Another rainy season begins…

Well, it began in July (a bit early) but seeing as I rarely post in a timely fashion this belated recognition will have to do! This will be my last full rainy season in Uganda. Oh, I definitely won’t miss the mud that clings to your shoes and makes the act of wading through town feel like a particularly strenuous trip to the gym! But who would miss the reprieve from work?! It’s just not logical to move about when it’s heavily raining!

But here I am beginning at the end. Seeing as I’m not a stream of consciousness writer—I tend to lose myself in the telling and thus fail to relate important events—I’ll start at the beginning.

May:

I started the month with a surprising celebration of Cinco de Mayo. The weekend just before the holiday my friend Sarah came for a visit. On her last night at my house we made tacos and found Sangria in my town!! We were even able to have the ladies in the mini-supermarket put the Sangria in the refrigerator for us so that we enjoyed chilled Sangria! It was such an amazing and wonderful surprise to find such a great treat in my village!

In May a new Peace Corps Volunteer arrived in our district. She came just in time to keep our number steady at 3 (because Jackie left in June). Our “Kibaale Bashes” don’t add up to much more than a quiet gathering at one of our houses! Clearly, we keep our noses out of trouble!

At work we were busy making final preparations for the first set of radio programs to be aired on our local radio station. We will be presenting information about HIV/AIDS on a 30min program once a week for the next year. Every now and then I’m a guest presenter but the programs are usually presented in the local language…which I haven’t quite mastered to the point where I could present a whole show!

June:

Jackie, my friend and mentor for the past 1 ½ years, left Kibaale at the beginning of June. In preparation for her departure she had a going away party in her trading center. Jen and I were both there to see her and Ben set off for their new home just outside Kampala.

The other sad news of the month was the loss of my dog. I went for a few days to Kampala and when I returned Ursa was nowhere to be seen. When she didn’t come back after a day I started asking around as to what might have happened. I still don’t know exactly what happened but my neighbors and landlord think that someone either poisoned her or stole her and sold her. Either way, it broke my heart and things just aren’t the same without her around. On the plus side (if there is one), if she was still around I can see leaving her behind in November would have been incredibly difficult. I just hope that wherever she is she’s happy.

Work kept me from dwelling too much on my loss…I had some sad news there as well when I learned my best friend, Rachel, was soon to leave. Her mom enrolled in a nursing program to upgrade from a nursing assistant to registered nurse. At least they come to visit us once in a while. Sunday and I provided more HIV/AIDS training session for Community Health Workers and Traditional Birth Attendants who were being facilitated by a local NGO we partner with on occasion. And this radio program really makes time fly; it seems like every time I turn around we’re talking about preparing and going to record more radio programs! Plus, we doggedly pursued our goal of completing our first strategic planning process. Not easy considering Stephen, Sunday and I are constantly traveling around!

July:

This month found my group of 7 original members—plus our adopted member, Reva—thinking about what it will be like to go home. Yikes! During the 3-day conference we talked about our fears, what we’ll miss, how we’ll cope, etc. Then we reviewed our fears and aspirations from staging. (In Sept 2006!) It’s amazing how similar our fears about going home match the fears we felt before coming to Uganda. At first glance, you would think the 2 experiences—going to a place you know very little about and going home—are completely different. Yet, the same feelings arise: Will I fit in? Will people understand me? Can I cope with missing the people and places I love? Will I find the right path? Can I really do this? Well, you can see the questions go on and on!

Every new experience holds a beginning and an end. There is always some piece of sadness in leaving the old and fear in discovering what is new. Those feelings will always be there; they remind me to always try my level best to enjoy each experience as I live it. These are the thoughts that occupy me during the 12 hours of darkness when I’m holed up in my house!

Ok, now for some excitement! My friend Jen, another Peace Corps Volunteer, and I took a little trip to Rwanda. We spent 1 week going from Kigali to Gisenyi to Ruhengeri then back to Kigali. The highlights of the trip included: relaxing at Lake Kivu, a beautiful crater lake Rwanda shares with the DR Congo and a staggeringly challenging hike up Bisoke, an inactive volcano. The volcano is in the Volcanoes National Park where people go to see the Mountain Gorilla in Rwanda. Sadly, Jen and I couldn’t afford the permits so we decided to take a little walk up Bisoke (3,711m, around 12,000ft) to see a beautiful crater lake. We met some travelers from Denmark who said it was AMAZING! We thought, “Great! A little exercise couldn’t hurt, right?!” Ha! The volcano was one of the hardest hikes I’ve ever done! Ok, so I don’t have a ton of experience but the climb and descent were steep, muddy and intense! By the end, most of us weren’t sure if our legs would hold up. But what an awesome feeling! Overcoming intense fatigue and accomplishing what I set out to do made me fee incredibly good about the pain in my legs! Plus, after looking at the park statistics, I suspect I’ll be one of 900 or so people who see the lake at the top of Bisoke this year.

The other cool thing about Bisoke is that we hiked where Dian Fossey worked! For another $50 and on a different day we could have seen her grave but we didn’t have time for that. The volcano is covered in a cloud so I now understand how they came up with the title for Gorillas in the Mist. You couldn’t see much of anything just a few meters off the path we climbed! A gorilla or buffalo could have wandered out of the mist without us being able to see it until it had entered the path!

The saddest part of the time in Kigali was our trip to the genocide memorial. Such a sobering experience listening to survivors’ experiences and know that you can’t begin to comprehend the horrors they faced. The memorial was a beautifully designed tribute to the victims of the genocide. The exhibit was laid out in a circle with each section depicting different periods that contributed to the genocide, the genocide and the aftermath. The circular layout seemed to show the ever-revolving nature of time. We end where we begin and begin where we end. You can’t come to terms with tragedy and move on by ignoring the past. How can we learn from this experience, and others like it, to prevent it from happening again? Visiting such a place and reflecting on the atrocities human beings can commit against other human beings makes me wonder if humanity is truly the pinnacle of existence. It left me with a lot of think about and too much to write here or this blog post will never end!

To at least end on a happy note (blame Hollywood—I must have a happy ending)… Rwanda is rebuilding and appears to be looking toward the country’s bright future and not mired in the past. While in Rwanda, Jen and I had the chance to meet and hang out with some truly amazing travelers and expats! Every new place we went we made friends from England, Belgium, Cambodia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Canada and Germany. One of the best parts about traveling is the people you meet along the way!

Of course, another good part about traveling is the returning home bit. While Rwanda is a beautiful country it made me appreciate Uganda and the level of comfort I have reached here. Spending one week in Rwanda gave me a taste of just how much I’ll miss this place when I leave!

Until next time…be happy and stay safe!!