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Wow. Two weeks left. That seems like hardly anything now given how fast time is going (to be fair, time is going at the same speed it always does it’s merely my perception of it that is different).
In two weeks from now I will be sitting in Entebbe airport waiting for my flight reflecting on my nine weeks here in Uganda. That’s very surreal. I’m having a hard time picturing myself walking around Boston with a McDonalds, or a Starbucks, or a public toilet on every corner. I suppose I’m going to be like a two-year-old staring open-mouthed at the wonders of Western civilization (which include but are not limited to supermarkets, fast food restaurants, $4 cups of coffee, big screen televisions, street lights, stop lights, speed limits, paved roads, air conditioning, and the twinkie).
I almost don’t want to leave. It’s been great being here. I’ve learned plenty about Uganda and what it’s like to work for a grassroots NGO. I’ve learned a lot about myself specifically about whether I want to pursue this line of work in the future.
But I’m not done yet.
There’s still two weeks to go and there’s plenty of things that need to happen. The SHARE program is being implemented in two schools on Friday and Saturday which is very exciting (and terrifying). My goal is to test at least 100 kids at each of the schools and hopefully I’ll meet that goal. This has been a good learning experience implementing a project on the ground (in Uganda of all places). I’ve come to learn that it has helped tremendously that I am white because I tend to mean business when I show my face somewhere (wearing my Obama shirt to official meetings also doesn’t hurt either). However, the mere fact that I am white does not explain all of the willingness for people to bend over backwards in helping me carry out this project. The people here are incredibly hospitable and welcoming. People have been willing to rearrange their schedules and donate their time or resources at no expense in order to help get the program going. I only hope that it meets their expectations come Friday and Saturday.
Everything else is going great. I’ve even found a deli place (with real deli meats!) that I frequent at least twice a week for lunch. I could die a happy man after finishing one of those sandwiches. I’ve also been carrying around my camera doing my best to take as many photos of cute Ugandan kids before I leave.
For those who are going to be in Boston after July 28, let me know. I am eager to spend the month of August carefree with trips into the city, to the beach, and around Sudbury (oh Sudbury). There’s also probably going to be a New York trip in there as well so let me know if you’re in New York at any point during August (or if you would like to accompany me on the Fung Wah).
So that’s it! I’ll talk to you all later.
Greetings to everyone!
I hope everyone is enjoying the Fourth of July. I’m not sure what I’m doing tonight to celebrate but we’ll see what happens. I was going to make my own sparklers but couldn’t find any potassium chlorate. Bummer.
So what’s going on here? Not all that much to be honest. My HIV project is slowly coming along. We’ve confirmed one school and are waiting on the second one to call back to confirm. My verbal sparing with the AIDS Information Centre has paid off and I am free to talk as much about condoms as I want as long as I don’t pass any out (take that President Bush!).
I am really enjoying the family planning sessions and net sales which is how I spend most of my afternoons. I’m resigned to the fact that I am not actually needed seeing as how everything I say gets translated into Lusoga but I’m confident that my presence is purely a draw for the crowd. I mean, who wouldn’t stop to see what a white person was doing in their village with a big black dildo (in full disclosure, the dildo is average sized but it sounds better this way)? I’m ok with being used for my white skin and I now know enough Lusoga to joke with the mothers when they offer up their daughters for marriage.
The sad event this week was the departure of the twins. While my fascination with the two British medical students has faded over the weeks since I first met them, I will miss their presence around the clinic and on the outreaches. I’m dreading a social isolation seeing as how I will no longer have any reason to go to the campsite since going to the campsite is basically like going to a frat house except everyone has a British/Australian/South African/New Zealand accent and everyone loves to kayak. Maybe I’ll get lucky and Jenny the Peace Corp volunteer will show up.
I think that’s all for now. Have a Happy Fourth of July everyone! Drink beer, eat a hot dog, and blow things up for me!
I don’t know if this really came out, but here’s a picture of the milky way and stars in general from Sipi Falls.
Me repelling down the side of a waterfall at Sipi Falls. Yeah, I’m that intense.
This past weekend marked the “I’ve been here longer than I have left” point in my trip (that actually happened last Wednesday but whose keeping track?). To celebrate, the Foundation for Sustainable Development decided to take a break from being the bothersome and meddling organization that they are (meddling in a bad way, not like “Scooby Doo”) and took us to Sipi Falls. Sipi Falls isn’t really a national park as I had previously mentioned but instead it’s a series of three waterfalls that are pretty spectacular. It’s out in the middle of nowhere (very relative expression for here) Eastern Uganda but it was well worth the three hour trek out there.
The nine of us interns arrived at around 4 o’clock in the afternoon and naturally gravitated toward the bar (though it hadn’t started to serve alcohol yet). We started to mingle with the other muzungus and the other kid from Emory, Dan Chertok, started talking with this obviously Jewish girl from the LA. I say obviously Jewish not because of any of her physical characteristics but rather because she looked like one of the semi-orthodox girls who are quite numerous on the campus of Brandeis. Chertok called me over fairly excited and then the girl proceeded to tell us about a small tribe of Africans who had converted to Judaism about 100 years ago.
About 100 years ago, once the missionaries had done their thing with Uganda and most people were Christian, there were a bunch of people who got pretty pissed seeing the missionaries preach one thing and then act another way. This caused some trouble and people decided to give up the Christianity the missionaries had been preaching and turn to something else. Well in this little town outside of Mbale, a group of people called the Abuyudaya decided, hey now, let’s try this whole Judaism thing. So they started practicing Judaism and they grew in numbers until Idi Amin decided he didn’t like Jews and they were subsequently persecuted (story of our people). At the end of his regime, there were about 300 of them practicing. Thirty years later, the community has grown to about 800 and there’s a synagogue and they’ve constructed a Jewish high school as well.
African Jews in Uganda? I had to see this. The girl told us that services started at 6:30 and that we could still make it. I suddenly got very excited and Chertok and I arranged for a car to drive us the hour back to Mbale. Just then one of the FSD coordinators, Joel, took an interest in our activities and came over to see what was going on. We told Joel that we were going to Friday night services with this group of African Jews. He told us we couldn’t go.
My relationship with FSD hasn’t been the greatest since we arrived. While I theoretically like what they do, there is a big difference between how they are supposed to operate and how they actually operate. I can’t stand how they come to periodically check up on me at Soft Power Health causing me to miss going on outreach programs or generally being productive. So when Joel told me that we couldn’t go to services, I just about lost it. Having had a conversation about homosexuality in Uganda and wanting to punch the two Ugandan FSD people for not sharing my enlightened Massachusetts views on the subject, I blatantly told Joel that if this was a Christian service we wouldn’t be having this problem. Whether or not I actually believed it didn’t matter but I figured I’d pull the religion card to get him on the defensive. Joel assured the two of us that we couldn’t go for safety reasons and that if anything happened to us then he would be responsible. Chertok and I then suggested that we would sign the release forms (meant for repelling down the side of a waterfall the next day) so that FSD would be absolved of all responsibility of the two Northeast Jews who just wanted to go to services.
After some arm twisting, we finally got him to agree to let us go after signing release forms. I could not stop laughing as I signed my life away to go to Friday night services.
The service was really incredible. There were about 10 muzungus, some from Israel and others from the U.S. (including Brandeis, of course) but the other 50 or so people who showed up to services were African. While I’m normally not a big fan of musical instruments in services, I have to admit it was pretty awesome to have two guitars, a tambourine, and a giant African drum playing along to the opening psalms. To make things even cooler, the psalms had all been translated into Luganda. So there were Chertok and I, rocking out in Luganda at this tiny little synagogue outside of Mbale. The rest of the service was in Hebrew which was even cooler. They had many of the same melodies that we have in the U.S. and it was the same service structure. Afterward, we stayed behind and talked with the rabbi who had been the head of the congregation since 1986. I was wearing my Obama shirt (totally unintentional) so we had a good chat about the election and what I thought about Obama and Clinton (we discussed the merits of her as VP) and McCain.
It was so cool and I can’t find the words to say exactly why it was so great. It’s just this tiny little isolated Jewish community doing their own thing and living side-by-side with their Muslim and Christian neighbors with no problem. They have bar mitzvahs and Jewish weddings and they teach Hebrew. They use the same prayer books (most of them donated from congregations in the U.S.) and the same melodies but they put their own spin on it. The torah portion for that Saturday was on competition and how to treat competitors and I really wished I had stuck around to hear it. It would be fascinating to hear how Judaism relates on a Ugandan level. So great.
On the way back, Chertok and I got a ride from a guy named Wyclef (awesome) and then took a private hire back. We didn’t die and there was no need for the release forms but the experience was well worth the initial frustration.
The rest of the time at Sipi was good. I did the repelling down the waterfall which sounds a lot cooler than it was (whatever). I got to swim in a natural pool which was freezing but worth it. And of course there were the stars. It was a bit of a throwback to that night at the game park in South Africa except without a playground, alcohol, and the company wasn’t as good.
I can’t believe that I’ve only got four weeks left here. There’s a lot I need to get done on my project but we’ve got one school confirmed and I’m waiting to hear about additional funding from FSD (we were supposed to hear two days ago, SURPRISE!). Despite earlier emails, I am really enjoying being here now. I’m doing my own net sales and family planning sessions and have really gotten free reign to work on my HIV project. I haven’t gotten sick this week (cross your fingers it stays that way) although I developed a cold sore that’s a bit of a blight on my otherwise perfectly “I work for an NGO and I’ve been in Africa for a while” appearance. I did however have a pretty hilarious conversation with Julius Caesar (one of the translators) about how I got the cold sore which involved making fun of and imitating the British girls who come to Africa (in full disclosure, I’ve gotten cold sores since I was young, not from any skanky activities in Africa).
That’s it for now, enjoy the few pictures I’ve managed to put up. You’ll be able to admire my “I work for an NGO and I’ve been in Africa for a while” look. Oh don’t deny it ladies, I know you love it. Until next time kids…
