THERE IS HOPE!

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Sweat, dust and a massive backpack squished to my face for 4 hours. A lovely return journey back to the village. I must say, enthusiasm for work and village life was on a low. The holidays had been slightly too much fun!

A few too many memories (some which would be better forgotten):

•  Chatting to a 92 year old American woman who owned an orphanage. On our first encounter she  flashed me her entire body brace. Charming.
• Having to release my bladder on the side of the road IN FRONT OF A FULL COACH. How lovely.
• Clubbing with my Ugandan placement partners! Madness.
• Going on a 6 hour extreme mountain biking trip…with an AWFULL hangover. I must say, it is quite the cure! Oh yes.
• Meeting a crazy old French man who has spent the last month on a merchant ship traveling across The Congo. What a dude.
• Using fairy washing up liquid at Pam and Jays. You have NO IDEA how much this reminded me of home. Bazaar.
• Ballroom dancing in a ghetto Ugandan bar. Humiliatingly fun!
• Almost drowning in the Nile. Scary.
• Drinking Pims at the side of the pool. Yes please.
• Pondering over a naked bungee jump. Moment never occurred. I promise you it will in the future!

Joyce was a little depressed homesick rag by the time she reached Kigandalo. 2 months still remaining on placement? She needed a survival plan.

So here is was – jump into your work with every last drop of enthusiasm, happiness and motivation you still hold. Wow, it has done wonders.

Over the past 2 weeks I feel my team has made some awesome achievements. For once I’m actually seeing HOPE FOR SUSTAINABILITY. I never thought I’d be saying those last 3 words. One of the greatest challenges we have faced has been the training and handover of SPW work to the community. How do I put this politely? Well….the community members of Kigandalo really need a good kick up the but before they actually do something. Every member just expects to be given things (without any personal effort). Finally, we’ve started to change that attitude. About a week ago we had a ‘Youth Resource Corner Training’ session. Now, what is a Youth Resource Corner you may ask?

A Youth Resource Corner is a room we’ve set up in the local health centre. It is a place where youth are welcome to come and seek advice (about health, social and economic challenges), find referrals (to other NGOs, health workers etc), receive advice on HIV and STI prevention (including condom demonstrations and distributions) and receive reading materials on health and agriculture topics.

For the past 3 months the SPW volunteers have been running the corner. Visitors have been lacking, however, the ones we have received have been a joy to help. For example an AIDS orphan who wanted me to come with him for a HIV test and a couple (another jumping up for joy moment – people NEVER do anything as a couple here) that came for a condom demonstration. The woman had 12 children and was desperate to learn how to prevent even more kiddywinks forming in her belly.

As the SPW volunteers won’t be here forever, we wanted to train some community members on how to run the YRC. We had a long training session with two secondary school pupils. We trained them on sexual reproductive health knowledge, economics and agriculture, referrals and condom demonstrations. Both were very alert and keen. They said they would take on the responsibility the following weekend. Expecting a no show, I was gob smacked when I saw them working all day Saturday AND Sunday. They brought SO many visitors as they encouraged all of their school and community friends to come along.

I can’t begin to express how excited this makes me! I feel like we have really done something that is going to last. I really really hope these boys keep up the great work once we are gone.

The positive work has really lifted my spirits. I’ve found myself bouncing round the community during the day and dancing under the stars at night. The neighbours and starting to think I’m a tad loony.

Holiday Photos!!!!

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I've just had a AWESOME two day grade 5 rafting trip down the Nile, so lacking energy to write up about the holiday. However, I'd love to share a few snaps!

The Nile

Vervet Monkeys at Nkruba Crater Lake

Sunset over Rwenzori Mountains

Sunrise, got up at 5:30 to hike for an hour in the dark to catch this

Swimming in Nkruba Crater Lake

 I was the only traveler here. Just me and the monkeys. Paradise!

One of the crater lakes. This was taken JUST before a tropical downpour.

I kept on cycling in the rain, it was SO fun!

My CRAZY rafting crew!!! 

I still have a few days of holiday left. I'm hoping to visit Jay and Pam in Luwero. Then i'm off to a mid placement training. On the 20th I go back to my community.

April

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For once I was rather eager to prance out of bed at 6:30 in the morning. The moment marked the start of my holiday! Of course, It had to begin with a bazaar experience. As I wondered towards my bus I realised my local trading centre was strangely busy. Children and women were crawling around everywhere on all fours. I did question for a moment whether I'd missed out on some strange early morning ritual for the past 3 months. However, I quickly placed the cause: rain. When it rains in Uganda the earth is swamped with giant flying white ants. A edible delicacy in Uganda. The ants are caught by their wings and then captured in plastic bags, boxes, hats, pans and pockets. A cheeky child may even sneak the odd treat and swallow a live ant before the mid afternoon fry up. I have yet to try the delicacy. I do question my whether my taste buds will approve.

Looking back at April I can't help but laugh. I have genually really enjoying my work and I have started to settle into my community really well. As cheesy as it may sound, it is starting to feel like home. All the children in my community are starting to call out at me as 'Madaaaaaaam Joyceyyyy, how are you???" rather than "MUZUNGO!!!" (meaning 'white person' in Lusoga) which is a nice change. My Lusoga is also improving by the day. My local chipatti man finds it hilarious every time I greet him and ask for chipattis in Lusoga. He then is convinced I've become fluent over night and starts an extended conversation with me in Lusoga, assuming I understand every word. I just nod and smile. Who knows what I'm agreeing to.

One event we held this month was a Health Talk. We invited  a nurse from our local clinic to give a health talk to our out-of-school youth group. It was all very entertaining and interesting! Several of the youth were convinced that swallowing capsules whole will disintegrate your bowels. I was a live testimony that this is in fact a myth. Taking into account the number of capsules I've had to take over the past few months, my intestines would be non-existent by now! Another member was convinced that HIV is removed from your body when you give birth. Reasoning: there is so much blood loss. Unfortunately, we had to explain why this was also a myth. The purpose of the talk was also to restore their faith in the local health centre. Many myths are spread about the centre and hence many community members fail to visit. We were very encouraged by the fact that 3 of the youth came to the health centre the next day for HIV and STI testing!

Tonight I'm on a mission to start a 'Konigininge Nacht' in Jinja town. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be the only orange loony in town. Oh well!

Women at our Health Talk

Visiting Peter's home (Left to Right: Samuel, Rose, Joel, Me and Peter)

At Bugoto Landing Site

Easter

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Easter brought me to Mityana. A town located about 2 hours west of Kampala. It is where Rose’s (my national placement partner) home is found. Easter day started with a church service. Not just any church service….a 4 hour Catholic service all in Luganda…I couldn’t understand a word. I must admit, I almost did a Mr Bean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh__g-ZZ6WA

However, I just about managed to keep both eyes open throughout. Seeing Ugandan nuns prancing Hallelujahs, beings surrounded by incense and bellowing out tunes in gobbledygook made it all worth it.

Lunch was a very daunting moment. A true introduction to Ugandan hospitality. The menu included cow intestine, chicken, beef, cabbage, greens, matoke (banana mush), rice, spaghetti, potatoes and eggplants in MASS PORTIONS. I actually felt like a pregnant Santa Clause by the time I’d finished. I’m very sad to say there was no chocolate on the menu; this unfortunate fact did make me weep a little.

Rose has 6 brothers in total. I had the privilege of meeting 4 of them. They were all a great laugh! That evening they spent about 3 hours trying to teach me to dance like a Ugandan. They were also adamant to learn European ballroom dancing. Unfortunately I didn’t have a donkeys clue. I told them they should all come to Holland and they can receive personal lessons from my dear parents (prepare yourselves mum and dad!)

Happy Easter Everyone!

Photos above: 

First: Cooking matoke (banana mush) with Mama Allen

Second photo: Dancing the night away!

            Vincent (Rose's youngest brother)                                                                   Richard & Musa next to a Jack fruit tree

                                                Sylvia (Rose's auntie) and Rose in our bedroom

                                           Vincent, Mama Allen, Me, Musa, Rose and Joseph

Where do White People Come From?

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The other day I was collecting water from my local spring. As I sat there I accumulated my usual audience of cute little children. They all started chatting away and giggling. One of them asked:

                    "Where do white people come from?"

 the other one replied

                     "They all come from those big things in the skies. They're called airoplanes."

Oh how I love moments like this!

Manic March

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I have been dreading to write this blog entry. How on earth do I describe this last month in a few paragraphs? If I tried to describe everything that has taken place I would end up writing a thesis.

Work has been overwhelming. Over the past month we have been conducting about 15 school lessons a week (in 3 different schools), sessions with 2 Out-Of-School youth groups, workshops with In-School Youth Clubs, working in a Youth Resource Corner in our Health Centre (where youth come to visit for advice and referrals) and organising 4 large events (V.C.T, Sports Event, Gender Focused Workshop and a Agriculture Visit to a Model Farm). We have been working our little socks off!

Initially work was very tough! I kept asking the question: why on earth am I here? Is this work really making any difference? It is so tough to really see positive change with your own eyes. We live in a very rural community with countless issues. Day in and day out we work with people who lack so much hope and enthusiasm. We spend hours teaching people new skills and knowledge....yet, does behavioral change occur? Are people really going to use this new knowledge to improve their lives? In the end, it is their call. We may teach somebody to protect themselves from HIV and AIDs by abstaining or using a condom....however, in the end it is their choice whether they us this knowledge.

On the bright side, I've kept persistent and in positive spirits. I've told myself that even if I just affect one persons life in a positive way during these 6 months of work, it is all worth it!

In fact, I feel as though we are really starting to achieve things. More and more youth are approaching us for advice. I really feel as though the method of 'peer-to-peer education' is effective. Young people are comfortable to talk to us about relationship, health and social issues (where as nearly all the youth fear to approach their health center, their parents and their teachers about sensitive issues). Talking about Sexual Reproductive Health issues is a great taboo in society. Hence, the issue of HIV transmission gets even worse.

Our events have also been a great success (on the whole). For our V.C.T (Voluntary Counciling and Testing for HIV and AIDs) event 200 people got tested for HIV. We were so pleased with the turn up. People really fear to know their HIV status as their is so much taboo relating to HIV in the society. For our 'Exposure Visit' we took our Out-of-School Youth Groups to a Model Farm where they learned about effective agriculture techniques and method.

Aside from work, I am really getting into this village lifestyle. I am now quite the expert at all those strange new challenges at the start. These days I find myself skipping along with a 20 litre jerry can, lighting a charcoal stove in under 5 minutes and bouncing out of bed at 6:30 in the morning.

Food variation is definitely lacking! Most days we tend to have rice and beans. At times we also have the odd vegetable. I can't remember the last time I had dairy (oh how I miss Dutch dairy). We've even treated ourselves to meat on 2 occasions. When it was Rose's birthday I bought her a chicken. She gave me the honers of slaughtering it. A rather  disturbing yet fascinating experience. The photo on the right is our local spring (where we collect water everyday).                        

In terms of health, things have gone a little down hill (quite literally) again. The other day I crashed on my bicycle while riding down a steep muddy track (rather different from flat tarmac cycle paths in NL). I am currently covered in cuts and bruises. I'm healing slowly but surely!

This weekend I've managed to escape to Jinja for the first time. It was crazy awesome to have a warm shower, use a flushing toilet, ride on a tarmac road, eat chocolate and drink a cappuccino for the first time in almost 2 months! Bliss.

Time to go and eat lasagna with MILK in Jinja town. Must rush off.

I hope all is well, wherever you are!

                                                  

                                                         Some more snaps:

The rainy season is awesome!

                                                                    Pupils in our Primary 7 class

                                                                                                       My neighbour

Setteling In

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My new little home was a rather unwelcoming site. The two little rooms were rather...empty. The only things occupying them were our local residents. Spiders in every corner, cockroaches scurrying along the floor and a large ant army marching along the walls. Fortunately, we have managed to dispose of most of our local residents. However, the ant army does persist with it's presence in the SPW house. We have decided to bare with the ant army, and have concluded that it adds character to our gray cracking walls.

Since day one, we have added some furnishings to our new home. Mosquito nets, pots and pans, jerry cans, a GIANT sack of charcoal, PILES of monitoring and evaluation SPW forms, mattresses and all of our personal belongings that we lugged from far far away. It's all rather snug and cosy these days. Our front porch is also a lovely addition to the house! We spend our evenings out there cooking, chatting and gazing at the AWESOME sky. And finally, the communal pit latrines....i have no positive words to share concerning these.

So once we'd settled in, it was down to work! The first few weeks on placement are called the 'Baseline' period. This time is dedicated to orientation and organisaition for the following 6 months of work. We've had dozens of meetings with headteachers, chiefs, out-of-school youth, council members, students, youth leaders, womans representatives, farmers groups, NGOs, health workers etc. It has all been rather stressful and overwhelming! We've also had to carry out various sessions that will aid our future work. For example, we've carried out Sexual Reproductive Knowledge Assessments with all of the classes we will be teaching. This will guide us on where we will need to focus our teaching. We've also had Focus Group Discussions with several groups of people, we ask the community members themselves what they believe are the biggest issues in the community and how best they can be resolved. Finally we have also started preparations for upcoming events we will be hosting in March. For example a Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) event.

Work had been tough and stressful, however, the fun times and crazy new cultural experiences have been well worth it! Riding a bicycle through sugar cane plantations, learning how to mingle posho, bathing with half a bucket of water, collecting water from the near by swamp, wearing a petticoat, sorting out the stones and stems from freshly ground rice....just to name a few!

Just before I end, I'd like to add that I'm all in good health again! I hope it stays that way :-).

Exciting News!

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The exciting announcement of my rural placement and placement partners couldn’t have been a better birthday present on the 24th of Jan!

I will be located in one of the most rural villages (Kigandalo). It is so small…it doesn’t exist on the map. I will be in Mayuge district.

See map:
http://international.egmont-hs.dk/nudipu/uganda.jpg

My placement partners will be:
Nationals: Timothy (from Sudan), Rose (from Kampala)
Community Volunteers: Samuel and Peter (from Kigandalo)
International Volunteer: Me (from Holland)

They are all lovely!

On my Birthday we went on a day trip to the source of the Nile. A lovely treat! The sun set over the Nile as we danced on the shores to cheesy Ugandan hip hop. I tried to master my African bum shaking...it was a great failure.

Training, Training, Training

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Considering my rather persistent sickly state over the past 2 weeks, I’ve still managed to have a rather smashing 2 weeks. Training has been very interesting. At the start of the two weeks we split into two separate technical training fields.

-Livelihood (Focusing on farming, entrepreneurship and group development)
-Sexual Reproductive Health (Focusing on adolescence, STIs and HIV & AIDs)

I was in the latter.

Both of the groups have also had extensive training on gender equity, facilitating sessions, non-formal education techniques, training stakeholders (people who will continue the work we are doing when we leave) and finance.

Our training on HIV and AIDs has been very intensive. We have focused on the methods of transmission (including in depth study of Mother to Child Transmission) and the preventative methods. We have also been looking into how we will offer support and referrals to those who are living with HIV and AIDs. We did extensive sessions with TASO that informed us all about ARVs, ART, counseling and other forms of treatment. We were lucky enough to experience a TASO workshop where HIV+ people expressed testimonies that were very sad yet very hopeful.

Yesterday we went to visit a health clinic in one of the rural placements. It was a great opportunity to see how we are going to work along side the health clinics to provide support and advice for the people in the community.

The Training Centre

Training on how to repair a punctured tyre

A Little Tropical Disease

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Precisely this time two weeks ago a strange little disease hit me. Personally, I found the fact that I managed to catch Malaria in my first week in Uganda quite impressive! The amusing side of the misfortune started to fade as too many sleepless nights, coughing fits and funny tummies made training quite tough. By day 9 of grossness I started to get a little worried. Once again I was taken to the local health clinic. Testing positive for a second time, I was quickly dosed up with another Malaria treatment package. A few days later symptoms were persistent and multiplying, I started to question whether it was just Malaria. On Friday I was whizzed to a clinic for the third time. Blood tests showed that I was also carrying a bacterial chest infection. Fun, fun, fun! Lots of new colourful shiny pills were passed across the counter. I am currently taking a grand total of 14 pills a day. A rather unpleasant task, as I am possibly the world’s worst pill swallower.

Yet, I’m still all in jolly spirits! Everyone has taken GREAT care of me.

Today I even treated myself to a bit of western food (however…it didn’t stay in me for long!)

Welcome to Uganda

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I didn't merge into a white snowy landscape anymore. I was a snow flake in a tropical green paradise. The dense vegetation of Uganda took me by surprise.

                               5 minute walk from our training centre!

Kasange training centre is located 45 minutes (by car) east of Kampala. This is where 7 international volunteers were brought on a lazy Sunday morning. It is also where we met the 28 Ugandan volunteers for the first time. One by one we greeted the strangers that we would live and work with for the next month.

I was expecting quite a relaxed and civil induction week...oh how I was mistaken! Our days have been filled from 9:00-5:00 with intensive sessions. It's all been very informative - from the tedious yet crucial monitoring and evaluation session to the heated discussion on cultural myths and misconceptions. In the latter I discovered that The Netherlands is believed to be the place of racial segregation and female circumcision...hmmm, not quite.

Hopes & Fears

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I have a little widget on my computer that makes me smile every morning. It tells me:

Wassenaar, The Netherlands: Cold & Rainy, 2°C

Jinja, Uganda: Hot & Sunny, 27°C

                                   Winter in Wassenaar

This has definitely got me counting the days with excitement! However, one can't deny that fears have caused my mind to whirl in panic and pray that I could press the 'pause' button on my life.

My initial worries were related to all the horror stories relating to Larium (malaria prevention medication). I took my first pill on Christmas Eve. Luckily I didn't start hallucinating Santa falling down the chimney! So far I haven't experienced any of the dreaded side effects. Fingers and toes are crossed that it will stay that way.

On a more reflective note. I've also started worrying about my role and purpose in Uganda. I have a great responsibility to be a catalyst for positive change relating to health (especially HIV/AIDs) and social issues. Can I really make a difference? However small? I fear that all my work and time won't result in change that I can see and quantify. In a way I find these worries frustrating as it is something I really can't predict and judge until I am there. I'm trying to stay optimistic and determined. I hope that my impact upon the people I encounter will be positive; through words, actions and shared experiences.

Aside from these, my other fears have been rather random and unexpected. Will I be able to skin a chicken (if the moment arises)? Will I get bitten by a monkey and catch rabies? Will I be able to figure out how to dispose of the moulds growing on my water filter? The list goes on...

All in all, I hold greater anticipation and excitement than worry. Bring on the Olugendo (meaning 'journey' in Lusoga)!

Thank You!

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I want to start by saying a MASSIVE Thank You for the tremendous support I have received (in financial donations, but also in words) to go on this trip! I really have appreciated every little bit. I hope you enjoy reading the records of my journey

Best Wishes, Joyce.