I had an on-placement weekend. On Saturday, I stopped by a fundraiser St. Gonzaga SS was holding in effort to finish off their half-completed girls’ dormitory. The Minister of Education was in attendance, so it was a pretty massive deal that the kids had spent the entire week preparing for (mostly by drumming). When I showed up there was a really excellent traditional dance group performing. They had a man with them who would climb up a bamboo pole and hop around and do positions while balancing at the top. It was pretty awesome. One of the priests told me later that he was crippled from polio and didn’t have the use of his legs.
The Minister of Education had her own special couch:
I sat through a bunch of speeches in Lusoga and tried to sneak out during the auction (of mostly livestock and food) that followed, but was called out over the microphone and made to come up in front of everyone and buy something. I got another paper necklace. It was kind of embarrassing, but I should have expected that my invitation to a fundraiser came with the expectation that I would shell out some cash.
On Sunday, I was collected for church by Sandra (a P7 student). After the service, a group of primary school girls showed up and sat on our porch at my feet silently for a while. Then they started asking me what I assumed were honest questions, like “How would you describe the climate in Uganda? What is the Southern Hemisphere?” It quickly became clear that they were quizzing me on what they were learning at school, though. “Who is the inspector of all schools in Uganda? What is a meteorologist? What do you call someone from Switzerland?” Etc. It was pretty random, and comical. Then they asked, “What is Sudan in full?”
I was confused until they answered, “Stupid Ugandans Danced At Night.” Some other gems:
Kenya: K___ (some name) Entered Nairobi Yesterday Afternoon
Uganda: Ugly Girls Are Never Deceived at All
They giggled awkwardly for a while, then suddenly announced, “Bye!” and got up and left.
Lucy and I went to Sandra’s house for lunch. Her dad chatted with us and ordered Sandra around for a couple hours while we ate matoke and beans. I feel kind of bad that Sandra invites us over and then ends up waiting on us the whole time. This is the family that lives behind the primary school and had the piglets last month. While we were eating, I kept hearing a distant mewing, and asked if they had kittens. “What?” “Do you have cats?” They did, and one of the little girls was ordered to “bring the little pussycats.” I was expecting full-on kittens but they were only two weeks old! As you can imagine Lucy and I were delighted, which the little kids found pretty amusing. Cats are pretty rare around here, and I will definitely be going back to visit them.
Sandra is a really sweet kid. She’s significantly bigger and darker than the other kids in P7, and Teddy has described her as “a bit slow.” She always comes by the house with treats for us and to chat, and I like her a lot. Today Dennis and I did a true/false game as part of a lesson on STIs (sexually transmitted infections – the new, hipper way to say STD) this morning. She was always adamant in her responses, and always wrong. She always yells at the kids to be quiet when I am trying to get the class to settle down. She is a highlight of my Magamaga experience.
After the lesson today, Lucy and I made the trip out to Buyengo to visit Jill, Katie, Lillian, and Oscar. We had a really nice time catching up, seeing their place, and having tea and lunch. They live at the base of a steep rocky hill that we walked up to get a look at the surrounding landscape. Buyengo is out in the middle of a bunch of sugarcane plantations, and it was a really beautiful view. Lily returned home partway through our visit from getting her hair plaited into an afro. It was pretty awesome. She has plans to sing “Like a Prayer” at the casino in Jinja this weekend, and entertained us for a while with her game plan and costume choice. Hopefully this is something I’ll be able to put up pictures of next weekend. Buyengo placement:
It is hard for me to tell how I am going to react to being back in the States, but I know I am going to miss the people from placement a whole lot.
Thursday, June 19th:
Busy day today. Dennis and I have been milking the STI lesson for all it’s worth, first at Mutai Primary, then at St. Gonzaga. The deputy head teachers at Mutai are great. We’ll only make it there two more times before we split, since we teach there every other week. That’s weird to think about.
Lucy and I finally took up St. Gonzaga’s insistent invitation to lunch with the teachers. There was a lot of babbling about language/questions about where we’re from, as well as the standard interrogation about our religious beliefs. We had some tasty rice and beans though, and a nice chat really. Dennis and I stuck around after lunch for a lesson while Lucy and Wilber trekked off to Kalebera for a farmer’s group (as usual, there was a burial going on so they didn’t get to meet them).
We split the STI material into two lessons: one on diseases, their symptoms, and their consequences, and one on myths and facts. The kids split into teams and take turns answering true/false statements. How well would you do?
1. A person can always tell if she or he has an STI.
2. With proper medical treatment, all STIs except HIV can be cured.
3. You cannot contract an STI by holding hands, walking, talking, or dancing with a partner.
4. It is possible to contract some STIs from kissing.
5. The most important thing you can do if you suspect you have an STI is to inform your partner.
6. Only people who have sexual contact can contract an STI.
7. Condoms are the most effective protection against the spread of STIs.
8. Abstinence is the only form of contraception that is 100% risk free.
9. Once you have gonorrhea, you cannot get it again.
10. There is no known cure for genital herpes.
11. It is women who are spreading HIV and STIs.
12. Having sex with a virgin cleans a man of HIV and cures him.
13. If you have unprotected sex with someone who has HIV you will definitely catch it.
14. STIs are a curse from God.
There are more, but you get the idea. Surprisingly, the kids often get #11 wrong.
Tomorrow July’s event proposals are due. It’s going to be a busy night as we try to sort out which activities we can feasibly hold before we leave. I’ll spend tomorrow night in Jinja (witnessing Lilly’s casino debut), then head to Kampala for Jill’s last weekend. Like Darcy, she is heading home to Canada for health reasons.
Monday, June 23rd:
I was online last weekend but forgot to bring in what I’d typed up already. So this’ll be a long blog post.
We ended up proposing six events for July: a sports day, two health center visits, tree planting, a VCT day (HIV testing), another video workshop, and a stakeholder’s day where we go over everything we’ve done in the last six months. I have a feeling I am going to feel pretty burnt out by debrief.
I had a great weekend! It was our second-to-last 3rd “weekend off,” and it ended up being full of fun activities that fell together without much planning. Friday night we went to the casino to see Lillian sing. She never did get called up to the mic but she was there in her shining mini-dress glory and we had some good food and a nice time hanging out. There was a terrible house band that was playing something like electric reggae early jazz tunes, and the whole place was just bizarre. It felt more like a church basement than a casino, with baby blue sponge-painted walls and cheesy paintings of country cottages and things. There were some odd characters hanging around. There were roulette and blackjack tables, and video slot machines that looked about the same vintage as the Pac-man game they had at my childhood dentist.
On Saturday a group of us went out to breakfast at Ozzie’s and then spent the day at the pool at the Jinja golf club. Not the cleanest or nicest pool, but a great time! It was a hot sunny day and Jack did some flips off the high dive. I busted out some basic synchro moves and missed it.
I split a little early and got a pedicure, which I severely needed and enjoyed. There’s a salon place in the little shopping arcade that has the casino, and I was pretty excited to see it on Friday night. Plus, it cost about $4.
Then we went to the campsite for the usual debauchery, and had a rough time getting a ride home. Nothing noteworthy there. Rich made friends with some dorky British guy that had some choice teenage-boy dance moves.
On Sunday, six of us rolled in to Kampala. I spent lunchtime at Café Pap drinking milkshakes and lattes and enjoying the wireless internet. Then we all went to the Sex and the City movie. It had some terrible dialogue, but it also had pretty clothes and New York and romance, which are things that I am seriously lacking out here.
Wilber just showed up and went into Dennis and Peter’s room – Peter’s mattress disappeared over the weekend! Looks like he’s officially not coming back. Not that he’s been here since April…
Five more weeks on placement. Jill should be on her way to Canada (via London) right now. Yesterday, Jen said, “If someone offered you a flight home tomorrow, would you take it?” I am really excited to come home, but I’m excited about finishing up the last few weeks too. I’m pretty comfortable with the time that’s left.
Tuesday, June 24th:
I asked Dennis last night if he was looking forward to the program being over. He smiled and said, “Yes. Very much so.” I think that’s the overwhelming consensus of the volunteers. There are a few people who are staying in Africa for a while after they’re done volunteering, but I don’t think anyone is wishing that the SPW program was just a little longer. Dennis’s sister was an SPW volunteer several years ago and said the people that year didn’t have the same desire for it to be over.
The three of us had a chat about how it’s hard being a volunteer who gives “knowledge and skills, not material goods” in these types of communities. People see volunteers and want things; they want them to fix up their school, give them seeds, fund their projects. We do leave some tangible things behind, like talking boards and kitchen gardens. We’re not here to feel appreciated but it is kind of sad that we get badgered for goods a lot of the time or that people are disappointed when we tell them we’re not here to give them money. I wish we had some training and funding for physical projects that would benefit our villages, like building latrines and painting schools. There are other groups that do those things, but since we’re here for this long it would have been fun and rewarding to do some productive hard labor. I guess you can’t expect one NGO to do it all.
It’s summertime, and things are changing at home. People are graduating, moving, marrying, splitting up. It’s strange that I am missing this year’s world and personal events.
Wednesday, June 25th:
I’ve had a killer headache all day. I taught a couple lessons (Drug Abuse at St. Gonzaga, Resisting Peer Pressure at Kalebera) and had lunch at the secondary school, but other than that I’ve been curled up in bed most of the day. It was Kenneth’s birthday today but I didn’t see him. I made him a card with magazine cutouts of his favorite celebrities: Jay-Z, Beyonce, Rhianna, and David Beckham. Hopefully I’ll get to give it to him tomorrow.
Paul, the “priest-in-training,” is finishing his residency here next week and will move to Gulu (in northern Uganda) to continue his studies. I love my daily chats with Paul on the way to the toilet and it is going to be sad to see him go. The priests are having a dinner for him next Wednesday and Dennis has suggested buying him a shirt as a parting gift.
I’ve gone back to my origami book. I finally figured out the hummingbird, but there’s a step on the praying mantis that I just can’t get.
Saturday, June 28th:
Yesterday was sure busy for not accomplishing much. I walked to Buweera and Muguluka, but lessons were cancelled at both primary schools due to district sports days.
Wilber and Dennis led our first Be A Man video workshop. Lucy and I showed up in the middle since we had been walking to Muguluka and back for the cancelled lesson. It was all in Lusoga and I couldn’t actually see the video from where I was sitting, but there seemed to be some good discussion going on about gender equity and things. I think we’re having a couple more in the next few weeks.
I was pretty frustrated with people shouting obscenities and trying to guilt-trip me into buying baby toys yesterday, but today’s trip in to Jinja has me looking up a bit. There’s no better pick-me-up than a milkshake and the internet.
I just looked down at the quarter of the piece of bread I had left and noticed it was crawling with ants. I think I just ate about 100 ants for breakfast.
This little lady is nowhere near as ugly as the ugly sheep, but here’s an image of the African sheep, dreads, tail and all:
Gents
