Every day after work this week, Jessica and I have been taking walks. The office in Ssembabule is located at the top of a rolling hill, surrounded by other rolling hills, and from the top there are four roads leading in different directions… so we decided to try out each road and then decide which way we like the best. We both already agree on our front-runner, which is the quietest road with the least amount of traffic. However, although there is less traffic, the two of us create quite the spectacle and entertainment for everybody else that we encounter. Oftentimes as we walk, a crowd of people gradually accumulates behind us. Kids who are walking home from school walk slowly in order to stay in step with us and stare at us strange, strange muzungus. Sometimes they say “Hello, how are you?” or “Good evening, madam,” which I’m guessing , may be the extent of their English. I often wave at kids who are staring at me like I’m a creature from the deep, and they usually wave back, and then often run back to their families, most likely to report that there is a weird colorless person wandering around their neighborhood.
I had heard that this happens in East Africa, as well as in other countries of the world, so I expected it, but I had never personally experienced it until this trip. I also can’t tell if people are interested in me or terrified of me… I think sometimes both. It doesn’t really bother me, particularly when the gawkers are children. When they’re adults, it’s a little more uncomfortable, but I usually just say hello and keep walking. I think that after a while, it will either wear on me a lot more, or I’ll become immune to it… but I’m not sure which.
When I was in Kampala for orientation, walking around a market with Azida (a WellShare staff member), vendors shouted “muzungu” (translation: “white person”) at me and tried to sell me things. Azida explained to me that I shouldn’t be offended, and that it’s just the same as if she were in the US and somebody said, “Hey, black person!” The thing is, though, that wouldn’t fly in the US… so it’s not really the same thing. But I didn’t want to get into a debate about it, so I didn’t say anything. I really do understand that they don’t mean harm by saying it, and it’s really just a cultural difference. It’s definitely an interesting experience… humbling, almost, because I, like many Americans, am so used to blending in with the crowd wherever I go, and I take that anonymity for granted. To be so visibly and obviously out of place somewhere has never happened to me before.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
What I'm Doing...
Today was my third day of work, and I’m starting to figure some things out. There is definitely a learning curve, but after a couple days of a lot of reading and listening, things make more sense.
The structure of WellShare is more complicated than I initially realized, but it really does all make sense. I’m going to try to explain it, so that when I reference things in the future, you can hopefully know what I’m talking about.
WellShare has two offices in Uganda: Ssembabule and Mubende (fyi, Ssembabule is also sometimes spelled with one “S” – Sembabule, so if I spell it that way, don’t be confused). Both are located in the Central Region of the country. They also have an office in Tanzania, and headquarters in Minneapolis, but I’m just focusing on what goes on in Uganda.
WellShare partners with Faith/Community-Based Organizations (F/CBOs) in each region. WellShare gives the F/CBOs money (from grants that they are awarded by the US Agency for International Development [USAID]) to implement projects that are designed collaboratively. The F/CBOs train Trainers of Trainers (TOTs), who in turn train Community Care Givers (CCGs). The CCGs are the individuals who ultimately visit the homes of people living with HIV/AIDs (PHAs) and orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). CCGs provide services, but they also train the caretaker (i.e. a family member of the PHA, or someone who lives with them) in how to care for the PHA. When drawn out in a diagram, it is apparent that the whole process really fans out; for example, one F/CBO may train 9 TOTs, who then each train 16 CCGs, who then each see a number of beneficiaries. And yes, I realize that there are a LOT of acronyms. I’m still catching on.
Yesterday and today I learned a lot more about what I’ll be doing. Within the OVC program, there are a few nutrition components that I will be working on. First, my supervisor and program coordinator, Beatrice, wants me to make a few brochures that can be handed out to people regarding nutrition issues. They’ll probably focus on food groups, safe preparation of food, and possibly supplementary feeding for children under 5 years old. She wants them to be very simple, with mostly pictures (any words will be translated into Luganda). There is also a kitchen garden program that is in its preliminary stages. PHA households have been identified by each TOT, and they are in the process of creating five demonstration kitchen gardens in each parish (a parish is kind of like a county within the region). The gardens have been given some local seeds, and will also be provided other seeds by WellShare. After the demonstration gardens have successfully thrived, the gardens will spread to other PHA households in the area. The idea is that people who have HIV/AIDS, as well as their families, will have inexpensive, local, sustainable healthy food that they can incorporate into their diets.
We are also going to hold cooking demonstrations in several areas to demonstrate how to prepare vegetables in a way that minimizes loss of nutrients. Beatrice wants me to create a simple questionnaire for the CCGs to give to PHAs, so that we can identify the gaps in knowledge that we should address. We don’t want to waste time preaching about something that they already are familiar with.
There is also talk of developing some guidelines for supplementary feeding for malnourished children under 5, but I don’t know much about that yet.
I hope this all makes sense and isn’t too confusing… I basically absorbed this all in the past 24 hours, so writing it out like this actually helps me to sort it out. One thing I’ve already observed is that the pace of things moves much slower here. No doubt, there is a LOT to do and the organization is busy, but we are definitely not working on the American fast-paced time schedule that I’m used to. Therefore, I’m confident that all of these projects will get done, but it may take a while. There are also a lot of people in the chain of command, so there’s a lot of communicating to do before actual action takes place.
All in all, I’m very excited about these plans. I sat in on a meeting today between Beatrice and the head of one of the F/CBOs, because they were discussing the plans for the kitchen gardens and cooking demonstrations, and it was very enlightening. Beatrice always stresses that what we do needs to be sustainable, so that when we leave, the F/CBOs and others under them will still be able to continue these programs. I also think that that’s a very important thing, so I’m glad that WellShare focuses on sustainability. Since I’m only an intern, there’s only so much I can do when it comes down to executing plans, but I can be here with ideas and support and create materials that they need me to create. I think I’m going to learn a lot!
The structure of WellShare is more complicated than I initially realized, but it really does all make sense. I’m going to try to explain it, so that when I reference things in the future, you can hopefully know what I’m talking about.
WellShare has two offices in Uganda: Ssembabule and Mubende (fyi, Ssembabule is also sometimes spelled with one “S” – Sembabule, so if I spell it that way, don’t be confused). Both are located in the Central Region of the country. They also have an office in Tanzania, and headquarters in Minneapolis, but I’m just focusing on what goes on in Uganda.
WellShare partners with Faith/Community-Based Organizations (F/CBOs) in each region. WellShare gives the F/CBOs money (from grants that they are awarded by the US Agency for International Development [USAID]) to implement projects that are designed collaboratively. The F/CBOs train Trainers of Trainers (TOTs), who in turn train Community Care Givers (CCGs). The CCGs are the individuals who ultimately visit the homes of people living with HIV/AIDs (PHAs) and orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). CCGs provide services, but they also train the caretaker (i.e. a family member of the PHA, or someone who lives with them) in how to care for the PHA. When drawn out in a diagram, it is apparent that the whole process really fans out; for example, one F/CBO may train 9 TOTs, who then each train 16 CCGs, who then each see a number of beneficiaries. And yes, I realize that there are a LOT of acronyms. I’m still catching on.
Yesterday and today I learned a lot more about what I’ll be doing. Within the OVC program, there are a few nutrition components that I will be working on. First, my supervisor and program coordinator, Beatrice, wants me to make a few brochures that can be handed out to people regarding nutrition issues. They’ll probably focus on food groups, safe preparation of food, and possibly supplementary feeding for children under 5 years old. She wants them to be very simple, with mostly pictures (any words will be translated into Luganda). There is also a kitchen garden program that is in its preliminary stages. PHA households have been identified by each TOT, and they are in the process of creating five demonstration kitchen gardens in each parish (a parish is kind of like a county within the region). The gardens have been given some local seeds, and will also be provided other seeds by WellShare. After the demonstration gardens have successfully thrived, the gardens will spread to other PHA households in the area. The idea is that people who have HIV/AIDS, as well as their families, will have inexpensive, local, sustainable healthy food that they can incorporate into their diets.
We are also going to hold cooking demonstrations in several areas to demonstrate how to prepare vegetables in a way that minimizes loss of nutrients. Beatrice wants me to create a simple questionnaire for the CCGs to give to PHAs, so that we can identify the gaps in knowledge that we should address. We don’t want to waste time preaching about something that they already are familiar with.
There is also talk of developing some guidelines for supplementary feeding for malnourished children under 5, but I don’t know much about that yet.
I hope this all makes sense and isn’t too confusing… I basically absorbed this all in the past 24 hours, so writing it out like this actually helps me to sort it out. One thing I’ve already observed is that the pace of things moves much slower here. No doubt, there is a LOT to do and the organization is busy, but we are definitely not working on the American fast-paced time schedule that I’m used to. Therefore, I’m confident that all of these projects will get done, but it may take a while. There are also a lot of people in the chain of command, so there’s a lot of communicating to do before actual action takes place.
All in all, I’m very excited about these plans. I sat in on a meeting today between Beatrice and the head of one of the F/CBOs, because they were discussing the plans for the kitchen gardens and cooking demonstrations, and it was very enlightening. Beatrice always stresses that what we do needs to be sustainable, so that when we leave, the F/CBOs and others under them will still be able to continue these programs. I also think that that’s a very important thing, so I’m glad that WellShare focuses on sustainability. Since I’m only an intern, there’s only so much I can do when it comes down to executing plans, but I can be here with ideas and support and create materials that they need me to create. I think I’m going to learn a lot!
Saturday, September 18, 2010
quick update
I've arrived in Ssembabule! We got here yesterday afternoon, and I was able to meet the staff here, who were all really nice and welcoming - they even had dinner waiting for us! Luckily the electricity was on last night, so I could unpack with the help of light. It felt good to kind of sort my stuff out and figure out where things are. The office is nicer than I expected it to be - although the town of Ssembabule is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, the office itself is on a street in town and it's actually noisy around here most of the time. I'm sharing a room with Jess, and we have a curtained-off area that has a shower head, but the shower hasn't worked in a while, so that's where we'll take bucket baths, brush our teeth, do our laundry, and whatnot. The pit latrines are just around the corner, within the whole office/volunteer room complex. Yes, I know, pit latrines sound awful, but they're really not THAT bad, and they don't even smell. I'm ust going to develop incrediby toned thighs from squatting all the time. I'll post pictures of the office and my room when I can, but the internet here most likely isn't strong enough to handle tht task. Last night I slept through the entire night for the first time since arriving in Uganda, which is a thrill. I even slept in this morning! Today we spent almost the entire day in our room - there isn't much to do here on the weekends. I alternated between reading books and celeb magazines that a friend of Jess' mailed to her. Tonight we ventured out of the office to go get a rolex for dinner - a rolex is a omlette (egg and veggies) rolled up in chapatti (kind of like a flatbread, tortilla type thing), and it was really good. Hurray for street food!
Friday, September 17, 2010
kampala, day two
(written 9/16)
Well, today turned out to be much different, and by different I mean better, than I thought it would be. When I arrived at WellShare’s office this morning, I discovered that staff from the Ssembabule and Mubende offices had arrived. Jessica, the other volunteer/intern (I’m not sure which one we technically are, so I’ll probably alternate using those terms when referring to what I do) was there, who I had previously spoken to via email. Coincidentally, Jessica is from New Berlin, WI… imagine that. Today was my second day of orientation, but Jessica insisted that we make some modifications to the orientation schedule and cut out the things that she didn’t think were worth going to (i.e. the snake park). I was more than happy to heed her advice (this is her second time in Uganda, so she’s much more experienced than I). We ended up going to a few places – the fruit and vegetable market, and the craft market – with Azida and Richard, and then they dropped us off and Jess and I went off on our own. We had a long, leisurely lunch at a great café that served many types of food (I had phenomenal chicken fajitas). I cannot emphasize enough how grateful I am that Jess is here and will be in Ssembabule with me until December. She had so much advice to give, and she knows a lot of people (mostly expats) in Kampala who will be good travel buddies and people to hang out with when we come to Kampala on weekends. I immediately felt totally comfortable around her, as if we had known each other for a long time. After lunch,we walked around downtown Kampala, and she showed me some important places (banks, hotels, etc). We went to Aristoc (the same bookstore I went to yesterday, but a different location) and bought three books to pass some quiet, electricity-free nights in Ssembabule; I’m sure I’ll be buying many more in the future. We also went grocery shopping for things to bring with us in Ssembabule. There is no refrigerator in Ssembabule, so we basically bought dry goods – crackers, cookies, chocolate, pasta, juice, water, olive oil, spices, candy. I’m glad we got to stock up before we got out there, because it sounds like the options are pretty limited out in the field. The grocery stores here are pretty well-stocked, and I realized that I actually can buy a lot of things here that I didn’t think I’d be able to – i.e. legit face wash, Nutella, muzungu (white person) shampoo, etc. After grocery shopping, we walked around down the main road, and then stopped at another café to have a soda while we waited for the WellShare truck to pick us up again.
Oh! I took my first boda-boda ride today. A boda-boda is a motorcycle that you can take to places around the city for a small fee, and they’re much faster than other taxis. They’re notoriously dangerous, but if you tell them to go slowly they’re actually not TOO terrifying, and locals take them all the time, often with numerous children/infants/chickens in hand. Anyway, Jess and I took a boda-boda to the café. Normally, local women wearing skirts ride side-saddle on a boda-boda for the sake of modesty. I was wearing a skirt today, but to me, living is more important than being lady-like, so I hiked my skirt up and straddled that driver, and Jess straddled me. When in Africa…
I’m currently sitting in my hostel, drinking a Nile beer and typing this into Word, due to the sketchy nature of the internet, but hopefully I can post it quickly in a moment of semi-strong internet. Tomorrow I pack up my things, take them to the WellShare office, meet with Laura, the country director, and then head to Ssembabule with Jess.
Well, today turned out to be much different, and by different I mean better, than I thought it would be. When I arrived at WellShare’s office this morning, I discovered that staff from the Ssembabule and Mubende offices had arrived. Jessica, the other volunteer/intern (I’m not sure which one we technically are, so I’ll probably alternate using those terms when referring to what I do) was there, who I had previously spoken to via email. Coincidentally, Jessica is from New Berlin, WI… imagine that. Today was my second day of orientation, but Jessica insisted that we make some modifications to the orientation schedule and cut out the things that she didn’t think were worth going to (i.e. the snake park). I was more than happy to heed her advice (this is her second time in Uganda, so she’s much more experienced than I). We ended up going to a few places – the fruit and vegetable market, and the craft market – with Azida and Richard, and then they dropped us off and Jess and I went off on our own. We had a long, leisurely lunch at a great café that served many types of food (I had phenomenal chicken fajitas). I cannot emphasize enough how grateful I am that Jess is here and will be in Ssembabule with me until December. She had so much advice to give, and she knows a lot of people (mostly expats) in Kampala who will be good travel buddies and people to hang out with when we come to Kampala on weekends. I immediately felt totally comfortable around her, as if we had known each other for a long time. After lunch,we walked around downtown Kampala, and she showed me some important places (banks, hotels, etc). We went to Aristoc (the same bookstore I went to yesterday, but a different location) and bought three books to pass some quiet, electricity-free nights in Ssembabule; I’m sure I’ll be buying many more in the future. We also went grocery shopping for things to bring with us in Ssembabule. There is no refrigerator in Ssembabule, so we basically bought dry goods – crackers, cookies, chocolate, pasta, juice, water, olive oil, spices, candy. I’m glad we got to stock up before we got out there, because it sounds like the options are pretty limited out in the field. The grocery stores here are pretty well-stocked, and I realized that I actually can buy a lot of things here that I didn’t think I’d be able to – i.e. legit face wash, Nutella, muzungu (white person) shampoo, etc. After grocery shopping, we walked around down the main road, and then stopped at another café to have a soda while we waited for the WellShare truck to pick us up again.
Oh! I took my first boda-boda ride today. A boda-boda is a motorcycle that you can take to places around the city for a small fee, and they’re much faster than other taxis. They’re notoriously dangerous, but if you tell them to go slowly they’re actually not TOO terrifying, and locals take them all the time, often with numerous children/infants/chickens in hand. Anyway, Jess and I took a boda-boda to the café. Normally, local women wearing skirts ride side-saddle on a boda-boda for the sake of modesty. I was wearing a skirt today, but to me, living is more important than being lady-like, so I hiked my skirt up and straddled that driver, and Jess straddled me. When in Africa…
I’m currently sitting in my hostel, drinking a Nile beer and typing this into Word, due to the sketchy nature of the internet, but hopefully I can post it quickly in a moment of semi-strong internet. Tomorrow I pack up my things, take them to the WellShare office, meet with Laura, the country director, and then head to Ssembabule with Jess.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
I'm here!
I arrived in Kampala last night, was picked up at the airport by a driver from WellShare, and driven to my hostel. Last night I slept in a tent with a bed in it, but tonight I was moved to an actual room, which is nice. I wasn't sure what time I was getting picked up this morning for orientation, so I set my alarm for 8 am - and once 8 am rolled around, I went back to sleep, meaning that I had to frantically get ready at 9:20 when I was informed that my ride was here. Today, I met everybody at the WellShare headquarters office, and then spent the day getting oriented, if you will. Orientation turned out to be less of an introduction to WellShare, and more of an introduction to Kampala and how things work here. I exchanged money, received a cell phone and topped it up, walked through the taxi park (chaos), went to the shopping mall, walked around Makerere University, had lunch at a real African restaurant (ate with my hands), and ended the day at Uganda Wildlife Education Center (which is basically like a zoo, and on the shore of Lake Victoria). It was really nice to be able to see the city in the daylight. Azida and Richard were the two WellShare employees that took me around, and they were both really nice and helpful. Tomorrow I have another orientation day, and then on Friday, I head out to the field.
Sorry if this post is disjointed - I'm tired and trying to type quickly and this keyboard is weird. Just wanted to let you all know that things are good and I've arrived safely!
Sorry if this post is disjointed - I'm tired and trying to type quickly and this keyboard is weird. Just wanted to let you all know that things are good and I've arrived safely!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Pre-departure
Another trip, another blog! On Monday (September 13th) I'm heading to Uganda, where I will spend nine months volunteering with WellShare International (www.wellshareinternational.org). Despite unreliable internet access and electricity, I'll try to post blog updates as often as possible. Enjoy!
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