Relaxation day
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.
Posts from previous days
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.
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.
10k run in Jinja
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...
First time in Bunio village
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
Lusoga words for the day: Bambi= Please / Baaaambi= Sorry
Birthday in Iganga
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.
Entebbe Arrival
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.
Dubai in a nutshell
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.
Today leaving for Dubai
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.
Ready to leave
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)!!!