into town to meet up with rachel so I could stay with her for the night.  There was a ridiculous storm that day and when we got back the house was FLOODED!  I haven't seen that much rain since I've been here but thankfully nothing was ruined and she was able to sweep most of the water out.  I proceeded to make completely over salted refried beans for us with guacamole... SORRY RACH! but at least now we know to take it easy with the salt :)

I wish I had more exciting tales of life in africa but honestly I get up each day.... clean my house (because there is a ridiculous amount of dust here) clean my clothes, cook food for myself, walk around my village greeting people and pick up eggs and tomatoes and such at the dukas and small market.  By the time you are done doing what you need to accomplish just to get by everyday it takes up a lot of time.  I am excited to start teaching and soon I plan on traveling to see other volunteers sites and more of the country.

Overall I have gotten used to life here for the most part.  Bugs are ridic, so therefore I don't mind the lizards in my house that eat those little bastards because hey they don't bite me... it's quite hot in the north and I am adjusting to that slowly. I lock my doors by 7-8pm which means I start cooking early since my kitchen is detached from my house (I'm thinking of asking them to cut a door jam from my bedroom to my kitchen to avoid this annoyance) The roosters wake me up by 7am everyday.  I bought a huge bed so I sleep pretty comfortably through the night aside from the bats that are in my roof ... which reminds me I also need to make them board up the 3 holes in my ceiling left open for possible electrical wiring needed in the future...

In the end, living in Uganda is becoming less of a novelty and more of a normality but I still love it here. Sometimes I wish for a laundry mat so I don't have to spend 2 hours cleaning clothes and sheets by hand but it's becoming something you plan for.  It's less exciting but becoming more comfortable.

Until the next boring updates of my life here in the bush!

Nikki

making a hotel a home

So after swearing in on April 21st... which I am proud to say all 44 of us made it to... we all left the comfort of what felt like summer camp and moved to site.  I was one of the lucky ones that got to take public transit! horray for me though all my shit made it to the north!  There was a nasty flood though that held us up getting out of Kampala and the trip took about 6 hours.  So the fun part was realizing my house is not ready!  I'm not the only one though.  My friend Rachel has to squat at a volunteers house for a few weeks and there are others in my group hanging in limbo like us as well.  

So I have been up in Lira for a few days now, but since mi casa is not yet ready, I have been staying at a guest house in town.  This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I got to hang out with two of the nicest ladies in the north, Christine and Barbara.  They run the guest house and have been saving me from starving, overpaying in the market, culturally embarrassing myself and the general boredom that comes from living alone in a room.  They bring my sim sim in the morning, and make me fish for lunch!  I take tea with them and we watch ridiculous ugandan music videos.  Today I met Barbara's family and they found me a puppy!  It is a german shepard mix and I am so excited to take it with me to my house in a few weeks!  Right now it is about a month old... and get this the dad's name is Obama! Their house was HUGE about 18 people which include extended family stay there.  With what the north has been through I sometimes wonder when siblings are staying with aunts and uncles but I don't ask although sometimes the effects of the war are brought up in conversation.  For example Christine told me the night commuters were sleeping on the veranda of the hotel near the end of the war when Lira was really getting hit hard.  But the people here are resilient and you wouldn't know what they have been through when talking to them unless they bring it up.  So all in all I got to learn a lot about the culture here from two pretty understanding ladies.  Some things I learned are I should stop smiling so much because it will be misinterpreted for flirting/ prostitution, blowing on hot food or tea is seen as committing some voodoo act upon it, and people here like to poison dogs so make sure the people who can access your dog like you.  

On Easter Sunday I went to visit Rachel's squatting grounds, aka Burnadette's house!  Another volunteer Heather who stays in Kitgum was also down and she made a pretty awesome dinner.  Burnadette's house is super cute and is only a 30 minute drive away from town, and I met her counterpart who has the coolest name ever.... FRESHER! She is as sweet as her name is.  For payment in staying the night we went to collect water for her at the borehole.  That was an EPIC FAIL! I don't know how she does that on her own... balancing those 2 huge jerrycans on her bike alone... rachel and I could barely get them back without the bike toppling on one of us and we were a fun spectacle for the village to have a good laugh at!  But I digress.... we are laughed at all the time but at least we weren't alone!  So I tried to upload a total of 6 photos but it is taking tooooo damn long so only these 2 finished.  If you want to see photos, again refer to facebook they upload 1000X faster!  Should be putting more up this week from swearing in week and my new house!

 The house where we had our swearing in ceremony, seriously nice digs... I am now considering a career in Foreign Service

Just a silly picture of some Lango girls pretending to be models, which to us I guess means eating our fingers or looking spaced out... I love us!

It's Official... I'm a volunteer!

Well tomorrow I will be anyway!  So right now I am a little outside Kampala at a 5 star hotel complete with pool and HOT showers!!!! We are being seriously spoiled.... and I kind of want to move in just so they can feed me, the food here is awesome!

So what the hell am I going to be doing for the next two years now that I am a real life volunteer?  2 weeks ago after holding onto where we were going for 2 months.... they finally told us....  St. Katherine's Girls Secondary School in Lira District!  I am really stoked to be at an all girls school and my counterpart is a "Super Teacher".  Super Teacher Wendy Grace can't fly or read people's minds, but she is quite the progressive woman especially for ugandan standards and that is just as special!  So myself and my fellow lango lovers braved the trip back up to the north to visit our sites the next day and this ride went much smoother!  Stella, Liz and I took a more reputable bus company who's wheels were safely secured... and we made it there in under 5 hours.  I stayed at Mango Tree Guest House again because my house wasn't ready and the next morning I got picked up in the school's vehicle for a visit.  Enwat the driver is my new best friend because shit... how else am I going to get to town when you can't ride a boda!

Where I Am:  So I am only 7km outside Lira town which is pretty convenient and I am only 2km away from a fellow volunteer.  That is pretty damn lucky, some volunteers have to travel 2 hours to get to a PCV and I can walk to her site in 10 minutes!  My house is on the school's compound which is completely gated in, in a town called Boro Boro!

My House:  I have electricity and running water!!! wasn't expecting that at all so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it.  The house is really simple, the first door enters into 2 rooms, a living room and a bedroom, and a bathroom that is right off the bedroom, complete with toilet and shower!  That doesn't mean I have hot water but in Africa you can deal with that... The second door opens into the kitchen which has a counter and a sink! I know these things sound ridiculous to get excited about but seriously I'm pretty set up compared to a lot of volunteers here with my ammenitites and accessibility to town.

Who I Work With:  So the school is really nice and the they are well staffed.  They have about 40 teachers or so, maybe more.  The school is made up of 900 girls (pretty big) from S1-S6.  My first reaction was "What the hell am I doing here?"  I mean they had the ability to print out tests, they had a library, they had enough room for students to sit, they had a whole building dedicated to lab and it was pretty well stocked and organized.  This may sound like a given but it is a REALLY nice school in Uganda and Super Teacher Wendy is one of the best teachers in the country (as decided by the ministry of education).  I was only there for a day so though I'm not going to make any conclusions until I spend time there, and I know I can do some good, it's just not what I was expecting.  The staff is really nice thought especially my counterpart, supervisor and head teacher.  They were a little standoffish with me at first, I'm not sure if it is because I am replacing a volunteer, but they warmed up to me once I started speaking the language.  I am going to be teaching S5 organic chemistry and calculus, and 4 classes of S2 math!

I will write much more about site in the future but for now I am exhausted and am feeling the daunting weight of having to re pack all my shit again before moving to site on friday!  Tomorrow is our last night together and we are really happy all of us made it through... so naturally it should be a shit show!  But aber!

50th anniversary and other silliness!

Okay so these are a few things that happened between language immersion and future site visit.  Not much happened in between out of the ordinary.  Our group is ridiculous in general and I would have to write a novel about all the little crazy things we say and do. We had a mock LPI (language proficiency interview) which I bombed due to me being so nervous.  Judith my language trainer stopped the tape after and just looked at me with these eyes that said "WHAT HAPPENED YOU KNOW THIS!"  Honestly I always get text anxiety when it comes to oral exams and I could have used a shot or two to calm my nerves in which case I probably would have done better.  We also had the 50th anniversary which I have pictures posted of on facebook.  We went to a Juvira Primary School and did activities with the kids from painting murals and building rocket stoves to reading books to the younger kids and doing life skills activities.  I was involved in doing life skills, which included one game called the "best response" activity.  We would outline scenarios that involved peer pressuring youth into having sex.  They split into groups and would have to come up with the "best response" to the line.  For example, "If you don't have sex you will get a rash"  Things like this were actually believed to be true.  It is amazing and somewhat disheartening, the misconceptions young people have here about sex and HIV, which is probably why we are required to do HIV awareness and life skills work in addition to our teaching schedules.  I didn't bring a camera to the event after, a dinner and cocktail party with a lot of volunteers already in country and the peace corps staff.  Dinner was good and the night consisted of a lot of dancing and drinking.  PC people are crazy in their own right so it was good to let loose and some got a little sillier then others.  One of the crazies, who is of course my friend, fell asleep on the grass outside the hotel under some trees and was thankfully brought back by a guard to us sitting outside before the guard dogs got to him haha.  Thankfully one of us was learning luganda and could understand him saying "your friend, your friend" and he promptly put him in a bed.
      The next morning we dragged ourselves out of bed hungover to go cook lunch with our language groups.  We went to Jacque's family house who were really sweet and whether they liked the lunch or not they seemed pleased and were very helpful.  We walked from the hotel to meet Judith and Lanyero (the secondary tech trainer who is acholi and is always involved in helping our group because our languages are SO similar) at the market.  We bought supplies including a live chicken which rachel cradled like a child the rest of the trip to make its last moments on earth comfortable before we slaughtered it for lunch (side note... blood goes everywhere, the knives in this country are not sharp and cleaning a chicken and separating all it's insides is grose!  I will not be eating much chicken once I live on my own haha)  Rachel named it adit gweno (which means mister chicken in our language haha).  We made spaghetti with meat sauce and marinated beef kabobs as our "american dishes" and we made chicken stew, rice and greens as the "african dishes"  Everything turned out good accept that the kabobs were so tough we couldn't really eat them haha whoops!  After doing this on only 2 hours of sleep the previous night I was thoroughly exhausted and promptly walked home in the blazing mid afternoon heat to rest for the remainder of the day...  I needed the next 2 days to prepare for site visit!!!!!!!!

Language Immersion

Okay so forgive my delay in being able to post anything.  So this is going to be broken up into ports starting off from the last time I told people I was about to go to language immersion.  A lot has happened since then so I will attempt not to ramble and hit all the good points… here we go!

Language Immersion (March 21-26)

            So my language group consists of myself, Jacque, Stella, Rachel and Liz. We are the only all girl language group out of 9 groups but it worked out well.  The only downside to our group is the inability for us to go out after dark because we have no muscle to back us up haha.  But it really doesn’t matter we don’t need to be out anyway haha.  There aren’t too many volunteers up around our area because they have only been sending people there for about 2 years now but it is a concentrated location for NGO workers.  We went to Lira, which is the main city (using this term loosely haha) where they speak our language although there are 5 other districts (which I would qualify to counties) that speak our language as well.  Lira is a district itself and Lira town well, is the main town of lira district where we stayed. 

            So our bus ride to Lira was interesting….. it was supposed to take about 4-5 hours.  It took us near eight due to the fact that one of the wheels didn’t want to stay on so we had to stop every 10 minutes to balance it I think…. It was ridiculous but we did finally get there and thankfully before dark.  We braved trying the meat on sticks that they sell on the side of the road and none of us contracted mad cow disease so that’s a plus!  We stayed in a hotel across from the bus park which was sufficient and nice except for the fact that there was a constant smell of urine eminating from the bathroom and filling the halls..  Judith our language trainer came out of her shell that week and she is by far the funniest person I have met here.  I don’t think I could explain some of her random comments in writing because its in the delivery where she gets you rolling.  For example though, the girls and I were talking about getting I<3 LIRA shirts made and we wanted a phrase in our language on the back… Judith suggested Nenna pe gudda (translation: look but don’t touch) Where she learned that I don’t know but she has been busting out one liners ever since!

            We practiced our language by going to the market, restaurants and even to this old woman’s house and Judith forced us to speak in Lango.  It went okay, you just have to get over the fact that people are going to laugh at you, not to be mean but because they can’t believe a foreigner is speaking their language!  Most are really supportive and just wanted to help us improve which is nice because we had heard stories about locals wanting money and things like that just for talking to volunteers. 

        So I will wrap it up with my likes of Lira! Pork joints in lira are REALLY good!  The fry pork and put it in a plastic bag with chips(French fries) cabbage, tomatoes, onions and hot sauce and ketchup.  Amaro Ringo Punu lol.  You can get almost anything you need in Lira which is nice because the less I have to drag from Kampala the better.  DIARY… all the “dairy” advertisements are spelled like this.  I guess there was one guy in the whole town that did the stenciling and so yeah haha.  All the bikes and less motorcyles!  Everyone has a bike (or gali in my language) and I feel much safer walking around.  I love not hearing mzungu or munu (white person) as much.  I barely here either one and it is a relief because it gets really annoying.  And lastly the people are really friendly!  It really is like another country in the north compared to the rest of the country and what I have gotten used to living with the Buganda people.  The climate is different (it is hotter probably gets up to mid 90s… but not always and it is a dry heat)  The people are much taller and have darker skin tones.  The languages are nilotic (totally different from bantu languages in the south and east like comparing Chinese to English)  The landscape is flatter and although it is still pretty up there it is mostly bush!  Hopefully posting some pictures underneath will work, but refer to facebook for photos in the future and it takes forever to upload ones on this blog!

At the hotel in Lira Town. From left to right: jacque, stella, rachel, liz, me and judith! 

peace corps challenge

So I know it has been over a month since I posted anything.... but now that I have internet for my computer I promise to be better about it!!! Unfortunately tonight I am exhausted but I wanted to post this peace corps challenge thing that was passed around to us PCTs.  Let me know if you decide to try this!  Just to give you a taste of what it is like for those of us here in east africa (there isn't a PC uganda specific challenge but kenya is damn close so it works) When I have more time once i get to site I promise to put up several posts as all I will have is down time since I am arriving at the school during term break!  for now enjoy!!! whoever does this has my ultimate respect (except you kristin you have been through this before....) xoxo

Can you hack it and “Live Like a Peace Corps Volunteer” for a week

Check out this innovative Challenge launched by a team of currently serving Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) around the world, along with the growing support of others including the National Peace Corps Association. The "Live Like a Peace Corps Volunteer Challenge" started with a simple dare to a PCV’s family to give up a microwave for a week.  That dare wasn't accepted, but the story of it inspired another Volunteer to make a game of the whole thing and tie it into the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps and the 20th anniversary of Peace Corps/ Mongolia where this all started.

The goal of this project is to raise awareness of Peace Corps in America and give those participating in the Challenge a small taste of Peace Corps life, hopefully while having some fun. PCVs in Kenya adapted the challenge to reflect realities of serving in Kenya.  The challenge celebrates our 50 ^th anniversary while at the same time addressing our 3^rd goal.  Perhaps the only things missing from this challenge, things that are extremely difficult to replicate in other settings, are the inherent benefits of service- the sense of accomplishment in mastering your new language, the joy of making a new friend in spite of massive cultural differences, the beauty of the environments in which we serve… Nevertheless, this is a great activity for stimulating discussion about how two-thirds of the world lives. 

The Challenge: Kenyan Rules 

For one week you are asked to give up some of the everyday conveniences that we PCVs and our communities do without. The levels are arranged from more common to less common living conditions of PCVs in Kenya while also taking into account the difficulty of completing the challenge in the US.  So while none of us here have a car, it ranks quite high in the challenge as it is much more difficult to do without one in the states.  Kenya is known for its beautiful safaris in which you can spot the “The Big Five” animals, for which we’ve named our levels (they are in order of rareness in the Mara).

• First, decide which month you want to participate.  The first week of the month you choose (the 1st-7th) will be when you need to forgo certain items.
• Next, look through the list below and decide which one of the five levels of difficulty you want to take on, and which items you will abstain from  (although your items may come from multiple difficulty levels you are only trying to complete one level, the most difficult you think you can manage).
• Finally, let us know that you’ve taken up the challenge by completing the Accept the Challenge section of the general “Live Like a PCV”  atwww.LiveLikeaPCV.org

Lion: Difficulty Level I
(choose two) 

• Forgo the use of the microwave.
• No checks, no debit cards or credit cards, cash only all week.
• No washing machine or dish washers - plus you must attempt laundry by hand once. (Let’s be honest you probably have enough clothes to easily go a week without washing.)
• Cook dinner by candlelight.
• Keep a journal or write a handwritten letter to a friend about your experiences this week.

  Buffalo: Difficulty Level II
(choose two plus one item from Level I) 

• No television (This includes Hulu and Adult Swim online, they are not available outside the US)--You can listen to the radio and read local newspapers.
• Baths or showers allowed only every other day-  You can wash yourself at the sink with a cloth each day.
• No fast food, no restaurants (this includes coffee places, bars, and delivery).
• Internet only every other day. (You can use the internet for your job but you're on the honor system here.)
• Start and finish a book this week.
• Buy your fruits and vegetables for the week locally.
• Wild Animals! You can't leave your yard between 7:30 PM and 6:30 AM unless accompanied by 3 or more people.

Elephant: Difficulty Level III
(choose two plus one item from Level II or two items from Level I) 

• You can use your toilet but you must manually fill the tank or do a bucket flush. (Turn off the water to the toilet.)
• Lack of temperature control - No heater or air conditioner in your car.
• Greet everyone you know with a handshake and genuine questions about their family, home, and health.
• You can only use one burner on your stove and no oven.
• Ration your water to only 10 gallons a day.  This includes cooking, drinking, bathing, and washing clothes.
• Teach someone the 4 ways the HIV virus is transmitted.

Leopard: Difficulty Level IV
(choose two plus one item from Level III, or two items from Level II, or three items from Level I) 

• Reduced living space.  You may only use your living room, bathroom and kitchen.
• Bathe only once this week. (You may wash yourself with a cloth at the sink each day.)
• No driving.  You can use public transport, bicycle, and walking.
• Internet one day this week.  (Again, you can use it for your work only.)
• Power outage.  Throw a dice (6 sides) every day for how many hours you will be without power sometime between 5.00pm -11.00pm (turn off your power breakers).

Rhino: Difficulty Level V
(choose one item from each Level) 

• No running water from your house, you must go fetch it from somewhere else (a neighbor’s house is fine).
• No English for the entire week.  (You can speak English at work only.)
• You can’t use any toilet in your house, you must go somewhere else or improvise.
• No refrigerator.
• Spend the whole weekend in one room of your house. Using no electricity - you are allowed 3 books and the battery life of your computer (no recharging).

Questions for Reflection:

• How did you find this challenge- difficult?  Easier than you had anticipated?
• What surprised you about participating in this challenge?
• What did this challenge teach about how people in developing countries live? 

When you’ve successfully completed your Challenge check out our “Show Support” page at www.LiveLikeaPCV.org  for gear to let others know of your triumph and help us spread the word.

I'm on a high right now

Hello!  So I have been super busy and having too much fun, which has taken away from my ability to keep everyone back home informed on what is going on with me.  I promise once I get to site and have more free time I will write better blogs.  Pictures are being uploaded to facebook as I type and fingers crossed no power goes off because I am trying to upload all 125 at once...

So things are becoming routine here in uganda so I am finding it difficult to write something that may be of interest to everyone.  Today is our last day of school based training and things got progressively better week by week.  My ugandan mentor teacher was really supportive near the end and is confident in my ability to be a successful teacher which makes me a little less worried.  A fun review I did with my students was chalkboard competitions (which I stole from jacque thanks girl!!)  I was really impressed with the amount of information they retained and my mentor loved it and is now giong to copy.  That is great because the students loved the game.  The other thing I also did that they loved was this week I let them write questions on scraps of paper about me, america, or whatever and answered them the last 10-15 minutes of class.  My favorites were in no particular order...

Do you know Lord Vuldermort
Do you know justin bieber, a young artist
Are you a virgin
Do they allow coupling (bfs and gfs) in schools in america
The president of america is my uncle
Can you explain why americans are white
can you teach me how to kiss
DO you like hannah montana
will you take me to america
i love you madam what is your number can i call you
can you sing and will you give us a sample (I did not comply with this request)

So yeah there were a few innappropriate ones but I also got a lot of positive feedback from the students and they really are sad to see us go this week.  Yesterday when I was done teaching I went to watch a soccer game where my school unfortunately was beat in kitende.  It was really fun to watch them have a good time and support their classmates and I got to talk for a few hours with my mentor teacher and another business teacher at the school who are amazing at what they do and extremely friendly.

Then I went to a club last night with 3 of my brothers (Derrick, Eddie and Mark) and my 3 sisters (Angela, Eddie and Slyvia)  I have such a good time hanging out with them, and they are all really good dancers of course.  People in uganda got rhythm haha.  The music/dj in this small kajjansi club was far better then any club ive been to in the US (this is subjective to my music interest) and i kept up with them pretty well.  I kind of get the best of both worlds because I have these siblings that are my age, and I have the little kids in the house as well.  My maama is also the sweetest ever, all the trainees that visit my house heart her!  She let us use the kitchen to bake brownies and banana bread for the teachers at the school to say thank you and we gave a whole pan to my family and they were quite impressed.  (See pictures on fb for how this baking looked)  So far they have taught me how to make chapati, potatoes and rolex.  How to light a charcoal stove and slowly i am learning how to wash my clothes (I am so bad at it... seriuosly i miss machines my clothes just get wet not clean haha)

So that is all I have for now... pictures have 8 more minutes it says so its looking good guys!  Miss everyone!!!  I'll be in Lira all next week so I will probably post again when I get back to Lweza!!!

But Aber (Goodnight)

Nikki