Monthly Archive: October 2017

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.