A Peace Corps Volunteer!

38 Health and Agriculture Trainees and 13 Global Health Services Partnership Trainees swore in at United States Ambassador DeLisi home in Kampala on Wednesday 6, 2014.

If you cannot spot me... I am third row down far left second/third in. 

Tech Training

Date Written: August 2, 2014

Now the Fun Part

This past week, we had what is called Tech Immersion. Four volunteers and myself traveled about an hour east of Kampala to a town called Mukono where we spent the week with two fellow health volunteers. The volunteers house we stayed at had a beautiful view of the countryside and town. Only down side of it was it was right next to a bar which played music until three in the morning and a couple really annoying guard dogs that would go crazy whenever people or other animals walked by their compound. Let us just say we did not get a lot of sleep and by the time we left for Jinja on Friday, we were very happy to have some peace and quiet in Jinja. Sadly we lost one of our volunteers back to Kampala for some serious medical issues at the start of the week which throw everything off a little but he/she is okay! We spent the rest of the week traveling around Mukono presenting information to actual Ugandans and using translators. I presented a WASH demonstration on hand washing and other volunteers presented on HIV, Malaria, and Mother Child Health Nutrition.
On Sunday, we thankfully didn’t have to get up at 5AM to travel to Arua like other volunteers did because we were only about an hour away by taxi we went to Kampala and spent a couple hours wondering around eating, and being lazy. We ran into Sam Childers also known as the Machine Gun Preacher (they made a movie about his life with Gerard Butler) we chatted with him about his life, organizations, and his new documentary about his life is coming out. Pretty cool guy and some awesome tattoos on his arms. We arrived in Mukono around dinner and we officially had street food – Rolex and chips… Rolex’s are the best thing under the sun. Chapatti a thick tortilla and a Spanish omelet rolled together. Monday, we thankfully did not have to do anything so we sat around all day in our pajamas being lazy and started planning for the week. We took a walk into town and got another yummy rolex.  The main reason we didn’t do anything was because it was the end of Ramadan and it was national holiday for the Muslims so of course every other Ugandan took advantage of it and closed up shop and schools - which happens a lot with holidays. So we had a much needed day off. Tuesday, we had an awesome day traveling to a fishing landing site on Lake Victoria where the fishermen who fish the waters of Lake Victoria live with their families. We did HIV testing and outreach there. They tested 40 people only four had HIV which was a good number for a fishing village. We spent most of the afternoon playing games with the children and one of our volunteers gave a presentation on HIV.

My Favorite Moment Thus Far Has Been Making Her Smile

My Little Buddy

The Fishing Village On Lake Victoria

On Wednesday we did the classic Ugandan thing and sat around. We arrived at 8:30AM for a morning presentation we sat around until 11AM. I will be getting lots of reading done – I read through The Color Of Water by James McBride in two days (good book check it out) and I am reading War Child by Emmanuel Jal. Finally, the group arrived and a volunteer presented on mother child health nutrition to a group of teen moms after we finished the group taught us how to make paper beads. Later in the afternoon, another volunteer talked about malaria and did grass roots soccer with some staff members (the group we were supposed to be at was cancelled so we presented to our hosts co-workers). The staff members got really into freeze tag which was hilarious.

The Group Answering Questions About WASH

Thursday, I presented my WASH presentation on basic hand washing to a group of children they rounded up on the street as the school I was going to present at had been canceled (this is pretty normal so we just rolled with it). We had about 35 children showed up and it was a blast to show them how to wash their hands. Many did not know the proper way to wash their hands.  It was amazing how dirty hands can become.

Washing Their Hands

Friday rolled around and we made our way to Jinja early since our fifth person was just being discharged from the hospital, We arrived just outside Jinja and did a presentation on Goal setting and self esteem to a group of hip-hop dancers in their late teens. It was a lot of fun and the kids are great dancers. We spent the night along the Nile in Jinja at a rafting camp site which was pretty cool to be around people from across the world. Jinja itself is okay. It’s extremely expensive and everything is so so. Lots of white people live there and none of them were friendly. Also always ask for half the amount because if you are white they will charge you extra. The East side of the country is pretty cool but I am very excited to get back to my site. One thing cool about coming to this side is I have gotten to experience what it is like to live in a hostel which it is kind of cool. So tomorrow, we head back to Kampala for a final couple days of training and we swear in on Wednesday! I cannot wait! It is odd as it finally becoming real to officially become a Peace Corps Volunteer.

News Update

After much consideration Peace Corps Kenya has closed due to fighting and security concerns with its volunteers. Peace Corps Uganda thought we would get a few of the volunteers who wanted to continue their service but sadly we did not. I know Peace Corps and many other people hope to be able to return to Kenya but it might be a while before they do. It is kind of a bummer as I had always wanted to travel to Kenya and there is a travel ban on PCV’s to go there. I will get there one of these days. We also just found out they evacuated all PCV’s in Western Africa because of the Ebola there. It is a bummer but safety first and I am glad they finally removed them. I hope they can get back there soon. As for now there is no concern of Ebola here in East Africa.

A Group Of Goofy Boys

That Moment

You know how you see all those photos of children of all ages suffering from malnutrition in national geographic, in the news, or on a NGO website? Well, yesterday I witnessed it firsthand. The moment you see a six-year-old boy with nothing but skin hanging off his bones being fed by his mother and those beautiful brown eyes looking at you longing to be out playing or a little girl suffering from AIDS and malnutrition, that is so severe you can see her pelvis bone as clearly as if was in an anatomy class, you go into somewhat of a shock and disbelief mode but also a desire to help them. To help them be able to play soccer in the field across the street and acting like children. 

All the Peace Corps Health Volunteers traveled to Mulago Hospital in Kampala for an educational day on malnutrition and how to educate the public on fighting it. Mulago was built in 1962 and was once the best teaching hospital in all of Africa and many of the hospitals throughout Africa modeled their programs and buildings off of its design. Well, along comes Ida Amin and since then it has suffered greatly. They are extreme understaffed and their ratio of doctors to people is horrifically off and it is amazing they can provide anyone with accurate care. They do what they can in their situation like many other Ugandans. However, the staff are all extremely dedicated and the care seems to be working for those suffering from malnutrition. After a short introduction of what they were doing and how the different sections work and the roles of the different staff, we walked through the critical care unit for extreme malnutrition and those who are suffering from a combination of malnutrition and other illnesses. The care unit had about 50 cribs all of which had children in them and a few were even on mattresses in the back of the room. Parents are the ones who take care of them, they have to bring everything (buckets, blankets, and so on – they basically live there with the children and on Wednesdays they can go back to their families). It was tight and there  no privacy. The care unit provides the children with different types of foods all packed with calories and healthy things they need to get them up and running again.

We volunteers all did get to have some hands on training with weighing, measuring height and also performing a field test to see if the outpatient children were suffering from malnutrition, kind of like a check up. I was assigned to a nurse who was also a translator for me (kind of frustrating as I didn’t get to speak any language because they don’t speak my language in Kampala its all Luganda). Working with the translator, I spoke with a young mother who was 27-years-old and had three children. The father lived with his other family in Kampala and I am guessing she was a side-dish (very common). The two older children were nine and seven years old. One lived with his grandmother and the other child with her. Her son Alex was one and a half years old and was on his second follow up visit for treating his malnutrition. He didn't have any other illnesses so he was treated at home. The field tests are kind odd to explain but they go around the arm and looks at how wide their arm is and then it is compared to their height. He had put on about a half inch on his arm which was good and he was almost to the green line which means he is almost to a healthy weight. He was a cutie and it was nice to get a chance to have hands on experience that I could use in my community.

One of the many down side of Uganda’s health care system is they have no confidentiality. We as American's are all very aware of this fact and felt very awkward as we walked through the critical care unit and the other units in large groups. What broke my heart was how they treated a group of mothers and their children who were in the "we are about to release you just doing some trainings and follow ups" unit. The nurses there required them to come out and show us "American’s" that “they feed their children” I guess American’s don’t believe their feed their children. Which for those who do seriously come on! In Uganda, you cannot go hungry (unless you're lazy), there is always food okay maybe not so much in the North but elsewhere there is food. It’s just the lack of education on nutrition that causes so many issues. Back to the story… We had to watch them help feed their children and many of us thought “wow this feels like we are at a zoo watching animals feed their young.” I cannot explain how awkward it was. I was talking later with one of the trainers about it and he said they think Americans don’t believe they feed their children and also it might have been because they see an opportunity for a hand out (money). They like their hand outs here. I’m sure the women felt just as awkward having a bunch of white people stand over them like school teachers making sure they do it right. I left shortly after it started and many others did as well, it was very inappropriate in my book. 

It was wonderful to experience that, challenging for many of the volunteers myself included but I saw so much growth from seeing the children in the critical care unit to the ones who were coming back for check ups after being discharged. That was a good feeling.

Homestay 2014 – Hoima Style Part 3

End of Homestay, Future Site Visit, and Back To Kampala

Date Wrote: July 20, 2014

My Homestay Family

The last couple of days of homestay in Hoima were a lot of fun and I was somewhat sad to leave my family but I was very excited to start the next adventure. That adventure was a four hour wooden roller coaster ride from Hoima to Fort Portal. The main roads leading out from Kampala are usually paved but it is the side roads between towns that are not and when riding in a taxi they become a wooden roller coaster. I have never been so car sick in my life, thankfully my friend Jon had a plastic bag. After arriving covered in dust to Fort Portal for the future site visit or FSV (three days with our organization), I made my way by car to my site which is a 30 minute drive from Fort Portal (those thinking of visiting – Fort Portal is very clean, tourist friendly and lots of white people, lots of amazing food, and lots of activities to do in the area). Anyways, my house is situated on the edge of a tea plantation which goes on for miles and the school that will be my home base has pretty much a 360 degree view of the Ruwenzori Mountains and surrounding areas in all directions. I only had three days which was not enough time to learn everything about it but hey I have two years starting in a couple of weeks. I am very excited to get rolling in a couple weeks.  I was able to visit three schools total in the area and meet a few students. I happened to arrive for FSV during their busy time so I spent a lot of it sitting around waiting to meet with people which was fine, I found a book and read through it. It is very classic and normal to arrive and sit and wait in Uganda. My organization was started by a professor at Harvard and lots of students from Harvard, MIT and Princeton were there doing work or studies of some sort. Met a young woman from Blaine, Minnesota working at MIT and a wonderful kind mother and daughter from the UK. I traveled into town and had some amazing pizza… not going to hide it I eat a whole medium sized pizza and I LOVED IT! Fort Portal is very nice and I can’t wait to get to know it better. My housing situation is very nice and I will post some photos soon. After site visit, Jon and I took the four hour bus ride from Fort Portal to Kampala thankfully on a paved road through the tea plantations and beautiful countryside that goes on for miles.

View From My Front Yard

On the other side of the Ruwenzori Mountains is the DRC. For those wondering, I live about 45 minutes from Kasese which was in the news lately due to the fighting that happened there about two weeks ago. These events sadly happen throughout the country and from time to time. I live on a compound currently with two other Americans and one Canadian. I will be working for the Kibale Forest Schools district and Kasiisi Project which has 14 different schools throughout the Fort Portal area and I will be working mostly in seven of them which they call core schools. From what I gather it is an enrichment program in the schools. I will write more when I know more about it. They are all really excited to have a Peace Corps Volunteer there and they all seem very nice.

Many people are happy that Entebbe is right next store and there is a bar up the road. This morning we went to the zoo! How funny is that we come to Africa where there are safaris and amazing animals in our backyards and we go to a zoo. A highlight was getting to see two white rhinos and a few other interesting birds but for the most part the zoo felt empty. They had one giraffe which ran away when we came. I want to make it clear I came to Africa for the giraffes so this was a massive buzz kill! I plan on bringing one back when I am done in a couple years. Also we got chased by a slightly crazy monkey (think it had rabies) it chased our group up the road, this small monkey was the size of a large cat and the boda guys just sat on their motorcycles laughing at us but those things are slightly scary when they go after you. Don’t worry though we are all fine. The zoo was right next to Lake Victoria which was cool to see but sadly the zoo needed a lot of money as it was very run down. We had a great lunch and went to a mall which had a legit supermarket.The mall had just opened. Off to get some sleep and prep for another day of lecturing tomorrow. Blah