Tag Archive: ATEFO (my NGO)

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.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

November

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Who needs a truck when you have a boda boda?

Sorry to be negligent about the blog recently. I’ve been a bit sick and had some low mental energy. It’s normal according to Peace Corps. Perhaps while I was gone for three weeks, my mind minimized some of the frustrations of my experience here. There is also distress about current events back home, a very late but moderate rainy season being so disruptive to the town’s grid and my meetings, and the challenge finding my niche in our new project to help youth groups. Its hard to ignore the internet, but reading books is a good distraction..

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I finally gave up on my smart phone, replacing it with new cheap one which I hope will get me through to the end of service. Photography might suffer, although I might still use my crippled phone for that. This Phone Doctor place in Jinja had my phone for a week. I lost a great picture of a lady transferring the SIM card that didn’t work on my phone to test it in her own phone, all the while nursing her baby.

ATEFO’s new contract required us to put in place nearly 600 “backyard gardens” This an ideal opportunity to spread the gospel of permagardens. However, the approach by the field staff is to get out there and slap gardens down, without the little bit of extra work to dig a permagarden, which ultimately will mean less work to maintain over the long haul and more resiliency during dry season. My counterpart and master gardener Matthews says the permagardens we dug recently are thriving. I chide Adams a bit, but ultimately what ATEFO does is a business, and profit trumps what would be best for the beneficiaries. There are many boxes the trainers will have to tick off to complete the contract, so corners will get cut.

While Matthews runs around spraying pesticides, I have gone out to visit the youth groups with a different counterpart, Amos. Each group has chosen a business, such as tomato growing, poultry rearing, vegetable selling, and candle or soap making. ATEFO provides funds to each group for start-up capital, but before they get it, I worked with a few of them to make a budget, and teach them to keep a cash book to account for it. These kids are usually very deficient in education, and not surprising, some of the money has not been accounted for very well. Amos is easier to understand as a translator, but he prefers to summarize a long conversation to real time translations,

Meanwhile I press forward to facilitate Rotary grant funding to renovate Hindocha Primary School, basically by nudging the relevant actors in the Clubs in Bugiri, Colorado and California. I really want to show something for my effort before the end of next summer, but it’s a bit of a slog.My cohort has passed the 2/3 mark, 18 months down, 9 to go. The PCVs of the Education cohort from the Fall of 2014 are starting to go home this month. It’s hard to believe my own cohort will soon to be the most experienced.

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These are coffee beans getting scooped up into bags.

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Carpenter shops. On the left beds to sleep, on the right coffins for that final sleep.


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Cute kids outside my place

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More cute kids.

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I haven’t published too many pictures of other volunteers. Some of us celebrated a pot luck Thanksgiving in Jinja. All three guys from my cohort on the right have not cut their hair since arrival. Coy in the middle is a “no shave in 2016” guy.

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Peace Corps Ladies. Carm in the middle is leaving soon, she’s been filling out applications for grad school.

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Birds land in front of my mirrored window and can’t see me.

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First picture with the new phone. A selfie in Kampala with Aine, the director of the Blue House girls orphanage in Kazo which my sister Karen and I are planning to visit next year. We might do a Peace Corps camp there. I picked up a new pair of glasses while I was there. Each PCV gets a new pair during service. The dust and grit scratch them horribly. Forget about contact lenses.

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Blair’s treatments are going quite well, based on a recent PET scan to evaluate it. She sent me this photo from a recent chemo session. Her last chemo is February 2. She will be happy to stop being sick every two weeks, and looks forward to growing her hair back.

Adams got Married.

imag0191Adams really wanted me to return in time to attend his Introduction Ceremony and wedding. On Friday a Bugiri delegation set off on a day long journey to Mbarara in the west, a very large town. The festivities on Saturday were another two hours to the southwest. The Introduction Ceremony was similar to what I described when I attended one for Matthews’ daughter. Tents are set up. The families and friends of the bride “host” the groom’s family and friends, sitting in their reserved section, with food, music and dances, facilitated by two wise-cracking MCs. The patter would be in the local language, not always understood by the Lusoga-speaking visitors. Not that it mattered to me. I heard the word “Muzungu” a couple of times followed by laughter and everyone looking at me. I just laughed like a good sport. I was told later he called me out because I appeared to be bored. Sorry.imag0187imag0168

imag0169At the end of the Introduction Adams disappeared into the house for a few minutes and then emerged a married man with his bride a few minutes later. I guess that is often the Muslim way, unlike the church wedding held a week later for Matthews‘ daughter. I understand further that some Muslim men use a mosque, but in any case, the bride is never an active participant. She’s either waiting in the back or in an entirely different room.

While the concept of the Introduction Ceremony is to allow the families to become acquainted, there was never an opportunity to actually socialize and intermix. I never got the chance to meet the bride. I understand she works in Kampala and will remain there.

 
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Signs

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On a rainy afternoon, my frequent roommate Dave (left) drew a caricature of the three elders from our cohort. We have always referred to ourselves as the Fossils. Ron on the right is a bit outdated. He has lost a lot of weight.

My June 2015 cohort had a three day mid-service conference. It was enjoyable to see fellow volunteers, and get caught up. More than a few have transferred to other orgs or towns, for various reasons. They tested all of us for language, again, and only a few passed. My instructor was happy I could understand what he was asking, even if I was lousy at answering.

One day, we did an arts and crafts project. It copied an idea from a departing volunteer. We prepared discs to be used as introduction aids to our farmer and youth groups. I started using my new discs for the first time the other day, during permagarden training. I should be able to say most of what these discs reflect in Lusoga but I need to practice.

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This is the brand new logo for the Peace Corps

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We’ve been in Uganda almost since the beginning, interrupted only a few years by Idi Amin, and some other civil unrest.

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Sometimes I am asked to show where New York or Hollywood are on this map.

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I never get tired of hearing people guess I am only in my 40’s :-). Nakyewa, pronounced ‘Na-cheer-wa’ means volunteer.

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My background and skills

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About my NGO

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I prefer not to use this one but sometimes people think I am there to to hand out money, so if I hear that, I can pull it out.

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I use this one in conjunction with the previous one.

 

Seeds of Opportunity, Seeds of Conflict

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These ladies are one of the new youth groups we are taking on. learning how to style hair at “Brego’s Saloon”. (sic 😉 ) They can run this business from their home. Their little town is west of Bugiri and a popular night stop for truck drivers, with all that entails.

I am sitting in a hotel in Seeta, just outside of Kampala. It is time for a week of Mid-Service Training (MST). I haven’t seén most of my cohort since January. We are going to get re-tested on our language skills! I brought my notes from last year to study on the taxi ride to Seeta. I will flunk for sure. Sorry sorry.

Apparently the accommodations get upgraded for each training of the cohort. This place has a gym and a pool, and free wi-fi. I’m low on data, so I am taking advantage of the free wi-fi for today’s posts.

They say it takes a year for a PCV to get established, then you can get more things done the second year. I have some new optimism about my work in the next year. ATEFO just entered into a contract to work with an NGO which has purportedly established 110 youth groups in Bugiri and Iganga during the past year, teaching various occupational skills. This NGO wants ATEFO to take on these groups and teach record keeping, leadership, marketing etc. Another part of the curriculum is teaching household gardens. I have lobbied Adams to allow some PCVs to come out to Iganga to help me teach the trainers how to dig and teach permagardens. He seems agreeable, but in Uganda they always seem agreeable. We will also probably teach sack gardens. The contract runs through next July, shortly before my service ends. I am being pretty aggressive about getting some good roles to play in this project in the next year. While I am away this week, ATEFO has hired additional trainers for the project, and they are to mapping out the youth groups to confirm they are there, and establish rapport.

In the meantime, I am also working with the Bugiri Rotary Club to obtain grants from Rotary International to assist two projects. The first is the “Love Project”, boosting a primary school for disabled students. They are blind, deaf, handicapped, and autistic. The campus needs some minor renovations, including a wall for security around the school compound, and equipment and materials, such as braille machines, glasses, hearing aids, tactile globes, white canes, text books etc. I am also desirous of putting on a camp for these kids with my follow PCV, Becky, with the assistance of another PCV who has experience with camps for disabled kids..

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A room at Hindocha Primary School.

The second project is to aid renovations of Hindocha Primary School, which is located right behind my  office at ATEFO . A tour of Hindocha revealed terrible conditions at this 70+ year old school. Every room has a leaky roof for example. I will go into more detail as these two projects develop.

A graduate of Hindocha is member of the Riverside California. Rotary Club. He runs a technical training school here in Bugiri and goes back and forth between the two countries. He has asked for forms to request a new Peace Corps volunteer. He has chided the Bugiri Club for identifying the two projects a year ago and making no progress. I am his ally now to push things along. I have told my club I have a year left and the grant process takes a while, so we have to push push push. I have tentatively recruited my home Northglenn-Thornton club to be an International partner for one or both of these projects. I can be their boots on the ground to ensure the money is spent properly.

Endocrinology treatment in Australia costs very less and the best results that viagra purchase on line this medicine gives. Extrovert type of see content buy cheap cialis people can openly describe their problem to intercourse partner, doctor, physician but the introvert type of people will not even feel to tell their erectile dysfunction problem to his partner as well. Daytona International Speedway implemented a text messaging system this season to push out weather updates to cialis properien fans’ cellphones during race weekends. Coffee: Packed with caffeine, coffee not only serves as an eye opener every morning, it also boosts the stamina. generic levitra In the meantime, Azedy my landlord, has been struggling to get full-time work. Fortunately, his wife Margaret is teaching full time. To make extra money, Azedy and Margaret are working on the field behind their house to grow sweet potatoes and a few other crops, which I have written about in recent posts.

In a newer project, Azedy is growing 20,000 orange tree seedlings. You start with lemon seeds, which grow into a very hardy tree, but then graft orange buds on to the seedlings to produce hardy orange trees. Can you imagine doing that 20,00 times? I can’t wait to see this, and will try to learn how, mainly just out of curiosity,   He believes the government has programs to buy these seedlings or direct certain suppliers to him. He is hiring some boys to help him put the seedlings in little bags of fertilized dirt. The other day, Margaret discovered that these boys had dug up some of “her” recently planted dirt for the seedling bags. Voices were raised that night!

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Azedy is able to use his neighbor’s half built walls to get protection from goats and thieves.

Recently, I went to visit my home stay parents in Iganga, Hellen and Simon. Much to my surprise, Hellen has embarked on an identical orange seedling project, including the grafting of orange buds to lemon trees. She is making 30,000 seedlings and has plans to get up to 100,000 of them. I was sad to point out to both Azedy and Hellen that they were doing identical projects, but hated not to say anything.. I am worried about an over-supply, and now so are they. If I know two people who are doing this, how many others are there? Margaret and Simon are friends too, through their teaching careers. The seedling sales will probably occur January through March, I will keep you posted.

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These are Hellen’s seedlings. Some relation told her about this opportunity and she has jumped right in. At least both of the seedling projects are hiring some boys to do most of the work.

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You might recall Adrian had a close brush with mortality. As he struggled, an uncle asked him what he would want if he got better. Adrian said a bicycle. The uncle had just delivered it, sparking a round of sibling jealously. I remember my first picture of these kids a year ago. They were playing with rocks!

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Adams is getting married! The normal way to raise money for your your introduction ceremony is to hand out a budget. I’ve been given budgets for graduation parties too. This one was accompanied by a pledge card. If you care to blow this photo up, you will see on the first two lines that Adams is contributing 7 cows and 4 goats as the dowry he negotiated with the bride’s parents.

 

Ambassador Malac Visits Bugiri

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Ambassador Malac Addresses the gathering at ATEFO. John (seated) and Adams from ATEFO

On Tuesday June 28, Ambassador Deborah Malac made a quick one hour stop in Bugiri town and visited my org, African Trainers and Entrepreneurs Forum (ATEFO). There were about 20 office and field staff from ATEFO, and also some local dignitaries. Then a few of us walked to my home. I will let the photos (most of them purchased a local photographer) tell the story.

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Watching a power point briefing about ATEFO in Adams’ office, with Mark Meassick, USAid Mission Director, my Peace Corps supervisor Meital, and Margaret, Resident District Commissioner.

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i am explaining about how to make a sack garden. We have received approval for a Peace Corps grant to allow Matthews and I to teach sack gardens to the farmer groups and youth groups. The grant will pay for the seedlings, while the community donates the remaining materials.

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Every visit from a dignitary gets a tree planting. She said she is used to this. This is an umbrella tree. near my permagarden. I am concerned a goat will get to it unless we can protect it. Matthews says it will be taller than me before I return to the USA next year.

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This is a ceremonial cake cutting. As you can see, I grew out my beard, it came in brown, whereas the goatee is (annoyingly) all grey. I think the two tone looks like Lassie, or old time ball player with mutton chops, so I might go back to just the goatee. Opinions?

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Here we are taking the five minute walk to my home. Note the cowboy boots worn by Ambassador Malac. Before she arrived, I walked the route with the local police, and then two more times with Embassy advance security personnel. Neighbors must have wondered what was going on. Meital came early with her driver, and the Ambassador had six vehicles in her entourage. I generally wear my backpack most of the time, and a Rockies or Avalanche cap.

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In my well swept and organized abode (I still haven’t got that mouse though). It was hot that day, I look sweaty. Ambassador Malac said she isn’t used to seeing a PCV in a jacket and tie. But Adams and the rest of the org hierarchy were in three piece suits, so I had step it up. Unfortunately, they don’t fit well, made for a heavier man. 🙂

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Local police who provided some security gave me permission to take their picture (this time).

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Gratuitous selfie

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Andrew McCown with USAID staff. He served with with my niece as a PCV in Bolivia. Small world. Invited me to dinner with his wife and 8 month old the next time I am in Kampala.

 

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Selfie June 3

June 3, 2016. A bit older, grayer, but lighter.

Selfie October 2014

October, 2014, soon after submitting my Peace Corps application

Today is June 3, 2016, Martyrs Day, a Public Holiday. While most Ugandans understand the martyrs died for their Christian faith, the story is a bit more involved than that, as you will learn if you follow the link. It might explain a huge cultural bias here.

Today also marks the one year anniversary of my cohort’s arrival in Uganda. So much has transpired, and there is more than a year to go. When my USA Rotary Club hosted exchange students, I would always ask: What are the most surprising things you did not anticipate? The whole cohort arrived thinking they would live in mud and grass huts with no utilities; but Peace Corps has housing standards to provide security. It is easy to imagine break-ins without such secure housing. Most of us have utilities, they are just not consistent. Power goes out a lot and water has to be boiled or filtered. Of course many of the villages I visit to teach are indeed compounds of mud and grass huts, with no utilities. Some don’t even have pit latrines (they just go out to the bushes).

I naively imagined at least few more wild animals, but my environment is too urban. I see baboons on the road sometimes. Also not anticipated: Even more kids than I imagined; the surprising sameness of almost every town; and the lack of food variety.
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Some of you ask if I am homesick. I use WhatsApp here, which is way bigger here than in the USA. I communicate in a group with my four siblings way more than I ever did at home. I can’t imagine it changing when I return, and recommend it to you. Besides a siblings group, I have a group with my kids of course, a sports teams group, my Lusoga Language Group, and the Bugiri Rotary Club. Of course you can also WhatsApp individually too. So this stunts any homesickness. I have lots of imaginary conversations with Jan. She would have been annoyed by a mouse who has eluded me. He/she has eaten two pieces of expensive cheese right off the trap. I am switching to a sticky book.

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There used to be a big chunk of cheese there. Where is Meowri?

I’ve had very little to worry about healthwise. I’ve had some foot issues that now appear under control. Recently, I’ve had a spell of dizziness starting Sunday. It started when I blew off dinner on Saturday night, and I forgot my malaria drug needs me to eat steadily. I remember when Jan would get hungry; eating would become the number one priority because she would get dizzy. The Peace Corps doctor requested I get a glucose test, and while I was at a local clinic, they also tested for Malaria and Typhoid, Everything was good. Azedy accompanied me to his clinic and negotiated a good price for my three tests, because the technician had been one of his students in primary school. I am going to be examined at headquarters before heading to Entebbe for my vacation flight to meet my son at the Seychelles.
I don’t anticipate blogging again until I return after the 19th. I don’t think Seychelles vacation pictures are appropriate for this blog, but we’ll see.

Keep On Working

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Matthews had loaned his helmet to someone else. I have armored pants but don’t always wear them.

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Staff meeting at ATEFO. They have a new contract working with maize farmers

I hope you all had a good Memorial Day Weekend. It has been noted that out of 200,000 volunteers since the start of Peace Corps in 1962, 301 have died in service.

For my Memorial Day, I invested in a bit of data and watched the second half of game 7 of the Golden State v. Oklahoma City series, starting at 5:00 a.m. Tuesday. It was the first basketball I had seen in a year. The Denver Nuggets had two great rookies this year, but I haven’t seen them play yet.

The commercials startle me with how comparatively affluent America is. A PSA was shown promoting little league basketball. Oh how nice it would be if every town in Uganda had a gym like that for the kids.
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Hopefully, with the burial, typhoid, special classes, the two weeks preparing for the Introduction and Wedding behind him, Matthews is going to be able to take me to the villages on a more consistent basis. We are checking back on certain groups to see how much they retained or implemented from previous lessons on record keeping. While this process can be frustrating, I do believe I can find an “early adapter” or two in each farmer group. That might be the best I can hope for. I tell the groups that in both Uganda and America, the most successful families are careful and disciplined with their spending. Keeping track of your money, and planning is the pathway to prosperity.
In the meantime, I am advising the incoming President of the Bugiri Rotary Club about ways to increase its presence in the community and encouraging member attendance. A big challenge is collecting dues, which are around US$150 per year. We also want to have a bigger presence in the local secondary schools. As I am getting more acquainted with members, some have great back stories of overcoming adversity. I am going to try to get a few them to inspire the youth groups with their stories, and I hope to share some on this blog.

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Remember that post with the two cows plowing? I was amazed to find the progress they had made the other day planting sweet potatoes. Margaret is a teacher and the the schools are on holiday. I chided Azedy, but he says he was getting up at 5 a.m. and doing his share.

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But they still have a way to go! Matthews helped me plant spinach, carrots and cabbage in my permagarden at the office. I want to make spinach salad so bad…

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While Matthews translated what I just said, I walked around and took this photo of a recent group.