Juancho in Uganda

I am currently in Entebbe on my last day in Uganda. I came yesterday night from Iganga after taking two taxis/vans packed with people. The first one to Kampala was sad since just a couple of minutes before my taxi arrived to a spot a crash had pretty much destroyed a similar van and 8 people died. The second taxi was very hectic and long to take in a very packed taxi park in Kampala but I was able to make it to Entebbe Backpackers hostel by 5PM. Today I am taking my time here in town and probably walking towards the beach (not really a beach since this is a landlocked country but the sides of Lake Victoria) and taking a local breakfast. I already saw a place that has Katogo (I really don't know what it is but I am eating it!) and some African tea. The next post will probably be full of pictures when I am back in the US, but that won't be until friday night since I have a long layover in NY (Metropolitan Museum of Art... here I come!). I have had probably one of the best experiences in my life and hopefully one that determined what I want to do for the rest of it. This has been amazing!

Yesterday was good bye day and I even got the opportunity to visit Bunio again. The kids were jumping of joy when they saw me (at least that is what I believe) and the elders were very happy to see me again. It was interesting to hear that our house hadn't been opened since we left and we even got a tour of it again. It was very emotional and nice to see the Kidiki family, Patrick Kibumba, Auntie Joyce, Auntie Aida, Rejab, Idi, Waiswa and all the people that I am forgetting. Juliet went with me and she also had a great time. She took good care of me at the taxi park and fought her way to get me a front seat at the taxi at the same time that she was ready to cry. I will miss her too.

Other people that I said goodbye in the last two days are Medie and Reagan Kiviri from Safe Mothers Safe Babies organization, "my brother" at Moon supermarket (who wanted to give me a free Coca Cola), the Indian cook at the Pilau (rice with goat meat) place that invited me to eat at his house to learn the proper way to eat with the hands, the staff at Sol Café, and the rolex guy that gave me 2 additional mandazis for my taxi ride. I am very grateful to everybody in Uganda including the UVP staff. last note: The dinner at the UVP house with the pasta and the bottle of wine was delicious.... Thanks Kristen, Annie, Alanta, and Linnea!

Next post from Miami!!! See you all soon and I will remember Uganda forever!!!! Mwebale Uganda ino ino ino ino ino ino ino

Today is working day in Iganga. I am writing my report and even though it reminds me of a lot of nice memories in the village it gives me sadness too. Yesterday I was thinking about coming back to Miami and it kept me awake for quite some time since I know it is going to take me some time to accommodate. I will definitely miss this great country a lot.

Yesterday I came back from Mt. Elgon after a 4-day trip to climb Wagagai summit. It was one of the greatest adventures that I have ever taken and at some times I thought that I was not going to be able to achieved it. We started at the exploration center in Sipi Falls were we met our guides Jacob and Paul that were fully armed with AK-47 rifles (supposedly for poachers but it seemed a bit much to me!). We then proceeded to hike for 28km until our first camp that was at about 2900 meters high. We passed Tutum cave around lunch time, which was a large natural rock formation were tons of bats could be heard. The next day we did another long 20km hike to the second camp at 3900 meters of altitude. We were all pretty much exhausted from the long climbs, the amount of mud, and the blisters around our feet. Next day was Wagagai climb which took 9km and provided awesome views. We could even see the Kenyan mountains in the distance from this peak at 4300 meters. The descent was very comforting and we even made it to Sasa river camp which was at a much lower altitude (not as freezing cold as the night before!). The last day had an awful descent through the face of a mountain that looked like a wall. It took us about 4 hours to cover the 6km and it should had taken us a little longer if the rain would have been stronger the night before. All the clothes were pretty much covered in mud, but a nice shower and lunch at Rose's last chance restaurant gave us a much needed comfort.

Two of the team members of the expedition (Ted and Cameron) left this morning and the other one (Marshall) will leave for Nairobi tonight. I will be leaving for Entebbe tomorrow were I will spend the night and I will fly out on thursday via Addis, Dubai, and New York.

I AM GOING TO MISS AFRICA!!!

This has to be quick because we need to catch a car fast towards Sipi Falls. I went on Safari to Murchison Falls this past weekend and it was amazing. We camped close to the Nile at the Red Chili site and saw Giraffes, Hippos, Elephants, Lions (including cubs), tons of antelopes of any kind, warthogs, baboons, and crocodiles. There was a boat during monday afternoon that took us to the bottom of the falls and the views were just espectacular. We also did a hike on tuesday to the top of the falls and saw how powerful they are. Wednesday was spent shopping in Jinja (I got 1 awesome painting!) and saying good bye to the other team leaders from the program. We woke up really early and took a taxi to Iganga, proceeded to buy a jacket for the climb (jacket and Columbia sweter for 10 dollars total) and tried to exchange dirty clothes but my big bag was not available. We took a large coach bus to Mbale and we are ready for a 4 day hike towards Mt Elgon (highest peak is 4350 meters with a starting hike of 25 km tomorrow). I will enjoy the views from the Crow's nest today and also their Guacamole and chips as well as their tomato curry. On that note, I have become and absolute lover of Indian food and have eaten a lot of spices lately. I have been missing on something delicious for a very long time!!!

This was our last week and today we officially left our nice little piece of heaven. The village has been amazing and I am sure that I am going to miss its people and the peace that it exudes. Our main events this week were the finalization of the house to house sanitation pushes (a total of 137 were done) and arranging for our last event. Just after finishing the first one on tuesday we got caught by a huge rainstorm that made us wait at a small store. While waiting there were at least 8 kids that started running naked towards the road and played with the water and the rain. I almost wanted to join them, but I knew it was probably not a great idea. After some time throwing water at each other they even did some handstands and ran home were they coughed for quite some time (we got one of them inside the store and he wouldn't stop caughing!). After about an hour waiting we (Juliet and I) started walking in the middle of a drizzle and in full darkness. We made it home somehow with my newly nightly adapted Ugandan eyes and not as much mud on the shoes as expected.

The big event was fantastic with a huge xylophone type instrument that was made of long plantain three trunks and pieces of wood of different sizes. They played from 2PM (Esawa Munana) until 7PM. We got to even dance with some of the locals and enjoy little kids perform for us. We also arranged for a Chapatti maker to deliver 300 of these tortilla-like concoctions to the village and they were eaten in approximately 10 minutes. Everybody was very happy and we got to see even inhabitants of neighboring villages.

At night we got most of the farewells from the locals including uncle Willibur who promised to have his next son named Felipe because of me. To top everything off, Malaika and I decided to take the mattresses outside and slept with just a mosquito net above our heads. We didn't get to see as many stars as we wished, but the experienced was still great despite the lonely sheet that I had to cover myself and the lack of socks because I forgot to get them out of my room. This morning was pretty sad with everybody saying good bye and us not really wanting to leave. I will stay in Iganga tonight and tomorrow I will go to Kampala for a 3 day safari to Murcheson falls starting on Sunday. I will also go to Sipi Falls again next week to start the climb of Mt. Elgon on the morning of August 6.

PS. One person that I forgot to mentioned was "My Brother": This is the nicest store clerk in Iganga town from Moon Supermarket. This nice Pakistani always asks me... How is it going my brother? and was very concerned about my wallet when it was gone. He was very sad today when I bought airtime for the phone and found out that I will be leaving very soon.

There have been a lot of interesting people that I have not mentioned and it is now their time:

Smiling Jane: Jane is a secondary school student that once confessed to me that she wants to be a doctor and who loves biology class. Every time that collect water from the water we pass by her house and she greet us with a smile and a very long salute that includes greetings for every member of our team by name. I have not yet seen her without her huge smile, which is great!

Uncle Willibur: The son of the chairman, uncle Willibur delivers to us the milk every night and tells us what is happening in the town. He also is in charge of fixing the boreholes and has done a great job of following up on the engineers to finally have some water on the broken borehole (it broke down again today, but it should be fixed soon)

Patrick Kibumba: A cousin of the chairman, this mobilizer has killed all the pests from our house including the termites that were removed this week. His wife Justine is a very active participant in the community as well and someday she wants to be a village councellor. Good luck to her!!!

Auntie Joyce: The owner of our house is always laughing and loves to ask us questions in Lusoga. She is a very sweet woman that wouldn't let us go to bed if somebody forgets something outside or if the bikes are not properly parked. She also sweeps the compound in the most thorough form possible.

Auntie Ayda: Our cook has made our life great by giving us local Ugandan food. I even have special status now since she saves me some Posho to be turned into arepas when there is time for grilling. She is Rejab and Idi's mom.

Baby Goat: Not a person but the latest character in Bunio. This goat was born about 1 to 2 weeks ago and it is the craziest animal ever. It know stands on chairs, jumps on our walls like a skateboarder, or just slides on our porch like a skater. The craziest trick has been hitting both of the back legs on mid-air. We won't attach to much to it since he will probably turn to stew soon!

This week we had all the HIV events culminating with a testing day on thursday that had 159 people attending. We are very happy to have that many people coming since we had the fear that the men would not turn up due to fears of being found out by their wives. Even the newly elected member for the Village Health Team (VHT) in charge of HIV/STDs was present during the whole 6+ hour session and encouraged everybody to be tested by being the first one in line. A lot of condoms were also distributed and hopefully some more testing can be done in the future to control this virus that has been creeping up in Uganda again.

On friday we had the UVP tournament were Bunio was well represented by finishing 3rd (or 4th since that game was not played). We had a lot of fun and I was very proud of my 5 goals (people in Colombia are not going to believe that, but it is true!).

Thanks everybody for checking on me regarding the bombs in Kampala, but I was safe in Iganga watching the game at Sol Cafe. It was nice to see Spain win and in the process win 2 beers (that have not been paid yet!). I only found out about the bombs the next morning through a phone call from UVP staff. It was only until later that day that full explanations started showing up linking them to the somali based terrorist group Al Shabab. It seems that they wanted to grab attention before the African Union meeting that is starting in Kampala this week as well as protest for the 20,000 troops that Uganda has in Somali as peacekeepers. So far we have been banned from travelling to the capital or Jinja, which is a pretty good idea since there are also primary elections for the president's party (NRM) this wednesday. I will not travel this upcoming weekend and after the meetings are over things should calm down.

On Friday I went to Sipi falls with people from Buwaiswa village and two interns based in Iganga. We were lucky to grab a Lubra coach bus that was going all the way to Kapchorwa even though we had to bear the movie "Police Officer" that was dubbed in Lusoga with something that seemed like a megaphone (it was also one of the worst pieces of acting ever). We got there for a nice sunset and able to appreciate the lower falls from the Crow's Nest were we stayed. The next day we hiked upper and middle Sipi in the morning and later proceed to the top of lower Sipi. This is when we rapelled the 100 meter fall and got one of the most spectacular views of my whole life. It was just amazing and I cannot wait to do something similar in the future. After a really nice warm shower and a nap we climb to the hill on top of the hotel and saw another spectacular sunset with the typical African view that you see in the movies. A couple of mountains close by and a very large savannah (this one without that many animals) extending until the horizon. The pictures that I took are not doing enough justice to the magnificence of the view. The next morning we travelled back to Iganga with just a minor disturbance in Mbale where a mob of bus conductors wanted us to take their vehicles without letting us speak and even grabbing us. It was later on solved and I was back in Bunio by 4:00 PM ready to clean up my sneakers that couldn't take any more mud.

This week we had a deworming session on wednesday. We gave Membandazole to kids and adults except for infants less than 1-year old and pregnant mothers. We had a total of 205 people dewormed and hopefully more will pass by our house to do it. Most kids have swollen bellies that are very likely due to the worms. We also immunized with the help of the local healthcenter on the same day and on saturday held a sensitization regarding nutrition. Everything seems to be very important in the community since the regular definition of a meal is just something that fills up, but probably doesn't provide all the necessary nutrients. Hopefully our Village Health Team (13 women and 9 men) will continue these pushes. We hope that the training that they have received from us along with a 2-day session with the Red Cross will empower them to be leaders in the community and push for a healthier village in a sustainable way without depending on outside organizations.

Our village suffered another loss this week. We had a 5-year old that died on tuesday night from unknown causes so far. It was very sad to know that he was very healthy the night before and I was even told that he yelled to me "How are you?" on tuesday night when I drove the bicycle past his house. I am trying to remember exactly if I responded or not, but for sure I have been more attentive to any salutation that I get from anybody. Any hello, any Mzung bye could be the last and I don't want to know that I didn't give it. It doesn't cost me anything and actually fills me with joy. The kid was also the cousin of the 14 year old that died last week and the family was very devastated. I am not liking going to their burials, but I know that it is very frequent in an area with so many health problems. I hope that there are cases that get controlled due to our interventions, but it is only the failures which are clearly visible.

This post was supposed to be uploaded last week. Lack of power and the internet down prevented it... SORRY

This week started very sadly with the sound of drums around the village. Wilbur (the son of the chairman that leaves just across from our house) went around the village communicating the bad news of the death of a 14 year old boy that had sickle cell anemia. Since he was Muslim the burial had to be the same day and Juliet and I attended. It was very sad to see the parents and his friends from school in such a shock. I even had to do a small speech and even though I heard from somebody afterwards that it was nice, I don’t think that there is anything that you can really mention that is comforting enough. The rest of the week was handled between sanitation pushes on a house to house basis where we checked to see if the villagers had latrines (toi), plate stands, and tippy taps. If they didn’t we informed them about the benefits of having one and how to build them. There was also a visit to the Christian school for sanitation on Wednesday and an election for the Village Health Team (VHT). This team will assume the responsibilities of our group and hopefully be fully independent of the organization after 3 years and work directly with the government. During this election we were introduced to Fred. Fred is a kid that is turning 8 soon but looks like he is 4. He also has sickle cell anemia and is extremely malnourished. His arms are extremely thin and even Kristen from our team said that she could see his heart through the visible rib cage. We are hopeful that we can send him to Ibulanku hospital where there is a nutrition program that lasts about 2 months and teaches families how to help these kids. We know that his sickle cell condition cannot be cured (even in the US), but at least he could manage it better. In the same note, we have a person in the community that has always been the first to buy our preventive solutions (e.g. he bought 3 mosquito nets during the first week). He had complained of problems that he assumed were malaria, but on Thursday we found out that it is really Parkinson’s disease. There is nothing to cure it, but I don’t know how his large family will manage his sickness once more dramatic stages arrive and his labor cannot be counted.

I just talked to my brother and he is perfectly fine.

When the bomb exploted, he wasnt in Kampala.

He says that they are not allow to go to Kampala soon. But also says that he is not worry because it seems to be an attack to a specific group.

He says also thank you to all you guys for being worried about him!

Have you guys a good day!

MARIA

I didn't finish the visit to Kampala, so here it is. On monday we visited the Uganda Wildlife office to request information about climbing Mt. Elgon (not really a reservation needed) and then spend about an hour at the Uganda Museum. It was interesting for all the cultural things it had, but the signs of lack of funding are evident. After this we were invited to eat at the house of Mansi's friends (one of the girls in Bunio) and had probably one of the best lunches that I have eaten in Uganda. It was a typical Indian food and the spices were just perfect. After this just a long taxi trip to Iganga and sleep at Bunio.

On wednesday we went to the Christian school in Namalemba for a sanitation push and met with some English people that are teaching during the summer. They were all very young (18 - 19) and just ready to go to Uni (their word, not mine). We had tea with them and invited them for burritos in our house next week. After this, one of the teachers guided us to a dance and singing practice that was amazing. The children had just learned a song and the female voices were very much in tune (sorry boys, you still need some work). They were very soft and soothing and I even got goosebumps. The dances from the girls were fantastic and they could give Shakira a good competition with the shaking. I thought that their hips were going to break a couple of times from all the movement.

This weekend was the big Nile rafting trip and it all started with a very dusty boda boda (motorcycle) ride to the campsite, which was about 7 km away from Jinja and took 10 minutes. The driver was insanely fast, but I made it in one piece. There were awesome views of the white Nile from the dorms and we had time for a couple of Nile Gold beers before sleep. The action on saturday was intense with a 20 minute ride on a bus to the departure site and a selection of a team since there were 5 boats available. Of course I took the one that wanted to flip the most and other 6 people (including Mike the Zimbabwean guide) joined in. I only survived without falling until the 1st grade 5 rapid and I was thrown out of the raft alone. I didn't have any idea of orientation until I finally made it to the surface for the second time and a safety kayak kept me up. I later on found out that I just flipped backwards and the raft passed above my head. The next grade 3 was also terrible and once again I was the only one to fall off... what can I say? I am just too tall for these things I thought. After lunch I changed sides and I made it through some falls (literally a 14 foot drop across rocks) without falling and then it was just mayhem for the rest of the day since the full boat flipped twice. The last one was the worst of it since it was supposedly the world's largest grade 5 rapid that can be rafted commercially. Its name: BAD PLACE. I hit my lip on someones helmet, but I would do it in a heartbeat. It was an amazing experience that could only be topped off with a very cold Club beer at the pickup place. Since it was somebody's birthday we finished the day with a shot of Zappa (they light it like Sambuca) and two shots of Olmeca tequila. Unfortunately there are no pictures of this, but I will try to find the video that somebody else bought of the whole adventure. The first one just tasted like warm mouthwash with liquor and the other two were ok, except for the lack of lime. I am now in Jinja in an internet cafe finally catching up on emails since last week and still savouring the orange chocolate cake that I just ate at Flavours cafe.

I am staying tonight in Iganga town to watch the World Cup final and see how Spain lifts the trophy!!! VAMOS ESPAÑA!

Lusoga words of the day: Tubonagane lelo = See you later today
Emesa = Table (is this not related to Spanish???)

Is still 4th of july for a couple more minutes in Kampala. We got to see the fireworks at the US recreation club even though the ex-pat environment from official workers is not really the thing that accommodates best with my personality. We also got to walk for quite some time and eat some rice pilau in a small restaurant. Tomorrow Gibson and I are planning to go to the Uganda Museum and check the requisites to climb Mt. Elgon, which should take us 4 days after the end of the UVP program. It should be a really cool to that with other 5 people at the beginning of August.

The village had an interesting experience yesterday with our family planning day and the supposed building of a fence around a bore hole. At the end the villagers didn't show up for the fence but promised to do it by themselves today and also collect some money to do mechanical repairs before it completely breaks down. It gives me hope for the sustainability portion since it means that they are using their local resources a lot and not depending on the Mzungu.

New batch of arepas was made yesterday with an improved thinner version and more handling of the dough. They came excellent to my taste and to the delight of our cook and even one of my team members. An interesting story happened during the Uruguay-Ghana game due to the African excitement from everybody. We got to see it in box seats! Translation: It was so packed that we got a handle of a couple of soda bottle plastic boxes and sat on them for the whole lenght of time among a hugely packed balcony. As you may imagine the sad faces were rampant after the end of the game. So far I have not watched much of the soccer due to the lack of access in Bunio, but I will definitely stay the night in Iganga to see the final.

Like you hear it! I made arepas in Bunio yesterday based on posho, which is just corn flour (pronounced fla by the locals) and water. I got a little piece of chicken wire mesh and place it in top of the charcoal oven and voila... AREPAS. Only our cook tried them but I had no problem eating the four of them (I even have pictures that I can show later).

This week was really rewarding because we spent a lot of time cleaning the water sources and the effects of the work are really tangible. On monday we cleared the brush from the natural spring and made the trenches bigger for a faster flow to the swamps and on thursday built a fence around our close by bore hole. We also spent wednesday teaching the children in the muslim school about hygiene and sanitation as well as STDs and HIV/Aids (they had no problem about us mentioning condoms which was really good!). I have to leave right now due to logistics planning for my trip to Kampala tomorrow!

So... Who is Salifa Nabirie? First of all in Uganda most people say their last name first and the first name second. It was difficult for us to understand, but one of our Ugandan interns told us that this was her full name. Salifa Nabirie lives very close to the entrance of the water well path and everyday that we walk or pass by on the bike she storms out of her compound and meet us. She is very assertive and as soon as she sees us she asks... What is my name? She really means to ask What is your name? but we haven't been able to change this yet. We have even answered her with her name directly and she always responds with My name is Salifa Nabirie. I am sure we will be able to change the question to What is your name? eventually.

The week with UVP has been excellent with lots of things done including a presentation regarding Malaria at the Christian school where we announce the sale of long lasting insecticide sprayed mosquito nets (they lasts up to 5 years) for just UGX 3000 (about USD 1.50). They seem to be very interested in purchasing and we should have a number of nets by tomorrow. We had a nice sketch of a person sleeping with and without mosquito nets and how they are supposed to be tucked in under the mats they normally sleep in. After this we had a general meeting with the community on Thursday where there were elections for mosquito net distributors and WaterGuard (treatment of water based on chlorine that sells for UGX 500 per bottle when subsidized by us and can clean up to 40 large jerry cans that hold 20 liters).

The week has also been the one of religious visits with one last Sunday at a Christian church, one to the mosque on Friday, and another Christian church today in Busembatia. They were all very nice to welcome us and allowed us some time to discuss what UVP is doing and how to contact us. I believe that these have been great opportunities to meet important leaders of the larger area of Namalemba-Busembatia that contains Bunio and also to show respect for their culture and beliefs. On this note, it has been very interesting to see how the dynamics between all religions play out since the sense of community seems to overcome any problems that may arise due to different faiths. The committees selected by the village have representatives from all faiths and they work together for the well being of all inhabitants without preference. I am really proud to have visited them and to know that they are an example for the rest of the world.

Interesting day yesterday... First of all it started with PANCAKES. We visited a Peace Corps volunteer who teaches biology and math at a secondary school (Kisiki College in Namatumba). We were able to reach there by 9:15 and we were treated to pancakes, ginger cake, and fresh squeezed orange juice. We also stayed for some music presentations of singing groups at her school but we had to leave early to see the traditional songs or dances. After this we went to a wedding introduction (not a wedding but the stage before), where the families meet and the dowry is brought. The dowry had among other things a couple of chickens, a cow, some goats, and a dinner table. They even made us (the bazungu) stand up and have a couple of words with the general congregation.

I am now in Iganga town for the rest of the day and will hope to see some soccer after hearing most of the games in Swahili through our short wave radio (I don't really understand anything but the BBC mostly changes languages once the games start)

This week has been full of meetings with 6 focus groups with people of different ages. The information that we got has been invaluable since we probably underestimated the villagers in certain aspects and we expected to tackle some problems in a more profound way that they perceive them. For sure we will be doing a big job regarding safe water, malaria, family planning and HIV/Aids education and testing. The village feels more like home everyday and even now in Iganga I am craving to go back tonight because of the peace you feel at night and just the wonderful wonderful attitude from absolutely everybody there. The week started a little bit hectic. I finished staying the night in Jinja and watching the USA-England game among a bunch of British and American fans in a very nice restaurant called 2 Friends. After this we found out on Sunday that we were supposed to move to Iganga for 2 days due to the bat problem. We stayed that night in a very weird guest house that had the Toi (understand square room with a hole in the middle) full of cockroaches. The girls were freaking out and the next night was spent at the Canaan Compound, which was very nice and provided an awesome location to watch night football (sorry guys, I am in Uganda and I refuse to call it soccer!). We finally came back to Bunio on Tuesday and spent the rest of the week doing the focus groups mentioned.

There has been a topic not mentioned before that should be talked about: Rolex. Rolexes are the local fast food in Iganga (and since yesterday in our household!). They are a spanish egg omelet wrapped in a corn flour (pronounced fla in Uganda) tortilla that is fried and thicker than regular Mexican ones. They cost UGX 900 (USD 0.45) in the street and they are wrapped in old newspapers for you to carry. They have been saviours whenever you are hungry and they are pretty much sold anywhere in Iganga town. By the way, after I finish posting this I will buy one to go with me on the trip to Bunio.

Now Rejab. He is the son of our cook and the brother of Idi (yes, like Amin!). He always says hi to us and even goes with me when we play football. He is the nicest and happiest kid ever and just yesterday we taught him how to play Frisbee with the top peel of an orange (it is possible, believe me!). Idi has also helped us a lot collecting water once in a while and organizing the teams when we play, even though they are not as balance as we would wish.

This week I was also told that they will give me a piece of land and with the Lusoga I know I could leave among them. It was amazing to hear that when it was translated, even more so coming from the main mobilizer woman in the village. In addition, she gave us a couple of eggs (maggi) that were properly used in the rolexes.

Lusoga word of the week: Juanji = Answer to anybody when your name is called. Since the girls joke that my name is Juanji I turn around every two minutes.

I am now in Jinja at Flavours cafe where the wireless internet is free. I will probably drink this coca-cola very slowly and take advantage of it. The week has been great and I was just told that I have a nice tan. We had one community meeting this week already and had 153 people attending. We have also had a couple of interviews with the community and we are very excited since we think that we can really establish a good network to distribute water treatment and mosquito nets even in more places that we needed to. We will do our first push this week and even though we haven't decided yet what we will do there are plenty of topics since malaria is rampant, water is mostly not treated and sanitation leaves a lot to be desired. This week we already found a person that will do all our food shopping for the week and have it ready for us just after our monday meeting. The food this week was very good especially the cabbage with onions and tomatos (I know... cabbage Juan???) and the posho. The last one is like arepa dough without the form, so I just added butter and ate the portions of 3 or 4 people. The Ugandan interns couldn't quite figure out why I was putting butter, but they saw my very happy face and understood. I have been playing soccer pretty much every day with the kids and I honestly think that the soccer ball will only last another week or two. They play until it is pitch black and on very uneven teams (a lot of 5 to 10 year olds against 10 older players that just push their way around). They like that I kick the ball really high and they make comments about the mzungu (hopefully they are good). I only know the name of two of the kids and they are Anton and Idi (I know!!!). Finally... There are pictures today... Enjoy them.

Just a quick note on living without these benefits. Everyday we have to fetch water at the well and store it in 20 liter jerry cans. The well is about 500 meters away and we normally go on one of our bikes and tie the jerry cans on the side. The showers are done via a basin and a plastic cup that throws water over our head, but cold water feels great with the local heat. As I mentioned before there are kerosene lamps at night but it gets pitch black about 7:00 PM and then we just talk and eat. I haven't read at all during this week because of the lack of light. I have to make it to a meeting in 10 minutes... I will write later.

We are today on our free day in Iganga after spending three full nights in our house in Bunio. There are bats that make really nice noises at night and it has rained pretty heavily, but it is a delightful experience. For example, yesterday we sat for about 2 hours at the veranda talking and watching one of the most beautiful skies in my life. The villagers are extremely friendly to us and they keep on thanking us for everything, while also providing great foods like milk tea and mangoes that tasted just like the Colombian ones. Regarding our work in the village, we have visited two of the wells/bore holes that are not working and we will try to have somebody check them out from the local district water office. The people that benefit from them have to walk long distances and normally it is the kids and the women who are the ones that have to fetch water on jerry cans. We have also seen a lot of under 5 years old children with probable worms and hopefully in conjunction with the local health center something can be done.

I have a lot of nice side stories and I am just going to write about them randomly. I find this better now that a day to day recollection. The first one is about soccer and the sensation that the world cup ball made on the village. The kids still keep it at our house but every morning they come and ask for it. I have already played a little bit but I sweat so much on this heat that it is impossible to keep up with them. Yesterday I was walkin around with the other volunteers and a little girl (about 4) greeted me in Lusoga and then proceed to tell me: "Can you please snap"... I snapped my fingers and what she really wanted was a picture. When I took the camera out she called her friends that started coming from every place. It was really nice. Today I was also waiting for a computer at the internet cafe (at the end I have picked a different place after lunch) and a couple of kids got close to me. I started speaking English and they repeated everything that I said. Since the wait was very long I had time to teach them the numbers in English as well as different things that I drew in my hand (house, people, sun, even a cow that resembled a humped dinosaur). We then played with air filled zip loc bags and pens that turned out to be the most playful things that I have used. I have a couple of pictures of them... That has been one of the best times of my whole stay.

Now a little request. We have a water project here that requires the cleaning of the water after the well with a solution called Water Guard. We have now a very expensive dispenser that they are trying to accomodate at each well but I thought that the little adapter that can be placed in liquor bottles for serving shots could be used. (they are normally made out of plastic and have a metal ball. My little cousin Tomas became an expert user thanks to Tawi!). There is a person that only comes next week and I am hoping that I can bring some with him. I am looking for about ten of these little things, so if you know how to get them please write to my sister (Maria sorry for giving you a logistical problem!) and she could probably help to send it to us. I will probably just write weekly or every two weeks.

Today we just organized our rooms, did some laundry by hand (clothes dry very quickly on this extreme heat), and ate some lunch at Sol Cafe in Iganga. I had a chicken and mushroom pizza, which is not local at all. Our interns come later on today and we will just go to play cards, read, and talk until they arrive. I just needed to come to the internet place to find the results of the Colombian elections and the results were brutal. I didn't expect Santos to win with such a large margin, but we still have to wait for second round. I should have plenty of stories by the middle of the week.

I finally have the notebook with me, so here are the stories from previous days...

MAY 24 Move to Iganga
Last night I ate supper at the hostel. It was a fish kebab with rice recommended by the cook. DELICIOUS. This morning I ate more than half of Megan's breakfast (she didn't want most of the fruit and the largest slice of bread that I had ever seen). We then proceeded to go to Entebbe by foot where she got some cash and reported home. After this we visited the botanical gardens that were not clearly marked at all (we spent about 30 minutes wondering around and everybody gave us a different set of instructions). The place was not as exciting as we thought and we didn't see any of the monkeys that were advertised. The best part was cooling off by the very thick and green waters of Lake Victoria. We walked back to the hostel were we I ate my first 2 chapattis (fried tortillas) with a whole bowl of Quacamole (yes... they spelled it with a Q). Just afer this the UVP staff picked us up along with the other people at the airport. We went from there to Kampalafor a quick break and then 3 hours on a bus to Iganga. The road that we took was paved but mostly with just one lane on side, which is bad since it is the export/route for this landlocked country. We had dinner with chicken, matooke (plantain puree), peanut sauce, irishes (regular potetoes since the sweet kind are just called potatoes), and a soda drink name Mirinda Fruity (purple in color). I am now in my own room with a very large double bed since the rest of the US volunteers are women and had to share. THOUGHTS: From the road the country looked a lot like very poor rural areas of Colombia with tin roofs and fruit sales along the road (they make towers of mangoes too!). For some reason I expected more poverty still, but I haven't been around Iganga and my village yet.

MAY 26 First impressions
They surprised me with the largest birthday card I have ever received and a banana cake. Today was a day of reflection were hard numbers just cut too deep. We heard from a former intern that is now working at the health ministry about a district (similar to a state but with only about 200K people) that had only one official doctor from the government. The brain drain is incredible and even the NGOs canibalize the market by offering better pay than the government. I am also part of the problem in the sense that I left my country too, but I still believe that I could help more through the path that I have taken so far. I have also seen plenty of microcredit institutions and even though they are very helpful, they seem to have very short payments schedules for what I have heard from some of the local interns. They seem to be able to repay, but there is no really a profit that they can make with such tight payment terms. This has been a positive reflection though, since I have also seen a clearer vision for my program and their emphasis in local and sustainable solutions. On a lighter side, I learnt to play "Matatu" (they said first that it didn't have a name but finally they came up with the same word as minibus). It was a card game similar to Uno, but with rules that surprised me and always seemed to be against any cards I had.

May 28 Walking through Bunio Village
I went to Bunio Village agiain and did a visit throughout with a local elder. I even pumped water from one of the wells, but found out that 2 of them don't work. They said that they had contacted the NGO that put them there originally (not UVP) and they haven't been there in 4 months. I heard of this before and still makes me mad that there is no training/procedure for the local population in case that something like this happens. Hopefully we can help in this respect and have a person in charge of this from the locals. I also heard a lot about land purchases by land investors, which worries me since they can encroach these communities and ultimately destroy them. I hope I am wrong on this! It has been wonderful to learn some Lusoga since the locals seem ammazed that a mzungu speaks some of their words. Spanish definitely helps a lot in learning the local languange and my goal is to be able to have a full conversation when I leave this great place. It was also nice to hear that we are the only NGO that uses interns that try to learn the languand and I hope that there will be many in the future that copy that. At least trying to learn shows respect for the culture and opens many many doors.

I did it! I ran the 10k this morning and surprisingly enough it wasn't as bas as I thought. I ran together with Marcella (staff member from Brazil) and it only took us an hour and 20 minutes. We were very afraid that the truck that was picking the late late runners will get us but we avoided it. I have been sending posts every other day, but there are plenty of stories that are on my notebooks. I keep on telling this just in case that people ask what happened the other days. For instance, yesterday I had a bad case of flu with sneezing the whole day, but after Juliet gave my some honey and I bought some Nims (lemons) at the market everything turned great. We had training with the red cross for First aid and the day went pretty fast. Ok... today. We woke up at five to get the special hired truck to take us to Jinja for the run and we were here by 6:50AM. After a little delay we started and making it was just unbelievable. The knee barely bothered, which was great and we even had time to buy bananas on the way. After this we went to Flavours cafe (a really nice place were a lot of expats seem to hang out). I don't know if this actually true, but it felt that the chocolate orange cake I ate was the best thing that has ever passed through my mouth. I topped it with a Castle Milk Stout beer to continue the running tradition. Almost all the team leaders are now next to me typing as fast as they can to minimize internet charges and inform as many people as possible of what is happening. My team arrives tomorrow and what is in store for us is 2 months of very hard work since there are a lot of things to do in the villages. For instance, I visited mine again on saturday and it was very extensive with a couple of bore holes/wells not working. I am sure we will be able to improve the conditions and developed a healthy village team that will sustain the interventions after we leave. Every time that I speak with the people from the staff they impress me more since they are willing to hear the locals and respect that they have a better knowledge of their village and needs and they also want to implement programs that can be continued by the villagers. This is a very sustainable model that probably doesn't get as many photo ops as other NGOs but I think is the right one. I won't be able to write as frequently starting next week since I will be living in the village from Monday through friday (no shower and pit latrine only), but I should be able to let you know how everything is going every once in a while. Thanks for all your messages again...

We went today to Bunio for the first time along with the subcounty office. First we took a taxi (mini bus designed for 12 people that sits 18! Don't tell me how I got inside with my backpack and helmet) and then a boda boda (motorcycle taxi). The chief and his family welcomed us with a lunch of rice and beans along with a huge portion of Jack fruit (there are pictures but uploading will be almost impossible with the connection). We then had corn on the cob and walked back to the main road for the taxi back to Iganga. I am sitting here in this cafe with Juliet after a Coca-Cola that tasted just unbelievable and we will go back to Jenny's place shortly. I just signed up to run a 15K race this weekend, even though they will allow to walk it (that is mostly what I will do). It starts at the beginning of the Nile in Jinja and costs just 10K shillings (about USD 5 to sign up). I have a couple of stories on my notebook but I will post them later on when I have a better connection and Juliet is not as tired.

Lusoga words for the day: Bambi= Please / Baaaambi= Sorry

My birthday has been awesome. I will update what happened yesterday later on since it is already in a notebook and the internet at this cafe is very very slow. We had a whole day of orientation ranging from health issues to local customs that we should follow when we do the outreach. Since I am the only male, they expect me to dress very formal and I will need to iron all my clothes in a place with no electricity... meaning ironing with a coal iron. I remembered a couple of those at my grandfather's museum room but they were never used. Let's see how that goes. We also went around town the whole day on a scavenger hunt to find the local places like the supermarket, police station, and of course the internet cafe. We are walking back in a couple of minutes to have dinner with all the other team leaders and then have a beer (I have only tried Tusker or Club so far and the most impressive part... the bottles are all half a liter!). I already got an awesome birthday present: All the little kids yell Mzungu Bye! Mzungu Bye! when you pass by and move their hands saluting (Mzungu means foreigner). I cannot count the number of times that I have said bye back but they always get a smile out of me. In a sense I also got a "bandeja paisa" since we had rice, beans, and avocado for lunch among other things and I mixed them together. To top it off I got "murrapos" in the market (baby bananas). Sorry about the lack of pictures but the connection is not good enough so far. I will try a day that I have more time! Thanks to everybody for the messages today... I really appreciate them and sorry for not replying to them personally.

I just arrived in Uganda five years ago and it is very very nice. Shalom from the backpacker's hostel picked me up and we spoke about our mutual love for the best football (sorry it is not soccer!) team in the world: FC Barcelona. I am now waiting to eat dinner with my fellow hostel people including a couple of girls from Canada and a couple that leads tours in Uganda and Rwanda (she is from Sevilla and he is from Portugal). My friend from UVP should be arriving shortly and we are planning to go around Entebbe tomorrow. The views from the plane showed Kampala as a very large city with a much closer proximity to Lake Victoria than I expected. Interesting fact that I forgot to mentioned before... Flying into Dubai we had a portion of the flight right above Iraq and almost exactly through Baghdad. Today it was on top of Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

This is going to be quick since my flight to Entebbe is boarding shortly and getting wi-fi throughout Dubai wasn't as easy as I thought. The first night I came when the metro was already closing so I didn't do much besides sleep (including 4 hours in the middle with my eyes open due to the jet lag). On saturday the 22nd I visited the Burj Al Khalifa building (tallest in the world) including the view from the 124th floor. I walked in Jumeirah road for about 2 hours on a 41 degree celsius heat to see the Burj Al Arab hotel and the pictures were really nice. Dubai reminds me a lot of Las Vegas in regards to the luxury in some places (Dubai mall has an ice rink, fountain like the one at the Bellagio, and an aquarium similar to the one in Atlanta). The end of the day was great with a train ride to Dubai marina by reccomendation of my Indian host at the hotel where I ate a traditional iranian chicken with an awesome sweet dressing on the rice. I woke up at 5:30AM to catch the flight and I am just 35 minutes away from boarding to Entebbe. I can't wait to see Uganda for the first time.

I will be leaving for Dubai today where I will spend a little bit more than 24 hours. I need to get a good picture of the Burj Al Arab hotel and visit the local and more traditional markets. After that... Entebbe on sunday. I will try to make entries depending on the time and access constraints and hopefully post pictures! I needed to do this...definitely.

With the help of my sister I almost finished packing. I just finished spraying all my clothes with Permethrin (the mosquito repellant) and the medical preparations have been completed well in advanced. I have been in the malaria profilactic for more than a week and no sign yet of any big problem with the skin sensitivity. I am finally realizing today that this is for real.... I AM DEFINITELY GOING TO UGANDA WITH UGANDA VILLAGE PROJECT (UVP)!!!