I know I won't get anything up before Christmas besides this one so let me wish everyone an extremely Merry (and cold!) Christmas! It's in the 90's here today (again) and extremely dusty. The dry-season-dust-allergy I acquired in Africa is in full swing. I'll be spending Christmas at my new home with the Fathers, Kelly, Margo (another volunteer), and several other guests of the parish. I'll put up a more detailed post after the festivities. It sounds like it will quite a bloody event - the morning of Christmas eve is spent slaughtering goats, cows and chickens and is, as the Fathers say, "a very dark day for animals in Uganda".
I'll be sure to twitter some messages until I can get something substantial (and overdue) up here.
Hope everyone has a great holiday!
My love to Mom, Dad, and Jason...I'll miss you all very much this week.
Love and miss you all,
Eric.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Another update (not post)
Still no update on what I'm actually doing here....not much you nee to know except that i'm just counting the days till we're sitting on white beaches in Zanzibar (11 btw).
In the meantime I've changed somethings up here. The twitter messages mentioned in the last post are above now, and i'll work on limiting my sms's to 140characters so you can see them all here. I've also put the pictures back up here, theres a link on the right sidebar (happy flaunty? love you.)
Also, below each post you can now give me your anonymous and honest feedback....and hopefully keep me in line if i become too idealistic :)
That's it.
Take care,
love and miss you all.
In the meantime I've changed somethings up here. The twitter messages mentioned in the last post are above now, and i'll work on limiting my sms's to 140characters so you can see them all here. I've also put the pictures back up here, theres a link on the right sidebar (happy flaunty? love you.)
Also, below each post you can now give me your anonymous and honest feedback....and hopefully keep me in line if i become too idealistic :)
That's it.
Take care,
love and miss you all.
Friday, December 12, 2008
I'm twittering....
Ok, so I definitely owe you all a good healthy update. Be patient. In the meantime, I've added a new gadget (from twitter.com) to the sidebar...just there ----->
This little sucker will allow me to update my blog via my cell phone here! Not much..just short text message length updates...but it should make things interesting and give you something to chew on until I write a larger update (which I am also in the process of doing but won't be able to post today). It would be sweet if I had a picture phone, but I make 200 dollars a month, so what can you do.
Everything else is going great. We finished the last term of the school year and are on a 2 month holiday.
17 days till we leave for ZANZIBAR!
Love you all
This little sucker will allow me to update my blog via my cell phone here! Not much..just short text message length updates...but it should make things interesting and give you something to chew on until I write a larger update (which I am also in the process of doing but won't be able to post today). It would be sweet if I had a picture phone, but I make 200 dollars a month, so what can you do.
Everything else is going great. We finished the last term of the school year and are on a 2 month holiday.
17 days till we leave for ZANZIBAR!
Love you all
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Zebra's, Hippos, and Lost Ballots
I'm still here...
Once again a big gap between my last post so I'll try to catch you up on the happenings since I last updated, as well as stuff this entry with pictures. After my first ballot was lost in the mail (along with all other peace corps uganda ballots) and some legwork from my mom (thank you) I have finally printed a valid ballot and just waiting to find a fax machine that can fax trans-atlantic. I'm told they will be open tomorrow, so we'll see. Nothing like bringing it down to the wire...but this is Africa, where nothing is accomplished in a timely manner.
In other news, my football team is coming together slowly. Considering the first practice I had to teach them how to stretch before training and why it was important, i'd say its quite an accomplishment. We are currently playing an inter-class tournament, the St. Adolf Champions Cup, and are midway through the 4-week tournament. Next friday we are playing a friendly match with the neighboring school, so we'll see if the training has paid off.
The school term is once again coming to a close, and this is the last term of the year...so I am approaching a nice long 2 month break which will give me lots of time to catch up on lesson, football, and newspaper planning. I attempted to put together a science fair with my S2 physics class but in the interest of time we scrapped it for this year and will plan on doing one next school year. (Pictured below is a hand full of them...btw: the second from the right is my goalkeeper Arthur - our ticket to the national competition next year ;).
Instead we are conducting an aerofoil competition. After some laborious explanations on the process I think they are finally understanding what we're doing. The competition is scheduled for next week (monday or tuesday depending on the wind and rain). I split the classes (2 classes of 60) into groups of three students. Each team was given various materials I had a surplus of (4 q-tips, 2 paper clips, length of string, scotch tape, 2 sheets of paper) and also allowed to use sticks and anything taken from a banana tree (leaves, banana fibers, etc). Their objective was to construct some type of airplane with these materials that we will launch from the top of a large boulder (20-30 feet high) and measure the length it travels. I'm giving each member of the winning team a textbook, pen, and small notebook, and some small prizes for 2nd and 3rd. I have refused to give an example to hopefully open up their (small) creative abilities. I'll take some pictures and let you know how it turns out....keep your fingers crossed.
On the personal side I recently took a trip to Lake Mburo national park with Kelly and some other volunteers. This park is one of two in Uganda with a large zebra population, which was incredible to see so many in the wild.
In addition, we took a boat trip around the lake and were chased by a dominant male hippo when our boat approached a little too close to his family. His attacking strategy was to dive down under water and swim towards our boat and then pop up several meters closer and blow water out of his snout at us. Here he is on once such surprise attack:
We also saw lots of small crocodiles on the lake and one that was quite large and luckily viewed from a considerable distance. I was however able to get a good picture of him just before he slipped into the water:
In addition I also learned that the vervet monkeys (most common type here have a somewhat strange color combination, especially in the uh, lower regions. This little fella here proceeded to sit up on the railing to scope out our plates during dinner, then slowly crept up behind me and snatched a boiled potato from my plate while I was turned the other way. This is just before the strike...
In village news I recently acquired a new appreciation for ants...a valuable source of protein where matooke rules all meals. A P7 student Ahebwa (Ah-hay-bwa) who lives just near the parish to the liberty of introducing me to the wonders of fresh ants. I've mentioned these in a previous entry when I watched two young boys catch them coming out of the anthill. This time we just found a spot on the ground where they were flying up around dusk and caught them with our hands and chowed down. They've got a juicy back section with some flavor, but you have to spit the wings out as you're chewing (apologies to queezy stomachs). Even the dog joined in.
We also had a new addition to the cattle herd, and this one Kelly and I were able to watch the birth throughout the day. So again, a cow for rosie...this is just a few hours after the birth, mom was still cleaning the new one off.
That's it for now. Hope everyone is doing well back home...don't worry, just a couple days and Palin's political career will fizzle out with a whimper as children everywhere sleep soundly once again (oops), and you wont have to hear the word "election" for a while (hopefully).
Love and miss you all,
Eric.
***oh and i've put a new PO Box address in the sidebar, yet again. Don't worry if something is already in transit. I can still access mail received at the Kampala and Kyenjojo addresses. I've had issues with getting a new key to replace the one the fathers lost for the Kyenjojo box, so my new neighbor and I are sharing a box in Fort Portal now instead.
Once again a big gap between my last post so I'll try to catch you up on the happenings since I last updated, as well as stuff this entry with pictures. After my first ballot was lost in the mail (along with all other peace corps uganda ballots) and some legwork from my mom (thank you) I have finally printed a valid ballot and just waiting to find a fax machine that can fax trans-atlantic. I'm told they will be open tomorrow, so we'll see. Nothing like bringing it down to the wire...but this is Africa, where nothing is accomplished in a timely manner.
In other news, my football team is coming together slowly. Considering the first practice I had to teach them how to stretch before training and why it was important, i'd say its quite an accomplishment. We are currently playing an inter-class tournament, the St. Adolf Champions Cup, and are midway through the 4-week tournament. Next friday we are playing a friendly match with the neighboring school, so we'll see if the training has paid off.
The school term is once again coming to a close, and this is the last term of the year...so I am approaching a nice long 2 month break which will give me lots of time to catch up on lesson, football, and newspaper planning. I attempted to put together a science fair with my S2 physics class but in the interest of time we scrapped it for this year and will plan on doing one next school year. (Pictured below is a hand full of them...btw: the second from the right is my goalkeeper Arthur - our ticket to the national competition next year ;).
 |
On the personal side I recently took a trip to Lake Mburo national park with Kelly and some other volunteers. This park is one of two in Uganda with a large zebra population, which was incredible to see so many in the wild.
 |
 |
 |
 |
In village news I recently acquired a new appreciation for ants...a valuable source of protein where matooke rules all meals. A P7 student Ahebwa (Ah-hay-bwa) who lives just near the parish to the liberty of introducing me to the wonders of fresh ants. I've mentioned these in a previous entry when I watched two young boys catch them coming out of the anthill. This time we just found a spot on the ground where they were flying up around dusk and caught them with our hands and chowed down. They've got a juicy back section with some flavor, but you have to spit the wings out as you're chewing (apologies to queezy stomachs). Even the dog joined in.
 |
 |
That's it for now. Hope everyone is doing well back home...don't worry, just a couple days and Palin's political career will fizzle out with a whimper as children everywhere sleep soundly once again (oops), and you wont have to hear the word "election" for a while (hopefully).
Love and miss you all,
Eric.
***oh and i've put a new PO Box address in the sidebar, yet again. Don't worry if something is already in transit. I can still access mail received at the Kampala and Kyenjojo addresses. I've had issues with getting a new key to replace the one the fathers lost for the Kyenjojo box, so my new neighbor and I are sharing a box in Fort Portal now instead.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Quick Post
Not much to update since I just posted the two massive ones. I do want to update two things.
#1: A big thank you to all those who donated money towards the UNEB exam kits for the S4 students at my school. I made a trip to Kampala this weekend to put the money to use. After a long discussion with my Deputy Headmaster we decided that in order to ensure your contributions benefitted as many students as possible and would last for many years to come we decided on the following. Instead of calculators for the kids to use on the exams (as most of them actually have calculators or access to one) we decided to use the money to purchase books. Thanks to your generosity I was able to acquire 23 books for the school that the students (and teachers) will have access to and be able to check out from the headmaster's office for up to a week at a time. Here's the breakdown of the books by subject:
Chemistry -
3 UNEB question and answer books (questions from past 10 years' exams)
1 UNEB practical guide (experiment guide) with answers
1 OXFORD course summary for the syllabus with review questions and answers
1 Teacher's guide with 25 quiz's to use in classes
Biology -
3 UNEB question and answer books (questions from past 10 years' exams)
1 UNEB practical guide (experiment guide) with answers
1 OXFORD course summary for the syllabus with review questions and answers
1 Teacher's guide with 25 quiz's to use in classes
Physics -
3 UNEB question and answer books (questions from past 10 years' exams)
1 UNEB practical guide (experiment guide) - no answers
1 OXFORD course summary for the syllabus with review questions and answers
1 Teacher's guide with 25 quiz's to use in classes
Math -
3 UNEB question and answer books (questions from past 10 years' exams)
1 OXFORD course summary for the syllabus with review questions and answers
1 Teacher's guide with 25 quiz's to use in classes
I am taking the books back with me today on the bus and will be giving them to the school tomorrow and informing the students on how they can access them. These books will be a tremendous help to the current S4's (especially the UNEB question and answer books) as they have 3 weeks to cram. They will also continue to offer support to many students in the future, and serve as the foundation of our future library! Thank you Thank you Thank you. Pictures to come.
#2: Please welcome a beautiful new soul into the world. Cassidy Lynn Ross, born on the 23rd of September to Terence and Melissa Ross. Congratulations on your new addition. She will no doubt be as kind as you both.
#1: A big thank you to all those who donated money towards the UNEB exam kits for the S4 students at my school. I made a trip to Kampala this weekend to put the money to use. After a long discussion with my Deputy Headmaster we decided that in order to ensure your contributions benefitted as many students as possible and would last for many years to come we decided on the following. Instead of calculators for the kids to use on the exams (as most of them actually have calculators or access to one) we decided to use the money to purchase books. Thanks to your generosity I was able to acquire 23 books for the school that the students (and teachers) will have access to and be able to check out from the headmaster's office for up to a week at a time. Here's the breakdown of the books by subject:
Chemistry -
3 UNEB question and answer books (questions from past 10 years' exams)
1 UNEB practical guide (experiment guide) with answers
1 OXFORD course summary for the syllabus with review questions and answers
1 Teacher's guide with 25 quiz's to use in classes
Biology -
3 UNEB question and answer books (questions from past 10 years' exams)
1 UNEB practical guide (experiment guide) with answers
1 OXFORD course summary for the syllabus with review questions and answers
1 Teacher's guide with 25 quiz's to use in classes
Physics -
3 UNEB question and answer books (questions from past 10 years' exams)
1 UNEB practical guide (experiment guide) - no answers
1 OXFORD course summary for the syllabus with review questions and answers
1 Teacher's guide with 25 quiz's to use in classes
Math -
3 UNEB question and answer books (questions from past 10 years' exams)
1 OXFORD course summary for the syllabus with review questions and answers
1 Teacher's guide with 25 quiz's to use in classes
I am taking the books back with me today on the bus and will be giving them to the school tomorrow and informing the students on how they can access them. These books will be a tremendous help to the current S4's (especially the UNEB question and answer books) as they have 3 weeks to cram. They will also continue to offer support to many students in the future, and serve as the foundation of our future library! Thank you Thank you Thank you. Pictures to come.
#2: Please welcome a beautiful new soul into the world. Cassidy Lynn Ross, born on the 23rd of September to Terence and Melissa Ross. Congratulations on your new addition. She will no doubt be as kind as you both.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
What else i've been doing
So aside from the introduction ceremony (previous post) here's what else i've been up to lately:
Just before the schools let out for holiday the primary school on the parish hosted the regional music and dance competition. This brought together about 6 primary schools who had each won their district competition to compete for a chance to go to the national competition in Kampala. These kids were amazing. I watched a few of the events and immediately decided i needed to go get whatever i could to record them. SO i went back and grabbed the camera and my tape recorder. I got video of lots of the dances and also some cassette tapes of the music. I'll try to get the video up sometime so you can see that, but here's a couple pictures for the mean time.
Above is a picture from the traditional dance done by the kids from Kasese. They were really interesting because they are from a different tribe than all of the other schools. Kasese borders the Congo, so these kids speak a Congolese language and their dances and culture are heavily influenced by the Congo.
This one is another traditional dance from a school in Masindi, which lies in the northern part of the country. They ended up placing in the top 3 and went on to compete at the nationals (with the Kasese school above, and another)
All together there were 6 or so events, including lots of dances, music, a play, and others. I was completely blown away by how talented the kids were. Comparing what i was seeing to performances by elementary schools in the states just doesn't work. And thats taking nothing away from our kids. There's just some things Africa does extremely well, and this is one.
So that was all before the schools let out for holiday. Luckily it all took place (over two days) right on the parish so i had no excuse not to go. During the holiday we had a week long training in Kampala with our entire group as well as each of our counterparts from our organizations. It was a little overwhelming to say the least, compared to living in the village where I am the only white person (until now) within 30 km's or so. It was good to see everyone though, and i got some great ideas for projects that i can replicate. Also, hearing of failed projects and hardships people were having made me feel a little better about my situation and the problems i've had spinning wheels on several projects.
Also a while back I had the chance to attend my supervisor's (who is 50 or so) grandmother's 85th birthday celebration. There not really sure what her birthday is exactly, but they know its sometime in august, so they usually just pick a day to celebrate. Kelly came with me, and i think grandma was, to say the least, very happy to have two of us come out for the party. It was in my supervisors home village which is about 20km from my site. And when i say village i really mean it. We took a car from the parish out there and had to take a (barely) one lane road through dense dense bush for a few km's until we reached there. I wish i had a picture with me, i'll try to get one up of the route we took. It was really a footpath i think, with sugarcane plants that rose about 7 ft on either side of the road.
Once we arrived my supervisor took us around the village (village=4 or 5 houses near eachother) to show us some things he is working on there. He has a small fish hatchery as well as a couple pastures with cows. We also saw two kids catching white ants to cook for dinner. I have had the white ant sauce that comes out of this process but had never seen it done before. There are large anthills all over here, between 4 and 7 feet high usually, that are made by these white ants. They look like a normal ant but have 4 big wings on them. So to catch them you go out at night (when they usually come out) and put a blanket over the anthill. Where the blanket opens you have a little hole dug that collects them as they try to come out from under the blanket. Theres a picture on Kel's computer that i'll try to get up sometime. After catching them you pull the wings off and make a (quite delicous) sauce to put over matooke or millet....yum.
So after our tour we had dinner and a few drinks with the family before heading back home. Grandma didn't speak any english, and my rutoro is not nearly enough to hold any kind of conversation, so mostly my supervisor translated. Here's a picture of (l to r) kel, mom, grandma, me.
I think that about sums up my last few months here, or at least the major highlights. The new term started last week with beginning of term exams. I supervised about 5 of them throughout the week (3 were in a room with 130 kids!). Next week i'll start lecturing again, same classes i had before - 3 physics and 1 biology.
Oh i should make a note here of something i just realized. So some of the fam had made the comment to me about how it always seems like the school is on break, which is true, but there's good reason. The school calendar is based around the planting and harvesting seasons, which are based around the rains. Here's how it roughly breaks down: Jan-April= short rainy season and first term, May=holiday and harvest/planting, June-August=second term and dry season, Sept=planting and holiday, oct-dec=heavy rains and 3rd term, dec-jan=harvest and planting and holiday. And now you know.....
Also...HUUUUUGE thank you's are due. You all are absolutely amazing and make my time hear so much easier. My post office box has been quite busy lately thanks to you all. Here goes:
Giggles: awesome, this is a bit overdue. I got your package about a month ago i think. Thank you so much, especially for the things for school. I was trying to figure out what to do with the science magazines as i have 70 kids in my classes so instead of having them share, i've been kind of randomly giving the magazines to kids (my own and others in the village) that i meet. This, i've decided, is much better than giving out sweets and the kids are amazed every time that they can actually keep the magazine.
Jenny: Just got yours a week or two ago and was blown away. The photo album is amazing. I think i've looked through it at least 4 times since i got it. Eric i can't wait to hear the song, thank you so much for taking the time to do that. Also, the bag of peanut m&m's dropped both me and kelly's chins to the floor. you both are very much missed and loved, thank you.
the howards: holy cow, i had to send the box with one of the motorcycle taxi's to drop on my porch it was so big. I couldnt believe how much jerky was in there! I must say my favorites were the pictures of the girls. You both are quite lucky, they are cute as ever. One of the father's i live with was amazed at how much Chris and Savannah resemble one another..."right down to the chin dimple" he said. Miss you all, thank you for my card Kirstin! it's hanging in my room.
mom and dad: i've already told you how awesome yours was but i couldn't leave you off of my list here. My charging people will miss me now that i've got my own little solar power plant, which by the way amazes every one at the parish ("eh!...sure? you can charge from there?") love you both.
and thank you for your letter kelli! there are now children running around the village with spongebob stickers :) expect a response soon.
wew, i think thats it. I'm sure i'll get home and think of something or someone i forgot and feel guilty until next time im in fort. Love you all, take care.
-Eric
One more picture for good measure. A typical Kampala street:
Just before the schools let out for holiday the primary school on the parish hosted the regional music and dance competition. This brought together about 6 primary schools who had each won their district competition to compete for a chance to go to the national competition in Kampala. These kids were amazing. I watched a few of the events and immediately decided i needed to go get whatever i could to record them. SO i went back and grabbed the camera and my tape recorder. I got video of lots of the dances and also some cassette tapes of the music. I'll try to get the video up sometime so you can see that, but here's a couple pictures for the mean time.
 |
| From Uganda |
Above is a picture from the traditional dance done by the kids from Kasese. They were really interesting because they are from a different tribe than all of the other schools. Kasese borders the Congo, so these kids speak a Congolese language and their dances and culture are heavily influenced by the Congo.
 |
| From Uganda |
This one is another traditional dance from a school in Masindi, which lies in the northern part of the country. They ended up placing in the top 3 and went on to compete at the nationals (with the Kasese school above, and another)
All together there were 6 or so events, including lots of dances, music, a play, and others. I was completely blown away by how talented the kids were. Comparing what i was seeing to performances by elementary schools in the states just doesn't work. And thats taking nothing away from our kids. There's just some things Africa does extremely well, and this is one.
So that was all before the schools let out for holiday. Luckily it all took place (over two days) right on the parish so i had no excuse not to go. During the holiday we had a week long training in Kampala with our entire group as well as each of our counterparts from our organizations. It was a little overwhelming to say the least, compared to living in the village where I am the only white person (until now) within 30 km's or so. It was good to see everyone though, and i got some great ideas for projects that i can replicate. Also, hearing of failed projects and hardships people were having made me feel a little better about my situation and the problems i've had spinning wheels on several projects.
Also a while back I had the chance to attend my supervisor's (who is 50 or so) grandmother's 85th birthday celebration. There not really sure what her birthday is exactly, but they know its sometime in august, so they usually just pick a day to celebrate. Kelly came with me, and i think grandma was, to say the least, very happy to have two of us come out for the party. It was in my supervisors home village which is about 20km from my site. And when i say village i really mean it. We took a car from the parish out there and had to take a (barely) one lane road through dense dense bush for a few km's until we reached there. I wish i had a picture with me, i'll try to get one up of the route we took. It was really a footpath i think, with sugarcane plants that rose about 7 ft on either side of the road.
Once we arrived my supervisor took us around the village (village=4 or 5 houses near eachother) to show us some things he is working on there. He has a small fish hatchery as well as a couple pastures with cows. We also saw two kids catching white ants to cook for dinner. I have had the white ant sauce that comes out of this process but had never seen it done before. There are large anthills all over here, between 4 and 7 feet high usually, that are made by these white ants. They look like a normal ant but have 4 big wings on them. So to catch them you go out at night (when they usually come out) and put a blanket over the anthill. Where the blanket opens you have a little hole dug that collects them as they try to come out from under the blanket. Theres a picture on Kel's computer that i'll try to get up sometime. After catching them you pull the wings off and make a (quite delicous) sauce to put over matooke or millet....yum.
So after our tour we had dinner and a few drinks with the family before heading back home. Grandma didn't speak any english, and my rutoro is not nearly enough to hold any kind of conversation, so mostly my supervisor translated. Here's a picture of (l to r) kel, mom, grandma, me.
 |
| From Uganda |
I think that about sums up my last few months here, or at least the major highlights. The new term started last week with beginning of term exams. I supervised about 5 of them throughout the week (3 were in a room with 130 kids!). Next week i'll start lecturing again, same classes i had before - 3 physics and 1 biology.
Oh i should make a note here of something i just realized. So some of the fam had made the comment to me about how it always seems like the school is on break, which is true, but there's good reason. The school calendar is based around the planting and harvesting seasons, which are based around the rains. Here's how it roughly breaks down: Jan-April= short rainy season and first term, May=holiday and harvest/planting, June-August=second term and dry season, Sept=planting and holiday, oct-dec=heavy rains and 3rd term, dec-jan=harvest and planting and holiday. And now you know.....
Also...HUUUUUGE thank you's are due. You all are absolutely amazing and make my time hear so much easier. My post office box has been quite busy lately thanks to you all. Here goes:
Giggles: awesome, this is a bit overdue. I got your package about a month ago i think. Thank you so much, especially for the things for school. I was trying to figure out what to do with the science magazines as i have 70 kids in my classes so instead of having them share, i've been kind of randomly giving the magazines to kids (my own and others in the village) that i meet. This, i've decided, is much better than giving out sweets and the kids are amazed every time that they can actually keep the magazine.
Jenny: Just got yours a week or two ago and was blown away. The photo album is amazing. I think i've looked through it at least 4 times since i got it. Eric i can't wait to hear the song, thank you so much for taking the time to do that. Also, the bag of peanut m&m's dropped both me and kelly's chins to the floor. you both are very much missed and loved, thank you.
the howards: holy cow, i had to send the box with one of the motorcycle taxi's to drop on my porch it was so big. I couldnt believe how much jerky was in there! I must say my favorites were the pictures of the girls. You both are quite lucky, they are cute as ever. One of the father's i live with was amazed at how much Chris and Savannah resemble one another..."right down to the chin dimple" he said. Miss you all, thank you for my card Kirstin! it's hanging in my room.
mom and dad: i've already told you how awesome yours was but i couldn't leave you off of my list here. My charging people will miss me now that i've got my own little solar power plant, which by the way amazes every one at the parish ("eh!...sure? you can charge from there?") love you both.
and thank you for your letter kelli! there are now children running around the village with spongebob stickers :) expect a response soon.
wew, i think thats it. I'm sure i'll get home and think of something or someone i forgot and feel guilty until next time im in fort. Love you all, take care.
-Eric
One more picture for good measure. A typical Kampala street:
 |
| From Uganda |
Introduction Ceremony
Its been a while since i've last updated here, so i'll makeup for it
with a few posts to catch you up. Hope everything is going well back home, despite the shorter days. Ive been busy here over the holiday with training in Kampala and getting ready for the new term. I should be much busier this term with a few projects starting up: coaching the football (soccer) team, starting the student gov't, and the newspaper staff. Oh and i'm getting neighbors! There's another volunteer from my group who now lives just a few mins walk from me, and there are 4 or so volunteers from the new group moving to my district. Ok, without further delay here goes the catchup posts.
So the introduction:
The director of studies (just below vice principal) at my school is getting married in December and as is customary in most of Uganda, I think it is a bantu tradition, the families must first be introduced, and then the bride's family must agree to give away the daughter. In some areas of the country this is done in two seperate ceremonies (the "introduction ceremony", then "giveaway ceremony"). In the Batoro kingdom where I live, both are done at the introduction ceremony, allowing the two families to come together and meet and agree on a brideprice. I'll try to descibe this as well as I can, and hopefully with the pictures you'll have an accurate picture of what was going on.
I was of course sitting on the groom's side. The two families sit facing each other, with the male elders seated in couches at the front of each group. The ceremony is held at the bride's father's home. In this case it was about 15 km's or so from the school, deep into the bush. We took a small (one car wide) dirt road through the hills further and further from the main dirt road I cling to at the parish. Myself and about 8 other teachers from the school road in one of the minibus taxi's the groom had rented for us. We joined the groom and his family at their house near the bride's and then took our whole caravan of 2 minibuses, 2 cars, and a pickup truck full of beer and soda through the bush roads to the bride's family home (brides family = "bridefam"
from here on out). Here's the back of the pickup truck with all the alcohol etc we brought for gifts (as described below).
On arrival we formed a 2 x 2 line into the family's front yard. Oh I should mention at this point that I am in traditional dress for the Butoro (and a few other bantus) Kingdom, which is a sport jacket and kanzu (essentially a long white robe similar to a church robe). I was definitely not alone, as about 90% of the males were in this attire. So we walked in line up to a small archway on the outside of the bridefam's lawn. I had originally tried to slip in the back of the
line with two of the other younger teachers at the school, but the groomfam quickly found me and put me up near the front of the line. We had to stop at the archway and wait for the family to cut a ribbon allowing us to enter the "home" (or yard). Once in we took our seats, I was in the third row, 2 rows back from the couches with the elders. The first order of business was for the groomfam to request permission from the bridefam to have photographs taken by some of its members. This was granted, so from here on I was able to snap some pictures of what was going on. (btw, i did sneak a couple of pictures before we entered the archway, which i'm pretty sure is legal since we weren't actually in yet).
After allowing the pictures the groomfam's spokesperson (he was an uncle i believe) led the family up to the bridefam seated at their couch to offer formal greetings. The groomfam kneeled down and exchanged the normal back and forth greetings (ie: inquiring each's pet name [mine's amooti btw], asking how they are, thank them for being, etc). Next the bridefam welcomed us formally. This was my first major clue that I was going to have to be much more than merely an
observer of this whole thing. Myself, the groom, his best man, his father, the spokesperson, and the deputy head master from my school were invited into the house for milk. Luckily I was seated next to my dep head master so he was able to translated and let me know when they
were calling on me to do something. We were taken into a small room on the side of the house and offered the warm milk from the bride's sisters and cousins. Umm, not actually from the bride's sisters and cousins, but they just brought it out on a tray. Meanwhile the 100 or so other guests of the event sat outside and waited, including the bridefam elders on their couch. After receiving milk we went back outside and took our seats.
The spokesman then had to thank the bridefam for the milk and offer a gift to thank them for allowing us into the home (ribbon cutting). The gift ended up being a case or two of soda, case of beer, and two calabashes (think huge gourds) filled with locally brewed beer called tonto (an acquired taste if u ask me). On his way out with a few others to get the gifts from the pickup truck, my dep head master motioned for me to follow. When we got out to the truck a few of the men in the family pulled a list of things we had brought and decided on the items mentioned above. They asked which I'd like to carry in and I couldn't pass up a chance to carry the gourd, so I picked it immediately. However, I didn't realize the shear weight of the thing till they had it on my head and i started walking through the long grass and stumps surrounding the truck. I could feel my body drifting back a few times until i caught myself. I really thought i was going to just tip over like an unbalanced bookshelf, but i made it, with minimal soreness in my neck and a new respect for the items Africans are able to hoist onto their heads. Oh don't worry, theres visual evidence of this whole fiasco:
So my deputy took the other calabash and we led the group of 6 into the ceremony. All carrying our beverages on our heads and up to the bridefam's couch where we laid them on a grass mat. This, of course, wasnt enough - so the family had to go out to the truck again and bring more gifts. I didn't have to carry anything the rest of the day, I think they just wanted me to get a chance to do it once. Either that, or they noticed the couple times i tipped backwards a little too far with the calabash and didnt trust me to carry anything else.
This gift exchange happen a few more times for different reasons: gifts for the brother of the bride, more gifts in honor of a baby the couple had some months earlier (they are already married, but only through a civil service), then gifts to convince the father to bring his daughter out of the house, where she had been up until now. After the gifts the father agreed to bring her out....almost. First he brought out a group of about 5 girls that the groom could choose from
instead of having his daughter. Here's the group of girls (yes they are very young) kneeling in front of the bridefam elders. They were facing towards the groomfam.
This was inevitably denied by the groom, and followed with a different group of girls again being offered. This exchange went through 3 groups of girls, with the groom denying each. Finally a 4th group was brought out that included the bride in it. The groom rose from his seat and placed a beaded necklace on the girl to denote his choice. This is all very traditional for many of the Kingdoms in in Uganda. It is practiced nowadays as more of a way of honoring the tradition that the actual rituals, but before colonialism it was common practice as a way of receiving payment for giving away ones daughter. After receiving the
beaded necklace the bride walked over to the groomfam couches and offered a necklace of roses to the groom. Rings were then offered to each the groom and bride, similar to engagement rings.
A cake followed (this point i'm hoping lunch is close behind). This was where i made one of my few (but expected) slipups. This is the first time i had cake here in Uganda at a ceremony like this. Unbeknwencd to me they cut the cake into these little bitesized pieces, because theres usually so many people at a ceremonies and they want everyone to have some. So the custom is for them to bring around the plate and you pick a piece off of it. Unkowingly i fought for a few seconds tugging back and forth with the girl becuase she wouldnt let go of my plate, or so i thought. My deputy headmaster (as i said before he was sitting next to me for just this reason) elbowed me and told me just to take a piece. doh.
Ok, then came the brideprice. This is the big one, the payment to the family for giving away their daughter. The bride's family started with 10 cows, the groomfam offered to give 2, eventually they settled on 4 local cattle i think. We didnt bring any cattle with us, we had a pretty small pickup truck, so more soda, beer, waragi (local liquor), and money were offered for the same amount. Gifts were also brought for the father (a new kanzu) and mother of the bride. After the brideprice was decided on the groom's elders went out to the truck and brought them. For some reason the groom's family slipped up here. A tradition at these ceremonies is to make sure the spokesman's chair is always occupied. In this case the groom's spokesman got up and walked out to the truck, and so did the gentleman who was supposed to hold his seat. So a member of the bridefam came over and sat in the spokesperson's seat. I had to kind of guess what was going on here as my translator was gone, but i verified when he got back and this whole thing was kind of a trump move by the bridefam. When they came back the groomfam had to give a gift (1000 shillings in an envelope) to him to convince him to give back the seat.
After all of this we finally ate. I again was invited in the house with the groom and elders and ate with them. There was so much food, and of course no silverware, as is tradition. So i dug right in with my hands. After the meal the event was over and we loaded back into the minibus and headed home. All and all a hell of an experience for me and something i'll never forget. A lot of the guests asked me to compare this to what happens in America but i really couldnt think of anything that would compare.
with a few posts to catch you up. Hope everything is going well back home, despite the shorter days. Ive been busy here over the holiday with training in Kampala and getting ready for the new term. I should be much busier this term with a few projects starting up: coaching the football (soccer) team, starting the student gov't, and the newspaper staff. Oh and i'm getting neighbors! There's another volunteer from my group who now lives just a few mins walk from me, and there are 4 or so volunteers from the new group moving to my district. Ok, without further delay here goes the catchup posts.
So the introduction:
The director of studies (just below vice principal) at my school is getting married in December and as is customary in most of Uganda, I think it is a bantu tradition, the families must first be introduced, and then the bride's family must agree to give away the daughter. In some areas of the country this is done in two seperate ceremonies (the "introduction ceremony", then "giveaway ceremony"). In the Batoro kingdom where I live, both are done at the introduction ceremony, allowing the two families to come together and meet and agree on a brideprice. I'll try to descibe this as well as I can, and hopefully with the pictures you'll have an accurate picture of what was going on.
I was of course sitting on the groom's side. The two families sit facing each other, with the male elders seated in couches at the front of each group. The ceremony is held at the bride's father's home. In this case it was about 15 km's or so from the school, deep into the bush. We took a small (one car wide) dirt road through the hills further and further from the main dirt road I cling to at the parish. Myself and about 8 other teachers from the school road in one of the minibus taxi's the groom had rented for us. We joined the groom and his family at their house near the bride's and then took our whole caravan of 2 minibuses, 2 cars, and a pickup truck full of beer and soda through the bush roads to the bride's family home (brides family = "bridefam"
from here on out). Here's the back of the pickup truck with all the alcohol etc we brought for gifts (as described below).
 |
| From Uganda |
On arrival we formed a 2 x 2 line into the family's front yard. Oh I should mention at this point that I am in traditional dress for the Butoro (and a few other bantus) Kingdom, which is a sport jacket and kanzu (essentially a long white robe similar to a church robe). I was definitely not alone, as about 90% of the males were in this attire. So we walked in line up to a small archway on the outside of the bridefam's lawn. I had originally tried to slip in the back of the
line with two of the other younger teachers at the school, but the groomfam quickly found me and put me up near the front of the line. We had to stop at the archway and wait for the family to cut a ribbon allowing us to enter the "home" (or yard). Once in we took our seats, I was in the third row, 2 rows back from the couches with the elders. The first order of business was for the groomfam to request permission from the bridefam to have photographs taken by some of its members. This was granted, so from here on I was able to snap some pictures of what was going on. (btw, i did sneak a couple of pictures before we entered the archway, which i'm pretty sure is legal since we weren't actually in yet).
After allowing the pictures the groomfam's spokesperson (he was an uncle i believe) led the family up to the bridefam seated at their couch to offer formal greetings. The groomfam kneeled down and exchanged the normal back and forth greetings (ie: inquiring each's pet name [mine's amooti btw], asking how they are, thank them for being, etc). Next the bridefam welcomed us formally. This was my first major clue that I was going to have to be much more than merely an
observer of this whole thing. Myself, the groom, his best man, his father, the spokesperson, and the deputy head master from my school were invited into the house for milk. Luckily I was seated next to my dep head master so he was able to translated and let me know when they
were calling on me to do something. We were taken into a small room on the side of the house and offered the warm milk from the bride's sisters and cousins. Umm, not actually from the bride's sisters and cousins, but they just brought it out on a tray. Meanwhile the 100 or so other guests of the event sat outside and waited, including the bridefam elders on their couch. After receiving milk we went back outside and took our seats.
The spokesman then had to thank the bridefam for the milk and offer a gift to thank them for allowing us into the home (ribbon cutting). The gift ended up being a case or two of soda, case of beer, and two calabashes (think huge gourds) filled with locally brewed beer called tonto (an acquired taste if u ask me). On his way out with a few others to get the gifts from the pickup truck, my dep head master motioned for me to follow. When we got out to the truck a few of the men in the family pulled a list of things we had brought and decided on the items mentioned above. They asked which I'd like to carry in and I couldn't pass up a chance to carry the gourd, so I picked it immediately. However, I didn't realize the shear weight of the thing till they had it on my head and i started walking through the long grass and stumps surrounding the truck. I could feel my body drifting back a few times until i caught myself. I really thought i was going to just tip over like an unbalanced bookshelf, but i made it, with minimal soreness in my neck and a new respect for the items Africans are able to hoist onto their heads. Oh don't worry, theres visual evidence of this whole fiasco:
 |
| From Uganda |
So my deputy took the other calabash and we led the group of 6 into the ceremony. All carrying our beverages on our heads and up to the bridefam's couch where we laid them on a grass mat. This, of course, wasnt enough - so the family had to go out to the truck again and bring more gifts. I didn't have to carry anything the rest of the day, I think they just wanted me to get a chance to do it once. Either that, or they noticed the couple times i tipped backwards a little too far with the calabash and didnt trust me to carry anything else.
This gift exchange happen a few more times for different reasons: gifts for the brother of the bride, more gifts in honor of a baby the couple had some months earlier (they are already married, but only through a civil service), then gifts to convince the father to bring his daughter out of the house, where she had been up until now. After the gifts the father agreed to bring her out....almost. First he brought out a group of about 5 girls that the groom could choose from
instead of having his daughter. Here's the group of girls (yes they are very young) kneeling in front of the bridefam elders. They were facing towards the groomfam.
 |
| From Uganda |
beaded necklace the bride walked over to the groomfam couches and offered a necklace of roses to the groom. Rings were then offered to each the groom and bride, similar to engagement rings.
A cake followed (this point i'm hoping lunch is close behind). This was where i made one of my few (but expected) slipups. This is the first time i had cake here in Uganda at a ceremony like this. Unbeknwencd to me they cut the cake into these little bitesized pieces, because theres usually so many people at a ceremonies and they want everyone to have some. So the custom is for them to bring around the plate and you pick a piece off of it. Unkowingly i fought for a few seconds tugging back and forth with the girl becuase she wouldnt let go of my plate, or so i thought. My deputy headmaster (as i said before he was sitting next to me for just this reason) elbowed me and told me just to take a piece. doh.
Ok, then came the brideprice. This is the big one, the payment to the family for giving away their daughter. The bride's family started with 10 cows, the groomfam offered to give 2, eventually they settled on 4 local cattle i think. We didnt bring any cattle with us, we had a pretty small pickup truck, so more soda, beer, waragi (local liquor), and money were offered for the same amount. Gifts were also brought for the father (a new kanzu) and mother of the bride. After the brideprice was decided on the groom's elders went out to the truck and brought them. For some reason the groom's family slipped up here. A tradition at these ceremonies is to make sure the spokesman's chair is always occupied. In this case the groom's spokesman got up and walked out to the truck, and so did the gentleman who was supposed to hold his seat. So a member of the bridefam came over and sat in the spokesperson's seat. I had to kind of guess what was going on here as my translator was gone, but i verified when he got back and this whole thing was kind of a trump move by the bridefam. When they came back the groomfam had to give a gift (1000 shillings in an envelope) to him to convince him to give back the seat.
After all of this we finally ate. I again was invited in the house with the groom and elders and ate with them. There was so much food, and of course no silverware, as is tradition. So i dug right in with my hands. After the meal the event was over and we loaded back into the minibus and headed home. All and all a hell of an experience for me and something i'll never forget. A lot of the guests asked me to compare this to what happens in America but i really couldnt think of anything that would compare.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Holiday time
The second term of the school year (and my first full term as a teacher in Africa) has come to a close. I spent last Thursday and Friday grading exams for my S2 physics class...all 142 of them. The kids did fairly well, but need a lot of improvement, especially in the laboratory - something I intend to work on over the next year and a half. I did however have some standouts among the crowd of 142, so that gives me something to build on next term. We will be on holiday until Sept 15th (i know, seems like we are always on holiday here). The S4's will remain at school and prepare for their UNEB exams in November, so I will prob have a couple of classes with them during the break. And hopefully will be able to get them their calculators before the next term starts. I'll also be in Kampala for about a week towards the end of this month for a technical training, and a chance for the 58 or so volunteers in our group to get back together after 4 mos and share stories and ideas from our sites.
The primary school at the parish is hosting the district music and dance competition this week, so i'll try to get some video or at least pictures of the kids from our school's performance. I've been watching them practicing the past few weeks and they are really impressive. They will do a traditional dance complete with drums, grass skirts, bells tied around their ankles, and other string instruments. In the meantime i've added this picture of me and one of the neighbor boys that come over to play football in the evenings with me (the real football, not pigskin). Kato (pronounced Kuh-toh) was showing me his skills on my djembe drum while his brothers danced off to the left of the picture.
*a sidenote: His name is Kato because he is the second born of twins. If they are boys they are named Tsingoma (sin-goh-mah) and Kato, girls are Nyangoma (nee-yahn-goma) and Nyakato (nee-yah-kah-toh). Just in case you're interested.
That's it for me for now. I'll try to put up much more and lots of pictures when im in Kampala in a couple weeks. We've had some progress on the projects for the school so far, so i'll update those of the other blog then as well. Thanks to Kevin Hetman we soon hope to have a website up to replace the blog where you all can do a little more exploring of the school and donate via paypal to projects. I'll wet your appetite on a couple of the projects i'm hoping to add to the (endless) list - a basketball court and getting the kids who board at the school (about 60 of them) mosquito nets for their dorm bunks (something that goes a long way to helping stop malaria, one of the biggest killers in Africa).
**Also, please keep my brother in your thoughts as starts a long recovery from surgery on his femur bone. Love you J.
Love and miss you all,
Eric
The primary school at the parish is hosting the district music and dance competition this week, so i'll try to get some video or at least pictures of the kids from our school's performance. I've been watching them practicing the past few weeks and they are really impressive. They will do a traditional dance complete with drums, grass skirts, bells tied around their ankles, and other string instruments. In the meantime i've added this picture of me and one of the neighbor boys that come over to play football in the evenings with me (the real football, not pigskin). Kato (pronounced Kuh-toh) was showing me his skills on my djembe drum while his brothers danced off to the left of the picture.*a sidenote: His name is Kato because he is the second born of twins. If they are boys they are named Tsingoma (sin-goh-mah) and Kato, girls are Nyangoma (nee-yahn-goma) and Nyakato (nee-yah-kah-toh). Just in case you're interested.
That's it for me for now. I'll try to put up much more and lots of pictures when im in Kampala in a couple weeks. We've had some progress on the projects for the school so far, so i'll update those of the other blog then as well. Thanks to Kevin Hetman we soon hope to have a website up to replace the blog where you all can do a little more exploring of the school and donate via paypal to projects. I'll wet your appetite on a couple of the projects i'm hoping to add to the (endless) list - a basketball court and getting the kids who board at the school (about 60 of them) mosquito nets for their dorm bunks (something that goes a long way to helping stop malaria, one of the biggest killers in Africa).
**Also, please keep my brother in your thoughts as starts a long recovery from surgery on his femur bone. Love you J.
Love and miss you all,
Eric
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Update 31
In Kampala so I thought I'd check in and let you know whats going on here. Last week I was at a language training for most of the week for the new language I am learning. We were tested yesterday on our proficiency so we'll see in a few days how fluent I really am when the results come back. Also met with the Daily Monitor last week and have posted an update on the school's blog (see previous post) about those developments.
Things are going extremely well here all in all. Miss you all as always, but still loving my life in Africa. Thank you (x 10) for the care packages. I received two in the last couple weeks. Thank you Bruce and Dolores and family for the box of snacks and the previous package of magazines. You should be receiving a letter soon, so check your box. The snacks were delicious, i definitely indulged myself for a good week on them. Also, mr thomas hetman. That was completely unexpected and awesome. I'm now on a steady diet of ranch sunflower seeds, beef jerky and time magazines. Hope you're having fun out west, be safe, keep an eye on jeege.
I'm drawing a blank on comedic relief for this post. As always, life here is consistently entertaining. My luganglish is steadily improving as I add more and more crazy ways the Ugandans use english words. A few examples:
"eh" - this not so much a word, more of a sound thats got about as many different uses as any four letter word. My favorite use is the amazed "eh". Example: watching the tour de france at our hotel at language training and the announcer says "they've got 15km's to go", "eh" "15km's on a bicycle" "eh"
"extend" - this ones has countless appropriate situations. the most useful is in the minibuses where 4 people are packed on to one bench on seats and the conductor tells them to "extend" so they can fit one more person in (btw, a bench is about the size of the backseat of a sedan)
"sorrry" - keeping with their exceptionally courteous nature, Ugandans will say "sorrry" for just about anything. ie: slipping on one of the dirt roads and almost falling, running into someone walking towards you as you try to figure out which side to pass them on, dropping a piece of food while your eating, or falling on your bum into a ditch on the side of the road (won't mention any names here)
"assist" - instead of the american "can i use your pen" this word gets plugged in some backwards way and it becomes "please assist me with your pen"
the list goes on...i'll add some more as i collect them.
Thats all for now, check the school blog for the newspaper updates. Love you all, thanks again for your packages and thoughts.
Love and miss you,
Eric
Things are going extremely well here all in all. Miss you all as always, but still loving my life in Africa. Thank you (x 10) for the care packages. I received two in the last couple weeks. Thank you Bruce and Dolores and family for the box of snacks and the previous package of magazines. You should be receiving a letter soon, so check your box. The snacks were delicious, i definitely indulged myself for a good week on them. Also, mr thomas hetman. That was completely unexpected and awesome. I'm now on a steady diet of ranch sunflower seeds, beef jerky and time magazines. Hope you're having fun out west, be safe, keep an eye on jeege.
I'm drawing a blank on comedic relief for this post. As always, life here is consistently entertaining. My luganglish is steadily improving as I add more and more crazy ways the Ugandans use english words. A few examples:
"eh" - this not so much a word, more of a sound thats got about as many different uses as any four letter word. My favorite use is the amazed "eh". Example: watching the tour de france at our hotel at language training and the announcer says "they've got 15km's to go", "eh" "15km's on a bicycle" "eh"
"extend" - this ones has countless appropriate situations. the most useful is in the minibuses where 4 people are packed on to one bench on seats and the conductor tells them to "extend" so they can fit one more person in (btw, a bench is about the size of the backseat of a sedan)
"sorrry" - keeping with their exceptionally courteous nature, Ugandans will say "sorrry" for just about anything. ie: slipping on one of the dirt roads and almost falling, running into someone walking towards you as you try to figure out which side to pass them on, dropping a piece of food while your eating, or falling on your bum into a ditch on the side of the road (won't mention any names here)
"assist" - instead of the american "can i use your pen" this word gets plugged in some backwards way and it becomes "please assist me with your pen"
the list goes on...i'll add some more as i collect them.
Thats all for now, check the school blog for the newspaper updates. Love you all, thanks again for your packages and thoughts.
Love and miss you,
Eric
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Happy errr...6th of July
Would you believe me if i said due to the crazy time difference and the slow internet cafe's here that i'm actually posting this on the 4th? probably not, but we'll go with it. Hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed the holiday. We tried to be as Americana as possible here.
Friday Kel and I hung around Mbarara waiting for two fellow volunteers to arrive, but per usual Ugandan fashion they were held up leaving Kampala on public transport and didn't get in till late. After they got in we headed out to Kel's house and tried a campfire but didn't have any firewood and African tree roots don't tend to burn very well, then resorted to a small charcoal stove to cook our burgers, which took about an hour. Writing this now it seems like a boring night but we all had a great time trying our best to authenticate the holiday.
Saturday we indulged and headed to a local mzungu resort in Mbarara. Spent the day hanging out at the pool with beers and good bar food. After lunch we picked up a few things in town and headed back out to Kel's. Had bean taco's and played catch phrase before heading to bed. This lasted for just over 4 hours. And now...the true reason for this post.
African red ants....
Around 3am I awoke to the frightened shrills of three girls. Two of our fellow volunteers were sleeping on a makeshift bed in the living room made with kel's couch cushions. One was awakened by the sounds of critters above the papyrus ceiling (bats, lizards, rats, etc - a normal thing at night in this house). When she woke up she kept feeling strange pinches all over herr body and couldn't quite figure out the cause. Once we got the flashlights out we realized what we were dealing with. The house had been invaded by hundreds of fire ants. They were covering the cushions in the living room, couches, floor, walls and generally everywhere else in the house. It would be one thing if they were just plain old american black ants, but these suckers came with a bite. Anywhere you stood they came crawling up your legs and began biting. I think we were all wishing to be able to just jump into a bathtub of water to escape them. We tried going into the backyard to get away but the yard was even more populated with them. Armed with cans of insecticide and anything else that could kill we combed the rooms killing a many as we could. Kel's room seemed to be the only safe place so we all hunkered down in there and stuffed the cracks around the door and tried to forget about what was outside the room. Alas a few hours of sleep came with the (rare) dry season rain. This morning we began the cleanup sweeping dead ants up like dirt from 3 of the rooms in the house. We haven't figured out exactly why they chose last night to strike us. I've seen these ants before in her backyard but they've never invaded the house like that. This morning we acquired some more ammunition and will spend the day creating an insecticide wall around the foundation of the house and cleaning any trace of food from inside before I head back home for classes tomorrow...as well as washing everything in the kitchen that was doomed in the killing process last night.
TIA
love and miss you all,
eric
Friday Kel and I hung around Mbarara waiting for two fellow volunteers to arrive, but per usual Ugandan fashion they were held up leaving Kampala on public transport and didn't get in till late. After they got in we headed out to Kel's house and tried a campfire but didn't have any firewood and African tree roots don't tend to burn very well, then resorted to a small charcoal stove to cook our burgers, which took about an hour. Writing this now it seems like a boring night but we all had a great time trying our best to authenticate the holiday.
Saturday we indulged and headed to a local mzungu resort in Mbarara. Spent the day hanging out at the pool with beers and good bar food. After lunch we picked up a few things in town and headed back out to Kel's. Had bean taco's and played catch phrase before heading to bed. This lasted for just over 4 hours. And now...the true reason for this post.
African red ants....
Around 3am I awoke to the frightened shrills of three girls. Two of our fellow volunteers were sleeping on a makeshift bed in the living room made with kel's couch cushions. One was awakened by the sounds of critters above the papyrus ceiling (bats, lizards, rats, etc - a normal thing at night in this house). When she woke up she kept feeling strange pinches all over herr body and couldn't quite figure out the cause. Once we got the flashlights out we realized what we were dealing with. The house had been invaded by hundreds of fire ants. They were covering the cushions in the living room, couches, floor, walls and generally everywhere else in the house. It would be one thing if they were just plain old american black ants, but these suckers came with a bite. Anywhere you stood they came crawling up your legs and began biting. I think we were all wishing to be able to just jump into a bathtub of water to escape them. We tried going into the backyard to get away but the yard was even more populated with them. Armed with cans of insecticide and anything else that could kill we combed the rooms killing a many as we could. Kel's room seemed to be the only safe place so we all hunkered down in there and stuffed the cracks around the door and tried to forget about what was outside the room. Alas a few hours of sleep came with the (rare) dry season rain. This morning we began the cleanup sweeping dead ants up like dirt from 3 of the rooms in the house. We haven't figured out exactly why they chose last night to strike us. I've seen these ants before in her backyard but they've never invaded the house like that. This morning we acquired some more ammunition and will spend the day creating an insecticide wall around the foundation of the house and cleaning any trace of food from inside before I head back home for classes tomorrow...as well as washing everything in the kitchen that was doomed in the killing process last night.
TIA
love and miss you all,
eric
Saturday, June 28, 2008
New blog!
ok so not much of an update from here. Was going to try to at least get a picture up but the connection is awfully slow today. One thing i will mention is that I've created a new blog for the school I'm working at. Its a little rough right now but i just wanted to get the information up so you could start reading. I'm hoping to finalize all the budgets for the projects and get some pictures up on the page as well as putting some more projects I'm working on.
here it is: http://www.saintadolf.blogspot.com
there is also a new email address: stadolfhigh@gmail.com
love and miss you all,
Eric
here it is: http://www.saintadolf.blogspot.com
there is also a new email address: stadolfhigh@gmail.com
love and miss you all,
Eric
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Pop, Pop, Bang! three posts in one day!
So these three posts were meant to be just one, but I got a little long winded....i know, weird huh?...on each topic so decided to cut them up into three. So here's the update post I have been intending to write for the last 2 hours (as i now hit 5400 shillings of internet time). So we're about 3 weeks into the term, which is a short one - 10 weeks, really 8 once you factor a week of beginning term exams and a week of end term exams. And as I mentioned before I've got a few physics classes and a biology class. Yesterday I had my first session with the S3 physics class that I will be covering "light and optics" with. I brought in a box of goodies - flashlights, a globe to demonstrate a solar eclipse, a mirror, etc etc - for my lesson to ensure I gave them plenty of demonstrations of what exactly I meant by angle of incidence or penumbra. This got them pretty excited, especially when I mentioned that we would be in the lab next week to do some more. The other classes are going about as equally as well, once we got over the initial shock of, "wow the white guy talks", and "whoa, we're not used to actually seeing these experiments". Here's a picture of my town that I took on my walk up to the boulders (see last post). This is looking west towards the mountains (which weren't out that day, but you can see some of the foothills in the distance)
A call to arms: So for my S4's, I've been brainstorming a bit and would really like to do something specifically for them as they will not be reaping the benefits of a potential library, or upgraded lab facility, etc. What I've come up with is this (and i cant help feeling like I've already mentioned this in the blog somewhere, but i can't find it, so my apologies if this is a re-run -> i'm hoping to start a second blog soon of St. Adolf projects, where I can collect these ideas and let you all contribute your thoughts and ideas):
They are preparing to take their o-level exams in November, which will determine if they can move on to either A-level (our junior/senior years of high school) or leave school with the satisfaction of having an O-level education (this is really the equivalent of being a high school grad in america, as far as society's view). A few weeks ago I met with them and we talked about what they were lacking most in preparation for these exams. I mulled over their suggestions and weeded out the impossible options (getting 65 textbooks to them in 4 months, etc) and decided on this. Scientific calculators. As i understand it, the rule for the exams is if you have one (aka can afford it) then you can use it on the exam. out of about 65 kids 3 of them have calculators. Having this tool on the exam would inevitably boost their scores and prevent a lot of simple mistakes - you try finding the tangent of an angle without a calculator. I've done a little shopping around, although I need to do more, and I think these can be purchased for around 10,000 shillings each here in Uganda, or about 6 bucks. That is worst case scenario - raising money and buying them from a store. What I'm hoping is that I can get some kind of deal with either a company or wholesaler to get a bulk order through at a good price. So as I continue working on this here I opening the floor to you. Please email me any ideas or suggestions for this small project. With the calculators I'm hoping to get them a study guide with past exams, test taking strategies, etc, as well. But that is second fiddle to the calculators.
Okay so some random Ugandan moments, since I know you all get a kick out of these. First one happened this morning. I woke up about 8am or so, slept in a little since I don't have class on Tuesdays. Walked out onto the back porch with my cup of coffee and sat down. Pretty soon I hear a rooster really making a commotion. They're annoying when they just crow but this was more of an "im in danger yelping". Sure enough a few seconds later the rooster rounds the corner of the building and starts running through the backyard with the dog fast on his heels nipping it's feathers. This proceeds for about 5 mins as they make circles around the house. I shooed the dog away a few times but he was persistent. The next time they came around the corner of the house the rooster got wise and jumped up onto the porch. He started walking around clucking and came up to me, like i was gonna save him. Just then the dog jumped up onto the porch and lunged at the rooster. It ran the only way it could. Into my open door. So now I've got a rooster in my bedroom and the dog waiting at the back door for it. Of course the rooster go anywhere near the back door and the dog isn't keen on giving up. So I have to climb onto my bed and reach out and open the front door to let him walk out. The father's were standing in the courtyard and got a good kick out of seeing my door opening and the rooster walking out.
The picture is of the two crested cranes who come to the parish pasture in the mornings. (The dog likes to chase these as well)
Last week I decided to attend a meeting at the school of the parents of the S4 students, the students, members of the PTA and staff. In typical Uganda fashion the meeting (scheduled to start at 10am) got going around 11:15. One of the first things they did was to invite me to change from my comfortable seat within the crowd, most of the way back where I could hide, up to the front where they had a few desks turned around facing the audience. I halfway expected this to happen but hoped I could just sit back in the shade of the mango tree and observe the meeting. So I walked up and sat next to Father Moses (who is on the board of directors for the school, and my supervisor). It worked out well that I changed seats because he was able to translate for me throughout the meeting, which of course was all in Rutooro. This isn't so bad I thought, obviously I wont be expected to say much since they're conducting the meeting in Rutooro. First item on the agenda. Opening prayer. "Myers Eric, will you lead us in the prayer please" <- this of course was said in Rutooro but I at least got the point that they were talking to me. I turned to the father to ask for my translation and he kind of grinned at me and said "umm, they want you to lead the prayer". Oh, fantastic! I stumbled my way through it...in english mind you....which is probably good because that means most people didn't know what I was saying and probably though it was a pretty good prayer. The rest of the meeting I was able to just slump back and read the notes the Father was writing in english for me. I lasted almost all the way through it. I left around 2:00pm because I had a class. I think the meeting wrapped up soon after I left. Just a shade under 3 hours, which is pretty short for Uganda. Needless to say next time I go to a meeting I will have a prayer ready to spit out. As well as brush up on my Rutooro introduction of who I am, where I'm from, etc etc.
Okay, I think thats pretty good for one day. Hope everyone is enjoying summer! Oh and a bit belated but Happy Father's Day to my dad and any others reading this. You too Chris! You guys are the best. And thank you to shara also, i forgot you in my care-package-preparers-pre-emptive-thank-you".
Love and miss you all.
(ps, I snuck a picture of "the treehouse" below. More about this at a later date, just know that it was in the middle of a jungle filled with monkeys ;)
A call to arms: So for my S4's, I've been brainstorming a bit and would really like to do something specifically for them as they will not be reaping the benefits of a potential library, or upgraded lab facility, etc. What I've come up with is this (and i cant help feeling like I've already mentioned this in the blog somewhere, but i can't find it, so my apologies if this is a re-run -> i'm hoping to start a second blog soon of St. Adolf projects, where I can collect these ideas and let you all contribute your thoughts and ideas):
They are preparing to take their o-level exams in November, which will determine if they can move on to either A-level (our junior/senior years of high school) or leave school with the satisfaction of having an O-level education (this is really the equivalent of being a high school grad in america, as far as society's view). A few weeks ago I met with them and we talked about what they were lacking most in preparation for these exams. I mulled over their suggestions and weeded out the impossible options (getting 65 textbooks to them in 4 months, etc) and decided on this. Scientific calculators. As i understand it, the rule for the exams is if you have one (aka can afford it) then you can use it on the exam. out of about 65 kids 3 of them have calculators. Having this tool on the exam would inevitably boost their scores and prevent a lot of simple mistakes - you try finding the tangent of an angle without a calculator. I've done a little shopping around, although I need to do more, and I think these can be purchased for around 10,000 shillings each here in Uganda, or about 6 bucks. That is worst case scenario - raising money and buying them from a store. What I'm hoping is that I can get some kind of deal with either a company or wholesaler to get a bulk order through at a good price. So as I continue working on this here I opening the floor to you. Please email me any ideas or suggestions for this small project. With the calculators I'm hoping to get them a study guide with past exams, test taking strategies, etc, as well. But that is second fiddle to the calculators.
Okay so some random Ugandan moments, since I know you all get a kick out of these. First one happened this morning. I woke up about 8am or so, slept in a little since I don't have class on Tuesdays. Walked out onto the back porch with my cup of coffee and sat down. Pretty soon I hear a rooster really making a commotion. They're annoying when they just crow but this was more of an "im in danger yelping". Sure enough a few seconds later the rooster rounds the corner of the building and starts running through the backyard with the dog fast on his heels nipping it's feathers. This proceeds for about 5 mins as they make circles around the house. I shooed the dog away a few times but he was persistent. The next time they came around the corner of the house the rooster got wise and jumped up onto the porch. He started walking around clucking and came up to me, like i was gonna save him. Just then the dog jumped up onto the porch and lunged at the rooster. It ran the only way it could. Into my open door. So now I've got a rooster in my bedroom and the dog waiting at the back door for it. Of course the rooster go anywhere near the back door and the dog isn't keen on giving up. So I have to climb onto my bed and reach out and open the front door to let him walk out. The father's were standing in the courtyard and got a good kick out of seeing my door opening and the rooster walking out.
The picture is of the two crested cranes who come to the parish pasture in the mornings. (The dog likes to chase these as well)
Last week I decided to attend a meeting at the school of the parents of the S4 students, the students, members of the PTA and staff. In typical Uganda fashion the meeting (scheduled to start at 10am) got going around 11:15. One of the first things they did was to invite me to change from my comfortable seat within the crowd, most of the way back where I could hide, up to the front where they had a few desks turned around facing the audience. I halfway expected this to happen but hoped I could just sit back in the shade of the mango tree and observe the meeting. So I walked up and sat next to Father Moses (who is on the board of directors for the school, and my supervisor). It worked out well that I changed seats because he was able to translate for me throughout the meeting, which of course was all in Rutooro. This isn't so bad I thought, obviously I wont be expected to say much since they're conducting the meeting in Rutooro. First item on the agenda. Opening prayer. "Myers Eric, will you lead us in the prayer please" <- this of course was said in Rutooro but I at least got the point that they were talking to me. I turned to the father to ask for my translation and he kind of grinned at me and said "umm, they want you to lead the prayer". Oh, fantastic! I stumbled my way through it...in english mind you....which is probably good because that means most people didn't know what I was saying and probably though it was a pretty good prayer. The rest of the meeting I was able to just slump back and read the notes the Father was writing in english for me. I lasted almost all the way through it. I left around 2:00pm because I had a class. I think the meeting wrapped up soon after I left. Just a shade under 3 hours, which is pretty short for Uganda. Needless to say next time I go to a meeting I will have a prayer ready to spit out. As well as brush up on my Rutooro introduction of who I am, where I'm from, etc etc.
Okay, I think thats pretty good for one day. Hope everyone is enjoying summer! Oh and a bit belated but Happy Father's Day to my dad and any others reading this. You too Chris! You guys are the best. And thank you to shara also, i forgot you in my care-package-preparers-pre-emptive-thank-you".
Love and miss you all.
(ps, I snuck a picture of "the treehouse" below. More about this at a later date, just know that it was in the middle of a jungle filled with monkeys ;)
An ode to Amos
So I had "one of those days" recently, which tend to frequent my new life in Africa. Call it culture shock (which peace corps does), call it weakness, call it whatever you want. But there's just some days where you don't want to leave the house. In the states I would say I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, so I guess in this case I've woken up on the wrong side of the world, and a day in Africa with the constant "muzungu, give me money" just seems like the worst thing imaginable. But alas, i'm here, and i'm not leaving....so i'll deal with it. Finding a way to deal with it (besides walking immediately to the local watering hole) can sometimes be tricky.
In this case I decided to take a hike to these "stones", or boulders, that sit on a hill above my town. I've often looked at these boulders, which are just visible from my back stoop at the parish, and wondered what the view would be like from there. Well, now you know almost as well as I do. This picture (or any) really cant do justice to the view from up there. you have 360 degrees of rolling green hills, banana plantations, little stone houses, and mountains. You can see as far as your eyes (or the air) will let you - which I'm estimating is about 60 km's on all sides.
Lucky for me this "hike" turned out to be a walk up a driveway. Yep, at the top of the hill right next to the boulders is a little house. Which is good for me as this means I can walk up here quite easily, and therefore will be using this as a stress reliever for the next two years. While I was sitting on one of the boulders admiring the view and trying to pick out the parish in the distance - which in the picture above you need to find the long rooftop right in the middle off to the right of my collar, then move right till you see the cow pasture, then further right where u'll see a little rooftop just on the edge of the frame - a young boy of 15 came up and sat next to me. I soon learned he lived in the little house next to the boulders, and his family has lived on this hilltop for over 75 years. This was Amos. And although he spoke very little english (even less than i speak Rutooro) we sat on the boulders for a couple hours, mostly in silence, save whenever i would question him about something in the distance. Which he usually responded with just a confused look and then a smile and then "yes". The one successful conversation we did have was when I asked him (in broken Rutooro) which was his favorite view (noogonza kulaba nkaha - you like to look where). To answer this he brought me over to the largest rock that looks west to the Rwenzori's and pointed off in the distance and said "snooze, in morning". Of course my first thought was to agree and say, yeah me too, i never get up on time. But what he meant was that in the morning he comes to here because you can see the snow on the peaks of the Rwenzori's. Something I will definitely be trying to make it for at some point. So why an ode to Amos, this young boy who sat mostly in silence with me for 3 hours? Well it gave me a subtle reminder that for all of those people who sit on the side of the road and shout "give me money" or some other thoughtless remark, there are people like Amos who just want to share something with you or sit next to you for a while (next to = 5 feet away and slightly behind me where he can investigate my every movement).
And now....a cow for Rosie
Ask and yee shall recieve. I present, an ankole cattle (his horns aren't as big as most of them usually are...around 2-3 feet each...but don't tell him [or is it her? i cant tell from the picture], he's a little sensitive about the subject). This cow is one of 10 or so the parish has. Also pictured is the parish dog, who I've dubbed Marx, because he was nameless and for reasons I won't mention for fear of a lightning strike. He just got done chasing the big black cow, who is still running from him, hence the blur.
Please forward all other requests to me via the comment link below.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Ding Ding, School's in
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ha, i wish i had a picture of this title. there is one somewhere on kel's camera i'll have to put up soemtime. so they have bells at the schools here in Uganda. They also have a bell ringer. Why you ask? well the "bell" is actually just an old wheel from a car hanging from a tree. so they have a boy (or girl) designated to hit it a few times with a stick the call the kids in from breaks, lunch, etc. just an fyi for you all.
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so i've started classes...and absolutely loving it. I think I wrote (its too slow to go back and read it now, and i just want to get something up before my time runs out) in my last blog about having a couple classes and then covering topics for other teachers. Well that has now changed...and now I have 4 of my own classes! all mine to do as i please. I have Senior 2 (east stream and west stream) physics, senior 4 biology (which i taught over the holiday as well) and senior 3 physics. BTW streams here are a way to cope with the lack of teachers. All the Senior 3 and 4 kids sit in the same class (about 60 of them) and they are the only senior3/4 class in the school. Senior 1 and 2 have "streams" which just means there are 2 classes....just like in the states there would be 2-5 1st grade classes in a given school.
ok so i've got 4 classes total, and...thankfully...mostly physics. The picture (which doesnt seem to be loading...i'll try it again in another post) is my senior 2 east physics class. Its a little dusty because, well, the class is dusty. there's no glass in the windows, and concrete floors, so you do the math. Much more to come (when i have more time) and i'll also have more pictures as i have kelly's camera on loan for the next month.
special thank you to everyone i've talked to that is putting together a care package. Bruce and Dolores thank you for the magazines! they were great, and are currently being cut up and used to decorate my walls as i have read them cover to cover twice now. Chris and Bridget/General and Woody: thanks for your emails and care package preparation. It really means a lot to know you all are thinking about me.
Oh! i will mention this before i go. Kevin asked me about the LRA situation in an email, and I'm sure others are wondering about this as well. yes, they (Uganda and Congo) are escalating their dispute with kony after the failed peace talks, but i'm totally safe. This will be occuring in the congo and in northern uganda (both areas we are not allowed to go to), and appears will be mostly confined to those regions, which i am well away from. I will keep you updated on it though.
Love you all.
Eric
ha, i wish i had a picture of this title. there is one somewhere on kel's camera i'll have to put up soemtime. so they have bells at the schools here in Uganda. They also have a bell ringer. Why you ask? well the "bell" is actually just an old wheel from a car hanging from a tree. so they have a boy (or girl) designated to hit it a few times with a stick the call the kids in from breaks, lunch, etc. just an fyi for you all.
------------------------------------------------------------
so i've started classes...and absolutely loving it. I think I wrote (its too slow to go back and read it now, and i just want to get something up before my time runs out) in my last blog about having a couple classes and then covering topics for other teachers. Well that has now changed...and now I have 4 of my own classes! all mine to do as i please. I have Senior 2 (east stream and west stream) physics, senior 4 biology (which i taught over the holiday as well) and senior 3 physics. BTW streams here are a way to cope with the lack of teachers. All the Senior 3 and 4 kids sit in the same class (about 60 of them) and they are the only senior3/4 class in the school. Senior 1 and 2 have "streams" which just means there are 2 classes....just like in the states there would be 2-5 1st grade classes in a given school.
ok so i've got 4 classes total, and...thankfully...mostly physics. The picture (which doesnt seem to be loading...i'll try it again in another post) is my senior 2 east physics class. Its a little dusty because, well, the class is dusty. there's no glass in the windows, and concrete floors, so you do the math. Much more to come (when i have more time) and i'll also have more pictures as i have kelly's camera on loan for the next month.
special thank you to everyone i've talked to that is putting together a care package. Bruce and Dolores thank you for the magazines! they were great, and are currently being cut up and used to decorate my walls as i have read them cover to cover twice now. Chris and Bridget/General and Woody: thanks for your emails and care package preparation. It really means a lot to know you all are thinking about me.
Oh! i will mention this before i go. Kevin asked me about the LRA situation in an email, and I'm sure others are wondering about this as well. yes, they (Uganda and Congo) are escalating their dispute with kony after the failed peace talks, but i'm totally safe. This will be occuring in the congo and in northern uganda (both areas we are not allowed to go to), and appears will be mostly confined to those regions, which i am well away from. I will keep you updated on it though.
Love you all.
Eric
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Kampala
So trip to the big city this weekend. Finally got my first sweet care package that has been waiting for me at the peace corps office. Thank you soooo soo much Shay!! It's absolutely awesome. Here's a quick rundown of the highlights: ramen noodles, grape jelly, a portable fan!!, lots of crackers, pringles, a pitcher, granola bars, batteries, pretzels, etc, etc, etc....soo great! the portable fan might have already gone through 2 batteries :) but i've got more than enough AA's so it will be going strong for a while.Went to the Uganda v. Niger football (the real football) game yesterday. Had tons of fun. They won 1-0, although we missed the goal as we were moving from the sunny seats to the shade (a diff of at least 15 degrees) but had a great time all around. The entire city was alive with fans yesterday afternoon and had a great atmosphere. There were about 30,000 fans at the stadium which was about 2/3rds full....including a young ugandan man in a bra leading cheers (so very culturally inappropriate). Here's our sweet $1.50 cranes visors we bought at the market in kampala. I also had a flag that we bought with the visors but our driver's flag fell off halfway to the game so i held one out the window which got snatched by a girl driving by on a boda.
Other than the game I've just been hanging out and eating good food that I can't get in the village, ie: pizza, chinese, salads, etc.
School is getting underway now, last week was the first week of the new term. They have beginning of term exams all week until this monday. I did not set any exams this term but I did supervise the s4's for two of theirs. Keeping watch for cheating becomes quite difficult when you've got 65 high school students crammed 4 to a desk in a dark room...but I think overall it went pretty smoothly. This week I will start teaching two streams (classes) of s2 biology, as well as finishing up the topic I was working on with the s4 physics class. I am hoping to get some more classes added to my load, but as of right now I will just be covering various topics in different classes so they can move me around to interact with as many kids as possible.
Had an interesting trip back from fort portal one day last week. The matatu's are always a great source for stories. This particular one I was on ran out of gas about 20km's from my village. So we pulled over on the side of the road and the conductor took a jerry can and ran down to the gas station at the next town which was about 2km's away. They had no gas. So the driver flagged down a boda driver who drove up to the next town to look for some. Took about 20 mins before he came back, this time with gas. So the conductor poured it into the tank (using a piece of cardboard as the funnel) but then wanted to also put a little into the fuel line for good measure. So how does one get gas into a fuel line from a jerry can without a funnel?? well you use your mouth! Next thing I knew he had tipped the jerrycan up and took a big mouthful of it, then leaned over and spit it into the fuel line and spit the rest out onto the ground and we were off! Never a dull moment, and there is absolutely no such thing as impossible. There's always another way to do something.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
I got nothing but pictures
So not much of an update...yet again, been playing a lot of yahtzee this weekend. I'm trying to get into a habit of posting something whenever i'm at an internet cafe....so here's some more pics for your viewing pleasure.
bowling in Kampala...we had to buy the red socks since we both had sandals.
...pain
ting windows in Kampala
stay tuned....
love and miss everyone,
eric
I did recently have a "madman" (which the father likes to refer to the drunks as) come up on my porch in the middle of the night. He pushed over anything that was sitting on my window sill (my window was cracked open) and also dragged my stool to the other side of the porch and sat there and drank my jerry can of water. I didn't hear anything but woke up the next morning to find my stool arranged next to the empty jerry can and a few things on the floor that had been on my window sill the previous night. The father informed me of the happenings of the night.
anyway, here's some pics.
this is a street on one of the many hills in Kampala, this one is a residential section. Actually just down the street from the vice president's residence. on the opposite hill on the left is a school for deaf children....very cool location and architecture
bowling in Kampala...we had to buy the red socks since we both had sandals.
....she beat me
...pain
ting windows in Kampala...class at Kitebi Secondary School (my original site in Kampala), not sure where the teacher is....you can see the netball goal to the left (basketball hoop with no backboard) this is a game played by the girls and is similar to basketball but has rules kind of like ultimate frisbee instead of dribbling
...fellow PCV's prior to swearing in ceremony. From left: sabrina, melissa, baxter, kel, me, and sunshine. (i'm in a kanzu which is a traditional formal wear for the buganda tribe)
stay tuned....
love and miss everyone,
eric
Monday, May 12, 2008
Happy Mother's Day!
Happy mother's day to my mom, grandma mag's and helen, and any other mom's reading this blog!!Not much update from here as of yet. We are wrapping up the holiday term with the S4's this week, and I have gained an english class and a physics class. So I am now teaching 3 physics classes (same class but 3 80 min sessions), a biology class, and 2 english classes. So needless to say I am staying quite busy during this "holiday". The Senior 4's (equivalent to sophomore's in high school) have stayed around school for extra classes as they prepare for their national O-level exams this october. The rest of the school (S1-S3) will begin classes on the 26th of may. I am not sure what my schedule will be like, as the timetable has not been decided on, but I'm sure I'll be extra busy with more classes for the term. I'm excited to start teaching the S1's and S2's, as these are a little younger kids and will be excited to have me teaching no doubt.
Things are going well at the parish, I have a new PO box! which I've added to the right. So anyone holding a sweet care package, wait no more :) In all seriousness thank you all for these, I have not received any yet (although there is one in Kampala waiting for me to pick up at the office) but I have heard of many being prepared or sent....so thank you from the bottom of my heart. It means a lot to me knowing you all are thinking about me and will surely be an exciting day when I get them!
Also thank you to anyone who has sent emails. I am trying hard to respond to them as quickly as I can....I have found a new internet cafe in Fort Portal which is substantially faster...which is where I am blogging from now....(btw, there is a american pop country song playing on their radio right now...kinda strange...made even stranger by the ugandan who is running the cafe singing along to it ;) never a dull moment.
btw, this picture to the left is from the end of training. We did a Homestay Family Thank You Day, where our language groups put together skits and local dances for the families that hosted us during training. This is the Luganda group doing a traditional dance. From left is Vance, Tim, Me, and my adopted peace corps dad John (who also served in Malawi and who I traveled with for our PCV visits during training). We were dancing for the country director (in pink at the table), some other peace corps staff, and the Local Council Charmain for Luwero district....who later joined us. There's a video of this to :)And speaking of non-dull moments, since I don't have much as far as news from here i'll give a few of the more non-dull ones i've had recently:
1) washing clothes at the parish...which I do by hand in wash basins...and am not very good at. They have this stuff called omo here, which is like a laundry detergent with a really strong stain removing chemical in it...which wreaks havoc on my hands if i don't wash it off soon after...so i know its strong. My strategy is to soak the clothes in a bucket of water and omo over night to lift out the stains, and then i rinse a couple times in different basins of water. If need be i'll scrub a little if the stains are taken care of by omo. So one day i was washing clothes and I went to hang up a shirt on the line which is nearby and when i turned around the calf that likes to graze in my backyard has proceeded to empty both of my basins in two big slurps. Probably not the best water for a cow to drink, but it gave me a laugh, and i had to drag him by his rope out further into the yard. (this sequence of events was repeated several times until i finally dragged him to the other side of the house). Like i needed anymore challenges while washing my clothes.
2) I broke my matatu record recently. I talked about the minibuses in an earlier post, which are supposed to carry up to 14 passengers. On one of my trips to Ft. Portal we hit 28 people! now granted, 3 were babies, and a couple of younger kids also made up the total, but I still don't see how this one is going to be broken. On my row there were me and 3 adults across the seat, then 3 babies in laps, then the conductor was standing (essentially was in my lap) in front of me and leaned over the seat back in front of us so he could fit under the ceiling.
3) Not as lighthearted of an event, but definitely not dull, and gives me a chance to outline one of the struggles the Ugandan's face...and reasons they say "we are living on borrowed time". The other night a house near the parish caught fire. The "house" was a small building which was rented as apartments, much like the parish i am staying in, and apparently a candle had caught fire in one of the rooms. Now, there is absolutely no form of a fire department in the country, and very few people have fire extinguishers, and this house didn't even have any running water. So about 10 people from the community were helping empty all of the furniture from the apartments in order to salvage what they could, and remove any fuel for the fire (ie: mattresses and wooden furniture). There were also about 10 people helping to carry basins of water from a nearby shop to extinguish the flames. 2 bodas (motorcycles) positioned themselves on the street and shone their headlights on the house to give the people some light. And then about 40 or so onlookers (including me) watched and speculated as to what had happened. Very sad, luckily no one was hurt, and although I didn't stick around to see, I am told the fire was put out after a couple hours. The police never showed up while I was there, but supposedly were coming sometime to investigate the cause. It is a very tough life here sometimes, and they truly are "living on borrowed time"
a sidenote to this: one of my immediate projects, in light of this event and the recent fire at Budo Primary School in Kampala which ripped through the dormitory and killed many students (20 or so), is to get fire extinguishers and bells for the two dormitories at our school. I am currently writing a grant that will be presented to the Rotary Club in Ft. Portal to hopefully get the funding for this. I'll let you all know how that turns out. Oh and the picture below here is of my other project. This is the exam room during one of the many gorgeous sunsets i get at the parish. I was told it was hard to see this building in the previous post's picture, so i'm hoping this is better. My real project is a library for the kids, but the exam room has to be completed first, and still needs a roof and a lot of other work to it. I'm finding out the total estimated costs soon, and have a few ideas for fund raising but am most definitely open to suggestions.
Also, I'll mention one thing about how my life has gotten a bit more challenging since moving here, just to give you some perspective. Now, this is not even close to the same category as the fire, but has been something I've had to get used to. The parish has solar power, which is used to run the lights in the apartments at night, but that is all the batteries can handle. And they actually don't work in my room, so I used kerosene (parrafin as its called here) lanterns at night. So one of my activities about ever other day or so is to take the 5 km walk into town and drop off my cell phone and ipod at the "charging store". There is no electricity in our town, but they have certain shops that use generators and about 15 surge protectors (talk about a fire hazard) and you pay 500 shillings to have them charge the batteries in cell phone and other electronics. So i bring my ipod (which the guys are finally understanding what it does....or at least they remember its called an ipod and plays music somehow) and 2 cell phone batteries and drop them off. I usually hang around town and go have a soda or beer and 3 hours later pick up my fully charged toys, then make the 5km walk back to the parish. So when you plug your cell phone in tonight in the kitchen or next to your bed, think about how convenient that is and how lucky we are in the states to have such crazy things like home electricity.
I think that's about it from here for now. I'll keep the updates coming, and keep your comments and emails coming my way, it really brightens my days to hear from you all.Love and miss everyone.
Thank you moms!
-Eric
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Pictures!
As promised, here are some pics from the new site. Home sweet home until 2010.
This is my porch looking southeast. we have a nice backyard, then a cow pasture, then some hills with tea plantations and then further out would be the mountains if the weather were a bit clearer.
And finally auntie chris with some of the neighborhood kids. I don't think they had any clue what was going on here but were nice enough to play along and hold the picture while i snapped away. They like to congregate at the backdoor of my sitting room, like they are here, and pretty much watch anything i do. "So what'd you do today?" "well we watched the muzungu sweep his floor, and then he made a sandwich, and then he yelled at us and locked the door."
jk, i havent snapped on them yet.
love you all, more to come.
-eric
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
So long Kampala, thanks for all the stress
So in my last post I talked about how "non-peace corps" my living situation was. well have no fear, I am now living the dream. My site assignment has been switched, and I have absolutely no complaints. I am now residing in the west of the country near Ft. Portal, which sits at the base of the Rwenzori mountains ("mountains of the moon"), which also means my blog title now makes more sense and is a little more appropriate.
I have sacrificed some of the privacy I would of had in the two bedroom apartment, as I am now living on a catholic parrish with 3 priests. They are absolutely great guys and very generous and welcoming. My school is located in a small village and has about 400 students. It is a high school, which differs from a normal secondary school here in that it only serves O (ordinary) level students, which is senior one - senior 4. For the remaining two years, or A (advanced) level, the students must go on to a different school.
The campus is absolutely gorgeous. It sits on top of a hill on the parrish land overlooking rolling hills of tea plantations and on a clear day the northern portion of the Rwenzori mountains (pronounced wen-zory) can be seen towering in the distance. I will try to get some pictures up this weekend....unfortunetely the camera bit the dust, but I am borrowing another pcv's digi for the week to take some pics of the new site. But I don't have her cable to load the pics up today.
So the priests have been nice enough to offer me two rooms at the parrish house, which is a long block divided into 4 "apartments". So I get a bedroom with a sink, and a sitting room. There is an entrance on either side, one into the bedroom which you enter from the courtyard, and the outside door from the sitting room opens up to a nice cement porch with a backyard. Beyond the backyard it runs down through a cow pasture and then back up the hill. Sitting on my back porch I have a sweet view west of the mountains and tea fields. I have already logged many hours sitting on the porch or laying in my hammock in the backyard. A far cry from the apt in Kampala, and I'm feeling much more relaxed and in my comfort zone.
The school, just like the one in Kampala, has a lot of needs. It is only 3 years young, and currently has about 5 classrooms for the kids. They are about halfway through the construction of an exam room (for the national exams they have to take after each term). They also have the foundation built for a library/computer/and science laboratory. This will be my main focus for a secondary project to work on getting some funding for the construction of the building and then getting the kids some books to stock the shelves with. They are in desperate need of this facility, and many of the kids who live around the school walk up to 15km a day to attend school at another secondary school in town which is able to offer these facilities to them. That is a main reason why enrollment at my school is so low.
I will be working up some figures and ideas in the coming months on how to get these projects underway. The next term starts on the 25th of may, so the next month will be spent making lesson plans for my classes. I will be teaching biology mostly, with some physics classes as well. So I also need to peel through the biology books in the next month so i'll be ready for them. I'm siked to be getting down to business and have tons of ideas for the kids that I am ready to follow through on.
We are very close to Kabale National Forest, which has one of the biggest primate populations in the country. Chimps, monkeys, baboons, the works. It is high on my list of things to do. Theres also a collection of crater lakes near the forest, and hiking and camping in the Rwenzori's. So the options are unlimited for days trips and such and exploration of this beautiful country.
I am getting a PO Box in Ft. Portal hopefully on friday, so I will have a new address for all those sweet care packages ;)
I hope everything stateside is going well.
Love and miss you all,
Eric
I have sacrificed some of the privacy I would of had in the two bedroom apartment, as I am now living on a catholic parrish with 3 priests. They are absolutely great guys and very generous and welcoming. My school is located in a small village and has about 400 students. It is a high school, which differs from a normal secondary school here in that it only serves O (ordinary) level students, which is senior one - senior 4. For the remaining two years, or A (advanced) level, the students must go on to a different school.
The campus is absolutely gorgeous. It sits on top of a hill on the parrish land overlooking rolling hills of tea plantations and on a clear day the northern portion of the Rwenzori mountains (pronounced wen-zory) can be seen towering in the distance. I will try to get some pictures up this weekend....unfortunetely the camera bit the dust, but I am borrowing another pcv's digi for the week to take some pics of the new site. But I don't have her cable to load the pics up today.
So the priests have been nice enough to offer me two rooms at the parrish house, which is a long block divided into 4 "apartments". So I get a bedroom with a sink, and a sitting room. There is an entrance on either side, one into the bedroom which you enter from the courtyard, and the outside door from the sitting room opens up to a nice cement porch with a backyard. Beyond the backyard it runs down through a cow pasture and then back up the hill. Sitting on my back porch I have a sweet view west of the mountains and tea fields. I have already logged many hours sitting on the porch or laying in my hammock in the backyard. A far cry from the apt in Kampala, and I'm feeling much more relaxed and in my comfort zone.
The school, just like the one in Kampala, has a lot of needs. It is only 3 years young, and currently has about 5 classrooms for the kids. They are about halfway through the construction of an exam room (for the national exams they have to take after each term). They also have the foundation built for a library/computer/and science laboratory. This will be my main focus for a secondary project to work on getting some funding for the construction of the building and then getting the kids some books to stock the shelves with. They are in desperate need of this facility, and many of the kids who live around the school walk up to 15km a day to attend school at another secondary school in town which is able to offer these facilities to them. That is a main reason why enrollment at my school is so low.
I will be working up some figures and ideas in the coming months on how to get these projects underway. The next term starts on the 25th of may, so the next month will be spent making lesson plans for my classes. I will be teaching biology mostly, with some physics classes as well. So I also need to peel through the biology books in the next month so i'll be ready for them. I'm siked to be getting down to business and have tons of ideas for the kids that I am ready to follow through on.
We are very close to Kabale National Forest, which has one of the biggest primate populations in the country. Chimps, monkeys, baboons, the works. It is high on my list of things to do. Theres also a collection of crater lakes near the forest, and hiking and camping in the Rwenzori's. So the options are unlimited for days trips and such and exploration of this beautiful country.
I am getting a PO Box in Ft. Portal hopefully on friday, so I will have a new address for all those sweet care packages ;)
I hope everything stateside is going well.
Love and miss you all,
Eric
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Random Thoughts on Life in Uganda
So we are just wrapping up a few days of visiting our future sites. I will post more about my site when I am able to put some pictures of it up, but as of right now my camera is not cooperating (ie: turning on), so i can't put up any that i took this week of my house and school. I've added a couple of older pics from the first month here. To the left is me goofing off with another PCT's 8 y/o homestay brother Jordan. I will say this much...my expectations of life in Africa were completely wrong. As with anything in the peace corps, expect the unexpected - case in point: I will be living in a two bedroom, 1 bath apartment just outside Kampala with a toilet, shower, kitchen sink, gas stove, 13 ft ceilings, tile floors throughout, electricity, etc, etc. Essentially everything I has in the states, save hot water and television. On the flip side, one of the other volunteers Kelly (who is from montana and is a total goober) will be living in a shack in the middle of the mountains with concrete floors, pit latrine, no running water, no electricity, and will have a 4km walk up a mountain to her house from where the taxi drops her off - but has avacado tree and amazing view of rolling mountains in her backyard. So there are definitely completely different experiences to be had in this country, which remember: is about the size of oregon.
Now for some tidbits:
The taxis....So in and around Kampala there are these taxis (matatous..sp?) which can take you anywhere in the city and out into the country for a fairly cheap price. In the picture they are the two vans with blue checkers on them. They are usually nissan vans, circa 1988-1992 about, which are imported from asia. They are total pieces of junk which probably shouldn't be running anymore, but somehow they are able to squeeze 3 or 4 more years out of them. so for about 4000 shillings (aout 2 dollars) you can go 100km's or so out of the city. that's the good news. the bad news is they pack anywhere from 14-20 people into these things. if you have a chance, google "taxi park kampala uganda" for a picture of where you have to go to get one of these to take you out of the city. there are two parks in kampala and they are an absolute zoo.One of the taxi's we got in the park was unable to start once they got it loaded up with about 15 people. somehow the driver was able to pop the clutch with only about 3 ft of space in front and behind him + the help of 5 or 6 ugandans rocking the van back and forth. another one that i took from the north eastern part of the city back down to the taxi park (about 500 shillings) was barely able to run. The driver kept cranking the engine (as we're riding through the city mind you) but it wouldn't turn over, and even when he did get it started it would die about 2 mins later. luckily the whole way to the taxi park was downhill, otherwise i don't think we would have ever made it. i've also been in these things when they are: driving on sidewalks, fitting into spaces i wouldnt think a civic could, have no cushions on the seats just metal bars, hit countless boda's (motorcycles), passed trucks at 60km/hr going uphill with no idea what is coming at us at the top of the hill...and generally hoping just to make it wherever i want to go without much incident. but they are cheap, and quick to get from place to place, especially during busy times in the city.
so one of the hardest things about living in africa in general,especially in a third world country, is staying healthy. I have been pretty good about this so far. I take malaria medication once a week, which strangely has a lot of side effects dealing with your central nervous system...ie: very vivid and weird dreams - especially the night or two after I take my dosage...and sleep under a mosquito net, and for 
most of the time I've been here I have been getting 2 vaccines a week for various things like rabies,yellow fever, tb, tetnis, etc etc. I think I am finally done with the shots, at least for a while...as you can see from the picture its a pretty efficient process of getting stabbed in both arms from the PC nurses (who are awesome btw). The one on the left is german and we've had many discussions about how great birkenstocks are. Some other things I do to stay healthy is use a lot of hand sanitizer, drink only bottled water (or boiled for 3 mins) and generally be very careful of any food bought in the markets (ie: soaking veggies in a bleach/water solution). All this has kept me pretty healthy, other than a few cases of some rough bowel movements and fun times in the pit latrines.
most of the time I've been here I have been getting 2 vaccines a week for various things like rabies,yellow fever, tb, tetnis, etc etc. I think I am finally done with the shots, at least for a while...as you can see from the picture its a pretty efficient process of getting stabbed in both arms from the PC nurses (who are awesome btw). The one on the left is german and we've had many discussions about how great birkenstocks are. Some other things I do to stay healthy is use a lot of hand sanitizer, drink only bottled water (or boiled for 3 mins) and generally be very careful of any food bought in the markets (ie: soaking veggies in a bleach/water solution). All this has kept me pretty healthy, other than a few cases of some rough bowel movements and fun times in the pit latrines.There are so many amazing an unbelievable things here, it is often hard to process it all and realize these things are actually happening. For example, below is a list of some random things i have seen being carried on bicycles (btw: these are usually 20 year old british bicycles, hero is the brand if you're google happy).
-a pay phone
-4 other people
-a janitors closet (ie: atleast 15 brooms, dustpans, and various other objects)
-atleast 60 bananas
-a trunk
-bread
-meat
-a mattress
-2x4's (12 of them, about 10 ft long)
-newspapers
-cooler
-truck tire
-potatos
-bladders of water
-3 ft tall milk jug
-80 lbs bag of rice
-garbage
-yams
-bundle of banana leaves
-strainer
-pineapple
-another bicycle
-and the staple: 2 jerry cans of water
-coffin
-chickens (hanging from the handlebars)
2 more weeks of training and then I will be at my site (with computer lab and internet...so expect much more regular posting). Hope you are all doing well.
btw: i've added some sweet stuff to my list of things to send...wink wink.
miss and love you all,
eric
Saturday, March 15, 2008
An update from Kampala
Okay so my updates have been few, far between, and slim to no information. But things will improve, i promise. I am halfway through training in a small town near Kampala, which has one internet cafe - and it is gut wrenchingly slow. They also frequently lose their internet for various things like loss of power, losing connection, or my favorite - when someone steals their powerline during the night.
So thats the bad news. The good news is that I just got my site assignment for the next two years this week! I can't say exactly what village it is (peace corps policy) but it is essentially in the outskirts of Kampala. I went and checked it out today and the school is gorgeous. It is a secondary school with about 700 kids (s1-s6) which is about age 13-20. I will be teaching the younger ones (s1-s3) in physics and some other math classes. I will also probably be helping out at the primary school right across the street whenever I have time.
I will probably only have 4-5 classes a week, which will leave me time for other things. Oh, and the reason i say my communication will get better is that the school has a computer lab setup with internet! so no more 30 min sessions in the Kampala internet cafes (which take a dsl connection and run them through a switch to feed about 30 computers). So starting in mid april (when I swear in officially as a Peace Corps volunteer) I will then move to site - and will have about a month until the kids are back in school for their second term of the year.
Also....I found out that my house has a toilet, running water, electricity, and a privacy wall with a gate. So for peace corps standards I will be living pretty good. The toilet is a huge relief as my pit latrine squatting muscles (quads) are definitely not what they should be.
Another plus about my site is that being in Kampala I will be able to travel very easily - especially to the southwest towards rwanda and tanzania which is gorgeous and mountainous. The taxi parks (google Kampala taxi parks....its quite a site for american eyes) have small minivans (which i have seen up to 23 people piled into - me included, but i hear they can fit even more) that will take you essentially anywhere in the country for a resonable price. about 2 dollars per 100 km's....if my math is right. 4000 shillings can get me to my training site in 2 hours - and we're exchanging the dollar at about 1700 shillings right now.
so we have now entered the rainy season here....still on the front cusp - so we will continue to get more rain each day until it peaks in about a month, i think, then the rains will slow for about a month then another dry season. Right now we can pretty much count on a 3pm thunderstorm each day, which is great for cooling down the afternoons. Last few nights it has rained consistently throughout the night - i know this because i have no ceiling in my bedroom, just a tin roof. but i'm not complaining...its a great steady sound to sleep to.
so i'm down to 4 mins...i hope i have answered some questions and will try to get another update soon, with pictures! - forgot my camera cable today...doh. and if you're not satisfied...hold your britches...things will improve when i get to site as i will have much much more free time (pretty much have training from 8-5 mon-sat, then 2 hours before dark, which i am supposed to be home before....and i will have internet close by!
miss you all.
Much love from Africa,
Eric
So thats the bad news. The good news is that I just got my site assignment for the next two years this week! I can't say exactly what village it is (peace corps policy) but it is essentially in the outskirts of Kampala. I went and checked it out today and the school is gorgeous. It is a secondary school with about 700 kids (s1-s6) which is about age 13-20. I will be teaching the younger ones (s1-s3) in physics and some other math classes. I will also probably be helping out at the primary school right across the street whenever I have time.
I will probably only have 4-5 classes a week, which will leave me time for other things. Oh, and the reason i say my communication will get better is that the school has a computer lab setup with internet! so no more 30 min sessions in the Kampala internet cafes (which take a dsl connection and run them through a switch to feed about 30 computers). So starting in mid april (when I swear in officially as a Peace Corps volunteer) I will then move to site - and will have about a month until the kids are back in school for their second term of the year.
Also....I found out that my house has a toilet, running water, electricity, and a privacy wall with a gate. So for peace corps standards I will be living pretty good. The toilet is a huge relief as my pit latrine squatting muscles (quads) are definitely not what they should be.
Another plus about my site is that being in Kampala I will be able to travel very easily - especially to the southwest towards rwanda and tanzania which is gorgeous and mountainous. The taxi parks (google Kampala taxi parks....its quite a site for american eyes) have small minivans (which i have seen up to 23 people piled into - me included, but i hear they can fit even more) that will take you essentially anywhere in the country for a resonable price. about 2 dollars per 100 km's....if my math is right. 4000 shillings can get me to my training site in 2 hours - and we're exchanging the dollar at about 1700 shillings right now.
so we have now entered the rainy season here....still on the front cusp - so we will continue to get more rain each day until it peaks in about a month, i think, then the rains will slow for about a month then another dry season. Right now we can pretty much count on a 3pm thunderstorm each day, which is great for cooling down the afternoons. Last few nights it has rained consistently throughout the night - i know this because i have no ceiling in my bedroom, just a tin roof. but i'm not complaining...its a great steady sound to sleep to.
so i'm down to 4 mins...i hope i have answered some questions and will try to get another update soon, with pictures! - forgot my camera cable today...doh. and if you're not satisfied...hold your britches...things will improve when i get to site as i will have much much more free time (pretty much have training from 8-5 mon-sat, then 2 hours before dark, which i am supposed to be home before....and i will have internet close by!
miss you all.
Much love from Africa,
Eric
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Uganda!!
3 of 7 of my homestay siblings. I have been living with them in luweero for about a week now. they are trying to fatten me up i think. feeding me lots of matoake (a very bland banana) and rice, beans, cabbage, beef, ground maize, spaghetti, etc etc etc. they are awesome and are teaching me lots of luganda (my local language)
this is the sunrise in kampala at the hotel we stayed at. sorry, wish i could show you more...stay tuned....love you all
tuna laba gana (we will meet again)
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