Changing my topic back to water has led me on quite an interesting adventure.  Yesterday I traveled by myself for 8 hours on a hot, sticky, bumpy overcrowded bus to northern Uganda to the district of Gulu.  I came here for a few days to check out the area and meet with some NGOs to see if I want to research here for the next 6 weeks. During the northern Ugandan war, 90% of Uganda’s population (nearly 2 million people) had been forced to relocate to internally displaced person(s) (IDPs) camps, beginning in 1986.  The districts most affected were Gulu, Kitgum, Amuru, and Pader.  After talking with Charlotte, my advisor, we decided Gulu would be an interesting place because the IDPs are now returning to what once were their homes (since the LRA has recently moved away from northern Uganda) and they find that basic survival needs like food security, clean water, sanitation, and shelter just are not available anymore.  So I am meeting with a French NGO tomorrow to see if I can do my practicum with them to see the next steps these communities need to take for longterm development.  

I was supposed to meet with this NGO today and then visit and interview IDPs in their camps tomorrow, yet the NGO rescheduled for tomorrow, so now I will be in Gulu until Monday or Tuesday.  One of the hardest adjustments of being in Uganda is doing everything on ‘african time’.  Scheduled appointments can end up starting 2 hours late, meetings get canceled last minute all of the time, phone reception is the worst, and theres a 50/50 chance of getting internet connection. You just gotta roll with things here.  I love the laidback Ugandan lifestyle, but it is definitely a huge adjustment. It’s nothing like America. My patience has been tested so many times on this trip..  Theres just no use in getting frustrated when going out to dinner ends up taking over 45 minutes to just order a drink and over 2 and a half hours waiting for the food to arrive to find out the order was completely wrong. In America, I always feel so rushed. We complain about having a 25 minute wait at restaurants when its busy and then bitch about the service or orders being a little wrong.  I’m so guilty of this, and being here has really made me appreciate the little things in America that I take for granted. This trip has helped me to relax, to enjoy where I am in that exact moment (like the long 3-4 hour dinners with our SIT group, those dinners made some of my favorite memories getting to know the other students, its so nice to just sit and converse without feeling rushed to get to the next destination. People here just love talking and relaxing and being with people they care about. Its awesome)

But anyways, I digress. I am LOVING everything about Gulu so far. People are very friendly and its not as crowded as Kampala, thank god.  I really am looking forward to researching and living here for 6 weeks.  I’m sad I won’t be by the other SIT students that I’ve grown close to, but it will be good for me to step out and meet some new people by myself.  Things for me just feel right in Gulu. The only obstacle is that the main languages used here are Luo and Acholi, not Luganda. So the past 3 weeks learning Luganda kinda seems like a waste. 

 I ate at the restaurant here last night by myself and met the sweetest hotel worker named Stella.  She is 20 years old and has been working there for awhile. She was so friendly and ended up ditching work today to take me around gulu to go shopping at the market. She said she told her manager that she needed to show me around quick, but we ended up being gone for hours haha. And she wants to take me out tonight and to her church tomorrow morning.  She said if she can ever come to Chicago, she wants me to set her up with a cute mazungu boy, any takers?

Only day 2 and I love Gulu.

It has been quite some time since ive updated this blog, (daddy and mims im updating it now just for you)!

A lot has happened since the rural homestay.  After our 3 week excursion to Rwanda and western Uganda, we came back to Kampala for 3 weeks to take Luganda language classes in the mornings and elective courses in the afternoons. We chose one out of three different electives related to health issues and development in Uganda: grassroots development, gender, or public health.  I decided to study Public Health and it turned out to be really interesting.  The first week we had lectures about the different health issues in Uganda, which were okay, kinda dull and a lot of the lectures were just reviews of information that Ive already learned.  But the second week I felt like a learned a lot because we went on many site visits the whole time and actually got to meet with doctors, patients, nurses, healers, etc.  We got to see health clinics, landfills, a recycling center, and meet traditional healers (a spiritualist and a bone setter).  Visiting the spiritualist and bone setter was so interesting. Over 60% of Ugandans use traditional healing as their primary source of health care, which I find so fascinating.  Many Ugandans use traditional healing because of affordability and accessibility, especially in rural areas throughout Uganda where going to the nearest health clinic or hospital is too far that many have no choice but to turn to healers.  Often patients spend entire days traveling to the nearest health center to find that medication/supplies are out of stock which discourages them to rely on the biomedical field altogether. Over the past month, I’ve seen so many traditional health centers so it was really cool to be able to actually meet and interview the healers.  

Okay so how indecisive can a person be?  I think I win.  This past week we have been getting ourselves prepared to begin our practicum/Independent study project (ISP).  This consists of each student choosing a topic of interest that relates to the development in Uganda to research for the last 6 weeks of the program (and we can pretty much go anywhere in uganda that we want).  Initially, I was set on researching access to clean water and sanitation within rural areas throughout Uganda.  Last semester I took a class on global health and learned about the water crisis in developing countries so I was so set on this, even before I got to Uganda.  

Yet of course I changed my mind.  Learning about traditional healing was so interesting to me that I wanted to switch topics.  I researched a little on my own to write my practicum/ISP proposal.  I even interviewed with the NGO, THETA, whose objective is to build a strong relationship between traditional healing practitioners and biomedical practitioners within Uganda. The organization focuses specifically on training traditional healers in order for them to gain more legitimacy within their communities by teaching them proper, sanitary techniques and educating them when to refer patients to the health clinic/hospital, especially for blood testing for HIV/AIDS.  I met with a worker there named Moses who was totally willing to have me work through them to do my research.  It would have worked out perfectly…yet I just got this weird, uneasy sinking feeling in my gut. Something just didn’t feel right.

I don’t know how, but this past Tuesday I just knew I wasn’t supposed to be researching traditional healing.  I was so frustrated with myself. A couple days before our ISP starts and I want to switch back to researching water... Why does everything in my life always have to feel so uncertain?  I change my mind so much on so many things….but for the first time in a long time, I was certain that I needed to switch.  

If something like this would have happened to be before studying abroad, I definitely think I would have kept quiet and stuck it out with researching on traditional healing.  But I think so far studying abroad in Uganda  has forced me to grow up a lot and make decisions based on what I want.…when usually I think I just go with the flow…maybe a little too much.  Studying abroad has also definitely made me question every little thing in my life. Its frustrating, I feel very uncertain but way too many things, but I finally realized its helping me grow and that I just need to trust my faith and trust my instincts.  

Anyways…It would have seemed like too much of a hassle to switch topics again and have to rush to write another proposal, and pretty much just have to start from the beginning.  But I knew something in me just didn’t feel right about traditional healing.  Its so interesting, but I went with my gut feeling and switched back to water. AND I COULDN’T BE ANY HAPPIER. I am so thankful that I met with my advisor to switch topics, even though it was SO last minute. 

I walked into Charlotte’s office (my advisor) on Tuesday and told her how I was just feeling so lost and frustrated. She was so understanding and willing to work with me at quickly changing my topic back to water, I couldn’t thank her enough. She was like, “okay…first things first. We are not going to freak out over this, you are gonna figure this out”. Cassie and chrissy if you are reading this, you know exactly what state of freakout mode I was in…not pretty.  

But after a very frustrating week of feeling very lost and confused, I figured it out and am now finally feeling certain in where I am :)   

YAY CLEAN WATER FOR ALL:)   

rural homestay

March 5, 2011

Rural Homestay

I just got back from my rural homestay.  It was probably one of the coolest experiences ever, and I think Ive learned more in these past couple of days than on this entire trip so far.  We got to spend some time in a village in the Rwenzori mountains.  David and I were paired together (as if we don’t spend enough time together commuting to school every day in Kampala, yet I think we were a great match and enjoyed the many games of paper scrabble we created over the past couple of days) and we were placed in a family with two parents who are both public school teachers with 3 children, Elton, Bennon, and Judith. Our advisors were warning us that our homes would most likely be dirt huts in the middle of nowhere, yet our home from the outside was nicer than I was expecting. While our home was on the nicer side (for Africa), inside there still was no electricity, no running water, no shower, no toilet.  Right next door there were dirt brick huts along with dirty but beautiful children running around all day because their parents cannot afford for them to go to school.  The past couple of days have been very challenging…especially at night when the rats came out and were running beneath our bedsL  That was not enjoyable.  Yet besides the rats, our family was the most welcoming and friendly people I think I have ever met.  They treated us like family right from the start.  

The food was another big challenge for me. The first afternoon when we arrived, our mother wanted us to see how the fish were going to be prepared for supper. Yah… I just about lost it.  She started cutting up the poor little fishy with the guts and gushy blood pouring out. Yayyyyy. I couldn’t help but freak out a little…thankfully my mother just laughed at me and was like ‘ahhh carol, you will love it, I promise you this ahahahah just wait for suppa’. (yah by the way, Ugandans cannot pronounce Carlee. Its impossible, they have no idea how to pronounce the ‘car’ part back in kampala, and here…they couldn’t pronounce Carlyn.  So basically I went by ‘Kali’, ‘Carol’, ‘Caroleen’ ‘Carl’, etc. and have gotten pretty used to just responding to anything.  And for the first 2 days here, the whole family was calling me Justine hahah because I accidently called Judith, the oldest daughter who is about 11 years old, Justine, and she thought I was introducing myself as Justine. It was all very confusing but I just went with it for awhile and thought maybe they just gave me a new name.  

Anyways, this blog entry is very scattered and all over the place, but back to food.  So yes, I ate another fishy head with just my hands. Had to pick around the eyeball and the bones. The meat was actually really really good, I just can’t get around the fact that it’s a fishy that I am eating.  Yet that wasn’t the worst part.  The next night was goat meat. The chewiest, fattest meat ever, served with the other yummy intestines and liver right in my bowl.  Yah, I really am starting to miss American food. 

David and I had to come up with a nice gift to bring our hostfamily. So of course, we buy a goat for them for only $100,000 shillings (approx. $50 US). They were so happy!! We named her Nala (but learned later its very bad luck to name goats in uganda, whoops) I can’t believe I bought a goat.  I was so nervous when we were served goat meat the following night, thinking it was our poor Nala. But thankfully it wasn’t…maybe her brother or somethingL so saddddd

Good food news: my family had the biggest avocado and guavo trees right in their backyard. I was in heaven being served avocado for lunch every day. And we learned how to make the most delicious passion fruit/orange juice that I am now obsessed with. 

The bathing situation was so enjoyable. It was just a bucket bath outside in the open next to the hole in the ground for a toilet, kinda covered by some stacks of mud bricks.  It was so lovely though to shower and look out at the huge mountains, it was breathtaking.  Very refreshing. Never would I have thought I would enjoy bathing in a bucket with cold water outside, but ive learned that you really can get used to new things after awhile. Only surprising part was the first day hearing snickers and giggles coming from one small hole in the bricks with little eyes peaking at me. The little 3 year old neighbor apparently wanted a look-see, I just about died.

Ahh there are so many things I want to write about. I don’t think I have enough time to write them all.  But besides these little details about the past couple of days, I had the best moment on this trip during this homestay…I have been feeling really discouraged about future plans and what I want to do after college, especially being here in Africa. I still just haven’t found that passion for something that really motivates me to work hard. Could I see myself here in the future? Do I want to apply for the peace corps? I’m almost a senior and I have no direction of where I want to go after graduation. Its been a little discouraging being around all of these other students who are so intelligent, so driven, and who know what they want in life.  At first I was so inspired by them, yet at the same time I feel so behind that I have no idea what I want.  Ive been feeling pretty low and lost not knowing what I want to do….yet I finally found some direction I think, or at least found something that I want to look into.  It happened when David and I were doing our research 2 days ago within the village about education.  Something about walking into those schools with 120 eager kids with only 1 teacher…I don’t know… I just really felt like becoming a teacher is now something I really want to do.  I just became so inspired by the teachers we talked with who barely get paid enough to survive yet continue to come each day to teach these poor children.  In just this village alone, so many families cannot afford for their children to go school… I just find that so heartbreaking. I take education for granted way too much…these children would do anything to learn and I complain about finishing a paper…while I have electricity, I have access to internet and these children have never even heard of a computer. I just couldn’t believe it, that there are these places all over the world that are often just forgotten about, yet these children are so bright and will never get the opportunity to get an education.  So maybe teaching, or working with education administration with the policies and funding, is something I want to look into. Peace Corps Aaron was explaining that the majority of undergrads entering the peace corps will be placed in schools to teach English, and that if I want to go to Africa, there is such a high need here that it will be easy to be placed somewhere here. So I don’t know…I still have no idea what I want to do, but I really did feel motivated after visiting these schools.

Now its back to crazy hot dusty dirty Kampala.

bye rwanda, ive missed you uganda

02/28/2010

No longer in Rwanda. We returned to western Uganda and are staying in a hotel for a couple of days before heading to our rural homestays early Wednesday morning. I cannot waitttttt. It feels good to be back in Uganda. I loved Rwanda, it was beautiful, but it just isn’t Uganda, the pearlllll of Africa. 

Today Gracie and Jesse and I went to FURA (Foundation of Urban and Rural Advancement) in Kasase, Uganda. We were assigned to some random NGO within this town to practice our interview and observation methods (which should be done in a different manner in Uganda compared to the US).  The staff was so welcoming as soon as we walked up to the building, each staff member wanting to greet us and shake our hands.  One of the founders of FURA, Rueban, has been working there for 19 years and he was kind enough to take time out of his hectic day to meet with us.  It was amazing to hear the great achievements that this one NGO has done in less than 20 years, yet of course, that coming from the founder of the organization....but nonetheless, the organization seemed to be doing great things for Kasase district. Ugandans are so friendly and nice, yet it’s hard to determine if these NGOs we are visiting are so welcoming and open to us because we’re white, meaning we probably have money..and the fact that we just showed up at their doorstep with no appointment, are we donating? Wanting to volunteer? Nope..sadly just broke American students.   

After I told Rueban that I am from Chicago, his face lit up with excitement. Turns out that a Peace Corps volunteer from Lemont, IL has been working for FURA for about 1 ½ years. So Rueban grabbed his phone and called Aaron to see where he was and Aaron comes strolling in Ruedan’s office 2 minutes later. Small worlddddd. I have been interested in applying for the Peace Corps for a long time now, yet as I have been looking more seriously into it, my doubts continue to grow….so randomly being placed to walk into FURA was a blessing in disguise I think.  Not only did I get to meet Aaron and see what he has been doing at FURA, but he ended up coming over later this evening for dinner to answer any questions our group had about peace corps.  

He was exactly the person I needed to talk with. He didn’t sugarcoat his experience with the PC at all, he was just real and honest. It was refreshing to hear what its really like instead of a PC recruit paid to tell IWU how amazing their experience was. I wanted to hear the good parts, obviously, but I really wanted to hear the downsides from someone who has completed most of it. And after hearing some of Aaron’s challenges throughout his stay, I realized that being a PCV will be very, very difficult…but I still think I want to apply. It is still something that I want to look into…and I think I grew more interested in it after talking with Aaron. Being on your own for 2 years is something he really stressed and said was probably the most challenging part because he gets lonely all the time, yet the positive part about that is being able to research and catch up on the books he’s always wanted to read and never got the chance to, I liked that.  I don’t know…I really do enjoy my alone time, I don’t think that would be a bad thing for me. I think I want to keep looking into it.

On another note, this past weekend we went to Queen Elizabeth National park and saw so many animals!!!! Saturday we went on a boat ride all day and I finally saw my elephants that I have been waiting to see for so long! No baby elephants, but many big wrinkly ones, I love how African elephants have ears that kinda look like Africa, while the ones in India are kinda shaped like India. How cool is that?! God totally planned that. I was the happiest. No lions, no tigers, no bears though. Or giraffes or hyenas :( but there’s still time during our 6 week practicum independent study to be able to see more yafantes as well as some other camping and exploring and adventurous outings that our group is trying to plan.

I won’t have internet during my time in the rural homestay. So until next time, whoever is reading this (probably just mims, daddy, and cassie and chrissy, maybe morgan too?) go to chipotle and a movie for me. And enjoy hot showers. And reliable internet connection. And oh yah, SNOW (ha just kidding, not missing the cold weather one bit)