Tag Archive: Teaching

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

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Permagarden 101

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Matthews likes to add banana leaves for protection of the tomato seedlings. We also planted spinach, carrots, and cabbages. The slope runs toward the people, the holes trap some of the flow from a heavy downpour, and the beds are dug two feet deep to trap more water and allow the roots to go straight down and allow for closer planting.

As I had indicated in an earlier post, ATEFO has a new contract to work with 1500 youth in 110 groups in Bugiri and Iganga. Part of the contract is to teach and dig 600 household gardens before the contract expires in July next year. These would provide a steady source of nutrition for the household with minimal maintenance. It’s a daunting goal.

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Becky shows how deep the top soil is, about an inch, before the double digging allowed more manure and air to permit the stick to go down two feet. I particularly enjoyed the fact that Becky could teach this, as I have been chiding Adams that he only hired male trainers for the new contract. He blames it on the lack of skilled female motorcycle drivers to get into the deep villages.

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Carson talks to the group.

Matthews and I organized trainings in Iganga and Bugiri for the ATEFO trainers to learn about digging permagardens. For the first training near Iganga, I recruited fellow Peace Corps volunteers from my Lusoga Language cohort, Becky and Carson, to help out. They had been trainers for the new Agri-business cohort that just arrived in June, and had received a permagarden refresher from my hero, Peter Jenson. It was a great session. I think the ATEFO trainers present were impressed, and most of all, Matthews is sold on it. I had dug such a garden last year at the office, but this lesson connected the dots better for him.

The next day Matthews and I dug a smaller garden, with two beds instead of three, for the Bugiri Trainers. Slipping back into Uganda’s ways, that day’s program was plagued by time conflicts, and poor communication, which resulted in some trainers and youth not attending either session. So a challenge remains to spreading the word for 600 permagardens. You want to connect with at least one “early adapter” in each youth or farmer group, who will appreciate the demo garden we dig, then dig his own, then perhaps help a neighbor dig another one too. That’s how to get to 600. While digging these gardens we continue to teach sack gardens.

Sack Gardens and the Ag Fair

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Matthews killing it in Ronnie’s village. Upon seeing the sack garden garden for the first time, Ronnie said it was “awesome”

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Instead of using a match to make the holes in the grain sack, this guy was holding an ember between two corn cobs.

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Even moms with babies on their back can make a sack garden

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Can you see how well this farmer took notes?

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A volunteer stirs the liquid soap mixture. I couldn’t understand the lesson, but Matthews was suitably impressed with Ronnie’s presentation.

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A job “well done”


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Someone in the village covered the new sack garden with this huge basket, to protect it from thieves and goats, I guess. Matthews thought it was hilarious.

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I went with Adams, Mathews and Jedidah (office admin) to the annual Jinja Agricultural Show.  It was interesting to see new technologies.

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The Ag Show was like a state fair on steroids. The crowds were huge, oppressive and there were hordes of uniformed school groups.

Sack Garden Matthews and I are starting to get around to our farmer groups to build demonstration sack gardens. After enduring my programs on record keeping and budgeting, it’s an entertaining show. I previously showed how these were made here. The village is supposed to prepare a place for the Sack Garden and provide a grain sack, a wheelbarrow of manure, three wheelbarrows of dirt, and rocks. This seems like a challenge, which is a bit frustrating, since we wind up having to do more site prep before the lesson commences. Still, it’s quite amusing, since no one can understand what we are doing until we have assembled it. On Saturday we made a sack garden in Ronnie’s village, after he taught how to make liquid soap. Matthews is a good teacher, always striving to interact with the people. I am more passive, allowing Ugandans to teach Ugandans. Plus it saves on translation time. My presence in Ronnie’s village is exploited to help draw the crowd though.

 

Odds & Sods II

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For the 4th of July, I was invited to a school about 30 minutes by boda south of Bugiri to talk about American Independence. A few hundred students in a school assembly were there. The man in blue standing was the headmaster making announcements when I came in and took the picture. I prefaced my remarks with my usual discourse about the importance of education and other patter. I spoke about Paul Revere’s midnight ride, Boston Tea Party and Washington crossing the Delaware to wake them up. I told them that Washington “came out of the bush” to lead the troops to victory, became the first president, and then willingly surrendered power (hint hint).

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The Rotary year begins on July 1, and just like home, there is a changeover of officers at an installation dinner. My NGO supervisor Adams, second from right, is the new Secretary and he is in line to be President in a couple of years. Before dinner they were playing music videos on the white screen. Adams plays videos on his dash when he drives except when I am with him and complain. I also make him wear his seat belt.:-)

I have started working out with a Bugiri town football (soccer) team on a pitch five minutes from my home every morning except Sunday and game days from 6:15 to 7:15. I join them in exercises and drills, which leave me in an exhausted pool of sweat. I am at least twice as old and lousy at the ball drills, but they have welcomed and tolerated me. I am sort of amusing to them. I really need this to stay fit and hope I can stick with it. Due to schedule conflicts most weekends, I will attend few games, relieving them of any pressure to play me. Right now, I am missing some work-outs due to appointments keeping me in Kampala until the end of this week, but I have been walking quite a bit instead. I have lots of little things to show.

 

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“The Book of Mormon” is a hilarious irreverent play written by the South Park guys. Its about the hapless adventures of Mormon missionaries in Uganda. Here, are some actual Mormon missionaries in Uganda! From left, they are from Utah, Zimbabwe, Washington, and Zambia. Utah had seen the play. We had a nice chat.

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I attended a huge funeral for Paul Kitakule, who was Chairperson of the Busoga Institute for Rural Development, and a Canon for a Protestant Church. He had 12 children and 40 grandchildren(one wife). His son is one of the founding members of the Bugiri Rotary Club and owns the Gilgard Guest House where we meet. Adams said I am considered a member of the community now, so I had to go. It was four hours of hymns and eulogies. There must have been at least thirty wreaths for the casket. Ushers would rotate a different wreath on top of the casket every few minutes.

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The funeral was held on the Bukooli College grounds. These cars are in the shade of an Umbrella tree on the grounds planted in 1981, when it was the size of the seedling planted last week at my office by the Ambassador. See how far the branches stretch. When I teach in the villages, it is often under the shade of these trees.

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Heavy demand for boda bodas parked at the funeral


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Wednesday was Eid, the end of Ramadan, and a Uganda public holiday. The men wear white and the women are colorful. These kids in Kampala asked me to take their photo.

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While in Kampala I enjoyed the Uganda National Museum. It was combination of natural history and people history. A guide took me around. So many parallels with the colonization of America but in the 1800’s. The British traded beads, trinkets and old guns for Ivory and slaves.

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A water-tight initiation basket. The mother would place the umbilical cord of her new baby into a solution. If it didn’t float the baby would not be from the the clan.

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I love Google maps in Kampala. This dirt trail showed up as a walking short cut.

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Boda boda drivers don’t hesitate to go up on sidewalks, like the guy on the right.

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I had a snack in the shade of the museum. I met a lady in my hostel who is researching Ugandan museums. She said there is an interesting one in Iganga run by a prince. Azedy tells me there is a cultural museum in Bugiri, the capital of the eastern region of the Masoga tribe. Bucket list items.

 

Ronnie Would

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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.

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Ronnie teaches Entrepreneurial skills.

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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.

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

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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.

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

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

 

One

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.
The medicine is available in a viagra samples australia soft-gel capsule. Our conversion capabilities are extensively allowing us to convert to and from virtually any format, including: Kindle, Mobipocket, MS Reader, ePUB, OCR for printed book. generic viagra ED is also a kind of side effect linked with specific medications, such as including antihistamines, antidepressants, antihypertensive, antipsychotics, beta blockers, diuretics, tranquilizers, diet pills, cimetidine cheapest levitra generic (Tagamet), and finasteride (Propecia). Most men will have run into cialis cost low the uncomfortable situation of purchasing it over the counter at your local pharmacy. What has been the hardest part? The most stressful time was trying to master Lusoga language to pass my exam, but ultimately Lusoga has mastered me. Sorry! I thought I would be working harder. After getting assurances last week I would be back on track teaching in the villages, Matthews was gone most of the week for a burial of his neighbor and former boss (cause of death at age 54- diabetes!). Adams planned to take me with him to some towns to monitor our new maize collectives, but then he came down with typhoid and his medication prevented him driving long distances. The education volunteers have a school to go to, and the health volunteers work at hospitals or clinics. My experience is similar to many agricultural volunteers. The sponsoring NGOs struggle. The two other places I considered working a year ago stopped paying for their PCV’s rent, forcing their relocation to other towns last week. So I have spent more time with my Youth group, and trying to work up other projects via the local Rotary Club. Bottom line, I don’t think I suffer much hardship, there are just inconveniences I have gotten used to.

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.