Halfway Done...

I guess I should start this by saying that I have just returned to Moroto from our field office in Nakapiripirit.  I arrived in Moroto Monday night, and left Tuesday morning for the field office.  I was supposed to return yesterday, but was unable to, so we delayed until today, and arrived just after midday.  I wrote this the first evening that I arrived in Moroto.

Sometimes it REALLY seems like the time is dragging on.  Other times it goes by more quickly.  So, obviously I didn’t do such a great job of updating this more frequently like I said I would.  I really will try harder, no, seriously.  In my defense, we’ve had some power issues lately, which obviously impacted internet access, though with the generator, there shouldn’t have been much of a problem, except for the fact that the generator doesn’t reach the GBV office (usually we run on an inverter when there’s no power.  Don’t ask me what the difference is or how either work, I don’t know), but because we were without power in the town for about 4 days, eventually the inverter got overloaded, and the generator ran out of fuel. 

Right now I’m sitting in my hotel room in Moroto, watching the Blackburn-Arsenal game.  This is the first soccer game I’ve watched and paid attention to since I’ve been here.  I’ve always wanted to be a soccer fan, but since we don’t have a TV at our house, and I’m too lazy to go to a hotel/bar to watch them in town with all the drunk men, I don’t have much opportunity to become a crazy football fan here. 

The journey to Moroto was uneventful…well, after they realized they forgot me and I caught up with them.  Yes, I got left behind in Kampala, and I almost crashed when everyone realized that I was going to Moroto and no one in their transport department knew. 

Okay, some post-Easter highlights of April:

o   I bought DVDs in Kampala.  Seasons 1-3 of Dexter, one season of CSI (that nearly caused my computer to crash), Invictus, Brooklyn’s Finest, and the Blindside. 

o   A lady from the bakery in town now brings breakfast to the office.  While it’s a bit expensive, I can appreciate some day-old mini loaves of banana bread and carrot bread.  She has yet to bring chocolate chip, which I know they make, so that’s a little disappointing.  And because she comes, the lady that used to bring pancakes doesn’t come anymore, also a little disappointing,  but still totally worth it because bakery lady brings chapattis, too. 

o   My second training went really well.  We even prepared for it (though according to our preparation, I was to be the primary facilitator on day two, and in reality, I was not only the primary facilitator for the entire training, but really the only facilitator who did anything). 

o   I finished a rough draft of the 4 remaining training sessions, including materials for facilitators and participants.  I still have some fine-tuning to do, and I have to get feedback from everyone, but at least there’s a draft done, and I don’t have to spend a ton more time working on them (hopefully). 

o   
I talked to my supervisor and the GBV manager about doing other things.  While I still can’t do anything clinical or anything that I thought I’d be doing here or that I want to do (i.e. program evaluation, learn about grantwriting, learn about financial management/budgeting), things I can do include: do a needs/strengths assessment of people working in Karamoja (hence why I’m currently in Moroto), do a shit ton of reports (monthly, grant-end, etc), and support a new, 3-year grant that encompasses training local civil service officials on how to better work with survivors. 

And some not-so-good things that happened in April:

o   We got a no-cost extension for the Irish Aid grant that was supposed to be ending May 15^th (thus meaning that the majority of the GBV department would no longer work for IRC).  Yes, I know this sounds like it should fall in the category above, but on a personal level, there are a few people in the GBV department that I don’t have such a good relationship with, so selfishly, I’ve put it under this category.  They’re all staying until July 15^th now.  That’s only 16 days less than I’m staying with IRC.  Hooray. 

o   I became really lazy.  Since my knee has been hurting really badly, I’ve pretty much been entirely unable to run.  I also got quite lazy and barely worked out in April. 

o   It became rainy season.  Again, this could also go above, but because it makes mornings and evenings cold, and the middle of the day super hot, I don’t love rainy season.  I’m finding that I didn’t bring enough layers.  I think you all know how much I dislike cold weather (and by cold, I mean approximately 70s.  Global kids, I know you think this is cold too). 

o   I have decided that my all-time least favorite mode of transportation is the boda boda.  I don’t care how efficient or practical they are, they terrify me…possibly more-so than airplanes do because I’m quite certain they’re far more dangerous. 

o   I hired a Luo tutor to try to learn the language.  I was really excited about it for the first week, but then once I realized he wasn’t actually going to show up for any of our pre-scheduled sessions, I lost hope.  Yesterday I bought myself a rather pricey Luo dictionary.  I’ll teach myself (or at least try). 

o   I contracted some type of rash when I was in Kampala.  I tried to put anti-itch cream on it, and it became much more itchy, and spread slightly.  Thankfully, it only took over one arm, and I went to the clinic and they gave me two types of pills and some special cream, and it went away.  The doctor I saw looked like he was about 15.  But whatever he gave me worked, so I’m not questioning him. 

o   
After my rash went away, I got roped into “co-facilitating” (read: facilitating) a joint GBV-Health training for some group of people associated with the health department.  I was asked to step in because a few of the GBV staff were out sick.  While conducting this training, I got to hang out with the sick people who refused to stay home, thus contracting a cold. 

o   
One of the drivers asked me if I could take him to the US.  This happens occasionally, though not usually with staff members.  However, I let it slide, because that question was preceded by “Where in America do you live?  Near the Hollywood famous people?  Do you know R. Kelly?” 

I’m sure there are more things that go in both categories, but that’s all I can think of right now, and I’ve spent enough time ignoring the work that I need to get done tonight.  

Oh, but one last thing.  Annabelle, this is for you.  Early Sunday morning, between roughly 2:30 and 3:30 I was woken up by some very loud music.  I’m not sure where the club is in relation to the Kampala guesthouse, but it couldn’t have been too far based on the fact that I could clearly hear the lyrics to every Lady Gaga song ever, especially Poker Face, which was played upwards of 5 times. 

That Time I Saw Carolyn & Gerdy in Africa

Just a few snapshots from our Easter weekend rendezvous in Kampala/Entebbe.  

Another interesting news article.  This one was included in our weekly "relevant news" email from Kampala.

News Stories From Uganda

Well, I had high hopes for posting a real update, pictures and all, but the internet hasn't cooperated with uploading, and I got discouraged.  However, while I was annoyed that the pictures wouldn't upload, I decided to read one of the newspapers, and came across this promising story, so I thought I'd share...hopefully it will not be overshadowed by societal beliefs, and the excuses of culture and tradition, & will be able to improve access and availability of GBV services to Ugandans.


While I think Museveni's signing of the DV bill is great, I then proceeded to read this story about Uganda's new national identification cards.  Don't get me wrong, I fully support a country providing it's residents with proper identification, but seems to be a bit rushed and has potential for chaos, corruption, and confusion, especially given the upcoming elections next year.  Oh, and I don't exactly love the inclusion of invisible information that includes up to four wives, either.  But hey, that's just me.

Apologies

A lot of people have asked me why I'm not updating my blog very frequently.  This is a complex question, as there are a multitude of reasons why I haven't done a good job of keeping everyone updated about my time here.  I'm kinda lazy when it comes to this.  I quite enjoy writing, and when I do write, I want to put effort into making it sound at least somewhat nice, and I haven't felt like putting much of an effort into my writing lately.  I try very hard to journal when I'm away from home, and I haven't even done that since my first week here.  That's how lazy I'm getting to be.  I also didn't have power (and therefore internet) for a while due to a bad hail/rain/windstorm, and then there was a fuel shortage, so we couldn't even run the generator at my house (not that I've ever had internet there).  And, like many others, I'm not quite sure what exactly people want to hear.  I know there are a mix of social workers & non social workers reading this, so I'll try to keep it balanced.  To be quite honest (maybe too honest), I don't have a ton of positive stuff to say, and I know that isn't what people want to know about.  Oh, and there's the fact that I've actually been busy with work - finishing up some work and facilitating my first two training sessions for the new hotline counselors.  That being said, I'm going to try very hard to update more frequently.  I've got a few things that I can write about, and a few entries that I wrote but didn't actually upload.

The End.

Consolidating Equal Opportunities for Women; A Path for Prosperity for All...Women’s Day 2010

For the past couple of weeks, the GBV office has been trying to plan for women’s day.  The hotline team, and therefore me, was not terribly involved in the planning process, as we’re pretty much the only people from the GBV office that don’t travel to one or more field sites each week.  Last week I was given the opportunity to attend a planning meeting for the Kitgum District women’s day celebration.  I went to the meeting, held at the town council government office block (which is located at the bottom of the hill, about a 2-minute walk from my house, unbeknownst to me), with one of the hotline counselors and the GBV manager.  This was the first non-IRC meeting that I’d attended, so I was curious to see if the culture of meetings was as chaotic as I’d experienced in the IRC meetings.  Don’t worry, it was.  I was told the meeting was supposed to start at 2:30.  When I learned this, it was 2:20, and I was sitting at my desk in the GBV tukul, just back from having my lunch.  The hotline counselor, who was also supposed to be going to the meeting, wasn’t yet back from her home (some people go home for lunch, which seems to universally be from 1-2pm here).  She arrived back around 2:35 and secured transport for us; I’m pretty sure that we could have walked to the meeting by the time the transport officer found a vehicle and driver to take us on the 10-minute journey.  We arrived just before 3:00pm, and followed the hastily-written signs leading us to the main hall.  There were about 10 people already in the room, though it was evident that they were just socializing.  We entered the hall and made our way to the front, and luckily the meeting started soon after.  There was a chairman and chairwoman seated at the front of the room, both ready to move ahead in planning for Monday’s events.  Though I’m not exactly sure what either of their official titles are, but the man is some sort of Town Council government official, and the woman, I believe, is head of the Local Women’s Council.  I’m sure by this point you’re confused and wondering what the difference is between Kitgum District and Kitgum Town Council.  Well, so am I; I thought I had it all figured out, until I started hearing the terms “county,” “sub-county,” “parish,” and “village” all thrown into the mix too.  This could very well be as confusing for me as the concept of “boroughs” and “townships” in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  Anyways.  So, the meeting was officially opened as more people straggled in, and we were told that the meeting would only be one hour long.  Sounds great, doesn’t it?  Well, by the end of the first hour, I’d say we were almost done reading through the minutes of the previous planning meeting, and about to tackle the things on that day’s agenda.  Needless to say, the meeting lasted longer than the intended one hour; by the time the hotline counselor and I were ready to leave (the manager had long since left for another meeting), she had the driver drop her at home, and I went back to the office, grabbed my laptop, and went straight home.  I’m not going to get into too much detail about the content of the meeting, but suffice it to say that I was a bit hesitant to see how the celebration would turn out.  The meeting was held on the 3^rd, and women’s day was on the 8^th.  That doesn’t leave much time, especially with the weekend, for tying up loose ends.  From the meeting, I learned that there was no committee or plan to set up for the event, and the proposed budget showed that fundraising was close to 1,000,000 UGX short of being complete.  On top of that, politicians from Lagoro (I’m about 87% sure it’s a village) were arguing with the Kitgum Town Council government about providing funding and space.  To be quite honest, I felt like when we left, nothing on the agenda had been accomplished. 

That being said, yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the women’s day celebration in Lagoro.  I went with one of the hotline counselors, the GBV manager, and the man who I mentioned showed me video clips of Joseph Kony & traditional dances.  We left about 3 hours behind schedule; the t-shirts and bandanas were being printed/ironed in the morning, which severely delayed everyone’s departure.  It wasn’t a big deal, though, because when we arrived around 12:30, the tents were up, much of the public was there, most of the performing groups were there, and the celebrations had not yet begun (also behind schedule).  The afternoon’s events consisted of several speakers, both from the local/district and national government, including several female LCs and the Guest of Honor, a female MP and various groups performing traditional dances (which many of the audience members joined in on).  It was quite the event, with all of the high-ranking female LCs dressed in their nicest traditional attire, which you’ll see in some of the photos.  The official celebration started with a lengthy parade around the grounds, led by a small but good band, followed by the female police officers and female prison guards, several groups of schoolchildren, and some of the performing groups.  In all, the opening ceremony took at least an hour, with several different styles of marching showcased, the singing of the national anthem, the singing of the women’s anthem, opening prayers, and some impressive yet intimidating routines by the police and prison guards (both groups came fully armed, with swords and guns, and did some tricks and movements with each, though no shots were actually fired).  Several of the groups of schoolchildren sang songs and recited poetry, including a group of blind children.  There were various dance performances, interspersed with speeches from government officials, people bringing bottles of water, sodas, and biscuits to everyone sitting in the tents.   In the interest of not rambling on for too much longer, I’m going to bullet some of the things that stood out to me during the course of the day.

·      There were many, many men in attendance.  That’s good.  And they weren’t just men there to speak – there were boys that marched in the parade with their female classmates, men in some of the performing groups, and men from the village that were watching everything. 

·      The tshirts provided by IRC, not unsurprisingly, were given to the district officials for distribution to the public upon our arrival, and seemed to make it no further.  The GBV manager was clearly annoyed by this as she saw the women LCs fighting over which color tshirt they wanted, but could do nothing about it.  She was also angry when she received a call from a district official asking for more tshirts while on our way home. 

·      There were two large UN tents, and a handful of tarps above bamboo that formed smaller tents.  We, along with most of the speakers, women LCs, and other NGO workers, sat under the UN tent.  Nearly all of the public, including a lot of children and women carrying children, had to stand in the sun, and were constantly being corralled by the [male] police officers and prison guards if they got too close to the tent, performers, or speakers.

·      I’m not sure how many people were at this celebration, but you can try to judge for yourself from some of the photos.  I was one of only 2 mzungus in attendance, and for the first time since I’ve been here, I didn’t feel like everyone was staring at me.  In fact, very few people even came up to me.  Other than the occasional wave from children or handshake from a local woman, I actually felt comfortable, and for the first time, I didn’t feel unwelcomed.  Maybe it was just because I was sitting under the special UN tent, but I’d like to think that it’s because people in the villages are just nicer than those around Kitgum. 

·      Several of the women that performed traditional dances were holding small axes as props.  I’m not sure if they were real axes, or the purpose or significance of having them during the dances, but it seemed to have the potential for disaster with some of the quick movements and turns involved in the dances.  

Some Photos: 

1.  the band, leading the opening ceremony and parade.

2.  some of the female police officers during the parade.

3.  Kids from a nursery school trying to march, too (I didn’t take this photo, but they were pretty cute).  You can see some of the women’s groups that performed in the background. 

4.  The first performing group, and my colleague, Blueday, joining them.

5.  Some of the women LCs in their fancy attire.

6.  View of the people sitting under and standing around the two UN tents

 

      

  

End of Feb

As February drew to a close, so does my first month in Uganda.  So far, I've gone through a range of emotions, from loving it here, to feeling inadequate and inexperienced compared to all of the other expats, to absolutely hating it, to fearing walking anywhere on my own.  But, I think I've finally started to settle into my new life here.  I feel like I have a ton of work to get done in the next few weeks, but after that I'm not really sure what I'll be doing for the rest of my time here.  I'm supposed to be going to Moroto, in the Karamoja region (bordering Kenya), but due to an ambush a few weeks ago, IRC movement to that region is currently suspended.  Don’t worry, the ambush was in Nakapiripirit, which is much further south than Moroto.  I hope that the region settles down, because I'm quite intrigued by all I've heard and seen about the Karamojong thus far.  One of my Ugandan colleagues keeps talking about how she has friends working in the region and she wants to go visit them because they have beautiful beads, which I’ve seen photos of and would definitely like to see in real life (including beaded noserings, something I think I could definitely embrace). 

   

On Friday, as it was the last Friday of the month, we had a half-day workday, and Thursday night the GBV team had a "feedback session" at a local place called the 4 Seasons.  It was, in fact, not a feedback session, but just a time for us to all hang out and each eat 10,000UGX worth of food and 5,000UGX worth of whatever drinks we desired.  Some of the staff brought their babies (which I found to be surprising since it was rainy and late in the evening), and I felt like I got to spend some time relaxing with staff members instead of feeling like the random mzungu that just moved into their office.  My colleagues were shocked when I said I wasn’t going to drink all 5,000UGX worth of beer that I was allotted, and said they wanted me to get drunk so they could hear me speak in my local language.  They all seemed quite surprised and a bit disappointed when I admitted that in fact, I do not have a local language.  That did lead to an interesting experience, however, when one of my colleagues that I don’t know well at all (he was on leave when I first arrived and travels most of the week) offered to show me some stuff about Joseph Kony.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with the history of Uganda, Joseph Kony is the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group that wreaked havoc on Northern Uganda especially for about 20 years.  I won’t get into a big history lesson here; I’ll save that for another day, or you can google it on your own.

I've started running, but have no idea how far I've been going.  I'm not sure that training for my first half-marathon while living in Africa was a good idea.  I've rarely seen other runners, but when I have, they've all been male and been running in packs.  I've found that I'm constantly fighting with my stupid new ipod every time I run (I broke my nice, old ipod in January and bought an ipod touch, which is nice because of the apps, but is far too big to run with).  I had been going down the hill (I live just at the top of it) and towards town, but thanks to a suggestion from one of the guards, a few days ago I started by doing a loop around the top of the hill before heading down.  This proved to be wonderful, because not only did it provide a very pretty view, but I also learned that I live quite close to the WFP and a local radio station.  I also felt like I got a little bit more acquainted with the town Thursday evening as I was driven home with two colleagues who also needed to get dropped off, and live in different “neighborhoods.”  I’ve yet to identify the airfield, which seems a bit ludicrous to me, since it should be recognizable (it’s not in use, and I’m sure its quite small, but really, I should be able to know what the hell it looks like).  There’s a decent-sized dirt field that I run by sometimes, but it seems like it’s too square to be an airfield and has an extreme lack of lights, so I’m not fully convinced that’s it, but you never know. 

As far as the weather goes here, I’m not quite sure what to make of it.  My first week or so here it was lovely, about 95 degrees and sunny.  Since then, it has been rather rainy, so much so that I’ve actually been cold.  I’ve been wearing long-sleeves and jeans all too often lately.  I was NOT prepared for this! 

About the town of Kitgum…I’m still trying to learn my way around.  I haven’t had a ton of time to wander on my own, as IRC insists on sending a driver for me every morning, and by the end of the day I actually want to be driven home so that I can get there in time to have a run before it gets dark.  I’ve been walking home from work a lot lately, mainly because I need to go to the market and don’t want to wait around for a ride, so I’m finally starting to feel a little more comfortable going places on my own.  I think people in town are getting used to seeing me around because I haven’t been getting harassed or shouted at as much, so that’s good, too. 

This weekend I spent some time with some expats, and actually felt like I almost fit in with them, too, so it looks like I’ve made some progress on the friends front too.  On Friday morning, I ran into a Dutch PhD student that I’d met the weekend before and the third (and final) Peace Corps volunteer that lives in town at the office because they were traveling to Kampala on the IRC shuttle.  On Saturday evening I met up with the other two Peace Corps guys and went to the Oxfam guest house to eat homemade pizza and drink some beer.  We watched some movies/tv and relaxed, and went to breakfast Sunday morning at one of the nicer local restaurants/hotels, owned by South Africans who I keep hearing about but haven’t met. 

I’ve also gotten sunburned once each weekend I’ve been here.  Now I understand that it’s hot out and the sun is strong, whatever, but for those of you who know me, you know that thanks to my mom’s Italian heritage I rarely get sunburned.  Well, so much for that.  And of course, since I can’t sit around in a bathing suit, I’ve got ridiculous tan lines…Farmer’s tan here I come. 

Other than that, I am planning to head to Kampala at the end of the month for Easter and to get my visa extended.  I haven't left Kitgum since I've been here, as it's at least an hour probably more by dirt road to get to either Gulu or Lira, though I'm sure I'll visit both at some point.   I’m looking forward to hopefully meeting up with at least one fellow global practice student, getting into the city, and hopefully buying a yoga mat (possibly my biggest packing mistake was, at the last minute, abandoning my nice, new one).  My supervisor came back from Kampala a few days ago, and one of the things he brought back was a pumpkin, so I’m thrilled to pick up at least one while I’m there, as pumpkin is undoubtedly one of my all-time favorite foods.  I've also figured out how to get internet on my phone, which has been nice on the weekends and has proven that I can at least still be connected to the world.