August 29

A day out of town. All the PC volunteers get together once a year for a training held in Kampala. They come from the whole country and the US ambassador comes too. So, we met our counterparts in the corp. We had a chance to talk to the people that are in the area we will be assigned. A Chinese American has started a garden and I asked if he would start my basil and rosemary for me so it would be ready to pick by October. He said he would and he took a pack of sweet corn too so when we get there I am hopeful to have some fresh garden offerings as I miss the fresh food here. They cook everything to death due to the fertilizing process they use. Add fresh manure from the pen or just let the animals live in the garden area. And sometimes you don't know how the market sellers have handled the food either. Sanitation has a whole different meaning here.

Example: At night, 7pm you need to be home because it is dark. After dark it is not safe for the Ugandans to be out much less the glow in the dark muzungoos (which is what Uganadans call us) . So, since we share the electricity grid with Kenya and they get first dibs on the power, Uganda get power in the day time and about 4:30-7:00 the power goes out. Our pit latrine is outside but we live in a fenced gated complex that I will send pictures of soon. You find your flashlight, get your toilet paper,(we don't leave it in the latrine as someone may steal it) get your shoes on and go out and go. There is a brick wall around the latrine but no doors so you can look at the stars when your out as the power is off in the area and the countryside is dark. It is beautiful. Then you get a jerry can and wash your hands tipping it over with your dirty hands to get the water out. You wash, have no towel, drop your flashlight, slid in the mud up the hill to the house, take off your shoes bring them in and go to bed with your night bucket close by for those early morning calls. This is just one small adjustment I am making and so glad menopause has lessened my need for more latrine time. After I do laundry I use the wash water to scrub out the latrine but found out the more water you have in a latrine the stinkier it is. Did I tell you before what a pit latrine is a concrete slab over a 20 foot hole with a 6X12 cut out area to do your business in. We have a 2 stall. The squatting process has improve the muscle tone so I recommend it to my friends that are finding sneezing, coughing, and laughing to be moistening affairs.

It is part of the experience and today I am enjoying the experience. The boys that live here have been on break from school which coincides with Ramadan. They are Christian so they have been home. There are a lot of little ones here. The boys have made sleds out of the jerry cans by cutting them in ½ and the little ones sit in the can and get pulled around and slide down the hill in them. Just like we do at home in the snow. Tom and I sit out and watch them and laugh. The kids do not see many muzungoos so they are afraid of us, but when the boys are pulling them they wave but we can't get close or they bawl and run for there mothers. Imagine, I am in Africa, sometimes Tom and I forget. Guess the process is becoming routine. In language we learned numbers. Finally something that remains the same and the rules stay the same and the words don't change depending on the area you are in. All 7 of us that are going to West Nile were happy about learning something we could actually understand and remember. The other great thing is the $ is in 100, 200, 500, 1000, 5000, 10,000 20,000, 50,000 Ugandan Shilling notes. This makes the amount easy to figure out it is the conversion I have trouble with. When we came a month ago $1 US was worth 2,640 USHillings now the dollar is worth 3,300USHillings. So, when I go to market I ask my house mother how much something should cost and I just pay it. Pineapple cost $1 and is still in season. The pineapple here is so sweet and as much as I eat I have not gotten one sore in my mouth.

This Tuesday we find out our site announcements in West Nile. This is when they tell us what organization we will be working with weather an NGO or a local enterprise. Then Thursday we go up to the area and do 3 days of language immersion, then our teachers leave and the 7 of us go to the sites we will be serving in, some rural some in the town of Aura. The volunteers there said that the market is amazing. Because it is a major trade city Congo and Sudan also have there goods there too. Brilliant colors of fabric, are what I heard it is known for. I am hoping for some baskets for storage but next week we will find out. Also heard that there is a large number of Dr. working for Dr without borders in the area that the PC volunteers get together with. I met a young woman from ST Paul who is serving in the area as a teacher but didn't have a lot of time to talk with her yet. It seems funny to me that I go to Africa and meet people from MN. It reminds me of what a sense of humor God has. On one of the outings Tom did for economic development he went to an organic farm practicing permaculture. There are 4 in the country and they are used as models. They are self sustaining meaning they support themselves but doesn't look like they sell anything. Tom said there were 3 groups from Tanzania, Kenya, and Rawanda, NGO's & Catholic mission that were in the 9 month class to learn how to implement this back at there site. He said it was a model program and the man running it could come to the MOSES conference and speak. So, there is another couple here and he just finished his masters in agriculture so we may go back out Sun when it is there 1^st anniversary. She is a ICU nurse. More to come...

August 27

A day off and a free ride to the zoo and botanical gardens. Peace Corp took us on an outing and it was wonderful. 2 hours at the zoo looking at the exotic animals that are now indigenous to the country I am in now. It was a poor zoo by our standards but the animals looked content and fat. The zoo is on Lake Victoria so it has a great location. The problem of Lake Victoria is that it is so shallow it is luke warm and rather stagnant with a lot of snails and animals that have shisto. A bad little parasite that gets in your skin and goes to your liver. It can live without bothering you for years or can bother you with in 3 weeks and cause liver scarring and even death. So I am reconsidering rafting the Nile. Especially since everyone who has done it has said that the rapids are class 5 and every raft goes over. And some fear for there lives as they are careened down the Nile toward Egypt. This was suppose to be the plan for Thanksgiving more to come on this plan. Tom has already said no way, no shisto for him. The botanical gardens have a rainforest area that is huge trees and flowers everywhere on all the trees and vines. It is what Uganda would look like if it hadn't been deforested for the lumber to make charcoal which is what is used to cook over if you cannot afford paraffin ( kerosene) for your one burner camp stove. When it burns it stinks up the house like fuel oil so they try and use it in the garage part so the smell is less. The electricity is out again so I sit by my solar light and charged computer recounting the day. I bought the bullet today and paid the sister who lives here to do my laundry. I justified the action by telling myself I am helping her pay for college which costs $10,000 / year. She said she would do it for 1000 shillings which is 35 cents I doubled it. Big of me huh.

August 25

Happy Birthday Katie!

In the home stay we are at the woman owns 14 2 room units that house family's. Of those 14 units many little ones live here. 2 of the women were pregnant and delivered today. So there are 2 new babies in the complex now a boy and girl. We haven't heard if they named them after us or not.

The means of transportation is the TAXI which is a 14 passenger Toyota van, like we use to drive, with jump seats. The van is licensed to hold 14 but if you have a person on your lap that doesn't count as an extra person so you can have 28 in reality and if they are thin you can “squish” more in, and they do. To get the taxi you have to walk down the red clay washed out hill (Herman size) to catch the taxi on the tarmac which is what they call the paved road. Or, another form of transport is the Boda Boda. As peace corp trainee's we are forbidden to ride them as they have one speed, fast, and weave around the taxi's, cars, and lorry's (big trucks). They are cheap but dangerous. Also in Uganda if you hit a pedestrian there isn't a lot of sympathy for the pedestrian and they are left laying where they fell with the attitude that “the pedestrian should have gotten out of the way”. Get the picture? I don't think no fault insurance is a reality here. Just the no fault part if you drive away fast enough and most drivers do... With that said back to the story. The 2 women here in the complex called the Boda Boda drivers to take them to the hospital to deliver and then brought them home later in the day. Even the house mother laughs about this. So much different then America...

The other thing about your birthday here Kate was the long distance wishes. Two of the volunteers have had birthdays this week. One on Monday an one Tuesday with a 37^th Anniversary on Wednesday.

When the first volunteers had his birthday I gave him a hug from his mother and was surprised how long he wanted to just be hugged. Next day same thing she was just so happy to be held. So, I guess I am not the only one missing home. I have been asking the questions of the people I am with, how is it going and what do you miss the most. All of us are saying the food... The diet leaves much to be desired. Breakfast is egg and white bread with instant coffee or tea. I bought oats for a change and taught our sister how to make french toast so I have a variety. Tom likes the eggs. Lunch is eaten at the training site and is matooke (steamed mashed bananas) poush, white corn flour paste cut in squares, rice, Irish potatoes boiled, ground nuts pureed into a sauce (tastes nothing like peanut butter)

very bland, cooked beans in a thin tomato sauce, a meat with gravy, a cooked veggie, avocado slice, and a banana or pineapple piece. This is every day and the Ugandan staff heaps there plate, the students are really tired of it and don't eat much. Supper is the same everyday too. Irish potatoes, rice or spaghetti noodles, cooked cabbage, cooked green beans with too much salt, avocado and melon and pineapple. Sometimes we have chapati too. That is Tom's favorite night. The menu doesn't change and I only have 9 weeks left. Can't say I have gotten thin yet, just wish I could cook a night or two. The Ugandans eat this much food all the time and are surprised I don't too. Tom is loving the food and isn't tired of it yet. The veggies can't be eaten raw I am told because of the fertilizing practices so I have been washing fresh tomato with soap and water and cutting them up to eat with the avocado and I found some mayo to put on the cabbage so I can have a salad. So much for the food, Kraft mac and cheese sounds good to me. I will close but before I do I thought of something funny. All the ears I went without immunizations and now I am getting the hepatitis, rabies, typhoid, yellow fever, and the flu shot. The pots and pans used here are aluminum and the fry pan is Teflon. No one has Alzheimer because the life expectancy is 52 years max so I wonder how I will do here in Africa, where everything I thought I was doing to improve my life expectancy, has gone out the door.

August 20

Saturday, practical language day in town. Our 7 member language
group went to market and I have pictures to post that I can get
posted with the email but the service is dial up here. At the market
we were to use our language skills and name the stuff we would buy.
Only problem is this is not the Lugbara language district so we went
back to a bar and talked for an hour about how to say and what to buy
and how much which for me was great! The stuff that will help me
survive will come easy but the syntax and grammar are so different for
Lugbara that I am really struggling. I don't know how much more the
brain can absorb. Friday felt like a wall, and I wast sure I want to
go over. Developing friendships is hard too. Some of the other
trainees were going swimming today at the only cement pond in town as
they heard it had showers too. We had to come home and do laundry and
were hopeful to go to the internet cafe. So we have our laundry hung
out sharing the clothes lines with the women in the rental compound
(gets a bit tricky) and the wind starts blowing red dust in little
eddies all over the fresh laundry and us and everything else. The
dust is in your mouth and hair and clothes and sticks to your skin and
the wind is now blowing like crazy and throwing clothes off the lines
as they are not hung with pins. So all of us are trying to gather our
stuff and are being pelted with the sand. Then it starts to rain and
really soak into your clean clothes you have on and are on your arm.
Then it rained like down pour for an hour and now it is sunny again.
So I have hung my laundry 3 times and it is now in the garage with
that doesn't have a car in but that they cook on the charcoal stove
with. So will I hang it in the sun again I guess so. Gotta go so I
can post again. Hopefully I can read your letters too. Love from
Wakiso, Uganda Marc

August 15

Today is Monday and I did school, wash, clean pit latrine. I know why
Africans are scantly clad, washing clothes is a all day affair. Lug
water in 2 buckets plus extra, hand scrub each piece, wring, rinse,
wring, put in rinsing bucket rinse soap out wring and hang on line
with no basket to throw them into to await hanging all at once. So,
you go put your shoes on hang and take shoes off and start over. We
are going to quite wearing sox and start buying only dark brown red.
The color of the mud or we may help employ someone else as I am
exhused and nothing stays clean. The wind blows the red dust all
over, you sweat from the 4 mile walk up hill both ways and you have
the red dust on you, soo the standard of what is dirty is going to
change here real soon. The wash is done with rain water from
catchment off the tin roof of the house
The church experience was surprisingly good. The music lasted way
too long and way too loud for me. 1 hour straight with the generator
working to keep the mics on and it was held in a tin pole barn. Then
the preaching. He did it in Lugandan with another pastor speaking
English right next to him. The message was really good and held
attention. The church is very pentecostal and wants to know if you
are Christian and then if you are saved. Can't remember the last time
I was asked that in the states.
The rainy season has started and today we walked to school in the rain
and home in he drizzle. Did I mention that we live on top of a hill
the size of Hermann. When you get to the bottom you walk through the
town and then you get to the road to the school and it is twice as
long as Herman and up hill again with a large lake (clay mud puddle)
you need to traverse just before the road up hill starts to school.
So out get there and you are again covered in red mud now with the
rainy season and smell of sweat. This all by 8am. Tom and I practice
our language on the walk and remind ourselves that we signed up for
this and we are only 3 weeks into he 2 ½ years. We are continually
surprised by the challenges of the day.
Naoko you asked about food. Lost of fresh veggies but they tend to
cook them too long and add the salt when cooking so they can be salty.
They eat Irish potatoes and sweet, green beans and dried, ground red
nuts they put over white rice and potatoes, cooked cabbage, carrots,
matookee(mashed steamed plantens bananas) poushu white corn ground to
paste and cut and served, cassava root, yams
pineapple, mango, watermelon, papaya. Passion fruit, avocado right off
the tree. Gotta study again so will drop another line soon. Love
from Uganda.

August 13

Saturday and no school today. They are having a conference today
at the training site or we would have school until 2. The walk to and
from school is beautiful. Part is through the town and the majority
is in the outlying agriculture area. Lots of cows, chickens, goats,
and pigs. Gardens in various states of needing weeding and
production, and then tables out front of the house's with the garden
offerings. The tomatoes,avacados, and bananas are in production and
so tasty right now.
Language is going to be a challenge as we have 3 young kids and 3 old
kids (us and Geo who worked as an accoountant for an archdioscees in
Illinois and wants to create a turkey farm at out site in W Nile ).
The 3 young kids get the words right away and then there is us...So we
have two teachers and I bet we get split up real soon... After 3
hours we know 8 words. The most important being the greetings of the
day. Ugnadans feel respected if greeted and are less likely to harm
you, as our teacher said. Reminds me of high school and who likes who
and who talks to who, so we have learned the formal greetng in the
local dilect so we should not get harmed...I think harm means charge
you too much for what ever you are buying...
On of the 2 neices is a tailor and has a sewing mchine she burns her
scraps and one of the PCgirls here is teaching women to make quilts.
I will be in touch with Spinning Spools to get some help with speed
quilting methods. The fabrics are brillient so this is exciting to
see how women put them together here.
Quilts are not present here that I have seen yet.
Our family has a deep Christian faith, and blesses there meals without
prompting. The first day in Uganda all the PCT (T is for tranee now
and Vis for volunteer which we will be after swearing in (passing our
language)in 10 weeks)were on busses and in our bus I stood and asked
to pray and then did. Asking God to bless all of our time here and to
direct us and guide us. Then, I was approached by a kid, Cris, 26,
from DC, who said he had prayed for us before he got here to have a
mentor to sharpen his faith and keep him faithful. When we had to
answere who inspired us to join Peace Corp, at my turn it was Helen
Keller who overcame odds to become her full potential, Elizabeth
Elliot who returned to the Amazon Village that had killed her
missionary husband because of her love for my 3 inspiration Jesus.
That brought a few more people out for conversation and we started a
bible study everynight in Banana village. Now that we are in home
stays, & found out church lasts 4 hours, this little group thinks we
may want to do Truth Project together. Thanks so much Chris for
getting this on the computer! Tomorrow we will go to church with our
family and see how they do church here and then deceide what to do
next. The older PCV said with school every day, that Sunday, with no
family around, it was kinda like there day to just sit and ponder. We
have wash soaking in the buckets ready to be scrubbed and hung, but it
is raining, so I guess we just scrubb and let them drip dry in our
room. We want to go to market today and the internet cafe to post
some of these musings. So far I have not read any of your notes to
me. I hope to do that today also. Love from Uganda, Marc

August 11

Today, out side the gates of Banana, we drove about 60 miles through
Kampala and saw more of Uganda city life. Very industrious with simple
tools and simple means of constructing. A lot of Agriculture but very
small plots. More subsistence growing then major production. Was
told a bushel of organic corn sells for $.60. That's right $.60 a
bushel. Then the guy that buys it trucks it off and sells it for
$2.00. Uganda, from the economic perspective is wealthy. They just
discovered oil under it in the N but they do not have the technology
to access and refine it so they are allowing the oil company to do
this for them. The land also is very fertile and the crop production
is high but again transportation and distribution are the problem
areas. The roads are very poor and a lot of wash out due to the rainy
season, which we are approaching the first part of Sept. The dirt is
red clay and very muddy when it rains. So with an infrastructure in
need of help, things cannot be transported easily.
Our home stay mother, Juliet met us at the training compound today and
brought us home. We were hopeful for running water and electricity
in our homes. Running water, so we could have a toilet, electricity
so we could have lights. We got 1 out of 2. Our house mother (kinda
like foreign exchange student mom) has 2 sons Joshua 13, Joel is 9,
and 2 neices that live with her. Her husband died last year and I
would guess her to be in her late 30s. It is hard to tell as they
don't seem to get gray and have the most beautiful skin. The house
has a beautiful over look of part of the city as we set up on one of
the hills. It is very new concrete construction and she has several
concrete rental units on her lot. She is wealthy as she has 2 other
houses in town along with the row house rental units. She use to have
800 chickens. She sold eggs but after 2 years of intense work she sold
them off and started the housing business. Lots of noise around as the
average birth rate is 7 children per family unit. Back to the house,
the pit latrine is around the corner from the main house and looks to
be about 30 feet deep so doesn't smell, has a concrete hole you squat
over and do you business. At night you have a chamber pot to use and
you are responsible for in am. You take bucket baths and Ugandans are
very clean. There clothes are immaculate even with all the red clay
and they bath 2Xday so in training we were told we are too. They will
heat the water too if you ask but it is expensive for fuel so really
hate to ask. Last hot shower was in Philly a week ago. We have
electricity & TV which is on all the time. The electricity works but
the city electric shuts it down periodically. This happened at Banana
Village too. Our bedroom is furnished with 2 bed frames with sticks
on the corners to hold up the mosquito net, and a wood bar with 10
wood pegs on it. That is it. The concreate floor is very clean as are
the white walls. Everything here is done laundry dshes shaving
bathing but just takes longer uses less water nd ton more elbow
grease. There is no room for the lazy here as the society as a whole
are very proud and hard hard working. It will see how lazy I get.
Food is vegtables, red beans in sauce, very little meat, not many
bread variations just the white square loaf at the bakery store and
some loaves they put food coloring in so it is different colored, but
the same whte loaf. Haven't really found sweets yet but the India
Ugandans have fried foods that are wonderful. Little pillows of
hamburger and beans or veggies and red beans. These you buy at the
street markey stands made fresh so you won't get sick from them .
Our school is 1 hour from out home stay and it is uphill both ways on
lots of washed out roads. Did I tell you we are to walk. We are
forbidden to ride boda bodas(motorcycles for hire) taxi's are 14
person Toyota vans and can't navigate the washed out road to the
school so we will get in really good shape as we live on a hill ½ the
size of Herman and the road to the school is uphill. I figure we are
about 4 miles from school. Did I mention we will have school for 10
weeks during the rainy season and we didn't bring an umbrella? We
have our rain gear but women are not to wear rain trousers so I have a
jacket and wet skirt I guess. Will see how this work out. I am going
to look for an umbrella tomorrow to prepare. Peace Corp gave us new
pillows a blanket and a foam pad along with our mosquito net just wish
we had a mirror and shelf but Saturday after class I guess we go
shopping for more junk. They PC have also given us an allowance for
settling in. I have been using mine to buy fruit. I guess that will
end soon. Enough about today, my host family seems very kind and
hospitable.
Lots of the young PC kids and adults that have come have been sick
with fevers and rapid transit. Hoping I don't get that. As I said I
will need to get better at my aim and nights can be long with the
chamber pot. Don't you wish you were here? Off to a cold shower.
Love from Uganda...

August 10

Last day at Banana Village our secluded place away from Uganda except for our instructors. Tomorrow we go to our home stays for the next 10 weeks. Everything is so laid out and they cover so much of practical stuff about living in the culture that I am feeling more prepared then I anticipated. We found out that the area we will be serving in is the West Nile region so if you look at a map of Uganda and find Lake Albert (furthest lake N bordering Rwanda ) and draw a line straight line up and go L that is the area we are serving in. It has just been opened to volunteers because the army has kicked out (killed) the Freedom Resistance Fighters that were causing the unrest. It is very stable and there are 6 education instructors there now. The climate is cool in the am but warmer in the afternoon. So next week we learn Lugbara for the next 10 weeks. I am hopeful I have the words I needed for the other language. Food is interesting I have been talking with the kitchen staff and buying fruit from them. I have to go so I can get this on the internet a friend is letting me use his modem. Haven't had time to miss anyone yet but I love you all. Marc

August 8

Yesterday was Sunday and immersion. Kaput, our language instructor, sent all 46 of us off to town on a bus and we were to find landmarks, exchange $, buy some thing, eat, and come back in 6 hours by taxi.

Everyone bought cell phones and got back to the complex and started calling. Tom didn't even make it back to the complex he fired it up at the store and called Kate. Sorry, Kate I told him it was too early but you were nice to hear it and answer at 3am. I went to the internet cafe and wrote to a few of you and now I am learning how to put this on a jump drive so I don't have to do separate emails and you all will get one and I will have more time to read ones from you. So, if this is long, it is because I had lots of days to journal and only a few to put them in an email at a cafe. Back to class now, more musings later.

August 6

Greetings from Entebee, Uganda where I am feeling overwhelmed and sleep deprived but so well fed. The people that we are with are so great and open and haven't hit the crabby curve yet but then Tom and I have our own bedroom and don't have to share with 20 other girls that are off there sleep cycle too. We are learning language hot and heavy. Some are learning much better then me but I am plugging away at it. It is hard and after the 2 weeks of this language we will go to our home stay and learn another village language. The village language that we learn will be used in the community we are placed in. That will be where we will spend our commitment. We are living in a upscale (flush toilets and running cold water for showers) compound for our first week and ½. This is to introduce us to staff and each other. We have not yet seen true Uganda other then 12m when we pulled in. It is fenced and 3 guards walk around all night with spear and shield patrolling. During the day the guards have guns. There is also a large dog at night keeping animals away. The animals are stray dogs nothing else lives around here that can harm (or so I am told). Monkeys live in the compound and steal your banana if you leave it siting on a sill when you are getting your papers out for class. They are very quick thieves and unrepentant. It is very safe and very America yet in the compound. Meaning we are still enjoying the scaled down amenities we had in the states.

Got those nasty hepatitis shot 1^st series and am now on mefloquine for the malaria and sleeping under the net on a bed that is big enough for me, and Tom is in it too. Next week is the next line of shots. The health support is very good here and we are to notify notify notify if we feel any illness or discomfort. It is comforting to know that there is a good hospital in Kampala with 1 DR and 2 nurses for the night shift and then more staff in AM. So if you want to pee all night you better be able to get up your self as the hosp is large. Did I mention the wandering chickens horses and roosters on the grounds where we are staying. So guess who is awake at 5 to awaken us? Then is the call to pray at 5:30. Then the day begins with: how to wash cloths, how to sterilize our water, language, medical kit usage, cultural norms, cultural language usage, goals of training. mentor classes and food. Which has all been good. I just don't care for the maatoke (steamed bananas ) which is served at every meal.

The people that are with the peace corp are so gracious and inviting and extremely patient. We are the 1 of 5 married couples 3 being close to our age, 2 other younger. The incredible amount of talent that is here amazes me. Some are getting there masters in the peace corp program, all have graduated from comm health or economic programs with a global emphasis. We had interviews today to place us in 8 weeks. We find out Monday our region so we can start language.

Home Sweet Home?

Join us as we leave the comfort of our little home at 326 N. Franklin and head the Uganda with the Peace Corps!

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