2015 – Page 4

Mukazi Wange (My Wife)

Author: Charles August 6, 2015

Lake MIchigan (Chicago) August 2011

Please indulge me a bit.

I am now in the middle of a nearly five year journey I could not have predicted a mere 2 1/2 years ago. This first week in August covers the date of my 61st birthday and the first anniversary of my wife Jan’s passing on August 6. That week a year ago was terribly difficult and sad for my children and myself, as Jan was in home hospice then.

So I wanted to take this opportunity to remember Jan. Many of you knew her, many of you did not. As a few in my family know, I haven’t really been homesick here in Uganda, but I’ve had the occasional bout of missing Jan, particularly when I think about how cool it would have been to do this experience with her. I have not completely escaped the grief.

September 23, 1983

Jan and I were married in 1983. We made a good team. We worked hard, raised our children, enjoyed our friends, and many activities together. We also tolerated each other’s dissimilar interests. I always said that our marriage survived because we let each other do what they wanted to do. With that came complete trust and of course, love.

Shortly after Jan passed, my wonderful niece commented on our marriage. I was so pleased with what she said. This is an excerpt-
Being around you two, I kind of got marriage for the first time. I could see how you loved each other so much, and how you seemed to understand each other so deeply. I saw how two people can completely share a life, and show up for each other every single day, in small unglamorous ways, and how special and real that is.

With Blair 1990

I’ll never, ever forget my time spent with the both of you. You’re the faces of married love for me now. You were in the thick of it and still your love was impossible not to see.

She loved our Sunday hikes in the foothills

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As I deal with comparatively easier challenges here in Uganda, I draw inspiration from the way Jan handled her own adversities and challenges. In 2001 when she had breast cancer, not only did she deal with the downside of the surgeries and the misery of chemotherapy, and the drugs, but after 15 years as a Realtor, she emerged with a new career. At the age of 48 she decided to become a nurse. She spent endless hours in our guest bedroom studying. I’m not sure how much her example inspired my children, but it impressed the heck out of me. She received many accolades from Kaiser, including Float Pool Nurse of the year. She was also a union steward, and committed herself to that job full bore, like everything else she did.

Tri For the Cure August 2011

In 2011, Jan decided to celebrate 10 cancer-free years by competing in the Tri for the Cure, a mini-triathlon involving swimming, biking and running. All summer she trained for it, and ultimately she placed high in her age group. A proud moment.

Finally, there was her final battle, one we knew she could not win, against ALS. Some people tell me I am courageous to do the Peace Corps (I don’t think of it that way- and if you were here among these people, you wouldn’t either), but real courage was Jan facing a terminal illness with an accepting attitude and stoic manner, as gradually (and more quickly than we had hoped) the disease progressed, and she became more debilitated. She never complained, and showed inspiring spirit until the end. I don’t know if I could have handled it so well if our roles had been reversed.

Clark’s graduation- May 2014

Of course, the primary legacy of our marriage is our children. We were able to see them grow up, complete college, and become responsible independent adults. There were trials to be sure (Blair as a teenager- yikes!) But when my Realtor tells me last month, “Clark is such a gem”, and when Blair earns high praise from her employer for her efforts handling her stressful job, my heart swells with much pride. I can’t imagine having a better relationship than we did, and I do now, with Blair and Clark. Jan has left her mark!

I should also note, that when I going through things when moving out of our home last spring, I found her journal she kept sporadically from ages 16- 28. She had let me read it during another move many years ago, nothing too personal is in it. Anyway, when she was 25, a few years before we met, she made a pro and con list about whether she should join the Peace Corps. I had forgotten about this entry of course.

So raise a toast to Jan, my inspiration, my best lifelong friend, and the love of my life!

Thanks for letting me share this with you.

By the way, Wange is “my”, and Mukazi is “wife”. Getting the words in the right order is as hard as memorizing them!

General

adversity, background, Lusoga

Goin’ Mobile

Author: Charles July 31, 2015

First off, a shout out of thanks to my Northglenn-Thornton Rotary Club for stepping up to cover the school fees and boarding expenses for Sharon’s last two years of High School! She will start during the summer break on August 7, and make up the two terms she missed along with her third term until December. Then she will have a more normal last senior year from January until December. All this for $525 US.

They waited until I picked out a mattress before they had the frame made. Then we walked through town with the disassembled frame.

I am in Bugiri until Friday morning and then go to “Tech Immersion” in Kibali. So far, I think I am going to like Bugiri. I have partially moved into my new home. It’s got a painted concrete floor with two rooms. With my move in allowance I will put down vinyl flooring, as in my home stay room. Nice looking and easier to sweep. I will use one room for a kitchen and eating table, and the second for combo bed and living room. An electrical outlet is in each room. I will need power strips. There is no running water so I will have to go about 100 yards down the road with a Jerry can to a water pump. I bought a kettle, so I can boil the water in the morning for my tea/coffee and my Nalgeen bottle, and in the evening I will add it to a bucket of cold water for bathing. Fortunately, I also have a stall inside my place for bucket bathing, so I don’t have to go outside for that, where the mosquitoes lurk.

Those cans are pretty heavy when they are filled with water.

So my place is a bit rustic, like my first place in Capital Hill during law school, minus the running water and cockroaches (I might get a cat to deal with any pests later). I thought I would hire a neighbor to wash my clothes but I only have two neighbors in this quiet tri-plex. One is a very pregnant lady named Sarah with a girl I would say is about 7 and a 1 y.o. baby. Haven’t seen the husband yet. The other neighbor is a man named Ali, who just started working for the town in the planning department (I think).
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My supervisor with the NGO I will work for (African Trainers and Entrepreneurial Forum), Adams, is a nice jovial person and I have a good office set-up (no internet though). Most of the time I will be going out to the fields to meet with rice farmers. I will travel on the back of my counterpart’s motorcycle. I’m still not sure what they plan for me.

Adams is thrilled I am a Rotarian and said he hopes I can attend each weekly meeting of the Bugiri Rotary club on Thursdays. It just got chartered (6/15) but already has 35 members. As most of us know, in most countries the Rotary Club members are the elites of the community, so this will surely help to get me integrated. I am glad I brought a couple of our banners to exchange. The meeting started an hour late (African time!) and they will party until midnight. Adams borrowed a car t take me home earlier. I look forward to working with this club. Peace Corps always wants volunteers to start youth groups, so I think I will start a few Interact Clubs, which are Rotary high school youth groups.

My counterpart is Matthews. He is a bit difficult to understand, but otherwise, a we get along fine. While sharing a meal with Matthews, he happened to mention that they stress organic farming without pesticides. This was a big thing with Peter Jensen too, and led to an intense discussion about perma-gardening. I showed Matthews pictures I had taken during training of the various stages of the garden we dug. He totally understood the concepts of water from the roof, double-digging, storage for dry season etc. I remarked that unfortunately my new home site wasn’t suited for my own perma-garden, but he thought he could find several locations that could work as demonstration sites. He’s pretty excited about the potential for this. Timing is perfect to get them dug in August and planted just before rainy season starts up. Adams requested me to send him my perma-gardening pictures on WhatsApp.

I take the time to greet and stop to talk to the people I meet walking to work and back. I have yet to see any other muzungus (white people). I have a whole new crop of kids to teach my name.

General

ATEFO (my NGO), Bugiri, empowering women, living site, perma-garden, Rotary Club, Uganda Culture, Water, working

School’s Out For Summer! / Future Days II

Author: Charles July 25, 2015

Yes, I even borrow from Alice Cooper. Pull up a chair, this is a long one. Two for the price of one.

The photo was taken today at a local hotel with a pool after our Language Proficiency Interview (LPI) Friday morning. To my friend Jay: You have a similar photo that inspired thisl My stomach doesn’t really look that way, I was trying to look skinny. Beer and swimming!

I needed to score Intermediate Low to avoid a requirement to hire a tutor in Bugiri for 14 hours (at Peace Corps expense) I have already decided to hire a tutor anyway, which also permitted. In the next three weeks I’ll forget half of this stuff anyway!

My LPI was a one-on-one dialogue with Ken and a recorder. I had to 1) exchange greetings; -it’s always important to exchange a few greetings or you are considered rude. (How was your night/day? Thanks for the work you do. How’s the family back home? What’s news? How is your health?) No one wants to hear anything except OK, thank you , not much etc. It’s a ritual. 2) Introduce myself, where I am from, what I did for work in America, why I am in Uganda, what work I will do, what does the Peace Corps do. 3) Talk about family, in my case, including my two children, wife, mother, four brothers and sisters- where do they live, what work do they do. I lied and said Mark was a cook because his real job was too hard to remember. I also added that Karen helps orphans in Kazo. 4) Answer questions: How old I am, what are foods I like/dislike in Uganda and America; What do I like about Uganda, and 5) Do a Role Play- what do I say in a restaurant, including bargaining, assuming they don’t have a menu. The interviewer asks harder and harder questions until he breaks me and thus establishes my level. I broke pretty early, but the bar is sort of low for Intermediate Low- Be able to greet and tell about your background.

Ken makes his own determinations and sends off the tape to a third party somewhere, who listens and draws his conclusions. Sometimes he consults yet another person if it’s borderline. Then they read Ken’s conclusion and see if there is a consensus. So I won’t know for sure until later but I am expecting to pass with Intermediate Low. Not bad for someone with only two years of Latin in 1968-69. Also not bad for three weeks plus one week to review. It was said we did the equivalent of a a semester and a half in college. I probably put excessive pressure on myself, because the brains of my younger mates are much more “spongier” and I hated being the worst student. Of course my classmates also passed, and two are in the running for Intermediate High. I called my fellow “fossils”, ages 66 and 56, in other parts of Uganda. They are less optimistic than I am. We fossils all had the same problem: we could understand it as presented, but had problems making it stick.

Here is the thing (Sorry Peace Corps if you reads this): I learned today that we will be tested two more times, in a year, and right before end of service (EOS). Apparently 90% fail their LPI’s at EOS. This because 90% of the time, all they do is exchange greetings. Ugandans, who learn English all through school, are excited to speak in English to Americans. Plus I will usually have an interpreter, such as my counterpart. When volunteers came through our training site and seemed so fluent, all they were doing were repeating numerous greetings. I didn’t know that then. So I guess I will see.

I will miss the fist bumps at the fence as they shout in unison "Charley, Charley"

I will miss the fist bumps at the fence as the kids shout in unison “Charley, Charley”

Before getting to my future schedule I wanted to interject a couple of comments about appreciation. First, I appreciate so much the efforts of Sharon, the 18 year old orphan who is a dependent in my family. She does so many chores, yet always was available to help me with my language training. She played the role of my interviewer all week as I endlessly repeated various statements I knew I needed to memorize. Sharon is smart as a whip and the exact type of person who deserves to be empowered. Unfortunately her schooling has stopped for now, two years short of finishing the equivalent of senior high, because they don’t have enough school and boarding fees. Innocent and Peace are starting to require fees, and Adrian is not far behind. The young ones go to Simon’s school across the street, but get no break. The Headmaster is Simon’s first wife and she wants the children of the second wife to pay. Hmmm. The victim of this family dynamic is Sharon. She wants to eventually study engineering but is stalemated at this time. I think of Cinderella. She is overqualified to be just washing clothes and cooking. I gave out gifts to my family tonight and gave Sharon the only paperback I brought, and wrote a dedication to her thanking her.

The second comment is the way Ugandans appreciate us. I am not shy about interacting, particularly when I am approached (“Who are you who walk by my stand every morning?”) Sometimes I’ll go up to a couple of men lounging around and tell them I am working on language. Just greeting them in Lasoga blows them away. (Then it’s often “Are you a missionary/preacher?”) Not all have heard of the Peace Corps, but I represent an country that they love and appreciate for what we have done for them (unlike the Chinese, who are also a presence in Uganda- maybe worthy of an another blog post). When they understand that an old greybeard actually wants to help them for two years, they thank me profusely. This is very fulfilling to me, and motivates me to represent my country well.

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Future Days II

Saturday there will be tents at our learning site for our Home Stay farewell party. Our Home Stay families and Iganga dignitaries will attend. We will throw out some Lasoga lines at them and each of us will make a little speech.

My Home Stay Family was terrific!

Sunday we go to Jinga for a day to present programs and act as counselors for a “GROW and BRO” camp (Girls Leading Our World/Boys Reaching Out) at a large local school that is the base for an Education volunteer, Vanessa. Nick and I will do a program about saving money. After the stress of the language test Friday, and the farewell party for our Home Stay families on Saturday we had hoped for a last day off before our busy weeks ahead, but it was not to be. I don’t think I have had a complete day off since I got to Uganda.

Our “Future Home Visit” begins on Monday, for four nights. Simon and Hellen insist on taking me- Bugiri is only about 1/2 hour east with no traffic. I have a lot of stuff to lug, so I appreciate it. The organization (ATEFOUG) will supply the bed frame but I will have to buy a new mattress the first day, since my home will be ready for me then. Many volunteers will stay at hotels because their homes are not yet ready.

Here is the website of the organization , African Trainers & Entrepreneurs Forum (ATEFO) I will work with. My Supervisor is Adams and my counterpart will be Matthews. Both plural first names. My PC supervisor Maitel met them recently and says they and their staff is very energetic. They were supposed to have a big staff meeting this week but it was postponed until next week so I can attend. Maitell thinks Adams has most of my time planned. Maitel also told me that my place will have electricity, but in Uganda sometimes it can go out, even for a week or more. But I am on the town’s grid. I will not have running water, but the tap is nearby. That’s the same situation as I have had at home stay. It just means I have to boil or filter the water first, and I have gotten used to bucket bathing. (With the so little rain lately, the tap in our courtyard went dry tonight. Simon went somewhere else for water.- Maybe an issue in Bugiri too?) I won’t have any cooking stuff until I return for good on August 14. So I will be getting acquainted with the local restaurants. Adams probably will also take me to dinner.

During the next two years, my counterpart Matthews will be allowed to drive a Boda Boda with me on it. Carson’s counterpart is a progressive woman who will be permitted to drive him. I have yet to see a woman driving a Boda Boda in Uganda.

After I am at my future home for four nights, its off to Kibali, on the western side of Uganda, for a week of something called “Tech Immersion”. PC is very vague what this means. It’s whatever the volunteer in charge decides. I will be with three from my language class (all the guys, not Becky) plus two other guys and one of the Katies (There are four Katies in my PC class). All Ag volunteers. We will stay in relative comfort in a hotel or guest house. So I can leave my mosquito net and bathing bucket in Bugiri. After the tech immersion, all 46 of us will be reunited with our org supervisors for three days of “Supervisor Workshops” at some location between Entebbe and Kampala. Then we all get sworn in at the US Embassy on August 13 and disperse on the 14th to our new homes.

So, the adventure continues….

General

adversity, ATEFO (my NGO), children, demographics, empowering women, host parents, living site, Lusoga, training, Uganda Culture, working

Rearviewmirror II

Author: Charles July 21, 2015

My latest round-up of the miscellaneous. My brother is on vacation so my less skilled photo posting is back this week.

Thanks for your kind words about my blog. I enjoy writing it.

We are in transition from rainy to dry season. It hasn’t rained more than a smidgeon in three days. The red clay roads get dusty from passing motokas (motor cars) and boda bodas (motorcycles). We were told not to wear contact lenses, and it’s easy to see why. It’s in the low 80’s and seems pretty hot to me, but it will get much hotter. An electric fan is on the top of my list of acquisitions when I move to my place in Bugiri.

My home stay father Simon’s school is across the road from my home. Last week I told the kids in the playground “I am Charley” (not “muzungu” -what Ugandans, especially children, call strangers, usually white strangers). Now when I go by, the kids in the playground run to the fence calling “Charley, Charley” and I am obliged to go to the fence and give each one a fist bump (bonga). Sometimes I cross paths with one of the kids walking outside the school yard and they’ll say “Charley”. Nick says it’s like I’m like a rock star! Sadly, in America, old men interacting with children on the playground are not considered rock stars.

Innocent sometimes ties dead leaves around a wadded up plastic bag to use as a soccer ball. The other day I brought out a yellow tennis ball I’d picked up at the market. Now about every other day I will bring it out to bounce back and forth with the three kids and Jordan, a neighbor, on the newly cemented courtyard. They don’t catch it well, so usually there is a mad scramble after a miss. The one who misses retains the privilege of throwing it back to me, or there will be crying. They all actually throw it pretty well. Sometimes I sit in the shade and let them play among themselves. Almost immediately it turns into soccer.

There are some real environmental issues here. They cut down lots of straight timber to help with construction, supporting new roofs or floors, but don’t re-use them, choosing instead to burn them for cooking. .Here is an example of the use of timber in a building in Jinga (source of the Nile), where we went Saturday.

Jinga construction

Kids bring branches to school to contribute to the kitchen

Kids carrying sticks to school

I met Trevor, 18, one of Simon’s sons from his other wife. Trevor remembers when it was cooler. It’s not just from climate change, it’s from the deforestation to support the construction and cooking (which of course does contribute to climate change). He tells me there used to be thicker forests in our neighborhood as recently as ten years ago. Ken from the Peace Corps, who is handling language teaching this week, tells me that Iganga is every bit as hot a my soon to be new home in Bugiri, but in Bugiri they have cut down even more timber. Hard to find shade he says, but similar heat when you are walking down the road.

There is trash everywhere on the roads. It’s far worse than my daughter’s room back home :-). Actual trashcans are non-existent, even for my room.I use the flat lid from my bathing bucket and take my trash to a refuse pile about thirty yards away.

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Trash along the road

Pickers come through and pick up what they can, especially the plastic water bottle. Eventually the rest is burned.

Refuse Pile

Could I get my new neighbors to use trash cans? Where would it go then? Probably another refuse pile, but at least the streets would be cleaner. They were burning refuse at our school today and the smoke was finding its way inside. I was breathing through a neckerchief.

There is a TV in the living room. Hellen, Sharon and Edith enjoy watch soap operas from Uganda, India, The Philippines and apparently Mexico, though I have yet to see a Mexican soap opera. When Simon is here, he watches a little BBC but mostly local Ugandan news and Al Jezeera. I had liked watching Al Jezeera’s coverage of the Arab Spring a couple of years ago. It’s pretty good, sort of like CNN used to be. Much coverage last week about the Greek financial crisis, From the U S we got coverage about the Confederate flag controversy. When he flips through the channels I see Fox News float by. Is it an international version? I guess I don’t care to see.

Uganda TV is in the middle of transition from analog to digital. Last week a court enjoined shutting off analog because not enough people had purchased the converter boxes. There are 3.2 million TVs in Uganda, 70% in Kampala and its surrounding communities. Simon has a pay TV arrangement, receiving his signal via a tall antenna pole, not a dish.

I’ve been using cursive when I take notes in language class. My fellow trainees tell me they were never taught cursive. I had no idea, I guess it makes sense in the world of the internet. I have had Ugandans help me with language who read my notes and do not know cursive either. They re-write my Lasoga words and they are often the same as my cursive.

When we went to Jinja on Saturday, a local volunteer took us to a Mexican restaurant. They had a well-stocked all-you-can eat Taco bar for 12,000 shillings (about $3.45 US). Our gluttony was disgusting. While the Ugandan food is so repetitive, so is Mexican food, and frankly the food in most of the world I suppose. We do agree the white rice here is the best we’ve had. They sort it on a plate before cooking to remove pebbles. I have developed the habit of smashing everything carefully with my tongue, as chipped teeth are an unfortunate hazard here.

Before I move out on Monday, my family wants to go downtown for a portrait of all of us to hang in their living room. They are already saying they will miss me. The feeling is mutual. They have been fantastic.

I will post more about my upcoming schedule soon….

Tunawayonga (We shall chat again).

General

Bugiri, children, Dry season, Environment, host parents, Iganga, Lusoga, Uganda Culture, Uganda food

Village

Author: Charles July 17, 2015

I got the opportunity to weigh myself a few days ago. I weigh 75 kilos which is 165 pounds, a loss of 10 pounds since arriving in Uganda and a total of 47 pounds since January. I feel great and eat plenty.

Two weekends ago (July 5), my host father Simon took us to his home village, Kawanga, about an hour north of Iganga, although it took longer due to mechanical difficulties which caused us to stop several times. Simon’s brother, Emma, his oldest daughter Sylvia, a teacher, and her child Immaculate went with us. At times we had 12 in the vehicle, including his truck bed, going over bumpy rutted roads. He is licensed to carry up to 13.

I met Simon’s mother Beatrice there. She is 84. When she was young, Beatrice was not allowed to get an education. Simon’s father died when he was very young. Simon’s mother was determined her children get opportunities, and she took on farming, chopping wood, and making the village hootch, whatever it took, to raise the fees needed for her children’s education. Simon reveres her for her efforts.

Simon’s village is the most remote in the district. He is determined to raise the standard of living. He helped raise funds for a four room school house in the village. It attracts about 400 students from all over. Classrooms with 100 student are common in Uganda.

As you will see, Simon built a shed with corn (milling?) and rice processing machinery that helped the local farmers add value to their crops. As I have learned in training, most farmers are sustenance only, meaning they only raise enough to support themselves. But that is often insufficient when you encounter a dry spell, or unexpected family illness, not to mention keeping up with the school fees. So we look at opportunities for value-added products. Unfortunately after a year of operation, a big storm blew off the roof and wrecked the equipment. It has not been repaired since. So many pieces of equipment do not stay maintained in Uganda.

Simon’s “target” is to introduce goat farming as a viable business for his community. He wants to start a demonstration project on his land. He produced a business plan and budget for my review. Looks like he needs about $4500 US.

Incidentally, my photos are sharper because now I email them to my brother with the text and he does the blog from Colorado. This uploading process consumes a great deal of data, which is expensive on my Peace Corps stipends. So I waited to transmit until we went to the “Sol Cafe” on Saturday (a foreigner hang-out) and took advantage of the free wi-fi. My brother is also more skilled on WordPress. I wish I could upload some video, but it times out and sucks up the data.

Our first stop on our tour was a house that Simon recently built that he wants to retire to when he starts up his demonstration goat farm. It is empty right now, his mother refuses to live in it. She lives in the house you see slightly to the left and behind it. We ate lunch on the floor of this house.

This is the building which housed the corn and rice machinery with the roof blown off.

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This is taken from the back of Simon’s house. The boy is his cousin’s child.

The young man from the neighborhood who Simon hires as caretaker in his absence. He is carrying sweet potatoes. Simon and his truck are behind him.

Simon’s mother, Beatrice, and daughter Sylvia, and Immaculate

We saw little compounds like this scattered about. Simon claims that up to ten people sleep in each hut. Takes up the whole floor as you might guess.

Various crops are drying on the ground. If they would just use a tarp, less would go to waste. Even better would be secure storage/drying bins. You don’t need to be trained by the Peace Corps or have an Ag background to know this! They need capital to have better storage and thus more income. PCVs would hope to introduce other income generating activities to raise such capital. Hey Peter, these are not ideal roofs for a Perma-Garden!

This is Simon’s cousin and two of his children. They sleep seven in his hut. He was showing me a snake bite on his leg. Simon is disappointed his cousin refuses to send his children to the school Simon helped fund. He won’t even take a tour of it.

We had the occasional animal delay besides mechanical delay.

We made a few stops within the village neighborhood, always attracting hordes of kids. They literally backed away upon seeing me come out of the car, then stampeded me when I showed them their pictures on my smart phone. These kids make the kids in my host family seem privileged by comparison. But they don’t know how poor they are, so they are happy as kids will be.

You can see Simon holding his phone on the lower right. He hardly knows how to use it without Hellen’s help. I’m not much better.

General

agriculture, children, Education, Entreprenuership, health, host parents, travel, Uganda Culture

Join Together

Author: Charles July 11, 2015

Although English is spoken throughout Uganda, learning the local language is important. First, many farmers have not attended school, so their English may be fairly limited. Second, knowing the language will help us integrate into our communities. Acceptance provides us more security. The concrete workers at my home stay site light up when I greet them in Lasoga.

There are seven different language groups scattered throughout Uganda, each learning a different language for their region. They range from three to nine volunteers per group. Our Lasoga five will be in the closest proximity to each other during the next two years.

Lagosa language learning cohorts

At class today, my mates and I were remarking how such a difficult learning experience has been made easier due to the fact we have all gotten along. I thought I would introduce my language cohort.

Starting on the far left is Becky, 30, from Wisconsin. In high school, she was a Rotary exchange student in Equador. Since college, Becky has been a kayak guide and a kindergarten teacher. She is always upbeat, has a big laugh, and never gives the short answer, which we gently tease her about.
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Second from left is Nick, 24, from a suburb on the Kansas side of Kansas City. He is a recent graduate of Kansas State, majoring in Agriculture Economics and Ecology Research. He is a big fan of the Kansas City Chiefs, poor guy. We are united in figuring out how to stream the NFL games during the early morning hours. He sees his future in me, and it terrifies him.

Carson, 25, hails from the Mad River Valley of Vermont, the home base of Grace Potter, a rock singer I enjoy. Their families are well acquainted, and Grace’s dad has promised to ship Carson some frisbees to distribute in his village. Carson is a fellow alumni of the University of Denver, where he double-majored in Digital Media Studies and Geography. Like my own son Clark, he keeps me in line when I get too “excited”.

Will is 25, is a native of North Carolina, and a recent graduate of N.C. State, where he majored in Business Management (Finance). After the Peace Corps, he aspires to attend law school.

Will and Becky will remain in our current location of Iganga, while the remaining three will live in towns around it, less than a couple of hours away. Becky loves to cook, so the guys plan to make Iganga an occasional weekend destination. I am proud to call these people my friends in service.

General

Lusoga, training, volunteers

I’ve Got the Medicine That Everybody Wants

Author: Charles July 10, 2015

Until this week, I had no medical issues. I have been pretty fortunate compared to many of my cohorts. Then I woke up Monday with problems on both ends. Pretty sure it was food poisoning. A couple of items in my Peace Corps Medical Kit came in handy. I didn’t want to miss language class, and was there by noon, felt fine since.

Medicine inventory

About that medical kit…
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A picture of the kit on my side of the dorm room during training shows the relative size of it. Also pictured is the inventory of my jammed-packed medical kit. I thought you might find it interesting. I would like to have this inventory back in the States.

Not on the list, are pills to start taking if you think you have malaria, after consultation with the medical officer. In such an event you would be headed to the medical offices in Kampala. During training we learned how to do a quick malaria test with a prick of blood. I was not infected 🙂

General

health, malaria, medicine

Home Stay II

Author: Charles July 3, 2015

My room for home stay

First, an embarrassing correction. Innocent, age 5, is a boy, not a girl. Both genders wear their hair short, and I thought he had on a dress when we met. He didn’t. I thought he was plain as a girl, but he is handsome as a boy! I confessed my error to Simon and Hellen and they laughed. Innocent leaves at 7 a.m.to school, comes home for a brief dinner and then back to school until 9 p.m. I’ve hardly been able to get acquainted with him. He has his addition tables down cold.

Every morning I walk 2/3 of a mile up a dirt road with a fellow trainee, Becky (30) from Wisconsin. She is staying only a few houses away. She has her own little cottage, hot running water, toilet, and a bath tub. I have small room with a bed, a chair I use to hold all my “stuff”, a bucket to bathe, and a pit latrine.

The courtyard of my home stay when I arrived. Like all the parts of Uganda I’ve seen so far, red clay everywhere.

We spend most of each day in intensive language training. By all estimates, we have covered 1/2 a college semester in four days. It is brutal on my brain. The other four Kids are doing much better than me. I understand concepts, but my memory of words and proper grammar rules is very weak. This afternoon the instructor, Mango Francis, played on his laptop in the back, while the others drilled each other but mostly worked on me. I am not used to being the class dummy. But Mango says my progress is fine. I called my fellow Fossils and they are also the laggards in their classes.

My host family is just starting to throw their language at me. Sharon is wonderful, teaching me to wash my clothes better tonight, and going over my verbs. She is very smart, but there is not enough money yet to send her to Senior 6, the last step before University.

View from my room during a rain shower

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Every day I come home to see more progress in cementing in the courtyard. They started Sunday. The three men work really hard. It would be a swampy red clay mess after rains until now.

We are planning a 4th of July celebration with our host families at the Learning Center. We hope to get together the ingredients to make hamburgers, which my host family has never had. We will also eat Ugandan food. Matooke (Banana casserole) is served at every lunch and dinner. You can’t escape it. I asked Mango if it was big in other African countries, but he says it is unique to Uganda.

Workers covering the courtyard. Two of them worked barefoot. It took them all week. They were a jovial crew, saying their muscles were as good as American machines. At the end of the day they would bathe and leave on their bikes wearing pressed shirts and trousers. Looking “smart”. My permanent press shirts are not smart enough according to Hellen and Sharon.

The chickens liked to do their own cement work

Sunday, Simon and Hellen are driving me to his childhood village, where his mom still lives. It is 1 1/2 hours north. It is very primitive, with no electricity. I will likely be the first white person most of them have ever seen (Not even TV of course). He says they will be excited by my smart phone, especially looking at their pictures after I take them.

Stay tuned…..

General

adversity, children, host parents, Lusoga, training

Home Stay

Author: Charles July 1, 2015

Five agri-business trainees, including myself, arrived in Iganga Saturday. Two of the five will be stationed in Iganga, which is centered among the remaining three sites. We were taken to our learning center, where we will intensify our language study and learn more about Ugandan history and culture while staying with our host families for four weeks.

Hellen in her kitchen

My host parents Hellen and Simon

A nun greeted us at the training center, which is owned by her order, and next door to a convent. Francis Mango, our language teacher, will stay in a little cottage on the grounds of the training center. We piled out of the van with about half of our luggage (the rest is stored at PC headquarters) supplemented by the Peace Corps with a new pillow and blanket, a wash bucket for bathing, and a solar charger. On the way we stopped for sheets for Nick and a pot for me to pee in during the night so I don’t have to leave my room.

Our host parents began to arrive to take us to their homes. Comedy ensued. The name I had been given as my host father was “Simon Peter”. I walked to the first arrivals and asked his name- “Peter”. I asked if he was Simon Peter, and I thought he said yes. I introduced myself and met his wife. They were the only ones there for awhile, so we just stood outside chatting while the other four trainees awaited their parents. Long story short, we eventually figured out I had the wrong parents. Three of the five fathers were named Peter. My real host parents were last to arrive, and he prefers to be called Simon. My host mom is Hellen.

This is Peace

Innocent and Adrian

Simon (50) and Hellen (30) are both teachers, but Simon has more on the ball than that. His home property is U-shaped around a red clay dirt courtyard. He rents other rooms that surround the courtyard to other teachers.
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Simon owns a local school, different than the one he teaches at. It adjoins his first house, where the school was started, and is across the road from the second house, where I am living. I toured the school briefly with Simon on Sunday during classes. There are 450 students in nursery through 7th grade including many boarders. The boarders who stay for the weekend take classes on Sunday morning. The school is administered by Ann, who lives in Simon’s first house, and is also Simon’s first wife. (Yes, Simon has two wives!- more on that later) Hellen also has teaching certifications but works part time for now. She has been sick with a recent bout of malaria.

Sharon and Edith

Simon and Hellen have three children. Innocent is 5, Peace is 4, and the only boy, Adrian, is 3. They have no toys and amused themselves Sunday morning with the water from the spigot, dirt, rocks, and loose bricks.

Simon and Hellen also care for two “dependents” Sharon 18, and Edith 17, who do many household chores. Sharon has finished Primary (elementary) school, Edith has never attended school.

At first these kids knelt before me when they greeted me, but as we get comfortable the kneeling has stopped..

I am getting the same foods as training, but it’s way better tasting. My plates are often too full, but I am getting them to adjust it.

The language classes this week have been difficult. I understand the concepts, but I do not memorize as well as the the younger trainees.

General

host parents, Iganga, Lusoga, Uganda food

Garden

Author: Charles June 26, 2015

Peter has been training gardening to Peace Corps volunteers for 30 years. To say Peter is avid about perma-gardening is putting it mildly. I will try to encapsulate the philosophy behind it. He observes that it is a common to see large NGOs and Foundations such as Gates, USA Aid, the Rockefellers etc. often boast of 10-20% increases in crop production. However, when this happens, there is a corresponding drop in child nutrition and frequent food insecurity (43% of Uganda with it’s 80% farmers, is food insecure). This seemingly counter-intuitive result is due to the “800 lb. gorilla” in the room, namely that the husband controls the family money and often does not spend it wisely. The desire to buy new farm equipment, pressure to pay school fees, and unexpected doctor bills all contribute to Food Insecurity. (I am a bit surprised that the rampant alcoholism was not discussed in training, but the Ugandans are pretty open about it)So sometimes the family does not get a variety of nutritious food it needs. This is crazy when you consider the fertility of Uganda and all the rain. There should be plenty of food for the whole country.

Peter teaches that a Perma-garden right next to the family home is a solution to the family’s food insecurity. Perma stands for permanent (duh). Based on the annual rainfall of Uganda, a 6 x 4 roof releases 24,000 liters of rain run-off per year. Allowing for a foot path, the perma-garden would be a few feet away from the side of the house and take advantage of this run-off. You want the garden with a slight slope away from house. Of course, there is also the rain that falls directly on the garden. Taking advantage of roof run off saves “Ma Ma” literally hundreds of trips to the town pump to fetch water in heavy Jerry cans.
The particular design he uses for the garden is his own invention and is ingenious. It incorporates berms on the sides, swales acting as foot paths, and holes in the corners. The photo on the right is after construction before planting The soil in the garden and the berms are “double-dug” and “conditioned” for a much as four feet down, with handfuls of manure (for bacteria); and lots of brown stuff (dead leaves => carbon); green stuff (nitrogen), and charcoal (the small worthless crumbled pieces the charcoal salesman at the market lets you sweep up from his stall => oxygen).
In addition to the garden, we also built a compost pile incorporating the same ingredients.It is kept in the shade and still reaches a temperature over 130 degrees. At that point, pests and bad bacteria die, but good bacteria thrives. When you pull out the stick, and touch the bottom, it is extremely hot.

The six S’s of water management are Stop, Slow, Spread, Sink, Save and Shade. When the rain hits the garden from the roof (usually in a big rush, as I have observed, the rain here is incredibly intense) the berms stop it, slows it down and allows it to spread throughout the whole garden. Extra run-off is channeled around the garden and goes into the corner holes before the excess is released. The water sinks deep into the garden and is saved. Because it was dug deep, the plants’ roots go down further than the normal 6 to 12 inches to clay. During the dry season, it can still access the deep water saved.

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The materials for a perma-garden are free and easy to get. Once you dig it, the garden is year-round, permanent, and low maintenance. Just rotate the garden plants each season to keep the soil fertile and confuse the pests. Meanwhile, Pa Pa has to plow his 2 acre farm every season and buy fertilizer and pesticides. Our last session got rained out before we could actually plant the garden. He left the next day to teach this in Rwanda. A few of us thought we could do the planting, but Peace Corps has us scheduled pretty tight. Peter built another one (shown here) on the compound in a special training session just last April. It has been totally neglected ever since, and it’s pumpkins are much larger than the compound’s pumpkins, aided by drip lines.

It’s important to get both Ma Ma and Pa Pa to buy in, but a huge advantage is the empowerment it gives to Ma Ma; and no matter how bad things get, the family has food security. I knew some volunteers were planning to install a garden, but I hadn’t given it much thought. I don’t know if my site will have room for a garden, but I would dig one if I could. Peter says when you start clearing away your plot, the curious neighbors will observe this. They have been digging since they were 3 years old and will probably want to help, and rip the hoe right out of your hand. It’s only a matter of time before the early adapters influence the entire village to start their own perma-gardens. Hoeing is strenuous but I did my share. I enjoyed a lengthy conversation with Peter one afternoon, comparing notes about our similar kids and mothers. I scored 11 out of 65 on his test on the first day, and 63 on the retest on the last day.

I move to my home stay for 4 weeks starting June 27. Mostly language training then. As I predicted, early language training has been quite a challenge for me compared to the ability of the four others learning with me. I need to study and practice quite a bit more to keep up.

General

agriculture, demographics, empowering women, food insecurity, perma-garden, training, Uganda Culture

Yearly Archive: 2015

Mukazi Wange (My Wife)

Goin’ Mobile

School’s Out For Summer! / Future Days II

Future Days II

Rearviewmirror II

Village

Join Together

I’ve Got the Medicine That Everybody Wants

Home Stay II

Home Stay

Garden

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