Entertainment Tonight

Wednesday, February 20th:
Per request, I’ll be putting the most recent stuff at the bottom of each post. I thought it would be easier to keep the overall bottom-to-top flow going, but turns out people like to start at the top of each entry. New and improved!

We were invited to address a parents’ meeting at Kalebera Primary today. I like Kalebera a lot; the kids are excitable and friendly, and the headmaster, Aron, has been really welcoming. We showed up around noon, taught part of a lesson on HIV, and then were asked to join the meeting. The meeting was conducted in Lusoga (Dennis translated for Lucy and I) and was pretty interesting at times; the main purpose was to persuade the parents that their kids needed something to eat during their 8-5 school day. Aron told us that most of the kids weren’t getting a lunch, and that it was pretty impossible to get kids to focus when they were hungry.

It was a bit of a flashback to our training days: debate for debate’s sake. Any monetary contribution for maize seemed to be too much, and numerous other issues were brought up. There was a long tirade from one of the teachers about male dominance. One father objected to a command for better discipline at home. How was he supposed to discipline, now that caning was illegal? He said that “child rights” made discipline impossible. On and on and on. By 4:30, I understood just how hard it must be for those kids to concentrate when they haven’t eaten all day.

SPW was brought up pretty frequently, and it was decided that Lucy and I needed Ugandan names. I have been renamed Nangovi, and Lucy is now Kakuwaire. I asked Dennis if Nangovi meant goat-lover, but he said he didn’t think so.

Peter is away this week, which is a drag. His friends have coerced him into planning a massive graduation party, and it requires him being in Kampala to organize the details. He and Lucy are supposed to teach a two-hour livelihoods lesson at secondary school tomorrow morning, and now she’s going to be on her own with kids that might not understand English. Their first farmer’s meeting is scheduled for Friday, and if our newly unreliable community volunteer doesn’t show, it might be a language barrier disaster.

I hope we get to go to the party though – it’s in his home village, and it sounds like it will be quite the event.

I’d like to get a few annoying “cultural differences” off my chest:
1. Understatement. How long will the food take? Not long. (Probably hours.) How far away is it? Very close. (Miles.) It would be nice to get some concrete answers instead of being unpleasantly surprised with the truth.
2. Eagerness to point out your faults. Peter’s friend Michael marveled for several minutes the other day at how bad I was at peeling motoke.
3. Borrowing means keeping until asked for it back, even if you were using it at that moment. (Lily did a lot of this during training.)
4. Timing. I am not a fan of Africa Time. It’s hard to keep a schedule when things happen several hours after they are supposed to, and there’s a lot of sitting around waiting for people to show up.
5. Assuming that being white means being rich. Kids ask Lucy and me for money and sweets without blinking an eye. A couple boys came over the other night and one wanted to know how he could get to England. Lucy told him he’d need a visa and a plane ticket. When we declined his request for us to buy him a plane tickets, he wanted to know if he could open a bank account and have us put money in it. We told him that we didn’t have money to give and that he should look into scholarships, and he asked if we could get him sponsors from home. Dollars and pounds go a long way here, but it’s hard to get across that we don’t have buckets of cash and no clue how to spend it.

On a lighter note, one of the Fathers told us that we get monkeys here when the bananas are ripe. I am pumped for monkeys. Dennis said he grew up around lots of them, and one time they caught a baby and caged it in their house. The baby’s mother freaked out, and their house was ambushed by monkeys of all sizes. He called it “monkey solidarity.” They had to release the baby and run to avoid mass monkey attack.

And even more exciting: an acceptance letter from UNC arrived at home! Some pieces still have to come together, but it’s very likely that this’ll direct my life for the next several years. It’s an awesome program and I’m so glad it’s an option.



Thursday, February 21st:
I’m writing in a less frustrated state tonight. Dennis, Lucy and I had a nice day today; we postponed our faraway morning meeting until next week, which got Lucy off the hook for the solo teaching session. Dennis and I taught a rowdy bunch of S1 and S2 kids about HIV in the afternoon.

I’ve tried teaching some of the Dance4Life drill to a couple classes now, and Ugandan kids appear to have no rhythm whatsoever. There is no syncopation. There are only quarter notes. The phrase I’m working on is “HIV and AIDS we can beat it,” and the rhythm goes 1 2 3 4+ +2 3 4. The kids say one word per beat, regardless of whether we clap it, do call and response, do the motions along with it… curious.

Emily linked on to Tom and my Skype chat this evening, which was pretty exciting! I wish I was in NC this weekend for her visit.

Despite missing out on Masher Time, this weekend promises to be pretty fun. Peter’s party is scheduled for Saturday night, and we’ve been invited to the wedding of one of the primary school teachers on Sunday. I’m looking forward to seeing a Ugandan wedding and reception! Lucy and I were concerned about what we would wear but Dennis stepped up as helpful male by saying, “You have lots of clothes.” We have one drawerfull each.

I gave a group of primary school girls a balloon animal I made from the kit Ruta got me, and they were pretty confused. “What is it?” “A giraffe!” I don’t think they had seen balloons before. They giggled a lot and carried it around the school yard for the whole day.

(Late-night fun when the power’s out.)


Sunday, February 24th:
We ended up having to miss out on Peter’s grad party due to lack of transportation and communication (Peter couldn’t get phone reception out in the village). Alas. He’s back tonight and it sounded like the party was a huge success. He brought us back a piece of cake so all is forgiven.

Dennis, Lucy, Wilbur (Dennis’s friend) and I spent most of the day at the wedding and reception of one of the primary school teachers, Monica. It was a lot of fun. The ceremony was pretty similar to a wedding at home – same vows, same procedure – but with much more dancing and ululating. There were a lot of people in the wedding party, and the little boys in suits were pretty cute. Afterward, we walked over to the reception, which was held in tents at a primary school compound, and listened to a lot of speeches in Lusoga before having a bit of cake and a big dinner.

The meal included most of the Ugandan staples and was pretty tasty:

Chapatti, rice, spaghetti, motoke, cabbage, irish potato, beef stew, yam and pumpkin.

We had to each with our hands, as there were no utensils. I thought, Mom would hate this! I just shook the hands of about 100 people and held a baby, and now I’m licking rice off my fingers without getting to wash my hands first. Let’s hope I don’t get dysentery.
Here are Lucy and I with the happy couple (Monica had changed dresses for the reception). The groom seems pretty attached to Lucy…?

Yesterday was pretty uneventful since we didn’t go to the party, but a bunch of little kids stopped by in the evening. We played jump rope for a while, and I brought out some more balloons which were a hit as you can see:




Wednesday, February 27th:
Things are just rolling along. We have our first required visit to the SPW office in a week, and we have a ton of forms to fill out and meetings to arrange between now and then. We’ve been slow about it but it’ll happen.

Peter’s back, and he and Lucy have had a few meetings with people that have connections to farmer’s groups, out-of-school youth, and demonstration gardens. It seems like the livelihoods work is picking up. Dennis and I are still teaching 1-2 lessons a day, and they have been going well. It’s really gratifying when the kids can recite back the things we talked about the week before – sometimes I’m not sure how much is sinking in, but they seem to be getting the main bits.

We had a chat yesterday with Sister Claire, one of the four nuns that live in the parish. She’s in charge of several women’s groups (some for widows) that get together weekly to practice farming techniques and make crafts. The women showed us some of their handicrafts and they’re really cool. A lot of them string necklaces out of beads made from rolled-up strips of paper, and they weave purses and bowls and things. It seems like a really good business idea but there’s really no market here. There are a few shops that sell the necklaces but the supply seems to be much higher than the demand, and they can’t really sell them in their villages. I’m trying to figure out if there’s a way I could sell them at home and ship them. Most items cost $1-2. Ideas, anyone? I could set up something through Etsy if the shipping wasn’t too expensive, or see if I could get a store interested in buying a bunch of them.

Claire showed us around the sisters’ place, too. They have a beautiful demonstration garden, a couple cows, and pigs. Their house is immaculate and landscaped, and they have internet access. I’ll have to get some pictures of it. It’s absolutely gorgeous and it seems like such an idyllic lifestyle. The sisters are wonderful and do a lot of meaningful work all over Kagoma. I hope I get to know them better over the next few months.

The four of us had an impromptu party last night – we set out for Buwenge to get out of the house for a bit and ended up getting rolexes (an omelet wrapped in a chapatti, my favorite Ugandan snack), stopping at our favorite restaurant for fries and sodas, and watching The Life Aquatic on my laptop to commemorate the return of our power after a two-day absence. What a life.

I’m a little uncomfortable with our garbage situation here. There’s no trash pick-up, and we’ve been instructed to pile our waste at the bottom of the tree in front of our house until someone comes around to burn it. Most of our garbage is vegetable peelings and paper so it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but the kids come and root through it and take away things like empty cookie boxes. I also feel bad about burning plastic. I don’t see an alternative but I don’t really like it.

We had RAIN and hail yesterday. I put my bucket out and it filled up within a couple minutes! I love it when it rains here; the sky goes all gray and windy and everything feels exciting until it pours. I asked Dennis if we should make a run for St. Gonzaga to teach our lesson and he was like, NOOOO! I hope it’s okay that we just didn’t show up to teach yesterday?

I hear my blog has quite a following in Ilkley! Hello to the Newtons and other friends! I’m sure I’ll be planning a trip to England after I get home and hope to meet all of you at some point.

The plan is to head into Mayuge this weekend for Georgia’s birthday celebration, with a stop in Jinja on the way. Time to mail some letters! Dennis’s birthday is on Monday so I might be in for a lot of celebrating this week. I wonder if we can get a cake?



Thursday, February 28th:
The S1-S2 kids at St. Gonzaga Secondary started off our lesson by parroting back everything I said in my accent today. RUDE. Dennis and I yelled at them and they were quiet for a while, and actually had a lot of good questions about VCT (voluntary counseling and testing for HIV). They are our most difficult class; I think they are testing us at the moment to see what they can get away with.

The four of us went to a couple new schools today in Mutai, which is a ten-minute taxi ride away (probably a two hour walk). The high school was the most rural school we’ve seen yet! There’s a concrete building that serves as the office, and the “classrooms” are in a rectangular building made of sticks and boards. There are chalkboards at opposite ends, and the side of the room you face determines which class you’re in. Lucy and Peter taught their first Livelihoods lessons there while Dennis and I gave a lesson at the primary school, which was pretty big. We’ll be out there every other week, since we can’t afford to pay for transport each week.


I keep getting told that I’m fat. I know it’s not supposed to be rude here but it’s starting to bother me.

Duke emailed and wants to interview me.

Peter caught a moth in the mouth after dinner. He did something pretty similar to Grace’s cat-sneezing impression, pinched the moth by the wings, and then with big eyes said, “Thees ees iiize eating!” This cracked me up for a long time.



Friday, February 29th:

Happy leap year! Dennis, Lucy and I went to Buweera Primary this morning, and scheduled lessons there every other Friday. This brings our school total to nine. I’m hoping we don’t stretch ourselves too thin, as we’re still meant to set up clubs, after-school activities, a youth resource center, and community events.

We took bicycle bodas out to Buweera. It felt great being on a bike again, even if I was just sitting on the back! We’re supposed to pick up a bike on Wednesday when we go to the office, and I can’t wait to start riding again (even if it is on a massive single-speed).

Lucy said that the 29th of February is traditionally the day that women are supposed to propose to men. I hadn’t heard this. British thing?

I’m looking forward to heading into Jinja tomorrow and seeing friends this weekend. The weeks are slipping by really quickly now. I can’t believe it’s been 2 out of 7 months already! It seems like I’ve been here for ages, but it feels like we are just getting going with our program.