Since Then.. One year in Uganda!
19 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
I know it’s a lot of posting in one day! But I have actually felt like writing in the past 24 hours, so I figured I’d just get it all out. And a special treat at the bottom is the results of the incredibly hilarious Darwin Awards – about people who were so stupid that they don’t deserve to continue the human race.
Reflection on being here for a full year already:
It’s crazy to think I’ve been in Uganda for a year! Sometimes I feel like the day I arrived was yesterday, and other times I feel like I’ve been here for five years. It depends on the day. But since the Peace Corps program is 27 months and I’ve been here for 12. I will feel like the one year mark will pass and feel good after I’ve been in Kamuli for a year (October 23). That will be my true halfway point for me and Uganda. Because then I will have a year left and almost no one leaves after a year, unless there’s a serious emergency at home.
I’m so proud of our group because our group of 45 is one of the first groups in Uganda ever to keep all it’s members at this point; we’ve broken the Peace Corps Uganda record! I think we’re a very special tightly knit group and have a wonder support system between the 45 of us. Someone already left from the newest group that came after us in February. I hope we can all make it to the end because that would be super impressive and really say something about our group. Especially because recently we’ve been the biggest group Uganda’s ever had, just a few years ago they would send 10-15 people and someone left from each of those groups.
Now, sometimes emotions in the Peace Corps are up and down. We covered this during our training. Just before the 1 year mark most people are on the downside of this emotional roller coaster. And then you head back up after the one year mark, realizing you still have a lot you want to do and think that there’s not enough time.
So I think up to Friday I was in my before-the-1-year-anniversary rut. But this weekend really cheered me up and helped me to snap out of it. On Saturday on my way to work, 4 turkeys crossed my path (chickens and ducks are usual, but turkeys – very unusual). So I took this to be good luck and had a good laugh about it. That’s when I knew it was going to be a good weekend.
On Saturday, I went to a traditional Ugandan introduction party, where I wore the traditional Ugandan wear – a kohnzo [KAHN-zo] (like a light white robe) and a sports jacket. I have pictures of it that I will put up for you. So everyone was laughing and looking that “this muzungu is wearing Ugandan close muhahaha). But an introduction is the traditional ceremony where a Ugandan’s family introduces their future husband/wife to the parents and family. It’s like a combination of an engagement party, going away party, and having the first dinner with your boyfriend/girlfriend’s parents. There are four tents set up and they all face each other. Three of the tents are for the local person’s family (in this case, my supervisor’s stepdaughter) and then there is a tent for the future spouse’s family to sit. There was dancing, singing, gifts, ring-exchanging, a wedding cake and a big dinner. And the bride and groom also wave goodbye to their families because they’re “leaving” for the family of the in-laws. It was really great to experience something like that and I had my supervisor sit with me to translate some things for me, so I know what’s going on. Because if there’s one thing I hate – it’s when people I go to functions like this with don’t let me know what’s going on. I mean I’m not asking for a translator, I just want someone to give me the gist of what’s happening and I’ll sit back and figure the rest out on my own. My supervisor was great about letting me know why and what happens during an introduction.
Then I got home and I was cleaning up my house and I found the bag of old CDs that my parents brought from home when they came. So I started importing them and it was good to find some of the old school 1990s trance music that I grew up with. Then I went on to discogs and found related tracks of those from the CDs and I finally remembered some of the names of the tracks that I used to listen to in high school. I spent like 7 hours downloading songs from listentoyoutube .com. And I was smiling all night because each of those songs reminded me of funny things that I did during high school and it made me feel closer to Stephanie who shares the same passion for these old tracks that we listened to in the 90s. And I sometimes wonder what and how my life would be if I hadn’t met Stephanie sitting behind me in driver’s ed. Because she’s one of the best people in my life and I can’t imagine one without her. It also made me want to visit Europe because of their spectacular dance/electronic music scene that the US doesn’t really seem to embrace, just like soccer. But Europe is so expensive, I think I would go broke in a week! But Montreal has a great electronic music scene, though the French-Canadian people there are creepier than I imagine the real French to be. But the city is amazingly fun and I wouldn’t mind living there, except for having to learn French.
So, I think I’m out of my rut (knock on wood). And I was getting bored at work, just doing some mundane defaulters-list. And when the power was off I had nothing to do. So this morning I did some brainstorming about some things I’d like to get started on at work. Such as creating a marketing committee, put up advertisements in town, make end of the day checklists for all employees, changing loan disbursement times, offering business classes to anyone who needs help, possibly writing a grant for solar power for our computers or a new motorcycle, and finding new ways to get our money back from defaulters.
Well, I hope everyone is well at home and know that I miss you all a lot and think about you everyday. Life can be great here and life can truly suck sometimes but for the overall experience it’s totally worth it. And when I do have a bad day, I think about the end or the next time I’ll be able to see other volunteers, which is what gets us through the months. I think about the people that I work with and how much I enjoy the work I do in Kamuli and at my SACCO. And I think about how pushing through will allow me to travel to Australia to see a solar eclipse and travel to Indonesia or Thailand and to my final destination of the beautiful trance-hippie infested beaches of Goa, India. That’s how I will make it through and I know that one day I will see you again.
Love,
Dan
P. S. If any other PCVs are reading this.. I’d like to do something sun for my birthday in September. Let’s start brainstorming for something cool/relaxing to do here.
P.P.S. Below is the results of the poll of the Darwin awards, which are quite funny.
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The Darwin award results are out! It’s a list of people that died of stupid activities, along with their funny ridiculous stories of how it happened:
Yes, it’s that magical time of year again when the Darwin Awards are bestowed, honoring the least evolved among us.
Here is the glorious winner:
When his 38 caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach, California would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.
And now, the honorable mentions:
The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat cutting machine and after a little shopping around, submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and he also lost a finger… The chef’s claim was approved.
A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. Understandably, he shot her.
After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies… The deception wasn’t discovered for 3 days.
An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from serious head wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked how he received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.
A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer… $15. [If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, is a crime committed?]
Seems an Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly.. He decided that he’d just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The liquor store window was made of Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape…
As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, “Yes, officer, that’s her. That’s the lady I stole the purse from.”
The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti , Michigan at 5 A.M., flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn’t open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren’t available for breakfast… The man, frustrated, walked away.. [*A 5-STAR STUPIDITY AWARD WINNER]
When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street by sucking on a hose, he got much more than he bargained for.. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline, but he plugged his siphon hose into the motor home’s sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges saying that it was the best laugh he’d ever had.
