Unless you want to hear a funny story, Disregard Last Post
01 Mar 2012 1 Comment
WordPress messed up and posted on the wrong blog that has nothing to do with Africa, but it is a funny story by the way.
The Roller Coaster that is MY LIFE!
10 Sep 2011 1 Comment
Hey Peeps! Long time no blog! I feel like I’ve been super-Uganda-confined for the past month or two, but I now need to make and online comeback! Especially because I’ve been in Uganda for 400 days now! And it’s crazy to think I’ve now celebrated two birthdays in Uganda and that I spend my entire 23rd year of my life living in this country! And that I’ll be living in Kamuli for 1 year exactly on October 23rd.. which is comforting. Because I’m about halfway done with my service now.. but I really have Sn’t gone over the 1 year at site hump yet which means it’s all downhill from there. Which is when I’ll be starting some more new projects and then ensuring the sustainability of them after my departure and hoping that I made a difference in at least one person’s life – which I sure hope that I did.
As I walked to work this morning, I saw a brown cow (most common kind here) and it made me think of the Ice Cream Desert and I never understood or knew that there was brown cows until I came here! I thought they were all black and white and didn’t have horns like the ones here (Personally, I think the cows here are ugly and malnourished). But that made me come to the realization that living anywhere in Uganda is like living on a farm and I would never want to own a farm after living here! I despise / hate the roosters call every morning as you already know, but once one rooster in the area sets off even at 3 am when it’s dark out.. it sets a chair reaction to all roosters in the area that it’s time to wake up and crow. But I walk by chickens about 20 times a day. I was just think about how in the US, you can go years without seeing a live cow/chicken/pig etc. But here I doubt you can even go a few hours. Today, just on my way to work I saw about 30 chickens, 10 cows, 2 goats, and 4 ducks just roaming freely about the town. And there’s about 10 little baby chicks that I hear outside of my window right now. It just weird seeing the levels of development, but yet everything still looks like shit here. There’s litter all over the place and plenty of garbage that people just burn themselves or just leave on the ground near a dumpster. It’s a shame how littered this beautiful country is. And how odd it is here — people live in mud huts — with satellite TV. People have the crappiest cars but a touch screen radio console. They have blackberry phones which they use to make short phone calls only.
Plus, the fact that people wake up at the crack of dawn, bathe every single morning first thing and the clothes line is always full by the time I wake up at 8:30 and walk out the door, people have already done half their chores for the day. And the fires/ charcoal is already burning for boiling the morning milk for tea. It’s crazy. Thank god for washing machines and that they come standard in most houses in the US lol or we just go to the Laundromat. I bet that would be a really great business idea! Creating a Laundromat – good thinking Dan! It would save people so much time and effort.. Washing clothes is hard. I have to wash my own underwear, but it’s considered rude to give underwear to someone who washes your clothes. Whenever I do that, all of my neighbors just watch and stare at me because I’m so bad at doing it. What are you gonna do? That’s camping life here in Uganda.
Plus, I’d like to start doing my lightning project. It seems that people are very interested in this project and they’ve been taking the packets / brochures about lightning safety that I’ve been passing out and setting in different places at the checkout counter. I’m going to start by doing it between schools and see how that works out before I go out into random villages for education purposes, to teach parents and then to give their children shoes. Even my co workers are excited about it. Next week, I will meet with the headmaster of the school to make plans for me to deliver the shoes and teach the students about Lightning Strike Prevention.. And what size shoes are the class. Once I’m there I can get the #s for the rest of the classes up to P7 – and that’s where I’ll need your help
Anyways thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! I feel like now that I’m so far away less people forgot to wish me a happy birthday than when I’m actually around in the US lol! And thank god for facebook or else I would forget many people’s birthdays, especially out here when I generally don’t even know the date!
So I just celebrated my birthday a week early before the all volunteer conference. And I’ve been out of touch since then. I spent some time in Jinja and saw my friends there. And then we traveled to the All-Volunteer conference which is just outside of Kampala in Seeta. That was fun and cool because it was run by only volunteers, and volunteers know what works and what doesn’t and they know how to train other volunteers without boring them. Plus, I got to meet a lot of people from other groups that came before and after my group of 45 (who are all still here! We’re so strong!) and network with them to see what kind of projects they are working on and learn about different sorts of training ideas for our sites. Plus, I got to hang out with people from my group who I haven’t seen in a while. And then we had a rubix cube dance party which turned into a crazy drunken mess of bazungu dancing around switching clothing.
Yea, so the group before us had planned/invented this rubix cube Dance-Party to be held at the All Volunteer Conference, which was fun. Probably one of the best nights I’ve had at one of the Trainings. It’s where each person at the dance party wearing all six colors from the rubix cube.. And during your dance party the goal is to eventually get all of your clothes the same color by trading accessories, shirts, pants, socks, hats, dresses, wristbands, etc. And as we all started to get fairly tipsy and having a great time dancing – it turned out that we ended up just trading clothes on the dance-floor without any color-coordination. At first I thought it was weird, but then after a while it was fun and seeing other people wearing your clothes is funny.
I don’t know why but my birthday reminded me of Burlington and about how much I loved that town and miss it! I miss the cold weather and being all bundled up and taking a walk through town, seeing college friends, and the food!!! The food in Burlington is the best in the world! And it just sucks because it’s a college town and all my friends are long gone, the town will never be the same to live in unless you’re a college student. I miss going to the lake and walking on the ice and under the dock with Tom and Faith and I miss going down to Jill’s rock with Jess and just watching the sun go down on a warm spring evening when everyone’s coming out of their seasonal depression. And I miss going to North Beach in the summer and spending the day getting drunk on the beach with hundreds of [good looking, mostly] college students! Going to UVM was probably the best decision I’ve ever made, and I wonder what I would’ve turned out like if I hadn’t gone there.. Would I like psytrance (I’d like to think so)? But if I didn’t go to UVM, and I never went to that first rave that happened to be a psytrance party in Montreal, would I have gotten into psytrance when I did and then would I have introduced it to Lexi, and would she have met and gotten married to Dimitri [whom we met at a psytrance festival]? Would I be a semi-hippie like character? Would I have joined the Peace Corps? It’s crazy to think that that decision that I made to go to UVM could’ve affected other people’s lives so drastically.
American Flatbread, Penny Cluse, Sneakers, Wings over Burlington, Domino’s, Friendly’s, the mall food court for Saturday hungover Taco Bell runs as a group of 10, Manhattan Pizza, Ali Baba’s, Bruegger’s Bagels, Fcuk-Aid. I miss you B-Town – I wouldn’t be the same person today without you!
Funny Story: Today on my walk to work I was thinking about the lightning project and that I needed to email my Aunt Sharon and this boy stopped me who I had no idea who he was.. and he said, “Dan, how is your Aunt?” “My Aunt?” “Yes your Aunt in America?” “She’s Okay” “Okay good” And then we departed, it was so weird! I don’t know how he knew my Aunt Sharon and it’s funny he didn’t even ask how I was, and the fact that I was thinking about her at that very second. Maybe he can read minds – or the more likely case is that he works at Starlight Primary School – which my Aunt corresponds with. Apparently, my Aunt Sharon is well known in Kamuli and I’m well known at North Brunswick Elementary School even though none of us have ever met (besides my Aunt and me haha)!
Wish List:
- DDR Max or latest DDR game for the computer.
- Candy – especially chewy stuff like skittles, hot tamales, sour punch straws*, sour punch strips, jolly ranchers..
- Sauces and dressings that are free from McD’s (all sauces for dipping chicken – Honey Mustard, Ranch, Chipotle BBQ, Tangy BBQ, Sweet n Sour, etc.) or Burger King (Zesty Onion Ring Sauce) or Taco Bell (Mild, Hot, Fire) You have no idea how much I miss fast food and condiments!!
- Good Beef Jerky (not slim jims)
- Slim Jims
- Pictures, Notes, Letters, Memories from home
- Books / DVD TV shows / Movies
- Love!
- A call on the phone!
- Money!
Thanks for listening! I’ll be posting my lightning strike prevention proposal sometime tomorrow – provided that we have power. And then next week I can begin after I receive some donations (from you amazing, kind, and wonderful people in America!) Even just two dollars would help – and you would know in your heart that you put shoes on two children’s feet during my stay in Africa – which is better than caving in to those sketchy donation commercials that try and make you feel guilty by showing pictures of sad African children. A pair of shoes is approximately equivalent to 1 dollar. I’ll be posting a link to my paypal tomorrow with the written proposal! Thanks guys!
Love you if you’re still reading this,
Dan
Quick Update / Bucket List
18 Aug 2011 2 Comments
Hey everyone!
It’s crazy to think about that I’ve been here for a whole year! It seems like such a long time, but it’s also flown by. I’ve made some great friends and had some really good times and of course I’m missing you all at home! When I lay in bed at night I think of all the funny stories and things that I did back in the US and it makes me smile. I just now find it odd that I’ve become so normal and neutral to living in Uganda that it’s not really a thought anymore when I wake up in the morning, I know where I am and frankly it will be weird again waking up in the USA.. and always having electricity, internet, post-paid phones, mailboxes.. so many things we take for-granted.
I’ve been on and off busy this week. There’s not a whole lot to do when there’s no electricity. I’m currently working on more staff issues, closing time, the lightning project and obtaining a grant for solar power. Also, we just got a new addition to our Access banking software, so we can import the information into Excel and make it so much easier to sort information, statistics, demographics and loan/savings/customer tracking. I’m beginning to write a proposal for the lightning project, but first I need to find out how much it costs to make a lightning rod and how much 200 pairs of shoes are and will it be enough for a signle primary school? But I want to move quickly because I’ve got a lot planned for the next two months. And I will also have to use some of the money to pay my fellow staff members / reimburse for travel expenses for when they do these trainings. But I will have a proposal up by mid-next week. Also, your input – what way would you feel most comfortable sending me money for the children’s shoes.. Paypal? Gofundme.com? Western Union? Know of any others? I think it would be best to set up a paypal account and when I get enough money to work on this school, then I will
We have the all volunteer conference, where I will get to meet the rest of my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers that I haven’t met yet, and rekindle old friendships too! This will be a great break from Kamuli And we were also talking about going to Rwanda after this conference for my birthday! which I think will be cool. Then, I come back and we have a Board Meeting, Trimester reports are due and then our midservice conference.. which signifies that I’ve been in Kamuli for a year in October. I thought after this long amount of time that the unwanted attention would go away and people would get tired of screaming/staring/asking for money/muzungu-ing.. but no. It’s like they’ve never seen me a day in their lives. Kids are bad – but they have that innocent idea in mind.. but sometimes I get set off after a long day at work. One day I’m going to snap at someone badly lol Even people who I speak lusoga with for a year, still laugh when I respond to them in Lusoga.. Silly Country! I can’t wait to come home and be like a needle in a haystack and anonymous as opposed to being Britney Spears over here. Anyway, I’m going to continue watching Bones / Lost.. but I want to write a funny blog or a list blog or something .. like my dream last night that I was on a rollercoaster that baptizes you, but one a planet that had 4 moons. Or the dream where I was forced to impersonate Princess Diana and rondevous with someone, but I couldn’t get the British accent to work so I failed my mission! Anyway here’s my bucket list.. A lot of it has to do with Trance and Travel – the world is my stomping ground!
Regular non-music related:
- Study the Russian Language and visit at some point for practical use
- Learn the Arablic Alphabet (it’s so pretty)
- Live in a Spanish-speaking Country for at least 2 months
- Visit Siberia (from Lake Baikal eastward), preferably on the Trans-Siberian Railway)
- Visit one of the following place that you cannot get to on a road,. You can only take a boat back or fly in and out of these cities
o Iquitos, Ecuador (Pop. 406,340) (On the Amazon river)
o Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia (Population -198,028) (Pacific Ocean, Kamchatka)
- Go to at least 30 of the 50 states…which includes the following states I’ve been to already:
o New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Hampshire
o Maryland, Vermont, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Florida, California
o Washington D.C., Virginia, , Tennessee, Rhode Island, Massachusetts
- Go Sky-Diving or bungee jumping (ideally over the Nile, but it’s a short fall compared to others off bridges into gorges, but other places are fine too)
- Spend a week in one or two in the Pacific Islands — e.g., Kiribati [for New Year’s, since they are the first people to see the New Year based on the rotation of the Earth and Sun], Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Tuvalu, Micronesia (!!!), Palau, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu (!!), Samoa, American Samoa, or Guam. I would love to visit them all but for now Vanuatu and Micronesia are top priorities
- Spend a month or two in Goa, India (best time in January and February)
- Have a minimum of 2 kids (I love kids!)
- Do the polar bear/bare plunge (on Lake Champlain or in Iceland with hot springs)
- See a panda for real
- Sea a koala bear for real
- Bring a cardboard box and slide down the dunes of the Sahara or the Namib Deserts and Visit the Dead Vlei (picture below)
- http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmp4jbJn111qjsxq3o1_500.jpg
- Never under any circumstances buy or come to own a rooster
- Have a successful WWS partnership with my Aunt Sharon, make it a success:
- Swim in a hot springs
- Fast (not eat) for some reason or another (such as next year’s Ramadan)
- Own my own business (preferably a club in NYC, not unlike the old Crobar)
- Possibly own a sandwich shop, since everyone knows how good my sandwiches are (Schnurr and Vine-gar, especially)
- Spend $100 at a Wawa in one-go! I love Wawa so much that I could spend $100 on sandwiches alone there! Hehe)
- Apply to be on the Amazing Race (with Joanna) / Survivor
- Live in Europe for 6 months to see how I like it
- Eat at every major fast food restaurant in the US
- Have a six pack stomach for a period of time
- Go skiing out west on the open area bowls
- Go waterskiing
- Go to a Talk Show and be in the audience
- Ride on a weird animal (elephant, yak, camel, etc.)
- Get a graduate degree in either Business, International Affairs, Geography, or International Business
- Attend Burning Man Festival and have a crazy campsite to participate with!
Trance / Psytrance Related:
- See a solar eclipse, preferably at a psytrance party (November 2012 – Australia, August 2017 – Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, Indiana, North and South Carolina, Kentucky (Greatest Eclipse viewed from there), Tennessee, and Georgia.
- Attend a psytrance festival on 5 continents
- Do the whole clubbing experience on Famous Ibiza (Club Space, Amnesia, Café del Mar)
- Throw a psytrance party
- See Kindzadza, Furious, Cosmo, Osom play
- Go to a hardcore only rave
- See as many of the following DJs play as possible:
o Trance: John Digweed, ATB, Armin van Buuren, Carl Cox, Ferry Corsten
o Psytrance: CPC, Kashyyyk, Derango, Rawar, Megalopsy, Scorb, Xikwri Neyrra
o Drum ‘n’ Bass: Dieselboy, Skrillex, Dylan, Pendulum
o Hardstyle: Alpha Twins, Headhunterz, Lenny Dee
o See these DJs play again – Paul Van Dyk, Paul Oakenfold, Jellyheadz / Baba Jelly, Somarobotics, Electrypnose
- Attend as many of the following festivals as possible:
o Psycrowdelia (Germany)
o Full Moon Festival (Germany)
o Vuuv Experience (Germany)
o Full Moon Party (Koh Phangan, Thailand)
o Rainbow Serpent Festival (Australia)
o Boom Festival (Portugal)
o Ozora (Hungary)
o Goa Gil 24 hour set (California, Russia, India)
o Qlimax (Netherlands)
o Trance Energy (Netherlands)
o Dance Valley (Netherlands – this one’s for Jess)
o Transylvania Calling (Romania)
o Sonica (Montenegro / Italy)
o Antaris (Germany)
o Universo Parallelo (Brazil)
o Shambahla (Canada, sp?)
o Ultra Music Festival (Miami)
As you can see, I have a true desire to travel and to listen to music, music that I love with my full heart and it never fails to put a smile on my face. It’s also going to be expensive so I’m going to have to work my ass off, but I will do most of it! I guarantee it!
Love you!
Dan
New Project (Plz Read! Need Your Feedback/Help)
04 Aug 2011 1 Comment
So, I’ve been looking for a project that will help the community and of something substantial, rather than just doing small things around the office, this could be it – but I’m going to need your feedback, ideas and eventually if you’d like to help some kids in my district of Uganda – a few dollars. This idea struck me this morning (pun intended) while having tea with my supervisor, Edith and my counterpart, Isaac.
We were talking about whether it rained last night or not and Edith mentioned that a child in a rural village was struck by lightning during yesterday’s storm. Each time there is a storm in the Kamuli area, it seems, that someone gets struck by lightning and schoolchildren are especially susceptible. Considering it is the rainy season, we have these bad storms with thunder and lightning fairly frequently. In this blog, I’m going to outline the idea of this project and I need you, my dear friends and family, to give me some feedback/improvements and to let me know if you would be willing to donate a few bucks.
Background: It seems that recently lightning has been getting more and more dangerous in Uganda. Why? Ask the weatherman (there isn’t one). But, schoolchildren are the most susceptible because A. they’re kids, and they like to play in the rain, B. because many children don’t have [rubber/any] shoes to wear, C. schools don’t have lightning rods, and D. they walk home / play outside in the late afternoon with no shoes when it rains most. Here are some articles that I’ve found:
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/759775 –
“Recent incidents – 2011:
June 23: Three pupils in Luwombo P.S in Buikwe district
June 26: Three mourners killed and 15 others injured in Alebtong district
June 28: 18 pupils killed and 36 others injured at Runyanya P.S in Kiryandongo district
June 28: 31 pupils and two teachers injured at Paidha PS in Zombo district
July 1: Two pupils killed, eight others injured at Kalagala P.S in Buikwe
July 4: Seven head-of-cattle killed in Luwero district
June 21: Two pupils from one family killed at Nawangoma Primary School in Jinja District
June 22: Eleven students injured at Valley Hill Secondary School in Kaliro district”
Note: The last two incidents – Jinja district borders Kamuli district on the south, and Kaliro District borders Kamuli on the east. And most of the district is flat, un-forested farmland with no electricity.
“Uganda has one of the highest rates of lightning strike deaths in the world and its capital Kampala has more days of lightning per year than any other city, according to the World Meteorological Organization.”
My Idea:
Vision: Minimizing Lightning Strikes on Schoolchildren in Kamuli District
Mission:
- Sensitize families about lightning in Kamuli District
- Provide schoolchildren with rubber-soled sandals (kids generally wear these all the time here) to help prevent them getting struck by lightning (to children in the most affected, generally more rural areas)
- Help set up and provide lightning rods to schools in rural areas around Kamuli District
The Plan:
To start out, I’m going to visit the nearby hospitals, health centers and speak with the District Health Officer to obtain information on how many lightning strikes per month occur in Kamuli and in which areas are most common so we can begin there. Once I have this information, my co-workers and I can begin to plan “Lightning Strike Prevention” sensitization meetings for these areas. My co-workers will carry out these sensitizations.
Now, I don’t normally condone hand-outs, as they have the potential to be abused. So, we are going to work around this in a few ways:
- Firstly, I’m not going to be the face of these meetings, my SACCO and its employees will be, because when a village hears that a muzungu is coming, villagers come expecting to get something/money/handouts out of it
- My co-workers will also handle the purchase of the sandals for the children, so we can get the best wholesale prices available – because again when they see a muzungu you can see their eyes light up with dollar signs.
- My main role will be gathering information on lightning strike statistics, prevention and arranging the meetings.
- Also, with some donations (hopefully) I will be providing the funding with my SACCO contributing as well, and they will be able to put their name on this project, which will benefit my organization.
The only information given out to the villages initially will be a “Lightning Prevention Sensitization Meeting” provided by Kamuli Twisania SACCO. We will tell them tips and ways to prevent lightning strikes and tell them it is aimed at helping their children. We will set up a time and place for these meetings (of which I will not attend). At the meeting, we will take an attendance list and get a list of their names and their children’s names. We will then arrange for another meeting with those people and their children to bring only those on the original list rubber-soled sandals. This is the best way to get people generally concerned for their children’s safety while minimizing the potential for abuse. I will not be attending those meetings or putting my face on this project because I don’t like promoting the idea that when a Ugandan sees a muzungu – they automatically think that I am there to give them money or free things.
A few side effects of this project would be:
- Even if it doesn’t help with lightning strikes, a shoeless child will get a pair of shoes that they wear (Today I was walking around town and about 1/3 of the kids I saw weren’t wearing any shoes – and that’s in town, a more wealthy area)
- It will have a goodwill/socially responsible marketing effect on our SACCO
- Some people will abuse this project (not myself or my co-workers), but recipients of the shoes (Most people will not, but there are some very cunning Ugandans that will find a way, i.e., selling their children’s shoes – but we cannot control this, just a warning)
I Will Need Your Help: What I would need from you, my readers, friends and family is a dollar or two. I will donate some of my monthly salary. My SACCO will donate at least $50. But to begin, $150 dollars at the current exchange rate of 2600 UGX = 1 USD, we can buy 312 pairs of children’s shoes. If you would be willing to do this or have an improvement on this idea, just comment on this post or on my facebook post/wall or send me a message. The easiest way of donating a few dollars is probably through PayPal (which I would eventually transfer to my bank account) unless someone has a better way. So, once I see some sort of response and I think I could possibly get $100 minimum, I will set up an account and get this off the ground. Any help would be greatly appreciated by me, my SACCO, the Peace Corps and Ugandan mothers of Kamuli District. Thanks guys.
Lightning Rods:
It seems that many events like these are happening at schools and I will have to do a bit more research on how much it costs to build a lightning rod and at which schools are the children most susceptible. But if these kids at least have on shoes, it will increase their chances of getting injured. I will look into this and get back to you.
Also, to provide confirmation, my organization and I both have digital cameras where we will document all donations/costs/shoes/rods, etc.
PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!! I NEED SOME FEEDBACK!
With Love,
Dan
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.
Parents Visit (Part 2)
19 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
……Continued from Part 1.. Back in Entebbe after a 6 hour drive to the Guest House. It was really meant to break up the trip from Kibale back to Kamuli. So we had a decent Ugandan dinner and breakfast and then took the 4 hour drive from Entebbe through Kampala to the east side of Uganda. And north up to Kamuli. We arrived in the afternoon and I used the van to pick up my new chair for my house and said goodbye to the tour guide and dropped the rents off at their hotel. It’s probably the best hotel in Kamuli and it’s owned by the treasurer of my SACCO and very close to my house. But it’s lowest class of hotel my parents would be staying at during their trip – it has the basics a sink, a toilet with a broken seat (they’re lucky they even had a seat to be honest), a mosquito net and two full size beds. After a few hours I went back and there was a “disaster” during my absence – my mom found a gecko in the room. I laughed so hard. Having geckos in the room is completely unavoidable and they take care of all of the creepy crawly bugs in the room and just hang out on the ceiling. I don’t bother the ones in my house and they don’t bother me. Needless to say, they killed the gecko and there was another one in the room the next morning. But we went to my house so they could see where I lived and I prepared some corn to take with us to the dinner at my manager’s house. Some of my neighbors came, and everyone I work with came. My manager prepared a huge dinner of goat, beef, matooke, cabbage, dodo, potatoes, posho and some other Ugandan staples. She really was great and made such a huge dinner and went well out of her way to make my parents comfortable.
Of course, we couldn’t just have a dinner without an agenda/program for the night.. where people were scheduled to give speeches about me and welcome speeches to my parents and the head of the household speech. I just don’t understand why Ugandans love talking in front of large groups of people. I told them to cut out like 4 other speeches, because I didn’t understand why we needed to have a dinner agenda.. couldn’t we just talk and then eat? We ended up getting back around 11:30 pm.. dinner ended up being at 9 instead of 7 as planned. But regardless, it was a bit overwhelming to my parents, but still good because they got to see the real side of Uganda rather than what you see on the bubble that is a tour safari. I dropped them off at the hotel and picked them up the next morning for tea at the SACCO. They came to my work and they met all the staff again as well as the Board of Directors. Since it wasn’t so late, and it was a fresh day, it was definitely less overwhelming and a little more laid back. We had some tea/coffee and snacks (and pork….mmmmmmmmmmm so good) and had a good discussion. They got my mom a dress and my dad a traditional kohnzo Ugandan robe to take back to America.
After spending some time at the SACCO, we packed up our stuff and hopped in to our super high class (haha!) private hire to take us to Jinja. The trunk wouldn’t close because it was broken so we had to have a mechanic come and fix it. And we had to stop like five times to reclose the trunk on our one and a half hour ride on a shite road to Jinja. And when my mom tried to get out the whole door handle fell off, and my door didn’t even have a handle. I now don’t even use the inside door handles, my natural instinct is to reach through the window and open the door that way. But the driver is a member at our SACCO and he’s a trustworthy guy and drove us for a good price. He also drove us safely instead of flying like some of the taxis do.
At that brings us to the last leg and my favorite part of the trip – 2 Friends Hotel in Jinja. This hotel is really nice, but not too over the top, and makes you feel like you’re in a tropical paradise with huge rooms with great stone bathrooms and a pool with a waterfall. Here we were able to relax and not worry about any TIA problems. We went into town and did some shopping on muzungu avenue. Had a pizza dinner and just hung out after a busy first week in Uganda. The next day, my good friends Anna, Chelsea, and Joanna came to the hotel and we hung out and talked for a while. For that night we went on a Nile/Lake Victoria booze cruise. On the bus to the landing site, we met the other people going on the cruise, which happened to be about 20 college age girls. In which case, my dad and I were the only men on the bus. Realizing this opportunity to taunt me, Anna and Chelsea decided to announce that I was single and looking to the whole bus. If you can catch the irony of the situation, it was pretty funny. For 2 hours, we got free drinks and a barbeque dinner that was great. And we got fairly drunk and Chelsea and I left the boat with a beer in each hand. Back at the hotel we plopped down on a table and had some more drinks and talked. Chelsea and Anna went back to their hotel and I shared my king size bed with Joanna and had a delicious breakfast in the morning. Then we spent our last day in Uganda together all of us just relaxing by the pool and enjoying the company. In the evening, Whitecrest tours came to the hotel to pick the rents up and take them to the airport, while Chelsea, Joanna and I headed into Jinja to spend another night out.
All in all it was a good trip. The first part was fast paced and in retrospect it was really good that we had planned everything out before because once we got there everything was planned out for us and we didn’t have to worry about anything really. Jinja was my favorite part because it was nice for my parents to meet my Peace Corps friends and show them that I had a good support system here in case anything goes wrong. And it was just a good time to relax and feel like we were on vacation instead of a constantly moving safari. I truly had a spectacular time with them and I would live it all over again if I could. Heading back to Kamuli alone after that trip was hard and it really took some getting used to, in order to settle back in at home and at work. But the next few months have a few good things in store for me to look forward to while I work towards my first year of being at site in October. Then it’s all downhill from there. Well that about covers the parents visit and I have another blog for what’s been going on since then.
Love,
Dan
Finally.. Parents Visit Blog (Part 1)
19 Jul 2011 1 Comment
As promised, my friends, here is my blog about my parents visit and hopefully soon my parents will put the pictures up to add a little pizazz to this blog. It’s a seriously long blog, so I’m posting the first half now and the rest later. 
Let’s start off with a meaningful quote from one of my old favorite songs:
You can travel the world,
But you can’t run away from the person you are in your heart.
You can be who you want to be,
Make us believe in you;
Keep all your light in the dark.
If you’re searching for truth,
You must look in the mirror and make sense of what you can see.
Just Be, Just Be.
They say learning to love yourself
Is the first step that you take when you want to be real.
Flying on planes to exotic locations won’t teach
Won’t teach you how you really feel.
Face up to the fact that you are who you are,
And nothing can change that belief.
Just Be, Just Be.
I need to Just Be.
I was lost,
And I’m still lost,
But I feel so much better.
- DJ Tiësto – “Just Be”
I left Kamuli the day before my parents arrived and stay at my friend Jon’s place in Entebbe for the night before heading to the lodge to wait for my parents airport arrival.
Whitecrest Lodge and Airport Pickup: I met Simon Peter (the owner of Whitecrest tours), who is an incredibly nice guy. We travelled me to pick up my parents at the airport for a few and they arrived in Entebbe for the first time in Africa art around Midnight! I was incredibly excited to see them and we waited for about 1.5 hour before they came out from the airport and gone through with immigration. We had a nice reunion hug and then got back in the van to go back to our Guesthouse.
To me, after being here for a long time, the Whitecrest lodge is a decent hotel (with a toilet, cleanliness, hot water, etc.), but for my parents it wasn’t ideal, but since they threw two nights in Entebbe at the hotel for free, there wasn’t really a better choice. And having the Ugandan tour operator to tell them about things I don’t know about was great. Since I’ve been here for a year, it was much easier to understand me over the Ugandan think accent coupled with British English. Also, my mom was talking really fast, and my dad was a little bit slower, but Jeff (our week long tour guide) could understand me since he grew up in Iganga, which is nearby to my house and because I talk very slow and relaxed as it is.
We got back from the airport around 1 am and we retired for the day so we could get some sleep / energy before the next day of travelling. We showed them Kampala and Entebbe and then started travelling Southwest to Queen Elizabeth. We passed through Masaka and Mbarara (places that I’ve never been because they’re so far from me and on the other side of Kampala), so it was cool to see the environment that some of my friends work in. I think it was around an 8-9 hour drive on roads that were under construction. We stopped at the equator and then we watched an experiment on the equator line and how water flushes the opposite way below the equator, and directly on the equator, the water doesn’t swirl when draining it just goes down. We had a good lunch and the most amazing banana muffin that I’ve ever tasted. Then, we had to rush a bit because we spent too much time at that place buying crafts. Just before dark, we finally got to the lodge in the Queen Elizabeth National Park. They have a separate road to enter from, so that when you arrive at the lodge you get a free evening game drive. It was getting dark, so we didn’t really see that many animals, but we did catch a lone elephant eating large tree leaves.
Mweya Safari Lodge and Queen Elizabeth:
We checked into this “exquisite” hotel called Mweya. It was really nice and exquisite is the only word I can think of to describe it. The atmosphere was a little too upscale for me, but it’s better than my house in Kamuli haha! I got my own queen size bed and a bathroom with hot water and amazing water pressure, so I was happy and my parents were in the next room over. The dinner/all food at Mweya is a set menu of a few different things which are included with the package deal that they offer. But the dinners were exceptionally good, and we complemented the Mid-Eastern/Indian chef. It was really just great to sit and have a delicious dinner with them over a Nile beer and catch up from the past months of not seeing each other. After dinner we went to bed, and woke up at around 5 am for the early morning game drive so you can catch animals finishing up their night’s rest. This is when we saw most of the game for the whole trip. We saw weaverbirds, antelopes, water hogs, elephants, hippos, buffalo, crater lakes and a beautiful view of the Serengeti. It was a little bit early for me to be super excited, but it was cool to see all the animals. And as the sun started coming out, it was better for me. I didn’t bring a jacket on the trip, because well, I live on the equator, but our van’s roof pops open so that way you can view game right from the tour vehicle. So, at 6 am on the safari I was fairly cold, especially because of the mountains, the southwest is much colder than where I live (from Kamuli you’d have to travel 35 km before you get to a hill). Otherwise, it was a good time. Then, we had the afternoon to hang out, since we got back at 9 for breakfast.
Later my dad and I were eating lunch and my mom was still getting ready in the room alone. We called her to convince her to come over for lunch (since we had just eaten breakfast) and when she walked out of the room, she locked the door and when she turned — there was a huge water hog (think Pumba from the Lion King) sitting in the grass two feet from her! Since the hotel is in the middle of the national park, animals just come up and hang out near the hotel and there’s not much you can do to stop them lol. I wasn’t there but I’m sure she made some sort of yelping sound and then quickly unlocked the door to get into the room and had to sneak out the back door in order to avoid the water hog.
Crazy Boat ride with Germans:
Then later that afternoon, during lunch there was a crazy thunderstorm. We had a boat safari on the Kyebazinga channel (a channel that connects Lake George with Lake Albert – I think), but again it was cold and now raining. This is where we saw a lot of eagles and other birds. Tons of hippos and buffalo (they hang out together cuz they’re not predators of each other), a few elephants, and we finally saw a lion, which was cool! But it was so far away that you can barely see it in the binoculars. We were then on the way back and I could hear the boat engine sputtering and thought nothing of it, but then a few minutes later it just turned off. And I could sort of understand what the boat guides were saying, so I knew what was going on before they said it in English. But then he announced, “Sorry, but we’ve run out of gas.” My parents thought it was a joke, but knowing Uganda, I knew that they were dead serious, just because we paid a large amount of money for this trip doesn’t mean that there will be no “TIA” – This is Africa – moments.
I was joking with my dad and describing the difference between UGE (a saying made up by the American military guys who were staying in Soroti a few weeks ago – meaning Ugandan Good Enough) and TIA (from the movie Blood Diamond). So, after the boat ran out of gas, the guide called for the other boat to come bring us a jerry can of petrol, and he told us that the morning boat guide must have decided not to refill the engine with gas before heading back to the lodge. To explain the difference, my dad and I had a good laugh about this, that the Ugandan boat guide in the morning had a UGE moment when he looked at the amount of petrol in the engine and decided “Eh – it’s good enough for the afternoon trip.” And now that we’re on an expensive boat safari, where problems like this shouldn’t happen for that amount of money, we ran out of gas which was a This is Africa moment, because only something like that would happen here.
But otherwise the boat safari was good and we were on the boat with a 3 German volunteers and 1 of their German mothers. They were nice and we shared some funny jokes and a laugh about the gas situation on the channel in the pouring rain. And also we were close to shore and ran out of gas near an elephant – after we realized he was coming to investigate us since elephants have poor eyesight – we had to shove off the shore to maintain our safety. But it was cool to observe a wild elephant up close for that long.
Again we had a really good dinner, I had papaya soup, which besides corn chowder was probably the best soup I’ve ever eaten in my life and I don’t even like pawpaw (what they call papaya in Uganda). I think I had some sort of steak and at this point to my parents it probably looked like I had an eating disorder because I was eating whatever they wouldn’t finish and ordering everything on the menu. It was because I hadn’t had good muzungu food in so long that every meal was like a special birthday meal.
Travelling to Kasese and gift pickup:
On the way to the next hotel, we stopped in Kasese, a town on the far western side of Uganda that is not too far from the Congo. I ran off so I could use the bank and buy my mom and dad some gifts. I got my dad a pair of sandals for an early Father’s Day and I got my mom a traditional Ugandan mat, along with some other crafty bracelets and money holders for her birthday. We stopped at Ndali lodge for lunch which is situated on a mountain overlooking two huge crater lakes. Then we continued our way to Kibale for our monkey trekking part of the safari.
Arrival at Kibale (pronounced Chi-baa-le) Guest House:
We arrived at a place called the Chimp’s Nest guest house, which was a decent hotel, but not as upscale as Mweya. The had treehouses to stay in, but we opted for the traditional cottages, though the treehouses were really cool because you can see monkeys and other animal life in the canopy where you sleep. I had my own cottage and porch which was nice and my parents had their own as well. This place was more out in the deep forest/village, so you had to arrange for hot water at a certain time and plan for dinner at a certain time. They also didn’t have a refrigerator. Nonetheless, it was nice and I felt comfortable there. The bathing / bathroom area for the cottages was outside, so it was cool to take a shower in open air (not that I don’t already do this every day with an outside bucket bath). The dinner was again a set menu, but the food was still great and getting away from Ugandan food for the 10 days was for sure a treat. You could’ve given me a hot dog and I would’ve told you it was the best meal I’ve had in weeks. After dinner, we retired to our rooms where I did some reading, but after dark out there in the forest, there’s not much more to do besides sleep.
I did start reading “White Man’s Burden”. Which I read one chapter and it was amazing, and truly supports the idea of things like Peace Corps – where we teach people skills and help with ideas and sustainable projects, rather than just giving handouts. When you give people hand outs, you give them something, then a few days later they’re doing the same thing. You look over and the same people are there with their hands out asking for more. Now, I think a lot of the work that these large agencies do is good, but also the Western countries have been pouring billions into “undeveloped” countries for years and it hasn’t really gotten them anywhere. Uganda, I believe, is the largest recipient of American aid money in the world, but things are staying the same. It’s fairly frustrating, especially now that when I walk around anywhere in the country it’s like I have money growing out of my head and people see dollar signs when they look at me and just expect me to give them something – just because. Anyway… that was off topic, but the truth – and somewhat of a warning to those donating money to random charities. Research their aid activities before you donate or else you might just be fueling the fire.
The next morning we went chimp-trekking in the Kibaale national forest nearby. This was nice. We were paired off with a nice older American couple and we stomped through the woods and really swampy areas before another group had found the chimps and radioed in. There’s one community of chimps in the area that are conditioned and accustomed to humans and they don’t really mind our presence. It’s been my mom’s dream to see chimps up close like this, so I know she was happy. There was about 10 in the treetops and a few little babies. They were eating these huge breadfruits and one came down to the ground and was eating about 5 feet from us like we weren’t even there. We got a lot of good pictures of that guy. That was probably the coolest part. And one rule that’s best too follow is to not stand directly underneath the chimps. We monitored them for an hour and they were chucking the ends of their fruit down to the forest floor and just peeing and pooping all over the place. And one even let out a really loud fart which was hilarious. After an hour we went back up to the home point and I got my mom a painting of some monkeys for her birthday.
We then had lunch at the nearby lodge and continued on to our swamp walk. Of course, it was raining again. It never rains in Kamuli and when it does, it’s almost always at night. After living here for a year, when it gets below 65 degrees I start to get chilly – it’s going to be a rude awakening if I come home in the middle of December. But the swamp walk was alright. We saw some lemur type monkeys in their acacia trees, happily eating the leaves. It was raining for most of the walk but it was still nice. The walk was about 3 hours and my mom got stung by some ants. I don’t know why the ants chose to sting my mom and not my dad or me, I guess it’s just her luck. We were wearing huge ponchos which made us look like walking plastic bags. A woman walked by us and said to our tour guide that we were like muzungu caveras (cavera is the Uganda word for bag).
After the walk, we all got cleaned up and showered (hot water provided by a fire burning under a hot water tank) – all of my clothes that I wore that day were completely ruined. I saw a fellow Peace Corps volunteer that trained us in IT last year when I went up to have a beer before dinner. He was with his parents staying in the treehouses at the lodge. We had dinner with his parents and him which was nice. I supposed it was nice for Peace Corps parents to share experiences with other Peace Corps parents – so that they know they’re not alone in their worrying about their kid living in the middle of Africa. And also it was good because we were on opposite schedules. They were picked up at the airport and drove straight to Zach’s (the other PCV) site and stayed at his house in the village (a harrowing experience for parents coming straight of the plane from America) and then came to Chimp’s nest and then were going to Mweya. They were on the hotel upgrade, while we were on the hotel downgrade.. going from really nice to really basic. Then, the next morning we had breakfast and moved on back to the Whitecrest Guest house back in Entebbe.
To be continued in the next blog in order to maintain your attention span…
Long Time, No Post
01 Jul 2011 1 Comment
Hey Everyone,
You may or may not be curious about my latest goings on in Ugandizzle. I haven’t posted/been online much since my parents came and I definitely want to write about that trip and about how wonderful it was to have my parents here and how I thought my mom would’ve had enough of Uganda after 10 days here. BUT it turns out she’s all ready planning a trip back (whether or not that happens is a different story!). I’m going to write it soon but it’s going to be a long long post so I’ve been putting it off.
But if anything I’m hoping I’ll be able to come back home to visit within the next year, possibly at Christmastime, but only time will tell! I would love to come home and spend some time living at my rents house in NY for a week or so and then spend sometime going to see my family in NJ for the holidays. And then spend some time with my friends in NJ, probably staying at my second home (Wesley’s house, thanks in advance to the Leweys!). And go to a psytrance party for New Year’s! OH how nice that would be, but there is no definites yet, so let’s not anyone including myself get my hopes up!
Fun Facts:
It’s rude to give someone a dozen flowers in Russia. In Russia, even numbers of flowers are reserved for funerals. So if you’re dating a Russian I would go with the single rose in the mouth, while you do the tango.
It’s also rude when buying something at a store, in Mexico, to put the money on the counter instead of handing it directly to the clerk.
I’ve also started making a bucket list.. inspired by my friend Joanna which I will post soon and hopefully I can start crossing some things off that list once I leave this sometimes-ridiculous/sometimes-wonderful country.
But life in Kamuli has been pretty relaxed since my parents left and after being away for a little over 2 weeks doing muzungu things, it’s taken me a while to get back into the swing of things. The power’s been terrible and is never on when I feel like going online, or at all for that matter. Plus what I’m doing is making a ginormous list of our defaulters, so we can hunt them down and take their (our) money back. [And apparently according to Mozilla Firefox, "ginormous" is a real word] Which is a bit difficult to do when there is no credit system or addresses and all it takes is a trip to the store to change your number. But I need electricity to make this list. So I’ve been making a marketing plan on the side. For the first week or so back from my vacation, I was pretty much coming in to work at 10 and then coming back and then going home in the afternoon to relax. And it doesn’t help that I bought about 10 seasons of TV shows for a total of $10 — score. I got Dexter, Alias, Six Feet Under, Chuck, Lost, and Pushing Daisies.
So, once you start watching a season of TV its hard to push the stop button and do something else. I’m also trying to recreate the good memories of how Jill, Jess and I used to cuddle up on my bed and watch the first 5 seasons of Lost on my computer in Vermont. I miss those days. Being late for work, because we had to finished the episode before I could leave.
I’ll leave you for now with a little story, but I promise to return soon and write a blog about my parents trip to Uganda. So, a pack of roosters moved in 2 doors down courtesy of my neighbors and I ****ing hate them. There’s a back window in their coop which faces the brick wall that my back window faces too. So their crowing ricochets off the wall straight into my window and into my ears and I’ve never wanted to kill any animals so much in my life. I’ve thought about becoming a rooster serial killer, but the only thing that stops me is the fact that I would be ruining my neighbor’s livelihood which is exactly the opposite of my purpose in coming here. But it reminds me of my wonderful friend Jill Escott when we were in Vermont. She used to have a ring-back tone on here phone that went “the rooster crows at the break of dawn, look out your window and I’ll be gone..” And it always reminds me of Jill and that song. Specifically because that song is a white lie. The rooster does crow at the break of dawn, BUT the rooster also crows at 3:00 in the morning when it is completely dark. Why rooster must you crow at night? That is not your job. It seems like your job is to piss me off. Not cool roosters, not cool.
Easter Pictures
06 May 2011 1 Comment
I fergot me camera at home, so I stole a bunch of good pictures from other people’s albums and made me own album for ya (I meant my, but it makes me sound Irish so I’m going to leave it lol)! here it be…
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.724799429040.2269741.6908232&l=cd97fc9d71
May the pig and 2 chickens rest in piece. The chickens I don’t mind hearing their deaths. But the pig I chose to be somewhere else for, and it was a bit traumatizing hearing it dying (partially because instead of swiftly killing it, Nick [who hails from Manhattan] acted like he was in a knife fight in Harlem, jabbing at it multiple time). I also tried to watch the video later, but made it about 15 seconds before running out of the room. Anyways, hope you had a tequila filled night last night and all you can do today is look at my pictures, read my blog, and try and piece together what you did last night because you are so hung over. Happy Cinco de Mayo! oba [or] Itaanu Mugwokutanu Omulungi! (in my African Lusoga language)
Peace, Love, and Psytrance,
Dan
Bits and Pieces
04 May 2011 Leave a Comment
Be warned – this is going to be an extra-long one.
Dear Loyal Readers,
Sorry about my lack of blogging over the past month or so. Or maybe I’m not sorry. I saved you from at least a half hour of your lifetime reading about me complaining about something I signed up for. When I applied to the Peace Corps, I knew what I was getting myself into and I was thoroughly mentally prepared to live for 2 years in the village by myself. The only problem was just that training f-ed that all up [but is also indispensable at the same time]. I spent three months at a home stay family with 44 other Americans who I truly love and adore. I got used to that regimen of hanging out with my American friends in Uganda; poking fun at the culture with endless amounts of laughter in our little bubble with some people I’ve now created what I hope to be lifelong friendships. During that time, I sort of forgot/pushed out of my mind the fact that “oh yea, after 3 months I’m going to be sent to a town in the middle of a foreign African country, nowhere near another American for 2 years.” Oops.
Then when you finally get to your site, without any Americans by your side, you think, “OH NO! What have I done?!”
So, that sort of set the scene for the roller coaster ride that is Peace Corps. Last time I wrote my blog it was negative and I felt that one super negative blog was enough and you get the picture. I decided instead to note down thoughts over the past month or so for when I emerge from the trough of this roller coaster [I know you like my use of the word trough, Sheddie]. Now, my thoughts are random at best so I’m trying to sort them. So this blog and possibly another following will be a collection of thoughts and random short stories, tidbits about Ugandan people and their sometimes odd and frustrating ways of doing things, and what I’ve been doing here.
My first comparison I find quite hilarious. I hadn’t seen any of my friends in almost a month and I had about 15 movies on my computer that I ended up watch 2 to 3 times each, including the Lord of the Rings series. And I noticed that the ents [the large tree characters from the Two Towers, including Treebeard] reminded me of Ugandans. This may make more sense to you IF ANY OF YOU COME AND VISIT ME J and see for yourselves. Ugandan greetings are long. Something like this:
Person A: Thank you for the work sir.
Person B: And also you thank you for the work sir.
A: Are you there?
B: I am here. Are you there?
A: I am here.
B: How have you spent the day sir? [or night, which is said until noon]
A: I spent it well sir.
B: MMMMM (for real they make this sound)
A: How have you spent the day sir?
B: Well, sir.
A: MMMMM
B: MMMMMM
A: How are the home people?
B: They are there. You?
A: We are okay.
B: Your office?
A: They are okay.
B: Your farm?
A: The animals are getting on well
B: Good.
A: Good.
B: MMMMM
A: MMMMM
B: MMMMM
A: mmmm….
While watching the Lord of the Rings 2, I found them similar to the trees. Here are some quotes that relay my comparison:
“Treebeard: You must understand, young Hobbit, it takes a long time to say anything in Old Entish. And we never say anything unless it is worth taking a long time to say.”
- New Scene (where the trees are supposed to be discussing whether to go to war or not) -
MERRY: It’s been going for hours.
PIPPIN stands and walks over to him.
PIPPIN: They must have decided something by now.
TREEBEARD turns to them and shakes his head.
TREEBEARD: Decided? No.
Slowly, TREEBEARD turns to the HOBBITS.
TREEBEARD: We only just finished saying…good morning.
MERRY looks on in frustration.
MERRY: But it’s nighttime already. You can’t take forever.
TREEBEARD: Don’t be hasty.
MERRY: We’re running out of time!
TREEBEARD: Why rush young hobbit? Ugandans are always late anyways!
MERRY: You’re right, Treebeard. We should get there 2 hours late because the Ugandans will just be arriving then.
(last part made up by me)
Well, it’s pretty funny because this is how it is. And that’s what I get for watching these movies 3 times. Also, Inception is now my favorite movie of all time. I’ve watched it over 7 times and it never gets old. If you haven’t seen it, you must watch it now. And Leonardo DiCaprio still has his mojo even though he’s getting old. Despite the teen craze for him while I was in 5th grade, he really pulled through and is a spectacular actor. (Inception, The Beach, Body of Lies, Shutter Island, Blood Diamond)
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Tidbit: So, Peace Corps encourages learning the language as best as you can, which is great and all. If we didn’t get the language training we got during training, I would be SOL in many situations. I know greetings very well and learn new words from day to day. The most important thing I’ve learned was numbers (esp. working at a bank) and the forms of the tenses. Because of this, I am now generally able to get the gist of people’s conversations and what’s going on, which can be helpful, especially when I’m trying to buy things or bargain for things. It helps me tell when people are trying to rip me off (other than the evil smile on their face before they quote me an outrageous price because I’m white). It’s good because they think I don’t understand the language, but while I’m standing their trying to buy their product, I can understand when they tell their friend right there “This usually costs 20,000 haha” and then says to me “30,000.” And I’ve also recently learned how to say, “Do I look stupid?” in Lusoga when this happens. And through 9 months of bargaining, I’ve learned that silence or walking away is probably the best way to get people to lower their price.
But the worst thing about knowing the language is when people use it as a laugh or to impress their friends. So now when walking on the street, I’ll walk past a group of people, one of which who knows that I know how to greet in Lusoga, and they’ll greet me, almost like a test, and then of course I’ll have to greet them back as I’m walking. And then I’ll see them uproar with laughter. Many times this will happen with the same groups of people a few times a week. And now I’m to the point where it’s like “Are you serious? Is it really still that funny?” Sometimes I come close to going off on people about little things like that, but I have to control myself and if I really started screaming in quick American English, they wouldn’t understand anyway and then I’d be a screaming muzungu with everyone staring on the street. No thanks.
Tidbit: A reason why it’s so hard to sort through these notes because I write them when I’m just waking up or not paying attention to what I’m writing. Example A:
“Next weekend. Cats? Or some other kind of inspiration… are you going to the royal wedding.. possibility, because I need to get my zip from staying at this hotel, and it’s well worth the bathroom and facilities.”
This could have something to do with the fact that we had numerous conversations about the play “Cats” during Easter weekend and whenever we talked about it and someone said the word “Cats”, my only thought was “THE LONGEST RUNNING BROADWAY MUSICAL!” because of those damn commercials from my childhood.
Short Story: Some time back I went to visit my friends in Soroti for the weekend, and the road to Jinja has gotten terrible since the rainy season started. I have to take this road if I want to go anywhere. The potholes on the road from Jinja to Kamuli are getting worse and worse. The 1 ½ to 2 hour ride to Jinja is the driver swerving all over the road to avoid the potholes. Sometimes it looks like we’re about to have a head on crash with the car coming in the opposite direction because we’re all the way on the other side of the road. There are also dirt strips of road off the side of the paved road that it’s easier to drive on than the paved part with potholes. It makes me not wants to leave the district and wish that it was actually a dirt road because you can go faster on dirt roads since they don’t have potholes.
On the way there, I saw a few taxis pulled on the side of the road with a flat tire or something wrong with the vehicle. I thought of numerous friends that told me stories about their taxi breaking down. So when I saw those pulled over taxis, I was just thinking, ‘I’m definitely due for that to happen to me since it hasn’t happened to me since I got here.’ Sure enough, I had the worst ride back because of the potholes and one of the tires started losing air. So we had to stop for a half hour for them to charge the tire. I don’t know too much about cars, but from what my dad taught me plus common sense. You’re supposed to take all the people out of the vehicle before you use a carjack to lift it to change the tire. But this is Uganda and they decided to leave all 18 of us in the taxi, so that it was harder for them to lift the taxi and took them much longer to change the tire than necessary. Especially because they didn’t have a wrench for tire bolts and had to flag down other taxis to get one lol.
And when I came home, I killed about 4 cockroaches lurking around the house [ew! I still have a deathly fear of them.]. So then I was unpacking and chilling and I saw two more. WTF?! Killed those in the kitchen and then realized that they were coming from a pile of sugar on the floor. [Side story: About a week before this, it was late, and I was tired and I accidentally spilled a pile of sugar on the floor, and thought – eh, I’ll clear it up tomorrow. And I totally forgot about it until I saw 4 more cockroaches emerge from the pile.] Now, you would think that ants would be on that pile, not cockroaches. I found about 12 total and I got them all and the cockroaches [knock on wood] have been gone since then. Since then, I’ve only found little mice running around, which don’t really bug me, but I do chase them out of the house… and they eat things like cockroaches and other bugs, so it’s cool. Plus, I can’t kill them because A. they’re quick, B. they’re fast, C. they fit through the tiniest holes ever, and D. as soon as I come close to killing one I start to feel bad. Lol
Last creature story: my pet Golem that lives in my ceiling, I found out this morning was a rat. I really don’t mind him shuffling around up there. But I was walking to my job this morning with my next-door neighbor and he told me I had rats living in my ceiling, so I told him about Golem. But I didn’t really know what it was until today, and I sort of preferred it that way. See, he doesn’t come into my house, but he does come into my neighbor’s house, which doesn’t have a ceiling, so I sort of feel bad for my neighbor. But since I can’t get up there, I’m not going to do anything about it. And I figure Golem is also eating random creatures that venture about my ceiling; he’s really just doing me a favor.
Shout-out: I would like to shout out to my parents and Aunt Sharon for two of the best care packages ever! I got tons of chocolate from my Aunt and I ate it all in about a day and a half and loved every second of it. And my manager loved the necklace she bought her (from J Crew, now my manager has no idea what J Crew is but..) and wears it all the time. And my Mom sent a “She really is listening” care package, which consisted of everything I casually asked for over the phone [Jolly Ranchers, Blow Pops, Marshmallow Lovers (SCORE!) Swiss Miss, Annie’s Mac n Cheese, Shampoo, (I told Anna over the phone yesterday that I got Annie’s Mac n Cheese and her response was “WHAAAAAAATTT?! Annie’s?! Screw You.” Lol) and Knorr’s Easy to Cook Rice Packets, a hilarious Easter Card, and the best – all Cherry Valentine’s lollypops (I always save the red candies for last, because they are the best and I didn’t have to do any sorting!)]. Everything was amazing and made me a happy boy this week. Thanks Mom and Aunt Sharon! And a shout out to Michelle who sent me a wonderful package as well, esp. with the Dunkin’ Donuts coffee in it!
FYI: I’m really bad at responding to emails right away, so sorry if you’ve sent me an email and I haven’t responded yet. I will, I promise! But I’ve been writing about what’s going on here and it’s mainly so you readers and my family can hear what I’m doing, especially the ones who I don’t speak to at all or on a regular basis. It’s also for me to document what I’ve been doing here, so one day when I’m having my mid-life crisis and my four children [yes, you better believe I’m going to have four kids] are driving me insane, I can go on the internet and reminisce about my time in Africa. But mainly it’s for you and to keep you interested, so make a comment on this blog with some questions or stories you want to hear about or your curiosities/myths/rumors about Africa/Uganda and I will tell you. Plus, it will help me better direct the way my blog is… to write what you want to hear about.
Thought(s): I absolutely hate British spelling and some of their sayings that I’m picking up. I DESPISE the British ‘u’ in rumour, colour, etc. And now instead of saying “too” [I want that one, too.], I say “as well” [I would like that one, as well.]. One thing I do like though is the morning routine left by the colonists of having tea/coffee and a snack at around 10 am. Everyone here takes a half hour out of their day to have tea and a snack and we sit down together [if possible] and take a nice break to start the morning. And if you don’t have it and someone notices, people get really worried about you. [Me: “We’re going to be late!”, My manager: “But will you be okay, you haven’t taken your tea yet! You take tea and then we will go.”] Another thing, I’ve picked up is saying “Sorry!” when something bad happens to someone. If you’re walking and someone busts their ass and trips on a rock or something, people here say “Sorry!” as if it was their fault that you’re not watching where you’re going. I now do the same thing. But, I suppose it’s better than the American tradition of laughing at someone who trips or falls off a bike.
Thought(s): I’ve been in Uganda for about 10 months now, 7 of which have been spent in Kamuli. Every group of PCVs anywhere in the world that arrives together thinks that their group is special. It’s because you’ve been thrown into this incredible experience together, you’re forced to make friends quickly, and experience the joys and pains of living in another country together. In my opinion, this is the best way to make good friendships that last. In high school, college, and at work are where I’ve met some of my best friends by going through a similar and sometimes scary experience.
The first day of staging in Philadelphia was one of the scariest, most nerve-wracking experiences of my life. Coming into a room of 44 people that I had never met and knowing that I was going to spend the next two years with them was scary. Looking back to that day with my friends here, it’s funny talking about our first impressions of each other. Thinking about how we stayed up all night, eating our last American food, drinking and talking, I knew that I was with good company.
Anyways, I really do think that our group is special. We still do have some time to go, but 45 is a lot of people, and most groups have lost at least a minimum of 1 person at this point. Usually, in any country, once a volunteer has made it past the one year point, there’s a low chance of them leaving, unless something terrible has happened at their site or at home. We provide a great support to each other, and without that support I don’t think I would’ve lasted. Many people in our group have gone through way worse situations than I have, and they’re still here. I’ve thought about going home many a time and without my friends here, I probably would have. I hope that we can be the one group in the recent history of Peace Corps that makes it through the whole 2 years together. We’ve already beat the Peace Corps Uganda record of no one leaving early. And, most times, I’m happy to be here still.
Short Story: My office got a modem, so they could all check their email and so my manager could send things to the national bodies governing SACCOs. But, I find it hilarious because I had to help them all sign up for email accounts. My manager is the only one who had a previous email account, and she’s the only one who actually gets email. So, on the day that I signed my co-workers up for email accounts. Two of them came to me later freaking out because they forgot their password. LOL. It was literally like two hours later. And now once a week they are always trying to check their email. But I’m the only person who has their email address! I find this hilarious because I don’t know what they’re expecting to happen when they check it! And then yesterday, I asked my manager about an itinerary for one of the regional SACCO meetings, but she said she couldn’t get it, because she forgot the password to the SACCO’s email address!
Rant/Insight into Ugandan culture: Ugandans LOVE talking in front of groups. Why? I have no idea! It doesn’t matter if they’re at a staff meeting of 5 people or at a large event. At large events, there is always a guest of honor and the guest of honor always has to make a speech. In my experience, the guest of honor most times has nothing to do with the event at hand. They are usually just a semi-high level person in the district government. Yet, the guest of honor will go on and on about everything and once they finish their 20 minute speech, they will improvise. Anything to keep them in the spotlight. When you don’t have to sit through the speech it’s quite funny. And when you look at them look up at the crowd while speaking, you can almost see this glimmer in their eyes, as they realize that for those few minutes they are ‘famous.’
When at an event or meeting and someone asks for a volunteer to pray in front of the group at the start of the meeting (always a prayer, no matter the religion), there is no reluctance, someone will always raise their hand. And once they get in front of that crowd, it will be the longest prayer you’ve ever heard.
This is what makes meetings go on so long, what makes people late to other events, and what attributes to the important parts of events not getting enough attention because the chairperson’s communication went for so long. And by the point of the important part of a meeting, I’m ready to run away out of boredom. It’s funny to me because Americans generally don’t like to speak in front of groups and when you ask for a volunteer for something like that, it’s like pulling teeth. But I generally leave meetings/events now during these speeches and such and then come back for the main part of the meeting in order to spare my own sanity. If anyone needs to go to Hollywood, it’s Ugandans, they’re dying to be in the spotlight.
A rundown of my Easter Week:
I went to Anna’s place for Easter week and to help her plan for World Malaria Day festivities. It was a week well needed and well deserved. I worked with her on getting things organized for Easter weekend where we had 30 other volunteers coming to spend the weekend with us in Nkokonjeru.
We went shopping in Lugazi and spent over 300 dollars in food items for cakes, pizza challenge, Sseibwa Waterfalls, 150 eggs for dying and for food items, having a pig roast using an empty bed frame (amazing) and a bonfire, crazy little kid on a sugar high, dance parties, laughing non-stop all weekend – which is some thing I need for my well being. And I gained at least 5 pounds back of what I lost (I think I went from a men’s 36 waist to 32 waist) because we ate such good food for the weekend.
Since I’ve visited Ann 3 times now, it was helpful to have me there since I know almost all of the nuns there and where everything is, so people didn’t have to bother Ann for every little thing, and I also took control of her cell phone while she prepared for everything else. For all being PCVs mostly from the same group, I was a bit disappointed with the lack of collective responsibility for doing dishes and helping out with clean up, which left me cleaning up after meals I didn’t even eat. And for a lack of responsibility with money and paying back for the food that was prepaid for. But such is life and we all had a spectacular time.
We dyed Easter eggs with the kids at the Providence home (where I spent Christmas) and they were delighted. We baked cakes for them to eat while they were dying eggs (with Paas kits my Aunt sent). The kids loved dying the eggs, but they barely waited for the eggs to dry before they started eating them.
It was so refreshing to spend a week with another PCV for one, and then to have 20 more people come from our group was really great and I was helping Anna the entire week to host Easter weekend and mainly planning for World Malaria Day event on Monday, so this week was counted as a work week there. After being at a major low point before I left for Anna’s, spending the week with her really gave me a pick-me-up and I’m feeling better about being back in Kamuli after that experience.
World Malaria day was successful, but due to a lack of communication, the event started an hour late, it started pouring rain and there was not many people that attended, but all of the kids were there and learning about Malaria and how to present it. And the nuns like me and remember me, so I was able to get a lot of things done without bothering anyone.
Excitement: Parents are coming on the 19th, and Anna and I staying with our British friend John in Lweza/Entebbe eating good food in a ritzy, foreign national area of the country and then I’m going to meet them at the airport, since I want to make sure that my parents okay when the arrive into the dark continent (aaaaaaahhhhhh!!!) just kidding. It will be spectacular; the Dark Continent is a myth, unless we’re speaking about average color of skin. And I don’t want my parents to be totally overwhelmed right when they step out of the plane, so I want to meet them there and be waiting at their time of arrival, especially since the smell of Africa is so distinct and different until you get used to it. [And you thought the New Jersey air was bad! Ha!]
Anyways, I think that about sums it up, 9 pages later, except for my random comments that no longer make sense. One day I’ll figure them out and let you know. For now, all be well, and know that I’m missing you all everyday. Live life and do things out of your comfort zone, be spontaneous, be immature at times, eat good food and enjoy it, all at least until my next blog.
Happy early-Birthday Stephanie! Miss my other half. Until we meet.
Love,
Dan
