Where does the time go?

Wow! Good thing one of my New Year's Resolutions wasn't to update my blog once a month. Looks like I have fallen behind once again! In an effort to keep this somehow short I'll focus on the most important events of the last few months.

Feb:

Jackie and Ben had an "introduction" party to introduce his family to her parents when they came for a visit. It was really great to meet Jackie's parents (Pat and Wally) and share Jackie and Ben's celebration with them. His family organized a lot of entertainment for the party. I even had the pleasure of making a speech! With all the public speaking I do here I should never again have a problem getting up in front of people and giving an impromptu speech!

After the "introduction" ceremony a new batch of Peace Corps Trainees entered the country. Amanda and I had the pleasure of pulling out our visual aids and presenting our HIV/AIDS 101 session to the newbies. The nature of our lesson requires that we go at the beginning of their training so we met them on their 4th day in country. It's so hard to remember what it felt like to be new here. We have somehow become veterans. Now they're about to be sworn-in! Eight weeks has gone by in the blink of an eye.

March:

Of course, my birthday was the most important day of this month! I celebrated the actual day with my friend Jackie. We made chocolate cake and tried to eat my chicken but it was laying eggs so we had to modify dinner a bit but still had some great BBQ canned chicken tacos and Ben made some excellent BBQ pork! Live chickens sometimes refuse to cooperate!

That weekend I attended the wedding of a friend in the village. We missed the actual ceremony but the reception was a lot of fun. Being the only non-Ugandan in the crowd the emcee decided that I was a good object to direct his attention at; I had a song dedicated to me as we were waiting for the "bagole" (bride and groom) to arrive and then had to give a short speech once they had arrived!

The wedding forced me to push the celebration of my birthday in the village to the following weekend but that was cool because it coincided with St. Patrick's Day (one of my favorite holidays!). I invited my friends and co-workers from the village to a birthday party at KCRC (my organization). The program was as follows: speeches, eating, dancing. The speeches were basically dominated by Jackie and me. We tried to keep the speeches short because the most exciting part of the day was yet to come! I had the food catered by a local restaurant but I made the birthday cake that everyone enjoyed. Dancing turned out to be basically just Jackie and me dancing to the amusement of the Ugandans. But that's cool. These days we don't really care what we look like anymore!

That night, Jackie and Ben spent the night and we drank green beer to pre-celebrate St. Patrick's Day! (Yes! I made green beer in Uganda!) To celebrate St. Patty's Day I made a spice cake that I shaped like a clover and then covered it in green frosting. I added a little too much water to the frosting, though so it just soaked in to the cake but it was very tasty even if it didn't look exactly like I expected!

Jackie and Ben bought a puppy while at my birthday party and as a result a lost puppy came wandering around to check out the visitor. The puppy (her picture is above) that came around looked on the edge of death; she was incredibly thin, with clumps of hair missing, and eyes bulging out of her head. We gave her some food but doing so I recognized she was probably going to continue to return for more food. I was really worried that I wouldn't be prepared to take care of this poor dog because it's not as if I can run down the street to PetSmart to get food and other necessities! But I decided that I could do something small for her and continue to feed her. So now, I have a somehow dog. I named her Ursa Minor because she responded when I called her little bear! I don't let her come into the house (too many fleas) and she still spends the night at the neighbor's house with their dogs. I think we have a good arrangement because I'm gone too often and thus need her to be somehow independent. We've had our challenges (like she refuses to eat food with the deworming meds in it) but she learns fast and has a very mellow personality. One of these days I'll working on getting rid of the fleas!

Easter weekend brought the going away party for the Peace Corps Volunteers who are at the end of their service. We had a relaxing day by the pool at a local hotel and then dressed up as movie characters for dinner and dancing. It's hard to believe that after people from this group leave the PEPFAR 1 girls are going to be the next group to leave!

The end of March saw the door fall off my latrine. I spent a morning putting it back on with nails that were entirely too big! At least it's back on, though!

April:

How cool is this?! I went on my first safari this month! There's are National Park near Masindi (north-east of Kampala) called Murchison Falls; I went for a game drive, boat trip and hike to the waterfalls. It was so much fun! I'll post pictures on the Flickr account so you can click the link to the right and see all the animals we got to see. There were a lot of Uganda Kobs, hartebeests, water bucks, crocodiles and hippos. We were incredibly lucky to see lions, lots of giraffes and elephants.

The early morning game drive had us across the water and starting on the drive by 7 am. Early morning and evening are the best times to see animals moving around because those are the coolest times of the day. Animals are smart to hide in the shade during mid-day hours because it got VERY hot in the park! Only silly animals like people move around in the heat!! :)

Murchison Falls was first mapped by Sir Sam Baker on 3rd April 1864 so we were there on the 144th anniversary of his first siting of the falls! Granted Murchison is neither tall nor wide but the space is so narrow at the top of the falls that you really get a feel for the power of the water passing down the falls. When Baker first saw the falls there was only Murchison but in 1962 there was a lot of rain and the excess rain caused the water to find a new route down and that is why in the picutres you see two waterfalls. Murchison Falls is to the right and Uhuru (in Swahili means freedom) Falls is to the left. Uhuru is wider but a shorter drop than Murchison.

And that brings us up to date!

A village update!

Ok, so my last blog really didn't give any information about life at site. I guess that's because I found myself away from my village a lot during the last few months of the year. Plus, things just don't seem very exciting. When you get into a routine life seems to become fairly mundane and not worth documenting.

I'm trying my level best to help my organization stand on it's own 2 feet. That's always a bit of a challenge considering the lack of technology in our village. But somehow we manage. Stephen (my spervisor) and I usually manage to check and send e-mail once a month so we're able to stay in touch with possible funders. Plus, we have a motivated chairperson on our Board of Directors who has helped us immensly by using his access to interne to investigate funding possiblities. I have a feeling, dim as it may be, that Stephen will have the ability to keep the doors to KCRC open and continue growing even after I leave!

Not only does a lack of technology leave me a bit disconnected, it also give me hand cramps. Not so much from typing but because I have to write everything on paper first then take my handwritten copy to Kampala where I can use a computer to digitize my thoughts! =) Now, there used to be a few places in my village with compters I could type on but viruses from those computers have caused me a lot of pain before and, as they say, "once bitten, twice shy"! (BTW: when I hand wrote this update in the village the place was open but just before coming to Kampala they closed the office! Bambi!)

Issues like that impede our development but not to the point where we're stagnant. (I have lots of notebooks to prove that!) I have to constantly remind myself that it takes time to develop an organization and I think ours' is on the right track. At least, we've taken the time to tap local resources and skills; which I've tried to stress is much better than immediately looking outside for help.

We have a great opportunity to begin 2008 with a bang. A German organization called LandsAid has agreed to support our village HIV Counseling and Testing project for 3 months. This means we can reach those who can't get to Karuguuza or Kibaale For HIV testing! I hope our luck continues with a proposal to develop the Post Test Club and for us to restart our radio program

While I try to stress the importance of capacity building (one of the three Peace Corps goals) to my organization members it's hard to make the theory meaningful when you have nothing to apply it to! So, while I'm not technically at my organization to find funding that's really the first step KCRC and I have to take to ensure it becomes a sustainable organization. We're all learning, together, what it takes to build an organization from the ground up! Let me tell you, it's not easy! While this is not exactly the work I expected to be doing in Peace Corps and I am really happy with all the things I am learning!

But for all of these challenges I do see myself growing everyday. I put things off less and spend more time planning. I used to get so annoyed when things didn't happen as I wanted and now I see it was a direct result of my aversion to making decent plans in advance! Teaching people about the benefit of planning has carried over into my own life. I can honestly say...do as I do!! Who wudda thunk that would be an outcome of my Peace Corps service?! It's all just one surprise after another!

In case any of you are worried about my diet I included a couple pictures of Christmas breakfast and dinner. Jackie made cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning breakfast and we had an excellent Christmas dinner! We had chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy and vegetables. It was an incredible meal! If you're curious about how we do our baking take a look at the pictures on my flick account; I posted a picture of my jiko "oven" for all to see!

Happy Holidays!

October and November passed in a blur. A lot happened so I’ll try and be brief. October started with a party to end all parties: Goatstock! Goatstock is the opportunity for Uganda Peace Corps Volunteers to get together, put on costumes, eat goat and dance in the cold of a Sipi Falls Night. Ah, that makes sense, you say; but why costumes? Well, goatstock is not just another excuse for us volunteers to get together but our Halloween celebration. This year the party didn’t coincide so well with the actual date of Halloween but I won’t bore you with the details. Basically, it was a wonderfully fun time. I also had the chance to do some hiking to a couple of the waterfalls and it was all pretty amazing! If you want a point of reference…Sipi Falls is in the East about 5 hours from Kampala.

As I kept myself busy at site by washing mud out of my clothes and off my shoes, among various work-related activities, I found myself going to sleep in October and waking in mid-November. I had no idea how the month passed so fast! On 14th November I found myself being carried away from Uganda and on a 2 week vacation that began in Istanbul, Turkey and ended in Cairo, Egypt.

I traveled to Turkey with Reva, another volunteer. We spent 4 glorious days in Istanbul and 3 amazing days in Selcuk. Where?! Selcuk is a 10 hour bus ride south from Istanbul along the Mediterranean coast. It is close to the ancient ruins of Ephesus (a city that flourished around the same time as Troy—for those not too fond of history think Helen of Troy and the whole reason for the creation of the Trojan horse), Priene and Miletus (also once bustling cities along the Mediterranean coast). Near Selcuk stand the few remaining ruins of the Temple of Artemis (one of the 7 ancient wonders). Our first day in Selcuk we took about a 3 hour bus ride to Pamukkale (meaning Cotton Castle) to see the awe-inspiring travertine and remains of the ancient city of Hierapolis. Unfortunately, the weather conspired against us and limited the amount of time we had to investigate the ruins but the travertine is incredible! Created over millennia by heated water full of calcium the terraces down the face of the cliff look like they’re covered in snow! People can walk in the natural thermal waters that spill over the steps.

The next day we explored Ephesus with the impressive façade of its library and huge Roman theatre. There were even stacks of sections of clay pipes that were used to carry water from the cistern to peoples’ homes!

The third day went to see Miletus, Priene and Didyma. The first two were cities and the 3rd an ancient temple. I can’t even begin to describe how incredible the cities of Miletus and Priene were. First, we were the only people there—Reva, me and 2 French women—who were so nice they even read to us about the cities from their guide books). Plus at Miletus the city the city was in ruins but so many huge marble blocks remained that it felt like you were walking through a marble forest or graveyard!

Priene was in much better shape than Miletus so that we could even walk through what remained of the Roman bath. Didyma was once the place where an oracle sat and people came to hear about their future.

But wait! I’ve started from the end of our week in Turkey. The first 4 days we stayed in Istanbul and had a phenomenal time! We took a boat cruise on the Bosphorus, wandered around Asia, toured the Aya Sofya, Topkapi Palace and the Blue Mosque, shopped in the Grand Bazaar and still had time for a Turkish bath (Hammam). I can’t even begin to describe what an amazing city Istanbul is. The juxtaposition of ancient in the delicate minarets of the mosques you see everywhere and it leaves you breathless. Our hotel, in Sultanahmet, had a rooftop terrace overlooking the Sea of Marmara and so we watched the sunrise there every morning while eating breakfast. I can’t describe Istanbul anymore than that; no words are adequate so you should see it for yourself! If you plan a trip there, write to me, I can give you the name of the hotel we stayed in which was incredible and had very friendly and helpful staff.

After 3 days in Selcuk, Reva and I took off for Egypt where we met some other volunteers and a few other Americans working in Uganda. We stayed in Giza near the pyramids the first night. The next day we went to see the pyramids up close and personal. They are huge! I mean, you can tell they’re huge from TV and pictures but to stand next to them and feel so incredibly small and insignificant is another feeling altogether. Best part of being at the pyramids was taking a 10 minute camel ride beside them! Talk about a terrifying experience as they get up and lie back down again. I wonder how the first person managed to hang on and say now this mode of transport is worth the risk of falling off every time the camel stands up or lies down!

That day we also went to see the Sphinx, Egyptian museum, a perfume shop and a demonstration on how papyrus is made. That night found us on an overnight train to Luxor. It was my first time to travel in a 2 person couchette and it was surprisingly comfortable. I slept on the top bed and didn’t even fall out!

In Luxor we went to the Colussus of Mmenon, the Valley or the Kings where we could enter 3 tombs and some people paid extra to go in King Tut’s. There are still some hieroglyphs on the walls with their original color! Then we went to the Valley of the Queens and saw the Temple of Haatshepsut. We crossed the Nile by boat and went to see the Temple of Karnak and Luxor Temple in the afternoon and early evening. The columns, statues and obelisks are huge!! The size of the temples just boggles the mind. You wander around all of these sites in Egypt and Turkey and just marvel at how people built such amazing structures without modern technology. Then, you marvel at how they’ve withstood millennia and it makes you wonder what we’ve built over the last few centuries that could actually last the way these places have. Then you begin to question your significance…but that’s a topic for another blog!

The next day, in Luxor, Erin (another volunteer) and I wandered around the city and went to visit the Luxor museum—which is much easier to digest than the Egyptian museum in Cairo—and see the mummies on display. That experience was then followed by the sheer bliss of a McDonald’s McFlurry. Hey! Don’t laugh! You’ll understand the significance of the moment when you’ve gone over 1 year without even the option of saying “no” to a McFlurry!

That night we were back on the train and on the way to Cairo. That day in Cairo we went to see Memphis (the first capitol of Egypt) and Saqqara (the oldest cemetery) with the first step pyramid. At Memphis there was a statue of Ramses II laying on the ground and it really helped give perspective of the size of these statues which you know are colossal but don’t really feel they’re size until you stand next to one on the ground. Then we went tovisit the Citadel and Mosque of Salah al-Din which was built as a replica of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

The next day we drove north to Alexandria; another incredible city. We saw the catacombs, the fortress near where the Alexandria lighthouse once stood, Pillar of Bombay and the Alexandria Library. No, not the one that burned down but the new one built 5 years ago and hands down the most impressive modern library I have ever seen! It has room enough for 8 million books and was built to utilize natural light to reduce energy consumption and keep the damaging UV rays out. We watched the sun set on the Mediterranean and on the way back to Cairo stopped at Starbucks which was almost as exciting as the McFlurry although I was a bit disappointed they didn’t have eggnog lattes. So, as you all enjoy your eggnog this holiday season think of me spending my 2nd year without the sinfully, delicious, creamy holiday treat!

The next day we had half a day to explore Cairo on our won. Jon (another volunteer) and I went to spend more time at the Egyptian museum because 1 ½ hours just isn’t enough time and then went to check out Coptic Cairo and Fort Babylon. We saw something called the floating church which had AMAZING mosaics but arrived too late to check out the Fort.

From there it was off to the airport and back to Uganda where we celebrated one year of service at the Jinja Nile Resort for our Mid Service Training.

This is a wicked long post so I think I’ll end here.
I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday season!!!