February 20th, 2011

So its been awhile since ive blogged. We have been very busy so its been hard to find time to gather my thoughts and sit down to write on this. Im not really much of a blogger, but I like being able to reflect on what I’ve seen and be able to look back at it.

The past week I have been in Rwanda. Our program wanted us out of Uganda during the elections. Museveni won the elections by about 70% and is president of Uganda, once again. There has been some violence that broke out on Friday, the day of the elections.  Praying that everything will be peaceful from here on out, yet it does scare me a bit with all of these protests beginning all over the world. It seems like Egypt started a hip new trend).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isKOU1oeNRc

http://www.afriquejet.com/news/africa-news/uganda:-2-dead,-71-injured-as-vote-counting-gets-underway-in-uganda-201102192220.html

Rwanda is nothing like Uganda. Well, I shouldn’t say that, but from being here just a week, I can say that Kigali is nothing like Kampala. Kigali is unbelievably clean, there are garbagecans on the sidewalks, imagine that. It’s green and lush on the outskirts of the city with very impressive, perfectly divided crop fields.  It’s cooler here and I’ve woken up to rain almost every morning. There are many white people here too, way more than I thought. The bodabodas (motorcycle taxi drivers) actually wear helmets and have helmets for their passengers. There are stop lights here—And drivers actually stop at them!  The city is not as busy or overcrowded as Kampala.

Its been a pretty emotionally draining week. We visited three genocide memorial sites. We visited all three in the same day, which was a lot to handle. I don’t think I’ll ever forget what I saw at these sites, it almost made me sick. It was difficult seeing the skulls, the bones, and the blood stained clothing with multiple machete holes in many of them. I’ll never forget the feeling I had at these sites...I can’t describe it.  It was just unbelievable. It was so hard to actually be at the churches that tens of thousands of refugees/Tutsis/and hutus have been killed at. Many fled to hide in the churches thinking the Interahamwe wouldn’t kill in a holy place, yet they bombed, raped, and killed anyway. And the burial sites where hundreds of thousands of bodies are placed was very hard to see. Emily said something at the end of one of our memorial site visits that really struck me. The last room had pictures of many of the children who lost their lives during the genocide…and its so crazy that these toddlers would be around my age if they were still alive. 

What’s incredible to me is the development that has occurred in just 17 years since the genocide.  It’s amazing what good governance can do within a country after such a tragedy.  I walk on the streets in amazement, its aerie knowing that these are the same streets that many of the one million who have been killed may have walked on. And the same streets that these 800,000-million may have been shot, beaten, raped, tormented, and killed on.  Maybe it’s that Kampala is so overpopulated, but It is kind of strange…Kigali does feel a little empty.

I bought a Ugandan soccer jersey and ‘vote for museveni’ tshirt as well as colorful African printed fabric that we are planning on making into dresses. One of our program advisors knows a tailor back in Kampala that we visit to get custom made dresses so I’m excited to come back to America sporting some sweet African attire.   Before I left, Kathleen (a fabulous woman I used to nanny for) told me that I better not come back wearing crazy African dresses and head wraps. “That will never be cool and hip in America, don’t even think about it” haha well I already failed in that because I’m obsessed with the fashion style here. While Ugandans and Rwandans seem to be producing more and more 2^nd hand malls filled with outdated Target and American Eagle branded clothing, I’m hoping to find some traditional African printed clothes. I’ve never seen SO many rhinestone-studded Obama shirts in my life. Just walking down the streets, Ugandans will shout at me one of two things:  “mazungu!” or “obamaaaaa!” haha. About a week ago my host sister took me to this mall-type shopping center, and they sold Barbies, all of them were white. Western culture has such a huge influence on many of the shopping centers that Ive seen so far.

Things I love about Rwanda so far:

• The free wifi coffee shop that im at, eating the best salad with so much avocado. I miss fresh veggies so much. I’m pretty sick of African food already. Its just the same thing every day for lunch and dinner. So many starchy matokay, potatoes, fries, rice.
• the dance clubs playing a remix of ‘oh nana whats my name’ with some sick African beat
• dace offs with rwandans
• fuseball tournaments. havent been able to win against a rwandan yet. so thats my goal before I head back to Uganda.
• How clean it is
• the weather. the rain
• MY GROUP.

D

That’s all for now, next week we are doing a rural homestay in Western Uganda which ive been looking forward to all trip! Yay for no electricity, no running water, no showers, no toilets. Rwanda has been a wonderful change of pace, a nice break from the crazy, busy streets of kampala. Its very nice here, its going to be interesting to go from here to staying in a rural village—but I can’t wait! ALSO a week from today I will finally see elephants!!!! We are going on a safari excursion. I may jump out of the safari van and run with the elephants. Peace outttt

Western Uganda

Happy valentines dayyyyy

We are spending a couple of days in Western Uganda before heading to Rwanda.  The program usually doesn’t go to Rwanda until further into the program, but because of the elections coming up on the 18^th, we were advised to not be in Kampala before, during, or after just in case political riots turn violent. I’m glad our advisors are taking safety precautions, I just think it’s a little ironic that instead were going to a nation that just recently ended a horrific genocide.  But it will be so nice to be out of the crowded dusty busy streets of Kampala for 3 weeks. So far it has been wonderful.  Driving west across Uganda made me realize how green and lush this nation is. I was expecting to see more brown, dry land but its quite the opposite.  

The site visits that our program takes us to just keeps getting better and better. Today we visited the UNDP located in Mbarara. The UNDP has started the Millennium Villages Project to lift African communities out of extreme poverty. The program so far has reached over 400,000 people in 80 villages within 10 countries in subSaharan Africa. After a presentation at Ugandas UNDP headquarters, we got to visit the actual village, Ruhiira, that the Millennium Villages Project has been working with.  Ahhh it was so exciting to see exactly what the UN (along with private, private non-for-profit donors, etc.) have been doing in a village that started with so little.  From what I took away from it, the project seems to be making great improvements in these villages because the villagers are the ones that are learning how to develop by being the ones to actually make the water wells for clean water, become teachers for the 800 children who walk hours to school every day, and the ones farming and raising cattle to sell themselves to make more than a dollar a day.  Although there is so much that still needs to be done, the improvements were incredible. The infrastructure, education, well rainwater tank systems, a new bank, agriculture, health clinic. Just everything. The people in the village were so thankful, so happy. they were honestly the most beautiful people I have ever seen. 

I wish I could explain everything about today better. I wish I could explain this whole experience more clearly. I think Uganda has already changed me, I don’t think any other place on earth could challenge me or force me to learn so much about even just myself than this place right now.

Mwazuze mutyanno mazungus!

(good morning white people)

This is my first week with my homestay family.  I am living in the village of Lubowa in the Upper Bunamwaya Zone, located within the outskirts of the capital of Uganda, Kampala. So far it has been amazing. The village consists of small shacks, people living outside, rundown houses (where I live) and then reaaaaallly nice homes gated and locked up with high fences in between. Its interesting how diverse it is.  I have 4 brothers and sisters between the ages of 2-15 named Ishan,Vivian, Ryan, and Elaine (they have more children, but they are away at boarding school). My host mother, Jenna, is a civil servant for the Ministry of Education and my father, Hassan, owns Twinex Video (he named it after his twin sister who passed away at 14 of AIDS) which is a tiny DVD store in Kampala which tons of american movies (western influence is huuuuge, american music and movies are very popular here).  The family is very laid back which i didnt expect because we were warned during orientation week that there were certain traditions and rules we were to follow during our homestays, but my family is very chill. The only tradition I have noticed is that my siblings kneel/bow before my hostparents whenever they enter a room. I copied them after I noticed it and my mother just laughed and laughed at me and said I didn't have to do that. I think its a sign for respect? There are so many questions I want to ask, but it's a little difficult to ask because they don't speak English very well. They speak Luganda really fast...i think they are talking about me a lot haha but i can't understand what they are saying. I'm taking Luganda classes right now but I only know the basics.

My home has running water which I was very surprised about. But its only cold water. The shower is located outside. Cold water showers are the besssst, so refreshing after a long hot day here. The bathroom is located right next to the shower...the pit. Its basically just a hole in the ground. That's been really hard to get used to. And they don't have toilet paper or hand soap...they just dont use it. So I had to buy my own at the market. 

The commute to school is not bad at all! I get to commute with another student, David, to and from school which I am so happy about. I was afraid I would have to do it alone.  David is my 'cousin' who lives in the same village down the dirt road from me. I have to wake up at 6 every day for class and my parents take David and I out of the village and then we jump in a taxi for..the commute it about an hour and half there. On the way home, we take two taxis. One from class to the 'taxi park' (where hundreds of taxis are parked, coming and going with hundreds of busy people moving around trying to get to the right taxi). Once we get to the taxi park, we have to find the sign that leads us to our village. With the traffic, the commute home can take up to an hour-2hours. Joyyyy:)

I'm already a little sick of the food. It's the same everynight, but I told my mother that I love avacados so she had the servant, Justine, cut me up some for supper last night, sooo delicious.  It's interesting to me that we have a servant.  A lot of families here do. They help with laundry and prepare the food and watch the kids when the parents are working. Usually they are homeless on the streets, they come and work for these families and receive a small pay. Justine is so sweet, she doesn't speak any english but she always has tea ready for me when I come home from class. Fusion Brew is nothing compared to the African milk tea here. It's prepared with fresh ginger and is probably my favorite thing here so far. That along with fresh passionfruit/orange juice that Justine makes for supper every night.

I walked around the village the other night with my 15 year old sister Elaine. Lubowa is all dirt, bumpy, and veerrrrryyyyy hilly roads. They have chickens, dogs, cows, and goats, and turkeys running around randomly (if only their were elephants!). Something I'm going to have to get used to is how people show affection here. Elaine held my hand the entire walk around the village, hugging and grabbing my arm to lead me. It is totally normal for women to hold hands and men to hold hands here...which I find so interesting because homosexuality is forbidden here.

We are leaving for Rwanda and West Uganda on Sunday for about 3 weeks (i think a safari too?!)! I won't have internet during that time, but I will take a million pictures and post them and blog about it when I get back. We will be visiting the Rwandan genocide memorial in Kigali and visiting national parks and just traveling each day somewhere new so I'm really looking forward to that!

I am really loving it here, it still kinda feels like a dream. Its definitely a lot to get used to, the adjustment has been very difficult. I think I am still in culture shock mode, everything is still new and exciting. I think they have kept us extremely busy so I haven't had the chance to really get too homesick yet, but I think I am a little bit now. 'They' usually say after the 2nd week, things tend to get a little harder when youre studying abroad. I miss my family most of all. My host family is so close and loving which is awesome, but it makes me miss home.

I have Luganda class in 5 minutes now, learning the tenses. I feel like im in spanish class freshman year of high school again, learning the basics. Waabale!

So.. ive been kind of trying to avoid updating this blog. I’m really not sure how to give the things ive seen justice. I feel like pictures and words won’t be able to describe Ugandan life accurately...and its only been 3 days, and Ive already seen enough to scare me to death. Its beautiful, the people are so nice, and its AFRICA. Ive always wanted to be here…but its absolutely terrifying. 

I just don’t understand this culture, really.  And hopefully staying here for the next 3 and a half months will help that… well not just staying here, but living here. I was so excited about this program to actually get the opportunity to fully immerse myself within this culture…but I think it hasn’t hit me until tonight how challenging this all is really going to be. It’s going to be a struggle for me, probably every single day. 

I’m anxious to meet my host family in the next couple of days. I’ll be living with them for the next couple of months until our independent practicum.  Each student on our program is placed with a family from different social statuses, anywhere from a family living in the slums outside of Kampala with no running water or electricity to maybe even a family with a higher income and nicer living arrangements. Itll be interesting that I will have to live with them and have to commute by myself to Makerere University everyday for classes in the CRAZY street life/taxis they have in Kampala. Tomorrow they are dropping each of us off in a random location in the city and we have to make our way back to the hotel we are staying for this first week. I get lost in Crystal Lake still, how the hell am I going to do that?! The streets of Kampala are insane, so I’m really nervous about that, especially doing it by myself. . Hopefully itll be fine, I mean, itll have to be fine considering I have to do it for the next couple of months haha. 

I’m hoping there will be children in the family. I really don’t think I want children of my own, but something about African kids gets me. Maybe just Ugandans in general. I think they are the most beautiful people.  I want to steal every child I see, the ones in their cute little school uniforms and the ones sitting on the street…literally covered in dirt. I want them all.

The children here have really been interesting to see…ive seen multiple babies (between 1-3) on the side of the dirt roads covered in dust and ragged clothing. My heart just dropped when we walked past them. We are advised by our supervisors to actually not give them money…because most likely their mothers are just a block away. The strategy is that people (mostly ‘mazungus’…meaning ‘white people’) will see these babies and of course give them money, when really these mothers just use the children so we feel bad for them so we give them money. I mean, smart idea. I was about to right then and there give this sweet little baby girl all my shillings but was told not too. It’s just too much to handle. It’s heartbreaking…but whether the mothers need the money or the children… I don’t like that I’m advised to not give them money. How can you not? Hopefully I’ll understand this more as time goes on.

I MISS YOU ALL AT HOME, more than you know.