Monday Evening Post - Bonus Egg!

This past weekend was wonderful!

On Friday, I traveled to Alyssa's site with perfect transportation from Bukedea to Nyondo. Perfect transportation! That never happens. At Alyssa's I met up with Smiles, Elizabeth, and Brennan and we had a great night catching up with Meat Spaghetti Sauce. Meat!

The next day we ran sessions at Alyssa's Health Day. She began an Orphans and Vulnerable Children program with Sister Rose and we presented on water and sanitation, dental hygiene, malaria, moringa (look it up!), and reuseable menstrual pads. It was great. MK's students presented and Tony's joined us that night after he had a successful workshop himself. More catching up with Green Jello from Elizabeth.

Sunday started off with Blueberry/Banana Pancakes! Heck yes people, Blueberries! Then we went off to the pool where we were joined by Caleb and Cassandra. A very cheesy cheeseburger put a smile on my face as well as a birthday massage at the spa! Thanks Alyssa =) A glorious afternoon finished off with C and C visiting us in Bukedea for the night telling us about their trip to Kenya / Hell's Gate / Lamu.

But I forgot to mention that on the taxi Sunday, we met up with Tony's school Bursur. He didn't know it was my birthday, I didn't really tell people, and he began singing to me on the taxi. A chicken would come tomorrow he said and I would slaughter it myself! People think it is hilarious that I slaughter chickens. “Oh Madam Asio, she knows how to slaughter!”

Anyway, Monday went along well and at 5:30 in the evening Tony got a call from Mr. Oriokote saying the chicken was there. Five minutes later Tony rode up with a chicken hanging off his handlebars. It was funny to see but a very thoughtful gift. In many ways I love Uganda and our Ugandan friends. And in many ways Uganda is just ridiculous.

In the process of cleaning the chicken we realized that the cock was actually a hen. I thought I was taking out the gizzard when a fully formed egg plopped onto my hand. A Bonus Egg! It was crazy. Not only am I slaughtering chickens in the banana plantation but I am getting eggs! Life is so silly.

While turning the “Big 2-5” this year I reflected on my life thus far. I decided that I wasn't going to view it as getting older (as all my friends kept calling me) but to look at it as growing up. What else am I going to experience? What else is going to come my way? No idea. But it is exciting to think about.

The Saturday Evening Post - March 19th 2011

Who is Stacey F-Markon?

I hate running.
Well, I hate running without a purpose, like catching a frisbee.
Uh, why do I hate running?
Maybe one day I will go for a run.
Tomorrow I am going for a run.
I like running.
I really like running!
What? Who am I?

I swear, someone must have spent millions of dollars to perform “inception” on me to get me to like running. Did you know I am even thinking about training to run the Kampala half marathon in December? Since when?!

It is crazy what you feel in Peace Corps service. You have good, bad, angry, giddy, etc days. But you don't necessarily open yourself up to change.

This past week I was talking with my friend Kiera about Peace Corps service. You know everyone is different and everyone is going to experience service in a different way. You change with service. I told her I couldn't believe myself that I am running. Yep! You surprise yourself she said.

What else will change? What else will I open myself up to while I am here? I mean really, this is the only time in me and Tony's lives that we will ever be separated from life in the states. It's like going away to college but to the extreme. People change in college but they still have influences around them. We don't have those influences in Peace Corps.

It is a time of freedom really. Freedom to really explore yourself as a person and what you want to become. This new Stacey, I have no idea where she came from but she is there. Its weird and scary in a way. You think you know yourself and then Bam!

But what am I so afraid of? Why not grow and change? Why hold anything back?

I have another year in Uganda to surprise myself. Who knows who I will become. Its shocking and intriguing. It makes me wonder what I have been missing all these years.

I don't know! It's crazy. I am still flabbergasted at the idea of running but I am still going to get up in the morning, plug in my ipod, and run.

I am going to run past my Deputy Principal (who looks at me like I'm crazy), past Peter pushing the water cart, past the Bore Hole, down to the old railway station built by the British, along the tracks, past the brick-makers, wait for the cows and goats to cross the path, run up to the mango tree, turn around and run towards the sunrise over Mt. Elgon and home again.

Website Unveiling

So I finally have become satisfied with where I have gotten the website. As I sit in Kampala using free internet I am letting the news out. So here it is, the new and improved life monitor of Tony Markon.

www.amarkonabroad.drupalgardens.com

See you there.

Don't Call it a Comeback...

Well, maybe you can. I am not going to lie, it has been entirely too long since either Stacey or I have posted anything on this blog. There has been a reason though. Actually many reasons, but one of the largest has been the website I am working on. Another reason is we simply have been lazy. Ultimately there are really no excuses.

But, now that the holidays are over, school is back in session and we are finally settled into our new schedules the posts will come back. And so will a link to my website. For the most part the blog will be Stacey's while I will use my website to keep people up to date.

Welcome (a little late) to the new year.

A challenge for our readers

So something occurred to me the other day. One, we haven't been interacting much with our readers. So far the blog has been a one way street. We know (or hope) people are reading our blog and we also know that we don't talk to everyone we should one on one. Two, there is a section for comments at the end of the blog post and we would love to hear what you think or have you tell us how big of losers we are for not talking with you all.

So here is an attempted solution. I want everyone to send in questions for Stacey and I to answer in another post. We are going to be in Kampala (the capital) the week of the 25th and it would be really easy for us to get good internet to answer all of your questions in a post.

That is where you come in. Add comments, send us emails, hit us up on facebook, anything really that will get us some questions to answer. We can generate some commonly asked questions as well for some filler, but we would really like to hear from those who are active followers.

You have two weeks. Get on it!

Today I built a football pitch

Well, not really, but it makes for a much nicer title than ‘after a few weeks of planning, convincing and a couple days of manual labor we marked the lines for a football field.’ And this post is really about this past Thursday.

This all started from last term really. I was having a really difficult time connecting with the students. Granted I was also focusing on the teachers and building relationships with them, but I had no real avenue with the students. I tried a few clubs and they weren’t as organized as I hoped and I started them too close to the end of the term so they had short life spans.
This term I changed my tactics. I knew two things, one was the boarders were way more active than the day scholars and I decided to make them my target group. Two, I wanted to be more active and show my personality more. Most people know I am a football junkie and have followed Manchester United for years. When I told people here I love football they all laughed thinking I didn’t know much before coming to Africa until I would put them to shame with my Premier League knowledge.

The boarders, which are only girls at my school, had stated that they wanted to play sports and up to that point I had only seen a half hearted attempt at fielding a volleyball team and a school athletics day which was less than stellar organized by my school.

Every month my school gives me 100,000 shillings (about $50) for reasons that would merit its own blog post. Two things to note, they give every teacher a monthly bonus, second mine is the largest and I think it is only because I am white. Both Peace Corps and my morals don’t let me keep this money, but I can’t really refuse it both because people will find out and it will create mixed emotions. I found that the best solution should be accept the money and use it to fund all of my projects.

Back from that little deviation, first I wanted to start sports so I invited Stacey to my school and we played Ultimate. It was a big hit, but they started hounding me about football. I bought a ball from Mbale and brought it in to school and turned them loose. We played a couple times before they asked me to train them seriously. I bought two more balls shortly afterwards once I saw how serious they were. At that point I started evaluating what was else we needed.
I took this up as my goal, I was going to play sports and coach them three days a week. Mondays are ultimate, Tuesdays and Thursdays are football. There is a problem though. St. Theresa’s has never had a field. They have shared a field with the primary school next door, but there are some inherent problems. First the school has had a huge problem with the boarders and their leaving the compound. Just a few weeks ago three girls were expelled; two for sneaking out at night and doing stuff with a guy at his house and another snuck off during the day. In total we have had 5 boarders sent home for ‘inappropriate relations.’ The biggest issue is the girls have to leave the compound for some basic functions like fetching water. The school has really been pushing to keep them within the compound. They just drilled a new bore hole and are talking about a better fence. My role new challenge was to get them a field but keep them within.

Luckily I have Mr. Oriokot. He has been my chief council on things and is the one of the Deputies at my school. First he advised me where the new buildings were going to go so the girls and I got used to playing in the right area. I started telling him how I wanted to start the pitch and he simply said to me, ‘Yes, Markon. It can be done.’ He is the only one here who calls me by my last name.

Myself and Oriokot Charles at our new pitch

So Tuesday we got two spools of sisal rope (thanks to Stacey running to town) and we started to measure out a pitch. We were lucky because we managed to have just enough space to make a 50 x 80 meter pitch. (54 x 87 yards) We lined the outside with the rope and then the girls came through with the hoes, standing on opposite sides of the string so they notched a V in the ground along the line. We left it at that for the evening and Wednesday it rained so we left it to sit.
Today the serious business started. I calculated how we could easily mark the boxes and the rest of the pitch to kind of scale some parts. I decided on marking a rope at 6, 12 and 18 yards. We measured in from the outside 12 yards and made that where the 18 yard box started. We set the rest of the 18 and then set the goal mouth by finding the center and marking 4 yards on either side of it. Next we marked 6 yards from either side of the goal and 6 yards forward to make the 6 yard box. After that we set the penalty mark at 12 yards. We measured the rope and tied a loop at 10 yards to help us mark the arch on the top of the box. Everything was lined with rope and this time we had some S4 and S5 boys helping. They dug the trenches and we repeated for the other side. After that we marked mid field with the center line and circle and called it a day. I grabbed the balls from the office and Stacey brought over sodas for the workers and we opened our field. I normally don’t let the boys play with us, but today I made an exception. The field was filled with small games and some silly play, but it was a ton of fun.

For me it was just a job to cross off on the check list, but Stacey showed me the enthusiasm. It really didn’t sink in of what we accomplished today until I was a home and started to write this blog. Marking the lines in the ground isn’t a big job. Neither is slashing the grass or finding an open space in the school compound. But what is different was I actually had some initiative and someone else was excited enough about it do work with me. The change happened and it happened a lot quicker than I expected. It also showed the girls that I wasn’t just talk on another level. Sure I had been working with them for a month and giving them time and providing the balls, but this is another facet they have never had. They don’t get the use the pitch like the boys, until now. My teachers openly questioned my working with girls because “Do girls actually know football?” was asked by more than a handful of teachers and some even dismissed it all together. Others have been with me and this was also my first foray into saying, hey this should be done, let’s do it! And the tangible result is turning some heads. There are still some things to finish, but it’s a start.

Sorry if I sound stuck-up in that last post