October 19

Well the honeymoon is over and now that I am, or we are, PCV's real life is setting in. Some is fun and some is a drag. I think we didn't realize how much work everything requires and now we do because we are doing it for ourselves. I knew washing was a hassle. Have you ever tried to wash queen size sheets in a bucket and then rinse them after you scrubbed them because you didn't scrub you feet before getting in bed because then you would need ANOTHER bucket or basin. Since arriving in Arua to our 3 bedroom rambler duplex we have been on our own. First night when we arrived after a 8 hour trip N some of the student council and instructors were lined up to welcome us with flowers and cheers and welcomes. They had me get out of the vehicle and paraded me to our home. I looked a wreck but my supervisor was all smiles and told me this an African Welcome and “it's all right”. We got to our new home that all the repairs had been done to and they wanted to pray for us and our home and our time with them at the school. Thank you Jesus. No where in America has some one greeted me and thanked God for sending me... I cried. I was also praying and asking God to strengthen me to not disappoint any of them or myself but most of all Him. That was Friday and the bursar (accountant) Sande took us out for supper. Chips (fries) and chicken beef goat or egg. No pork with in town because of the Muslim population. They deep fry this stuff and then you have a side of cabbage and peppers. This is considered American fare. Dr. Murthy is not close and I do not want my gall bladder out here so food is limiting but so far no attacks maybe because they don't use corn oil but rather vegetable oil, what ever that is... 

We went home and went to bed but 1^st I took my malaria med and lay down which the box clearly says never do. Remain upright for ½ hour after taking and drink lots of water which I didn't do either. 2 hours later I am awake with heartburn and it is still hanging on. Being a nurse I figure I at least have esophageal erosion. So 2 days I can't eat and feel awful so Tom doesn't eat much either because for some reason he has forgotten how to do much but boil water for instant coffee. He went out and got donuts (hard balls of paste deep fried in a doughnut shape and they get harder as the day goes on) to tide him over but day 2 we were going out. Day 3 is the same but yesterday we went to market and bought some veggies and made a broth that I could get down with out as much pain. This weight loss plan is working real well if you are at the thrift shops I wear a size 6 now. The thing with eating out is it takes 11/2 hours for you food to come out because cooking from scratch here is a process which I will now explain. You walk to market in the hot equatorial sun and you buy tomatoes from 1, egg plant from 1, garlic and onions from one, cucumbers, ect and this takes an hour of bargaining and haggling and looking over everything and you are wore out. Home you walk and eat a doughnut because your blood sugar is low because the big bowl of oats you had for breakfast didn't hold you till lunch. Now it is lunch and you have to prepare what ever your going to put in your fat face so white hard stale bread and bad peanut butter seem pretty good to Tom I like raw carrots Cucumbers and tomatoes myself but I forgot to get an avocado and why can't you find cheese here? They have cows and goats. Oh yea no fridges though. I know you are tired of hearing me complain about the food but food consumed me in MN and it still is.

For supper you have to start 2 hours ahead because the power goes out and you can't see except with the lantern fueled with kerosene. This asphyxiates you and you are nauseated by the time the food is ready. So you cut and clean and get your pan ready then light the single burner kerosene stove like camping only the camping one was round and had even heat. You put your pan on the burner and keep turning it so it all cooks and doesn't burn. I am not real good with this yet or portion size for 2 so we don't throw away ½ as you can not save without refrigeration. Now it's dark the bugs are out the kerosene has made you sick and you can eat. IF YOU ARE THINKING OF COMING TO VISIT WAIT A BIT UNTIL I HAVE MASTERED THE ART OF FOOD PREP. The restaurants (guest houses) here offer chips and ? The goat is the best, or regular Ugandan food. (Banana’s a couple ways with potatoes rice beans and G Nut sauce and pumpkin leaves steamed) So it is a great weight loss as the sweets and crackers are bad. OK enough already.

Tom and I went out and bought bikes, I found a used Schwinn that I test drove before they did repairs too and charged me 90$ for but Tom didn't get to test drive his as it was new. Today we went and picked it up and it is too small for him. Sorry sucker, no refunds. He has to ride it about 8 miles everyday to get to and from work so he may be looking for some handle bar extension soon and a seat extension. We went to the market after for our daily dose of fun and came home for a nap. We are to start working next week and I don't know when I will find time to work too. I am exhausted after 11AM. We may become rich white people and hire help. I don't know how far our 36$ will go. We have to pay our own electric and water bill here but the electric isn't on all that often and we are still taking bucket baths. But it is pure bliss to turn on a tap and have water so you have one less chore to do. We bought dried beans today and the lady next door told me they were onzie (bad) they were old and had weevil. Were going to eat them tomorrow if I can cook them that long. She said she would go to market with me next time. Tom will be relieved.

Do you ever notice how African woman stand so straight and there butts stick out. Here is why. They do everything on the ground and they bend at the waist. There hamstrings must be stretched to the max. I will send pictures when I write again and I want you to notice. So they cook on the ground wash on the ground sit on the ground and walk and fetch and haul. Thank you Lord I was born in America! I understand why they only live to be 52. Christianity appeals to me just for the reason of eternal rest and the Heavenly banquet. I understand why it spread here.

Well this is enough of my musings today. I have been invited to a Bible study at the mayors house he married a British woman and the local missionaries all come so I will meet woman from other countries as well. I am excited and think I may be the only American except for Latoya a 26 year old PCV who is a teacher here. Since we have been here our credit card got accessed and someone was taking trips to Spain and racking up 3000$ resort bill. USAA was aware of it and called us right away. So now, we don't have a credit card. No big deal, no one here takes them anyway. NO ONE. So we will next be learning how to really budget....Which is what living in the culture means. Eyre Eyre (Slowly Slowly) I love you all miss you all and am so looking forward to the suitcase arrival on Friday. Thank you Thank you Thank you! Love from sunny Uganda. Marc

October 13

Today the sky was clearing and a rainbow appeared as the sun was coming up. It was our swearing in and we became Peace Corp Volunteers. Agreeing to uphold our constitution and we forgot what else.  It felt like graduation only better.  Didn't think things like milestones would mean much to me but this was wonderful and I felt like I was crowned Miss America rather then a representative of America.  The PC country director spoke, the Ugandan Dept of Health and the Department of Economics along with our national anthem and Uganda's which one of our language instructors sang in a rich beautiful tenor. There were speeches and reception after, and a party back here at the plush hotel we have been staying in since Tuesday night.  It has a large pool I took advantage of last night after class.  We have been staying here and attending classes with our host organization representative.  We have to do a master plan for what and how we will attain our work goals and our organizations goals in the time we are here and how we will make our project self sustaining. My supervisor is the director of the nursing school in Arua a school of 524 nursing and midwife students. She is freindly and warm and engaging and I feel like I can work well with her and for her.  She would like me to oversee clinical rotations and help with the community health teaching at the local level in the community.  Malaria prevention, safe water, what good nutrition is, immunization records and AIDS testing and antenatal care.  I have 3 months where I am to do nothing but observe and do a needs assessment.  After that I can start to implement what the community thinks is a need as long as my project or projects are approved by Peace Corps main office here in Uganda.  So tomorrow we go to our new home.  Enclosed find a couple pics of our big day.  Oh yea,  surprise, I passed my language test but plan to take more classes to get good enough to talk to more people rather then Tom.  Love you all from the land on the other side of the full beautiful Swearing infall moon.  I miss the colors you are enjoying but the pineapple helps me drown my sorrow...Marc
The last 2 pictures are of Tom and I with our supervisors 

October 10

While we were on security alert we spent the day taking pictures.  This is the inside of the house we lived in and us doing laundry. The real fun was when Lucky and Mitisha found the mud puddle and we playing in it.  Then Mitisha threw a rock at Lucky and he got hit on the head and cried and Tom took him home.Then his mother cried because she had more laundry to do.  Suzie and I played cards instead. The big silver tank next to the laundry lines is the rainwater tank we drink from and do laundry and bath with.  The water is boiled when we use it for drinking and cooking; So I wish I could say my skin is rainwater soft but it is only my hair that is.

What children do when no one is watching

Our homestay home, this is what a volunteer lives in for 10 weeks

Another view of our room

Dining room where we pray and eat

bathroom where you bathe

the kitchen - the fire source is in the garage and comes in for cooking, the electricity has blown all the appliances - they don't work

Suzie and I playing cards on a sunny Sunday in Uganda

Rainwater tank

Doing laundry with help

Laundry drying

October 8

High Alert! The training is over the tests taken, after 101/2 weeks we are ready to become volunteers moving up from trainee status. So far, no one has bailed. Us older volunteers aren't going to because we need the health care benefits which, when you look at all the things you can catch here we probably would have lived longer in the states without health care. The young ones still have the major vices to help them cope with each other. 10 weeks with the same interesting people quickly makes them less interesting and rather tiresome. So, at the end of service the trainees give a party for there home stay families at the training site. We separate into our language groups and have 30 minutes to teach of Americas culture, share about the culture we will be entering (each tribe is unique), and talk in the native language. Guess who wrote the speech? Tom Mr knows all the words MacAulay.

So, today it rained and I had to return my bike as it was the last chance. It was a light rain and I was taking the supplies for our 30 min segment of the program to ROCO in the rain and Ugandan mud and Tom was walking. The last mile I had to walk the bike as it is up hill and the mud is worse there. ( Like the garden just after it rains when your shoes weigh 10# each) When I get to the gate another trainee is there saying that the event is canceled because we are on high security alert. Meaning whites should not be gathered together in a area as they are a target for terrorists. Today is the Kenya VS Ugandan soccer game and tomorrow is Uganda's Independence day but no one really celebrates because they have been fighting each other since Britain set them free and Monday the Americans in country celebrate Columbus Day. Then a French woman tourist was just abducted in Kenya so we were on alert due to that but not hi alert like today. The advisory said we were all to remain at our home stay and not be out as we would be targets. So, you have 46 people who have loaded there luggage into storage and were to have 2 days of activities Home stay day and Shopping in Kampala for your house and now both are canceled and no one has anything to do. So I turned in my bike, turned in the 5# of flour and 2# of oil and went to the kitchen of ROCO and asked for a pound of cheese and decided to do the pizza demo at Juliets or the 7 of us. So we started at 10 when I got back and ate at 1. It is like making pizza when you are in the Boundary Waters. The fuel source is the little charcoal stove you have no control over for heat production. We made 4 of them and they tasted good for Uganda but we will never put dominos out of business. The boys who don't like tomatoes ate like true Ugandeans meaning everything in front of them and we also had spaghetti. I used the rest of the pizza sauce on mine (spaghetti,which is only noodles, so don't think they have anything that looks Italian here cause they don't). So today I am full from American food and it feels good. Juliet was amazed that I ate as much as I did and it was all tomatoes. She said tomatoes make Ugandans loose. I am hoping for the same results. Drinking senna tea is tiresome.

My language test I felt really good about until my phone started ringing after 10 minutes and then I panicked and don't have a clue what I was saying so I anticipate a tutor. We find out Monday unless we are still at our home-stays. So, 2 days off with no deadlines or agenda and the power is on. Music is blasting and babies are crying. Did I mention there have been 5 born since we came and only 1 is the first. The sky cleared and it is a hot day and the clothes are on the line drying along with most other families. Tom is napping since he doesn't have to study words. The world is good here as I hope it is there. Tuesday we are to meet our supervisors for our new jobs. They come to Kampala for a training with us and then come to our swearing in and take us off to the housing they are providing for us as part of the agreement to have a volunteer. Not sure if we will be on a bus again with 200# of junk stuck below with the chickens and fish or if we have a ride. More to come from the 3^rd world. We will be sad to leave our lovely family here. They have been wonderful to us and except for potatoes, spaghetti, rice beans, cabbage, and sometimes squash every night and an egg for breakfast I have no complaints. Tom loves the food and for all he eats I can't figure out why he isn't plumping up. Maybe it is the 8 miles we do everyday! Soon to be over... I will write again when it is. Love from Wakiso

The view from our back door where 7 families live with 2 kids each

Just a note

Comments have been disabled as Marcy is not as computer savvy as she would like to be and is having a hard time reading them. She would prefer that you email her (marcymacaulay@gmail.com) if you have any comments and questions so she can respond to them.

Thanks!

October 2

2 months into the adventure and Tom said all he has gotten out of it is a bad hair cut from me, a sore elbow which is healed now, and a few Lugbara words. Oh yea, he got his wife back too. He isn't sure if that is a good thing, he didn't mind the quite withdrawn one so much. HAHA

Thank you Dianne for reminding me I haven't written. I have diligently been practicing my language skills and we have been being tested on everything at school. Only 2 more weeks to go and we can be sworn in as Peace Corp Volunteers. Lots has gone on and I will try and recap but my back is killing me so I can't sit for long. This is due to a long bus trip last week and the buses leave much to be desired...

Since the 18 we were invited to the 50 anniversary of the USAID and Peace Corp. It was held at the embassy so after coming back from Arua we went to the Embassy. It is 4;30 and the party starts at 6 and we are all starving and hoping for American food. They wanted us there early to go through security which took 15 minutes so we all got to know each other better. There was a bar that was expensive that the off duty marines that guard the place were at so some of the girls hung out there and the rest of us waited. We already know each other too well and ca hardly wait to meet new people. Festivities started with national anthems and speeches. We were in another part of the embassy ground when the anthem was sung and I could have cried when I heard faint strains of it. AH AMERICA how I miss the familiar and the things that connect me to it. The people that were there said it was meaningful for them. Some of the AIDS orphans danced and played drums and it was interesting, they magnified the music again which they don't need to but it was nice to see how the locals dance. I may be able to send video if I can figure it out.  more to come on that...I started talking to random people and one was the Norwegian ambassador who was hungry too so he left to get something to eat, the deputy to the US ambassadors husband was standing around so I talked to him for a while. He is from Ohio I think and his brother went to ST Olaf so he had been to the BWCA. Young guy with 3 kids and a wife who is working. He is into computers so he is looking to start a business as soon as the funding comes through from Kenya. Interest rates here in Uganda are 48% on bank loans and I am not exaggerating either. And they get it if you borrow money. So when the bars opened the volunteers bellied up and 2 hours later we get on the bus with them. MY MY how can such intelligent educated people be so stupid and have such potty mouths. I guess I forgot how stupid I once was. So enough about the party. With one more week of serious language I have been memorizing and I wish I knew if it would help. One language teacher went MIA after Arua and the other one processes our questions slowly and says yes to everything so when we think a word means one thing it really doesn't and we don't find out until the next week, it is maddening. I have repeatedly asked for a tutor and I get a yes answer but when I show up no one else does. So it will be what it is. More to come. I talked to Anne who invited us to her house when we were in Arua and she said the electricity has been off since we left. And will be off at least until Dec. The solar place is doing a booming business. Seems the government is not paying there bills like at the hospital so the power is cut off to the area. People coming to the hospital are asked to bring candles and kerosene when they come if they want to see at night when they care for there loved ones. I am awaiting a fire at the place... Now I will close and write again after I have all this language memorized and the battery is full. I may start a solar panel fund for Marcy see how much it costs. Hate to have to dip into my retirement and my 36$ allowance from PC wont cover the cost...Poor me so next time you turn on the lights think about me sitting in the dark looking at the stars in Uganda. Love you all. Marc

Pictures

Since pictures speak a thousand words I am sending a bunch I hope it doesn't overload the blog. This is the community we have been living in for the last 8 weeks.  Some of the baby's we see on the way home and the scenery included one of doing dishes too.  I only do them Sunday as it is 8pm when we eat and the power is out and I am tired from the day.  8 miles is further then you think even if it is do able.  And it is uphill both ways, great weight loss plan. So Sunday the oldest boy and cousin help me do the dish.  Daily they use water from the rainwater tank (the source of all our water) but I use boiling water too so I can feel like they might be getting sorta cleaner.  I have not gotten sick eating at Julietes but have when at restaurants and take a ways.It might be the antibiotics too though. So in 2 more weeks we leave here having all the info and language that can be put into us.  We will be set free to practice our skills and start saving ourselves from boredom.  I have come to realize that to save a nation it will take a good rule to help a person it will only take my willingness. 

After church, the walk down to Waikiso with Mayann

District Headquarters across the hill

Orange Weavers a tree full

coming to town from the hill cows and sheep grazing

Fish market with the duck below to eat the leavings and flies

Herbergers she is doing laundry in the basin with the jerry can for water

CAFO Confined Animal Feeding Operation

Kitchen etc. everything has a handle but only until you buy it

Market - Pineapple just 60 cents

How laundry is done and how we bathe

I scare her because I am white

A family we met on the way home

Tom and Bill Clinton

Unloading planteens that make the matokee national dish of the area

the boda boda boys waiting to take you on the ride of your life

The rebar hardware store

What most things look like in the area we live in

Restaurant and Take Away - Where is the Dept of Health?