Welcome Back to Uganda

After a wonderful trip home I was quickly welcomed back to Uganda with the sweet smells of burning trash and body odor.

On the plane yelling and demanding to be served Bond 7 (a nasty Ugandan whiskey that they obviously would never serve anywhere other than Uganda) and my flight not coming in until 5am when it was supposed to arrive at 3am. Then my ride who was supposed to arrive at 7:30am did not arrive until just after 9am and had to be the slowest driver in Uganda.

One good thing about coming back was that I had to go directly to the All Volunteer Conference, so I was able to ease back in and see many pale faces while doing so. I had spent the past few months planning this conference with some other volunteers and it turned into a great time to see everyone and catch up. We had a trivia night one night, and I am not the best at trivia since I obviously hate knowledge, but I was obviously able to help with at least one question and we may have been the only team to answer 2 jersey shore cast members real full names correctly.

Upon returning to site and reality I had a taxi driver that started going “you give me sex sex” this was my first experience with this since coming to Uganda and I couldn’t help but laugh at him and tell him he had bad manners. Ugandans do not like to be told they have bad manners and he quickly stopped and said “oh you don’t do that?” Oh Uganda.

I was however very excited to see all the kids at school they were very excited that I was back and to ask me about my trip. I relieved many comments about how I have been lost and returned fat, which was odd because all the pale faces at all vol kept telling me I looked as if I had lost weight in America. 

AMUUURICA...The greatest country in the world

I recently went home to Ohio for a few weeks. After being in Uganda for a year I am now Americas #1 fan. The little things are the things you miss most about our great country, things like driving (or at least not sitting on others laps to get places), toilets, elevators, food, washing machines, hot water, sinks, microwaves, refrigerators, grocery stores, and so many more, I could go on for pages.

American food is one thing that I miss the most while in Uganda, and boy did I make up for it while I was home (14.4lbs worth). I had a list of places and things I wanted to eat while in America, it was a very long list and all were not accomplished. One thing that often becomes taken for granted is the wide accessibility to so many different foods in America and the easiness of preparation.  How many people do you know in America that have to go to the market, buy green peppers, tomatoes, and onions (good luck finding much else), wash them with bleach so you don’t die, cook (by cook I dont mean microwave I mean charcoal stove) everything from scratch and then wash the dishes by hand after going to fetch water? The answer is not many (esp with the fetching water part) and if they do do this, they don’t do it everyday let alone every meal.  Walking into the grocery store was one of the most amazing experiences of being back, I think I just stood and stared the the isles and variety of food (where else other than America can you find 6 different carrot choices)

Surprisingly enough I did do things other than eat. I drank a lot of good American booze and was able to see most of my friends and family, many of whom took me out for breakfast/lunch/dinner/4^th meal (taco bell might be one of the best places ever after 230am).  I was able to attend my yearly Red Sox/Indians game with some fantastic people as well as the beautiful wedding of Mr And Mrs Brian Lindsay J.

Everyone says everything at home has changed people are growing up, not doing as much or hanging out with one another as much as they used to. I didn’t notice that much change and it could have been because more people were more willing to go out because I was home. One thing I do know is EVERYONE seems to be getting married and/or having babies and im not going to have any friends left when I go home for good!

Overall, I had a wonderful trip home and it was very difficult to come back to Uganda.

Lack of Excitement

It has been awhile since I have last updated this due to the lack of excitement, well everyday is an adventure but I do not want to write about the same adventures over and over. The same travel adventures have been happening, for some reason I don’t think I will ever get the pleasure of sitting next to someone who is not vomiting into a plastic bag or onto my feet next to me. 

Somethings that have happened though:

I was graced with the presence of a group of 10 white people for almost 2 weeks. They were great and even shared some of their American food with me J. They kept me busy though bringing over 1200 pieces of clothing or the kids, 1000 pairs of underwear, stuffed animals which all needed sorted and distributed. They also did small projects like paint the bathing room doors, put up screens etc.

I rode an ostrich! We went down to the boarder of Tanzinia which is only about 17km from my house and spent part o the day there looking around the market, eating lunch just over the boarder and drinking Tanzanian beer. After a ew warm beers since the power had been out we decided it was a good idea to go to a town about 5km from my house and ride an ostrich. The ostrich was trying to buck both myself and another PCV off of it during eah of our rides. I got the pleasure of riding first, right after watching a Ugandan all off of it. We also later found out that we were put on the male ostrich which they normally don’t let people ride because he is crazy or stubborn as they say here. Well low and behold they sometimes think its funny to make mzungus come who come in ride him so they are thrown off. I did not fall off, but I was laying completely flat on my stomach at one point because he was bucking me off and I couldn’t sit up anymore!

I have been chosen to help plan our all volunteer conference which has been somehow stressful. Any people are refusing to present because they do not want to attend it if it is at the current venue, which is not the normal high quality venue they are used to the conference being at. Believe me if I could make it somewhere where we would get regular hotel rooms, hot showers, good food, pool and booze id be all for it but PC is not allowing it to happen. They want it to be at the baseball complex which is dorm style rooms, cold showers, no pool opr booze.

4th of July was defiantly different than it is in the past, well not that different the only difference was that I was with a different group of people and not boozing it up out on a sandbar of the lake. Instead a group of us went to the west part of Uganda and celebrated America the best way we know how, by drinking and cooking delicious American food. The weekend was great and I wish we were all able to spend more time hanging out like that! There were jorts everywhere and tshirts ranging from those with hamburgers and hotdogs on them to mine a gem which I found it the market stating “terrorist fist jab” on it.

A mouse recently discovered his way into my house. I think he has gotten into my adderall because he has been running around like a maniac keeping me up all night. I first discovered he was there when my head was against my mosquito net reading and he decides to climb the net up onto the rafters right where my head is.  

Not too much else happening, not boring just not worth blogging about. On the upside I will be in America in less than a month and I cannot wait for real food, hot showers, being clean and getting to see my friends and family!!!!

Cooking with Erin

I recently brought an egg in a basket sandwich I had made with me over to the school since I was running late (you know late to sit there and read my book)and had everyone looking at it trying to figure out what it was. I decided to give half away for others to try, since then I have been asked about this sandwich nonstop and asked to make more for others to try. Tonight, my counterpart called me and asked me to come over to the school, all I could think is what does this lady want I just wanna go to bed. When I got over there she informed me she had sent for bread and had eggs and I needed to teach her and others at the school how to make this sandwich because she had been thinking about it nonstop since I brought it over.

So there I was, in the dark, teaching ugandan women how to cook an egg sandwich. Each one needed directions with their sandwich and others came to watch what was going out. There amazement and excitement made it seem like I was turning water into wine or something. They had never seen or had a sandwich before one girl was even calling her friends in Kampala, the capital, to see if they have ever had a sandwich before. I tried explaining to them that it was a sandwich because it was between 2 pieces of bread and you can make all sorts of different types of sandwiches but they were not having it. A loaf of bread later and everyone had made their own sandwich and were all eagerly awaiting tomorrow morning so they can go together to a nearby town and buy frying pans so they can impress their friends with their new found cooking skills.

Who would have thought that my lack of cooking skills could bring such enjoyment to ones life. Maybe ill start my own show here and become the next Betty Crooker or Rachael Ray. Next up on Cooking with Erin: pouring a bowl of cereal. 

More Travel and Medical Adventures

As you can tell there is never a dull moment when it comes to transport in this country. On the way to the camp Joey and I were traveling and noticed our driver kept pulling his money out of his shirt pocket and putting it in his pants pocket then would take it out of his pants pocket and put it in his shirt pocket. This went on most of the way until finally his money blew out the window. We then had to stop and look for his money for over half and hour, which he never found. THEN on the way home from camp we were all exhausted and ready to get back to site when a truck hits our bus which resulted in us having to sit outside on the side of the road for over 2 hours waiting for the police to walk there (yes if you have read previous posts this is the 2^nd time iv had to wait for police to walk to a situation).

After all that travel I vowed not to leave site and not travel for a while. But what happened 2 days after getting back to site, I’m back on a bus traveling to Kampala for medical. Turns out I developed more staph infections this time one in each eye. It was the worst pain I have ever had to deal with my eyes felt like they had razor blades in them. After my first visit with the doctor he gave me some antibiotics and an ointment and told me I could leave the next day. Well the next day came and my eyes doubled in size due to the swelling and some bruising (one PCV even told me I looked like a beaten wife) so it was back to the medical office. I was then told I could not go back to site for a couple of days so they would not become further infected. Such a sad day learning I couldn’t turn right back around and travel again and had to be stuck in the capital and be forced to eat good food like Italian, Mexican and Chinese. There was only one downside to the Mexican food. The antibiotics hated me and my body hated them and decided to make me sick…Mexican food sure doesn’t taste as good the second time around.  

Northern Camp GLOW

If I wasn’t already exhausted enough from a week long softball adventure I went straight into my next adventure, Northern Camp GLOW. Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World)is a weeklong camp held for girls to empower them and give them skills to be able to hold their own since this country is so driven on males being in charge and being above the girls. There was also a boys camp at the same time Camp BUILD, where boys also learn various skills.

Due to budget cuts I was asked to come as a volunteer, basically meaning I just had to pay my own transport. But in the end they were able to budget and pay for my transport which was an extra bonus because I was really excited just to get to go to the camp to get ideas for the GLOW club I have at my school.  Throughout the week I acted as a staff member and helped with sessions, acted as one of the camp photographers, ran errands (which all the staff members were fighting over due to the fact that running errands meant going into town which meant access to food other than rice and beans) and did whatever else was needed.

The campers were made up of girls from all over northern Uganda and were ages of 14-18. The campers had to be nominated by a PCV and write an essay. Noone was left out of the camp, there was even a number of hearing impared campers and translators brought in. They were able to participate in every activity and were welcomed by the other campers, by the end of the week notes were being passed back and forth asking them to tell them how to sign something.

Throughout the week there were various sessions on IGA’s (income generating activities), Reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, Self Esteem. During the IGA sessions the girls learned various ways inwhih they can make money for themselves and why it is important to have their own income. They learned how to make small change purses, build sack gardens and liquid fertilizer. They also learned money management through a game based off the Game of Life. The Game of Life showed them how they have to manage money for every situation and save because you never know when something is going to happen such as “you dropped your phone down a latrine pay 45,000/=” and Aubrey, another PCV from my group and one of the camp directors, demonstrated how things like this can happen by dropping her phone down the latrine during the camp. (One of my favorites which did not end up in the game was “your latrine fell over with your grandma inside collect 75,000/=”)

Reproductive health session the girls learned the proper way to put on a condom. Let me tell you put 50 girls in a room with 7 wooden penis’s and a bunch of condoms and there are sure to be giggles. I was taking pictures during this session and every time I took someone’s picture while they were putting a condom on a wooden penis others would laugh at them so those who laughed were next in line to for a photo op. The girls were also given Afripads which are reusable menstrual pads that can be washed and reused to cut down on girls missing school due to having their period and having to just use an old towel or piece of clothing because they cannot afford to buy pads.

The girls, counselors and staff were also able to get tested for HIV/AIDS. This was the first camp run by PCV’s where they had this aspect. It went over really well and most were tested. There were no new HIV findings and one girl who thought she had it ended up not having HIV.

We met up with the boys camp twice during the camp once was a field day/registration on the first day and the other was a domestic violence themed day. The campers learned what domestic violence is and how to prevent it and how to treat others. From what I heard this went over much better than past camps as in the past the boys would take it as a joke.

We also went to a ropes course which was a blast. I was lucky enough to run one of the stations, the train tracks, where the girls had to figure out how to get the pieces of wood over to the oth3er side without their feet touching the ground. It was difficult to get the counselors to not tell them how to do it since they were involved in all the other activities. The course focused mainly on team building and with some personal facing of fears thrown in as well. There was a leap of faith which they were hooked up to harnesses and had to climb a long 60ft or so in the air and then jump out to a bar that was swinging in the air as well as a zipline. I was able to do the zipline but there was not enough time for us staff members to do the leap of faith.

Over all it was a fun, exciting and EXAHUSTING week. 

Traveling Around Uganda...One Softball Team at a Time...

The last month has been crazy busy…and since I have actually been busy it must mean I was not at my site. Since the school term ended it was the perfect time for me to do some secondary projects, many people like to do secondary projects in their community but since mine wants me to be there all the time, even if it means I am sitting there reading a book waiting for something to come along that I can do, I decided I would make my other projects be in other areas. Sure I have to pay for everything on my own including travel, lodging and meals but it is worth it and there are volunteers spread out all over Uganda so there is likely to be someone nearby to stay with.  

The secondary project I have been doing is softball. Myself and another volunteer traveled to Soroti, in eastern Uganda, to help their team with pitching and other basic skills and drills. We met a few players and their coach at the camp in January and wanted to help more. We were set to practice with them Sat and Sun, Saturday was great, the girls were on time worked hard and were excited about us being there to help them. Then came Sunday, we had originally planned on practicing all day but the girls said they had to attend church and wouldn’t be able to practice until after lunch so they decided they wanted to meet at 1pm. Well Joey and I got there and 1pm came and went and by 3 when only 2 girls showed up and no equipment was there yet we decided it was time to go (the 2 hours of waiting was thanks to Joey if it were up to me I woulda left after half an hour). So in reality I traveled 9 hours to practice for a team for 5 hours.

After Soroti we crammed into a matatu that was wayyyy too full (I had the luxury of sitting half on a metal rod sticking out of the seat and half on a fire extinguisher) we traveled to Lira. Uganda has a new program where there will be one school in each district that will focus on a sport, a girls school Lira is the softball school that has been chosen for the trial run. Lucky for us again there was a volunteer, Nikki, placed at this school who was willing to take us in for the week. We had met the coaches at the camp in January and if someone would have told me that they would be doing as good of a job as they have been doing I would have told them they were crazy. The coaches had volunteered to coach and were not getting anything extra out of it other than being able to help the team, boy does that make a difference the coaches are just as excited about the game as the girls are and it defiantly showed. The girls had only learned about the game at the beginning of the term in February and already had a lot of the basic skills from playing everyday. Nikki had a great idea and taught them using the game of kickball to start. They picked up the basis quickly. They already had the pitchers and catchers chosen and other than that everyone else had just been filling the field (imagine 30 girls on a field at one time). We went through basic skills with them like positions, base running, hitting, fielding, and throwing.

(On a side note, Ugandan are hilarious sometimes. The coaches would stand on the side lines yelling “you aim,” “you throw better,” “you catch well”, etc instead of teaching them how to properly do it but it was entertaining to say the least)

You can really tell the difference between coaches who really want to be there and coaches who are there for another reason. The Soroti teams coach is a baseball player and also works with the baseball team so most of his time and energy go to the boys. Also, when you combine girls and boys sports at a school and there is a shortage of equipment it almost always goes to the boys. The Lira coaches may not know everything about the game but they want to be there to help the girls and want and are willing to learn. They read all the books and were even mapping out a field using kitchen ash for the foul lines.

 It is exciting to see the excitement in the girls and their willingness to learn new things. The athletic ability in this country is crazy, I only wish I was half as athletic as all these girls. We also decided that we want to put on a camp for the teams to be able to play one another and learn new skills, Im not sure if we will be able to get funding for this from Peace Corps or not. If not, don’t be surprised if I come asking for donations!!

**If anyone has any mitts laying around that they do not use anymore and would like to donate to teams here in Uganda let me know and I can give you an address to drop them off/mail them too and I can bring them back with me from the states when I come home in Aug**

Work, Work, Work

It has been brought to my attention that people dont think i ever work since i never post anything on facebook or my blog about work but lets face it the random stories of things that happen are a way better read than reading about someone actually doing work...but yes i do occasionally work sometimes. I decided rather than try to come up with some witty way to tell you about the work i have done at the school i will just post my boring quarterly report that i have to submit to my supervisor at my organization who is based in the capital so she knows what we are all doing down here.

People mentioned in the report and who they are:
Deborah- my counterpart and child development specialist
Winnie- Social worker who i give a lot of credit to because she grew up being supported by the org and decided she wanted to help others that are in the same situation she was in
Mu Sawo- the school nurse who would like me to find her a man

So here it goes...

1.      Basic Information: From January through March I have taught life skills on Tuesday mornings, assisted in the implementation of Club Glow, ran a health day activity for the children on Women’s Day, visited a couple of homes, helped to restructure the clubs, taught 2 librarians how to enter books into computer and helped to design and input information on various spreadsheets.

Life Skills: Life Skills is part of the school day on Tuesday mornings. Time is a difficult thing for life skills because the church often goes over on its time and then they hold the student assembly there have been many days where life skills is unable to happen due to not having time to have class. The class has also grown to P5-P7.  I try to make the activities as interactive and fun as possible. The activities that have been taught include:

            What are Life Skills- to teach the children what life skills are and how they can affect their lives as well as to see what the children view as life skills and how they think they are important.

             Bridge Model- to teach the children how life skills affect them and can help them to lead a positive healthy lifestyle.

            Peer Pressure/Choosing Peer Groups- what is peer pressure, how does it affect them, how they can resist peer pressure and how to be assertive when saying no.

            Best Advice Game- Children split into groups and I gave them various scenarios of things people might say when trying to pressure them into a situation. The children then worked together to come up with a response. The group with the most detailed response won a mark and the group with the most marks at the end got a piece of candy.  Myself, Aunt Julie and Mu Sawo acted as judges for the game and explained why each response was the best response for that situation.

            Short and Long Term Goals- Taught the children what goals were both short and long term. Discussed why it is important to set goals and gave steps to reaching goals. Had the children think about their goals and write out short and long term goals, who can help them achieve their goals, an action plan for achieving their goals, what they will need to achieve their goals, what might stand in the way of letting them achieve the goal and the date they hope to complete the goal.

            Role Models- Had the help of 4 club glow girls to teach this section (they were originally going to teach it while I was away at training but life skills ended up not happening that week). We discussed what a role model is, the qualities to look for in a role model, how a role model can help you learn from their mistakes and weaknesses (children were thinking that a guardian who did not go to school could not be a role model but discussed with them how a role model can help them live a better life than they were able to have). Had the children write out who their role model was and why as well as the qualities their role model has that makes them their role model and how they can help them achieve their goals.

Club Glow: Club Glow is the girls empowerment club that meets on Thursday afternoons. I meet with the leaders of Club Glow on Tuesdays during tea time to help them come up with a topic and questions that can be asked for the members to better understand the topic. Club Glow is normally in Luganda so I do not understand a majority of what is going on but still attend and am available when a question arises. The members of club glow lead the discussions and myself, Deborah and Winnie are there to answer questions the girls may have and help them give scenarios. Some of the topics discussed include:

            Sanitation while on Period: girls discussed proper disposal of pads, how to be clean while on period, how often to change pad and had questions about tampons so Deborah and myself gave a tampon demonstration to show how they work. (girls would like to learn how to make reusable pads so they can use them on holidays etc. The cost would be approx 1500/= per pad made and I am able to teach this if we can get the funding. The cost is too little to get a grant from the Peace Corps)

            Question Box: Answered various questions the girls submitted anonymously regarding any topic they had questions about.

            Role Models- Discussed role models what they are, qualities a role model should have, advice a role model should give, and who their role models were and why.

            What is Love- Discussed what love is and the difference between love for family member and love for a partner. Discussed how one can show their love and how people who love them will not pressure them into doing wrong things.

            Sexual Feelings- Mu Sawo came in to help discuss with the girls and answered questions that the girls had. Discussed other activities they could no when having these feelings.

Clubs: Helped to restructure clubs and staff will be more accountable for the implementation of clubs. Club Glow and agriculture were the only 2 clubs active. Teachers picked which club they wanted to be apart of and will be working in teams to implement clubs for the children. I have made announcements about being available and willing to help teachers come up with ideas for activities and work with them on implementing the clubs. The teachers will come up with a plan for what they intend to do with the clubs next term.

Home Visits: I went with Winnie to visit a couple of homes to give donations that the sponsors had sent as well as went to deliver the materials the children collected for the mother of a couple of the students who passed away.

Health Day: Mu Sawo and I held a health day on womens day where we taught the children how to properly wash their hands and brush their teeth. We discussed with them why it is important and what could happen if they do not do it. We started a competition where if the children still have their toothbrush and it looks as though it has been used regularly at the end of the term they will be entered into a drawing to win a prize. Many children were not present for this activity due to having to finish exams at the school. We had also planned a scavenger hunt for this day but too many children were missing for it to happen.

Library: Taught old librarian how to enter books into the computer so there is a list of all books so we can better keep track of the books. She got through almost all of the literature books. A new librarian has started and I also showed her how to enter the books and have been working with her on basic computer skills and entering the books. She has also found it easier to write the books out on a piece of paper then transfer them onto the computer. We will be saving those papers just in case they get erased off the computer again, but we do plan to have a copy of the books on all the computers at the school and maybe provide a copy to the main office so that we do not have to spend the time redoing the list again.

Spreadsheets-Helped design and enter data on multiple spreadsheets for a better tracking system.

2.      Shareholder Perspective- I feel as though some of the children find the activities useful and others feel as though they are a waste of time. Some topics get more attention than others so I need to try various learning methods to attempt to engage everyone in the activities. The teachers seem eager to restart the clubs and have chosen the club in which they are most interested in therefore hopefully a more sustainable result will occur from the clubs and these teachers will take the clubs and make them their own.

3.      Challenges- There are many challenges when trying to work with children after school when they want to have their free time and not think about school or health.  It has been difficult loosing a librarian and retraining another to input the books into the computer but we are making it work and have even created a better system to input the books. The challenges for life skills include; time is a difficult thing for life skills because the church often goes over on its time and then they hold the student assembly. Teachers will often pull students for exams or other activities during this time. The class has also grown to P5-P7 so there are many children in one room so the children are smashed and many do not have a place to sit which causes many distractions and many children to not pay attention. It is also very difficult to get the boys to participate during the class. 

4.      Action Plan- Teachers will start full implementation of the clubs at the beginning of next term.  I plan on incorporating health days into life skills classes to teach about the topic then doing optional hands on activities with the children at night (ex April- world malaria day is April 26^th so I plan to teach children about malaria during life skills and have an evening activity making posters etc. would also like the help of the house mothers to go through and look at nets in dorms and when we return from break we can repair nets and teach the children how to repair nets.)

5.      Lessons Learned- I have learned a great deal from the students and staff around Sabina. From sitting with a group of students talking about different things to sitting with the nurse asking her about the health of the kids and what steps she takes when children have various illnesses and comparing and answering questions about how things work in Uganda vs America. Each day is a new learning experience and I love every minute of it.

6.      Conclusion- I feel as though the last quarter was successful and the children hopefully learned a great deal during this time. So many things that are done are too small to be reported but happen on a regular basis such as conversations with the children on various topics and answering their questions about different things. When working with a school and children I feel as though the small things have the greatest impact on them. 

And that folks is what i have been doing for the past 3 months as well as some other side projects such as softball and trying to meet with the womens group who meet on the worst days and somehow everytime i make sure i am around to go to the meeting their meeting gets cancelled...but i will make it work soon!

Training

I cant believe we have been in country for almost 8 months now!! Time has been flying by (only 19 more months but whose counting?)

We recently had our 3 months at site 6 months in country in-service training. This was originally supposed to be held for 2 weeks in January with our counterparts present for various trainings. Well the wall fell at the peace corps office and caused everything to be delayed. The training was cut from a week of inservice and a week of language down to two days of in-service and 2 days of language. It also just happened to be in the closed town to me which I was slightly bitter about due to the fact that I am there often to buy groceries and want to see other cities in the country but it was nice for everyone else to get to see the town and have the wonderful American style food it has to offer.  It was nice to see those who I have not seen since we swore in and moved to site and catch up on projects happening and the latest gossip…you think you get away from all the gossip after high school but peace corps brings it to a whole new level.

I was also given the opportunity to retake the language exam since I was just short of passing it the first time around. This time around it was much more stressful given the fact that it was pass or go home. I do like spring time in ohio and would love to see everyone at home but I am not ready to leave Africa yet. I worked with a tutor since moving to site (the first one was terrible and the second one was decent I guess). The loser group who did not pass stayed an extra 2 days after everyone else left to review and retake the exam. I could not have asked for a better group of people to be around for those days.  It was a very tense couple of days and many were not happy about the way some aspects of it were handled. I feel as though we should not have been threatened to be on the next flight back to America by some when others were saying there is no way they will send you home it just wont happen. Both were said by staff during the 2 days. I wish that it would have been more of a… we will see how hard you try and show proof that you have been trying and then decide whats going to happen…situation.  I feel those who do not try should get booted back to America and those who do try and just cant get it should be able to stay and keep trying. 

Another One Bites The Dust

Since coming to country my group that started at 46 has made its way down to 40. We have lost a variety of people for various reasons. One was crazy so she was sent back to the states just to reappear in country wanting her site back (I think you just proved how crazy you are with that move), another couple flew back to America and sent their resignation from there, another left because he felt his org and housing were not acceptable and admin was not doing anything about it and not returning phone calls. One has a mysterious illness and was medially evacuated and has since been medially separated and the illness has still not been fully diagnosed even tho he is seeing some of the best tropical disease doctors in the country. And last but not least another has been medially evacuated and has 90 days to get better and he will be able to come back. We are crossing our fingers that he is able to return.  

We have also had 2 others sent to South Africa for broken bones. No unfortunately I was not one of them even though I was voted most likely to injure myself on purpose to get to South Africa for mcdonalds. I was very close to being able to go when one of the broken bone people who just so happens to also be named Erin discovered her plane ticket did not have her last name on it but instead it was for me…they should have just allowed me to go pick up mcdonalds and I promise I would have come right back and even brought it back for others in the office who are lying if they say they don’t miss it!

Our group may set multiple records while being here...they told us we have one of the oldest most experienced groups in peace corps history...now if we keep losing people at the rate we are now we will be down to one volunteer at the 27month mark...and in just 3 months we had 3 people have to go to south africa (i mentioned 2 of them but the other was one who is now in the states and was first in S.A before being med evaced}... 

Uganda Little League

In January I was able to attend a baseball/softball camp for girls and boys. Baseball/Softball is not a well known sport and most in Uganda do not play it but an American man discovered the talent here in Uganda and decided to begin training coaches who can then train the children to play baseball. He built a beautiful complex just outside of the capital Kampala. On the complex there are 3 fields and dorms as well as houses where the individuals who run the programs here in Uganda live. Softball is newer here and not many people know the difference and the talent is new so myself and a couple other volunteers taught windmill pitching to girls and coaches for the 2 weeks of the camp. I never really pitched when I played softball but was able to work with the other volunteers to help teach these ladies how to pitch. We worked on basic fundamentals of pitching as well as how to coach and teach others how to pitch. We encouraged the coaches to watch one another pitch and point out what they were doing wrong and help the others correct their mistakes. 2 weeks was a long time for the camp and we were defiantly worn out by the end of each day between the hot sun yelling at the girls and actually doing stuff throughout the day (actually doing something was my biggest change since I had previously been at the orphanage where there was nothing for me to do other than nap and watch movies and tv shows and visit with the very few children who were there}. 

Uganda Little League has been in the news a lot in the past year as one of the teams made it to the World Series but then the visas were denied due to false birth certificates. Birth certificates are not a very common thing here and many parents here do not know the exact date their children were born but rather the month and the year so when someone asks them. Uganda would have been the first African team to make it to the Little League World Series that is held in the States each year. They would have played the Canadian team first in the series and when a Canadian woman heard about this she decided to take into her own hands and fundraised enough money to allow the Canadian team to come over to Uganda to play in the game that was supposed to be played. This created a lot of publicity for Uganda and their team even a couple Major League Baseball players came to show their support and help with the game and activities. Jimmy Rollins (shortstop for phillys} and Derrick Lee (first baseman for cubs but is now a free agent and im not sure if he has been signed yet} both came to show their support.  Jimmy Rollins came early and even participated in a softball game that we had every afternoon for the coaches and girls. I was playing catcher during the game and Jimmy hit me with his bat…Anyways overall it was a fun two weeks that I am glad I was able to be a part of and Uganda ended up beating Canada in the game and were rewarded with the equipment and prizes that they would have won if they would have gone on to win the world series.

Christmas Uganda Style

Christmas did not seem like Christmas this year…maybe because of the lack of snow cold weather and santa coming (its now Jan 26^th and he still has not found me…hopefully the post office will deliver those packages soon…by deliver I mean make me travel an hour to pick up and drag all over town and in a car with 2O other people….}. Oh I guess the lack of family members also…just kidding miss everyone. 

It began with a 7 and half hour bus ride that should have taken only about two and half hours… Finding the bus was hard enough the taxi park was a bigger nightmare than normal (if that is even possible}. A guy asked me where I was going when I told him he tells me it just so happens to be the bus I am standing next to…on the opposite side of the park and iv been tricked before and will not be tricked again so I yelled at him only to find out he was telling the truth. Once we finally got out of the park and backed our way down two streets…these drivers def have some major swoopability…. We were on our way…but not for long. We had to stop to get gas now this normally takes a whole 3O seconds because they enjoy getting a liter or 2 of gas at a time this time took hours. The driver and conductor began screaming at those working at the gas station kicking buckets and throwing things while others on the bus begin to get off and begin screaming as well and then there is the mzungu (myself} who knows very little luganda (the national language} sitting there just staring at everyone wondering what the hell is going on. I finally stand up and ask if anyone knows English and everyone looks at me like I am crazy and no one answers me. I sit there for another hour still having no clue what is going on and feeling like I am going to pee my pants…the lady infront of me was refusing to move and making people either climb over here or climb out the window…I opted to climb out the window and basically fell on my face in the process…Well finally the police arrive (we had to wait for them to walk there from a few villages away} and arrest the people at the gas station (I still have no idea what is going on}. Well for them to arrest them it ment putting them on our bus along with the officers and the conductor running behind the bus because he could not fit on the bus. We get to the police station and are there another couple of hours with people filling out paperwork etc. FINALLY a lady asks me if I know what is going on I tell her no and she starts laughing harder than I have ever heard anyone laugh and says to me “you mean you sat thru all of that and didn’t have a clue as to what was happening” no I sure didn’t. Turns out the gas station was out of gas and was trying to charge since the pump made it look like there was gas going into the bus. Not the best ending to the story but if I would have known what was going on the entire time I don’t think it would have been as interesting to watch as it was trying to figure out what was happening.

After all of that I finally got to Masaka and headed down to another volunteers site in the south west region of the country. A majority of our group was there which was fun because we hadn’t seen each other since moving to site because we are not allowed to travel for the first 3 months after moving. We relaxed messed around watched movies and had wonderful food and drinks. I was defiantly placed in the wrong region of this country as the south west is one of the only regions that has cheese (one of my fav foods I could eat an entire brick of cheese in one sitting}. Most of the food we had consisted of some form of cheese…grilled cheese quaso dip and other types of cheese dishes!! 

I Have Been Lost...

The term "you have been lost" is commonly said by Ugandans when they have not seen someone in a while so there fore I have been lost the last couple of months...

I have finally returned home after 2 months of being away from site and boy was I ready to be in my own house cook my own food etc until I actually arrived home. I came back to spider webs hitting me every step I took white ant wings all over everything my house smelling and lizard poop everywhere. I now basically have to start from square one to clean and reorganize everything (ok organizing was never really done which is why I now need to do it}.

Where have I been the last 2 months you may be wondering…

The last 2 months have been interesting to say the least my organization sent me to live at the orphanage they are linked with so that I wouldn’t have to be away from the children while they are on holiday. Only problem was there were no children there well there was one and then about 4 or 5 mentally disabled older people one of which tried to kiss me my first 3O minutes of arriving.  

I got to the orphanage to find that they had planned for me to stay with the nurse and there was a bed for the children who were sick. I hightailed my way over to the peace corps office to let them know the situation and was relieved when they stated that could not happen and I would have to be placed in another room or go back down to my site.  I planned to go back to the orphanage the next day but then low and behold I became sick for the first time in Uganda so I was forced to stay in the capital Kampala and visit medical for a few days. Yes forced it was torture eating good food and being around other volunteers.

Being at the orphanage was the first time i was somewhat home sick and began saying why am i here i would nap during the day several times watch movies and tv shows and read books. There was no village near by only the capital which i am not allowed to go to without permission and i dont think being bored was going to get me permission.

After Christmas I was back at medical again...this time for a staff infection which happened to be in the worse spot possible...on my butt. The pain was terrible i could hardly sit or walk at times because of it...but it did get me away from the orphanage and I will not be going back for any extended period of time thanks to medical who was a life saver and talked to those higher up at peace corps about the living situation sharing a latrine and everything which ended up giving me the staff infection. 

I also went away for Christmas and attended the Uganda Little League Baseball Camp (more to come on those in a later post}.