Ashley's Trip to Uganda

Rwanda

2009-07-10T06:31:00.000-07:00

In a fairly last minute decision, I decided to head to Rwanda with two other Real Uganda volunteers, Dee and Dan. We left on Tuesday to go to Kampala and stay the night. Then on Wednesday morning, we got up bright and early to catch a bus to Kigali, Rwanda. We thought that we had gotten on a VIP bus that would go directly there and pass through a major border crossing, but we later found out that we got on a different bus. The bus ride sucked because the roads in Uganda were horrible and I was sitting next to this woman who was seriously invading my space bubble. We wound up going through a bunch of dirt roads and dust was literally billowing in through the windows and covering us. We went through a really small border crossing and Dee wound up getting stuck at the border because she is Australian and she needed a visa. Dan and I carried on without her and felt really bad just leaving her at the border to sort it all out. The bus ride wound up taking a lot longer than expected. At least the countryside was beautiful. Dan made friends with a Rwandan guy who was explaining what everything was to us. He talked about how the government is trying to collectivize many of the villages to be able to more easily provide electricity and water to them. He also told us that any house along the road that doesn't have a veranda has 6 months to construct one or else the people living there will be evicted. He basically said that the country is moving in a direction where the rich will get richer and the poor will get screwed. It was quite interesting to here. We didn't get into Kigali until 13 hours after we had left and Dan and I were freaking out that we wouldn't be able to exchange money. Luckily we got into Kigali and had no problems getting money exchanged and getting to the hotel. We got into our room and at about 11:00pm, Dee showed up.

The next day was really relaxed. We just wondered around Kigali. We went to the craft market and got to see a bit of the city. Kigali is very different from Kampala. The city is much cleaner and there is a nicer atmosphere. The people don't harass you as much, the roads are good, the boda drivers have helmets for their passengers, and there is just a nicer vibe here. All of us said that we liked Rwanda better than Uganda, but then again we have only seen one city and haven't been out to the villages at all. It is really interesting how stark the contrast between Kampala and Kigali is. I am definitely glad that I came here to experience a new area. That night we met a girl from Great Britain and a guy from Sweden and went to dinner with them. It was a really nice start to the vacation.

Today we got up and decided to go to two genocide memorials about 30 km outside of Kigali at two different churches. I was ready to be shocked, but the reality of what I saw is something that words cannot even describe. The first church that we went to was really small and fairly off of the beaten path. At this church, 5000 people were massacred. As you walk into the main building, there are flowers and memorials constructed. There was a shelving unit with shoes, pots, pans, and other various objects that belonged to the people and strung all over the walls and on the rafters were the clothes of the people who had died. There were so many clothes and the majority were of women and children. At the other end of the church was a huge shelving unit of bones. There were a ton of skulls and bones just sitting there. It was a really moving experience and hard to believe that the genocide only happened 15 years ago. There are still so many people living here that experienced it and are still living with the repercussions. As we drove through the countryside I couldn't help but look at each older person and ask myself whether they were a victim or a perpetrator.

The next memorial that we went to was at a Catholic church and this one was even larger. 10,000 people died in the church after hiding there for 2 weeks. In total there were 40,000 remains from the church massacre and the surrounding village at the church. Covering the church benches were the clothes of the victims. Many of the clothes still had blood stains on them and the pulpit was covered in blood stains. Down below in the crypt were a few skeletal remains and the coffin of one woman who was raped and then had a broom handle shoved through her vagina to her head. Outside of the church were more crypts and inside were thousands of coffins and bones. I have never seen so many skulls and bones in my life. By the second church I couldn't even cry any more because it all seemed so unreal. I was in complete shock at how humans could do such a thing to other humans. It is easy to become a pessimist about humanity after seeing such sights. At least the country has moved forward and continues to develop. After visiting the churches I didn't know what to say. I was feeling really shitty and didn't really know what to feel or what to think. When we got back into Kigali we decided to go to the Hotel Des Mille Colline, the famous hotel from the movie Hotel Rwanda. It was a super nice hotel and it was surreal to go inside of it. We ate an extremely luxurious buffet lunch there and just sat trying to process the day. I will still be processing this day long after I leave Rwanda. I am so glad that I came here and I look forward to going to the official genocide museum tomorrow.

Another Week in Uganda

2009-07-05T02:06:00.000-07:00

On Thursday of last week, I went to visit Catie at her placement. Her placement is without electricity and some of the buildings of the school were made of wooden planks. Visiting her placement made me appreciate mine even more. I really do have a great set up at my school. Over the weekend I went clubbing and then headed out to camp at a site overlooking the Nile River. On Sunday, I went bungee jumping over the Nile and had an absolute blast. It was definitely exhilarating and I am glad that I was able to do it. The whole weekend in Jinja was a lot of fun but also bittersweet because a bunch of volunteers were preparing to leave. On Sunday, I headed back into Mukono and then went onto Seeta to go to have barbecue with Moses. Catie wound up coming with me and then came with me to my placement that night to stay the night. She helped me with PE in the morning and then left to go to the airport. I was very sad to see her go.

This week was a fairly normal week as usual. I taught classes and started reading some Dr. Suess books with the kids. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy the books. On Wednesday, I got to go and visit another school where two British volunteers who live really close to me volunteer. The more I see of Uganda, the more I realize how vastly different each area is. My school, I have come to realize, is extremely well off compared to other areas. The school that the British volunteers are at consists of three buildings made of wood slats. There is only one permanent structure and it is the staff room. None of the rooms have concrete floors and so a bunch of the children get parasites in their feet from the dirt. After seeing both Catie's school and the British volunteers' school I realize that my school has it pretty good, even though they are still hurting for money.

On Wednesday, another volunteer named Katie came out to my placement to stay the night. We went out to the local pub with Peter, Moses, and the two British volunteers to try the local brew. The local brew is served in a bucket with these huge straws that you suck out of. It is made out of millet and tastes extremely smoky. I didn't like it very much, but it was definitely an experience to try it. After trying the brew, we headed back to my place and made chaptis, guacamole, and rolex with the guacamole inside. It was a lot of fun and very delicious. The rest of the week was very calm and this weekend I decided to relax. I went into Kampala on Saturday and saw Transformers 2, which is a horrible movie by the way.

I look forward to next week. You never know what it will bring. And I think that I am going to do some more home visits. Speaking of home visits...Moses and I are going to try to help out Livingston (the guy who I met on the first home visits I did). We are going to try to buy him 2 piglets so that he can begin to generate some income. He made a pig pen because he was promised a bunch of piglets from an organization that never came through. Since he is in such bad condition, Moses and I thought that getting him two piglets would lift his spirits and give him hopes of making money in the future. I really hope we will be able to help him and I hope that I will get to see more of the surrounding villages on home visits. Well that is all for now. Until next time.

Gulu

2009-06-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

I just got back from an absolutely amazing weekend in Gulu. On Friday I took a bus up with Catie and another volunteer named Dan. The bus ride was super long, but we got there just fine and got settled in. Then we met up with Aurelien, Madelynn, Eliot, and Hanna from the UNC GlobeMed Chapter. We hung out with them the whole weekend and it was a blast. We even got to go to the office of Health Alert, the organization they are working with, to make paper beads with some of the children they worked with. I totally sucked at making the beads, but it was really fun all the same.

Sunday was a very interesting day. We wondered around for most of the day and went and had coffee at a small cafe. The owners of the cafe literally just left their life in the US to open up a coffee shop in Gulu and send the proceeds to an orphanage. They had a little boy and were raising him there. It was such an interesting life story and I was very glad to meet some people like that. Later on on Sunday, Catie, Dan, and I, decided to go to Baker's Fort. Baker's Fort is an old slave trading post. It used to be ran by the Arabs, but then a British man by the name of Baker ran them out and took it over. To get there we took a 1 hour boda ride down a very bad road, but we didn't mind because the countryside was absolutely beautiful. We drove past a ton of different villages all with clusters of identical huts with thatched roofs. I was so glad to see a bit more of the village areas. Baker's Fort itself was located in a very beautiful area, but the whole thing was quite cold and creepy. There were huge stone slabs everywhere and we had a tour guide who told us about what each building and each stone was for. At one point he took us to the execution area. When slaves were too old, too weak, or too ugly to sell, they would simply execute them. They killed them by either a firing squad or beheading with an ax. He took us to the beheading area, where you could still see ax marks cut out of the stone. I left that place with a lot to think about. We took a boda home in the dark, which was pretty sketchy, but once again it was beautiful because of the stars. I was feeling quite calm and at peace.

On Monday morning we got up and went to the World Health Organization headquarters in Gulu to meet with the director of operations to discuss a bunch of different things. Dan is studying psychology with an emphasis in addiction and so he had a ton of questions for the director. All throughout Uganda, but especially in Gulu, there is a problem with alcoholism. Also, many people in Gulu have war trauma and need mental health services. Most of the NGOs are tailored to children and do not do much from adults. After speaking with the WHO director, we found out that there is not a single NGO working in Gulu in drug addiction or alcohol addiction. Furthermore, there are few mental health services being offered. It was quite disgusting to hear since there are TONS of NGOs operating in Gulu. On the way to the bus park after the meeting we ran into two people who looked like ex-LRA soldiers, were already drunk and completely messed up, and just wondering around the streets. All the more reason to offer them some mental health and addiction services. I think Dan is actually going to try to start something up in Gulu, which would be really cool.

Overall, Gulu was a very interesting experience. We saw a ton of work being done to build up the city again and to really help people. And some of it definitely seems to be effective. But, there is still so much work to be done and so many areas that are being overlooked. It will be very interesting to see what happens in Gulu and throughout Uganda as many NGOs start going under from the credit crunch. I had a great weekend, and I am super glad that I was able to go up to Gulu. Plus, we got to hang out with the GlobeMeders and I think they are coming to Jinja this weekend to hang out with us! Until next time.

All Alone!

2009-06-18T05:04:00.000-07:00

My volunteer partner left on Monday and now I am at my placement all alone and no other volunteer will be coming for the duration of my stay. I seriously feel like I am going through culture shock for the first time here since Noreen left. It is hard to have no one to talk to about little problems and PE is definitely more difficult alone. On Tuesday and Wednesday P1, P2, and P3 all combined for PE. I had about 90 kids to deal with and it was quite overwhelming. The worst part is when I try to hand out the jump ropes and every kid is grabbing for them. I literally had to run up the stairs and tell everyone to stay at the bottom so I could hand them out one at a time. And of course every kid is yelling "Me Madam, Me Madam!". It is absolutely insane. At least the teachers have been really nice and are trying to help me out. Another interesting development was that Tuesday morning one of the students showed up at my house really early and told me that she was hungry because she hadn't eaten dinner the night before. I had no clue what to do so I gave her one of the NutriGrain bars that Noreen had left. She showed up the next day and again this morning. I haven't given her any more food, but I feel really bad. It is hard to ignore when a small child is telling you that they are hungry and you have food sitting in the house. But I know it is dangerous ground to walk to give one kid food because then every kid will be asking for it so I must resist! I am sure that I will eventually get used to being on my own and I have definitely had enough to do. There is always someone to hang out with if you look.

This weekend I am heading up to Gulu since I wound up not going last weekend...instead I hung out with all of the volunteers who were leaving on Monday. We had a crazy time in Kampala on Saturday and I wound up staying out until 6:00 am. But now I am finally making it up to the north and I am super excited. I will let you all know how it goes!

I am an aunt!!!

2009-06-18T04:59:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would announce to everyone that I am officially an aunt now. My brother and his wife had a baby boy on June 11th. They named him Carter and he is absolutely adorable. He definitely looks like an Armstrong! So sad I am not there!

Home Visits

2009-06-18T04:27:00.000-07:00

Wow I haven't written in a while. I will catch you up on last week first. Well I had an extremely insightful week just talking with many different people and doing home visits for the Mpoma HIV/AIDS initiative.

While talking with my friend Moses, he told me that the problem with Ugandans is that they are job seekers instead of job creators. It was so interesting to think of the economic problems in Uganda as that. I have already seen many things on the economic side that I just don't understand. For example, there are entire malls of just car parts or just electrical parts or just fabric stores. It seems so counterintuitive to me to open up a fabric store right next to a fabric store, and yet that is what they do here. I was glad to talk with Moses, who plans on opening his own business, to be able to see that people like him do exist in this country and will eventually bring change.

The next conversation that I had that I found to be extremely interesting was with Leslie, the director of the Real Uganda. I told her about the program that Peter (one of the community members) and I are trying to start to work on marital satisfaction since 46% of new infections are occuring within married couples who do not remain faithful. She started to tell me about how the problem is very cultural. She said that remaining faithful is almost a joke here and that pretty much everyone cheats and thinks nothing of it. Another thing she talked about was the sugar daddy problem. Girls here want sugar daddies to buy them things like clothes, DVDs, jewelary, etc and many of them have no say in using protection. Also, many girls who can't afford college get sugar daddies to help them pay for it. Hearing all of this just blew me away and it started to become more clear as to why there is a problem of HIV/AIDS here. Shortly after our chat, I went into the village to actually see the effects of HIV/AIDS.

We did two home visits, one with a woman named Rebecca and another with a man named Livingston. Rebecca was living with her two elderly parents and her newphew. She got married to a man without knowing that he was positive and contracted HIV. The government pays for everyone here to get ARVs and she has a coouncelor who comes and brings her the medicine. She gets horrible headaches and dizziness from the ARVs, but at least she isn't getting sick all of the time. Her mom talked about the struggle to take care of her daughter. Since Rebecca is on ARVs, she needs to eat really well, but her family struggles to get enough good quality good. It was quite a sad situation to see. She said that the thing that she needed more than anything was a way to generate income to buy food. I actually doubted going into public health for a second and thought about switching to being an economist...I snapped out of it though after realizing that if there had been effective public health within Uganda, there wouldn't be the huge HIV problem that there is today. Rebecca also mentioned the need for an educational seminar within her village. I think that Moses and I may try to put on a theater production with some of the children at the school to present in her village. The next home visit that we did was to a man named Livingston. He made me extremely sad. His house literally was a mud hut made out of mud and sticks and covered with a thatched roof of fronds. It was utter poverty. Livingston himself was freakishly thin and it looked like he had several wounds on his leg. Everything about him looked unhealthy. To make money he tried to cultivate plants and sell woven mats, but he talked about how he just doesn't have the energy any more to be able to produce much. I have done research on how HIV reduces productivity and income, but Livingston actually showed me the reality of it and the reality is much more impactful than the statistics. It is my dream to one day be able to help these people, but the problem is absolutely huge. The roots are often times cultural and culture is nearly impossible to change. I hope to do more home visits to really begin understanding the issue at hand and try to formulate some way of helping them.

Rafting the Nile River

2009-06-07T06:49:00.001-07:00

I just got back from one of the most amazing weekends of my life! On Saturday I rafted the Nile River with four other volunteers. It was seriously fun. We went over a bunch of different classes of rapids from class 2 to class 5. We started out at the top of the Nile River and rafted for 5 straight hours with a short snack break in the middle. The first couple of rapids weren't that bad and then we hit the class 5s. It was intense, but absolutely awesome. I got thrown out of the raft about 3 different times. The first time wasn't that bad, but the second time was on a class 4 and I totally thought that I was going to die. Of course that didn't happen, but it is amazing how your mind races when you are underwater waiting to surface. We also fell out on the very last rapid of the day, which was actually a class 6 rapid, but we entered it about half way down. We did a very slow flip and me and two other people were the last ones holding on for dear life. When we flipped I got continually pummeled by waves and then finally hit calm water where I was picked up by a kayak. Overall I had an absolute blast and would love to do it again. That night after rafting we hung out at a campsite that looked out over the Nile. It was beautiful! We had a great night and met up with a few more volunteers. Also, they showed a video of our rafting trip. Seeing the video showed me just how crazy the day was. I bought a copy and will definitely have to show everyone when I get back. After such a great weekend, I am ready to go back to teaching tomorrow. This is my volunteer partner's last week. Then I am going to be on my own! I am heading up to Gulu this weekend to meet up with the GlobeMed students from UNC that I met in Ethiopia. It should be great. I will keep you posted.

Safari

2009-06-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

So I just got back from an exciting weekend of going on a safari to Murchison Falls. On Friday night we drove into Kampala and stayed at the Red Chili Backpackers Hostel. A few of us went out clubbing that night and it was a load of fun. I definitely want to go clubbing again here! The next day we got into a van for an 8 hour bus ride to Murchison Falls. On the way there we passed an area of 200 consecutive speed bumps that were placed about 15 feet apart. It was so annoying! I don't really know what the purpose of it was. It just comes to show just how inefficient and illogical some things are here, but it is just one obstacle to overcome.

We finally arrived at the camp site and everyone went to bed early. The next day we got up before sunrise and headed out on Safari. I got to watch the sun rise of the Nile River, which was pretty incredible. We headed out through the national park and saw tons of different animals. There were a million different types of deer and I couldn't tell half of them apart. I also saw many giraffes and we got super close to some elephants. We also saw a lot of hippos, a monitor, warthogs, baboons, and various other creatures. In the afternoon we took a boat ride down the Nile to go see Murchison Falls. I saw a bunch of different birds, water buffalo, crocodiles, and tons and tons of hippos. Overall it was a really good time and it was pretty amazing to see all of the animals in their natural habitat. The next day we got up a bit later and set out to hike up to Murchison Falls. It was absolutely beautiful looking out over the falls and the water looked freakishly powerful. In spots there were full rainbows.

I am really glad that I did the safari, but I am definitely looking forward to getting back to the village and back to teaching. I feel like I haven't gotten much done in the two weeks that I have been here and so I will be glad to actually have a full week of teaching and interacting with people. I also hope to be able to start doing some HIV/AIDS outreach work. I am starting to feel like no matter how much I do, it will never be enough. I guess the only thing I really can do is just make a difference in a few people's lives. I can already tell that this trip is going to give me a very interesting perspective on education and grassroots movements. We will see if I still feel that way by the end! Until next time!

School Starts

2009-05-27T16:26:00.000-07:00

Classes began on Monday for the students, but half of them didn't show up. Monday morning we got up and were taken around to each of the classes to introduce ourselves. I have to introduce myself as Madam Zalwango Ashley. It is so weird to be called Madam. And I am supposed to call the other teachers Madam and Master, which is going to take some getting used to. The students were so well behaved. When we entered a class room all of the students stood up and said in unison "Good morning teachers. You are welcome teachers. This is P 4 (or whatever grade level)". We would say back "How are you?" and they would answer "We are fine teachers". It was so cute. At first the students were really shy around us, but today they started to open up.

We taught our first official class today and it was P.E. for P1, P2, and P3. We taught one music class last night, but we had a 30 minute warning and were totally unprepared. We played a name game and then wound up playing Heads-Up-7-Up for a while. Afterwards another teacher organized the students together and they sang for us. My heart absolutely melted when I heart them. They sang a bunch of different songs and some of the songs had motions that went along with them. In the background a few of the kids played drums. It was so beautiful!

Next week I should be getting into a more normal schedule. I know that I will be teaching English for P5 every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Together Noreen and I will be teaching P.E. for P1 and P2 everyday and every few days we teach art and music. There is also debate that we have to help judge, sex education, bead making, and general assembly where all of the teachers (including us) have to make a speech to the children. I am looking forward to having a full week of classes. Bye for now!

My First Week in Community

2009-05-23T00:23:00.000-07:00

I just finished my first week in community. I got extremely sick the first day (probably from dehydration), but I am much better now and the rest of the week was thoroughly enjoyable. I am staying at a little house right outside of the school grounds with my volunteer partner Noreen. It is a pretty nice setup, however the electricity hasn't been working for 2 weeks now so we had to do everything by lantern light. School doesn't start until Monday so there weren't many kids around. We mainly hung out with one of the teachers named Moses. He kept us entertained pretty much the whole week. We went to visit many of the schools around and I was able to talk with some of the directors of the schools about the Ugandan education system. It was very interesting to hear what they had to say and I learned how hard the students are worked. They start school in the morning at 6:00 and they don't end until 10:30pm! Could you imagine? Other than visiting schools, Moses took us into the forest to search for monkeys. We found a few and I got some really good photos. I also went to a community meeting about the best way to care for cows, especially during the dry season. Everything was conducted in Lugandan, but Moses translated some of it for me. I found out that the Heifer Project International has partnered with some other organizations and does work in the communities around here. I thought that was pretty school since JUC raises money for Heifer International. Next week I should begin teaching classes. I have no idea what subjects I will be teaching. Hopefully it goes well! I also think that we are going to do a safari next weekend, which should be awesome. I am super excited to start this next week. I almost forgot to mention...I have a new Ugandan name. My new name is Zalwango. Well I am off to Kampala to go to the Saturday market. Talk to you later!

Where's Mukono?

2009-05-17T18:25:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are wondering where Mukono is, here's a map. Mukono is a little northeast of Kampala -- see the red circle.

2009-05-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

I made it to Uganda after being delayed a bit. I flew from Dubai to Ethiopia and we were only suppose to have a 1.5 hour stop in Ethiopia before continuing on to Uganda. After sitting on the plane for a couple of hours we found out that one of the engines had a mechanical problem and they were going to try and fix it. We wound up staying on the plane for 6 hours until they canceled the flight. After a ton of confusion and frustration everyone was finally taken to the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to stay for the night. On the way there, Catie and I met two students from the University of North Carolina. After talking with them for a while we discovered that they were going to Gulu, Uganda to work with their partnering agency for their GlobeMed chapter. I am helping to start a GlobeMed chapter at CU next year and I thought it was so funny to run into them. We had dinner with them and hung out for a while. It was really nice to be able to hang out with some college-aged peole and to talk about GlobeMed. In the morning we flew into Entebbe and met the other volunteer from the Real Uganda who was on our flight. All three of us were picked up in the airport and taken to Mukono Town to the volunteer house. The drive was fairly interesting. Ugandans are pretty crazy drivers, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. There were cars driving on the shoulder and passing each other all of the time and there were people lining the streets. The countryside is absolutely beautiful...everything is very green. It was interesting to drive through different parts and see the vast differences between the haves and the have nots just from the road. When we arrived at the volunteer house we were briefed by Leslie about Uganda and what to expect while volunteering. Then we just hung out with some of the other volunteers and went to bed fairly early. I should be leaving on Monday to go to my village placement in Mpoma to work with the Mpoma community HIV/AIDS initiative. They run a boarding school with 270 students, 120 of which are orphans. I will be teaching at the school and doing community outreach work with them. I am super excited! And the good thing is that I think I will also have time to do some traveling. Catie and I are thinking of doing a safari, a white water rafting trip, and we may head up to Gulu to visit Madelyn and Arelien from GlobeMed. Well I got to go, but I will try to keep you updated as much as possible.

2009-05-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

The flight from Houston to Dubai actually wasn't too bad. Since we had a 13-hour layover, the airline gave us a hotel room and it was really nice to be able to sleep in a real bed. We got up and got to the airport without any difficulties. We flew to Ethiopia to make a stop and to refuel the plane or whatever they were doing. While we were in Ethiopia they discovered a mechanical problem with one of the engines and after sitting around for a few hours they cancelled our flight. It was super frustrating, but we finally figured out what was going on. The airline sent us to the Hilton Hotel in Ethiopia and so we are staying there for the night and should be leaving for Uganda in the morning. It was really funny because I met two people from GlobeMed (the club I am trying to start next year) who are going to Uganda to work with their partnering agency. Catie and I had dinner with them and are hanging out with them. Hopefully we will make it into Uganda tomorrow.

2009-05-12T22:36:00.000-07:00

I'm packing to leave for Uganda right now. I'll be posting stories and photos as time allows.