Yearly Archive: 2017

16 Days of Activism

As part of the 16 Days of Activism CARE awarded a goat to the winning team of a soccer game between two areas of Rhino Camp Settlement. CARE also provided the balls and uniforms.

We are in the middle of “16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence” with plenty of activities in the settlements to promote awareness. “16 Days” is observed around the world every year, but like other International holidays and observances, not so much in the United States. A great deal of focus is about Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) including forced early child marriage, rape, and sexual harassment. Other forms of GBV include economic and psychological violence. From what I have observed going on state-side, maybe this International observance should get more publicity.

I have gone to a few trainings of “Role Model Men and Boys”. The participants are selected by their local communities and usually chosen because they already have volunteered in various capacities and have good reputations. I talk a little bit about harassment and parenting.  One of my favorite and most effective exercises from the trainings begins by dividing into two groups. The first group makes a list of all the activities of the wife in a normal day, while the second group documents the typical day of the husband. 

Ronald of CARE compares the Men’s list on the right to the Women’s list on the left

Man’s list:

Wake at 6:30 a.m.

Brush teeth and bathe (water prepared by wife)

Eat porridge (cooked by wife)

Slash compound (often done by wife)

Go to the field and dig

Move animals to pasture (often delegated to children)

Take shower

Wait for Lunch

Perhaps more field or animal work (rarely)

Spend afternoon at the market center (often drinking alcohol)

Come home for supper

Shower

Sleep

Woman’s list:

Wake at 6 a.m. while man sleeps

Fetch water (or done at night)

Sweep compound

Set fire

Boil water for man’s bath, tea, and washing utensils

Prepare tea and porridge for family breakfast

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Send children or accompany them to school

Clean house and mattresses

Work in the garden/field

Wash clothes (not daily)

Come back from the field, gathering greens and firewood

Prepare lunch

Wash dishes and utensils

Bathe

Go to market or take children to health center

Prepare supper

Prepare water for bathing children and (sometimes again) husband’s bath

Provide time for “family discussion” or sex with husband

After their training the men will try to undertake changes within their own households such as taking on more of their wife’s chores, letting her share in decision making, or spending quality time with the children.  After a few months, CARE will assist these men as they reach out and engage ten other men targeted in their community. It is not unusual for the neighbors to speculate their local Role Model Man has been “bewitched” but theoretically they should notice a happier family.

A local official launches “16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence”

Women’s group performs traditional dance during launch of “16 Days of Activism”

Kenneth from CARE participates in a ceremony turning over musical instruments and games for a Youth Center in Rhino Camp

The eventual winning team in the soccer match posing with their new uniforms.

Entertainment following the game. We didn’t leave the settlement until night on this particular day. There is some solar lighting but otherwise it gets pretty dark there.

Sometimes planned programs get disorganized when there is a food distribution, attracting hundreds if not thousands. We try to learn the schedules ahead of time but they don’t always adhere to them. I am reluctant to openly take photos here.

Ration cards are used and now we are implementing cash transfers, which are recognized in the humanitarian community as efficient and secure. Gender Based Violence often happens when the husband in charge of the family’s ration card sells food for cash so he can buy liquor.In their reports, CARE staff frequently write “ratio” cards.

EVI’s are Extremely Vulnerable Individuals

Sign at Help Desk during food distribution

Nearby, local community members sell firewood and charcoal for cooking

Dry season is settling in

Sam’s story

 

Sam, our Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEAL) manager.

My story today is also informative about the local culture. Sam is a welcome addition to the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) portion of the office. He started only a few weeks before I did.  When he learned I was in the the Peace Corps, Sam told me about his own life, which was altered immeasurably by a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer’s intervention.

Sam is the fifth of his mother’s six children. His mother was the fifth wife of his father’s 13 wives. She and the children lived near Soroti close to three other wives.  Sam’s father was a Kenyan with more than 60 children.  He bought and sold the hides of cows, goats, and sheep from collection points all over Uganda, often near where his other wives were scattered.

Sam’s uncle was a sort of father figure and pushed Sam’s mom to ensure her children received a proper education. However, since his dad was Kenyan, Sam and his siblings were culturally identified as Kenyan. Ugandan teachers and medical staff would refuse service to Sam and his siblings. Sam’s mother changed their names to Ugandan names, but it didn’t seem to help much.

Shortly after Museveni came to power in 1986, foreigners in the North were persecuted and Sam’s mom feared her older children would be conscripted as child soldiers. After two of Sam’s step-brothers were killed, his mom took the children to Kenya. Sam was only four. However, Kenyan schools rejected the children for being Ugandans.

 After two years in Kenya, Sam’s mother brought her children back to Soroti, but she had lost everything; the house on her plot of land had been destroyed. For a while, Sam and his family literally lived under a tree, while his mom farmed her plot. Sam remembers his shelter during that time as worse than the shelters the current South Sudanese refugees get from CARE. Nevertheless, Sam managed to get through P-7, which is the highest primary grade.  He passed the P-7 exams which allow you to proceed to Secondary School.

Sam’s mom had a cousin in Tororo, whose husband was employed and agreed to support Sam.  He moved to Tororo from 1997-2000 and lived with this family to go to secondary school. This would allow Sam to attend “O” levels which is S 1-4. You can learn a vocation after S-4.

In 1998 Sam met Craig, a Peace Corps volunteer in Tororo.  Craig lived in a two room house. In one of the rooms, Craig had started a library with used books donated from the United States.  Sam remembers seeing stamps on them from U.S. schools. Craig allowed Sam to use the library, and Sam was a frequent visitor, particularly enjoying the science books. Craig’s Peace Corps service ended, and he returned to the United States.

After Sam passed his S-4 exams. The next level is “A” level which S-5 and S-6, prior to going to University. However, his school support from the cousin in Tororo stopped. He was still allowed to live with the family that supported him through S-4, but essentially Sam was in the streets with no options, and doing nothing. [Isn’t it interesting that Sam basically was ‘in the streets’, while, after completing S-4 and being stopped, Sharon from my home stay family still did cooking and cleaning and watching the kids.] This street time was during the first nine months of what should have been Sam’s S-5 year.

Craig returned to Tororo a year or two after his service ended, to pursue a post-Peace Corps education project, which continues to this day. He saw Sam in the street one day, and learned of his situation. Sam asked Craig if he could be his ‘library attendant’. Craig declined because he felt Sam needed to be in school. He sat down with Sam and collected the names and contacts of every friend and relative and obtained pledges of support. This was before mobile money, which Ugandans use today to transfer funds via their phones. Sam said Craig used couriers! [Peace Corps frowns on PCV fundraising, but Craig was an RPCV at this point anyway],

Next, Craig went to the local public school and negotiated an arrangement to let Sam get caught up with the 9 months he had missed.Sam says the public school was not that good, but he studied six relevant books Craig had given him, and despite the late start, passed S-5. Sam says you can choose your three subjects for S-6. He selected Chemistry, Biology and Physics. His primary source for learning was not the school itself, but rather three used high school textbooks on these subjects Craig gave him.

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Eventually Sam lost touch with Craig, but Craig’s intervention left an indelible mark.  “I was inspired by Craig 100%. I feel my purpose in life is giving other people opportunities.”  Sam has stayed true to this intent.

Sam is married with two biological children and two orphans he adopted.  He adopted the first orphan before he was married. The baby survived a botched caesarean section, in which the mother died (her doctor refused further aid without more money). Sam asked his own mom to help care for the child, sending her part of his scholarship stipend. The second orphan is a survivor of a couple Sam knew who died of HIV/AIDS. 

It doesn’t stop there. Sam was befriended by an 18 year old boy who hung out at a car wash in Kampala Sam liked to use. The boy wanted to go to school. Sam asked if the boy was willing to go to his mom’s village school for 6 months before he would support him. The boy agreed, and today Sam supports him as he learns to be an auto mechanic in Nairobi, Kenya. He also somehow finds time to mentor graduate students in Gulu, when he drives there each weekend to stay with his family.

I asked Sam how he can afford all this charity. Sam’s wife sells clothes, and his salary with CARE is supplemented by crops and animals he raises at his mom’s 4 acre plot in Soroti. He has acquired another 2 acre plot he would like to develop into a recreational park for children, and a community center with a bar & grill, a gym and a room to rent for events. He hopes to assist many young people in the future. And it began with a happenstance meeting with a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer in the streets of Tororo.

And now some photos-

Lunch at Arua hotel across from CARE office. Countries represented clockwise from lower left Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, Bangladesh,Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Three of them are staying in the Guesthouse I live behind.

Did I mention the roads to the camps are bad? This is a CARE vehicle that rolled over on the road to Imvepi. Three CARE staff with seat belts on were left hanging but were uninjured. It was a slow tip over.

Another view. This was actually being rented by CARE. Nearby there is an inscription on a rock “Tooth got lost”

Young men selected by their communities to be Role Model Males receiving training. They will go home and share in chores and watching the kids etc. The teachers said the neighbors will gossip the men have been bewitched. Until they notice how happy everyone in the family is.

Anyone who has lifted one of these babies onto a water cooler, knows what they weigh.

 

Drama in Rhino Camp

CARE supports drama clubs, who present plays and routines with lessons. I am writing a story about this, and went to Rhino Camp to watch performances. The club set up in the market and attracted a large crowd. The actors passed a megaphone around. A man climbed up on a roof beam to get a better view and photo-bombed a couple of my shots.

I have spent most of the last few weeks at the office working on a couple of projects and editing some reports. Doing the reports about CARE’s projects helps me learn about what CARE does. I am also conducting more interviews in the settlements, watching some activities, and writing or editing some stories. Often I get compelling backstories, but when it comes to CARE’s interventions, all I can get sometimes is “I thank CARE for my shelter” One refugee has a good backstory and is in a drama group at Rhino Camp. I decided I will write about her drama group and weave her story into it.

My “drama club member” walked through South Sudan to the Congo at the age of 19 after her parents were killed, and eventually walked to Uganda. During her entire journey and at the settlement, she has been the caretaker of 11 boys younger than she is: five younger brothers, four sons of her uncle, and two more boys from a neighbor. All 12 live in the shelter behind them, built by CARE.

In the interviews I have done, I am struck how ‘normal’ the needs of these refugees are. They want a job providing economic security. They want to live in peace without fear. If they have children, they want them to get a good education and have a better life. No American would want differently.

Many of these people, particularly the men, had stable, important jobs with nice houses. Now they are virtually powerless, living in tarp-covered shelters and dependent on aid. I have heard the wives have a saying: “We are now married to UNHCR, because it is our provider.” Not surprising, this is a potential trigger for domestic violence. And just like in America, alcohol leads to domestic violence, often when the husband sells food rations to buy booze.

Nick Turse is a correspondent I follow on TomDispatch, which usually is a chronicle about our military. Turse’s beat covers U.S. deployments in Africa. I recommend his recent story about South Sudan “Where the bodies aren’t buried.” It is still a grim reality there.

On another note, here is an interesting video by the BBC about the dangers of riding on boda bodas in Kampala. Arua has tuk tuks, which are three wheeled taxis the Peace Corps permits us to ride. CARE also strongly recommends tuk tuks over bodas,  They cost a bit more.
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In this skit, the man is sick because he defecated in the bush instead of a pit latrine, and didn’t wash his hands. The pit latrines in the settlements are not exactly pristine either.

This is Kelsey, one of the few PCVs left in Uganda with more seniority than me. She is a a third year extension Education volunteer in Arua. My country director Delphine asked me to consider using video sometimes. I have seen some of Kelsey’s work and invited her to do a bit of filming of the dramas. She had never been to the settlements.

Conducting an interview

Its hard not to keep talking about the lousy roads. Here a a security warning we received about some roads getting blocked by locals. I didn’t edit it, so you can get an idea how some of the writing I edit is: This is to bring to your attention about the security situation as per to day morning, The road that leads to IMVEPI from Yumbe was blocked by Villagers(community members) at Odubi Village, four kilometer away from the settlement, organizational cars where high-jacked for three hours before the police intervened and tear gassed the group that had blocked the road. the reason for blocking the road was in protest to the bad road leading to IMVEPI from Yumbe which they say it is as a result of NGO cars that continuously pass through it and as per now there is a bad spot cars are dogging by passing through some bodies garden. As CARE we got information for the plot of the road block much early before we set off hence we used BIDIBIDI road to access IMVEPI, for that we did not fall a victim however we remain vigilant and monitor the situation.

I started attending meetings of the Arua Rotary Club. This is the traditional banner exchange. The Arua Club has a cool looking leopard on their banner. We met outside under a tree this particular evening.

My friend Judith was able to go to Tonga for the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps in Tonga. She is on the far left with four other members of her cohort. Unfortunately, she didn’t find the 50 year old baby she named.

Welcome to the Machine

Last week we received a visit from the “Double Delphine”: Delphine Pinault, the CARE Uganda Country Director, and Delphine Mugisha, the program manager who developed my position, and their small entourage. It looks like we will we need to move to a bigger office, but larger available buildings are hard to come by in Arua. Delphine M. asked me to mentor the initiative managers here to help in their writing.

For my entire career, except my first three years out of law school, I either practiced solo, or as a partner in a partnership with a few employees. Probably eight people were in my largest law firm.

Meital at swearing in

Working in the Peace Corps meant I would a supervisor (called a “champion”), for the first time in 30 years. As readers know, this was Meital. In the beginning, it was a bit difficult, because I felt she was a little too “mothering” but eventually we became rather collegial, and now I love her like a sister. She complemented my writing, and gave me the confidence to apply for my current position. Meital was supposed to be the champion for the five 3rd year extension volunteers. However, last week it was announced she was leaving the Peace Corps at the end of October, for undisclosed new opportunities. She has been on leave, so I don’t know more yet. I wish only the best for her.

Of course there were a few other people above Meital in Kampala, and the whole Peace Corps agency from it’s D.C. headquarters across more than 60 countries. But generally volunteers get a lot of autonomy in our scattered isolated locations. In Bugiri, Adams was my “Supervisor”, but he was very much like one of my small business clients. ATEFO was a small NGO hanging in there, scrambling to attract donors for projects. I was never shy about giving Adams my two cents, or rather 2 shillings, about running his little enterprise, and he respected my work experience.

Today, the Peace Corps is humming very quietly in the background, as I now have become a very tiny cog in a big machine called CARE International. Wikipedia states “For the fiscal year 2016, CARE reported a budget of more than 574 million Euros ($688 million US) and a staff of 9,175 (94% of them local citizens of the country where they work)”. I don’t know if the CARE employees in the north with me exceed 50 yet, but they are increasing every week. The home office in Kampala seems more involved too.

As small as my role is, I have important responsibilities and deadlines, and there is more pressure to perform. I am taking some things off my hard working team leader Carly’s plate. She has been a patient “boss”, and I enjoy her. I have met my soon-to-be new boss Julius, who visited while he waited for visa approval. When he returns next week from his home in Kenya, there will be a small overlap with Carly before she heads back to Melbourne for a well-deserved break. I hope Julius and I will get along well.

I can’t say there is much “fat” in this office. Everyone works hard, including every Saturday. The senior staff has to go to so many meetings, both in the office and at the settlements, and yet I can understand the necessity of them. This sprawling refugee crisis is complex with lots of moving parts.
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I was a lawyer for 16 years before obtaining my first P.C. Many of you remember Dictaphones, and word processors? My lawyer friends reading this blog will recall legal research in law libraries, piling up open law reporters to photocopy cases, then cutting and taping cited opinions into hand-written briefs in legal pads to give to a word processor tech. My last two years in the villages were strictly low tech. I taught financial literacy using lessons printed on grain sacks or on white sheets of paper taped to a wall or a tree.

Today at CARE, all of the initiative managers have to use laptops (unlike ATEFO staff), and the entire CARE organization uses Microsoft Office 365 in the cloud, which is new to me. I struggle to figure out elements of Excel, PowerPoint and Word software. Back in the day I would delegate: “Fix this, so it looks this way”. Now I really need to learn how to do more, but fortunately the younger staff are quite patient to respond to my requests for guidance. I always joke with Ugandans, “My brain is not as ‘spongey’ as before.” I mean it more for learning local language, but it applies to learning software and its tricks.

I have not been able to get out as much for interviews and story writing. Story writing is a different discipline than legal writing. I had hoped my blog experience would be helpful, but….. my Peace Corps colleague Ruwani in the Kampala office, edited one of my stories. She did such a good job, I was sincerely humbled! I need to step it up!

The road from my home to town lies next to a dormant golf course. It is said the caretaker died, and that was that. Cattle is herded now.

I have lots of little hills and gullies around me. A common sight throughout Uganda, washing boda bodas in a creek.

Just up from the boda guys, ladies were digging sand. I asked what they were doing with it, and the lady pointed to a sand pile twenty feet away and said “We will sell it!”

In this nearby gully, there were always kids playing, bathing, or clothes getting washed. I paid 500 shillings to a lady down there who insisted I pay to take this pic when I asked permission.

Hygiene and Dignity Come in Buckets

Jackie unloads the truck holding components of five piece Aluminum buckets that we assembled.

Everything is unloaded, now we assemble and sort. A crowd of kids gathered while we worked. School is out until Monday.

The buckets have been assembled and items have been placed in them. When someone announced the community could have the empty boxes, the kids pounced on them in a free-for-all. Women and girls had their names checked off and then received a bucket.

Components of the hygiene kit, besides the bucket, which is used for bathing, include a long bar of soap, three packs of Always menstrual pads, three panties, and a meter or so of kitenge cloth. Some boys hanging around said they had no parents or sisters to share, and complained girls get everything in the handouts. They wanted extra bars of soap, which unfortunately, we didn’t have.

We loaded this pick-up with Dignity Kits to stock Health Centers. A Dignity Kit contains a blue plastic bathing bucket (like I use), soap, sandals, a UN t-shirt, two panties, a baby’s shirt, a baby’s shawl, kitenge cloth, a roll of cotton, and a large sack to carry it all.

The roads to settlements are often poor, especially when it has been raining. Somehow, we managed to get around this truck stuck in the mud. A couple of times we stopped because items were getting jarred loose and falling off.


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I was trying to shoot a photo of a refugee compound while we drove by, and accidentally captured these two women hauling wood.

Stacks of wheelbarrows used in connection with shelter building.

Dorms used by staff of an NGO living in Imvepi. Those are bamboo walls. CARE staff are not currently living in Settlements, but that might change. I am not allowed to stay overnight.

As part of my efforts to get familiar with what CARE does, I participated in two distribution activities. The first was the assembly and individual distribution of Hygiene Kits in Imvepi Settlement. The second was the distribution of Dignity Kits to four Health Centers in Imvepi and Rhino Camp. The photos tell the story: 

 

Ch-Ch-Changes

Anabol, from Spain, is a Gender Based Violence (GBV) specialist. She was on ten day loan from CARE-Canada. She was in Imvepi Settlement to examine how CARE can further mitigate GBV. I accompanied her on this day, when she conducted separate sessions with women, men, and teens to draw a map of the settlement and have them indicate weak points where security should be improved, often by adding a light at night, and assessing where harassment. happens. Next stop for Anabol is a three month stint in Columbia with a different NGO..

As you may know, I was somewhat frustrated by ‘down times’ during my service in Bugiri. There were lots of reasons for this. I tried to go with the flow.  

Now I might be a victim of the bromide “Be careful what you wish for…”   I have been working 50-60  hours per week, including all day Saturday, I worked at home half of Sunday editing reports from senior staff which were due Monday morning. Usually I am at the office by 7:30 a.m. and I often get home at 7 p.m.  It appears the other third year extension PCVs are also working hard. Anytime I go to a settlement it takes nearly two hours each way, and bracing against bumps in the road adds to fatigue.

I have a small pile of projects on my plate right now, and activities scheduled most days, as my work niche becomes clearer. I am learning to edit reports sent by project leaders and incorporating them into CARE’s portion of reports from all NGOs which are submitted to UNHCR and Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).  I’m sure I will be writing and/or editing many other reports.

I’ve been tasked to draft 1-2 page descriptions of CARE’s Six Current Emergency Projects and Sectors. Right now CARE’s responsibilities are primarily in three sectors: 1) Building temporary shelters for People with Special Needs ((PSNs)- Unaccompanied mothers and/or children and disabled- and providing shelter materials to able-bodied refugees; 2) Mitigating Gender Based Violence (GBV) within the settlements; and 3) Raising awareness about, and supporting Sexual, Reproductive and Maternal Health.

These are examples of temporary housing in Imvepi Camp wich is newer than Rhino Camp from my last post.. White tarp is labeled with the logo of UNHCR stretched over a frame. CARE is transitioning to semi-permanent housing which will be made from bricks. They will also be partitioned in the inside to allow some separation.

At Imvepi you can see these white -tarped houses stretching for miles

Often a spouse or children become separated from the rest of their family. The office on the left maintains a data base to reunite them.

After refugees cross the border, they spend one night there, and then are bused to the Settlement where they stay in dorms like those pictured above, for up to a week, while they get registered and shelter is arranged and built for them if necessary. Bio-metric data is recorded and a card issued to obtain food and other essentials. Anabol visited the border crossing, which is currently held by rebels. She saw two of them on the bridge with rifles slung on their shoulders and flip-flops dangling from their feet, Most of the crossings occur at night when it i cooler, and she was told you can hear fighting. She was surprised to observe many Ugandans going the other way during the day to farm the fertile land, giving produce to the soldiers in exchange for safe passage. Young men are increasingly crossing in less regulated crossings in order to avoid being involuntarily conscripted by either side..

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CARE’s projects are mostly in Rhino Camp (September 1 total refugees was 102,000); Imvepi Settlement (123,500); and it has a growing presence in Bidibidi Settlement (285,000) which recently became the world’s largest refugee settlement. Currently, there are six funded projects with a variety of sources.

One issue faced by CARE is the mandate to hire locally. Uganda’s generous policy toward refugees is supported by the idea that it will be good for the economies of the local communities. It causes tension. The foreigners up here are treated well, but there is resentment if Ugandans from other areas and tribes are hired. Last week in Yumbe, near the settlements, the signage of various NGOs were defaced by graffiti threatening violence for not hiring more locals. CARE has an office there but no signs. Never-the-less, an all-staff meeting to be held in Yumbe was switched to the Arua office, so we wouldn’t have a small caravan of CARE vehicles coming in.

In addition, CARE wants to hire a new team leader from Kenya, named Julius, to take Carly’s place. The Ministry of Immigration placed a hold on his work visa because they want CARE to hire a Ugandan. Our country director appeared before a tribunal this week to get his employment approved.  The new team leader will step into Carly’s shoes. Like Anabol before him, Julius is staying in the guesthouse next to my place on a visit, so I am starting to get acquainted with my soon to be future boss. I like the idea of meeting interesting visitors who pass through the guesthouse.

In other news, while the USA endures record-setting hurricanes and fires, Ugandans are not escaping their own natural disasters. I forgot to get the source, but this was a news report from last week.

6 people are confirmed dead, 10 missing but feared dead and over 40,000 are already displaced by flooding and landslides in Kisoro, Bududa, Sironko, Bulambuli, Bundibugyo, Rukungiri and Elegu of Amuru. Much of Teso is getting flooded.  Another 50,000 to 80,000 people will be displaced by floods in Teso subregion and Butaleja District.Storm winds and hailstorms have ravaged thousands of plantations and crops across the whole country. The 40,000 displaced have no shelter, no food, no cooking utensils, no blankets and no household kits.   In addition to starving, the victims are exposed to extreme coldness.

Hundreds of people are crying out for help. They need shelter (tents & tarpaulins), blankets, food and cooking utensils. There is urgent need for a countrywide disaster damage and loss assessment. 

Another story from the Monitor about a survivor woman shown in the photo came from is here

 

Map of the World

Momma is cooking at Rhino Camp. There are clusters of huts in a compound, similar to what I was used to in the villages.Refugees are given small plots to grow their own food.

Yay, a Coner Oberst/Monsters of Folk blog title! My son will be proud.

My first CARE assignment took three days. I learned some new skills, but I’m not sure yet, when or how I will utilize them. Nevertheless, it was real interesting, and led to my first visit to a Refugee Settlement. I represented CARE at a training with representatives of 17 other NGOs at a large compound operated by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR will be referenced frequently in the future.)

OpenStreetMap is a crowd-sourced mapping program. Google Maps doesn’t send it’s photo cars into much of the developing world, let alone refugee settlements, and so this is a way to handle it. An example given by our instructor was the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti.  It is best explained from this blog:

Before the earthquake, widely available maps of the country of Haiti had little more than a few highways and roads. The capital city of Port-au-Prince was a shaded outline that suggested a city. The problem was that Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, had been ignored by traditional commercial data providers. Few could afford a GPS, so why build digital maps of roads or buildings?

When the earthquake struck and crisis responders began planning their aid, they were left without a means to identify cities, routes of entry, buildings, parks, or much of anything that would allow them to know how to possibly provide support to the citizens of Haiti.

Immediately volunteers began scouring for available maps and road data. Historic maps, unclassified and released from the CIA, served as the first options for understanding what infrastructure existed.

The result of all this data was that a largely empty and incomplete map gathered thousands of volunteers, developers, and organizers to generate what is currently the most complete map of the country of Haiti. The city of Port-au-Prince has been largely mapped and volunteers are now working on outlying cities and villages. Beyond just marking roads and transit information, there was analysis of damaged buildings, displacement camps, and triage centers.

The map serves more than merely a digital, web based map for viewing the decimated region. The data gathered is free and open to use by anyone….Response organizations and government agencies are using OpenStreetMap for print maps to hand out in the field, and also deploying to mobile GPS units.

And the data will only get better, providing as a resource for the long-term recovery efforts, and rebuilding. Haiti need never again be an empty spot on the map.

Check out this cool 30 second video of the mapping of Haiti within 12 hours of the earthquake.

These maps can be updated remotely from anywhere. We spent our second day of training identifying and marking roads and buildings near Arua. I got my own little square to work on. All but one of my roads were identified as paths (hence the map user would know they can’t drive a car there, perhaps a boda boda) and most of my buildings were probably huts. I also looked at my neighborhood in Denver, and added ATEFO’s identification to the Bugiri map.

On the third day, after downloading two OSM apps onto my smart phone, I went out with three teams to Rhino Camp to do mapping from the ground. We took turns mapping hospitals, schools, and health facilities. After taking a picture, and fixing the GPS point, I interviewed local people to determine, for example, for a school, how many students and instructors, does it have latrines, how many class blocks, who is the owner, is it from an NGO etc. So if someone has mapped it remotely, as a “building”, my data will be added so anyone clicking on the map will now know it is a school, with more information.

Rhino Camp is the fourth largest refugee settlement serviced by CARE in the West Nile, with nearly 80,000 refugees as of June, 2017.  That’s more than a sold out Broncos game! The Politically Correct. term is Refugee Settlement, rather than refugee camp, since these places are less temporary. Yet this settlement is called Rhino Camp because it used to be a rhino camp.
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Below are some photos from Rhino Camp.

The first object I mapped were these water tanks, courtesy of the Danish Refugee Council.

Kids get water from a tap across the road from the tanks I mapped above. These water points are also mapped.

 

A latrine made from mud for a compound. Note the water container hanging out front to wash hands. A Health PCV would be proud.

Another, very common latrine. I used one like this. It’s only for short calls. No hole was dug. Kind of yucky in there, but there is a board to stand on.

Kids play in a playground provided by Save the Children. There are also football pitches.

I mapped this school. No desks, just benches.

Your standard white savior photo. This was in front of a very well-built permanent school.

 

 

 

 

Welcome Back! You are most Welcome.

My home town for the next year. Idi Amin came from Arua, and I saw a street named for him, which is quite exceptional because street signs are rare..

When you return from any sort of trip, people will always say “Welcome Back.” Matthews used to say it every time we dismounted from a trip to a village. When you arrive in a new environment such as a village or a store or even a meeting, people say “You are most welcome.”

Casper was very accommodating for the eclipse tourists with a town square full of booths selling t-shirts, caps etc. It was like a county fair. People stuck pins showing where they came from into a world map. Since I am considered a resident by the Ugandan government (and a shorter line through immigration), I felt justified in sticking the first pin into Uganda, second pin in Africa. Denver didn’t need another pin. Quite a few pins in Europe..

I certainly enjoyed many activities during my month leave, and visiting friends and family, culminating the last few days with all five siblings in Casper, WYO to see the total eclipse.

However, the complexities of my Western life also intruded. A pile of mail from the last year took me two days to deal with. Heh- the IRS gets pretty threatening if they think you are ignoring them (My CPA is fixing it now, I should not owe what they claim). My HOA is replacing my building’s HVAC system, including asbestos remediation (it was the first ‘high rise’ in Denver, built in the late 50’s). My assessed share will wipe out a significant chunk of my investment income the last two years, without adding value. Ugh.

I got my overdue colonoscopy, and some minor dental work. I tuned up my hearing aids. I don’t think I had mentioned, I bought them two years ago, the week before I left. This was probably due to a combination of age, and 45 years of amplified rock concerts. FYI Costco has free exams and it’s aids are waay cheaper than anywhere else. Only the VA distributes more than Costco. I also brought back about 150 new batteries for them too.

After being stymied by a May blizzard two years ago, we finally could take Jan’s ashes to mountain meadow called the Valley of Flowers, just west of the Eisenhower tunnel. Clark came home for a long weekend. He has a new accounting job in New York, working for the Education Alliance, a 127 y.o. charity to boost the underprivileged on the lower East Side of Manhattan.

I bought a new laptop and smartphone. Blair teased that my Ugandan smartphone (brand name “iDroid”-although it is a U.S. company) was worse than the cheap phones her homeless clients utilize for job searches!

During the month,some of the gloom I left behind for the Peace Corps had returned. So many reminders…. Could I have a bit of mild PTSD? Perhaps if I had stayed in Denver it would have dissipated, but it seemed like it was just arrested for two years.

There certainly was no nostalgia about my earlier profession, after listening to my ‘old’ lawyer friends talk shop. The turmoil and direction of my country continues to distress me. My conversations in ‘mixed’ company were like walking on egg shells, because no one changes their mind, no matter the evidence. I found myself watching too much cable news (like… “How will FOX excuse this?”). I don’t watch much TV in Uganda, but when I do, Al Jazeera’s depth and variety of coverage puts American news outlets to shame. I salute Qatar’s courage to stand up to the rest of the Middle East, which is demanding Al Jazaeera be shut down.

Finally, Blair had an “ambiguous” CT scan soon after I arrived. It cast a pall over my stay, but a subsequent PET scan last week was more reassuring.

Kuchala offers effective cure for digestive tract diseases, circulatory system disorders levitra sales visit now and lung disease. You must remember that you must not employ a pill type of erectile dysfunction are Tadalafil or purchase cheap viagra browse around over here and Vardenafil or viagra.purchase cheap viagra : How Does it works.cute-n-tiny.com is used for treating erectile dysfunction or ED. It is aimed to defend PDE-5 enzyme, a kind of proteins that damage the muscles of blood vessels and result in improper performance of penile organ. viagra without prescription Physical Causes The physical causes of impotence are many and of varied origins, such as impaired blood flow due to atherosclerosis (hardening, clogging and narrowing of arteries.) An erection is pills viagra canada when blood enters and is then retained in the sponge like smooth muscles (corpus cavernosum) in the penis making a flaccid penis would want to. So, all in all, it wasn’t hard to get excited about returning to Uganda to consume another year of my life. I’m not ready for the couch and binging Netflix quite yet. (BTW, the founder and CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer).

The Nile is quite active here (lots of connected lakes and tributaries) and my region is called the West Nile Region.

After spending a full day in Kampala, CARE flew me in a little plane (23 passenger seats) to Arua. If I have to commute to Kampala by bus on non-CARE business, it will take 8-10 hours. It’s maybe 7 hours in a CARE vehicle. So, after 11 hours in traffic returning to Denver from Casper, and then flying to Entebbe for another 26 hours, this one hour flight was most welcome. We landed on a muddy, red clay runway, something new for me. My bag which Brussels Air had lost was delivered a few days later.

I have settled into my new home, finally overcome my jet lag, and started to acclimate to Arua town. I need to learn the greetings, and other phrases in a new local language.

The CARE office is a bustling place compared to ATEFO. One year ago, there were three CARE workers in Arua. It has now reached 34 and by next month it will be 56. Unlike me, new hires arriving in Arua are given a stipend and they must fend for themselves to find a place to board. 30% of hires must come from the local communities. Most staff spend all day at the refugee settlements of course, not at the office. I anticipate going to the field a few days a week myself.
Uganda recently took in its One Millionth refugee from South Sudan. She was symbolically identified by name, but I don’t think she received a special prize.

 

Interior view of my CARE office. I just grab a spot along the wall on the left.

This is Carly, from Australia, the temporary team leader in Arua and my local supervisor. She has worked most of her career for Oxfam, all over the world. All other staff are Ugandan,with a few Sudanese and Kenyans.

I live in this annex, as viewed from the kitchen of the CARE Guest House. The door on the left goes to my toilet and shower. The shower is not heated so I continue to heat water and bucket bathe. It gets real hot here, so there will definitely be cold showers in my future. It is too stimulating to unlock my door and go next door in the middle of the night, so I still use a bucket next to my bed (TMI?). Door on the right is a storage room. We have 24 hour guard who flips on a generator for the compound when the power goes out. Posh Corps!

My bedroom

My living room. It’s nice to have a sofa to watch movies on my computer. Eddie Bauer kindly replaced my lifetime guaranteed backpack, which had broken zippers, with the new one you see on the couch. Yes I played my Peace Corps card to get it approved.

Transitions

High End Graphics! My certificate was really nice though.

I arrived home on Thursday night, July 20th, after 30 hours of travel (23 in the air).

During my last two days and nights in Bugiri, I hosted my replacement volunteer, Molly, for her first visit to Bugiri and ATEFO. I think she will do fine.

Molly is “chill” as the kids say.

She will be joined in Bugiri by a couple of other PCVs who will work for a different organization, but will live only two minutes from Molly.I took the three trainees around town, introducing them to my merchant friends, while also using the occasion to say good-bye.

Lauren is Ag, and Pat is a Health Volunteer

On my last night, Adams organized a goat roast, and invited the ATEFO staff for my send-off and to introduce and welcome Molly. As a parting gift, I gave Adams a replacement battery for his laptop. Previously he could only use it when it was plugged in, and would lose work he didn’t save it before the power went off. He was excited to get it. I gave Matthews a new motorcycle helmet. He never had a real good one, and often drove me without a helmet, or would borrow mine for the half day trip to his home village. I also gave out a few power banks to other staff members.
After two nights, the trainees went back to Iganga to continue their Lusoga language and cultural training. They will swear in August 11, and then return to Bugiri to begin their two year adventure.


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Matthews gets a helmet with an “Angry Birds” theme.

Just before I flew home, all Rotarians in Uganda were jolted by the news that the Rotary International President-Elect from Uganda, Sam Owori, unexpectedly died after a routine operation on his leg during a visit to the United States. He would have been only the second president of Rotary International from Africa. The death seemed sort of mysterious, but as of this writing I have no further information. President Museveni declared there would be an “official burial” on July 29.

Earlier in July, my “org mate” Ruwani and I received two days of orientation at CARE headquarters in Kampala. Originally it was to be in Arua, but I will have to wait until my return to actually see Arua for the first time. We learned about the CARE way of reporting its activities, and the recently developed software platform it uses, which is the same for all 90 countries CARE serves. The program interacts with Excel. I am a klutz on Excel Spreadsheets, but some of my work will be using the spreadsheets, not generating or manipulating them. I can do that.
It appears I will accompany teams to the refugee camps and assist in the monitoring and evaluation of CARE programs. I will write reports for internal use, and externally for CARE’s donors. In Uganda, CARE does not hand out food and water, leaving that chore to other organizations. There are many CARE programs to assist the refugee communities, and I look forward to writing about them. Maybe I’ll just copy and paste some of my stuff into the blog!
For my home site in Arua, I will be sharing a walled compound with the CARE Guest House. I will stay in a two room annex separated from the guest house by a shared garden. I will have a full bathroom (yay!). I will also have access to the kitchen in the Guest House. They have a full time cook, but I will want to do my own ‘American’ cooking (you know, Mexican and Italian dishes). I think it will work out. Who knows, there may be the occasional interesting visitor staying in the Guest House, not mention I might be meeting them anyway since they would be there on CARE business.

Ronnie with his new laptop courtesy of your donations. An update will be coming soon.

With my healthy daughter at Red Rocks

In the week I’ve been home, I’ve ordered a new laptop, attended the Northglenn-Thornton Rotary meeting, enjoyed a show at Red Rocks, got a colonoscopy (clean!), took my mom to see “Dunkirk”, and replaced my backpack with a life-time warranty at Eddie Bauer because of irreparable broken zippers.
Overall, while I am enjoying seeing old friends, emotionally I am more excited about my new position. I think that is a good place to be.

Murchison Falls Game Drives

A few minutes from our lodge at dawn.

We were staying right in the park (remember next to Idi Amin’s former lodge with the leopard), so every trip we took was a game drive, but we did at least two lengthy outings. Unfortunately we never spotted any lions, and the only drama were a few scrapes between Kob bucks, but no photos of it. Thanks to our guide John, who helped me identify the animals.

Guinea Fowl

Male Water Buck

Jackson’s Hartebeast

Let the kid lead the way

One of us was in The Lion King

Young Kobs

I have a PCV friend who was on a night bus to Arua (which goes through Murchison Falls) and it hit one of these guys.

Another dawn photo

Spotted Hyena. This one was sick.

Water Bucks

Bush Buck


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Karen, John and I stretching our legs on the shores of the Nile (I think)

After mid-day everyone seeks the shade

Male Kob. Kobs and Crested Cranes are the animals on the Ugandan flag. This was in a field where Kobs were fighting for dominance to mate.

Female Abyssinian Ground Bill

Abyssinian Ground Horn Bill

Wild dog

Wart Hog

Storm rolling in

These boys were perched on top of bags of charcoal. We missed the shot from the front which looked even more precarious.

Our vantage point

 

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