March 1^st

This may be the last blog post from Uganda on this trip, but I will write some more from home. Tomorrow I leave for Kampala, and I will leave the computer with Susan to give to Augustine or Jimmy Francis, to be used at Keframa by the secretary-bursar to begin to do monthly accounts, and to be able to print more stuff. There is no printer there but they can bring a flash drive into UCI to do the printing. Some Keframa students, as part of their tuition have donated paper. A and/or JF will use some of some money I donated last week to buy a small generator to be used to charge up the computer. They looked into getting a solar panel, but it would require one that is too expensive. They have a few small solar panels there to provide a little light at night for studying.

Today I walked into town to go to SanKofa for the last time. I had a tropical smoothie. A very hot day. But, maybe because it was hot, I was able to appreciate the wonderful taste and feel of water as I drank it along the way. I was also able to appreciate the little patches of shade provided by trees along the road on the way into town. By the way, they call walking anywhere “footing.”

The little old lady next door – The one I mentioned the other day. She speaks no English. I see her out there every day constantly working: sweeping, cooking over a fire, peeling casaba roots, shelling peanuts, grinding whatever, washing clothes. Today she was cleaning the ashes out of the fire area where she cooks. When I asked Susan how old the woman might be, she said she might even be 70. What a life she must have had. All work for her family.

This morning, the kids going through all the stuff that Susan had just swept out of the house and off of the porch, getting all the “good” stuff to keep using for play.

Yesterday in Community Health at UCI I was talking about Occupational Health, and I mentioned the risk of skin cancer in people who work under the sun. I mentioned that they, the students, were mostly protected by the melanin in their skin. One student said “Some of us try to lighten our skin by bleaching.” I repeated that the melanin protects them. He said “But we look like apes.” I said god gave you the melanin to protect you because you live in Africa, where you are exposed to so much sun. Be proud of your black skin.

I would estimate that 80+ percent of the people in Uganda, even in the villages, have cell phones. One pays about 500 shillings a day (25 cents) for the service. You can buy “air time” in many stores, even the smallest ones. There is stiff competition among the various companies to sell air time.

Good bye for now from Uganda.

February 28^th

A much better day today, after Sharry told me last night in a terse message to “press the reset button” on myself. First, yesterday as I was leaving UCI, I was asked by Richard, one of the younger teachers, to help him today to do a skills session on neonatal resuscitation. I asked him to make sure that the students for my 2 o’clock class today showed up to hear my lecture that I have been trying to give for the last week. He said he would, and I agreed to help him. About ½ the class showed up for the 2 o’clock lecture (maybe they’re trying to tell me something) and they probably had a worse-than-usual problem understanding me because of the “code in my node.” Then we did the skills lab. I had copied down some guidelines last night, and gave a lecture about neonatal resuscitation, while he made notes on the board. He then summarized it nicely, and we went to the skills lab, which was hotter than hell. He had me demonstrate, he then filled in the blanks I might have left out, because he knows the kinds of details the examiners will eventually test on. He is really bright, and we made a very good team, and it gave me another idea for volunteer teachers at UCI, and maybe Keframa. Start out team-teaching, at least at first.

Yesterday also at UCI I had a good conversation with Jimmy, the man whose traditional marriage I attended several weeks ago. He talked about running for office in the location where Keframa is located. I will talk more about that at a later time. He was also a prison guard, and I asked him many questions about that, and I will talk about that also at a later time. So today, after the skills lab, I decided to walk out to the road to catch a boda boda home. I hadn’t gotten very far when Jimmy pulled up behind me on a borrowed motorcycle and said “I can’t have my friend walking home.” And he gave me a ride home. You can see that it was a better day.

When I arrived home, I was going to wash out some of my quick-drying clothes, but there was no water. But the little old lady next door motioned me over (she doesn’t speak English), and showed me that there is a master valve and how to turn it on. The good just keeps on happening. I will say more about her later also.

February 27^th

Lots to write about this afternoon – I was going to go to the worship service this morning to hear Sheila preach. The schedule says it was to start at 10:30. Tony picked me up at 9:15, before I had any breakfast. The service actually began to form at about 11:15, when some of the first arriving students began singing. Fortunately, we were served tea and white bread at 10:45. I felt much better after that. My mother, who I think made me compulsive about time, is undoubtedly laughing from her grave.

Most of the teachers don’t go to the worship service, although several asked if I was going.  One said, after coming back from the service, that if god had said that only the people at this service would go to heaven, I would have been left behind. I told him that the god I believed in wouldn’t have done that.

The students wander into the service, carrying their bibles, over the whole first half hour of the service, while the singing is going on. Sheila never came. Plans must have changed. In the end I didn’t go to the worship service, but, besides the singing, I could hear them all shouting prayers at the same time. In fact, two days ago I sat in on a worship service at Keframa, while I was waiting for my ride home, organized by the students every Tuesday after classes. It was also very pentecostal, with drums and dancing and praise with everyone shouting prayers at the same time. I have enough trouble with worship services at home. Sorry Sharry and Fr. Michael.

What are the teachers’ real feelings about the worship service? They would not tell you, or they would tell you what they think you want to hear. Sheila spoke about this in a conversation last week. She spoke of hearing an African minister speaker at a religious conference she went to, who spoke of the almost absolute lack of truth-telling among African people. Because he was African he could get away with saying it, but she has noticed the same thing. They will not tell you the truth about something you have done or written, and so much time is wasted, because eventually the truth seeps out, and then you can begin to correct what you have done or written.

I feel strange here all the time. I am strange here all the time.

Great soundscapes here. Next time I will bring a tape recorder. (Will there be a next time?) The pentecostal services with the clapping and singing and ululalias; the market places with loud music over very large speakers, motorcycles, cars, trucks, people talking and shouting; the kids playing, running, squealing outside my door in the afternoon and evening; dogs barking out the tune of “We wish you a merry Christmas” over the phone of a teacher at UCI, trying to entertain her baby.

If I were to write a book about all of this, I would call it “The Land of Waiting.” A pack-packer whom Meagan met on a trip would call his book “Uganda - That F#@king Country.” Not me. It is what it is.

My sister, the writer, is urging me to continue writing after I return home, and I will try. I will start with feelings and observations on returning home. I will try to gain some perspective. I will read others who have “analyzed” Africa.

Every day, hoping it will be less hot tomorrow. And it isn’t. Yesterday I was thinking about the sweet breeze that cooled me. Today the wind is hot. But still it is movement of the air.

The final blow (for today): went to teach my class. No students. They told me that they were given the time after lunch to write up their notes from last week’s hospital experience. It seems like this is being strung out so that I have no (or very few) doubts about going home now.

On the way home with Tony he told me that Sheila preached at the other campus of UCI.

February 25^th

Meagan left this morning for Kampala and tomorrow from there, home to Canada. She was (is) a hard act to follow. Twenty-three years old, studied early childhood development, so loves to play with kids, rode a bicycle back and forth to Keframa for 2 weeks in December to teach physics, which she did not enjoy, was here for a total of 4 months, spent a lot of her time here teaching at a nursery-primary school in Dokolo, about 45 minutes southeast of here, would stay there all week and come back to “the big city” (Lira) on the weekends. She left a week earlier than she had planned because her 90-year-old paternal grandmother had a stroke. Her father’s parents are from Holland, and her mother’s parents from Italy. She has applied to McMasters University to study speech pathology, and will hear in April if she made it in. I have no doubt she will be accepted. She has a boy-friend, Tyler, who is studying to be a financial consultant. I feel less bad about her being a tough act to follow when I remember that I am more than three times her age. She and I really enjoyed the cool evenings on the weekends, comparing notes about everything, but especially about the culture and observations here.

Too tired to continue tonight and I have a cold.

February 24^th

More of the different – When I previously wrote of crumbling, I left out part of what I had written in the orange book. And that was that in the first few weeks here everything was new to me, and there was so much to learn. Then the underlying realities begin to set in, and you feel like things are “crumbling.” When I spoke with S and I last weekend, they said that in the training they received before beginning work abroad, that is exactly what they were told. And that if you can make it through the crumbling time, you might be able to persist.

Continuing the discussion with Peter – In my discussion with Peter, previously described last week, we also spoke about the push for an anti-gay law here that is causing much international concern. He said that homosexuality is against the cultures and traditions of Africa, and against god’s law, and therefore it is OK to pass an anti-gay law. I didn’t express my opinion. He went on to say that also by the cultures and traditions of Africa, men (families) are supposed to have as many children as possible, and that, in fact, a man can divorce a woman if she doesn’t have many children. I said that he knew the problem with that, and he said he did, and we left it there. I think he was telling me that he realized the problem of basing national law on “the cultures and traditions of Africa.”

Salon/saloon – Many of the signs on the outside of beauty salons (and there are many salons) say beauty saloon. An idea for Silvia and James.

Trash and recycling – There is virtually no trash collection here. There are no trash bins, no dump around Lira of which I am aware, nothing. Trash here at home is put into a pile behind the latrine and occasionally burned. Trash is thrown, piecemeal, along the road. Apparently recycling of the tons of plastic bottles does take place in Kampala, but not here. Some stores here take in plastic bottles to ?sell? for refilling with some other liquid.

More from S and I - In my talk with them last week, they said that perhaps one of the most important things that we do here is cross-cultural understanding. Though we feel uncomfortable about it, they are pleased and honored when we participate with them. They asked a Ugandan woman preacher they know what would happen if they sat at the back of the many funeral services they have attended for people they don’t know, instead of being escorted to the front, as they have been. The woman said it would be a great insult to do so. S and I spoke of JF speaking at a traditional marriage which they attended and saying that having international guests there was an honor to the bride and groom and boded well for their marriage.

Still lots to talk about.

February 23^rd

Some details about yesterday’s conversation with Sheila and Ian. I began by asking them if they had felt the feelings I have talked about in the blog regarding going home. They both rolled their eyes, and spoke about the numerous times they had those feelings. Most of the time they didn’t have those feelings at the same time, and one could talk the other through those times. In late 2012 when they were going home to England for a visit, they both said, “Maybe we shouldn’t come back.” But they decided to come back because they already had so much time and effort invested in UCI. They also talked about how the nice house where they lived by themselves (running water, a real lu (spelling?), a house keeper) was a refuge in which to escape from all the issues I have discussed. They also had a vehicle. All of this was very helpful for me to hear.

It is a very hot day today. Meagan and I walked to SanKofa and back this morning and it really did us in. We’re going back this evening to meet Augustine before he leaves, but we have begged a ride with Sheila and Ian. A whole flock of kids (they run in packs) are playing hide and seek outside my room and making a ton of delighted noise.

More odds and ends –

The Chinese – After seeing some Chinese writing on a truck, I asked Ian if the Chinese were providing any aid in Uganda. He said he wouldn’t call it aid – they are building or renovating some highways, including the one that runs in front of our house, using their own equipment and their own workers, so they can more expeditiously move the products they buy and sell, including oil.

Coffee – Is a major crop in Uganda, but, I think, mainly for export. When I asked for coffee when I first arrived, Susan went out to buy some Nescafe freeze-dried coffee, manufactured in and imported from Brazil. Most here drink tea, perhaps a la their former colonial overseers.

T-shirts – Because of the tremendous amounts of used clothing imported here, one sees all manner of printing on T-shirts. I have seen Charlotte Fire Department, “Take a second glance,” (worn by an African woman with a large bosom), lots of different University shirts, rock star shirts, etc. etc.

Susan and the motorcycle – Augustine has a motorcycle (a 125 cc one), and recently, while he was away, Susan had it outside toward evening, going over it, and when I asked, she said she was trying to learn about it. The bike is bigger than she is. After I was in my room reading, I heard her start it and ride around the yard. It turns out she had had one lesson from Augustine. The next morning, she rode it to church, after some difficulty getting it started. Strong African women. 

February 22^nd

A good day today. First, Augustine traveled 14 hours on the bus from where he works in southwestern Uganda, to say goodbye to me and Meagan and Sheila and Ian. He arrived last night and we spoke briefly, but this morning he and I had a wonderful, long conversation. I feel very comfortable talking with him. He is so bright and attentive, and thinks about what one says and responds honestly. I was a bit more open about my reasons for leaving although the main reason continues to be Helen’s medical problems. He asked me to continue to stay involved with Keframa, and I will. I will be on a long-distance steering-type committee, along with Ian and Sheila, and others who have volunteered here. We will offer and discuss ideas on how to make the school work better, and how to make the volunteer experience better.

Then at noon I met with Sheila and Ian to talk about my decision to go home early. They were wonderful, as I knew they would be, and said they had identified with so much of what I had written in the blog. Very supportive. I will travel with them to Kampala on Sunday morning (a week from tomorrow), and actually be on the same flight with them to London, early Tuesday morning. I will leave them in London and be in Denver by 5:15 PM on Tuesday.

I will write more tomorrow. It is very hot and I am tired.