Heavy Mettle

On to the next journey

One of my favorite taglines to say around here is "Uganda: Where Anything Is Possible" (second only to "Uganda: The World Is Your Toilet"). Just when you think, "There's no way that can work," someone finds a way. This can be both a blessing and a curse. I've been stuffed in car taxis where the driver will manage to cram 10 people into a Toyota Corolla (this includes what I like to call a "Siamese ssebo" or two people in the driver's seat) and someone literally sitting on the hood of a traveling car. Anything is possible! Bed frames to bicycles to other motorcycles carried on the back of a motorcycle. Anything is possible! Just stole over $60 million from the government in fraudulent road contracts? Again, anything is possible!

This will be my last post as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uganda. Last words are always the hardest to write, they are a time of self-reflection and lessons learned. I've struggled with how to reflect on my last two years here in Uganda. Anyone who has ever served in the Peace Corps knows that it can be one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences. This sounds trite since everyone loves to quote "The hardest job you'll ever love". This has certainly been a tough two years, a time filled with self-doubt, frustration, personal loss and illness. But in the meantime, I've learned about self-reliance, flexibility and how to smile during difficult times.

During my last week at school, I was talking with some of the teachers, who were curious about when I would start having children. I explained that I wanted to wait until I was in my 30s, giving Jim and I some time to enjoy married life. One of the teachers asked, "But what about when Jim wants to have kids? He will decide." We talked about how culturally a man in Uganda decides when he wants children and how many he wants. This was a stark reminder of several things: a) you learn something new everyday b) there are certain cultural aspects with which I will never be ok and c) I like sharing my point of view. I told my staff that with most American couples, they decide together when to start a family and the number of children. I also talked about how it's my body, therefore shouldn't a woman have the power to decide? There will just be some things we don't agree on, and I've finally learned that's alright.

I'm looking forward to visiting Uganda in a few years and seeing how things have developed. Uganda is one of the world's youngest countries, with over half the population under the age of 15. With this explosion in population, it will be interesting to see how politics and development progress in Uganda. I've learned countless lessons from Ugandans, including a whole new meaning of community, an unwavering faith in God, the true meaning of humility, and astounding resourcefulness and adaptability. 

5 Things I will miss about Uganda:

1. Kabale's weather

2. Laughter

3. Bakiga dance

4. Drumbeats on Sunday morning

5. The rope-swing at Lake Bunyonyi

5 Things I will certainly not miss:

1. That high-pitched, nasal "How are you?!"

2. Weird meat

3. Public transport

4. Posho

5. Church

A big thank you to everyone who has read and supported my blog over the years, and for your contribution in sending me to Washington, D.C. in September for a transformative week. I'll continue to write once I get home, so stay tuned. 

Thank you for the care packages, the phone calls and emails, the sympathy hugs and to those who came to visit. And a big thank you to my fiancé Jim who has seen me through so many ups and downs. #jimandjulia2015 !

Thank you Uganda for so many things. It's been a wild ride.

Until next time

Know Your Status

Testing over 185 students for HIV at the PTC

Last Saturday, we had the AIDS Information Center come to the PTC for a day of HIV information and testing. I worked with AIC Kabale to organize the event with all the students. We had a team of 6 come from AIC to facilitate sessions on HIV transmission and prevention, and a team of 20 living-positive drama members to perform skits for the students. They sang folk songs and performed skits in local language about the importance of wearing condoms, knowing your status and understanding the basics of HIV. The AIC did a great job of fielding questions from students, from everything about how to wear a condom to questions about unprotected sex. To assure anonymity, we had students submit written questions and then answered them in front of the student body. It was a really productive morning, especially since these students don't have a safe outlet to ask questions about their bodies, sex, masturbation, condoms. This is one reason that I love Peace Corps camps so much is that they provide that safe outlet for Ugandan youth. We also had to keep it PG at the PTC since the administration is vehemently against any talk about condoms or how to stay protected during sex. It makes it hard to give knowledge to students, many of which are sexually active or are at least curious about it. 

After lunch, the AIC set up a testing and counseling area for HIV testing. It was an optional activity but I am pleased to say that over half the student body tested for HIV, with only one testing positive for HIV. That is a great outcome, not only to have students test themselves but to have such a low rate of HIV among those tested. I count the day as a great success, especially spending the day with the PTC students and the great staff at AIC. 

Performing skits about HIV transmission and prevention

One of our living-positive members speaking to students

The AIC team

The blood sample is placed on a rapid-response kit and shows results within five minutes

With The AIC team

Our drama team 

The Peace Centre

Antony addressing Nyabirerema Primary School

We've had some visitors from Dulwich College in Shanghai, China. It was a small student group of international high school students who are in Uganda for a few weeks to help build an orphanage and practice their cross-cultural communication. They were a diverse group from all over the world, I felt really proud of my school and staff to be able to host them and show them around. Our students loved seeing new, diverse faces and learning about where they come from.

I made some banana cake for them that morning, and ran over to the primary school in the afternoon to spend a few hours at school. I stood nearby with some of my teachers, who were astounded that some of these kids were saying they were American when they had dark skin, and looked like they were of Asian or Indian descent. I explained that Americans are very diverse, from African Americans to Asian and Indian American. Not all Americans look like me! The visitors all introduced themselves and it was hilarious to see how the kids reacted to their names. "Tristan" sounded like "Christine," which the kids found uproariously funny that this boy was named Christine. "Sri" became "Swee" and they thought he was named after candy. We kept joking "Give me a swee!" Another kid was name Taylor, which everyone interpreted as Tiger, which if you ask me, is a pretty sweet name.

Our headmaster quipped with every name, saying some not-so-PC things like "Have you found that plane yet?" to a Malaysian girl and "Are you the next Chairman?" to a wispy Japanese girl named Mao. They also performed a few songs for the kids and gave them a message to work hard and try and learn many things. Adorable!

Their group leader Antony spent some time here in the late 90s as a volunteer in the Bukinda community. It was interesting to talk to him about what has changed and what has stayed the same in 15 years. One of the biggest visible changes here is the proliferation of mobile phones and the newly paved road to Kabale.

On Sunday afternoon, their home-stay hosts in Bukinda hosted a big meal and invited all the neighbors and officials from around. We had speeches from their hosts Peace and Golden, from folks working at the PTC and other prominent members of the community. The visiting students then performed a few songs, and we all learned the Bakiga dance with the women of the group. This involves dancing in a big circle to drums, and stamping your feet and waving your arms to the beat. It was a blast! This student group was also here to help build The Peace Centre, which will function as an orphanage and will be run by Peace. They are also hoping to build a program that hosts gap years students for eight months, so students spending a gap year between high school and college can work with the Peace Centre in Bukinda.

I also had a nice visit from one of our Peace Corps staff who was passing through Bukinda. The Principal and I gave a tour of the kitchen and our new cookstoves, one of which was piled high with matooke wrapped in banana leaves, and the other one cooking rice. This special-occasion food was being prepared for an official visit from the newly appointed Bishop of Kigezi. We had a feast for lunch, including rice, karo, matooke, potatoes, sweet potatoes, goat, beef, chicken and g-nut sauce. Ugandan food is getting better and better every time I eat! The matooke and the rice were delicious, both cooked in the new stoves.

Students introducing themselves, including their age, their nationality and their favorite subject

Singing songs

BYOB (Bring Your Own Bible)

Cat yoga

After months of traveling and working in Kampala to train the new Education volunteers, I'm finally back in Bukinda. It's nice to be home and settled. Last week, I finally did something I've been meaning to since I first arrived in Bukinda-- go to church. I thought it would be a nice way to support my school and the community, and make a good impression. It wasn't bad either, only going one hour over its allotted two-hour sermon. Most of the service was in Rukiga, so I didn't understand a word that was being said, but that was probably for the better. I did learn the local names for God, our Lord, pray, Jesus Christ, as I sat next to my supervisor and followed his lead. Sit, stand, sit, stand, dance, clap, dance, clap. That was pretty much it for 3 hours, plus being stared at by a hundred villagers since I was made to sit on the stage. The singing, dancing and raucous joy was the fun part since there was so much drumming and dancing. After hours of preaching and singing (and a random marching band), they all paid the church tithes while I politely declined. I was disappointed the following day when my supervisor joked around that I was a pagan since I would not be returning to church every Sunday… Paganism it is!

Rainy season has officially started here, bringing heavy rains sometimes lasting for hours on end. I sat in my house wearing my wool socks, scarf and fleece while my friends in the East sweltered in 100 degree heat. My host family also dropped off a little kitten to keep me company. I'm pretty sure it's the runt of the litter since it's so small and has some interesting characteristics (too small to climb into or use the litter box). Taking inspiration from my Finnish ancestors, I named the little guy Sisu. 

Sisu

The other highlight of the week is the return of the village madman. As I was doing a reading assessment with a student, a crazed looking man walked in and shook my hand. I thought he was a disheveled parent showing up to pay school fees for his children, as many parents do at the start of the term. Nope, wrong. Soon there was a big hullabaloo as he ran around the school yard scaring all the children and chasing them away. It was complete pandemonium and all I could do was laugh. TIA.