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.

February 21^st

Today the UCI teachers are all at a traditional wedding. Fortunately I had heard about it yesterday, so I didn’t go in. Instead I walked to town to the SanKofa internet café, to make some notes for my last week of teaching. A very hot day. And I gotta get outta here. Two days ago I got an abrasion on a toe from my sandals. Treated it effectively with New-Skin, an antiseptic liquid. Last night there was a lot of wind and dust, and I began to wheeze, not seriously. And today, on the way into town, I twisted my ankle. I can walk on it. But the gods are telling me something. Also, going through town I recognized 2 or 3 people and stopped to talk with them. Actually, they recognized me, greeted me, and then I recognized them.

More tidbits –

The SanKofa café – Begun by an American ex-pat who had worked for an NGO, and stayed. He married a Ugandan woman. Legend has it that he had been a baker before he came here, and when he stayed he began baking cakes and other baked goods here. He would carry them on a tray on his head, and sold lots. Made enough money to start the above-mentioned café, on the third floor of a building downtown. He trains all his own Ugandan employees (very good, courteous service), has a excellent American and Ugandan menu, including good pizza, milk shakes, ice cream, smoothies, and cinnamon rolls, and contributes some of his profits to local good causes. There are always many Ugandans and white ex-pats there, most using the wireless internet, 1000 shillings (or about 50 cents US) for 30 minutes. He has expanded to another site in Gulu.

The North – I’ve been told by a number of people that the North, where we are, is the poorest part of the nation. They say this is so because the original “revolution” against the British began here, among tribes here, and the first few presidents (elected and otherwise) were from the North, and thus the North got a lot of everything. Therefore, there was unrest in the rest of the country, demanding that they be paid attention to, and for several tens of years the North has been ignored. Apocryphal? Perhaps.

The beginning of the advancement of the common woman in Uganda? – I know I have written about this before, but in one of my classes at UCI, a man from a village spoke of not understanding why the man being the absolute head of the household might be a barrier to behavior change. Immediately, several men and some of the women challenged him. In fact, it seems to me that women do the majority of work in the majority of households in Uganda. And the work in the fields also. Nevertheless, it seems at least that the idea has begun here about empowerment of women.

Cattle – Some cattle are butchered and some are used for milk here, but the majority of cattle just exist. They are a symbol of wealth. 

Photos

February 20^th

Well, we got power back this morning, or at least by the time I returned from UCI. Quite a bit to talk about. First, thank you to my family and others who wrote in support of whatever I decide to do. This morning I went to UCI to go to their worship service they have every Thursday AM, and to teach in the PM. It turns out that all the teachers were just leaving for town, in the same car I had just arrived in, to join the nursing students in the hospital as they go on rounds. This just added to my feelings about going home. I feel peripheral. I know that I could become less peripheral if I went to the hospital (they did not suggest it), but I don’t want to. I have already seen the differences we have about some aspects of medicine, and I don’t want to get into difficulties about those differences. If I became involved that way, it would be a huge leap, and one I don’t want to make. I came here to teach, but not get into medicine. Also, I am costing them resources. Even though I am paying for the car to take me to and from Keframa, it is very rough road and very hard on the car. Sam is driving the car to Kampala today for some “major repairs.”

Peter, the assistant director, and I were the only teachers there. He and I began a conversation, and I told him that I am thinking about leaving early because Sharry’s mother is having medical problems and I need to go help. He said he understood, and told me that his mother had surgery this week on a meningioma in her brain, and that he had to come up with 5 million shillings (about $2,600) to pay for it (down from 14). He also talked about how difficult it is to not be where she is. Another of god’s little pranks.

I continue to think that it is miraculous what they (Augustine, JF, Sam, all the players) have done and are doing here. It’s just that I am not contributing anything by being here, except “cross-cultural understanding” which is not enough for me. Perhaps if I were here with Sharry I would have lasted longer. We would both know the realities of the situation and we could encourage each other. But her being here was not possible, and I understand why. The people here, the Ugandans, are wonderful: warm, kind, loving, resourceful. But that is not enough. I would not trade the fact of my coming here for anything. But it is time for me to go.

So at 11 AM they began the worship service. I was listening from where I was in the library. It was a very Pentecostal service, with everyone shouting their prayers at the same time. I’m sorry. I cannot withhold judgment. It is a different reality.

As you can see, I (it, the situation) am crumbling fast. Not to worry – I will make it home fine. It’s just that I may speed up the timetable. As I said, I already spoke with Peter, and I just now spoke with Susan, here at home. I will write to Augustine, JF, and Sam. I am going home to help Shar with her mother. I also spoke to Ian by phone and told him, and that I would like to get together with them this weekend to talk about it. I also asked them if I could ride with them to Kampala when they go.

Also not to worry, I still have a few things in my little orange book to write about and I will.

February 19^th

Well, I have started to think about coming home early. In fact, I may have already made the decision. I want to write about it here on the blog, so that the blog readers might understand, and to help me to understand. I’ve been thinking about it a lot.

The first reason to consider coming home early has to do with money and usefulness. I thought about this before I came, and I continue to think about it. The amount of money that I spent to get here, and that it costs me to stay here, would be better spent, I think, to directly support the programs here. As I stated early on, one of the main reasons I came was for me, for the adventure, and that has been fulfilled. As I look back at the reasons I came, I see that they did not include providing a service to the people here. I thought that I would be of service, but that wasn’t a primary reason to come. Well, it turns out that they really don’t need me to teach, either at KC or UCI. They have good teachers at both places, who actually do a better job of teaching than I do, because they know how to teach in this environment. Lecture from the book, students write down the lecture because they have no or few books, and that is how the information is passed. There is very little problem-solving thought by students in the learning process, and, in fact, to try to stimulate problem-solving thought perhaps detracts from the main job of passing information.

Comparing myself to others who have been or were here long-term, such as Sheila and Ian, they really did provide a great deal of service in that they helped establish UCI. In addition, they have provided a lot of funding for KC and students there.

So, recently I haven’t been enjoying myself at all, as I was when I first arrived. The negatives, the heat, lack of privacy, loneliness, bugs, difficulty with AODL, all have been bothering me a lot, and if I’m not enjoying myself, and I realized that I am not really providing a service, then I think it may be time to go home. I told Sharry when I came that I wouldn’t stay if I thought I should come home. I don’t think I’m depressed, but perhaps depression is part of it.

I want to stay at least until Sheila and Ian, and Meagan leave (next week). I really like being with them, and sharing knowledge and observations with them. I want to finish up some of the lectures I have already begun, so I am considering leaving about mid-March, which would make it about one and a half months in country, and would cut my stay by about 2 months.

It is strange. I wanted to put all this in the blog so that you readers of the blog might understand my reasoning, but to the Ugandans I plan to say that I need to go home early because of my mother-in-law’s health, and to support Sharry, which is partly true. I don’t want the Ugandans to think I was “driven” out by conditions here. I don’t want them to feel badly about themselves, or to think badly of me.

So, that’s where I am at currently. If anyone has any thoughts about all this, I’d be glad to hear them.

I don’t know what I will do when I get home, but I will work out at the gym, and cross-country ski.

By the way, I love god’s little jokes. After being awake much of the night last night thinking about all this, I walked into town this morning to use the internet café (SanKofa) because they have a generator and we still have no electricity, and when I arrived, their generator wasn’t working. But one adapts, and I got a lot done by hand.

February 18^th

Today, in the morning I wrote again in the book that Kris gave me, but now I’m obviously back on the computer and I’ll type what I wrote in the book. “We’ve had no electricity for the last two days and I want to save the little battery I have left on the computer for looking things up on the internet for preparing lesson plans. So here I am writing by hand. Yesterday, I gave my first lectures at Keframa, one in biology (soil science) and the other in applied arithmetic (percentages, discounts, commissions, etc.). Today I will go back to finish the math lesson, and give a biology lesson on genetics to the equivalent of 11^th graders. I’m not sure what they have studied up to now so I will be partially winging it (with some help from books and my computer). No electricity there ever, so that’s why I need my computer battery.

Yesterday, JF was at KC also to view the start of drilling a “bore hole” (well). Currently KC gets its water, hauled by students in the big yellow containers, from a well shared with the neighbors and there is some strife over that. The well is being dug by an NGO called “Mission 4 Water,” and the British ex-pat who runs their office here (with her husband), Sue, was there to supervise. She is from the same church as Sheila and Ian and had come on an earlier trip of theirs to Uganda, and became involved. I hear that quite frequently from ex-pats who have been here for a while. ‘I came to visit, fell in love with the place and what needs to be done, and couldn’t go back to the job I had for the last 30 years because this work is meaningful’. All the ones I’ve met are Christians, but I’m sure there are other types out there also.

Yesterday, JF and his father, Martin, spoke of some of the terrible time 10-15 years ago, when the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) was terrorizing the area where KC is located. JF spoke of hiding in the fields, and narrow escapes by him and others. Martin spoke of moving away from their land into town where there was more safety. He spoke of a nephew who fled the country as a refugee to Canada, and he is still there, married to a Tanzanian woman, has kids and works with refugees there.

I will insert here a brief history taken from National Geographic Atlas of the World, by Janice, for some context. I hope we have power soon so I can get this into the computer and published.”

Fast Facts

Population:

26,907,000

Capital:

Kampala; 1,246,000

Area:

241,139 square kilometers (93,104 square miles)

Language:

English, Ganda or Luganda, many local languages

Religion:

Roman Catholic, Protestant, indigenous beliefs, Muslim

Currency:

Ugandan shilling  ($ 1 = 2430 Ugandan shillings)

Life Expectancy:

44

GDP per Capita:

U.S. $1,200

Literacy Percent: 70

Uganda, a landlocked country in East Africa, consists of savanna plateau with mountains and lakes. "The pearl of Africa," wrote Winston Churchill of this former British protectorate that embraces Lake Victoria, source of the White Nile, and the misty Ruwenzori Mountains—a home of the endangered mountain gorilla.

Prosperous at independence in 1962, the country was brutalized under the chaotic regimes of Milton Obote and Idi Amin, when as many as 800,000 Ugandans were murdered. In 1986 Yoweri Museveni, leader of the National Resistance Army, came to power and, despite continued military and economic challenges, restored stability to a large extent. Museveni was elected president in May 1996 in the first popular election for president since independence—and reelected in 2001.

In 1998 Uganda sent troops into the Democratic Republic of the Congo's civil war. It withdrew the last of its forces in 2003—and thousands of Congolese crossed into Uganda to seek asylum. An insurgent militia, known as the Lord's Resistance Army, continued to terrorize northern Uganda—abducting some 20,000 children over the years and making them soldiers. The LRA withdrew into the Democratic Republic of the Congo in about 2006.

Fertile soil keeps farms and coffee plantations flourishing, but AIDS—epidemic in some areas—may now be Uganda's greatest enemy.

ECONOMY

·         Industry: Sugar, brewing, tobacco, cotton textiles, cement

·         Agriculture: Coffee, tea, cotton, tobacco; beef

·         Exports: Coffee, fish and fish products, tea, gold, cotton

February 14^th

Sitting on the front porch, full moon rising. I now have Skype up and running, so I’ve talked to Sharry the last 2 days. Wonderful. The last 2 days I’ve gone to UCI to give lectures, and both days there were no classes because all the teachers were helping to grade an exam given the 3 days previously. So I helped grade the exam. And I’ll give the lectures next week.

Odds and Ends –

- In talking with JF about decisions on who should be admitted to Keframa, since it is mainly for kids whose families have little or no money, he says how difficult some of the cases are. They have to limit the numbers some way, but “when they are here, your mind says one thing, but your heart says something different.”

- On the land next door, to the side and in front of the houses, there is a small family grave yard with 10 or so crypt-type markers, the largest for the patriarch who, I’m told, was in the military.

- Hair – Most here, male and female, have little hair, close to the scalp a la black Africa. Many males and females with longer hair have corn rows, and a few females wear falls, or wigs.

- Lizards – Some  rather large (10-12”) black lizards crawl up the sides of walls on buildings. They have orange on their heads and necks, and a patch of orange on their tails. Some white, smaller lizards are around also. A small (2”) one was in my room the other night.

- The slight smell of wood smoke from the boiling of my drinking water this morning.

- The delighted screaming, squealing kids outside my door in the late afternoon/evening playing a scary game of tag.

- Signs – Along the roads as you are about to enter a town or village, large multi-part signs in good condition tell you about some wonderful thing the Government of Uganda is doing for the area. Signifying nothing.

- Tony, the driver, awoke this morning sneezing, he said, because he is allergic to the cold.

for February 13^th

Yesterday I rode with Ian and Sheila to Gulu, which is about 100 Km from Lira. They were going to see Beatrice, the woman who had been their housekeeper when they were here for the 2 years. They had given her money to start a business, and they were going to see what was happening. The day was exhausting: mostly dirt, pot-hole infested road the whole way, so a lot of dust. The air-conditioning on their 1998 (or was it ’78?) Land Cruiser was not functional, and each time we passed or followed another vehicle we had to roll up the windows against the clouds of dust that one could barely see through.

In Gulu, we saw the well-built metal market stand that Beatrice had had made, and some of the used clothing she sells. The clothing was in a different market, in a relative’s stall, because it was only a small amount, not enough to fill her stall. She buys the used clothing in bulk, shipped from commercial clothing collectors in the US and Europe. You may have seen their collection bins, which craftily state on the side “Will be used by the poor in Africa.” They don’t tell you that they will be sold to the poor in Africa. Anyway, B had sold quite a bit of clothing but had used what she made for other needs, like paying a niece’s school fees, so she didn’t have money to buy more merchandise. Sheila and Ian, while they were here, had sponsored a small business course for a week, for about 30 people and B had attended, but the needs of her family overwhelmed what she had learned in the course. So, after some discussion, they gave her some more money to buy merchandise, and a quick refresher on how to use what you make. We’ll see.

The car – The Toyota Land Cruiser previously mentioned, was bought used from a friend when S & I were here previously. At that point it had already been used in Japan for several years, and then shipped here for sale, and the friend had used it to 2 or 3 years. Many of the cars here are shipped from Japan in the same manner. Just before they left 10 months ago, they replaced the engine and donated the car to UCI where it is well-used, but a little more battered than when they left it. They have been able to use the car during their month here this time.

Notes from thoughts on the trip to Gulu – 

- Houses – Most of the houses in the villages have thatched roofs and the walls are made of plaster-covered bricks. The houses are either round or square, but the roofs are generally round. Other houses appear like houses in the west, with plaster over brick walls and metal roofs.

- Swollen bellies – You don’t see many children’s bellies swollen by malnutrition, as you see in many pictures of malnutrition, but you do see some.

- Eucalyptus – I was surprised to see eucalyptus along the road. (From the web) Eucalyptus was introduced to Uganda around 1912 to supply fuel wood for railways and administrative centers as well as to drain swamps in an attempt to reduce malaria. Now it is grown for a variety of uses including: fuel for tobacco curing; domestic and industrial energy (e.g. tea and sugar drying, baking, charcoal for steel and cement manufacturer); the provision of posts and poles fencing and electricity transmission;

building mud-and-pole houses; aesthetic use in towns; and for shelter belts in agriculture.

- Pine trees – I was also surprised to see pine tree plantations. (From the web) The 1st seed exports of P. caribaea were from British Honduras to Placerville in California and to South Africa.  East and central African countries began trials of plantation from 1957. Pine is basically for commercial use.

- Cattle – Most of the cattle here have humps on their upper backs, as in brahma cattle. Most also have long horns. (From the web)  The Ankole-Watusi, also known as Ankole longhorn, is a breed of cattle originally native to Africa. Its large, distinctive horns, that can reach up to 8 feet (2.4 m) from tip to tip, are used for defense and cooling by blood vesseled honeycombs.  Ankole-Watusis weigh from 900 to 1,600 pounds (410 to 730 kg).

February 11^th

Spent another day at Keframa. I think I finally have a set schedule there. I will teach Biology level 2 at 11AM and Math level 2 at 2PM on Mondays, and Math level 2 at 11AM on Tuesdays. I want to try to get another class on Tuesdays to make my trip out there more productive. A bit more about the classes there: There about 55 or 60 kids in each classroom, the style is straight lecture, and as I stated, there are no books or other media, so everything must be spelled out on a 3’ by 4’ chalk board that is set on a chair at the front of the classroom. The level 2 classroom is next to the latrine, so odors waft through from time to time.

I had a good talk today with Gloria, a sister of Augustine and Jimmy Francis. She is the head teacher of KC, seems very young, but is another saint in the family. She is a trained teacher and very bright. She wants to go back to school in public administration. I also met A and JF’s father, who is a retired teacher, who donated the land to build KC, and who is at the school every day to see that things run well.

For lunch we had rice and beans, with some very small whole fish in the beans. Perhaps they were anchovies, but seemed smaller. No taste that I could detect.

I am getting a ride to KC in a car that belongs to UCI. It will cost me about $40 per week for gas. It is only 15 kilometers (10 miles), 20 miles round-trip, but gas costs about $6 per gallon here, and the car gets about 5 miles per gallon.

Meagan Nederveen, a volunteer from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, has been here about 4 months. When she first started she was riding a bicycle to KC every day, over the 10-mile, pothole-pitted, dusty road to teach Physics. She described how one day as she was riding fairly fast, a small Ugandan woman with a baby on her back and a 200# bag of charcoal on the back of her bike, pedaled past her. Strong women here. Meagan wasn’t keen on teaching physics, so stopped that after 2 weeks, and is now teaching in a primary and nursery school, also established by A and JF, about 45 minutes from here. She stays there all week and comes back here on the week-ends. She is the daughter of a father whose parents came from Holland and a mother whose parents came from Italy. Meagan will go back to Canada on March 3^rd to go to school in Speech Therapy.

Well, the bugs are getting to me (they like the screen light on the computer) so I guess I’ll quit for now.

February 10^th

Spent the day at Keframa College. They already have more than 150 students signed up for this year, and are expecting more. I sat in on a biology class that was very well taught. But it is a challenge. The teacher has to draw all the drawings on the chalk board. The students have no textbooks. This was a second or third level secondary school course. All 14 of the senior students last term passed their state-mandated final exams.

More tidbits – Some young and adolescent girls, and even some women, bow when they are introduced to you. Another vestige of the colonial past, I imagine.

Internet – I brought a laptop with me which I will leave here when I leave. You attach to the internet by buying a small gadget that looks like a flash drive, from which you can get on anytime, anywhere. Sometimes it is slow and sometimes it kicks you off, but it is great to have.

Sound system – The family where I live, and in fact many families, have a very good sound system, including a sub-woofer. Priorities.

Touching – Everyone shakes hands here almost every time they meet each other. In general there is a lot of touching – holding hands, arms around shoulders, male with male, female with female, but only rarely male with female.

Flies – Just like many of the pictures you see of Africa, there are a lot of flies here, and they land on heads and faces, and everywhere.

Funeral – Susan, the lady of the house, went to a funeral the other day, and I asked her much about it. It turns out to have been for a 32 year old man, who died after a brief illness. He left his widow with four small children and 8 months pregnant. I made some comments about how the families would probably help to take care of the children, and Susan said “if she is lucky they will.” But culturally, the man owns everything, and if they wanted to his family could come in and take their house away. The law doesn’t allow it, but the widow would have to go to court to prevent it, and that is complicated and beyond what is affordable by most. Different reality.

February 9^th

Some odds and ends to try to catch up a bit – I am very impressed with the leadership and teachers of UCI who are very open to students dropping by any time to talk about whatever- problems, family, money, course work. They also provide extra tutoring as needed. And it pays off. On a recent state pre-examination, 66 of the 102 students who took the exam passed all 5 parts of the exam, and the other 36 failed only one portion of the exam which allows all of them to take the state final exam in May. Apparently this was much better than was done last year. Also, the leadership takes student ideas and recommendations into account in running the school.

Time – As is probably apparent from my past blogs, the concept of time and being on time is completely different here than even in Latin America. Ugandan time can be an hour or two after the time that was agreed upon. I have come to be OK with it.

The previously mentioned Ugandan board game – John Linick, bless his internet heart, found the real name of the game I described. I had misspelled it. Should be Mweso. Turns out it is played in many parts of the world in various forms and by various names.

Tops – Children here play with little tops that are made with cassava beans with a little straight, hard stem still attached. You spin the bean with your fingers and it spins on top of the stem.

More about the kids, Justine and Vanessa – The other day I observed Justine giving a very tender sponge bath to the scrawny dog which lives here. The dog is tied up all day in the sun so that he will not jump up on people. Vanessa, whose given name is Ebenezer and is called Vanessa, is very creative at play. She ties shawls or clothes between a door and a chair to make doll beds, and makes little dolls out of twisted pieces of plastic. Today’s dolls she says are going to go to school tomorrow. She goes to a Montessori school. Another day I watched her carefully coat an entire 4” plastic or cloth flower with a hand gel and stick it on a door as a decoration.

Another food – Sim Sim, which is a small grain, not hard, tasting a bit like peanuts, that is eaten from the palm of the hand like other nuts. It can also be made into a paste that is very good on other foods, similar to a peanut sauce.

Humor – There is a lot of humor in this country. Of course, I don’t understand much of it because of the language, but groups of people and pairs of people are frequently laughing. And they make jokes with me in English also, and they laugh at some of my jokes in class. Can’t ask for more than that.

Nursery schools – Besides Montessori, I saw a Piaget nursery school the other day.

Names – Many English names here. Besides the ones I have mentioned (Sam, Jimmy, Susan, others) I met a Kristen and a Judy the other day.

Thank you Rilke, but this was from me – As I was waiting on the road, I was watching. When I tired of waiting, I was only watching. It helped me to wait.

February 7th

Yesterday I spent the day with Sheila and Ian, a retired couple from Nottingham, England. They left Uganda last May after being here for 2 years, working in the administration of UCI. Before retiring he had worked for 25 years as the technical manager for a tin can factory in England, and she had worked for the Anglican Diocese as the world outreach coordinator. They came to be missionaries but that didn’t work out, and they associated with UCI and helped to build it from groundbreaking up. They were amazed at what has been done, even in the nine months since they left. Buildings have been built, and the school has received provisional accreditation. The student body has expanded to over 100. It was good to spend the day with them because they knew all of the school’s issues and could ask the right questions. Since they left they have been able to assist with funding to buy some land next to the school to build another men’s residence, because the current one is over-crowded.

Ian told me that after working previously for 25 years in the same place, the 2 years in Uganda were the “best years of my life.”

Yesterday morning we attended the weekly worship service at UCI. It was Sheila and Ian’s first visit to the campus since they had arrived a day before, and as they entered the worship service they were greeted as heroes. The worship service was Anglican in its order, with some Pentecostal elements. Several gospel songs were sung by groups from different villages or clans, in their own languages or in English. A guitar player accompanied some of the groups. They would begin singing and he would pick up the key and play with them. As the groups were singing, people would come forward from the congregation to embrace the singers and wipe their brows. The preacher was Peter, the assistant director, and he used some of the same –what? techniques from his lectures. Throughout the service there was much ululation (a high-pitched, rapid-tongue-movement whooping by some of the women to express joy, support, and approval.

Another quick story: Sheila and Ian are paying tuition for 2 or 3 students at Keframa College, and when they asked Jimmy Francis yesterday whether they should pay in money or in corn and beans, he said corn and beans, because money might be spent on other necessities, but corn and beans needed to be there to feed the students. 

February 5^th

More notes from the little orange book that I was instructed to take everywhere – I have time for this this morning because after I arrived at UCI and was told the class was ready, very few students were on hand. Finally one of the female students had the courage to tell me that since they will have a big state-mandated exam next week they were told that they could have three days off to study and prepare. I suspect that the leadership was aware of this, but didn’t tell me for whatever reason (politeness?).  So I don’t know (yet) whether I even need to be here the next two days. (Later: I do. For a different class)

Most recent from the orange book first – A thought this morning – My existence here is a moment-to-moment struggle (too strong a word). At home my existence was day-to-day or week-to-week.  Moment-to-moment makes me more aware, more mindful of everything in each of those moments.

Red clay – The soil here is red clay and so the dust in my room is red, and the sheet where my feet lie on the bed after I wear my sandals is red. And the mud after a rain storm is red.

Rain – We had our first rain storms, not last night, but three and two nights ago. Big, loud, lightning-filled, drenching tropical downpours that were wonderful.  And the following mornings were cooler.

Speech patterns – Some things I have noticed as the people speak English. They pronoun or don’t pronounce “H” in ways that I am not accustomed to. For example, they mostly say “hour” with a hard H that is pronounced. And they may pronounce “half” as “alf”, said “af.” I suspect these patterns may have arisen from mis-remembering or mis-learning the way the British spoke when they were here.

Another interesting pattern that I first noticed as I listened to them lecture, and later heard in regular conversation: They will say a sentence such as “The color of the ocean is blue” as if testing you. “The color of the ocean is –what?- blue.” I could understand this pattern used in lectures, although it was used in just about every other sentence which is somewhat distracting, but I don’t understand using it in regular conversation. Perhaps people here at this academic institution have just become so used to hearing it that they have absorbed it into their own speech.

Another pattern I have heard less often is in a word such as “triangular,” which they pronounce “trianjular,” with the sound of the J.

Hymns – One hears all religious music, all the time here – on the radio, cell phones, Ipod equivalents, everywhere. A hymn I heard the other day on the radio was sung to a tune very similar to This Land Is Your Land, and the words were “I have a boyfriend, and his name is Jesus.”

A game – I have watched the men at school playing a game called Mueso or Soro in the local language, Luo. It is a board game. The board is a thick plank, about 1.5 by 2 feet in size,  with 32 two-inch diameter oval concave pits carved into it, 16 on one side and a parallel 16 next to the first 16, arranged thusly:

                Player

X    X    X    X       X    X    X    X

X    X    X    X       X    X    X    X

X    X    X    X       X    X    X    X

X    X    X    X       X    X    X    X

                Player

It is played with 64 small (1/4”) round balls, and begins with 2 balls in each pit. When the game begins one player begins to very rapidly move balls around, toward what end I don’t know, so it ends up with varying numbers of balls in each pit, from zero to 6 or so. Then the other player does the same thing from where the last player left off. For the life of me I can’t figure out what the goal is, and they are playing so fast that I have hesitated to ask them. Concentration is intense. I will eventually find out. Sam says it was taught here by the British so the Africans would be so involved with the concentration on the game they wouldn’t rebel.

Uniforms – The second and third year students at UCI wear uniforms. The first years don’t. Some of the uniforms are green- and some are cream-colored and both look like scrubs. I had theories about which classes wore which colors, but it turned out that part way through one of the years the colors changed from cream to green, probably for ease of keeping clean, so both classes wear a mixture of each, although more third years wear cream.

Bird calls - They are fantastic and so varied in the mornings. I wish I had a tape recorder to capture them.

That’s enough for now.

February 3, 2014

Visit to Keframa College

First an additional note from the marriage ceremony:  I was the only white person there, and all of the children without exception just stared and stared. One little boy came and sat down beside me and touched my arm in disbelief.

Another wonderful day. It was arranged that I would be picked up at 9 AM, because Sam wanted to leave by  1 or 2 to take a bus to Kampala, and at exactly nine the driver came and I was ready, but hadn’t had breakfast. I went anyway.  We arrived at the Uganda Christian Institute for Professional Development (the other campus I have referred to) to pick up Sam, but he was in a meeting. Sam and Jimmy Francis were both in the meeting, and we were supposed to travel to Keframa College together to see it and to discuss the division of my time between the two sites. Finally at 11:30, they were ready to leave. Fortunately I had been served tea and a biscuit, so I wasn’t in desperate straits. I spent the time writing down ideas for the blog, taking pictures and conversing with others who were there, including the Jimmy who was in the marriage on Saturday. By the way, I learned from him that the church/civil wedding may not take place for up to a month, and that he is not supposed to be with the bride until that happens.

It took about 30 minutes to get to KC, over very bad road. It is a very modest place. Pictures later. Jimmy Francis, Sam and I, after touring the grounds, sat under a tree to talk. And that is when the wonderfulness began.

I asked JF how the idea for KC began. He said that when he and his brother, Augustine, had finished their education, they went to work for an NGO called                           , which provided support for institutions but not for individuals. They were approached by many individuals and families, especially from the village where they were raised (near where KC is now located), asking for help to be able to attend secondary school. The people could not afford to go to even the govt. school. So Augustine and JF began to wonder what they could do to help the situation, and came up with the idea of starting a secondary school for people of low income. Of course they had no money or other resources, but their father had given them a parcel of land to be divided between them, on which to build homes for their families. They decided to build the school on that land. Many people, especially the elders, thought they were crazy, but they had a vision that they could do it.

When I asked Sam the same question regarding the origin of the idea for UCI, he said that his father was a preacher, so he had grown up in a very religious environment. At university, he joined with other Christian people to do community development. They noticed the same thing that A and JF had noticed, that capable people were unable to afford to further their education, and were going back to communities to work below their full capacities. They started an organization called Uganda Youth Action for Development. Augustine and JF met Sam through that organization and they began to work together on their separate dreams. A and JF, and in fact all of the people involved in these enterprises are very truly Christian people, who are motivated to give to their communities.

Both UCI and KC have slowly grown over the last four years and are serving hundreds of low-income students in professional and medical development (UCI), and in secondary school (KC).

February 2^nd

Yesterday I attended a traditional Ugandan marriage ceremony. Let me tell you the story. Last week (I’ve only been here a week) I was reading a wedding invitation for Jimmy and Rebecca, posted on the bulletin board outside of the Director’s office.  Jimmy, a teacher in the school whom I had met, came up beside me and said, “That’s me. I hope you will come.” And I said I would. I arranged transportation for the wedding which was to be at 10 AM on the following Saturday. Tony, the regular driver for the school, said he was going to the marriage ceremony. He told me that it was not a wedding, but the traditional Ugandan marriage ceremony, called the “introductions”, that takes place during the week before the religious/civil wedding. When I said, “So, you will pick me up at about 9:30?”, he laughed and said, “No, I will pick you up at about noon. These things always run late.” Little did I know.

On Saturday, yesterday, I waited, and by 1PM, I figured he wasn’t coming. I was somewhat disappointed, but also somewhat content because I was (am) reading a good novel. At 2 PM, a different car than usual pulled up, driven by Sam, the Director, who was handsomely dressed in a dark suit. I don’t even have a suit with me, so I apologized and he said don’t worry about it. We went to the second campus (the original campus) of UCI, where there were many men in suits, and women in beautiful dresses. From there, in several cars, we went to the other side of Lira, to a field which had been prepared with open-sided tents of the type used in outdoor meetings, set up on three sides of an approximately 50 yard square, with a building (where the cooking was being done), the shade of which provided shade for the fourth side of the square. In the middle of the square, under a canopy, on a table was a beautiful multilayered wedding cake, with a number of smaller cakes around it Already several hundred people were there, about half of whom were dressed in finery. The ceremony had not yet started.

In the car in which  I traveled, Sam’s car (actually Sam’s car borrowed from a friend) a very small, somewhat decrepit Toyota,  rode me, Sam, Jimmy Francis, brother of Augustine and acting director of Keframa College, Reverend Bosco of the Lira Pentecostal Church, and another reverend (he is a youth pastor). When we arrived at the celebration we were escorted directly to the front row of the bride’s side of the gathering. I sat beside the mother of the bride, but we didn’t say much. Two of her beautifully dressed and beautiful grandchildren (I imagine) would come and go from her throughout the afternoon, becoming whinier and clingier as the afternoon went on, and as the day got hotter and they got hungrier.

There was a master of ceremonies, and fortunately most of the things he and others said (in Luo) were translated into English, not for my sake, but for the sake of many of the bride’s family who were from a different clan and speak a different language. Also fortunately, I sat beside Reverend Bosco, who would answer my questions and occasionally provide other information. There were multiple introductions, including people who had come from other regions, introduced as groups, other important people such as bosses and pastors. Some of those introduced gave speeches, extemporaneous and of varying lengths. I was introduced. I did not give a speech.

Some time later (at this point I wasn’t keeping track…yet) the ceremony began, and it was wonderful. Through a small arch of flowers (they called it a “padlock”, and previously, before the ceremony, there had been some activity about waiting for the “key” to the padlock; I had wondered about chastity belts before I knew the story) came first the groom’s party, which included some relatives and close friends, about 20 in all. They all sat on the groom’s side of the square facing us. Next through the arch came a group of young women (about 15 or so), dressed in finery, processing slowly and rhythmically, many carrying baskets with gifts. They went around the square and then knelt on large woven mats in front of the groom’s party. Several of the groom’s party came forward and walked around the young women, searching for the bride (I was told). They made a great show of it but couldn’t find her, so that group of women processed back through the padlock, and another group of young women, similar to the first group, processed and were reviewed in the same way. In the middle of this group, surrounded by the kneeling and standing women, the groom’s men found the bride.

After she is found she stands (kneels?) in front of the groom’s party and is asked to find the groom (called the best looking one) which she readily accomplishes. They then cross the square and she  introduces him to her parents. They then cross the square again and he introduces her to his parents. The couple then sits across from each other in front of the groom’s side and exchanges some gifts. Several preachers in the audience were called forward to bless the couple.

Next, one of the preachers said, “We have had this ceremony, now let’s hear from the Lord” and proceeded to give a long (45 minute?) fire and brimstone sermon about marriage, all of it translated phrase by phrase.

There followed a young woman who sang a song, karaoke-style. Many people got up and danced as she sang. Then some time-filler jokes from the MC, followed by a Ugandan dance performed by a youth group from a local church. They wore grass skirts and grass headbands over their western clothes. Again many people got up to dance with them toward the end.

Finally, the caterers brought out 4 long tables and pots and pots of food. But before we could begin, the fathers of the bride and groom were asked to introduce all of their family and clan members in attendance. And they did, every last one of them. The head of the bride’s clan gave a rambling speech, un-translated, so I don’t know what it was about.

Well, finally (again) we lined up buffet-style and loaded our plates with white sweet potatoes, beans, a white sauce with greens in it, tough barbecued pork, chicken, and a black kind of gooey bread that tasted all right. We ate with our fingers, as most people here do at most meals. They kept shooing local ragamuffin children out of the line, but let them in after everyone else had been served, to give them the leftovers.

After we ate, everyone left fairly quickly. And five and a half hours after I’d left home I made it back.

What a day.