National DEAR Day

PTC Students armed with books for DEAR Day!

On March 26th, we celebrated nationwide Uganda's first National DEAR Day (DEAR stands for Drop Everything and Read). I invited 60 PTC students over from the College to participate and do Read-Alouds with our pupils at the primary school. They jumped right in, picked out their own books to read aloud and even asked me if we could do it again in the future. To my dismay, the students were collecting firewood so we only had 20 minutes of reading in the end. A small victory nonetheless! We had a week to prepare for the event-- I worked with the PTC students to split them into lower and upper primary, and to bring them over to our newly revamped library to pick out their reading book. They did a great job the day of our event, they were enthusiastic, professional and eager to do it again! 

All-Star teacher Moses doing a Read-Aloud on DEAR Day

Pre-service teacher Jessica doing her first Read-Aloud

Men Holding Hands with Men

As many of you have heard, last Monday Uganda passed its anti-homosexuality bill after President Museveni signed it. The Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) was introduced back in 2009, originally with the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality" but it has now been reduced to life imprisonment. I'm sure you can imagine how difficult this has been as a Peace Corps volunteer, especially since 97% of the population supports the bill. There's a lot of history behind the bill, including major influence from Christian evangelical missionaries for spurring such homophobia. I highly recommend the documentary God Loves Uganda for Uganda's terrifying turn towards biblical law. It's always been illegal to be gay in Uganda, but now it's been criminalized, similar to pedophilia or child pornography. That's where a huge problem lies is that many people equate homosexuality as pedophilia and not as love between two same-sex people. It's far too touchy a subject that I feel comfortable to try and educate anyone, as misconceptions and the Bible are at the crux of this bill.
Before he signed the bill, Museveni gathered a team of scientists from Makerere University to determine if homosexuality was natural or if it was socialized, if someone or something can "make" you gay. Their research found that homosexuality is a social phenomenon, by no means natural, thus providing grounds for passing the bill. 

I have to be honest, I struggled a lot during this period with the AHA written into Uganda's history. I tried my best to have some empathy and understand where Ugandans were coming from. There were parades in the street in celebration over the bill's passing, euphoria over Museveni "standing up" to the West and doing what he felt what was right for his country.

But that's not all, there's a twist. Uganda is the third country in the world, behind Pakistan and Kenya, for the highest number of Google searches for gay sex. Men here hold hands all the time as a symbol of friendship and affection, but in no way is that considered gay. 

It's been a frustrating week as history seems to be taking two steps backwards: the anti-gay bill, the anti-pornography bill, homophobia at the Sochi Olympics, Russia invading Ukraine, the abortion and women's rights backlash in the US. In response to the AHA bill, several countries such as Denmark, Norway and the World Bank have already pulled out aid. 

As for now, Peace Corps plans on remaining in Uganda despite this bill. In the works is a second bill that's going to make lives more difficult, the anti-pornography bill, which dictates the type of clothes that a woman can wear but seems to be enforced more by boda-boda drivers than by police. Volunteers have reported seeing women stripped naked in public by a mob "enforcing" the law.

On another note, a big thank you to my parents for their fundraising efforts for Fred Kiyingi, who is eagerly awaiting a liver transplant. If you would like to donate, please go to feea.org to make a donation to Fred Kiyingi. It's nice to see that there are good, honest people in this world willing to help others, and I'm honored to have such wonderful parents as role models. Thanks Mom and Dad, you're amazing!

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.

Looking SHARP at Nyabirerema Primary School

Moses showing off our new school values system

This week, we got one of my pet projects off the ground.  We created our school-wide positive behavior system (PBS) with our teachers, a way to positively motivate pupils to show good behavior. We brainstormed as a staff and came up with the acronym "SHARP" to show what behaviors to encourage. Sharing-Honest-Active-Respectful-Punctual. We had a great staff meeting and came up with a points system to track which groups had the best behavior.

We also initiated School Families, small groups that meet on Fridays with one teacher to discuss a topic of the week, such as malaria, hand-washing, hygiene and HIV. The points for our school-wide PBS are collected for each School Family team (each one has an African country name) and collected at the end of the week on a giant grain-sack tallying the points. We want to encourage students at the school to show respect and good behavior not only to their peers (there's a lot of pushing and grabbing) but also to their teachers. This is one way to motivate and encourage students positively, and hopefully reduce the frequency of caning.

Suggestion box for School Family topics. Ideas include hygiene, sanitation, road safety, malaria and life skills.

We also spent an afternoon building tippy-taps (hand-washing stations using jerry cans) and then had a hand-washing event on Friday. It was awesome! We had each School Family meet to talk about the importance of hand-washing and read the hand-washing Big Book. The students before had no way of washing their hands after using the latrine, a scary thought to how many germs are crawling around. Now we have two hand-washing stations outside the latrines and the kids are so excited about it! They seem to be using the latrine twice as often just so they can wash their hands....

Finally, at the end of our hand-washing event and as part of our PBS, each group sent up their best-behaved pupils to play games. I played a hand-washing relay game with our participants using our Base Pack, provided by the Kings Volunteer foundation.

Frank helping to build the first tippy-tap

Davis is a rockstar and made our tippy-tap building possible by preparing everything! He won this month's Teacher of the Month award

Moses demonstrating the tippy tap!

Our work is done! Thanks P6 boys for the help

School Families: talking about why washing your hands is important

Friday is School Families Day

Look SHARP! Sharing-Honest-Active-Respectful-Punctual.

Our class prefects after performing skits demonstrating SHARP!

Skits performed to act out each good behavior! Which one is this one?

Our staff after School Families. The winner this week is Uganda!

Paul showing our School Families progress chart for SHARP!

Our staff meeting to discuss positive behavior systems and our model PBS at Kira Primary School

Hand-washing game with the #BasePack

Hand-washing and teamwork

Thank you #KingsVolunteer for the base pack!

Our new Teacher of the Month Award

Ode to Goats

The world's most annoying goat outside of Jim's house.

On behalf of Claire, I would like to write an ode to the greatness of goats. 

This all started when Claire came to visit me here in East Africa over the holidays. She flew into Kigali, Rwanda, a good place to start for anyone visiting Africa for the first time. We first travelled 4 hours north to the Ugandan border, to the Virunga volcanoes, home of the last of the mountain gorillas. We climbed Mt. Muhavura (4107m) and had a pretty heavy dose of getting our butts kicked. The conditions were hard on the volcano, believe it or not we even got caught in a hail storm on the way down. We climbed with Jim and his friend Curt, out visiting from Boulder, CO. The boys made it to the way, but Claire and I stopped before the second hut to retain some shreds of dignity. Claire also suffered from altitude sickness since Kisoro is over 2000m high, but as for me, I have no excuse as to why the climb was so hard! 

The following day we all traveled back to Kigali to see off Curt and to celebrate New Years Eve. Jim, Claire and I had a fabulous time, hitting up a bar in central Kigali and rocking out to 90s hits such as "How Will I Know" by Whitney Houston and "I Saw the Sign" by Ace of Base. It was low-key, but still fabulous. Especially lip-syncing to Mariah Carey greatness.

After New Years, we hired a car out to western Rwanda to Kibuye on Lake Kivu, a relaxing lakeside little town. We enjoyed its magnificent views and chill atmosphere, and met our brethren, Peace Corps Rwanda volunteers. We stayed at Saint Jean guesthouse, which is perched on a peninsula in the lake for a few quiet, relaxing days and then went back to Kigali to pick up the rest of the Lingham gang. 

We had time to list off all the reasons why goats are the best: 

-They make great friends and great pets

-They're adorable 

-They have giblets that give them power

- They love climbing things and always being the king of the hill

-They can climb almost anything, like that dam in Italy when they're standing on little pegs

-They can hike

-Make delicious meats

-Pellets for poop is easy clean up

-"Bahhh!" is a ridiculous way to get attention! 

-Most of them don't really believe that they're really goats 

Making new friends

The Linghams in Africa....The Linghams went to Africa?!

The Linghams chimp trekking in Kyambura Gorge, Queen Elizabeth National Park
Photos courtesy of Jim Tanton

Well, that happened. I miss my family already, it was so utterly wonderful to have them visit me here in Uganda.

They flew to Kigali, Claire (who came a week early, little stinker!) and I held up our "Welcome to Africa" sign that I used to welcome Jim's friend Curt, Claire and now the Linghams. We had so many visitors over the holidays, it was great. We welcomed my parents, my older sister Lillian and Jim's mom, Carol to Kigali. We stayed for two nights in Kigali, visiting the genocide memorial museum, the Craft Co-op for some African treasures and Meze Fresh for some Chipotle-style burritos. After adjusting a bit in Kigali , we set off for the border to Uganda and right to Lake Bunyonyi. I loved everyone's enthusiasm about the place, asking a lot of good questions (many of which, between Jim and I, we didn't know the answers) and making me look at my home in a new way. We stayed on Itambira Island at Byoona Amagara, renting out a family cottage and Geodome. Highlights include going off the "lope-swing" (!!!!) and drinking a lot of wine. A lot of wine.

Welcoming le petit Buddha to Kigali

After Byoona, we headed south to Kisoro to Jim's new site, and the home of the Virunga mountains. Claire, Dad, Lillian and I climbed Mt Sabinyo (almost killed ya Dad, sorry) and had a phenomenal(ly) long day. Mt Sabinyo borders three countries (Uganda, Rwanda, Congo) and has three distinct peaks on the top. The third peak is covered in steep ladders that can cause one's heart to skip a beat. My sisters rocked it, espeically Lillian, who did that hike with barely anything to eat save for the world's smallest granola bar (she's gluten free, in case you haven't heard, which would be weird, if you haven't..). It was a cold, rainy way down, we practically slid our way down the mountain. We got stuck in another hail storm, second time for me and Claire, and were ducking from lightning right above us. 

Jim and Carol went gorilla trekking that day in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest while my mom relaxed at Volcanoes Safari Lodge in Mgahinga, up in the mountains.

We got our kitenge fix in Kisoro, picking out colorful fabrics to make clothing, tablecloths, even scarfs. We found some time to play Salad Bowl and getting in some quality game time. 

From Kisoro, we headed up to Queen Elizabeth National Park. We stopped first at my site in Bukinda to see my house and my primary school. The school was closed for holidays so unfortunately we didn't get to meet many folks, but it was special to show them around my stomping grounds. 

The drive out to QENP is one of my favorite in the world-- as you're driving west, the escarpment drops off and the Rift Valley is as flat as an ocean. Behind the Rift Valley rises up the Rwenzori range, the highest in Uganda. It's a stunning landscape, and our hotel (Twin Lakes Lodge) was perched right on the edge of the escarpment, looking out over Queen. I've seen an elephant right from my balcony before! Our family loved the location and the hotel, and we were able to dine two nights with the owner of Twin Lakes, the Honorable Katurebe, a Supreme Court justice for Uganda.

We visited Jim's old stomping grounds of Kichwamba in Ruburizi district and visited all the wonderful kids at House of Love. We also visited his old house and the whole neighborhood came out to greet us! His old site is one of the most stunning places in the country, the village looks out over Queen Elizabeth and has crater lakes sprinkled around.

 The next morning we met James, our lion-tracking guide and researcher. He and a German researcher study the lion population in Queen Elizabeth and have tagged the lions in the park with collars. We were able to drive near to two lions mating, and view two other groups of lions. Their social hierarchy is fascinating, but unfortunately lion numbers in the park are plummeting due to poaching. We had a fancy-schmancy lunch at Mweya Safari Lodge before heading off to the Gazinga Channel boat cruise. The boat cruise was a great way to check out elephants cooling off in the river, crocodiles patiently waiting for their next victim, hippos languishing in the hot mud and giant monitor lizards soaking up some sun. On our game drive that afternoon, a whole herd of elephants crossed in front of us, including a few baby elephants! That night we had dinner at the House of Love, the kids performed for us a few dances they made up. 

We went chimp-trekking the next morning in Kyambura Gorge, a gorgeous and lush gorge that is chock full of cool animals: chimps, crocs, pythons, elephants, hippos, water buffalo, lions, leopards. We hiked around the gorge up and down for a bit but the chimps had already headed into the swamp area to find new fruit. Too late, no chimps! While I was bummed out, my family kept their spirits up and enjoyed being in the lovely gorge. We got close to some hippos who were guffawing at us. 

Everyone was near exhausted after a two-week vacation, so we headed back to Lake Bunyonyi's Bird Nest for a night to enjoy a relaxing dinner and send-off. It was so wonderful to have my family here, they were such good sports and good travelers (that includes you Carol!) I was so pleased to have such easy-going and enthusiastic visitors, it made the trip ten times better. Webale munonga!

Claire and I on Lake Kivu

Learning about Lake Bunyonyi's history

Grand tour of my primary school

 

Lillian on the infamous Bushara island rope swing

The "lope swing!"

My family at my house in Bukinda. A proud moment for them to see where I've lived for 2 years.

Jim and his mom Carol outside his old house in Kichwamba

Brad, Carol, Tina at a hike to Lake Kamunzuku. 

Morning in Queen Elizabeth

Our lodge at Twin Lakes Safari Lodge, looking out over QENP

Coffee tour at Volcanoes Safari Lodge Eco-center

Claire spotting for lions

Lions!

Kazinga channel boat cruise

Elephants bathing in Kazinga Channel. Watch out for crocs!

Chimp trekking in Kyambura Gorge

Late evening game drive

The Linghams at the Equator! 

The Lingham sisters together again

How to Save a Life

Merry Christmas everyone and happy holidays! I'll be spending yet another Christmas in this tropical, equatorial country, quietly pretending the palm trees are really pine trees.

I'm going to make this post very short and to the point: I am posting a link to donate money to our friend and colleague, Fred Kiyingi, who needs a liver transplant. He is our Safety and Security Officer for Peace Corps Uganda, and has done an amazing job at keeping volunteers safe and secure. He is the first person in my phonebook because he's the first person I'd call if anything happened. He was also very instrumental in the fatal car accident last May. He was their first phone call and has been up in Gulu once a month making sure that justice is served. We call him the "James Bond" of Uganda because he's been known to get to a mob in 4 minutes to rescue volunteers.
Fred has an aggressive form of liver cancer and needs to travel immediately to India for the operation. Volunteers and RPCVs all over Uganda and the world have been fundraising and we're almost at $10,000, but we need $15,000. Please help us get there! Thank you and Merry Christmas.

(Please note, if you choose to support Fred Kiyingi, select the Peace Corps Emergency Relief Fund from the drop down menu and specify that the donation is for Fred Kiyingi in the Tribute/In Honor of field to ensure your donation goes to him and not to the Peace Corps Emergency Relief general fund.)

https://www.facebook.com/howtosavefredslife