Hey Everybody,
Yes, it has been too long since we have written for our blog. Unfortunately the rain season causes power to drop a lot and so we have gone days without power. Also we pay for our internet by the month and had to wait till our last payday to renew it.
So basically we are slackers. But we have also been doing lots of things with our village. In the next few weeks I hope to write out these stories and post them. For right now here are some highlights since swearing in on April 21st:
End of April Highlights
Swimming in Mbale town (look it up!) – Swimming never felt so good! We can’t go swimming in any Uganda lakes or rivers because of Schisto (parasites).
May Hightlights
Erik and Anjali visited our house in Bukedea
We attempted to make Gnocchi pasta and accidently tripled the recipe
We got mountain bikes in Soroti town (look it up!) and can now get around much faster and easier! Thank goodness our area is flat or mid-afternoon would stink!
I slaughtered my first chicken and made Chicken in Butter Sauce – hmmmmm
I got a Singer Sewing Machine – the one you pump with your feet! Crazy yes but at $85 for a sewing machine who could resist
We visited Sipi Falls (look it up!) with Arwen and Brennan and had a blast. (My facebook profile picture is from Sipi Falls)
We went to our first Ugandan wedding – It was a Tuesday – The ceremony was over 3 hours long with a rain storm threatening to blow the tents away, literally.
We ordered a table and chairs and after 4 weeks of not getting anything Tony’s Supervisor, Sister Salome, gave the carpenter a smack down – Hilarious!
Classes really started one week after school started
I began a question box at school and have had great questions that I am happy to tackle (i.e. Is it true that in America when people reach a certain age you kill them?)
I had a 7 hour staff meeting where we only talked about new information for 1.5 hours…
We were locked in a hotel one morning for 3 hours…
I made Banana Cake for the Sisters at the Convent
Meeting up with almost everyone in our training group in Kampala was a blast.
We received our care packages! Only 2.5 months after being sent (will change now that we have a PO Box in Mbale)
My Laundry Speed is approximately 15-18 items per hour (shirts, pants, and skirts – no comp outs with socks and underwear!) – Sheets and towels still are hard to do!
June Highlights
I made bread with our 4 year old neighbor Julius. We sort of take turns occupying Julius because he can be annoying and get in your way quickly. I mean he is 4, it is only natural.
We found a cheeseburger place in Mbale that also sells cheese! Can you say Homemade Pizzas?
Tony learned he is not an electrician
I slaughtered my second chicken with 4 year old Julius, 5 year old Peter, and 1.5 year old Baby.
We accidentally made brownies for the Sisters and gave them a big surprise.
I play games and sports with girls at my school and they are always surprised
After 6 weeks we finally got our kitchen table. Can you imagine not having a kitchen table for 6 weeks, its crazy.
Sister Betty wanted to learn how to make Banana Cake so we made it together
We watched the first England/US World Cup soccer game in Mbale with lots of other volunteers
Uganda has great fabrics – Soon I will have a piranha fish dress. I feel like Mrs. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus.
I held a penpal meeting with the girls at my school and it seems that all of them want US husbands…hmm more to come on this issue.
I have successfully fought Giardia for the second time (look it up!)
I have mastered Chapatti (a Ugandan style of Tortilla).
Tony Projects / Adventure with Ants
Various hooks and nails have made our life easier
Hour camping shower is set up and hot water showers are amazing!
Old chairs have been re-worked into bookshelves (since the school carpenter doesn’t have wood – now does that make sense? “T.I.A. – This is Africa”)
We have retractable mosquito nets
An attic mouse can no longer eat our food thanks to Duct Tape and Wood
We have curtains that completely cover our windows and move from the top down (this is a Stacey project)
And we have a 120L water drum with a tap that is now elevated and useable!
Ant lines are being destroyed
Ants are no longer in our food because we have tuperware and a water system.
So overall we are healthy and happy in this country of ours. We do have bad/horribly frustrating days but the good outweigh the bad by far.
School is going well. We are figuring out teaching and how to be effective. Currently I have about 60 students per class and Tony has around 110 students per class. But the people we work with are great people that are wonderfully helpful.
Thank you for your love and support! More to come soon!
Stacey
PS – We do have more pictures to post but we are going to find a web-site to post them to for our family members without Facebook.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Settling In
Hello America. How are ya?
It has been a long time since I have written and I’m sorry. Sadly you won’t hear all that has happened to us in this post, simply because today was awesome/challenging/interesting and felt that I should share it.
I would like to call this post “Settling In”.
This morning I woke-up while it was still dark outside (before 7am). I woke-up to the sounds of my neighbors starting their day and about 50 roosters making their crows. I mean we do have over two hundred chickens between 20 and 50 feet from our back door. You know, the usual.
I then proceeded to get up and join Tony in the other bedroom because at the moment we do not have a mattress big enough for two and we need to sleep under mosquito nets. Hopefully sometime this week we can travel 20km by public taxi to Mbale to get said mattress. This would be approximately 45 minutes by taxi with Tony and I sitting on top of our closest friends. The taxis have 15 seats but on our last ride there were 20 adults and under the seats were as many chickens as could fit; they were being sold at the market. I digress.
Breakfast was pancakes and honey. No homemade passion fruit juice this morning but I’ll make more later. Then after getting ready (aka business casual and me in a skirt) we headed over to Tony’s school St. Theresa’s to catch up with everyone. Last week their one month break started and this week they are reviewing material with the seniors before their tests. No real break for these students or teachers.
I went over to my school St. Mary’s and met with Jane, my counterpart. She was creating a workshop schedule (the morning the workshop started) because the facilitators hadn’t arrived yet. She also had tests from last term on her desk that she didn’t know if she would get to grade. No worries though because there is no real set deadline. Now this sounds worse than it actually is because truth be told a schedule couldn’t be worked out unless everything was finalized/confirmed, and well, who finalizes/confirms anything these days?
After tea, I met up with Tony and his counterpart, Deo, to head into town and see the market. Our schools are not in the town of Bukedea but are about a 30 minute walk outside of town. It is a nice walk because it is very flat compared to our training site, Wakiso, but on a hot day there is no shade.
Every Monday is market day and this market is Huge! It is the largest in the district and so tons of venders come in from the major towns and sell produce, meat, dry goods, soap, toys, hardware, animals, bikes, beer, you name it they have got it. And the people are really nice too. They saw us “musugots” (white people/foreigners) and once we started speaking Ateso they smiled and laughed. They were very patient and helpful as we tried forming sentences and explaining what we wanted. This also helped us get the real prices of items. Here is a reason to be jealous of us, we bought a sigiri grill today for 4,000 Ush. That is, we bought a local mini charcoal grill for $2! Yea you’re jealous.
Then Tony and I decided to head into town to buy a 120 Liter water jug. On the walk in we followed to old railroad tracks. The Chinese built up the railroads in Uganda but soon after they handed it over to the Ugandans it slowed/stopped. Not sustainable sadly. On the walk in we had one child walk with us. Sadly our Ateso isn’t great yet to carry on conversations beyond 10 minutes.
Town was full with so many people coming and going from the market. It was cool to see one woman on a bicycle taxi carrying a stock of sugar cane that just had to be 8 feet tall. Walking down the street we decided to get lunch at a local restaurant. Their goat was amazing! It has to be my favorite meat here. We don’t have it in the states (at least where I live) and it is really tender and delicious. Plus the restaurant didn’t chop it up into small chunks so the meat had texture and only a few bone fragments.
Purchasing the tank was easy enough, only 18,000 Ush, and we spent time with the motorcycle and bicycle taxi drivers. The Boda-Boda’s. Now sadly boda-boda drivers have good and bad raps. They are often reckless young men trying to earn a living. However, there are a number of boda-boda drivers that are educated unemployed men with families to feed. It is hard to go beyond the stereotype but talking with them helps. We were practicing Ateso and today began talking about forming community projects with them. I see great potential here.
Once we were back at home Tony went over to his school to make lesson plan outlines. I stayed back and read. I am almost done with my second book since we have arrived in Bukedea nine days ago. It’s awesome!
Then in an effort to actually settle into our house I went at cleaning the bedroom. However, after noticing a hole in my screen I decided to create a messy project. You see, in Uganda windows often do not have screens. This can be for many reasons but our problem is that our windows open and close funny. They open like shutters and close with a metal bar latch inside the window. If you think about it, that means we have one of two options; either have a screen or have the ability to open our windows.
So you may be asking yourself what screen did I actually fix. Well, have you ever seen fancy cinder blocks or bricks that people use to decorate their landscape with? They often have holes in them. Well in Uganda homes have these “holie bricks” as a type of ventilation system and they put screens over these.
I went outside and with the help of Julius, my three year old nephew (he calls my auntie), I cleaned and screened the holie bricks. They were gross with lots of dust and a few old wasps nests. My neighbors must have thought I was crazy because after dusting I cut up a mosquito net and stuck it to the bricks using flour and water. A perfect homemade glue actually.
Then a sad thing happened, I went to the bore-hole (water well) at around 5:30pm. That is prime time for water collection and lots of people were there. I talked with one guy for a while and practiced language. I have so much to learn! But while I was practicing language I put my jerry can jugs in the “line” to wait my turn to fill up. However, the concept of a line is really arbitrary because my jerry cans didn’t move for over an hour. I didn’t mind waiting my turn but then obviously I was being skipped over by kids (and adults) filling their own jerry cans. I didn’t have the heart to cut in front of people or be rude so I decided to come back later. I felt sad though. It reminded me of elementary school and how upset I got when people would cut in front of me…
Back at home, Tony was working on tapping our 120 Liter jug. He took the tap and placed it over the gas range flame to heat the metal and melt a hole into the jug. It worked very well but then I had to crawl inside it to put plumbers tap around the end (sorry dad I forgot what it’s called) to create a better seal with the nut. Awesome timing after the bore hole but you know it is great that we have more water storage. 320 Liters at once! How many gallons is that? To be honest I have never been more aware of my water use than I am now because I have to carry the stuff!
Tony went with me and we got water after the masses had cleared out. I then proceeded to bucket bath, in a bath tub no doubt, using about 10 liters of water instead of my usual 5. It made me feel better!
Dinner was stuffed green peppers and chips. (Mini green peppers)
Since this weekend we have tuperware and the ability to store left-over food. Ants may still be a problem though. They somehow found their way into our fried white ants tuperware container. I told Tony I didn’t mind that the ants were in with the fried ants but he decided he didn’t want any.
To roast the peppers I made on oven with three pots. One large pot was the base, a second smaller one held the food inside, and the third formed the cover. It worked out well. Also we found cheese that can be stored at room temperature (I know it is very fake but we like our fantasy world cheese)! So we topped the peppers with that and fried slices of potatoes to make chips.
We ended the night by watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother. It seems that even though we are away from the states, having little reminders of home is really refreshing.
So now you find me here. In Uganda at 12:49am writing a blog post and uploading pictures onto Facebook. Happily we can stay connected with all of you but I find it fun that I have only been on the internet 6 times in 3 months. =) Good Night
It has been a long time since I have written and I’m sorry. Sadly you won’t hear all that has happened to us in this post, simply because today was awesome/challenging/interesting and felt that I should share it.
I would like to call this post “Settling In”.
This morning I woke-up while it was still dark outside (before 7am). I woke-up to the sounds of my neighbors starting their day and about 50 roosters making their crows. I mean we do have over two hundred chickens between 20 and 50 feet from our back door. You know, the usual.
I then proceeded to get up and join Tony in the other bedroom because at the moment we do not have a mattress big enough for two and we need to sleep under mosquito nets. Hopefully sometime this week we can travel 20km by public taxi to Mbale to get said mattress. This would be approximately 45 minutes by taxi with Tony and I sitting on top of our closest friends. The taxis have 15 seats but on our last ride there were 20 adults and under the seats were as many chickens as could fit; they were being sold at the market. I digress.
Breakfast was pancakes and honey. No homemade passion fruit juice this morning but I’ll make more later. Then after getting ready (aka business casual and me in a skirt) we headed over to Tony’s school St. Theresa’s to catch up with everyone. Last week their one month break started and this week they are reviewing material with the seniors before their tests. No real break for these students or teachers.
I went over to my school St. Mary’s and met with Jane, my counterpart. She was creating a workshop schedule (the morning the workshop started) because the facilitators hadn’t arrived yet. She also had tests from last term on her desk that she didn’t know if she would get to grade. No worries though because there is no real set deadline. Now this sounds worse than it actually is because truth be told a schedule couldn’t be worked out unless everything was finalized/confirmed, and well, who finalizes/confirms anything these days?
After tea, I met up with Tony and his counterpart, Deo, to head into town and see the market. Our schools are not in the town of Bukedea but are about a 30 minute walk outside of town. It is a nice walk because it is very flat compared to our training site, Wakiso, but on a hot day there is no shade.
Every Monday is market day and this market is Huge! It is the largest in the district and so tons of venders come in from the major towns and sell produce, meat, dry goods, soap, toys, hardware, animals, bikes, beer, you name it they have got it. And the people are really nice too. They saw us “musugots” (white people/foreigners) and once we started speaking Ateso they smiled and laughed. They were very patient and helpful as we tried forming sentences and explaining what we wanted. This also helped us get the real prices of items. Here is a reason to be jealous of us, we bought a sigiri grill today for 4,000 Ush. That is, we bought a local mini charcoal grill for $2! Yea you’re jealous.
Then Tony and I decided to head into town to buy a 120 Liter water jug. On the walk in we followed to old railroad tracks. The Chinese built up the railroads in Uganda but soon after they handed it over to the Ugandans it slowed/stopped. Not sustainable sadly. On the walk in we had one child walk with us. Sadly our Ateso isn’t great yet to carry on conversations beyond 10 minutes.
Town was full with so many people coming and going from the market. It was cool to see one woman on a bicycle taxi carrying a stock of sugar cane that just had to be 8 feet tall. Walking down the street we decided to get lunch at a local restaurant. Their goat was amazing! It has to be my favorite meat here. We don’t have it in the states (at least where I live) and it is really tender and delicious. Plus the restaurant didn’t chop it up into small chunks so the meat had texture and only a few bone fragments.
Purchasing the tank was easy enough, only 18,000 Ush, and we spent time with the motorcycle and bicycle taxi drivers. The Boda-Boda’s. Now sadly boda-boda drivers have good and bad raps. They are often reckless young men trying to earn a living. However, there are a number of boda-boda drivers that are educated unemployed men with families to feed. It is hard to go beyond the stereotype but talking with them helps. We were practicing Ateso and today began talking about forming community projects with them. I see great potential here.
Once we were back at home Tony went over to his school to make lesson plan outlines. I stayed back and read. I am almost done with my second book since we have arrived in Bukedea nine days ago. It’s awesome!
Then in an effort to actually settle into our house I went at cleaning the bedroom. However, after noticing a hole in my screen I decided to create a messy project. You see, in Uganda windows often do not have screens. This can be for many reasons but our problem is that our windows open and close funny. They open like shutters and close with a metal bar latch inside the window. If you think about it, that means we have one of two options; either have a screen or have the ability to open our windows.
So you may be asking yourself what screen did I actually fix. Well, have you ever seen fancy cinder blocks or bricks that people use to decorate their landscape with? They often have holes in them. Well in Uganda homes have these “holie bricks” as a type of ventilation system and they put screens over these.
I went outside and with the help of Julius, my three year old nephew (he calls my auntie), I cleaned and screened the holie bricks. They were gross with lots of dust and a few old wasps nests. My neighbors must have thought I was crazy because after dusting I cut up a mosquito net and stuck it to the bricks using flour and water. A perfect homemade glue actually.
Then a sad thing happened, I went to the bore-hole (water well) at around 5:30pm. That is prime time for water collection and lots of people were there. I talked with one guy for a while and practiced language. I have so much to learn! But while I was practicing language I put my jerry can jugs in the “line” to wait my turn to fill up. However, the concept of a line is really arbitrary because my jerry cans didn’t move for over an hour. I didn’t mind waiting my turn but then obviously I was being skipped over by kids (and adults) filling their own jerry cans. I didn’t have the heart to cut in front of people or be rude so I decided to come back later. I felt sad though. It reminded me of elementary school and how upset I got when people would cut in front of me…
Back at home, Tony was working on tapping our 120 Liter jug. He took the tap and placed it over the gas range flame to heat the metal and melt a hole into the jug. It worked very well but then I had to crawl inside it to put plumbers tap around the end (sorry dad I forgot what it’s called) to create a better seal with the nut. Awesome timing after the bore hole but you know it is great that we have more water storage. 320 Liters at once! How many gallons is that? To be honest I have never been more aware of my water use than I am now because I have to carry the stuff!
Tony went with me and we got water after the masses had cleared out. I then proceeded to bucket bath, in a bath tub no doubt, using about 10 liters of water instead of my usual 5. It made me feel better!
Dinner was stuffed green peppers and chips. (Mini green peppers)
Since this weekend we have tuperware and the ability to store left-over food. Ants may still be a problem though. They somehow found their way into our fried white ants tuperware container. I told Tony I didn’t mind that the ants were in with the fried ants but he decided he didn’t want any.
To roast the peppers I made on oven with three pots. One large pot was the base, a second smaller one held the food inside, and the third formed the cover. It worked out well. Also we found cheese that can be stored at room temperature (I know it is very fake but we like our fantasy world cheese)! So we topped the peppers with that and fried slices of potatoes to make chips.
We ended the night by watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother. It seems that even though we are away from the states, having little reminders of home is really refreshing.
So now you find me here. In Uganda at 12:49am writing a blog post and uploading pictures onto Facebook. Happily we can stay connected with all of you but I find it fun that I have only been on the internet 6 times in 3 months. =) Good Night
Friday, April 9, 2010
Internet in Bukedea - St. Mary's Primary Teacher's College
Hello Everyone,
How are you today? I am great! Tony and I just learned our Peace Corps location for the next two years and currently we are visiting Bukedea, Uganda!
Bukedea is a small village on the map, probably under 1000 people. However it has a strong complex of 4 different school; a primary school, secondary school, Primary Teacher's College, and another primary school with the college students practice teaching. Also all the schools are Catholic school and there is a small convent of nuns that run a clinic and nursery school for children. (Last night we ate dinner with the nuns and watch Brazilian Soap Operas - Nuns having Fun!)
We have also seen our house! Super Exciting! Mainly because this house is about 2.5x the size of our last apartment (although that isn't saying a lot). But we have a large living room, kitchen (sort of), guest room, master bedroom that is really large, and an indoor bathroom.
Did you catch that! An indoor bathroom! It has a bathtub and European style toilet (not a squatting toilet)! However there is no running water so we have to fill the toilet each time but that is ok. It is so nice not to put on shoes and a headlamp to go outside to a latrine at night!
The house has lots of potential. Oh and it has electricity when the town has electricity (it's rationed). Also there are two water bore holes right near us. So all in all our house, schools, and water sources are within a 3 minute walk from us. We feel very fortunate.
So what is next for us and Peace Corps training? Well we have completed every part of training besides the final Language Proficiency Test. That will happen next week on Friday, Tony's birthday. Then we will say good bye to our host families with a Homestay Thank You Party on the 17th. On the 18th we will move ourselves to the capital, Kampala, and swear in as Peace Corps volunteers on April 21st!
I am happy and sad that Peace Corps training is almost done. The last two weeks of training have been hard because of projects, stress, and just being burned out overall. Although our training group is awesome. We have 29 people in our group and everyone of us have bonded and all that fun stuff. I will miss them but thankfully we are all going to stay connected. For example, we have already claimed Thanksgiving as the holiday Tony and I will host and almost every other holiday has been claimed.
Luckily for us too we will be living close to other volunteers. Bukedea is right in the middle of the towns of Mbale and Kumi. And to be honest, Mbale has a gorgeous national park and Mt. Elgon so it is a tourist attraction. So to have an escape we can quickly go to Mbale or Kumi which will be nice. Yesterday we ate lunch in Mbale and I had a cheeseburger and fries! A cheeseburger! It was so delicious! Although the bun was the size of a dinner roll =) Also we checked out one grocery store in town and found Twix Bars and NesQuick. (I am beginning to think Peace Corps service will be easier than I thought!)
Well more exploring of the area tomorrow and then back to Wakiso for the last week of training. I am happy with our site and that we have Internet in the middle of the village!
Love and Miss you all,
Stacey =)
PS My counterpart and principal seem awesome too!
How are you today? I am great! Tony and I just learned our Peace Corps location for the next two years and currently we are visiting Bukedea, Uganda!
Bukedea is a small village on the map, probably under 1000 people. However it has a strong complex of 4 different school; a primary school, secondary school, Primary Teacher's College, and another primary school with the college students practice teaching. Also all the schools are Catholic school and there is a small convent of nuns that run a clinic and nursery school for children. (Last night we ate dinner with the nuns and watch Brazilian Soap Operas - Nuns having Fun!)
We have also seen our house! Super Exciting! Mainly because this house is about 2.5x the size of our last apartment (although that isn't saying a lot). But we have a large living room, kitchen (sort of), guest room, master bedroom that is really large, and an indoor bathroom.
Did you catch that! An indoor bathroom! It has a bathtub and European style toilet (not a squatting toilet)! However there is no running water so we have to fill the toilet each time but that is ok. It is so nice not to put on shoes and a headlamp to go outside to a latrine at night!
The house has lots of potential. Oh and it has electricity when the town has electricity (it's rationed). Also there are two water bore holes right near us. So all in all our house, schools, and water sources are within a 3 minute walk from us. We feel very fortunate.
So what is next for us and Peace Corps training? Well we have completed every part of training besides the final Language Proficiency Test. That will happen next week on Friday, Tony's birthday. Then we will say good bye to our host families with a Homestay Thank You Party on the 17th. On the 18th we will move ourselves to the capital, Kampala, and swear in as Peace Corps volunteers on April 21st!
I am happy and sad that Peace Corps training is almost done. The last two weeks of training have been hard because of projects, stress, and just being burned out overall. Although our training group is awesome. We have 29 people in our group and everyone of us have bonded and all that fun stuff. I will miss them but thankfully we are all going to stay connected. For example, we have already claimed Thanksgiving as the holiday Tony and I will host and almost every other holiday has been claimed.
Luckily for us too we will be living close to other volunteers. Bukedea is right in the middle of the towns of Mbale and Kumi. And to be honest, Mbale has a gorgeous national park and Mt. Elgon so it is a tourist attraction. So to have an escape we can quickly go to Mbale or Kumi which will be nice. Yesterday we ate lunch in Mbale and I had a cheeseburger and fries! A cheeseburger! It was so delicious! Although the bun was the size of a dinner roll =) Also we checked out one grocery store in town and found Twix Bars and NesQuick. (I am beginning to think Peace Corps service will be easier than I thought!)
Well more exploring of the area tomorrow and then back to Wakiso for the last week of training. I am happy with our site and that we have Internet in the middle of the village!
Love and Miss you all,
Stacey =)
PS My counterpart and principal seem awesome too!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
This is how long blog posts get when you have internet every two weeks
For the past week, Stacey and I have been split between two sites for Immersion Service Training. Since I am a secondary teacher and she is a primary teacher we are staying with different people and at different places, which should lead to some different points of view in our next few posts.
I am in the town of Kidetok, Soroti. I left Wakiso early Sunday morning and was dropped off at the Teso Coach bus stop with fellow trainees Joe and David. At around 6:30 am we pulled out of Kampala and started our travels East. Along the way we picked up many more passengers, our bus started its journey half full, but gained many riders by the time we reached Jinja. Our first major destination was Mbale where we took a 15 min break before we hopped back on the highway cutting back to the West and North. Our ride ended in Soroti where we met up with a PCV named Ted Wells. For these two weeks we are living at Ted’s site and observing and practice teaching at his school. We spent the afternoon in Soroti town before hopping on a matatu for another two hours to his site.
The countryside we passed through to get here was amazing. In the Kampala area and heading east we passed over rolling hills and lush vegetation. The only way we could describe the view was green. Hundreds of different shades of green blended and competed with each other being broken only by fields where the farmers had recently cleared for planting or a string of shops created a trading post. At Jinja we crossed the Nile and saw the great hydro dam. After that town the scenery started to change. The hills became less, but larger and the lush jungle thinned. At Mbale we could tell we were in the foothills of Mt. Elgon. Heading to the northwest from there we started to hit savanna and were graced with the typical, and stereotypical, picture of Africa, mud huts with thatch roof surrounded by waves of grass. I think I might have been able to connect with the scene more if I hadn’t been flying by at 60 mph in a worn down coach bus.
Ted stays at a mission associated with St. Elizabeth’s Girls Secondary School. Ted shares his house with Father Mattias and his nieces who attend the secondary school and do the house work. Ted volunteered his bedroom (he is sleeping in his office) and guest room for the three of us to stay in. St. Elizabeth’s is now a government assisted secondary school that looks a shadow of its former self. It used to be nationally recognized, but now it would need a good coat of paint or more just to distinguish itself from the savanna. The school does have some decent resources and competent teachers, but there is little motivation from either the faculty or the student body to make the changes necessary for recognition once again. The school is also a cluster organization wise. As Ted puts it, there is always something more important than class. Most of the girls there are boarders and have certain chores in the morning. If a girl reports to class and here chore isn’t finished beforehand, she is sent away. Many teachers there do not let students in late to class for any reason so when she comes back she must watch from outside the room. In the day there are also breaks for tea and lunch. Each are routinely late and never finish in the time allowed. The teachers, whose meals are provided by the schools, are also routinely served late, and will not go back to the classrooms until they have taken their half an hour or hour break from the time food is served. As a result it can safely be estimated that students routinely lose a third of their instructional time in a day. I cannot generalize this to all schools in Uganda, but I wouldn’t be surprised to know that loss of instructional time is common.
Since I have been here I have been able to observe a number of classes at the S1 and S2 levels. Next week I am slated to teach S1 math and S2 math and chemistry. The Ugandan system of education structure would take a whole blog post on its own so you will have to stay in the dark on what exactly that means for now. The house Ted lives in and we are staying in is like the Ritz of the Peace Corps world. We have reliable electricity, running water, a (small) refrigerator, indoor flush toilet and a cantina 300 feet away. We are also graced with wonderful hosts who both make great conversation. Ted has some great points of view especially because he is a former volunteer who is back for round two after spending years in Burkina Faso in the 70’s.
The only down part of his site at the sleepy little town of Kidetok is there is horrible cell coverage. This should be something I should have expected in Peace Corps, but Africa is a continent in love with cell phones. This place has literally been the only place I don’t have service. And it has made it hard for Stacey and I to even call each other. We have relied on texting for the past week and it is starting to get old.
There have been limited adventures here but one day Ted tried to scrounge up bikes from the mission so we could all ride to the town of Serere, which is 6 km away. After coming across many half bikes in storage we managed to get two, which could hold air and keep the chains on the gears. Now these aren’t simple mountain bikes, these are the big crappy single speeds that most people just push while moving matoke or jerry cans of water. Ted used his mountain bike while Joe and I each took a single speed. Five minutes into our ride the chain fell off of mine and we spent 20 minutes resetting it. Less than half a km from that Joe’s chain came off and we were fixing his for 20 minutes. A half a km after that Joe’s simply bit the dust and he left just Ted and me to complete the journey. Now both Serere and Kidetok are on little hills so for half the journey (the first part) it is all down hill, and the second half is all up hill. Three km uphill on a single speed bike is brutal! By the time we reached Serere my legs felt like Jell-O. We made our purchases, waited out a brief shower and headed back to home. Thankfully both rider and bike made it back safely which was impressive to all at the site.
There is definitely more to write, but sometimes a single post cannot contain it all. This is already one of the longest we have so far. Thanks for the comments and keep them coming, we love to hear from everyone.
Peace,
~Tony
I am in the town of Kidetok, Soroti. I left Wakiso early Sunday morning and was dropped off at the Teso Coach bus stop with fellow trainees Joe and David. At around 6:30 am we pulled out of Kampala and started our travels East. Along the way we picked up many more passengers, our bus started its journey half full, but gained many riders by the time we reached Jinja. Our first major destination was Mbale where we took a 15 min break before we hopped back on the highway cutting back to the West and North. Our ride ended in Soroti where we met up with a PCV named Ted Wells. For these two weeks we are living at Ted’s site and observing and practice teaching at his school. We spent the afternoon in Soroti town before hopping on a matatu for another two hours to his site.
The countryside we passed through to get here was amazing. In the Kampala area and heading east we passed over rolling hills and lush vegetation. The only way we could describe the view was green. Hundreds of different shades of green blended and competed with each other being broken only by fields where the farmers had recently cleared for planting or a string of shops created a trading post. At Jinja we crossed the Nile and saw the great hydro dam. After that town the scenery started to change. The hills became less, but larger and the lush jungle thinned. At Mbale we could tell we were in the foothills of Mt. Elgon. Heading to the northwest from there we started to hit savanna and were graced with the typical, and stereotypical, picture of Africa, mud huts with thatch roof surrounded by waves of grass. I think I might have been able to connect with the scene more if I hadn’t been flying by at 60 mph in a worn down coach bus.
Ted stays at a mission associated with St. Elizabeth’s Girls Secondary School. Ted shares his house with Father Mattias and his nieces who attend the secondary school and do the house work. Ted volunteered his bedroom (he is sleeping in his office) and guest room for the three of us to stay in. St. Elizabeth’s is now a government assisted secondary school that looks a shadow of its former self. It used to be nationally recognized, but now it would need a good coat of paint or more just to distinguish itself from the savanna. The school does have some decent resources and competent teachers, but there is little motivation from either the faculty or the student body to make the changes necessary for recognition once again. The school is also a cluster organization wise. As Ted puts it, there is always something more important than class. Most of the girls there are boarders and have certain chores in the morning. If a girl reports to class and here chore isn’t finished beforehand, she is sent away. Many teachers there do not let students in late to class for any reason so when she comes back she must watch from outside the room. In the day there are also breaks for tea and lunch. Each are routinely late and never finish in the time allowed. The teachers, whose meals are provided by the schools, are also routinely served late, and will not go back to the classrooms until they have taken their half an hour or hour break from the time food is served. As a result it can safely be estimated that students routinely lose a third of their instructional time in a day. I cannot generalize this to all schools in Uganda, but I wouldn’t be surprised to know that loss of instructional time is common.
Since I have been here I have been able to observe a number of classes at the S1 and S2 levels. Next week I am slated to teach S1 math and S2 math and chemistry. The Ugandan system of education structure would take a whole blog post on its own so you will have to stay in the dark on what exactly that means for now. The house Ted lives in and we are staying in is like the Ritz of the Peace Corps world. We have reliable electricity, running water, a (small) refrigerator, indoor flush toilet and a cantina 300 feet away. We are also graced with wonderful hosts who both make great conversation. Ted has some great points of view especially because he is a former volunteer who is back for round two after spending years in Burkina Faso in the 70’s.
The only down part of his site at the sleepy little town of Kidetok is there is horrible cell coverage. This should be something I should have expected in Peace Corps, but Africa is a continent in love with cell phones. This place has literally been the only place I don’t have service. And it has made it hard for Stacey and I to even call each other. We have relied on texting for the past week and it is starting to get old.
There have been limited adventures here but one day Ted tried to scrounge up bikes from the mission so we could all ride to the town of Serere, which is 6 km away. After coming across many half bikes in storage we managed to get two, which could hold air and keep the chains on the gears. Now these aren’t simple mountain bikes, these are the big crappy single speeds that most people just push while moving matoke or jerry cans of water. Ted used his mountain bike while Joe and I each took a single speed. Five minutes into our ride the chain fell off of mine and we spent 20 minutes resetting it. Less than half a km from that Joe’s chain came off and we were fixing his for 20 minutes. A half a km after that Joe’s simply bit the dust and he left just Ted and me to complete the journey. Now both Serere and Kidetok are on little hills so for half the journey (the first part) it is all down hill, and the second half is all up hill. Three km uphill on a single speed bike is brutal! By the time we reached Serere my legs felt like Jell-O. We made our purchases, waited out a brief shower and headed back to home. Thankfully both rider and bike made it back safely which was impressive to all at the site.
There is definitely more to write, but sometimes a single post cannot contain it all. This is already one of the longest we have so far. Thanks for the comments and keep them coming, we love to hear from everyone.
Peace,
~Tony
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Amina eong enanasi
Hi Everyone,
Does anyone want to study Ateso language for me? I mean come on, learn a language in 10 weeks, that sounds reasonable right? =) haha
How are you all? I am very well! Right now Tony and I are on our technical immersion training. I am in Iganga, Uganda with Alyssa, Bernadette, and Siong. We are staying with Dylan and job shadowing him as he works at a college. It is great to get experience here and get away from the typical training days. Also Dylan has electricity, Internet, and a waffle iron! You can't complain about that.
Tony is off in Soroti for immersion training. Can you find that on a map? Cause the Soroti area is likely where we will be placed for two years after training. He has running water that lucky dog! Also he has tried the Ateso beer. I have forgotten the name of the beer right now but you drink with a group of people out (whoo power just went out at Dylan's...its a trend) of a clay pot and through long straws. Sounds fun doesn't it? =)
So what comes next for us? We have immersion training until March 27th (my b-day). Then we have 3 more weeks of training before we are sworn in as volunteers. It is crazy that time has gone by so quickly. I need to study for my language test and finish preparing my project. Ahh...so much to do so little time.
But since the power is out I don't know how much I'll be getting done tonight =)
All my best. Love and miss you family and friends!
Stacey
PS Call me +0785751348
Does anyone want to study Ateso language for me? I mean come on, learn a language in 10 weeks, that sounds reasonable right? =) haha
How are you all? I am very well! Right now Tony and I are on our technical immersion training. I am in Iganga, Uganda with Alyssa, Bernadette, and Siong. We are staying with Dylan and job shadowing him as he works at a college. It is great to get experience here and get away from the typical training days. Also Dylan has electricity, Internet, and a waffle iron! You can't complain about that.
Tony is off in Soroti for immersion training. Can you find that on a map? Cause the Soroti area is likely where we will be placed for two years after training. He has running water that lucky dog! Also he has tried the Ateso beer. I have forgotten the name of the beer right now but you drink with a group of people out (whoo power just went out at Dylan's...its a trend) of a clay pot and through long straws. Sounds fun doesn't it? =)
So what comes next for us? We have immersion training until March 27th (my b-day). Then we have 3 more weeks of training before we are sworn in as volunteers. It is crazy that time has gone by so quickly. I need to study for my language test and finish preparing my project. Ahh...so much to do so little time.
But since the power is out I don't know how much I'll be getting done tonight =)
All my best. Love and miss you family and friends!
Stacey
PS Call me +0785751348
Monday, March 8, 2010
Updates! One Month In
Blog post from the Lutaaya household - Stacey’s entry, because I got to last time.
I am sitting at the dining room table of the Lutaaya home in complete happiness. Tony and I have just spent the day doing our laundry, swimming at a pool, eating French Fries (little different – Uganda style) and Jack Fruit (Google it those of you with working electricity!), and enjoying the company of our host family and friends. Not to mention it was 82 degrees and sunny.
It is hard to imagine that we have been in country for 1 month already. I guess it is easier for the time to fly when you are going to be there for 27 months. Overall, the experience has been good. Ups and downs always come with culture shock but I think that we have adjusted pretty well so far.
Here are some highlights:
A 15 hour plane ride isn’t that bad when the plane is only 50% full – lots of leg room
Uganda at the peak of dry season is still more lush than any place I know on earth.
Monkeys learning language with us
Washing laundry by hand makes you more flexible
Learning how to survive traffic and taxi’s
Tony and I have cell phones – Our numbers are… Tony +785.751.349 and Stacey + 785.751.348 – Call us or text us – You know you want to!
Jack Fruit and Popcorn
Our Home-Stay family is awesome although the kids are very clingy
Warm water bucket baths can turn your day around
We can conduct “DIY Malaria Blood Slides”
Biking is a necessity and I am getting more endurance everyday
Beer
At the end of training we will be going to the Ateso region! Look up Kumi Uganda and you will have an idea of where we are. We won’t know our exact location until early April.
Getting paid 35,000 Sh a week! Also known as $18
Cows with horns, huge horns, freely walking down the street
Getting huge fresh and ripe pineapples for 50 cents.
Teaching our host family how to make scrambled eggs
Collecting cool bottle caps
Learning how to wash shoes “correctly”
Eatting fried bugs! They are really good with onion mixed in.
Bartering
Talking with real people about real problems.
Cake
Building a community garden with all local materials
Getting more comfortable walking around the capital city
Aloe Vera
Homemade Sesame-Peanut Butter Sauce
Fresh squeezed Passion Fruit Juice
Bubble Gum Flavored Milk
Most likely having electricity at our future site
Having a tailor made dress
Homemade Pizzas
Meeting my meat – Learning how to butcher chickens
Remembering why I am here
Here are some lowlights:
Matoke – Its steamed and mashed plantains and every Ugandan loves it! - But we can get away with not eating it
Mosquito nets can be too small and are always hot
One bad day I tried to call home with a grasshopper in my shirt
Getting Colds on the Equator
“Yes, it will be a 15 minute walk” although actually driving there is 30 minutes
The phrase “Hi Musungu” from every child we pass
Biking and your petal falls off 4 times in 5km
Cockroaches in the pit latrines
Not having time to write
A one hour walk in the rain to get to training
Rain = Mud = Such a mess!
Sweating
Lots and lots of carbohydrates
Some Hopes:
I actually have lots of hopes but it’s to articulate them now (too hot under the mosquito net)
Maybe working in a secondary school / primary school teacher college
Maybe you all will write to us or call =)
Maybe some of you will even send us a letter =)
Maybe brownie mix will wander my way =)
I know this probably leaves more questions than answers about what Tony and I are doing…however you can be assured that overall life is very good right now. We are healthy, well fed, and helping each other adjust. It is great to have Tony.
And you know even on the difficult days I consider myself luck to be living in Uganda. It is a beautiful country with beautiful people.
We’ll try to write more when we can =)
Until then – All My Best,
Stacey
I am sitting at the dining room table of the Lutaaya home in complete happiness. Tony and I have just spent the day doing our laundry, swimming at a pool, eating French Fries (little different – Uganda style) and Jack Fruit (Google it those of you with working electricity!), and enjoying the company of our host family and friends. Not to mention it was 82 degrees and sunny.
It is hard to imagine that we have been in country for 1 month already. I guess it is easier for the time to fly when you are going to be there for 27 months. Overall, the experience has been good. Ups and downs always come with culture shock but I think that we have adjusted pretty well so far.
Here are some highlights:
A 15 hour plane ride isn’t that bad when the plane is only 50% full – lots of leg room
Uganda at the peak of dry season is still more lush than any place I know on earth.
Monkeys learning language with us
Washing laundry by hand makes you more flexible
Learning how to survive traffic and taxi’s
Tony and I have cell phones – Our numbers are… Tony +785.751.349 and Stacey + 785.751.348 – Call us or text us – You know you want to!
Jack Fruit and Popcorn
Our Home-Stay family is awesome although the kids are very clingy
Warm water bucket baths can turn your day around
We can conduct “DIY Malaria Blood Slides”
Biking is a necessity and I am getting more endurance everyday
Beer
At the end of training we will be going to the Ateso region! Look up Kumi Uganda and you will have an idea of where we are. We won’t know our exact location until early April.
Getting paid 35,000 Sh a week! Also known as $18
Cows with horns, huge horns, freely walking down the street
Getting huge fresh and ripe pineapples for 50 cents.
Teaching our host family how to make scrambled eggs
Collecting cool bottle caps
Learning how to wash shoes “correctly”
Eatting fried bugs! They are really good with onion mixed in.
Bartering
Talking with real people about real problems.
Cake
Building a community garden with all local materials
Getting more comfortable walking around the capital city
Aloe Vera
Homemade Sesame-Peanut Butter Sauce
Fresh squeezed Passion Fruit Juice
Bubble Gum Flavored Milk
Most likely having electricity at our future site
Having a tailor made dress
Homemade Pizzas
Meeting my meat – Learning how to butcher chickens
Remembering why I am here
Here are some lowlights:
Matoke – Its steamed and mashed plantains and every Ugandan loves it! - But we can get away with not eating it
Mosquito nets can be too small and are always hot
One bad day I tried to call home with a grasshopper in my shirt
Getting Colds on the Equator
“Yes, it will be a 15 minute walk” although actually driving there is 30 minutes
The phrase “Hi Musungu” from every child we pass
Biking and your petal falls off 4 times in 5km
Cockroaches in the pit latrines
Not having time to write
A one hour walk in the rain to get to training
Rain = Mud = Such a mess!
Sweating
Lots and lots of carbohydrates
Some Hopes:
I actually have lots of hopes but it’s to articulate them now (too hot under the mosquito net)
Maybe working in a secondary school / primary school teacher college
Maybe you all will write to us or call =)
Maybe some of you will even send us a letter =)
Maybe brownie mix will wander my way =)
I know this probably leaves more questions than answers about what Tony and I are doing…however you can be assured that overall life is very good right now. We are healthy, well fed, and helping each other adjust. It is great to have Tony.
And you know even on the difficult days I consider myself luck to be living in Uganda. It is a beautiful country with beautiful people.
We’ll try to write more when we can =)
Until then – All My Best,
Stacey
Saturday, March 6, 2010
OUR FIRST REAL POST!!!!
So we have been hard pressed to get consistent internet do anything, let alone write an email, so finding a way to put in our first blog post has been tricky. Today, however, I find myself tagging along with others from our Training group walking into an internet cafe in Kampala.
So, WE ARE HERE! Training has been flying by and our limited time with technology has prevented communications with the masses. We have been busy since arriving in Entebee. We flew in and stayed for 4 nights at the Lweza Training and Conference Center not too far from the airport. There we received some initial training and adjusted to life in a hot, dusty, yet lush green and humid environment. We started to bond as a group and anxiously awaited getting to our host families.
Stacey and I have been placed together for our homestay. The bulk of our training takes place in the town of Wakiso which is the capital of the district of the same name just west of Kampala. Stacey and I live in a section called Kisimbiri near many other PCTs. Our host family is named Lutaaya and are amazing. Our father is Henry, mother is Imelda, and there are four children; Ruth, 10, Joel, 7, Grace, 5, and Jesse, 3. We have a room to ourselves but share the rest of the house. We are usually busy from the time we leave the house at 7 in the morning until late in the evening. Training ends around 5 pm, but we will have other work or want to practice language with our group members. Our training center is on the other side of town which is a minimum of 20 minutes on bike or an hour walking as well.
About two weeks ago we found out we will be speaking Ateso. Uganda has three major language groups and over 50 regional languages. We are going to be in the East in a region called Teso which includes the districts of Kumi, Soroti, Pallisa, Tororo and a few others. Right now we are learning in a group of 5. Joe, David Chi, and Brennan are the others in our group in case we reference them later in our posts.
I don't want to speak for both of us, but there are some challenges that we have come to face in our first month here. First and foremost: PIT LATRINES. I have gone camping, I have used outhouses, I have simply taken a crap in the woods, but all are more preferential to using a squating pit latrine. First off you have a small target with a steep level of punishment for inaccuracy. I have been fortunate with perfect aim to date, but I know others who haven't been as lucky. Stacey and I have both had colds since we have been here, but others have already gone through bouts of stomache bugs and I do not look forward to a latrine session with one. Second, since we are not used to the position I find my legs becoming numb and sometimes falling asleep which then affects your balance. Between the biking and the squat pots I plan to come back with some killer quads.
Keepping time is another challenge here. Life moves slow, but training sessions move ssssllloooowwwwweeerrr. Couple that with fourty people sweating together in a hall and you are just chipper at the end of the day. Also our only challenge at the homestay is the children. They are awesome and great to play with and can speak English well, but they always want to be on our hip. We try to study or take notes at the dining room table and they always want to be there. It is nice and cute sometimes, but when they are always asking you to help them with there 'homework' which is really code for drawing pictures or playing games we really can't be productive unless we move to our rooms.
I do not want to lingure on the bad because there is so much good. Our training group is awesome and there are a lot of people here from so many backgrounds it will take two years just to get everyone's stories. I think many of us have bonded well and we are ready to get down to the dirty work.
In the middle of March we will be doing immersion training where we will spend two weeks living with a current volunteer in the region in which we will be placed and shadowing them at their job. For me I will be staying with a volunteer who is teaching classes at a secondary school and Stace will be following a primary teacher trainer or center school cooridnator. That will be an awesome training experience and we are very much looking forward to it. I wish I had more time to talk, and I already know this is a rediculously long post and I know I didn't even begin to talk about the country, but I will have to leave it for another time. Stacey will upload pictures soon, I think we will try to get back here on Monday.
Peace.
So, WE ARE HERE! Training has been flying by and our limited time with technology has prevented communications with the masses. We have been busy since arriving in Entebee. We flew in and stayed for 4 nights at the Lweza Training and Conference Center not too far from the airport. There we received some initial training and adjusted to life in a hot, dusty, yet lush green and humid environment. We started to bond as a group and anxiously awaited getting to our host families.
Stacey and I have been placed together for our homestay. The bulk of our training takes place in the town of Wakiso which is the capital of the district of the same name just west of Kampala. Stacey and I live in a section called Kisimbiri near many other PCTs. Our host family is named Lutaaya and are amazing. Our father is Henry, mother is Imelda, and there are four children; Ruth, 10, Joel, 7, Grace, 5, and Jesse, 3. We have a room to ourselves but share the rest of the house. We are usually busy from the time we leave the house at 7 in the morning until late in the evening. Training ends around 5 pm, but we will have other work or want to practice language with our group members. Our training center is on the other side of town which is a minimum of 20 minutes on bike or an hour walking as well.
About two weeks ago we found out we will be speaking Ateso. Uganda has three major language groups and over 50 regional languages. We are going to be in the East in a region called Teso which includes the districts of Kumi, Soroti, Pallisa, Tororo and a few others. Right now we are learning in a group of 5. Joe, David Chi, and Brennan are the others in our group in case we reference them later in our posts.
I don't want to speak for both of us, but there are some challenges that we have come to face in our first month here. First and foremost: PIT LATRINES. I have gone camping, I have used outhouses, I have simply taken a crap in the woods, but all are more preferential to using a squating pit latrine. First off you have a small target with a steep level of punishment for inaccuracy. I have been fortunate with perfect aim to date, but I know others who haven't been as lucky. Stacey and I have both had colds since we have been here, but others have already gone through bouts of stomache bugs and I do not look forward to a latrine session with one. Second, since we are not used to the position I find my legs becoming numb and sometimes falling asleep which then affects your balance. Between the biking and the squat pots I plan to come back with some killer quads.
Keepping time is another challenge here. Life moves slow, but training sessions move ssssllloooowwwwweeerrr. Couple that with fourty people sweating together in a hall and you are just chipper at the end of the day. Also our only challenge at the homestay is the children. They are awesome and great to play with and can speak English well, but they always want to be on our hip. We try to study or take notes at the dining room table and they always want to be there. It is nice and cute sometimes, but when they are always asking you to help them with there 'homework' which is really code for drawing pictures or playing games we really can't be productive unless we move to our rooms.
I do not want to lingure on the bad because there is so much good. Our training group is awesome and there are a lot of people here from so many backgrounds it will take two years just to get everyone's stories. I think many of us have bonded well and we are ready to get down to the dirty work.
In the middle of March we will be doing immersion training where we will spend two weeks living with a current volunteer in the region in which we will be placed and shadowing them at their job. For me I will be staying with a volunteer who is teaching classes at a secondary school and Stace will be following a primary teacher trainer or center school cooridnator. That will be an awesome training experience and we are very much looking forward to it. I wish I had more time to talk, and I already know this is a rediculously long post and I know I didn't even begin to talk about the country, but I will have to leave it for another time. Stacey will upload pictures soon, I think we will try to get back here on Monday.
Peace.
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