A Good Week With One Exception

The week started on Monday with a graduation celebration for the Set 7 nursing students.  True to Ugandan fashion, it was scheduled at 1:30pm but did not actually start until 3:30pm.  I’m getting smarter about not arriving on time.  I waited for Sister Anne to go down to the dining hall (around 3:15pm) and took that as my cue that the celebration was about to begin.  I attended the graduation party for Set 6 last year, so I knew what to expect: several long speeches, dancing and singing by the other nursing students, a farewell song from the graduating class, and a BIG dinner with meat, beans, rice, enyasa, greens, cabbage, cake, and sodas.  This is one of the highlights of teaching at Kuluva.

  

Wednesday was my birthday – thank you to everyone who sent Facebook and text messages.  I also received a huge care package from my mom and it included birthday cards from the whole family!  Thanks to my wonderful family for sending birthday wishes and gifts.  (And good timing with the mail!  Mom, you have mastered the Ugandan postal service.  Ha ha.)  I had a relaxing day (after riding to town & back), took a hot bucket bath, ate some chocolates from the care package and made Indian food (that I picked up when I was in the States).   And miraculously, there was high-speed internet at my house that day, so I got some research done online (. . . for my Tanzania trip, not work).  :)  I watched a couple of movies and went to bed to the sound of light rain outside my window.  Awesome day, considering I live in an African village.

On Saturday, I went to a village called Adumi, which is on the west side of Arua.  (I’m 6 miles south of Arua.)   My friends Tom and Ilse live in Adumi and Ilse asked if we (PCVs) were interested in doing a lesson (on any topic) for her women’s group.  Of course I said yes!  I put together a basic nutrition session, modifying the materials I used at Eastern Camp GLOW.  The women only spoke Lugbara, so we needed a translator.  It was a challenge to keep the lesson at such a basic level for the women to understand.  But they were wonderful – very enthusiastic and appreciative of everything we had to teach.

I spent Friday night at Betty’s house (close to town) so that Ilse could pick us up first thing on Saturday morning.   I'm not sure what happened, but I either walked through poisonous plants or got severely attacked by insects on my feet.  I've counted over 30 bites/bumps just on my left foot.

I find it hard to believe that I didn't feel dozens of ants/mosquitoes/misc. African insects feasting on my feet and ankles - which makes me think it was a poisonous plant somewhere.  Either way, it sucks.  It’s been extremely painful to wear shoes or walk.  I spent all today keeping my feet up and applying a topical analgesic and antihistamine.  The itching and swelling went down, but flared up again when I walked down to the dukas to buy bread.  I think need to stay off my feet for another day or two for the rash/bumps to go away. 

So just FYI - this may be my last blog post for a few weeks.  I have plans to spend Thursday having a Thanksgiving dinner with other PCVs and then I’m going to Tanzania on Saturday!!!  I will post again as soon as I get back.

Memorable Moments From Mid-Service

From November 6th through November 8th I was at my Mid-Service Conference at Ridar Hotel.  One of the most memorable moments for me was sitting in the lounge area by the pool (which had a large flatscreen tv) and watching live election coverage (on CNN).  It was a surreal experience to be in Uganda and see the US election results and Obama's acceptance speech (midnight in Chicago is 9:00am here) - after living abroad and witnessing other political "elections", I felt very proud of my country and thankful that I have the right to vote.  And on the bus ride back to Arua, the man sitting next to me thanked me for electing Obama again.  :)  The choices we make truly affect others around world.

One of the conference sessions about "what to do after the end of our service" and was given by a few Returned Peace Corps Volunteers.  They talked briefly about their different types of jobs (US Embassy, public health work in South Sudan, foreign service, etc.), but what they all said without hesitation was GRAD SCHOOL!  While the Peace Corps experience is great to have on the resume, the type of international jobs (and global health work) available requires a Master's Degree.  It just reaffirmed my thought that I'll be going back to school when I return to the US.

We have a committee called the Volunteer Action Committee (VAC), who meet with Peace Corps administration to discuss concerns from PCVs.  It's one of the only ways for us (volunteers) to openly talk about policies, challenges, etc. with the admin staff.  I volunteered to be a new representative for my training group (after my rep left the Peace Corps) - my group accepted and now I am officially on the VAC Committee.  I hope to help clarify issues from both sides of the table because there is huge disconnect between staff and volunteers right now.

I was hoping to sit down with Shiphrah, my program manager, to talk about my lack of work at Kuluva.  Unfortunately, she decided to take her annual leave during our conference, so I didn't get to see her.  I did speak with Cotious, her assistant, who told me that the volunteers placed at nursing schools were supposed to work part-time at the school and part-time at the hospital.  I informed her that the school is completely unaware of this and we will have to sit down with Sister Anne and explain that I should be working at the hospital too.  (*This meeting may not happen until December or January with all of the upcoming travel plans and holidays.)

After all the Peace Corps sessions were finished, we rightfully took advantage of the bar and swimming pool to celebrate our one year of service . . . and November birthdays.

The 32-year olds of the group.  

We celebrated our 33rd birthdays, Katie - November 8th, Brian - December 11th, 

and me - November 14th.

Since Katie's birthday was actually during our Mid-Service Conference, she requested an 80's dance party that night.  DONE!!  We rocked out to The Bangles, INXS, Michael Jackson, Belinda Carlisle, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Madonna, and just about every other one-hit-wonder from the 80's.

 

"I wear my sunglasses at night . . . " 

"Billie Jean"

Director's Meeting / A Weekend in Jinja

First, let me clarify my last blog post.  Boredom comes and goes on a daily/weekly basis in the Peace Corps.  It just happened that the whole month of October was a slow work month and I had a lot of free time.  I was not depressed or lonely – in fact, I hung out with the Arua PCVs last month more often than usual.  And I actually enjoy reading for several hours at time (now that I have a Kindle).  I still have many goals set for myself regarding public health work, camps, and vacations – just not during October 2012.  However, we are now in November and life is getting busy!

Last week I met with Stevie and Aditi to discuss the direction of the next Girl Tech camp.  We rode a matatu from Kampala to Jinja and talked the whole way – everything from grant writing to t-shirt design.  Stevie also copied all of her computer documents (180 of them) onto our hard drives – Aditi and I will eventually look through all of it and divide the responsibilities.  For now, it was nice just have a starting point: writing the grant.  The next grant review is in February, so we have some time to complete the proposal and budget.

The three of us also went to the Wayange Secondary School for Girls and met with the Head Mistress, Deborah.  Unfortunately we decided to walk to the school (which is at the top of a very steep hill) and it started pouring rain as soon as we left that morning.  The dirt path turned into mud and we were completely drenched when we sat down in Deborah’s office.  Not the way I wanted introductions to go, but she was very understanding and gave us her entire morning to discuss having Girl Tech at her school again.  (The meeting went very well and the location is set with a tentative date of early May 2013!)

I walked away from last weekend with a renewed sense of purpose in the Peace Corps.  Maybe it’s because I have real responsibilities for work now; maybe it’s because this project will let me use my strengths and skills (i.e. organization and planning); maybe it’s because I feel like I have a serious full-time job again; maybe it’s because this project will actually come to fruition instead of being ignored or denied.

Coming from such a successful meeting, I indulged in a weekend of fun in Jinja.  I stayed in a budget dorm room at the Nile River Explorer’s – it was 2 days of good friends, cheap food, and sunsets on the Nile.  I also traveled through Jinja town on my way to the Mid-Service Conference for my Peace Corps group.  I bought some more African crafts :) and ate way too much American food (coffee, salad, milkshakes, and pumpkin bread).  It was awesome.