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| Me in My Wakiso Home Front Yard |
"My Name"
Peace Corps Volunteer-Uganda
PO Box 914
Gulu Town, UGANDA - AFRICA
Peace Corps Volunteer-Uganda
PO Box 914
Gulu Town, UGANDA - AFRICA
You might want to write God Bless this Package and put a cross or religious icon on it to help insure it gets to me. If you have religious stickers I hear those work well. Send padded envelopes or small boxes, I hear it’s expensive, so pick a few items from the list below and be prepared to pay Mr. Postman! Remove things from boxes and put them in Ziploc bags – this reduces size and weight and I will reuse the Ziplocs J
Items I would like are: Brownie Mix, Individual Oatmeal Packets, Taco Seasoning, Kool Aid/Crystal Light, McCormick Seasonings, Cheese Packets from Mac n Cheese (remove the macaroni – I can get that here), rubber bands, TAMPONS – not one in the whole country (I think it’s due to religious beliefs), Starbucks Via instant coffee, hand sanitizer, pens…and a personal note and a surprise or two! I will send you an email once it arrives!
Language Immersion
Whew – what a busy and sometimes exhausting week and a half!
13 of us left at 6:15 am on Thursday Sept 8th with our 3 language instructors
to travel to Gulu for our 3 Days of language immersion. The trip involved a 45
minute van ride to Kampala and then a 5.5 hour bus ride to Gulu via the Post
Office Bus. This bus is considered safer and doesn’t require one to go to the busier
bus parks. (Bus Parks and Taxi Parks are where you go to get a ride via bus or
taxi). However the Post Bus is the vehicle transporting mail and ….as it turns
out ….milk! So it takes a longer time but it doesn’t travel at the same deathly
speeds as other buses travel.
We arrived in Gulu around 2 pm and were met by several PCVs
(Peace Corps Volunteers) already stationed in the surrounding areas. We went
immediately to an American style coffee house and I had good coffee for the
first time in 6 weeks. All I can get in Wakiso is instant coffee. Yes this is
the first major drawback of being in the Peace Corps! We also ordered cheese
burgers and chicken avocado croissants – these are also not available in 99.9%
of Uganda!
We traveled by 4-wheel SUV to the Golden Peace Hotel and
were delighted we each had our own private bedrooms and better yet – private indoor
flush toilet and shower. Things were looking up! How nice to have some privacy and amenities
after the last month and a half. That
night it was great fun to share a beverage, eat pizza and talk about our
experiences into the night without worrying about being home before dark.
On Friday we went to the USAID (US Agency for International
Development) Northern Uganda Field office and were educated on their operations
and initiatives in the region. We then visited the Gulu Local Council 5 (LC5)
District Chairman’s office and were updated on their plans for the Gulu
District. This is the highest level Official in the Gulu District. I was
interested in their plans for recovery and reconciliation after the 20+ year
was with the LRA. One thing Gulu has going for it is the town’s location. Its
proximity to South Sudan, the Congo and the West Nile Region of Uganda means it
will continue growing as a regional distribution hub. Any goods traveling to
these areas must past through Gulu. There are no other paved roads. While at
the LC5’s office we shared the names of the organizations where we will be
serving. The LC5’s technical advisor invited me to sit in on the Entrepreneur and
IGA (Income Generating Activities) meetings once I am back to Gulu and working
at the Vocational School.
After these meetings we broke into small groups and went to
eat some local foods and practice our Acholi. I have learned a great number of
nouns and verbs, but still struggle putting sentences together and getting the
tenses out correctly. I can communicate – just at a 4 year old level. We were tasked with asking directions and
finding our way to several landmarks, grocery stores and the main market. By
5pm we were beat and headed back to our hotel for dinner there. Most of us had
fish & chips and it was very good. The next day we were sent back to Gulu
for more interaction with the locals. I did a little shopping and practiced my
language, but we find most people in Gulu can communicate in English at some
level – so we could always get by. In
the afternoon we went to an American style restaurant owned by a couple from Minnesota.
I had a coffee milkshake and a burger and was very happy. Then it was off to
see an Acholi Dance performance by a youth group that a PCV has worked with for
the last 2 years. It was great fun and I think I made many new friends with my enthusiastic
attempts to learn parts of the dance! We finished the night at an Ethiopian
Restaurant that the local PCVs use as a gathering place every Saturday night.
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| Staff Hut and Admin Bldgs |
Future Assignment Site
Visit
Sunday September 11, 2011 – exactly ten years after the Sept
11th terrorist attacks – I set off to visit my host Organization,
the Vocational School. I was met by my Counterpart –
the accountant, and we traveled to the school. The School is located 8
kilometers south of Gulu on 20 acres and was started by a Reverend (now a
Bishop) over 20 years ago, shortly after the war began in Northern Uganda. It
has received aid money from the Danish, Germans and Australians (and others) to
build dormitories, livestock pens, areas for vocational workshops, and
classrooms. It also has working agricultural fields and a mill for grinding grains
and maize. Presently they teach tailoring, brick making and concrete work, carpentry
& joinery, motor vehicle repair & metal working, and agriculture.
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| Administrative Bldgs |
Everyone learns the agricultural skills as
almost every Ugandan has small gardens/farms for feeding themselves. The school
is in process of building an irrigation system to irrigate ¼ acre to insure
production through the dry season. In addition to agriculture, all students are
required to study English and Entrepreneurial Skills courses. Presently the
enrollment is down to 118 from a high of 300 students. This is due to the
downturn in the global economy reducing aid budgets as well as funding leaving
the area since the war ended. Most students are trying to pay their school fees
from their family & friends or from some work they do on the side. Given
the desperate nature of this population of youths, many will not attend or
finish if they start.
Mission Statement:
To provide quality practical skills to orphans,
the destitute, formerly abducted youth and school dropouts caught in the
insurgency in the Acholi sub-region as well as those affected by the HIV/AIDS
scourge to become economically self-supporting and employed.
After touring
the school and learning about it from Beatrice, I was taken to a roadside guest
house across the main highway for my next 3 nights’ accommodations. This consisted of several concrete block rooms
built in a U-shape that created a concrete courtyard in the center. The people were very friendly and I felt safe
and welcomed. I was informed the next day that I was the first white person to
ever stay in their hotel.
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| My Future Home - I get the Left Side! |
I was
disappointed my home was not ready but was glad to see construction was in
progress. They have commandeered a former student reading room and are making
it into 2 small apartments; one for me, and one for our School Director, Diana.
It is a round structure approximately 30 feet in diameter. We will each have
half of the circular building, each half has 3 rooms, 3 glass windows with decorative
metal security bars, and large entry double-doors made of glass with decorative
metal security bars. Outside we will share a garden; a pit latrine and a bathing
structure….all 3 outside structures are yet to be built. I hope it will be
ready by October 14th when I arrive. The good news is there are several mango and Guava Trees on the path to my home!!!
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| Staff Break Hut |
On Monday my
supervisor arrived back from her niece’s wedding in Kampala and we hit the
ground running at 8am. She reviewed the org history, structure and staff. She
also stayed with me the next two nights at the guest house to insure I felt
safe and was taken care of properly. We ate our meals there together in the am
and pm and enjoyed the chance to get to know each other.
So I now
know where I will live and to some extent what I will be working on for the next
2 years. I am excited and a little anxious. I have so many ideas going through
my head and hope they will settle into a plan once I start working with my colleagues.
I placed an order for furniture with the
Carpentry shop so I hope to have the basics when I arrive. The biggest
challenges I see off the bat is that I can only get to Gulu via bicycle, so I
will have to purchase one when I arrive; and there is no market or store in my
little town of Koro Abili so I will need to go to Gulu often to fetch supplies
on my bike. One upside is I think I will have fresh cow’s milk daily since there
are milk cows on the school grounds.
50th Anniversary Party for USAID
& Peace Corps
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| Program & Flowers |
I am sure
you are all wondering how the big embassy party for the 50th
Anniversary of USAID and Peace Corps turned out. Well it was absolutely
wonderful on many levels. My fashion-inability did not keep me from having a magnificent
time. (I think I looked swell in my Hudson’s Treasure hunt skirt and shirts.)
So the embassy is a huge concrete structure covering a large area surrounded by
high walls, barbed wire, German shepherds and guards. The guards outside look
like Ugandan natives and inside the guards are Marines. So it was like entering
a fortress - including metal detectors and security checks. We had to show our
Peace Corps IDs and our Printed Invitations with our names on them along with
our passports. Getting in was a big deal, no average US pedestrian was getting
access to this gala event!
Our crew of
approximately 50 people arrived over an hour early – you have to count on bad
traffic in order to be assured you make an event in Kampala. Luckily traffic
was not too bad and we made really good time. So when we arrived the set up was
in its final stages – three large tents had 3 large bars preparing to serve
beer & wine and soft drinks. Each tent had numerous tables with beautiful
red, white & blue floral arrangements with Ugandan and US flags in them.
(At the end of the night I was allowed to take one home to my homestay sister
Florence!) There were also many potters showing USAID programs and old Peace
Corps recruiting posters. I took a million pictures during the event. So being
early we went to the bar on the back grounds of the embassy where Marines were
serving hot dogs and there was a bar with – can you imagine my delight – Real US
Bourbon and safe ICE. So being starved
for anything from home, we all began eating and drinking the taste of the good
old USA. There were people from other Peace Corps Uganda classes and many
people from USAID, as well as many Ugandans.
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| Me in front of PC Recruiting Advertisement |
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| Cultural Dancer |
The event
had Ugandan drummers and native dancing by girls from an orphanage where a
Peace Corps Volunteers is assigned (childrenofuganda.org). The Ambassador Jerry
P Lanier (a UNC grad) spoke 1st followed by the Ugandan National
Anthem and the US National Anthem. Then Professor Ephraim Kamuntu, the Minister
of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities spoke. He was a perfect person to talk about
the impact USAID and Peace Corps has had on Uganda, as he had a Chemistry
teacher from Peace corps and won a scholarship to study in the US from USAID. Afterwards
two cakes were cut – one by the Peace Corps Country Director and one by the
USAID Mission Director in Uganda.
Well – our group
was having a great time. It was nice to hear how appreciative Uganda is for the
US support from our 2 organizations and we were all reminded why we joined the
Peace Corps in the first place. So when a great band started playing US,
Ugandan, and Hispanic tunes, everyone began to dance – including the ambassador
and his wife, the Peace Corps country director and many of the volunteers, our trainers
and other Ugandans in attendance.
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| Hot Peace Corps Babes at the Embassy! |
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| PC Country Director Lucine and Laura Cutting Cake |
So now I am
in my bed in Wakiso town after just eating a late lunch of fried fish, fried potatoes,
fruit salad and sautéed cabbage with vegetables feeling glad to be where I’m
at!
