Pearls from Africa: 50 Years of Peace Corps in Uganda

Ambassador DeLisi speaking about Peace Corps' 50 years in Uganda

This week our Peace Corps post celebrated 50 years in country. That's right, Peace Corps has been working in Uganda since 1964, with a few hiccups. Volunteers were evacuated in 1971 due to an unstable political climate (this guy) and again in 1999 due to major security threats. We had a regional celebration down here in Kisoro, or what I like to call Uganda's back pocket.

About 50 volunteers from the southwest and western regions came down for the event. Our volunteers organized an awesome event, including a visit from the US Ambassador to Uganda, Scott DeLisi, and other prominent community figures. A highlight of the day was going to Mutolere Secondary School with our friend Carl, who was a Peace Corps volunteer back in 1970-71. This was his first time returning to his school where he taught over 40 years ago. He encountered his old colleagues and students, and saw his old stomping grounds. Ambassador DeLisi read a story to some primary school students and planted some tree seedlings at the school.
Afterwards, we went to Virunga Engineering Works' workshop to see the expanded workshop and see how the improved cookstoves are manufactured. Jim and Bruce (VEW's new Peace Corps volunteer) talked about how many hectares of forest is saved a year using this technology in large-scale cooking operations, such as schools and refugee centers. Peace Corps Volunteers at Virunga Engineering have worked with over 20 schools in the last year, saving the schools, on average, 1.5 million shillings per term and preserving about 476 hectares of forest or the equivalent of an area 1.5 times the size of New York’s Central Park. Check out my post here for more information on VEW.
Next we headed to Kisoro's Tourist Hotel for speeches and entertainment. We had a performance by some local secondary school students who performed some songs and local Bufumbira dancing. We heard from the LC5 Chairman and Ambassador DeLisi, who spoke about Peace Corps 50 years in Uganda and the numerous projects that we've done as volunteers. He gave an awesome shout-out to Jim and Bruce working at Virunga Engineering Works, as well as projects like Bwindi's gorilla trekking and Bukhonzo joint coffee co-op and youth camp this August.
We also welcomed our new Volunteers for our ritual Welcome Weekend for newly sworn-in Volunteers in the region. We celebrated with a barbecue down at Lake Mutanda.