Youth Group

I get the heat, heat

Author: Charles January 16, 2017

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.

General

ATEFO (my NGO), Bugiri, Dry season, Entreprenuership, Environment, living site, Youth Group

November

Author: Charles December 4, 2016

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..

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.

These are coffee beans getting scooped up into bags.

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

More cute kids.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

General

adversity, ATEFO (my NGO), children, Rotary Club, volunteers, Youth Group

Seeds of Opportunity, Seeds of Conflict

Author: Charles August 23, 2016

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..

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.

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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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

General

agriculture, ATEFO (my NGO), Entreprenuership, host parents, Rotary Club, Uganda Culture, working, Youth Group

1/2 Full

Author: Charles July 25, 2016

Ugandan dawn over the pitch. There are up to 25 players in my morning workouts, so the coach splits us into two groups for the drills and exercises. The other group wore the fluorescent green bibs.

I followed these two cute kids the other day…

Hump day It’s hard to believe in some ways, but Friday, July 15, was Hump Day. I have been in Uganda for 13 ½ months, and 13 ½ months remain in my service. They always say the process of integration and adjustment can take a year. I am hopeful I can make a better and more lasting impact on my community before I leave. It’s hard to appreciate changes I might be influencing on the farmers’ customary sustenance-only approach, but I will continue to monitor this. You hope to change the behavior of early-adapters, show success, and then the rest of the village will buy in. The grant I was awarded to teach sack gardens is small, and the Peace Corps says I can’t get another grant until that money is consumed (i.e. construct 19-20 sack gardens, plus evaluations of their adaptation by the villages).
In the meantime, I hope to help the Bugiri Rotary Club achieve at least one major project. The Bugiri community has so many needs, and the Club needs to tap into Rotary International Foundation funding. It must develop international partnerships with other Clubs. There is a bit a stumbling, as this new club finds its way.

Dizzy in the head…In an effort to learn why I have occasional spells of dizziness, I’ve had occasion to go to Kampala twice in recent weeks for further tests, including ultrasound scans of my thyroid, an MRI of my brain, and seeing two outside specialists. The Peace Corps Medical Office is top notch, and very aggressive in trying to figure this out. The consensus conclusion is that I have Benign Positional Vertigo. In other words, none of the scans showed anything scary, and it’s probably not harmful. It’s just something I have to get used to. In fact, I do think it is better, with less frequent episodes.

Aruna update While I was in Kampala last week, I was pleased to spend time with my friend Aruna, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, whose story I told over a year ago, and whose refugee camp we recently visited. Aruna had just returned from his home in Portland Maine, where he got surgery for a torn MCL. He injured it on a four hour bicycle ride. He was gone for nearly the 45 day maximum time you are allowed to recuperate before Peace Corps “Early Terminates” you.
In the two years preceding the Peace Corps, Aruna sent his earnings to South Sudan to pay for building a new home for his parents in their family’s village. The home had been destroyed in fighting when Aruna was child, leading to his epic tale of survival with his brothers, eventually walking to Uganda where he lived in a camp until being relocated to Portland. South Sudan is on the brink of civil war again. As I write this, there is a fragile cease fire. Uganda has evacuated its citizens, and tens of thousands of new refugees have crossed the northern border of Uganda. Unfortunately, while Aruna was in Portland, there was fighting in his family’s village again, and the new house was heavily damaged. His parents were temporarily relocated to yet another camp, but now have returned to the village, which is now under control of the South Sudanese army. They think they can repair the house. A brother who did not relocate to Portland is available to assist them. Aruna says it was probably for the best he was back in Maine while this was happening. He would have been tempted to join the fighting “now that I am not a child”. But as I quizzed him with my limited understanding of the situation, he admitted he wasn’t sure which side he would join. Probably determined by clan or tribe, I suppose.

Malaria update- In the last few weeks, Matthews, and three of the kids (one came home from school) that live on my compound got malaria. It is so common for everyone. I switched meds as part of my anti-dizziness regimen. So far, half way through service, no malaria, although I wonder what the drugs are doing to my liver as they kill the parasites. I worry more about getting hit by a boda boda.

Refuse burning day in my neighborhood. Gag.

ED is characterized by the inability to maintain erection. purchase levitra More viagra prices check that storefront so, the purpose of a distance learning M. So the victims of more acquisition de viagra matured age and the persons whose body capacity reached to lower degree due to the attack of some physical disorders can consume this lowest measure to get themselves free from impotency. If these infections are not thoroughly unica-web.com purchase cialis online cured, the infections will develop chronic. Al Jazeera came to Bukooli College- Last week, the Educate Club from Bukooli College was visited by a film crew doing a series on innovative education. The series will be shown on Al Jazeera. The main focus was on the Reusable Menstrual Pads (RUMPS) that they make as an Income Generating Activity. This is also a big thing for Heath PCVs and I promise a future post on it. A representative form the Educate Club’s main offices in Kampala, Rachel is a recent graduate from the University of Denver School of International Studies. Always good to meet a fellow D.U. alum.

Heh- they interrupted a class so they could interview the Educate Club’s patron Martin (my adult from Youth Technical Training) with a class in the background. D.U. grad Rachel holds the mic.

The film crew learns about RUMPS

Sign on a tree at Bukooli College. Would this sign be posted in an American High School?

I was happy to find a great Mexican restaurant, Que Pasa, near my hostel in Kampala. It had been a long time since I had Mexican food, and this place would fit right in at Capital Hill or Boulder. It is owned by an Australian!

A touch of my past: ReMax in Uganda! Jan was a ReMax broker for 15 years before she was a nurse.

A very pregnant lady in one of my villages.

General

children, Environment, malaria, travel, Uganda Culture, volunteers, Youth Group

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

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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

Odds and Sods

Author: Charles April 2, 2016

The display table for Bukooli College Educate Group. Could’ve used a better graphics guy. Their main product is the liquid soap in the middle. Also arts and crafts using recycled materials. Judges come by and ask the team questions as part of the competition. Everything was taking so long and late, I left before it was over. Sorry.

It’s been awhile! Rainy season is starting to come back! It’s not fun avoiding mud and puddles, especially wearing open toed sandals with socks (Doctor’s orders for toe problems) The power goes out a lot more during rain storms, so I have to make sure any home cooking and boiling is finished . I have resisted using gas or coal. On the other hand, during dry season, the heat and dusty roads are not pleasant either and my community bore hole dries up. So I suppose it’s good to switch seasons for variety.

Following a four day holiday for Easter, Matthews has been gone all week due to a child’s illness. Now I have been allowed to use his nephew Faizon to help with transport. Still, we have had some cancellations of my programs due to things like burials and deaths, which usually take up the attention of the entire village. Other times there isn’t money for fuel or an available motorcycle to take me. It’s always something.These issues are common among Agri-business volunteers, because we typically travel to different villages. Most Health volunteers or Education volunteers have static hospitals or schools. I did get finished with a round about budgeting to control household expenses. I’s almost time to start a round of Gender talks with my groups.

I am also accepting referrals to give more motivational talks to parents and children at other schools.

Here is a mish-mash of topics .I’ve written a bit about some of them.before. The first two items “bug” me .

Some little bugs (not termites) are drilling pinholes in my desk, My carpenter says to use paraffin against them.

I heard constant honking outside my window. A local town ‘character’ was standing in front of the bus and wouldn’t move. Somehow it eventually got around him.

Hence it provides effective results to treat cialis prescriptions one’s erection issue. So before consuming this drug you should inform your physician all about rx viagra online your health situations and take the exact dosage recommended by him by following up all safety instructions. April is Pet First Aid Awareness Month, and we can’t let May arrive without blogging order generic viagra about some pet first aid tips! Unexpected dog or cat emergencies can happen at any time, and we hope you’ll take a moment to read through these important safety points and first aid items. The classifications are postural, derangement, and viagra online no rx dysfunction. Spiders and their webs– I suppose it comes with living in this climate, but the corner of every room will get spider webs two days after you get rid of them. If there is any gap a spider web will appear. The ceilings in dark pit latrines too. You feel the webs on the top of your head if you aren’t careful. You eventually get sensitive to the touch of webs on your bare arms or hair.
Tiny ants– Tiny ants might be the most annoying thing about living here. We called them sugar ants back home. They attack any used dish or utensil or crumbs you leave out on a table for a few minutes. I keep my dirty dishes in a basin with another basin upside down on top to keep them sealed, but sometimes they get in there anyway. When I wash, there is a huge tiny ant drowning. I double wrap things and try to keep most food stored in my fridge but they sometimes show up anyway. Any more, I just brush or blow dozens of them off of my rolls or skim them off the surface of other food and then eat it. I can’t waste it. Fortunately they don’t bother ground nuts, so I can keep a bowl out.
Guns.. They are held by police or the hired security who screen us entering banks and certain shopping areas.. I’m no expert, but they look like old-fashioned carbine rifles to me Some police have semi-automatic weapons. Guns are rare among the general public. When you hear about weapons used in batteries or robberies here, they almost always involve knives.

A rafter of turkeys came by my office. Not a common sight.

Greetings. When I get back to America, it will be hard not to greet everyone I see on the street.. Some Ugandans have told me they don’t greet everyone, but I feel like I am insulting people if I don’t greet them, at least with a little wave when I pass by. It’s always mutual, initiated either way. Also, if you start any conversation with a merchant, you must first exchange greetings. The most common morning greeting is Watsu se otia?. (How was your night?) Then, How is your home? or I’ll get asked, How is Bugiri? You don’t just point and say “Sente amica?” (How much does this cost?) Greetings are pretty much all I retain from language learning, but it’s thrilling enough for the farmers.

Not just Queen Elizabeth, but my Mom, Katherine, is 90 years old. She lives in Thornton in the house I was raised, shovels up to 4 inches of snow, and can still drive to the library, grocery store, and church. She reads more than a book a week. Loves watching Jeopardy. Photo shows her with my daughter Blair from a nice birthday party with family last night. Happy birthday Mom, I promise to be there for your 100th birthday.

I wrapped rope around a table leg for a scratching post for Meowri. Oh why didn’t I clip his nails while I had the chance during the vet’s visit?

Lack of Time management- “African” or “Ugandan Time” is worse than “Mexican Time”. My local Rotary Club president always wants to start at 6 pm and end at 7 pm sundown, but it rarely gets underway before 6:30, or he would be speaking to two other people. The farmer groups never start on time. Today, the Bakooli College Educate Club had competition up the road against eight other Educate Clubs. I wanted to watch, and arrived on my own at 9 a.m. the supposed starting time. Seven teams came between 9:30 until 11 including my school. . I think they should penalize them.

General

adversity, background, Lusoga, Meowri, Rainy Season, Uganda Culture, 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

Future Days III and Last Weekend

Author: Charles September 16, 2015

I finally was able to meet with my supervisor and counterpart to discuss what I can contribute. There are farmer groups of 15-30 who have received training by trainers from my office. Each group has formed a VSLA (Village Savings and Loan Association). The VSLAs meet once a week to contribute to their savings, and make loans among their members. The trainers are always organizing clusters of groups to meet the goals of the entities which fund ATEFO.

Matthews and I will visit a different farmer group each day and attend their scheduled VSLA meeting. First, I will attend a meeting with their trainer so I can be introduced. I will observe their VSLA meeting and see if they have VSLA issues that should be addressed. Then Matthews and I will go to their meeting the following week. I am developing a checklist of items to follow up on, such as:

Tell me about your post-harvest handling practices (drying and storage methods)
Are you storing any of your harvest to get a higher price later?
Are you adding value to any of your products before selling them? For example, instead of selling quarters of jackfruit on road side stands, consider separating the fruits from the rinds, and packaging them to sell it at a higher price. (Jack fruits are yummy, but they are a pain to prepare, so I would only buy jack fruit that is ready to eat).
Would a perma-garden near your house be a something you would consider?
What other challenges do you face?

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I will probably end with a lesson on budgeting, post-harvest handling, storage, or explain about perma-gardens.

Perhaps Matthews and I would come back and work with a farmer to dig a demonstration perma-garden.

It all seems pretty loose to me, as Adams seems to be allowing me some autonomy, as long as I am helping these farmer groups. Somehow I will discover my niche. If I am giving the same talk over and over, I am going to buy some rice sacks and put my main points on them with a permanent marker. We will see how it goes..

In the meantime I will also work with the Youth Chairman of the Bugiri Rotary Club to form Interact (Youth) Clubs at the college level (high school is also called college), as a “secondary” Peace Corps activity.

I will continue with language lessons, and I have a personal goal to meet and get acquainted with at least one Rotarian a week.

Last Friday I went to Mbale, a few hours north of Bugiri, to participate with 13 other PCVs from the Eastern region in the annual Welcome Week. Seven new PCVs and seven veterans went swimming at a resort Friday afternoon, and then enjoyed an Indian restaurant. On Saturday morning, we took a taxi to Sipi Falls and hiked to three different falls. It was pretty grueling in parts, and might have been more of challenge for the old “fatter” Charley. I was glad to get some overdue exercise, and I could keep up with the other younger PCVs fine. As you probably know, uphill climbing can be strenuous, but going downhill and avoiding slipping can be pretty scary. We took a circular route, so no backtracking. Here are a few pictures.

These are the first falls we got to. All three were equally impressive. That’s Becky from Wisconsin, who was in my Lasoga language group. My son Clark thinks I am too skinny for my clothes now.

We were able to walk behind these second falls. The PCV is Carson, who was one of only two of us crazy enough to walk among those slippery rocks.

This cave was behind us as we stood behind these second falls but it ends pretty quickly.

These are the third falls. We weren’t too close but the valley below and beyond was fantastic.

A view to the left of the the third falls

Group photo Sunday. I busted out my vintage 80’s Broncos cap and Broncos shirt in honor of the season opener, which I was able to stream at my home from 11:30 pm to 2:30 a.m.

General

ATEFO (my NGO), Lusoga, travel, volunteers, VSLA groups, Youth Group

Tag Archive: Youth Group