Training comes to an end...

Time has flown by since my last post. Today was the very last day of training, and tomorrow I am headed out to my placement. I have a lot to share about the training experience.

Training has been very intensive. As a "Livelihoods" volunteer, my focus is to give young people skills and knowledge so that they are able to start their own businesses and become self-sustaining. Youth unemployment in Uganda is as high as 80%! In a country where over 75% of the population is under the age of 30, this is a huge problem. So, in training, we learned to conduct sessions in basic entrepreneurship skills and life skills, project proposal writing (so that young people are able to access loans and funds from banks, government programs, and savings and credit cooperatives), and even things like group management. As part of livelihoods training, we also got to practice some organic farming methods, and we visited a local organic farm to see just how it is done. The farmer we met, Dorothy, even generates her own electricity using biogas from cow manure! It was really really cool.

Beyond supporting youth livelihoods, another one of of Restless Development's goals is to increase young people's civic participation. To this end, we discussed things like gender and advocacy, and learned how to manage the youth resource centres we will be setting up and supporting in our communities. Finally, our training included some sessions more relevant to the administration part of our work, like finance or monitoring and evaluation. These things are really important, because they provide the organization with data so that they can show impact and further advocate for young people based on our results. As part of this, we learned about Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques, which allow us to collect information from our communities so that we are using people's existing knowledge and skills to design our sessions and programs. I know that I am getting into the more technical side of things - so I promise to dedicate a whole post to this at a later point. (For those interested in PRA, look up Robert Chambers from the University of Sussex' Institute for Development Studies. While I was at LSE, my department was lucky enough to have a whole day's workshop with him, learning about PRA and rural development work).

An amazing session we had with the TASO Drama Group. (TASO = The Aids Support Organization. All of the performers are living with HIV).

Besides training, I have also been having some fun. So far, I have been to Kampala twice on the weekends. The city is unlike anything I've ever seen before, but is really cool. We went to Owino market, which is much like the rural trading centres but on a massive scale. There are people everywhere, selling goods of all kinds. I also had the chance to try some Indian food in Kampala, which was really amazing. There is a very large Indian community in Uganda, and they have a long and tumultuous history here as Idi Amin (Uganda's infamous dictator who ruled in the early 1980s) forced them out of the country and appropriated many of their assets. Ugandan cuisine itself has been partly influenced by Indian food - you can get a chapati at any street market, for instance. Overall, it has been really fun to see Kampala, as it is quite different from rural life. I hope to be back on some of my weekends off.

Kampala.

The Ugandan Parliament building, in Kampala.

As training is winding to a close, I am getting more excited and a little nervous about placement. I will be going to Busaana sub-county, in Kayunga district. I am working in a team of five - it will be myself, Clare (a national volunteer), and Agnes, Alex, and Fred (all community volunteers). Clare and Agnes will be focusing on sexual and reproductive health, while Alex, Fred, and I are doing livelihoods. All of us will be working together on civic participation and ensuring that our events, lessons, and sessions are a success. I don't really know what to expect, but the community volunteers have told me that I will really enjoy living in Busaana. There will be some challenges for sure - continuing to learn Luganda, having to cook and fetch water - but I am really looking forward to the work. I think that we will make a good team!

I move out tomorrow! I will once again have to find the nearest place for internet access, but I promise to update as soon as possible. We all get two weekends off per month, so I will be able to go into town at least a bit regularly.

I hope that everybody is doing well, and that 2012 is off to a great start.

Cheers,
Lauren

Week 1 in Uganda

I made it!

After my last post, I met up with the other international volunteers in Heathrow. Together we flew to Nairobi and then to Entebbe. We landed in Uganda in the morning, cleared customs and were met by Restless Development staff, who drove us to a supermarket where we bought cellphones and some fruit. We then drove straight to where we will be living for the next month, which is the Kasenge Riverford Organic Training Centre near Mbalala. Normally the facility hosts people who come to learn about sustainable organic farming techniques, and there is a large garden. Some of the food we eat comes from there. This month, however, they are hosting 70 Restless Development volunteers as we train for our placement.

The training started right away. We arrived on Monday mid-day and started our sessions on Tuesday morning. We train 5 and a half days a week with only Saturday afternoons and Sundays off. There are 14 international volunteers (from Canada, the US, the UK, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand), and the rest are Ugandan. We are all roughly the same age and education level. The sessions have been a learning experience. On top of trying to get a hang of all the material we need to know to do good work in placement, we are learning more and more about Ugandan culture and the way that things work over here. The time not spent in session still involves learning, as I have to find out what the food is called (I am new to matoke and posho among other things), how to haggle over prices in the market down the road, and even how to wash my laundry (including sheets!) by hand! 

My first impressions of Uganda are good. The countryside is green and beautiful, and yesterday we even took a trip to see the source of the Nile. There are a lot of things which are much more difficult than in Canada - the power regularly goes out where we are staying so you have to plan when to charge your phone, for instance. Showers are very cold! However, I knew when I signed up for this program that I would be in for a challenge, and I am here to learn as much as I am to help.

Stay tuned for another update. Internet access is sparing and slow, but I am going to try to get to a cafe every couple weeks or so.

I hope you are all doing well. Thank you so much again for supporting me in this journey, and I miss you all!

Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what I am up to: 

The training centre.

The market down the road from the training centre.

Some of the other volunteers at the market.

At the source of the Nile... (that's me on the left).

 Love, L

Departure

Hello and Happy New Year to all my wonderful friends and family,

I'm off!
... and this is in no small part due to your support throughout the fall. I feel very lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful people. I would like to give a sincere thank you in particular to those who supported my fundraising efforts. Please remember to send me your addresses so that I can write you a letter from my placement.

Having spent New Year's Eve in the air, I am writing this from Heathrow. The next stop is Nairobi, followed by a very early morning flight to Entebbe. I meet up with the rest of the Restless Development group in a few hours, and it will be so great to finally meet everyone in person. While this is 'officially' the first leg of my journey, I have felt 'unofficially' on my way since early in the fall as I began the process of fundraising, preparing my supplies, getting injections, and studying up on Uganda and the work I will be doing. It seems so unreal to finally be on my way. I am feeling very excited to get there and I am also extremely proud of my packing and what I think is actually a fairly reasonable amount of luggage for 6+ months. I am not known for being a light traveller so this is a big achievement. I could hardly sleep at all on the flight to London and I am hoping that I can rest up on the next leg as I will be hitting the ground running. We start training after only a day's rest, and I feel like everything will move quickly from there. 

Please keep reading, and I will try to update this blog as often as I can. I hope that you all have a fantastic start to 2012.

Love,
Lauren