Immerse Yourself!

19 Sep 2010 3 Comments

by danrennt98 in Uncategorized

Yoga! (hello, in dhipadola [language spoken in the east near Kenya]) — This is going to be a long long one, so have a seat.

I’m just sitting at home right now.. finally have a moment to relax and have the modem back which actually has some data on it thanks to my dear friend ann. So I don’t even know the last time that I was on here?! Sorry. We ran out of data on the modem for the month so we had to buy more twice.. and now I finally have the internet for a few hours.  But I probably won’t be updating as frequently until Oct. 21.. which is our swear-in date where we move from Trainees to Volunteers. After that.. we move to our site in the Basoga area! On Sept. 30th (I believe..) we will find out our site, where each of us will be living for the next two years.. and the week after we will go spend at week at our future sites and check things out. Which we are all really excited about..

Training is about halfway over.. We had four weeks of training.. the last two were spent about halfway in the field with communities, and halfway at the training facility having lectures and the sort. I’m currently trying to upload some pictures to facebook if you want to check that out. I may or may not post one or two at the end of this blog. Then the past week.. another trainee, Linda, and I went to Tororo (in southeastern, Uganda — about 15 miles from the border with Kenya) for 5 days.. and we visited another volunteer site, Laura,  to observe what she does and how she lives as a volunteer.  We had an awesome week! And it was great to get out of training for a little while and see what it will really be like when we are living on our own. More on that shortly… So now I am back in Wakiso. We will have training for two more weeks.. Then we will visit our future sites for a week.. Then we will have a few more days of training and preparation. Then we will travel to Kampala and move out of our homestays for a Volunteer-Counterpart/Site Preparation Workshop, and swear-in will follow.. and then we are off! So hopefully training will move a lot faster after this.. it has been moving a bit slow. Don’t get me wrong.. I love training and I love being around a bunch of Americans all day chatting about the interesting and strikingly-odd things that happen to us on a day to day basis, but it will be nice to live on my own, cook what I want, and find out what I am really here for two years doing.

For example, this morning I went on a 10-minute walk (max) down the street, at around 8:30, and as most of you know I am not a morning person, [though I've been waking up at 6:30 everyday -- no alarm] but I walked to the end of the street and turned around and started walking back.  As I was coming back, this one little boy timed his walking so he would end up walking right along side of me… and then another kid saw that and he did the same. I said hello/goodbye/how are you.. and before I knew it.. there was 6 kids following me by the time I got back to my house! Geez.. at 8:30 am.. I was not happy about that.. but if it was the afternoon, I probably would’ve thought it was funny.

Sooo.. Immersion week began on tuesday. This is where you visit a current volunteer in the same sector as you (economic development) and shadow them for a week to see what they are doing and what life will be like as a PCV. Linda and I visited Laura in Tororo.  She works with an women’s advocates NGO that has about 20 advice centers in many of the sub-counties of Tororo district, where they counsel women on domestic violence and other issues. They were trying recently to get a law passed against bride price (dowry) and polygamy, neither of which were passed. Part of the problem in this area is that if a woman marries a man.. the gifts/dowry that are brought from the man’s family to the women’s family as “payment” for marriage are cows, pigs, foodstuffs, money, etc. So later in the marriage if they are having problems and want a divorce, in this part of the country, the bride price must be paid back to the man’s family. Since most of the cows, pigs, chickens, money was spent..  the women’s family can’t afford to pay it back, meaning that a divorce cannot occur, leaving many women in less than ideal relationships that they cannot get out of, and their families will not allow them to get out of.. Anyways.. this organization was a really great organization fighting these cultural practices and domestic violence. Laura is working with them to start VSLAs (Village Savings and Loan Associations.. see earlier post if you want to know what it is). She has started about 18 VSLAs with these women’s groups.

So, on Tuesday.. about 14 of us met at the taxi park in Wakiso to take a taxi to Kampala.. it was a muzungu taxi.. which, of course, all the people at the taxi park thought was pretty funny. Then, Linda and I trekked from the new taxi park where taxis to wakiso are.. to the old taxi park where taxis to Tororo are located. Then, we hopped onto a taxi to Tororo (which is about 4 hours from Kampala). We sat in the back, which was pretty small but luckily (on this taxi, at least) they didn’t try and fit as many people as they could inside, but the back seats are smaller than the rest, which sucked.. but was fine in the end. [FYI -- taxis / matatus -- These are decent sized vans, meant to fit 14 people -- but end up fitting way more -- that go on a specified route only.. they will not drop you off anywhere unless it is on the route. Keep in mind that the drivers are trying to maximize their profit, so they maximize passengers, whenever possible. Generally, they are set prices if you know what it's supposed to be.. but if you don't then you will probably be over charged.] So at the new taxi park, there are people everywhere coming up to windows selling everything under the sun. So, while I was sitting there I bought a water, some potato chips, a newspaper, airtime for my phone and some other random things.. I could’ve bought soda, ice cream, meat, bracelets, loaves of bread, belts with Obama’s picture on it (people here love obama.), earrings, biscuits, etc. All while waiting for your taxi to leave. So, four hours later, we crossed the Nile, passed by Jinja, through Iganga (which I suspect will be the town closest to me when I move to site), on bumpy roads, our butts were sore when we got there.

We met Laura at a MTN store. Then, we ate some local food for lunch, rice, beans, chapati, samosas. Not bad. We checked into our hotel, which was awesome — hot water shower, regular sit-down toilets [with a seat!], queen sized bed, porch facing Tororo Rock, and breakfast included. It was spectacular. We went to her organization, met her counterpart and some other people in the organization, visited her house — it was too small to fit the three of us.. and heard all about her experience.. which sounded challenging for the first few months, but she seems to have worked it out quite well.  I’m really excited to get to my site after this visit.  Next day — we went to a VSLA share-out meeting which was great. These ladies have been saving their money for a year, and taking loans out, and repaying them. So of all the money they saved — a share is worth 2000 shillings.. you must buy 1-5 shares every bi-weekly meeting. For every share they bought @ 2000 shillings.. they earned 900 shillings.. so they got back 2900 for ever 2000 they bought. 45%! that’s better than the NYSE! The women were really happy and sung songs and danced and conducted their meeting. Afterwards, we went and had a really nice dinner for pork and french fries and Linda and Laura had some indian food. The food was great all week.. I had a hamburger more fries, sausages, good quality samosas.. mm!

On Thursday, we hiked tororo rock. What a great time that was.. we had a guard/guide with a rifle.. which was a bit scary at first, but he was actually really nice. The views were incredible.. I’d say this was the highlight of my week. It was a bit difficult, there were ladders climbing up rock faces, and bugs flying in my ear.. and really large bees, but it was beautiful — see pictures on FB.  After this, we went home showered and then went to a government school and watched Laura run a girls club.. which is going a bit rough..but will get better in the end. Friday, we took a matatu with 21 people in it (mind you.. it should only fit 14) an hour north to Mbale — which is the second biggest city in Uganda.. it’s either that or Gulu.  Not the prettiest city ever, but the background foothills are nice. We went to Mount Elgon hotel and had a morning/afternoon pool party. I got to meet one person who is living in my region until July. This was where all the volunteers in the Teso/Mbale/Tororo/Basoga regions met up and we all went swimming at a really nice hotel/resort thing. And all the trainees staying with the volunteers came as well. So I met some current volunteers and saw some of my fellow training group where we chatted about how our weeks were going, went swimming, ate pizza, hamburgers and drank beer and coffee, admired the beautiful view, enjoyed the good weather while it lasted [it is rainy season, after all], and then afterwards Linda and I took another packed matatu back to Tororo and had our last dinner at the hotel with Laura. She was a very kind person, and really showed us what it is like to be a volunteer and showed us a really great time. Thanks Laura! We traveled back to Kampala on a less than cramped matatu, which was good, went to the white people mall — garden city — where there was a LOT of muzungus (more than usual). Had some REAL pizza and coleslaw and coffee, went shopping, etc. and travelled back to Wakiso.. and were welcomed back with open arms to our homestay families!!! It was great to be away for a week and have a break, but it’s also nice to have a nice family to come home too!!

Time TRAVEL! Back to last saturday.. when we had language group cooking party — our Lusoga group (Lisa, Me, Nick, Rashida, and Christie) cooked at Lisa’s house. Our list of food was a bit ridiculous of the things we wanted to make.. and everytime we had a number of something we wanted Lisa would be like — well just throw 2 more on top, we can’t have enough! lol So initially we were about 50,000 shillings over the PC budget. But it was awesome.. we learned to cook on charcoal stoves and spent about 6 hours making our meal. Which includes, but was not limited to: Egg and Cheese with cabbage sandwiches on white bread or chapati (tortillas) with avacado, tomato, and onions — this was the appeteaser, but we were pretty much full from that. Our eyes were way bigger than our stomachs. Then we made burritos with rice, beans, cabbage, ground beef, salsa, chapati, guacamole, avacados, tomatos, onions, and the rest of the egg and cheese. I think only one of us could finish our burrito. It was all so delicious.. Then we had 2 pineapples and brownies (yes, on a charcoal stove, courtesy of Christie) for desert.. The walk home was slow, trust me. Then, I had an amazing birthday weekend.. where we all went out and had a good time.. even though we couldn’t stay out at the rec center overnight. We will another time though! My birthday was fun and spent with many volunteers having a good time and I’m very glad to be here for it.. though I did miss home for a good time too. But.. Thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone! Hope all is well at home! I know all is well here at least! Miss you all and have a great morning over there!!

Love,

Dan