WHIRLWIND!

As of October 18th, I am an official Peace Corps Volunteer! I had some technical difficulties with my flash drive and because of that, I was unable to post a wonderful blog that took me about 3 hours to type up. They teach us patience and flexibility in training and I definitely had to put those two skills to good use when the document wouldn’t open up at the internet café. This post is a well overdue one and I’ll try to remember everything that has been happening these past couple weeks!

I am finally done with training and in Mbale volunteering at my organization called ‘Foundation for Development of Needy Communities” (FDNC). After training was over, we had our final language test…I passed!! :) YAY! Thank God because I don’t have to use my language here that much and retaking it would have sucked. I was so excited and relieved to have it over.

We said goodbye to our lovely home stay families and went to Kampala last week for the final days before our swearing-in ceremony. It started Monday night (October 16th) at the United States Ambassadors house, Mr. Steven Browning. Yeah, I went to a pool party at his house. Although I didn’t get to meet him, (he was doing official U.S. Government business in the States) but I met his wife and their house also served as the host for our swearing-in ceremony on Thursday. Tuesday, we actually visited the U.S. Embassy. I was literally on American soil. I couldn’t believe it, and I really thought I left Uganda for 5 hours. The building looked American, smelled American, and there were tons of Americans working in it. The bathrooms and cafeteria were just like the ones in America. It was surreal, the whole Embassy experience. We heard from about 5 different people that work there and they talked about the role of the Embassy in Uganda. Two of the people we heard from were Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. It was really interesting to hear their stories and to see what they are doing after Peace Corps. Crazy to think about what could happen after this experience!

The swearing-in ceremony was really nice, and there were representatives from the Ugandan and U.S. Governments. Museveni’s private doctor was there to speak on his behalf and told us a story about how he and Museveni both were taught in secondary school by Peace Corps Volunteers. Peace Corps has had a significatn impact on their lives and he expressed his gratitude to us for coming and serving our time here in Uganda. It’s really great to have such support from both sides here and to really be welcomed with open arms.

About FDNC: Check out the website for more info→!

FDNC is a big NGO in Eastern Uganda with many branches of work including a vocational school, a special needs school, a community health department, a village clinic, a paralegal department, and a town/village band. I am one of several volunteers from all over the globe. FDNC has hosted many volunteers over the past 11 years, and currently there are two other Americans also working for the organization (one is the executive director), a Japanese volunteer working with the tailoring class, and a volunteer from the United Kingdom. It’s really surprising to be working with other ‘Muzungu(s)’ and speaking English to mostly everyone. Besides the greetings and very brief introductions, I don’t use my lumasaaba very much. I am meeting tons of new people and everyone has been great here. They seem happy to have me and welcome me with open arms. We had a welcome celebration at the executive director's house Friday night to welcome the new volunteers (me and Tori) and to welcome back Sam (the founder and trustee of FDNC) from his trip in the States. Sam toured all over the States to speak at churches, schools (like Harvard and Syracuse), and even the U.S. Senate in Washington to raise money for the organization and get FDNCs name out there in the international world. Apparently he did a great job and his trip seems to be successful. It was fascinating to hear his story and how he brought FDNC to where it is now.

About my house: My ‘house’ is in fact a one room, thatched roof, circular hut! Really crazy and awesome! I love it. It has one light bulb and outlet (perfect for the size!) and the water source is really close, although I have yet to carry my own water. I am living on a 24-hour secured compound with the vocational school, students who board, other volunteers and a Ugandan family. There are many people here and a lot going on. I have internet on the compound that I am free to use whenever I want…its dial up, but its internet. Hopefully I will be able to update this more frequently!

I am finally cooking for myself. After ten weeks of living with my host family having no control over my food, it was really nice to get a stove and start to cook myself. Of course it wasn’t easy and I bought a stove with a gas leak first. So cooking was a bit delayed but eventually I was able to cook for myself and I’m happy to say that I didn’t burn down my hut, although it was close! Now, finally I have a new stove that works properly! My first meal was pasta with sauce made from real tomatoes and an avocado on the side! It was yummy!

I’ve been here with FDNC for 8 days now and already I am really busy. I will be mostly involved with their community health department and partly involved with the special needs school. I am really excited to be part of this organization. More will come about my specific job and what I am doing here in the next blog, I’m exhausted for now.

On the Downhill!

To your comment Brian, I am definitely bringing the dowry back to America and I am worth at least 20 cows. Not the skinny ones either, they have to be nice and plump! Don’t worry though, no Ugandan man has won my heart over. The Ugandans find it really weird that we can go to the store and buy pre-plucked and cut chicken, so I think it would definitely be a rip off if the gift was already cut up! It is much more valuable for them to have a live chicken running around and when they decide they want chicken for dinner, they slaughter. Take my homestay family for instance, we have two chickens, one turkey, two dogs, and a cat. These are our ‘pets’, if you can even call them that. The pets here are nothing like in the US. They all have a purpose. The chickens and turkey are for eventually eating, the dogs are let out of their cages at night and are for protection and the cat is to kill rats and insects. Yeah, its strange....I really miss Madison :(

Some really exciting news is that I found out my future site and met my supervisor yesterday! Things are really coming together and a lot of my questions are being answered. It’s a non governmental organization (NGO) and called ‘Foundation for Needy Communities’. The town office is located in Mbale town, which is the largest city in the east. My supervisor is a young woman, and I haven’t met my counterpart yet, but he is a community health worker there who I will be working close with. It’s an US/UK funded organization that primarily works with women and children. The executive director is an American from San Francisco, which is really crazy. They have two schools, one is a vocational school with about 50 students ranging from 13-25 years old and they teach carpentry, tailoring, agriculture, computers and brick laying. The other school is just up and running and it’s a special needs school. Right now they only have 15 students and the disabilities vary. There are students with physical and developmental disabilities. Another part of the NGO is going out into the community and educating mostly women and children about different health issues like Malaria, HIV/AIDS, hygiene/sanitation, nutrition and others. I’m really excited to work with this NGO and apparently they are used to working with Americans because they get many volunteers from American. I guess 20 volunteers from Colorado just left. Next week I am going to Mbale to visit it. I will be there for 5 days and get to see where I will be living, the NGO/schools, and Easter Uganda, which I haven’t been to yet.

Last Saturday we went on a field trip to Jinja, another large touristy city in Uganda. Thus far, I have only been to Luweero and Kampala. Going to Jinja was AMAZING! We had such a fun time. We saw the source of the Nile at Lake Victoria, some forest that I’m not sure of the name and then a really cool waterfall called Ssezibwa falls. It was really beautiful and made me really excited to see the eastern part of the country because it is very mountainous and I heard very beautiful as well. Another wonderful part of Jinja was lunch. A bunch of us found this Mexican restaurant and ate there. I had quesadillas with a margarita!! A frozen drink in Uganda!?! So crazy! But it was awesome and such a nice break to relax!

Oh and I have a really funny story about my homestay mother. So I have a 9 month old little brother and there is a ‘walker’ for him that my mom puts him in but up until the other day she has always referred to it as ‘prison’ because when she put him in it he couldn’t go anywhere. Well, recently he is getting bigger and his feet are touching the floor. He started walking and moving the other day and I seriously saw the light bulb go off in her head and she said “OH MY GOD!! HE’S WALKING!! IS THAT WHY YOU CALL IT A WALKER??” haha, it was really funny to see the connection from ‘prison’ to ‘walker’. Anyways, I hope all is well and wish me luck in Mbale and on my future site visit next week!! =)