This one's a long one...

31/12/2011

Awoke at 7am to the fan cutting out because my landlord switched off the power. Boo. Made tea, got dressed and headed to the office to meet with the youth to do some ‘community service’ around Pajule… which meant sweeping and picking up trash on the streets. After about a ½ hour, it was decided that while we waited for more people to show up, we should make signs for the ‘Peace Walk’ tomorrow (my idea). So, the 10 or so of us spent the next 3 hours decorating pieces cut from cardboard boxes with our best peaceful messages. They turned out pretty well in my opinion- there are some real artists in the group. I’ll try to get some pictures tomorrow.

 I went to Janet’s for some millet porridge and she was busy preparing sim sim paste (sesame butter).  She let me help her grind the toasted and pummeled seeds (I write ‘pummeled’ because the seeds are placed in a stone bowl and repeatedly hit with a log- imagine supersized mortar and pestle). Anyway, we ground the powdered sim sim on a stone in a hut with another stone. No food processors here- TIA. The paste is then mixed with water and the oil is squeezed out and used for cooking (AKA sesame oil). The mixture is then cooked, tomatoes, salt and sugar are added, and it becomes a delicious rich butter somehow like peanut butter only different. Good stuff. If you mix sim sim and gnut butter you get what they call ‘odee’ and it’s absolutely wonderfully rich. I prefer it to sim sim paste alone.

Came home and took a much needed nap. Then, I walked over to the vocational school to watch the kids practice their dances and skits for tomorrow’s Peace program.  The girls and boys have separate traditional dance performances, and there are a few solo acts ‘miming’ to Uganda pop/rap music. Awesome. Then there’s a drama about domestic violence. It was fun to watch the kids practice. They’re very creative and motivated. It’s funny to listen to the meetings- when feedback is requested, each person with a comment first provides a compliment and then provides their constructive criticism. It’s all very polite.

I just finished making a New Year’s Eve dinner, Uganda style, for my counterpart Denis and his wife, Janet. Since it’s a special day, I made spinach-ricotta tortellini with pesto (both purchased in South Africa) with added tomatoes. I also made zucchini with garlic (both bought in Gulu) and onions.  I opened the box of wine I purchased in Kampala awhile back while I wait for my guests to arrive.  It has a vinegar nose, but won’t be so bad after the first glass. I hope my guests like the dinner. They don’t know what pasta or zucchini is… so they’re being good sports for trying something so different. 

I was supposed to dine with my American neighbors tonight, but we had to reschedule for tomorrow because they were unexpectedly evicted from my compound this morning and had to go to Kitgum to spend the night in a hotel. I think that situation may warrant its own blog post since this one is already pointlessly lengthy.  These are the second tenants that have been driven out since I’ve arrived. I hope the landlords don’t decide to turn on me. There aren’t a ton of housing options in town, as you could imagine. They turned the electricity on in the middle of the day today (that NEVER happens) while I was napping and knocked on my door to tell me.  I think it was their way of telling me that they like me.  It was nice to have the fan for my siesta. Hope I stay in their good graces in the new year.

I can’t say that this is my first new year’s eve without friends since I have Denis and Janet (if they ever get here that is- they’re an hour late. Boo Africa time). I don’t have any insightful resolutions… just the usual… reduce my size (as they’d say in Uganglish) and be a better person. Hopefully I’m already working on the ‘be a better person’ part at least. This certainly is the sweatiest and dirtiest I’ve ever been on new year’s eve, and the furthest from home.  Even though I’d love to spend the holidays with my family and friends, I am truly happy that I’m able to experience what I am. I miss my friends and family every day and think about you lots. I hope everyone is well and loving each other the best they can. Best wishes to you all for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012.

01/01/2012

Happy New Year! I started the new year by attending the Catholic Parish for morning mass. I was supposed to go with Janet, but when it was time to leave, she was ‘lost’ and I didn’t want to be late. This isn’t the first time I’ve sat through a church service on a holiday in another country, in a foreign language, alone. It was a nice service though with good music and dancing. After the service, the youth, guardians, and some of the church members marched through town with our posters for peace. We had a truck with a generator and speakers in the back so we had some musical accompaniment. I took lots of pictures.

After the walk, I was pooped and came home and took a nap (it’s super hot here- don’t judge). Janet came over after lunch to borrow an outfit- asking me why I was so fat and that all of my clothes are so big L. Being fat here is a compliment, but I just can’t seem to be happy when people tell me how fat I am or how Pajule is making me grow. Anyway, then we went to the vocational school to watch the Peace program. I was about 2 hrs. late from the starting time but arrived just in time to catch the opening remarks. I think I’m getting good at Africa time. The youth performed dances and did some skits. It was a very nice program and I am impressed with how well the kids organized themselves and how excited they were about today’s events.

After I’d bathed and was getting ready for bed, the little girls from my compound knocked on my door and delivered an envelope. I thought it was from them but apparently my buddy Ronald had dropped it off. He’s a young student in Kampala back home on break and has come around to say hello to me a few times while I’ve been sitting outside. I met him when he was in the compound getting some medicine for an animal from my landlord. Anyway, the Christmas card was very nice; he wrote a lovely note hoping that God would protect me in the new year and complimenting me on my character, signed ‘Ronald, friend.’ He also enclosed an ice pink bead bracelet.  I think I have my first Ugandan admirer!

Last night, I was able to talk to all my family members before midnight my time, and rang in the new year sipping my vinegar wine under my mosquito net watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s on my computer. Not the most glamorous ring in to the new year, but a good one nonetheless. I had a nice first day of 2012 being surrounded by happy kids. It was a great start to what will hopefully be a great year.

02/01/2012

No electricity today so I’ll try to keep this short to conserve my battery. You never know how long the outage could last. Attended my first PTU board meeting (5 hrs long, fyi). It was very productive and helped me get a better understanding of my organization in general. I feel extra motivated and lucky to have been placed with the org. I did.

In case I haven’t already informed you, my org is a small CBO (community-based organization) doing amazing things for the community. Right now, they’re providing school fees and assistance to 20 OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) in the community, as well as developing IGAs (income-generating activities) to assist the guardians of the OVC with the cost of providing basic living necessities to the children. They’ve started a piggery- they have 7 starter pigs that will be breed for sale once they reach the appropriate age. They’ve also begun construction of a grinding mill to grind fine flour posho (maize flour- a staple food here in the north), which will be packaged and sold on site once the county installs power in the building. I applaud these sustainable projects and sincerely hope that they generate the income necessary to support more kids. Right now, the org operates on a very tight budget and is relying on outside funding for continued support until the piggery and grinding mill are profitable. I’m lucky to be a part of the org. and already feel very attached to PTU’s vision and goals… and to the students they’re supporting.

 Ultimately, PTU wants to build a private boarding school in the area for OVC so that they can have better control over the learning environment. I’m glad to be with an org. that is thinking about long term goals and sustainability. It seems as though many groups here (especially in the north) pride themselves on short-term successes and NGO contributions while PTU is trying to come up with projects that will allow them to provide for themselves and get away from outside funding.

Which brings me back to the board meeting--- it was noted that one of the previously well-performing students’ performance has dropped off over last term. As to not  provide details of someone’s life without their permission, I’ll just say that the child has no parents and is caring for their younger siblings. So, it’s no wonder that the student is struggling in school- it surprises me that they’re attending at all. Domestic work- gardening, cooking, washing, etc. is a full-time job.

As a result of this discussion, and many other seemingly similar situations, it was decided that my counterpart and I assess the living conditions of each of the students being supported to ensure the environment is conductive to ‘learning success.’ It seems as though I might get some social work experience while here. During the board meeting, we also reviewed the 2012 budget. We’re relying on outside donations to make ends meet until the pigs are old enough to breed and the grinding mill gets its electricity. The next few weeks I’ll  be working on a small grant application that would allow us to buy the only tractor in Pajule and Lapul sub counties. We’d rent it out and use it to grow maize for the grinding mill and cassava for the pigs. Fingers crossed. I’m really looking forward to getting to work and hope that I can make a difference, even if it’s a small one.

06/01/12

Came to Pader with the other Americans to use the internet. I also checked the post office, and it must be my lucky day! For those that don’t know, I was informed that the post office was ‘shut, over, finished.’ The story I got was that they stopped paying the postal worker, who stopped coming to work. Makes sense. The only part of the story I couldn’t get was where my mail was being redirected. I was anticipating having to go to the District Headquarters to get the run-around. BUT, the post office had just opened! There was a man sorting through stacks and stacks of stuff, and I was able to pick up a few letters. YAY! The mail has been diverted to Lira and a truck is coming today to deliver the mail to Pader. So, keep the packages coming!!! J J J The post man will call me when my packages arrive and I’ll come back to pick them.  Looking forward to it.

We also saw a huge black mamba on the road in Pajule today. Yikes. And I saw a trash tornado. Yuck. Hope all is well stateside! xoxo