Education

I had a dream..

Author: Charles June 15, 2017

The game of Mosquito Tag is also on the cover of the Malaria Think Tank annual report, thanks to fellow fossil David, who was in charge of the graphics.

As of today, an article over my byline about the Blue House Camp is linked from the home page of the Peace Corps. See it here. There were better projects by other volunteers, but this is a combination of my bother-in-law and sister’s great photography and the compelling backstory of the Blue House.
A couple of weeks ago, about 50 PCVs had a big social gathering. These kids love to party. It was called “Burning Sebo”, a take-off on the annual Burning Man fest in Nevada. It was at a camp in Jinja next to the Nile River. David had never been to Jinja or the Nile, so he came east. We rented a tent with cots, on a bluff over-looking the river. I am sick of staying in dorm bunk beds. However, while the tent zipped up pretty tight, there were no nets over the cots (unlike the bunk beds), and I got slaughtered by mosquito bites.

Our Burning Sebo was a little bit smaller than Burning Man

Another volunteer making her first visit to Jinja that weekend was Judith Fleming, who started subscribing to my blog in 2015 after asking D.C. headquarters if there was a blog from an elder Ugandan volunteer. She arrived a year after I did, and after occasional email correspondence, this was our first meeting. Judith was a 21 year-old volunteer 50 years ago as part of the first cohort in Tonga in the South Pacific. Yes, she is north of 70! Judith, David and I went out for dinner and we enjoyed her stories about the early days of the Peace Corps. In 1967, Peace Corps Pacific trainees did their training on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. They hiked once to the site of the Leper colony of Father Damien. Another time they learned how to camp on the beach, and how to catch, gut and clean fish. Back then, the number of trainees selected exceeded the number going to site. About 20% were told they had been “deselected” and sent home. This must have been tough after you thought you said good bye for two years. Of course there was no internet then, so the contact back home was with tissue thin letters that took weeks. Judith was deposited on a Tonga island with a family in a grass hut with no electricity of course, and basically was told to figure out how to help the people. She was called to help with a child birth once, purely on the basis of being an American. She practically acted as a mid-wife and was given the privilege of naming the baby!

David, Judith and I pose in front of the Nile. Judith is very popular with her cohort, and they look after her.

All you need to do is just take one kamagra 100mg oral jelly sachet just cialis cheapest before 20 minutes to your sexual session. They work in the body by improving blood circulation to the male sex organ. cialis low price It offers cialis india pharmacy effective treatment for fatigue and erectile dysfunction. There could be another physical cialis online price issue that abates your sexual reaction may cause tension about keeping up an Erection. She named him after her Peace Corps boyfriend from her cohort. Judith said this fall there will be a 50th anniversary celebration of the Peace Corps in Tonga. Our Country Director Sean is friends of the Country Director in Tonga. They are trying to figure out if there is way she could go back for the ceremonies. It would be so interesting to find the 50 year old man she helped deliver and named. Seems like it would make a cool little documentary, not to mention it would show how she is doing a lot of work in Uganda. Neither she nor David have needed medical assistance since arriving in Uganda. I’ve only had to fix a bad ingrown toenail and had some dizziness issues that were probably solved by changing my malaria meds.
I will use this post to tell a sort of funny story. Way back at training two years ago, my cohort formed a big circle. Each of us was asked to step to the middle and state a “dream” goal during our service, even if it was likely unattainable. So I decided to announce that I hoped to find the next Dikembe Mutombo or Akeem Olajuwon in one of my villages, so he could build hospitals like Mutombo did in Kenya. Mutombo played for the Denver Nuggets many years ago. As I was about to enter the circle, I realized David was the only volunteer who would even know these names, and I couldn’t think of any current African NBA players. So instead, I clumsily tried to explain it as “I want to find a 14 year.old boy with mad basketball skills who I could bring back to America to eventually make the NBA and get rich so he could help his village.” I was told later, at first I sounded like a perv who wanted to bring home a 14 year old boy, although eventually they understood the gist of it. I have been teased about this ever since.

A future NBA star?

Sure enough, Ryan, who is currently a PCV in Arua, recently sent me a photo on WhatsApp of a 14 year old playing basketball in Arua. He said “Something to look forward to, Charlie, your 6 ft 14 year old, South Sudanese talent.” Andrei chimed in “And now with the refugee crisis They’re practically giving them away”. The good part about this is that now I know there is this basketball court, and I would like to play some pick-up basketball for exercise. It beats soccer drills, which I have been neglecting. And my “dream” is alive.

My distinctive helmet and jacket have held up well.

There was a little two room school house in one of the villages I was in last week. Each room was jammed with kids. I peeked in, and they all stood up and said “Good Afternoon”. I hope the teacher wasn’t too annoyed.

General

Arua, Education, health, volunteers

RUMPs

Author: Charles March 10, 2017

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.

General

adversity, Education, empowering women, health

Ronnie Would

Author: Charles June 5, 2016

About 50 youth gave up their Saturday afternoon for our program. Ron was hoping for 80 but there was a Village Council meeting at the same time.

I just had to post this feel good story today before I left on vacation.

A few weeks ago, I posted about Youth Technical Training. The young man in my team, Ronnie, was energized by that week. He has come to embody the desired results of Youth Technical Training.

As the President of the Educate Club, he is mobilizing the members to adopt and implement the action plan the team drafted at YTT, for a chicken rearing operation at Bukooli College. I look forward to working with them throughout the process and giving you updates.

Ronnie also led the Club at a recent National Finals Competition in Kampala. It resulted in an article about the Club’s Liquid Soap in the New Vision Newspaper. He was not aware he was in the newspaper until I showed him the article today on my smart phone.

A lot of kids would rest on these laurels, but not Ronnie. He told me he wanted to pass on his knowledge from YTT to the mostly unemployed youths in his home village. So last Sunday, he went around to the local churches to announce a program on Entrepreneurship, with yours truly as a special guest presenter. After meeting to plot out our program, I arranged to make 40 copies of about ten pages of our YTT manual to use as handouts. (Digression- think how routinely we make photocopies in the USA – here this expense took a 20% bite out of my living allowance!)- These youth are unlikely to start a new business tomorrow, but I sincerely think at least a few of these handouts will be kept and referenced in the future.

Ronnie teaches Entrepreneurial skills.

Ronnie mentors a group plotting a mosquito net repair service

buy viagra in uk http://appalachianmagazine.com/category/featured/page/28/?filter_by=popular Its other advantage is that it can be taken orally even without food and still lasts up to thirty six hours after its intake. A dose of order levitra online http://appalachianmagazine.com/2014/10/20/wvu-win-over-baylor-tainted-by-riots-fires-assaults-on-law-enforcement54/ can make you a complete man in any way possible is a natural habit. This is not only unsatisfactory and frustrating for that particular moment but it pharmacy online viagra is also hugely confidence crushing and self-esteem crushing too. Physiotherapy Dubai has turned into a vital part of wholesale sildenafil everybody’s life. I had previously observed Ronnie’s leadership and charisma with the Educate Club members. Here, I marveled at how well Ronnie presented his portion of the material, although I had no idea what he was saying. The audience, ranging in age from 12 to late 20’s, was captivated and engaged. Ronnie and I alternated our presentation time. I was the supposed main attraction, but he was a tough act to follow! Utilizing the Peace Corps method of interactive teaching, rather than straight lecture, we broke them up into groups for a planning exercise. I enjoyed listening to their own presentations of creative ideas how they would innovate different products.

At the end of the afternoon, I asked if they wanted more, and this was met with enthusiasm. While I am gone next week, Ronnie will return to teach how to make the liquid soap described in the New Vision article. The class agreed to raise 30,000 shillings among themselves to pay for materials. I promised to return in a few weeks.

Ronnie is finishing S-6 next December. I have asked about his future plans. He says YTT has giving him hope he can be a successful businessman. But in his heart, he would like to become a doctor. He is concerned about the fees this would take, as he is the third oldest of nine children, which stretches family resources thin. I am confident his altruistic nature and skills will provide a bright future and I look forward to watching his progress.

Village kids peeking into the class. The girl on the red dress is Ronnie’s sister.

The day got off to a rocky start. After getting out of the taxi near the village, this little girl brought her littler sister over to me. A few seconds after this shot, I let go of the little girls hand and she tumbled back on the little rise you see. Thankfully it was just a minor shock to her.

This math was on the black board in the room of the primary school we used for the venue. I’m impressed.

Ronnie’s parents hosted us for a post-program meal.

General

children, Education, Entreprenuership, Teaching, Youth Group

Educate Club at National Finals

Author: Charles May 16, 2016

The Bukooli College display. Ironically a selling point for the blue liquid soap is the an added ingredient to kill bed bugs.

The Educate Club of Bukooli College was one of 16 Educate Clubs to participate in the finals of a national competition in Kampala, They displayed goods they make, and answered questions from judges. I went to observe their preparations on Thursday. At that point I did not think I would be allowed to go . After I arrived on Saturday, I learned the team was housed in a dorm of a local secondary school. Unfortunately the boys room was plagued by bed bugs and they didn’t get much sleep. They were not looking forward to returning to the dorm that night.

One of the three founders of Educate Clubs was in attendance and gave a speech. She said she was raised in a tough inner city environment by her single mother in New York City. Another speaker said students should not expect to get a job when when they finish school, so they need to learn these entrepreneurial skills. The club acquitted itself well, in my opinion. Their table overflowed with goods. Unfortunately it was not named among the top three.

Here, members are making necklaces. Beans are soaked in dye overnight and then threaded together, dried, and shellacked in some manner.

Chalkboards, such as shown below, are made from recycled paper.

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Ronald, who I brought to Youth Technical Training, shows a product to the competition. Ron is an impressive young man with charisma. In the foreground, are scented solids to rub on your skin to stop mosquitoes. Everything is made from items they get for free or next to nothing.

The club has to show its skills at record keeping for its sales.

A view of the campus at Bukooli College. There are three three story classroom buildings in addition to other buildings.

In contrast, this is a three room school house in a deep village which is part of a primary school near Kamuli founded by Matthews’ brother, where I spoke to parents and students. See the three blackboards? The benches had been removed for the parents to sit on. The little brick building in the back is the school’s administrative office. I am planning to give some presentations and be more involved with secondary students in a similar rustic village near Bugiri.

General

Education, Entreprenuership, Youth Group

Forever Young

Author: Charles April 26, 2016

My YTT team. Ronnie, Martin, Kevin, and myself

Learning about budgeting. This photo appeared on the Peace Corps Uganda Facebook page. It’s proof I am here! My t-shirt is a care package gift from my sister: “I might be old but I got to see all the cool bands”

Kevin presents her portion of the Chicken Rearing Action Plan

cheap viagra from india deeprootsmag.org In some conditions, the cell interaction will lead to fibrosis and tissue dysfunction. It will also cover important safety strategies viagra generic cheap before, during, and after the driving task to keep you safe. Well, that is not the case. viagra low cost Regular use of this herbal pill offers the effective way to treat weak erection cheap viagra no prescription problem in old age, you can buy Night Fire capsules and Mast Mood oil. Youth Technical Training was held last week in Jinja. I took along two young people and their faculty adviser from the Educate Club at Bukooli College. The term College is interchangeable with High School here (S-1 through S-6). Also there is O level (S 1-4 which is sufficient to get Sharon into Nursing School) and A level (S-5 and S-6 heading for University). Ronnie is 19 (S-6) and Kevin (F) 18 (S-5) and their faculty adviser is Martin (45 with 18 years at Bukooli). We started each day with exercises or yoga at 6 a.m. and attended sessions until 9 p.m. Subjects covered were Healthy Living, Gender Equality, Entrepreneurship, and Youth Clubs. The Youth who attended were between 12 and 27. In Uganda, up to age 35 is considered youth. It was the first time away from parents for many of them. The hotel rooms and meals were a big treat. Some of the material was a bit over the heads of the really young kids, but my kids thrived. Each of us also was taped for a radio show in Jinja the following day.
My Youth and Adviser used their newly found skills to put together an action plan to raise chickens on the college grounds and sell their eggs. There are some abandoned and isolated class rooms, and one will be renovated to be the chicken coop. All three have experience rearing chickens, so just like with the rice farmers, I don’t have much to contribute on that end. Just like my home stay family, they assumed in the United States chickens are free range everywhere, until I explained the way most are raised in crowded warehouses. We don’t have goats and cattle tethered everywhere either. (Westminster, like other metro cities, recently has allowed for backyard coops.) I will help guide them on their budget, fundraising, and how to keep track of profits to be distributed. If mistakes are made along the way, those are learning experiences. This all starts after their national competition in Kampala in May. They won the Regional, which was referenced in a prior post. I look forward to reporting on this group’s progress.

Interviewing for my 30 second radio spot.

Every Super Bowl, the NFL manufactures thousands of championship t-shirts for each team. The shirts for the losing team are donated to third world countries. This is Annie, Clark’s classmate from Stanley Lake, with a “Championship” Broncos shirt from Super Bowl XLVIII against Seattle. She bought it from a YTT participant.

General

Education, empowering women, Entreprenuership, health, training, Youth Group

No Syrians Here (Yet)

Author: Charles March 21, 2016

I am now in a routine of presenting programs to four farmer groups each week. In a Thursday farmer group, I gave my first talk about keeping household budgets as a way to control spending, In the USA, where I suspect written household budgets are rare, I helped families with budgets required in connection with their bankruptcy filings. Here, where a man has multiple wives, I recommend keeping multiple home budgets. I hope it promotes trust and harmony between the families. There is often suspicion the husband is favoring one family over the other, so best to work together and lock in the amounts. I asked how many men have more than one wife. Almost all ten men in the group raised their hands and sort of shrugged about it.. I ignore the moral dilemma this presents to supposed Christians (Muslims claim their faith allows it), but observe that the culture of polygamy typically increases the number of children, and hence adds to the strain on their limited resources

This is Agnes, my neighbor behind our office, sifting and picking her rice, a common sight in the third world. Here she is picking out small stones. I eat lots of rice in restaurants and I automatically check for pebbles with my tongue before I chew. My rice cooker is used for noodles.

Here is Agnes at mid-flip. I never knew why they did this. It separates out the lighter husk remnants which catch the breeze. Sure enough they were on the ground by her.

On an off day, I was invited to speak at another primary school near Mbale, where one of Matthews’ sons is a teacher. I was stunned by the size of the crowd of parents jammed into a class room just to hear me. I am evolving a decent stump speech for these occasions.
Whenever I ask for questions, I get some variation of “We have such a need of your knowledge and skills, how can we get more Peace Corps volunteers?” I respond that 200 Peace Corps volunteers in a country of 38 million are stretched pretty thin. I lament that my country has far more resources devoted to endless unsuccessful military engagements. I just read that the Department of Defense is the world’s largest employer, with more than 1.3 million men and women on active duty and 742,00 civilian personnel. This compares to 220,000 total Peace Corps volunteers over 55 years. I tell them I wish my country could begin to flip this priority, but with our two likely militaristic candidates, it will not change with our elections this year.

The parents should donate their own knowledge, skills and resources. Volunteer to help at school by helping a group with reading, tend to the school garden, help with maintenance or any number of non-monetary contributions.

Chicks painted pink! Easter is coming! Friday and Monday are public holidays.

Two poor goats are stuffed under the rear seat of a taxi

I also spoke to two classrooms of children, one of them P1 through P4 and the other P5- and P6. Here is a brief video showing how the classes in Uganda always greet their visitors. Besides asking them to appreciate the sacrifices their parents make to ensure their education, I stress how important it is to always do your best, and get in the habit of being honest, the two qualities I wanted from my own children.

For a secondary project, I am establishing a relationship with a youth group called the “Education Club” at Bakooli College (high school), which is within walking distance of my office. The club seemed to be the group with the most goals and activities congruent with what I am doing. I am also hoping to make it a Rotary Interact Club, so it can get needed support from the Bugiri Rotary Club. The teacher/adviser and a boy and girl from this group will accompany me to Youth Technical Training for a week in late April, in Jinja. I turned down an offer to form a youth group in a deep village because of the unreliability of my transportation, but I am going to meet the head teacher to see about presenting some programs there.
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This is pretty typical of the refugee compounds. Almost all of them had been swept clean.

In front of the primary school.with Tom, Ryan.and Aruna. Definitely an upgrade compared to village schools.

Aruna stands with his “uncle” who came to the camp in 2002, a couple of years after Arruna’s arrival, , and a childhood friend. Just like Aruna’s older brother, the uncle was involuntarily conscripted into the Sudanese army, and escaped when he got the opportunity, later sending for his wife. The situation has not gotten much more secure all these years later.

A cute chicken coop at Aruna’s uncle’s place. Recently they got a disease and all died.

Sign near the entrance

Playing pool outdoors. Tom and Ryan have seen this in other villages.

These tents are temporary shelters for new arrivals

After the camp we took a took a trip to the shores of Lake Allen, which marks Uganda’s western border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The water looked awful. I would not eat fish from here.

Last Friday, I traveled all day to Homia on the western side of Uganda. There, I met Aruna, my PCV friend and former Lost Boy of Sudan, and two other PCVs, Tom and Ryan. We visited the refugee camp from Aruna’s childhood, which I wrote about in one of my first blog posts.. It was an interesting and enlightening experience. Unlike my assumptions of teeming refugees living in squalor, the place was nicer than the villages I go to. Clusters of huts are scattered throughout, and plenty of land for farming is available. It is not surprising that some have been there more than 20 years. This camp has 22,000 refugees, about twice as many as when Aruna was there. The vast majority are Congolese. The photos tell the story.

General

Education, Rotary Club, travel, Uganda Culture, Uganda food, working, Youth Group

Every race, every creed, education

Author: Charles March 8, 2016

The parents and students in attendance

Today is a public holiday. In fact around the world it is International Woman’s Day. I don’t think it is recognized so much in the USA.

ATEFO has selected fifty farmer groups in Bugiri district to receive intensified training. While ATEFO waits for additional funding to bring back the other trainers, Matthews and I will start on three of these groups. I wanted to do four or five, but Adams insisted on only three to start. We were supposed to go out Monday, but on Sunday Matthews learned he lost a 9 y.o. grandson to cancer, and the burial was Monday. Knowing that I have been anxious to start training again, he was willing to stay in Bugiri, but I said he should go to the burial. One more day won’t matter. So hopefully tomorrow we will finally get back out to the villages.

On Saturday, Matthews had requested me to speak to a meeting of parents and children of a school he is supporting in his home village near Kamuli. I had to take two taxis to get to Kamuli, where Matthews met me and then we took a borrowed motorcycle to the village. The taxis were slow, as they often are, constantly stopping to solicit passengers. I sat in Jinja for 45 minutes waiting for the taxi to Kamuli to fill up. By the time we got to the meeting we were an hour late. Being late is a Ugandan tradition but I didn’t want to add to it. Many had gone home, but there was still a nice size crowd when we arrived. The local LC-1 and town council chair were also there.

When we pulled up, they started up with a song to greet me. It really caught me off guard, and they did another chorus, led by Matthews, so I could film it. See it here. The women love to make those yelping sounds.

View from the front door

This village, like most, has a high level of poverty. So far, the school is only pre-school, then P-1, P-2 and P-3. If possible, a grade will be added each year. They are crammed into a very small building,

I think it used to be a home. Matthews says there is the need to accommodate 100 students at these ages, though many don’t go to school. While 100 students per classroom is pretty normal in Uganda, no way is this school large enough. Somehow they need to raise the funds to build more.

What can I say to these people? Essentially I tried to motivate them to cooperate together to overcome their challenges, and appreciate the efforts of supporters like Matthews. I discussed the importance of education, and in particular the importance of keeping their girls in school. I interacted with the children and encouraged them to obey their parents and appreciate the sacrifices they make to see that they get an education.

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Note the blackboard on the left

Another room, No blackboard here. Most of the benches were taken outside for our meeting.

Meowri is back to being feisty.

I encouraged the headmistress to add English to the curriculum. With 90 different dialects in Uganda, English is the common denominator that might help with their future mobility for jobs. World-wide, English is the “money language”. Simon’s children at my home stay were taking English lessons at the same primary level, including printing it. The village kids are behind in this regard, although just getting to go to school is a challenge.

I mentioned my own father attended a similar one room school house in Virginia Dale, Colorado (Another one room school house built on my pioneer ancestor’s homestead stands today at the Littleton Historical Museum. A few owners later, the Lilley homestead is now Columbine Country Club).

Back side of the school

I met a few of Matthews’ children at his home after the meeting. His daughter wears a Colorado T-shirt

My Aunt Shirley’s hand made stars up in Matthews’ ceiling. They will be Christmas ornaments next year.

Church under construction. Roofing tiles in the back.

I wasn’t particularly impressed with myself, but Matthews said later I was a big hit. I might represent a ‘great white hope” but securing the resources to improve the school is likely beyond my reach. It’s frustrating, but I have a few hundred farmers here in Bugiri I hope to boost in some small measure. On the plus side, there are couple of acres around the school which can be cultivated to provide nutrition to the students and income for the school. A permagarden can be dug out back and take water from the roof. I may go back to help Matthews dig it. I think Father Christmas will visit the kids too.
Before taking me back to Kamuli to get my taxi home, Matthews brought me by a nearby church under construction It is Seventh Day Adventist. Matthews is a pretty devout SDA, and also is supporting this construction (although not lately!). The walls are up but it still needs a roof. During rainy season, they use a tarp. I saw a pile of roofing tiles to install soon. The church was at least four times the size of the school. I struggle with this. In this village, should the church have the same or higher priority than the school? In my country there is a similar weighing of priorities. Citizens can choose to make a tax-deductible donations to support construction of Churches, and/or choose whether to vote for bonds to repair deteriorating schools or build more. Heaven and Education, both laudable goals, sometimes competing for scarce resources.

General

ATEFO (my NGO), children, Education, empowering women, perma-garden, working

Education

Author: Charles September 27, 2015

This is a jackfruit tree. The fruits are huge. They taste good, but it’s very messy and difficult to separate the little juicy globs inside from the rind.

I sit on my covered front porch sometimes during cooling rainstorms. This is my view. Unfinished construction is on both sides of my tri-plex. If I ever meet the owner I will ask him about it. I also throw my laundry and dish washing water out on that little rise you see.

I had a couple of leftover photos from last week shown here.

First a couple of reactions to comments. The treadle sewing machine I showed last week received some attention and sparked some memories of a by-gone era. Second, please don’t sweat about my weight. I am pretty sure I have stabilized at 165. Now that I am cooking for myself, my fear is letting it go back up. I am still trying to restrict after dinner snack intake.

This week I finally visited some farmer groups at their VSLA meetings. I was introduced at each meeting by the ATEFO trainer, and it was announced I would be coming back in a week or two to give a lesson on budgeting.

I met with 7 groups, 5 along the same road on Tuesday. Due to scheduling conflicts with Matthews and the four day Muslim holiday weekend just finishing, for Eid al-Adha, I will speak to only one group next week, this Wednesday.

Lots of Muslims celebrating Eid al-Adha on Thursday, mostly dressed in White.

Lots of Muslims out celebrating Eid al-Adha on Thursday, mostly dressed in White.

I was well-received at these groups, and they seem interested in what I will have to say. I hope I can measure up to their expectations. I gave a similar talk on budgeting to a group of Boda drivers during tech immersion.

My first village meeting was in this mud hut. It had mud floors of course and was built three years ago. Nice and cool in there!

All the other farmer groups met outside in the shade of a large trees. The women often sit on mats, although a man is on this one.

Where can I get this medicine? You can cheap viagra in canada place your order online with us, to buy any medicine. For the moment, viagra 100 mg find out that should not be taken by persons who will be also taking nitroglycerin because it can result in lower blood pressure levels. Thus, complete secrecy regarding the sildenafil pfizer content in the parcel is maintained. Conventional treatments have proven to be the bets sildenafil in canada http://cute-n-tiny.com/cute-animals/mom-and-baby-giraffe/ way to lose weight while building muscles. I will share one funny/serious story: Two NRM (President Museveni’s party) candidates were running against each other for the upcoming primary. Apparently, although opponents, they traveled together and were hitting all the VSLAs on the same road we were visiting. When we crossed paths with them during one meeting, they both made speeches. When there was applause, Matthews told me the female had announced she was going to donate this week’s VSLA welfare payments on behalf of the whole group. I whispered back, “So she is buying votes?” I swear I was whispering, but the NRM candidates and everyone in the group heard me! In my semi-flustered state, I don’t recall what she said in response, but everyone treated the incident lightly. When I was introduced later, the candidates had moved on. I said it has been my observation that people in Uganda do not speak loudly, but everyone can still hear everyone else. This was proof of that, and I apologized, and noted we aren’t supposed to comment on Uganda politics (one of my big Peace Corps “sacrifices”). I was met with some laughter (laughter means different things here too). Ugh.

From left, Mwondha’s dad, brother Matia, mother, wife Collin, Mwondha, sister Esther. Collin wore her gown from her previous graduation. At the village party, other former grads wore their gowns again. They don’t rent them here.

On Saturday, I attended the graduation of Mwondha, my carpenter, and his brother, on the grounds of Basoga University, only a few blocks from where I had language training near Iganga. Before Mwondha received his diploma (but after his brother received his), there was a massive rain storm which completely decimated the event, blowing down tents and turning the place into a muddy quagmire. We left, just as the rain was tapering off, and went to his village where his parents still lived.

The village had been organized into a huge festive celebration. As we got out of our cars, the brothers were mobbed like rock stars. The women make this high-pitched warbling scream that sounds sort of like Banshees. I was semi-mobbed by the village kids, who acted like they didn’t know what to make of me. Once I started fist-bumping them, they relaxed. They had organized tents, decorations, cakes and lots of food for the whole village. There were two MCs and a sound system run off of a generator. I had hoped to hang back and watch, but was ushered to a seat of honor with the family. Of course there were speeches, and during each one, I was singled out and told I was “most welcome”.

An altar was set up, and a priest said Mass. He asked God to delay the rain until after the party, but God didn’t listen, and so half-way through mass, I was in my second deluge. A lady, Collin, was sort of delegated to be my minder for the day, and told me she was Mwondha’s first wife. The wife I was acquainted with at the carpenter shop was his second. Collin told me Mwondha is 32 and has six kids with the two wives and another woman he didn’t marry. I have come to understand that polygamy is frequent among the Masoga tribe (and Muslims) here in the east, but less common in the northern and western parts of Uganda. Collin is from the far north and admitted she wasn’t happy when this happened. Just like my father Simon at home stay, he’s Catholic too!

During the storm at graduation, tents got upturned, so people threw out the chairs so there would be more room to huddle together.

Trying to keep their nice clothes dry while the tents take a beating. Much more entertaining than handing out diplomas!

This is the top of a tent that was flipped off it moorings by the wind, and came down pointy top first, piercing into my tent. Might have hurt someone in the way.

Procession during the village party

During the rainstorm, I was hustled into this room with other “elders”. I know my beard is grey but….The guy on the right is an engineer who used to employ Mwondha. We didn’t get to visit much in there, unfortunately.

General

ATEFO (my NGO), Bugiri, Education, Local Politics, Rainy Season, Teaching, Uganda food, VSLA groups, working

Village

Author: Charles July 17, 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We had the occasional animal delay besides mechanical delay.

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

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

General

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

First Time Teaching

Author: Charles June 21, 2015

Karina and I pose with the kids we taught

The Ag volunteers took a bus on Saturday to a “college” with mixed boarding students and locals. I learned colleges are high schools. Beyond that is University. My teaching partner Karina and I were disappointed to see we had pretty young kids (13-15), so our presentation was probably less effective.
We introduced the concept of gender stereotypes by asking what they thought were typical of Americans. “They are beautiful actors and actresses” “They sing good” “They are God fearing” “They love Africa” “They like to give books to Africa”.”They get divorced” In a practice session with Ugandan adults on staff we heard “They are rich” “Time is money”. After we responded to the kids that their assumptions were not necessarily accurate (“I was married for 30 years and did not get divorced, and when I sing people run away (laughter)”, we split up the boy and girls and asked each group what roles were typical of Ugandan Men and then what roles were typical of Ugandan Women. Both boy and girl groups were uniformly positive of the role of each gender (Men were breadwinners, hard-working, god-fearing, patriotic etc. Women did the cooking, raised the children, did the cleaning etc..) In contrast, both genders of Ugandan adults in our training session were uniformly hard on men (they are lazy, they drink too much, they are unfaithful).
What we had hoped was to show the stark disparity in Ugandan society between gender roles, and then, like the American stereotypes, point out that they don’t have to necessarily support that stereotype. Women don’t have to have children early, some men might want to cook and help to clean etc. Another teaching team with older teens had much better luck getting across that concept.
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The kids went out to pose for pictures with us (sorry they are really sharp on my phone), and then Karina (far left) went into Summer Camp Counselor mode and did sing-alongs and played “Red Light, Green Light” a game I hadn’t seen or played since my own childhood. As I said, she is a natural, and they loved it. I want to learn some of those summer camp songs. I enjoyed engaging with the kids on a small group level, always ending with the customary fist bumps all around.

Ag training next.

General

children, Education, empowering women, Teaching, training

Tag Archive: Education

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