i love indian food.

This past week I was in Mubende on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for meetings. Jessica and I stayed in at Town View Hotel, which was actually pretty nice – shower (albeit, a cold one), king-sized bed, breakfast included. On Thursday evening we headed to Kampala for a 3-day weekend.

Yesterday we ran all over the place. Kampala is much warmer than Ssembabule or Mubende, so we basically melted in the heat all day. I’m incredibly grateful that it isn’t this hot in the central region. We’ve already eaten Indian food here twice this weekend, and both times it has been fantastic. Uganda isn’t exactly known for its culinary greatness or diversity, but they do manage to make some amazing Indian food, and it tastes AMAZING after weeks and weeks of traditional Ugandan fare. Yesterday we did some souvenir shopping, and at night we went to a movie (Eat, Pray, Love - although I had already seen it in the US) and I finally ate popcorn, which I had been craving for a long time. The movie theater is inside Garden City, which is the shopping mall in Kampala, and it’s really nice because the mall is always busy and well-lit even late at night on the weekends, so I always feel like it’s a good/safe place to go and hang out, even if you’re by yourself.

Today we went to Aristoc, the biggest bookstore in Kampala. Turns out that my habit of buying way too many books (and then proceeding to bask in a book-buying high) in the US has followed me here, because I bought 7 books today. However, it’s good to stock up on books while we’re in town, and I know that I’ll eventually get to all of them (I have many more months and a lot of down time). Right now I’m hanging out at 1000 Cups, a really cool coffee shop that has lots of comfy chairs, a TV that plays CNN, a large souvenir shop, and selection of international newspapers and magazines. We have a little more shopping to do this afternoon and tomorrow, and then tomorrow we’ll head back to Ssembabule in the early afternoon.



This is me outside our hotel in Mubende, with attractive wet hair.

focus groups, movies, fried stuff

One of the projects I’ve been working on is developing focus group discussion questions regarding food preparation and supplementary feeding for children aged 0-2. I developed the questions and got feedback from the staff both here and in Mubende, and this past Thursday and Friday, I went into the field with the staff to hold our first focus group discussions and test out the questions. Obviously I don’t speak Luganda, so I basically introduced myself and then observed, but I’m very glad that I was able to observe the process. As the discussion is going on, one of the staff members takes notes in English, and then afterwards, I look at the notes and compile them. Our goal is to get an idea of the knowledge gaps that exist in the community, so that we are able to develop our education materials and interventions accordingly. It would be a waste of everybody’s time and resources to, for example, develop a cooking demonstration that shows women something they already know.

This weekend has been nice, as we’ve had power almost constantly. I’ve been watching a lot of Everwood (I brought the DVDs from home). While I was packing, I wasn’t sure how many DVDs to bring along, but I erred on the side of bringing too many rather than not enough. I have to say that I’m glad I brought as many as I did. I’m also going to buy some the next time I go to Kampala. It’s just nice (when power allows) to be able to veg out and escape by watching a movie (or several, as we tend to do on the weekends). On Friday Jessica and I watched both Center Stage and Center Stage 2… we’re kind of on a dance movie kick. We watched Save the Last Dance last week.

To try something new, we bought potatoes from the market, and yesterday we cut them into chunks and fried them, like chips. Luckily, as we were starting to make them, Beatrice came into the office, and helped us out. They turned out really well. Then she bought some green bananas and prepared them for us – peeled, thinly sliced, and fried. They were really good.. kind of like dried bananas, but not sweet. Yummm. I guess anything fried is usually good, right? Oh, and let me just say that bringing a large container of Lawry’s Seasoned Salt from the US was one of the best moves I made. We put it on both the potatoes and the green bananas. It tastes good on everything, and it’s been great to have here, since spices here are few and far between, and often not as flavorful as I’m used to.

classiness

I’ve been here for a little over a month, and I’ve tripped twice so far. Hopefully that pattern won’t continue, or else my knees will be even more scarred than they already are from years of bike and roller-blade wipeouts (as well as several tripping-up-the-stairs incidents that happened when I was far too old to blame them on any sort of childish clumsiness). The first weekend I was in Ssembabule, I lost my footing on the sandy, gravelly road and took a good chunk out of my left knee. Yesterday I totally wiped out while walking up the hill in the rain, landing on my left shoulder and losing both of my sandals in the process. Apparently the muddy sandy gravel is made of thousands of tiny razor blades, because I am mildly scraped up all over my body, and my shoulder hurts. Every time I picture what I must have looked like, I laugh out loud (like right now).

Later in the day, a gecko fell from the ceiling onto my arm, and I leapt around and hollered in a very un-ladylike way until I flung it off of me. The poor thing scrambled away and hid under a pair of shoes. It was actually cute, but I was unprepared for it to appear out of nowhere and latch onto my body.

Last night, the power went out. I had finished a book I had brought, and there are only a handful of books at the house here, so I chose to read my first ever Danielle Steel novel, circa 1995 (“novel” is a loose term, as I think I could have written that book at age 13). Hence this picture of me reading Danielle Steel by headlamp… how could I ever miss the US when I’ve got this?!?
So basically, I’m staying classy and not awkward over here.

pictures on facebook

after much trial and error, i was able to upload some pictures to facebook, but it's much more difficult to load to this blog. so, here's the link to the album on facebook, in case you haven't already seen it, or if you don't have facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3024917&id=13955180&l=372fdf6888

my first trip to mubende

On Monday, Jessica and I traveled to the other Central Region office in Mubende, where we’ll be until next Tuesday. The town of Mubende is like NYC compared to Ssembabule… it’s HUGE. We’re staying in the volunteer house, where the Program Manager and her husband usually live, but they’re in the US for 11 days so that’s why we’re here for so long. The house is pretty big, and it’s really nice to be able to stretch out and have a real kitchen. The volunteer house is right next to the office building, and the complex is about halfway up a big hill, so the view is pretty great. There is also nearly constant electricity, and better internet than in Ssembabule, so we’re living the high life here.

This week we’re going along on site supervisions of the faith/community-based organizations (F/CBOs) in Mubende, which is a time for us to provide advice and answer questions, and make sure that the projects that the F/CBOs are working on (funded by us) are on track. Right now, our priority is to make sure that they are on track with data collection using the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) tools that they’re supposed to use. For example, the community caregivers fill out forms when they visit people with HIV/AIDS (PHAs) and orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) – these forms are used to keep track of basic health information, and specific needs that the clients have. These forms make their way back to the F/CBOs, who should be recording the information in an Excel file for their records, and to help them prioritize the needs of the clients. However, this has been a huge challenge (as I think I’ve already mentioned), and the M&E process is not going as smoothly as it should be. The F/CBOs have limited resources and time, and they may only have one computer in their office, so it’s difficult for them to get the forms entered in a timely manner.

This may all sound boring or confusing, and it is kind of a pain, to be honest, but it’s really important that the F/CBOs (and in turn, WellShare, since the information is ultimately passed to us) have this information to keep track of the results of the programs we’re running. If there’s no way to evaluate the program, then it’s impossible to know whether it’s effective or not. This kind of information is also used when compiling the many reports that WellShare has to provide to USAID and other donors. So, Jessica and I are going with on the site supervisions this week to help the F/CBOs enter data and answer questions.

We spent yesterday at St. Thomas, one of the F/CBOs right down the hill from the office here. St. Thomas is partially funded by us, but they also get funding from Compassion, a Christian organization based in Colorado Springs. Through Compassion, they get grants to sponsor children from primary school through university (which I think is amazing). St. Thomas currently has 242 children come every Saturday for a variety of activities and support. It sounds really amazing. Yesterday when we were at their office, kids were stopping by all afternoon to pick up their new uniforms that they wear on Saturdays – and of course, the kids were adorable. They were pretty fascinated by us, and it was fairly entertaining to watch them all try on and get excited by their new uniforms. Jessica and I are planning on stopping by St. Thomas on Saturday to see what they do, and to hang out and play with the kids.

Today and tomorrow we’re also doing site supervisions at the two other F/CBOs in Mubende. It’s really good for me to be here and see how things work, as I’m going to eventually be taking over the M&E process from Jessica, and I need to understand how the big picture works. I left the U.S. one month ago today!

a picture!

This is the outside of the Ssembabule office, where I live:

food

Most of you probably wonder what I eat on a daily basis, so here’s a typical day:

Work starts at 8. There is usually some hot water lying around, and if there is, I’ve been making instant coffee that I bought in Kampala… not as good as the real thing, but it’s still nice to have a cup of coffee in the morning. We have tea around 9:30. The traditional tea here is really a type of chai – they boil milk (straight from the cow) and add water, and then steep some tea in it. I add sugar to it, and I actually really like it – it’s like a less spicy version of the chai that you find in the States. Plus, it’s pretty filling since it’s a cup of whole milk, and at least I’m getting some daily calcium, Mom! With tea we almost always have some kind of food, such as chapatti, bread w/margarine, fried cassava (cassava is kind of like a potato, really starchy, and when fried, it basically looks and tastes like large french fries), or these yummy round things that are like donuts but less sweet whose name I am blanking on right now. So tea is like my breakfast.

We have lunch between 1 and 2. By the way, Victoria, one of the office assistants, is the one who prepares all the food and tea. At the other office in Mubende, they don’t make lunch, so everybody is on their own, but it’s really nice that they make lunch here because at least I’m guaranteed one hot meal a day. We each pay 20,000 shillings, or about $10, per month for lunch. Lunch is always a traditional Ugandan meal. The main staple food here is matoke, which is cooked/steamed plantains. We also sometimes have rice, or posho, which is maize flour cooked with water into a starchy blob. These staples are usually served with beans or g-nut (groundnut, aka peanut) sauce. Other variations on this meal include dried fish, tiny silver fish that you eat whole, and shredded cabbage. On special occasions, like when we had our regional meetings last week, they had lunch catered, which was similar to what we normally eat but also included chicken and a few more sides. Usually, however, our lunch is very basic, with a staple and then one side or sauce. I don’t dislike any of the traditional foods, but I wouldn’t say that I love them either. The traditional diet here is very carbohydrate-heavy, with little protein. A limited variety of fruit and vegetables are available in town, but we don’t eat them in significant portions at lunch.

I’ve been really bad at cooking lately, and I’ve only prepared an actual dinner for myself a few times (although tonight we’re going to go buy vegetables and stock up for the weekend). I’ve mainly been eating crackers, bread and peanut butter, dried fruit, etc… things I’ve bought in Kampala or brought from home. The process of cooking here sometimes feels overwhelming, because we don’t have an actual kitchen. There’s a gas stove that we can use, but the sink is in another part of the building and we store food in our room, so we have to run all over the place to prepare a meal. However, I know that I’m going to have to start eating better soon, and I’m starting to crave real meals, so I know that I’ll inevitably get better at preparing dinner. There is also street food available – we’ve had chapatti and rolexes several times (I explained what those were in a previous post), both of which I think are really good, not to mention cheap. Food here is really inexpensive… but there is very little variety, so that’s the tradeoff, I guess.

Because of the monotony of my diet here, when I’m in Kampala it’s really exciting to eat other foods. I’ve already tried out several cafes and restaurants that serve American-style food, like sandwiches, burgers, fries, salads, etc. I also went to a good Indian restaurant last weekend. Food in Kampala is much more expensive than it is here, although I’d say prices are comparable to restaurants in the US, and sometimes a little cheaper. Before I leave Kampala, I buy some food at the grocery store to bring back here, such as crackers, cookies, chocolate, and juice. There is no grocery store in Ssembabule, only a few tiny shops that sell bread, eggs, water, and juice… so it’s a good idea to stock up before heading back to the field. It’s also really nice to have some comfort foods, such as chocolate (I’ve been buying Cadbury chocolate bars and Twix bars… yum), as a reprieve from our monotonous diet.

long time, no power

Here are some things that have happened since the last time I wrote...

- No power. The first week I was in Ssembabule, I was absolutely spoiled by having electricity virtually the entire time. Last Saturday, power went out for five days, so things were a little bit different. I actually got used to it after a few days. It’s not so bad during the day, except that you can’t charge your computer, which makes it difficult to get work done since a lot of our work requires the computer. Luckily, the office turned the generator on a couple of times so that we could charge things. Fuel is really expensive here, and there’s also some sort of fuel shortage, and since the generator runs on fuel, they only use it in extreme circumstances. It gets dark at 7 pm, so basically after that there’s not much to do when there’s no power. Jessica and I pretty much just sit in our dark room and kill time until it’s more socially appropriate to go to sleep... let’s just say we had some pretty early bedtimes when there was no power. The upside of darkness, however, is that you can see an amazing amount of stars in Ssembabule. Oh, and I have to give a shout out to Ellen and Emma for buying me a headlamp – THANK YOU! Despite its nerdiness, it’s about the handiest thing I own. Don’t knock it until you’re without power and trying to use a latrine at night.

- Regional Meeting. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the staff from Mubende came to Ssembabule for our monthly regional meeting. There was a lot to talk about and get done, and it was really good to meet the rest of the staff. It was especially nice to get to talk to Katie, the program manager (and basically my ultimate supervisor), more – she’s from Appleton, went to grad school at the U of M, and lived in Minneapolis before she moved here in August. Small world (although I guess it’s actually not that weird, since WellShare’s headquarters is in Minneapolis). Both Ssembabule and Mubende are essentially working on the same projects, but we’re at different stages and have some different ideas, so it’s good for us to communicate. Although I’m based in Ssembabule, I’m also going to be spending time in Mubende to help them out as well.

- Kampala. On Wednesday evening, as the staff from Mubende were preparing to leave, my supervisor, Beatrice, and Katie made a last-minute decision to send Jess and I to Kampala this weekend. Jess had to get her passport before going on a trip this weekend, and I came to meet with somebody at Mulago Hospital about supplementary feeding. WellShare is incorporating a supplementary feeding (for malnourished children ages 0-2) program into their current health education and training programs; we want to teach people how to use sustainable foods that they already have in their homes or communities to supplement children who are malnourished (mostly from protein malnutrition). Mulago Hospital in Kampala has a malnutrition unit called Mwanamugimu, so Jess and I went there yesterday to talk to the head of the nutrition department and see if she had any advice or resources for us. She was very helpful, and coincidentally, as we were wrapping up our talk, a woman who works for the nutrition unit at the Ministry of Health walked by, and we ended up going with her to the MOH to get some materials , advice, and to exchange contact information. Both people we met with were very helpful and supportive, and it was good to meet with them and get ideas for what we can do.

- Still in Kampala. So now, Jess is gone for the weekend and I’m still in Kampala. Today I’m working at the country office here, and tomorrow and Sunday my plan is to chill out, eat some good food, and find my way around the city a little bit better. My hotel is in the city centre and close to a lot of things (translation: it’s pretty noisy), and I even have my OWN bathroom with a HOT shower and a REAL toilet! I’m paying a little bit more than I’d like to, but for now, it’s worth it.