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Blue House Camp, Part II

A  chronicle of the afternoon camp activities

 

Morning leftover. The girls are doodling on a whiteboard waiting for the RUMPs session to let out. The lesson learned here was “What’s the difference between permanent ink markers and board markers on a whiteboard?”    ……………………………In the iconic pose of the 21st Century, Scott checks out how the Mets are doing in Spring training.

The afternoon means permagarden time for all the girls. I thought those new pants were supposed to be pajamas!

Matthews wants to dig a permagarden for the village where we did last week’s lesson. Watching Dave teach it twice was helpful.

“This hoe has seconds to live.” About ten readers will get that. Drop me a line!

Dave is ready to go MMA to disarm the hoe from the Sewing Instructor…… No, actually he is showing the width of the garden bed with his feet so you can work on it without stepping on it.

 

 

 

 

David, 58, is a fellow fossil, and Agribusness volunteer.He is our cohort’s permagarden master, He was featured in my blog a year ago here. David is from North Carolina by way of Pittsburgh and Wisconsin. After a career as a graphic artist, he did some woofing before his Peace Corps service. After service, he intends to help care for his mother in North Carolina for at least a year. He also hopes to work for a nearby branch of the Food Corps, part of AmeriCorps Eventually he’d like to do another Peace Corps tour.. David designed the Blue House camp t-shirts we used.

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Elphaz stopped by. He serves on the board, amd is the brother of Beatrice, the late founder of Blue House. At one point he was caring for 20 children under his roof. His is 64.

The ground was transformed in less than two hours. Aine tells me they have had rain, and the straw has come off at both sites after germination.

“…and then that P-2 kid accidentally whacked me with her hoe right here….”

“If you can learn to levitate a ball, like this, you get into Hogwarts. Or Makere U. in Kampala, your choice.”

The older girls talked about HIV, consent, and condoms. The men were kicked out during question time. Scott mobilized the younger ones for “Hide the matoke”

Sweet Victory

Scott, 25, an Agribusiness volunteer, and hails from New Jersey. He is a recent graduate of Duquesne, as a Business Major. Before Peace Corps. he worked in the marketing department for the New York Mets baseball team. He is still thinking about his post-Peace Corps options, perhaps doing some consulting.

The venerable Ugandan tradition of handing out certificates. House Mom Matene is pleased.

Fossils propping each other up.

This is the link to Hope Multipurpose Inc, the org that supports the Blue House.

When a camp is over, Mackenzie just gets carried away.

Almost time to go to the pork joint.  A favorite Ugandan culinary delight. My brother-in-law loved it. Wish I had a photo of it.

…..but lets do a silly one first. Where is my mount?

 

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Peace Corps Uganda Rocked It at the Blue House Camp- Part 1

I don’t know how our cohort nick-named itself “Cohort Best” rather than a more mundane title like Education Cohort 3. I thought maybe it was Becky, who loves Superlatives, but she credits Katy J.. Anyway, we were a pretty veteran crew who came to Kazo Uganda and put on a camp for the Blue House girls orphanage on a recent Saturday.  I had written about the Blue House here...That photo above is another frame-able.  It belongs in a brochure.

We started proceedings with a welcome and introductions and a little talk I give to schools about trying your best and always being honest

We ended my little portion with an energizer called “Rainstorm”

Mackenzie led a session for the whole camp, including staff on Nutrition

“Now, is this a healthy plate?”

Lillian on the left is a bright leader, but that is a lot of butter!

What’s Dave looking for?

Mackenzie. 24, a Health Volunteer, has roots in both Chicago and Iowa. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa, double majoring in Political Science and International Studies. She studied in Tanzania for a year. After service, she intends to obtain a Master’s Degree in Public Health. I believe she has been accepted by eleven schools so far. Hard choice coming up.

We all went outside and Scott led a variation of Simon Says.

The older girls went to the sewing room, where Kelly, assisted by David, learned to sew RUMPs

Kelly, 25, a Health volunteer, is from Indiana PA. and has a degree in French from the University of Pittsburgh. After her service, she will attend nursing school, and eventually would like to work for the French organization, Medicens sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders). If you follow the news, you know that will take courage

On the left is the house mother, Ziporah Matene

…from the rafters?


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Karen gives it a shot

Doin’ the RUMPs shuffle

Well done!

Meanwhile, the Primary age girls learn about washing their hands properly

Getting it right

Only the roof of the Blue House is blue. We were lucky to have great weather during our visit, which is supposed to be the beginning of rainy season, but now those permagardens need to get wet!

After Scott observed many of the girls did not use their mosquito nets properly,, they segued into a session on why nets are important. Scott had a bad case of malaria last year.

Mosquito tag! A couple of kids with cardboard mosquitoes try to ‘infect’ their mates with malaria. Scott and Mackenzie make a safe haven ‘net’. in the background.

If you get malaria, you need a doctor to get back in the game.

My turn as mosquito was exhausting! Those kids can turn on a dime. I eventually adopted the lion hunting strategy and let another mosquito drive a victim towards me.

 The district probation officer, Fortunate Abaho, gave an inspirational talk.

Fortunate had never heard of the Peace Corps so Karen recruited Mackenzie to explain how during training, you learn how to make those duck shadows..

Yum! Part two of the camp is in the next post!

 

 

PCVs Sharing Knowledge with Kazo town

Our first working day was on Friday, providing sessions to benefit the town of Kazo. We dug a demonstration permagarden behind the Catholic Primary School, taught financial literacy to local farmers, and taught RUMPs to a vocational sewing school. It all went well.

They removed too much top soil in prepping the land so we had to bring some of it back. Notice the adjacent roof which will help drain rain into the garden

David brought his illustrated grain sacks to explain this type of garden

A color-full plate grown in a garden next to your house provides year-round good nutrition even in hard times.

 

Add ash for minerals, manure for nitrogen, charcoal for water retention, and egg shells for calcium

Scott pours a full Jerry can into one of the corner holes to show how much the garden can retain. The water seeps deep under the garden.

The MaMas dig as well as the men!

We planted our color-full plate of cabbage, carrots, eggplant, cucumbers, and simi greens (collards)

Since the garden is dug so deep, you can plant the seeds closer together. The roots will go straight down and seek out the water that is stored. The surface growth, being closer, adds shade and so there is less surface drying.

Spectators from the classroom

Finish with a cover of straw. Water a bit if it doesn’t rain, allow the seeds to germinate, remove the covering.


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After digging the garden, we moved inside a class room to teach a session of record keeping

They are paying attention too!

Scott invited the farmers up to record the cash book entries

Meanwhile at the town’s vocational school run by the Blue House on it’s grounds, Kelly and Mackenzie teach how to sew Reusable Menstrual Pads (RUMPs) with the school’s teacher Musiime as their able assistant and translator. These students come from the town and nearby villages. Some board in a nearby building during the week. One student is a Blue House girl.

I love this photo but I can’t rotate it!

 

In the background on the chalkboard, Kelly has has done the math to show the cost of commercial pads for three women in the family is 216,000 UGx, compared to 15,000 UGx for RUMPs. They help keep girls in school the full month. They also can be made and sold to other girls as an Income Generating Activity

Finished RUMPs. A girl snaps it into her panty and can remove the absorbent cloth from under the ribbons to wash and re-use. I’ll show this better in the Blue House camp post

Karen set out piles of clothes for the girls made at, and donated by, students in a clothing design class at the University of Minnesota

Back at the Guest House we relax and plan for the Blue House Orphanage Girl’s Camp the next day

The Muzungu Invasion of Kazo Uganda

We left Bugiri and visited Jinja and the source of the Nile, meeting PCV Nick for lunch at the PCVs’ favorite Indian restaurant. We drove on to Kampala for the night, where Karen greeted five Secondary School graduates who were raised at the Blue House. They are still supported by the orphanage’s NGO, Hope Multipurpose, Inc. in their studies at University or vocational school.

On the way to Kazo we took the obligatory Equator Photo

I join the other Peace Corps Volunteers at the BAM Guesthouse after our arrival in Kazo. In another post I will provide more information about each of them. Note the African country names for the rooms.

We arrived at the Blue House on a Thursday afternoon. Dave and Kelly chat, while Mackenzie fills out the guestbook, a necessity everywhere you go in Uganda

Karen greets Blue House Girls, while the Director, Aine, looks on

This is Alice, the Blue House Social Worker

Each dorm room has two bunk beds for four girls. They actually live in somewhat better conditions compared to the dingy dorms and dining halls I have seen in the schools I have visited. If a youth doesn’t board at a school but still attends, he is a “desk scholar” and there seems to be a stigma attached to it.


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David isn’t just a good permagarden instructor. He is good with the kids.

Sharing a book

Aine Abel, the Director of Blue House

Girls bring Jerry Cans of water up from a spring-fed pond. I love the simplicity and symmetry of this photo. I will print and frame this some day.

This is the spring-fed pond which supplies water for the Blue House. It is also off of the Kazo electric grid, but is well solar powered.

When Karen, my other sister Marian, and my niece Hannah last visited the Blue House in December, 2013, they brought the girls soccer uniforms. The girls later personalized them. The jerseys have held up well. In an evening performance after dinner, they wore them and preformed drum, song and dance routines for their visitors. Hopefully I will be able to link you to the video(s) soon.

Visiting my Town

My sister Karen and her husband Dave started their two week visit to Uganda after a 20+ hour flight. We hired a driver, John, recommended by other PCVs, and drove through the night to Bugiri, about a half a kilometer from my home site. After getting in a bit of sleep, we checked out my office, walked around town, and I introduced them to some of my friends.

Karen and I stand in my kitchen. To Ugandans, the water filter taped to the upper bucket is still the most impressive thing there. I am impressed with it too.

 

Where I get my mail. It’s a box rented by the Bugiri Rotary Club. I’ve received about Six care packages from my family and home Rotary Club, a motorcycle jacket with pants and rain jacket from my old friend Mike, a few Christmas cards and a wedding announcement. The Rotarian magazine is also delivered here and I grab an issue sent to an inactive member.

The welders near my office are always happy to pose. Always cheerful, always working seven days a week welding those doors you see behind them. They get paid by the piece of course.

 

Matthews did a great job mobilizing a nearby village for a financial literacy session. It’s a pretty big deal when I visit a village, but three Muzugus in a Safari vehicle was really an event!

No one is sleeping!

The chairman of the village savings group had walked into our office to complain we never came for a promised teaching. It was because ATEFO had moved on to a new contract with youth groups. But I said I knew just the day we would come. Here he talks about his sack garden. to Matthews and me

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David goofs with the village kids. After my session, which emphasizes keeping track of expenses to control spending, David told them he is a Christmas Tree farmer in America and he does the same types of record keeping to manage his farm. The tree farm has been in his family for decades. A few years ago he installed a drip irrigation system. It is 40 acres, and they gasped when he told them that. Here, they have have subdivided their land many times for their children.The farm is a couple hours north of St. Paul and makes Karen is a year-round weekend widow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like John the Baptist

Kayaking on the Nile during Nile River Fest in Jinja

Last  month, I took a nine day trip, staying at six different places for two different functions. I hate living out of my backpack.

First, I traveled to the town of Kazo, in Western Uganda. Kazo is the home of the Blue House, which is a girls orphanage supported by my sister Karen for many years.

The Blue House was founded by a native Ugandan, Beatrice, who was living with her husband in St. Paul MN. After being away 17 years, she made a few trips back to her hometown of Kazo. She came to bury her brothers, and was appalled by the scourge of AIDs in her community. Several little girls in town were particularly vulnerable – orphaned with no family support or shelter. Beatrice found an old shop for them, made repairs, and hired a caretaker. With an estimated 200 needy orphans in the vicinity, Beatrice decided to build dorms, a kitchen, dining hall and latrines. She purchased eight acres outside of town for this purpose.

Beatrice returned to America to raise funds, utilizing her St. Paul church and local connections. In 2004, just as this was underway, Beatrice suddenly and unexpectedly died. The USA Board of Directors decided not to let her passing deter their efforts. Today, the Blue House supports 40 orphaned girls. The ones who live at the dorm walk to the local schools and their school fees are covered. The Blue House also pays the school fees for eight others, who live in town with their relatives. Further, it still supports a few girls who grew up at the Blue House and are now at University or vocational schools. Blue House also built a vocational sewing school on its land, with 22 students from Kazo town, including one from Blue House..

Karen has just completed her term as the President of the USA Board, and has visited the Blue House twice. She is coming to Uganda next week with her husband Dave (his first trip to here) to visit me in Bugiri, and then we travel to Kazo.

I have recruited four other Peace Corps volunteers.to meet us in Kazo. We are going to meet with local Kazo farmers, do some financial literacy lessons, and dig a town demonstration permagarden. We will also teach how to make Reusable Menstrual Pads (RUMPs) at the vocational sewing school. The next day, we will put on a day camp for the Blue House girls, including RUMPs lessons for the older girls, and dig another permagarden.

I am so grateful to get the help from other PCVs. We are all in the same cohort and they are all good friends. We are on our last six or so months, so this will be a fun weekend for us too.

My preview visit last month was to find potential permagarden locations, meet the staff and girls (precious-each one came up and curtseyed) and get introduced to town leaders to explain our plans and get their support.  I spent one night in each of the local guesthouses to pick one for our “muzungu invasion”. The director of Blue House, Aine, said I was “like John the Baptist, preparing the way.”

When our time in Kazo is finished, Karen, Dave and I plan to travel another week in Western Uganda on vacation, with visits to many places I haven’t been able to see yet. So the rest of March is going to be exciting.
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After my scouting trip to Kazo, I returned to Kampala to participate in a panel and a workshop for the entire Peace Corps Uganda staff, and representatives from volunteer support groups in Diversity, Peer Support, LGBTQ, and Sexual Harassment. It was called Intercultural Diversity and Inclusion (ICD&I) training. In other words, sensitivity training, (I can just sense some eye rolls out there). It was really cool, actually. We can all use some self-awareness enlightenment.

I am an elected representative from my cohort for one of the four support groups. However, the Country Director Sean wanted my panel participation to be from the perspective of an older volunteer. My cohort friend Aruna represented first generation Americans (In  my cohort besides Aruna from Sudan, we’ve had volunteers born in India, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Belarus- more than  the number of elder volunteers.)

I almost didn’t post this. I look so fat. I am still 30 pounds lighter than diabetes weight, but 20 more than my skinny low a year ago. It looks like man boobs too. This was my panel. CD Sean is upper left. Aruna is front right, and next to him is Sam from Littleton and CSU. Back row second from right is Anita from Denver. She went to a magnet school at DPS. Three out ten from Colorado!

Panelists were asked to speak about how they were marginalized or empowered by Peace Corps staff, other volunteers and/or in the country. There were some heartbreaking presentations. Hearing a school assembly chant “Kill the Gays”… the constant sexual harassment of the female PCVs (100% here- I admire their courage for what they have to endure here- although they are not unique from Ugandan women.)…. a black volunteer being a disappointment to his assigned town and marginalized because it did not get a white American… If you are an Asian-American volunteer, people shout “Jackie Chan” or “Ching Chong” and want you to show off your martial arts moves.

Teaching youth in a village while a mom next to me makes a mat.

Well as a panelist, amidst these stories, what could I say? Paul Sulley, who just became the Country Director in Jamaica, once met with the older volunteers during training (The Fossils!). He said we probably would not be invited for certain social events, but we had an opportunity to be a positive influence on these ‘kids’. So yes, there have been some comparatively minor slights, likely not intentional (that’s where the sensitivity training comes in!), and I try to be a good, but cool,  “in loco parentis.”

But in fact, I have not really been marginalized. The younger volunteers and Ugandan staff treat me well. In my town and throughout Uganda I have massive privilege as an older white American male. I am a celebrity with the neighbor kids. I attract good parental turnout when I speak to schools. More farmers show up to listen. On the crowded taxis, the elderly are often ushered up to the coveted front row by the conductor. (I admit I exploit this, because my knees take a beating otherwise). Sometimes before I can get in a food line at a dinner, someone brings a plate to my seat. I received immediate respect from my org and my supervisor. Of course I try not to act like a condescending jerk either. The other white male PCVs are generally privileged too, except fresh out of college, they might have to earn some respect from the older men in their communities. So I was honest on the panel about my status, and saw a lot of nodding in agreement by the Ugandan staff.  I can’t feel bad, it is what it is. Sean thought it was a good.

I also enjoyed different conversations that particular weekend with our Country Director Sean, the new Deputy Director Karen, and my supervisor Meital, about possible Peace Corps- related options for me when it is time for my service to end in six months. I am really trying to get my impending future figured out, since time is slipping away.

Local kids play video games at a shop near my house.

RUMPs

During Training (so long ago) Matthews sews RUMPs. He is very good with the needle.

As I start this, it is International Woman’s Day, a public holiday throughout much of the world. So I get to stay home and finally get to some chores and my blog.  It also seems appropriate for me to discuss something about Women, I am certainly not an expert on…Menstruation, or more precisely, menstrual pads, or even more precisely Reusable Menstrual Pads (RUMPs).   (Sorry Stones you still don’t get the obvious blog title. I’ve had sensitivity training.) Due to the fact this topic is typically addressed by our Health Volunteers,  I will quote other sources.

As I’ve written before, (worth reading those statistics again) Ugandan girls face many hurdles to getting an education. This video discusses the Peace Corps support for the initiative “Let Girls Learn”  and supplies recent statistics.

A major hurdle for girls is menstruation. If their family can’t afford tampons or pads, the girls miss school, up to 20% of their classes each year, an absenteeism that leads to a much higher dropout rate than boys.

A report on NPR states:

The girls reported a range of concerns about their periods, including, says Sommer, “fear, shame, embarrassment, impact on feelings of confidence.”

In a lot of cases, the girls said, they don’t have access to products like pads and tampons, toilets at school, even basic information. So going to class during the menstrual period was a challenge.

“It’s like the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” says Sommer. “There are many things that make going to school difficult, and it’s one more thing.”

That’s a major concern, because compared with boys, a much larger share of girls in poor countries drop out of high school.

As stated by the social business Afripads, a maker of Re-Usable Menstrual Pads (RUMPs) in Southwest Uganda,

Unable to afford or access proper menstrual products, many girls and women rely on crude, improvised materials like scraps of old clothing, pieces of foam mattress, toilet paper, leaves, and banana fibres to manage their menstruation – all of which are unhygienic, ineffective, and uncomfortable.  This is hardly what we would consider a “solution”.    

Faced with frequent, embarrassing leaks and a susceptibility to recurrent infections, the impact is that millions of girls and women experience their monthly period  as something that prevents them from engaging in daily life – whether this is going to school or work, or carrying out their normal domestic responsibilities.

And just this week, an advocacy group reminded President Museveni’s wife, the Education minister, about a campaign promise..

Education minister, also First Lady Janet Kataaha Museveni has come under severe criticism over government’s failure to provide sanitary towels to school girls.

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In the run up to the last presidential campaigns, President Yoweri Museveni who was seeking and controversially won a fifth presidential term, promised to provide sanitary pads, computers and text books to students if reelected back in office. It was expected that the promise would come to fruition in FY 2017/18.

President Museveni said:

“I want all our daughters to attend school and remain there until they complete their studies. One of the reasons that force our daughters out of school, is that when their periods start, they do not have sanitary pads. When they are in class, they soil their dresses. So they run away from school.”

But, appearing before a parliamentary committee on education last month to discuss the FY 2017/18 Shs 2.6 trillion sector budget last month, Mrs Museveni told MPs that funding for the purchase of sanitary towels was not available. A packet of quality sanitary towels goes for about Shs 4,000.

Now, women rights activists are angry at Mrs Museveni for failing to task her husband to keep his campaign promise. Flavia Kalule Nabagabe, an activist with Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Ugandan Chapter says the young people feel let down by the president and the minister of education.

The government hasn’t been completely silent, but there is some not-so-mandatory language in this article from the Irish Times:

In recent years, however, the Ugandan government has taken significant steps to encourage more widespread use of sanitary pads. In 2009, after pressure from female members of parliament, pads were declared VAT exempt, in an effort to make them more affordable. In 2013 there was a further push from women MPs for a lift on importation tax, which the government has agreed to implement, according to Ugandan media.

Since 2014 the ministry of education and sports has also taken steps regarding young girls’ menstrual health, by integrating menstrual hygiene management into the school curriculum, and suggesting that schools keep emergency supplies for girls, including spare uniforms and sanitary pads.

Furthermore, on international Menstrual Hygiene Day last May, parliament issued a charter on menstrual hygiene management that stated all schools should create separate toilets for girls and boys and have adequate sanitation and wash facilities. It also stated that girls should be equipped with life skills to manage their menstruation, including being able to make their own sanitary pads.

The  Peace Corps is on board with Health volunteers teaching Ugandans how to make Re-Usable Menstrual Pads (RUMPs).  RUMPs can be washed. They rest in a fabric pocket. They cost but a fraction of the commercial sanitary products. Some youth groups learn to make RUMPs and sell them in their community as an Income Generating Activity.

At the Blue House Orphanage, having adequate pads and tampons is a funding priority. But the girls won’t be there forever, and selling RUMPs can make them money. Kelly from my cohort has become the Queen of RUMPs and will be one of the Peace Corps volunteers at the Blue House, (discussed in a contemporaneous blog entry) teaching both a vocational sewing school, and the secondary age Blue House girls how to sew RUMPs.

Speaking of empowering women, Sharon is on the left. She is in her third semester of nursing school, sponsored by my Rotary Club. I felt bad about neglecting my other homestay sister Edith, (another dependent orphan, however with minimal education and English skills) so she is starting Hairdressing school, courtesy of my children donating part of their inheritance. Thanks kids!

Blair has finished her chemotherapy. A few days ago she learned she will not need radiation. No cancer in the scans. I look forward to seeing her pixie hair-style soon!

Imran joins me sometimes when I read in front of my place at dusk. You can see him swipe my kindle, then my tea, here.

Fortune Teller

In 2012, if a fortune teller told me that in less than five years, my boss would be Donald Trump, I would wonder what possessed me to go on The Apprentice (I’ve seen maybe half of one episode). Further, if that fortune teller said another of my bosses would recently be the CEO of Exxon, I’d be asking for my money back. But here I am; life just keeps throwing curves.

While my application to volunteer was pending, I attended a Peace Corps function at the University of Denver. The assistant to the Director was the main guest, and commented that the Peace Corps was a rare agency because “it has always has friends on both sides of the aisle”. Yet, I think we can all agree, these look like different times.

So what does Trump mean for the future of Peace Corps? Internet sleuthing doesn’t come up with anything more than speculation on Reddit. Beyond his expressed sentiment during the campaign to reduce foreign aid, as far as I could find, Trump has never mentioned the Peace Corps.

In a Kaiser Family Foundation study published in early 2015, the average respondent thought that 26 percent of the federal budget went to foreign aid. More than half of the respondents thought the United States was spending too much on foreign aid. In reality, the amount spent is slightly more than 1%– $50.1 billion out of $4.15 trillion. Of that, $18.1 billion is for Economic and Development Assistance. Seven African countries, (including Uganda) feature among the top-10 recipients of economic assistance, ranging from $400-600 million. Most of the money is funneled toward health initiatives, particularly HIV/AIDS treatment and research. I got all this info here.

The Peace Corps annual budget is $410 million, which supports 7,000 volunteers. The avowed goal has been to increase this to 10,000 volunteers. The Peace Corps three goals are education and training in interested countries for sustainable results, representing the face of America to the people we serve, and ( like my blog), to promote a better understanding of these countries to Americans. These goals are not capital intensive like buying and supplying equipment, goods, or weapons. I do have to keep track of how many people I train in my sessions, so the Peace Corps can quantify totals to justify it’s existence.

The National Peace Corps Association has been urging RPCVs to write to Trump’s transition team to explain why the Peace Corps is needed. It also gleaned some information about proposed members of his cabinet.

Most of the attention on proposed Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, the ten-year CEO of Exxon, has been about Exxon’s role on climate change, and his warm relationship with Russia. But Tillerson also oversaw ExxonMobil Foundation’s contributions to global development efforts in over 90 countries, through partnerships with a wide range of leading government agencies, NGOs and companies in development, including some which also partner with the Peace Corps. The Foundation’s international focus is on women’s economic empowerment and malaria eradication.
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Elaine Chao has been tapped to be Secretary of Transportation. She is a former Director of the Peace Corps (1991-92) and also served as President George W. Bush’s Secretary of Labor She is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. There might be some influence there.

Congress determines funding, but it has been pointed out that volunteers serve under the president’s discretion, so he has the power to call us all home.The director of the Peace Corps during the Obama administration, Carrie Hessler-Radele stepped down last week, when Trump was inaugurated. I suppose her replacement will offer a clue about the future of the Peace Corps. The next four years promise to be an interesting ride.

This was a photo we took after our permagarden training

This the same place today. They did grow tomatoes successfully and promised to re-plant when rainy season returns.

Hey didn’t I see you at the Women’s March yesterday?

 

I get the heat, heat

The occasional cloud is sweet….

The heat has been unrelenting. Every day has been in the low to mid 90’s. This week my weather app is predicting the high 90’s for Bugiri. (Kampala and this blog’s weather app are cooler) It has been the hottest since I have been here, and Ugandans tell me it is exceptional. Usually it was not higher than the high 80’s. The last rainy season was pretty sparse too, compared to the fall before, which totally confused me about when the rainy seasons and dry seasons are supposed to be. The heat is not intense like Phoenix or Vegas, nor humid like Chicago. It mostly compares to …Denver! Since moving to my new home in May, I have had access in the courtyard to a tap, and so far it has held up. I have little doubt they are restricting water at my old bore hole. When I am with Matthews on the motorcycle on a dirt road, and a truck goes by we often pull over until the dust settles. I will be grateful for at least a little bit of rain to tamp down the dust, but its not in the forecast. Meanwhile I understand Denver and the rest of America (Trumpistan? per Krugman) has been getting more snow, thanks to the warmer North Pole.

The other day the taxi I was in nearly rolled off the road. Everyone pushed to get out to the right, which I feared would finish us. It doesn’t look too bad here.

Ahmed and Aiman play with toys sent by my brother for Christmas

Little Emron comes in when I leave the door open. He’s trying to shut out his brother. Poor guy got circumcised last week, very painful, had to wear a skirt for a few days!

My org ATEFO continues to work with youth groups and their businesses, which were each provided the equivalent of $100US working capital in two installments. Last week the funding conduit, Bantwana World Education, sent representatives out with the ATEFO trainers to see how the groups were doing. ATEFO is supposed to be sure each group has a constitution registered in the District (amazing how important this is), a business plan, adequate record keeping, and a viable business. These are 15-18 year old village kids, many with little education. Girls are often married with children. I think this is a pretty serious challenge for ATEFO. Problems include attrition in the membership; inadequate support from caregivers; not following the rules in the constitution (but many can’t read English); not changing written business plans; caregivers or patrons actually running the business; and “eating the capital” and/or disappearing. Groups who wanted to grow and sell vegetables were damaged by the drought. Not to say there weren’t successful groups. A few groups have successfully changed their business midstream. Besides growing and trading vegetables, businesses I saw included rearing poultry, pigs, or goats, candle making, soap making, brick making, and rice selling,
I was pleasantly surprised that the Iganga trainers took my simple model for a cash book and printed out pages to give to their groups. But a couple of groups were making the same recording error, leading me to suspect their trainer didn’t quite have the handle on it.
This project also had a requirement to dig 600 backyard gardens. They are not digging drought resistant permagardens however, so they are struggling in the drought. Too bad. I am quite anxious to see the permagarden I dug with Carson and Becky in our efforts to recruit them to “our way”. Hopefully, I’ll get to see it this week. Here is an article citing a UN report which argues small scale organic farming is the best hope to feed the world in the future. Monsanto has other ideas.

Dusty feet of the village kids

This girl borrowed funds from her chicken rearing youth group, started selling second hand clothes and paid back the loan. That’s her inventory after reinvesting proceeds.

Adams poses with a group showing off the soap bars they made.

These boys are showing the three goats they are rearing. Makes me think of 4-H.

Freshly made clay bricks on the ground, drying in the sun

The number of inspectors seemed excessive to me.


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This is about 200 yards of shucked maize (corn), drying next to the main road through Bugiri. They are not using a tarp underneath. Not good post-harvest handling, although that would be a lot of tarp.

A little bit further up the road is rice, with a tarp

Even further up the road are coffee beans, no tarps.

Matthews and I are also checking out places where we taught sack gardens as I close out my grant.. We are seeing how many new ones are being made. I knew the used sack this village donated would have trouble lasting.

This storm sewer is full of trash and moldy sludge. A good rain would push it somewhere.

The inner sanctum of Wiltech Computers, a rare place with wi-fi. The picture doesn’t do justice to how cluttered it is. Wilber has been there 20 years.

This is behind my compound. Rats live in the brick pile in the rear of the photo, and they like to feed on the refuse in the foreground, which is frequently burned.

I spent a good part of Saturday night chasing this guy in my place. He was rather sluggish, having been poisoned by Margaret, but ultimately I recruited the oldest son, Juma to help catch it. I am too much of city boy, I guess. I miss ol’ Meowri at times like this.

Azedy has to water his orange seedlings twice a day. He has 18,000 of these seedlings, I hope he can sell them.This his son, also named Azedy. They don’t call him Junior.

Azedy has hired people to “bud” the seedlings, grafting orange buds onto the lemon seedlings. They are doing 6.000 grafts per week for three weeks. The leaves at the top are still lemon, providing nutrients until the grafted orange buds produce their own leaves. Then the lemon leaves are removed. This makes hardier orange trees.

Chicken vendor at the market

The three older boys are all home from boarding school for a month, They are bored, and it’s so hot, I let them watch some of my movies on my computer.

There’s a world outside your window

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Matthews was Father Christmas again this year. We handed out 40 bags today to the neighbor kids. Thanks to my siblings for the tiny toy donations. They arrived late last year so I saved them.

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Matthews wants me to go with him to his school in Kamuli so Father Christmas hand out sodas after the first of the year

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To avoid the mob scene from last year, my landlady Margaret mobilized the moms in advance and we had them in line. We still ran out unfortunately.

My work has been sporadic (again). The whole country slows down this time of year. Schools are out until later in January. Quite a few volunteers have gone home for Christmas or taking trips around the country or Rwanda. The November 2014 Education cohort have almost all ended their service. My cohort has now been here the longest.
I’m trying to close out a Peace Corps grant for teaching and building 20 sack gardens. So Matthews has been taking me around to monitor how the ones we built have been doing, and learn whether the farmers and youth have built any more. It is gratifying when we see that others have made their own sack gardens. In Bomba, where we taught Ronnie’s entire village, there are seven new sack gardens scattered about. I taught record keeping to many of these groups, and unfortunately, there is less adherence, with the few bright exceptions of “early adaptors”. “Slowly but slowly” as they say here.

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This guy built a little fence around his three sack gardens. At a few places the neighbors simply stole the seedlings we had planted tsk tsk.

Of course the BBC has been covering the same world news you hear, such as the ongoing tragedy of Syria, and the Trump/Putin love fest. I wonder how much US people hear about some current scary situations in Africa, mainly in three countries.

In Gambia, it’s leader Yahya Jammeh has ruled the country for 22 years after seizing power in a coup. He initially conceded defeat to opposition leader Barrow in the December 1 election, but subsequently rejected the official results. It has brought to country to crisis. He is supposed to turn over power in January.
As a local editorial states:
Leaders who come to power via the gun are not to be trusted. In Uganda, Rwanda, Chad, Sudan, and now Gambia all those men changed their tune chameleon-like to keep imposing themselves on the people.
When they organize elections, they do so without ever intending to hand over power regardless of the outcome of an election. Elections are a vehicle to cling on, not to advance democratic government and to improve their countries with new ideas.
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Just north of Uganda’s border, South Sudan is on the verge of full scale civil war again, with accompanying sectarian genocide feared.

I called my fellow PCV Aruna to check how his family was doing. Unfortunately the situation is so unsafe his mother and other family members recently sought refuge in a camp in Uganda. It’s not the refugee camp we toured, but it is close to Aruna’s site. He plans to visit on Christmas. More than one million of South Sudan’s estimated population of 12 million have fled to neighboring countries. Uganda alone is now host to more than 450,000 South Sudanese.

Across the western border of Uganda is the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s leader Joseph Kabila, has said that he intends to stay on after his presidential term ends on Monday midnight, December 19 (yesterday). A court previously ruled that he can remain in power until new elections are held. However Kabila has postponed further elections indefinitely. Many observers fear that protests will break out after the deadline passes. At midnight, people blew whistles and rattled pans as part of a protest meant to symbolize the “end of the match” for Joseph Kabila.

Other than the massacre of about 100 of the rebellious King’s guard at Kasese a few weeks ago, Uganda has been calm in comparison.

I hope you all have a calm and peaceful Christmas. It looks like 2017 will be an “interesting” year.

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On the way home the other day a celebratory crowd was coming up the road. The picture is not very focused but the young man in the middle was being honored because he was going to be in a public circumcision ceremony on the next day.

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It’s been grasshopper season. I bought a little packet to snack on.

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They fry the little critters and salt them. Can you see the eyes? They are crunchy, and a good source of protein.