We recently celebrated our six-months-at-site anniversary, so I thought it would be a good time for a little update on life here in Uganda. Things at school don't seem to have changed a wink since I've been here, so that's promising. Only kidding-- obviously I won't see any results in six months, maybe not even a year or my entire service in Peace Corps, but it still feels disheartening. Luckily we have a wonderful boss who is our cheerleader and always there to pick up our spirits, and remind us that we'll probably fail 100 different times before we get it right. A 6-month slump is totally normal as a PCV, but it doesn't make it any easier to get through.
A bunch of Volunteers from the Southwest got together this weekend for a mzungu getaway on Lake Bunyonyi, and it was nice to know that we're all in the same boat (no pun intended). Everyone is experiencing some sort of frustration at their sites and schools, we're not alone in this struggle. I was deeply disturbed last week when a bunch of pupils were caned for looking unkempt and not washing their shirts on Wednesday, or not bathing. It's a cruel punishment for something that can be easily remedied or taught. The worst part? Every week there are new (or the same) pupils who are unclean, and they still get caned. So how is the caning teaching anyone a lesson? Wouldn't it be better to motivate them with an incentive?
After nine months in country, we all adopted an unhealthy amount of Uganglish, such as using the word "somehow" for almost anything. "How was your weekend?" "It was somehow." Or: "I'm somehow close to Rwanda." Or: using the phase "some small" for a little bit. Salt? Just some small.
Or: "Are you feeling any better?" "I am feeling some some."
Or: "Are you feeling any better?" "I am feeling some some."
We entertain ourselves by thinking what massive weirdos we're going to be when we return home in two years. Just the other day, we met a cantankerous Brit who thought his ears deceived him when we said we were here for two years. "Two years?!", he gulped. "That's how long they sent convicts to Australia for!"
Yup, well, that's my reality. There's are so many short-term volunteers who come to Uganda for "voluntourism" that two years seems like an eternity compared to four weeks. In reality, if you truly want to have a meaningful impact here, the longer the better. Some projects are short-term and sustainable, such as building a water tank for a school, but most volunteers feel fantastic having taught Nursery kids the Hokey-Pokey (I'm really poking fun at myself, since that's the majority of what I did in India during my stint as a "voluntourist").
One of my favorite pastimes is to observe the various signage around this country. On matatus, on T-shirts, on trucks. And sexually ambiguous outfits, usually where males strut around in clothing that was intended for women. Yesterday I saw a young sebo wearing a T-shirt with the words "Pussy Power" and hot pink skinny jeans. La classe! My friends have even started a fashion blog in Uganda, taking pictures of sebos who are accidentally hipster.
It's been an unusually dry "dry season", and a severe drought has taken place all across Uganda. This place was the greenest place I'd ever seen when I arrived in country; now the hills all around my site are brown, barren and dusty. We need rain desperately. One of our PCV's site is so dry that they might have to cancel school, they are completely out of water and can't function.
The locals all tell us the rain will arrive on August 15th. Not the 16th, not the 14th of August. The 15th. I think they really mean mid-August, but I like their scientific calculation of when the rains will come. Usually during dry season, there are some sprinklings here and there, but there hasn't been a drop of rain in 3 months. My garden plot has withered up, my sprouting vegetables have completed shriveled and sunken into the earth. "Too much sun! Omushana munonga!" the locals tell me. My fault for planting during dry season, tsk tsk. But life has a funny, ironic way about it; despite my garden drying up and producing zero vegetables, tomato plants that no one planted are alive and well, and thriving around my sewage tank. Thank you, nature.
And oh, the dust! How I wish for rain just to wash away the red dust that has creeped into every corner of my house (and it seems every orifice of my body). My house would be a housemaid's nightmare-- it requires dusting about 3 times a day. Everything is coated with a thin layer of red dust that blows in off the road, looking like only ghosts have lived here for the last decade. Our cat certainly doesn't help-- Captain Cuddles' favorite pastime is to literally roll around in the dust, and then drag it into our house for cuddle time. No wonder why he always has a reddish glow to him.
While things are slow at home and school, there's a lot in the pipeline to look forward to. I recently wrote a SPA (small project assistance) grant for our Education Volunteers to each receive a BASE Pack (see my post called "Muzungus in the Mist" about using the BASE pack to lead a teambuilding and teacher training exercise), in time for the next school year. The BASE Pack is a custom-made backpack designed by the King's Foundation (based in the UK), and filled with objects to do teambuilding exercises, such as a parachute, cricket ball, tennis balls, cones, bean bags, jump rope, even bands that serve as sashes for the team with the most spirit.
These packs are major incentives for our students, and very instrumental for building positive behavior systems at school. One of our major challenges as a group is introducing positive reinforcement, as opposed to caning as a form of punishment. While caning may not be entirely phased out from school for a long time, we can still have a system built in where 100 students are rewarded for showing up on time, and get to play with the BASE Pack games.
I'm also part of a grant that will fund volunteers to get materials for workstations to work on literacy with our students, at any age level. I'm already doing some of that at my school, but having more money to buy materials, book shelves, a reading table, will make it even more solid. At school, I work everyday with a small group of upper primary students. We make time for Buddy Reading, giving every pupil a chance to pick out a book from our stocked library (I am very lucky in that my school has received a truckload of donated children's books from various sources). Buddy Reading time warms my heart because it's great to see two kids huddled together outside in the grass, reading a book together. Reading for fun isn't really a thing here-- if you're going to read a book here, it's for study, not for pleasure. I'm not sure I can ever change that, but at least giving them some time everyday to read aloud to a friend is wonderful. Next we do word-work activities that play with sounds, diphthongs and vowel sounds. We build words and play games, write on slates or even just play "Duck, Duck, Goose." While my small reading groups are fun, I always worry Will the kids be better readers after two months working with me? I don't want to get my hopes up that when I assess them with the same reading assessment at the start of the term, their scores will be markedly higher. It could be that I'm doing this all wrong and our Library time has resulted in zero improvement.
But I want to end this post on a good note! Not only am I turning 25 next week, I will be home in America for a short visit in a month! I dream of America…but my dreams usually involve being really overwhelmed by grocery stores, and fruits + veg being absurdly overpriced compared to here. But it's still the land o' freedom, and I can't wait.
Stay tuned!
*The title of this post derives from seeing small children, as young as 4, somehow holding even smaller babies. It's pretty entertaining.
