Can't think of a title worthy enough for this epicness this contains

Going up?
Our second rest stop 4 hours into
climbing Mt. Muhabura

The past month was school break between Term 2 and 3. Awwww, the holidays. A time to relax and refresh… HA! Not this time. It was… how do you say? “packed full”.

1. ALL VOL

Yeah, Prom!

            The all volunteer conference is exactly what it sounds like: a crazy, drunken mess of all the 100+ Peace Corps volunteers in Uganda getting together for a week to discuss serious ideas/projects or to share silly/ridiculous stories since the last time they were together who knows how long ago. It’s a lot of fun. Especially the dancing part (duh)

2. BOOOOOOKS

Easy to use book label
identifier 

            My school received (with the initiative of other PCVs) a shipment of boxes containing 1000+ Books for Africa books. It took awhile to sort through all of them and to categorize them into different levels, but I did it! And in a very simple way too. Just look at the identification sticker on the spine of the book to see where it goes on the shelf and what level it is :D Library time is going to be very enjoyable this term (I’ve already read quite a few of my favorites)

Good thing I gave myself a library card ;)

Interactive kids books!

3. CAMP

            I was chosen to be a counselor for the 1^st ever Conservation Camp in Uganda started by some amazing PCVs. The camp was held in the most beautiful part of Uganda down in the southwest part. It’s very far from where I currently live, but I was able to pass through the area I kind of lived in during the 1^st year of my service for the first time since March. (It still felt like home to be there again)

Go red team! :D

            It was a day camp and I had 4 secondary school student campers in my group. It was a fun and informative week where we learned how we can make crafts out of old straws, how to weave baskets, and also how to construct a bee hive. We also planted trees, did a street cleaning, dug a permagarden, and discussed how to share these important lessons with the community.

4. MUHABURA

            The district where I was for camp boarders Rwanda and Congo. There is a mountain range in this area and this time last year when I had my friend, Gerald visit me, we hiked the one whose peak is where the three countries meet. This time after camp, me and another PCV friend/counselor decided to hike up the tallest one in Uganda. It was a tuff trek up the slippery rocks and rickety ladders, but we made it and had beautiful weather and views the whole way (which is very rare!) We even went “swimming” in the crater lake at the top- COLD AS KNIVES! We started up at 8 and made it back down at 5. (my legs=so much jello)

I look so disgruntled, but I promise
I'm happy we did it!

5. COS

#bestie bathroom selfie

            This… this was the most emotionally exhausting conference of my service. Even now I still can’t believe it’s over. When I first arrived almost two years ago now, my Close of Service conference felt like light years away. This was the last time my Peace Corps group, Cohort 2-the education group of November 2013, would all be together. The last time I’ll probably see most of them, because even though we still have some months remaining, everyone lives so far away that we hardly see each other, other than at conferences.

The most beautiful rendition of
"Don't Stop Believing"
ever played ever.

It was so insane to me to spend our last week together reflecting on our service and memories. Of course we had informative sessions like “Resume Tips”, “Mock Interviews”, and “What To Get Done Before COSing”, but there were also a lot of emotions stirred by making a diagram of our highs and lows, sitting in a circle and saying 1^st or best memories of each other, and the slideshow. Especially the slideshow. (Thank you Ravi and Marvin for holding my hands during the whole 40 minutes <3) Some PCVs also made a year book for our cohort that everyone was signing :)

It was simply beautiful looking and thinking back to the beginning when I didn’t know who any of these people were or any idea what I was getting myself into and now seeing how everyone has grown and the huge impact they have had on my life. I love these people so much and I’m so sad to be leaving them so soon, but I’m so so blessed to have been part of such a solid group. I couldn’t have dreamed of a better one <3

delicious desserts at
every meal!

All sappy emotions aside, there were also a lot of really exciting emotions because we got to stay in a super swank hotel and actually looked and felt like a real hotel from the states! Hot showers every night, staff who actually had fast and friendly customer service, a TV, refrigerator, and kettle in every room, real mattresses, three pools, a full gym and sauna, a legit conference room, air conditioning, and such amazing amazing food (cheesecake, lunch meats, cream cheese, lettuce, blue cheese, honey ribs, poached eggs, bacon, steak, chicken tikka masala, coconut tilapia, croissants, and all the fruits). I never wanted to leave (in fact I wrote that on their comment card).

On my comment card I wrote
"never want to leave"

6. VIEWER DISGRESSION IS ADVISED

            After climbing the mountain, the bottom part of my big toe nail was a little loose. As I was saying goodbye to a friend at the hotel, my nail was accidentally ripped (mostly) off. Blood is coming out and everyone comes to my rescue. My PCV friends help me to a room where the manager has told me to go for the doctor to fix me up. Firstly, the fact that the manager came running like that was so unlike typical Uganda hotel behavior. Secondly, this place has a doctor??? Thirdly, they brought me a wheelchair XD So I get it cleaned up and luckily the PC coaster had just arrived so I was able to go to the office where the PC doctor cut most of the nail off that wasn’t attached. Wrapped it up and I headed home where I then was able to remove the rest of it.

Need some red nail
polish to match now

7. HOME

            It feels amazing to come home after being on the move for two weeks. Especially when your teachers are all around and greet you with a “Well be back!” Except when you don’t have a ceiling (like me) and now your house is a dusty, dirty mess after letting it sit untouched for so long. But it’s times like those that I like to remember the wise words of Snow White: “Whistle while you work”. Monday begins not only the last term of the academic year, but also of my Peace Corps service. EEK! :O

9 Hours on a Bus

I’ve been kind of a “site rat” these days so I thought it high time to get out of Jinja and go see some new sights. That place is called The West Nile (not to be confused with the mosquito disease) and it’s in the North West corner of Uganda.

Now, Uganda is a small country (they say about the size of Oregon), but in case you’ve missed my saying so before, transportation is VERY BAD and it takes FOREVER to go the shortest distance, let alone across the country. So I had to stay overnight in the capital before I could continue the journey the following day.

The good thing about that was that I got to have my first hot shower since February.

Wowwww….. so nice! ^_^

So I wake up bright and early to walk to the bus park. It’s dark and raining and there’s people everywhere fighting for a seat on the 7:30 bus. Thankfully, I had reserved my seat the previous day. Even got a window! :) We arrive at our stop around 4pm.

The ride overall actually wasn’t that bad, just very long. I’m just glad it wasn’t the worst case scenario: bus breaking down, non-stop road blocks, construction, etc. But that wasn’t my final stop… I met my friend to go to her place…which was another 2 hours away! WOW!

***I just wanna take this moment to give mad props to her and everyone else who lives SO FAR away and has to do that journey ALL THE TIME!

Uganda has many different tribes, each a little different than the other. The ones who live up there speak a language not related at all to the ones they speak down country so I had no idea how to greet other than in English. The people in the north are also known for being very friendly and polite. They’re usually darker and taller as well. The land is more flat, the climate is hotter, the rain is less, and the houses are usually huts. It's a totally different world. It’s beautiful.

Arua is a very nice, clean, and well organized town. It also has a bomb-dot-com kitenge (fabric) market! I wish I would’ve brought more money. MAKE ALL THE CLOTHE-EZ!

On my way back home, I stopped at another PCV friend’s site for a 2 night layover. We went on a hike up a random hill and were instantly surrounded by the village kids who lived nearby. These kids acted as our tour guides showing us how to get up this rocky hill without a trail. On the way back down, they got out their broken jerry cans and started sledding down a really long and smooth stone. One kid had been carrying a machete so he chopped some tree branches to also use as a sled. ***This is how deforestation actually happens*** They all piled on and slid down. It only got better when my friend and I joined in. I’m so sad I didn’t have my camera with me, but I don’t think any picture could ever capture how simply amazing that moment was.

Sometimes, I really love this country <3

This is the Land that I Love

Firstly, if you don’t know the song reference in the title, please click here.

Now that that’s settled, moving along…

At the end of last year, I was thinking that I might go home during the month of June and stay ‘til after the 4^th to celebrate with my family. Every year since I can remember I’ve spent it at my grandma’s house because it was my grandpa’s birthday. Over the years, less and less family members have showed up, so it’s just been grandma and my siblings lately, but it’s always a fun time. We eat a ton of food and shoot off fireworks carefully (reckless) into the field to remember grandpa. It’s one of my favorite holidays for these reasons. But I didn’t go home. I stayed in Uganda.

I didn’t post a blog in June, but a lot of really great things happened that month. One being a certain USA Supreme Court ruling that made me very happy and, as a result, feel very patriotic for my country’s birthday just yesterday passed.

To share this appreciation with my teachers, I made them an American lunch: burgers (with cheese!), salad (with lettuce!), and sugar cookies (with red, white, and blue food coloring!). Also played them some songs that truly capture the essence that is ‘Murica. #alotofTobyKeith #we’llputabootinyourassitstheamericanway

"What is this?"
"It's meat."
"Meat?!"
"Minced meat."
"What animal?"
"Cow."
"Oooh..."
Teacher Paul then proceeds to eat
with caution and curiosity haha!

Is there a more beautiful way to
do Goal 2 of Peace Corps?

This weekend, a lot of us PCVs met up to celebrate this big day. In preparation for it, I had the saloon nnyabo (hair dresser lady) tie my hair into braids with red, white, and blue thread my seamstress friend lent me. I also browsed the market for some good ‘ol patriotic attire. I came out with a red shirt that had the Soviet Union symbol and a bunch of famous communist leaders (Castro, Stalin, etc) holding red solo cups. It was the “Communist Party” XD Marx even had a lampshade on his head, haha!

Yesterday was full of hugs, laughter, and catching up with friends I hadn’t seen in months. Also dancing and a eating more meat at one time than I have in awhile :P Sometimes it’s hard to be away from home, family, and friends, but this is also my home and it makes me happy to know I have such good family and friends here to celebrate and share these good times with <3

 

Cohort 2!

All protocol observed, let the reading commence!

As I eagerly shared in my last post, the library room has been completed! So you may be asking, "What is the way forward?" Trainings and implementation of course! :D

Doing a read aloud to explain
good and bad library etiquette

Last Monday was the 1^st day of Term 2 for primary schools, but there has been a national strike so no teaching happened the whole of last week. The teachers still showed up however, so I tried to keep their minds a bit occupied.

I held a “Library 101” training to inform them of how to properly use and run a functioning library. It was a lot of information to absorb, but it went very well! They seemed to enjoy and had a lot of questions.

Information covered was:

• ·         Introducing what a library card is
• ·         Demonstrating how to use a book mark and place holder
• ·         Reading a story that shows good and bad behaviors
• ·         Discussing the rules of the library
• ·         Explaining fees and other consequences
• ·         Giving examples of how to rate a book’s condition
• ·         Practicing filling out a log book and library card
• ·         Touring the shelves and how the books are organized
• ·         Determining a set library time for pupils use
• ·         Deciding to do a test run with the P7 class first

The story I made is a somehow knock off of
"Goofus and Gallant" from "Highlights" ;)

A pupil informing the teachers
how to use a book mark

Explaining and showing examples
of books ranked as
New, Good, Fair, Poor, or Bad

Practicing how to fill out
the log book

Demonstrating borrowing a book
and how to fill out a library card

Today, even though the strike is still on, the teachers called the P7s to attend lessons because they don’t want them to miss out. P7 is the last level of primary school. At the end of the year there is a huge test that determines if they are qualified to move on to secondary school. It’s very important and I appreciate my teachers for taking this initiative to help them during this strike.

I used this to my advantage to do my “Library 101” lesson with them. This also went well and they had a lot of questions which was very encouraging. At the end, every pupil got his or her own library card. During library time after classes, 42 of the 63 pupils came to browse and borrow a book. Sorry to say, that was way too many to be in that small room on the first day, so I had to send some away, (haha, I rhymed) but this whole week is theirs alone so everyone will have a chance.

They got their library cards!

Perusing the library for the first time :')

Checking out books!

I’m sure there are going to be a lot of improvements that we’ll have to make as we work out the kinks, but I consider this a successful first attempt. Pretty sure this term is gonna be bomb :D

Take a look, it's in a book,

READING. FREAKING. RAINBOW!

The library is (basically) done! Look at it!!! :D

Ok so maybe it doesn’t look like much, but look at it before!

Did that help impress you?? >:)

I knew it was going to be a good day the moment I woke up.

Let me derail for a sec and tell ya about that because it’s still just so unreal to me. Picture this: I’m lying in bed, my eyes open, and I’m instantly confused. Can you guess what I hear? ….absolutely nothing. It’s TOTALLY quiet! Not that where I live is absurdly loud, but it’s Uganda, there’s always some noise somewhere. I immediately go outside to see if the apocalypse happened overnight and I just didn’t get the memo, then proceed to sit and enjoy the silence. I’m there for 15 minutes before I hear the voice. Whose voice? Couldn’t tell you. There’s always someone lurking behind some bush somewhere. “Mzungu, bye!” And it’s like the universe was waiting on that signal! All of a sudden everything’s happening normally again. The rooster crows, the wind hits the leaves against my tin roof, the hens come to peck at my compost, music starts playing in the distance, and I also hear a baby. I bring myself back to reality and get to work.

So this library. My school doesn’t have one. As you can see in the before picture, the room was being used as a staff room with books put on broken desks as shelves along the walls, never ever used or touched by teachers or pupils.

I had some small funds for library purposes and I knew I wanted to use it for shelves, but that’s expensive, so after brain storming with a fellow PCV, I came up with a cost-efficient way to do it!

Two and a half weeks ago, my friend and I began tearing it up, literally! We broke apart the already broken desks to use the timbers from them.

Safety 1st

His family sells bricks so we acquired some and began constructing.

Neither of us had used cement before,
but they turned out strong!

Then we found a place that sold timbers a bit on the cheap side, so we got some of them and constructed ourselves some wooden shelves.

Look at me now, Sharits!
Using a book and a ruler as a square because
these carpenters don't know how
to make anything straight :P

One of my teachers showed me where to get the cheaper paint, lent me his brushes, and even did the painting for us.

Next came the daunting task of organizing the books, cataloging and numbering them, then placing them on the shelves.

and we'll be getting 1,000 more in a month or so!

Don’t forget printing & cutting 1,000 library cards and making a log book!

Today I swept up the room, straightened out the desks, put labels on the shelves, and hung up a few posters. I declare that as basically done ;)

There’s still a lot of small things to do, (tidying up, making rule charts, what) but I’m so very excited for Term 2 to start on Monday! Gonna get right to work on doing trainings with my teachers on how to use a library so we can bring the knowledge to our pupils so they can start reading and checking out books :D

Kids and adults have been shuffling
in everyday since we began!
Some just to see a white girl doing
"man's" work, but some are
actually excited for it! 

**I’d like to give a special shout out to my amazing friend, Tonny, who will never see this post, but still deserves recognition. Without his help, none of this would have been possible! He’s a 15 year old student struggling to find school fees for his S1 year, but he still refused to accept any payment from me because all he wanted to do was help, which he did in more ways than I could ever name! :)

#selfie

My trusty companion!
Disclaimer: If I should die,
please burn this immediately.
Thanks ;)

Today not only marks the final day of Term 1 of my 2^nd year, but also the final page of the 4^th journal I’ve completed since arriving here. I’d never kept a journal before coming to Uganda and I doubt I’ll continue it much longer after arriving home, but I’m so thankful I’ve made it a point to jot down some small passage of everyday I’ve lived here.

This journal started off with the decline into my lowest point in country and now it’s ending with the highest.

After reading through some old entries, I felt like I’ve been a very selfish person. So many sentences started with “I”.

“I want to go home.”
“I hate this feeling.”

“I can’t stop crying.”

It made me think about how much of an emotional roller coaster this experience is. How we come here to help others, but it’s 110% true that we get more than we could ever possibly give. In the grand scheme of things, me as one person isn’t going to make that big of a difference and when I leave, no one will ever fully understand what it was like here. That feeling of uselessness is very common among PCVs and it was something I definitely struggled with. But now I’ve come to realize that it’s ok to feel like I’m here for me. All we can really do is try to be a better person than we were yesterday. So this has led me to some serious reflection time about myself, who I used to be and who I am now.

This time of “finding myself” again has been full of its own kind of surprises. It kind of freaks me out how much I’ve changed in the last 17 months and I wonder how I’ll see and be seen once I’m back home. At the same time, I keep rediscovering things that I’ve somehow forgotten about myself. For example, last night I put in my headphones and cranked up some Slipknot at full volume while lying on my couch with my eyes closed (something I’d do back in the day to unwind). It was simply therapeutic.

I never realized how much I miss my car. Not only for ease of transportation, but for the fact that it’s a place I could be totally alone. I could drive anywhere playing whatever music I wanted singing as loud as I could and no one would be around to hear. I could release built up frustrations or scream with joy when I was there. It was my place to get away. A place I was totally free to be myself.

Of course we weren’t created to live in total solitude, but this doesn’t mean we need to rely on people for our happiness either. I feel like I was doing too much of that last year and it only led to a decrease in my self confidence. This year, I feel like I’ve gained back my independence and can enjoy being with people without feeling the need to be with them. It’s refreshing.

Anyway, this post has kind of changed directions in my head about five times now, but I think the point I’m trying to make is that sometimes it’s good and healthy to be a little selfish. Coming to this realization, as well as having some remarkable friends, family, and community members by my side, has really put me in a great place. I’m super happy and content with where I am right now, and really, isn’t that what life’s about?

Miracle on Mt. Elgon

A few hours drive from where I live is Mt. Elgon. Me and a few friends decided to go there for our Easter weekend celebration. Here’s how it went down:

At the top, I felt so great!
The wide, open field with cows
made it feel a bit like home :)
The gorgeous view overlooking the
mountainous landscape made it feel awesome ;)

My good friend who is a fellow PCV works with a guy who went to school with a guy who knows a guy who lives up in the mountains. It was somehow miraculously arranged that we would go for a visit in a couple of weeks time. (If you know anything about Uganda, you know doing ANYTHING in a couple weeks time is simply amazing.)

It had been arranged for a matatu (“14” passenger taxi) to pick us up from town and drive out into a village where we would then begin our hike. Rainy season, dirt roads, and hills don’t always mix though and we got stuck. The ride after that was a bit scary, but beautifully scenic.

These muddy village roads

After finally arriving to the village and hearing some nice welcoming songs from some primary school pupils, we set off on our journey. Some police men started walking with us; something I don’t think was previously arranged. (Who was watching the station??)

We always draw a crowd

The “trail” that we were hiking on, was one untouched by foreigners. A narrow, muddy path that the locals use every day to go to school, the market, fetch water, or whatever else they need to do.

It was a bit terrifying because one slip and you’re rolling down the sharp drop right next to you. Meanwhile, as you’re cautiously watching your footing, barefooted children carrying bags twice their size are running past you.

During the hike

It took us two hours to reach our destination at the top, but we made it in one piece! (Barely. I totally wiped out on a rock while crossing a stream at one point.) The view was absolutely amazing and we all felt pretty awesome for climbing up near the clouds.

Feelin' safer all the time

We were the first foreigners these people had seen and we were immediately surrounded by children as we set up our tents. Our hosts provided us with lunch, dinner, and breakfast, led us on a continued hike further up the ridge, and even offered to heat some water so we could have warm bucket baths!

While climbing down the next day, I felt so in awe of the world. I thought of these people and how they live. As we’re huffing and puffing going up just for fun, they have to do this every day to survive. Its incredible how isolated they are. They have so little money, yet they were still not expecting us to pay anything for everything they were giving us. I wonder what they think of Americans now. This will probably be something they’ll always remember.

Ugandans are amazing people

It was only a two day journey, but it was one of my favorite and most memorable times here. Of course the view was insane and the hiking and camping were “in-tents” (haha!), but also meeting such a community is something very few people have the privilege of doing. This experience has further opened my eyes to how different two lives can be and it’s just mind-blowingly spectacular! <3

Sunset on a remarkable Easter Sunday