It's a small world after all...

Greetings from Kampala! I am in town for my second weekend off, this time in the capital. I forgot how overwhelming Kampala can be after spending a month in a rural community and then Jinja, which is not nearly as busy. In any case, I am happy to have a day or two to relax and reflect on the last month. I am now 1/3 through with the program, and have four months of work to go, although we have a holiday and five days training in April so it won't be as busy.

Work is proceeding well. The last two weeks were more or less the same as the first. We still had baseline surveys to complete, although we started to do some more activities as well. As a livelihoods volunteer, I spend a little bit of time in schools, but a lot more time with our out-of-school youth groups. We have done some sessions on club development and management as well as entrepreneurship. I think that things will really pick up in March. We have a ton of targets to work towards, and will be doing a session almost daily. As well, the rainy season is starting, which means that people start planting their crops. Our team is planning a demonstration garden near the house, where we can instruct people on how to use different techniques for organic farming. My team partners have promised to teach me to dig like a Ugandan, and I even bought rainboots this weekend so that I will be well prepared for garden work. I'm a bit nervous but really willing to learn, so I hope that it goes well.

I am also starting to get used to day-to-day living in Busaana. I have been making friends with some of the locals. The kids near our house help me to pump water sometimes, and I have been getting better at cooking some Ugandan food. There is no electricity in the village, but the government has recently been putting up the wires to get it started. The main source of electricity in Uganda is hydropower from the Nile, and it is really starting to expand into the more rural areas.The community volunteers that it may even be switched on sometime in the next month or so, and I am really interested to see how this changes things, if at all. I am getting really used to reading by oil lamp and head torch, and I doubt that this will change as Restless Development volunteers are not the first priority for service delivery!

Another thing that I have to get used to is the teamwork. Things move a lot more slowly in Uganda, even though we have a lot to do, and communication is sometimes difficult as things get lost in translation between cultures. I feel like this is one of the most interesting parts of development - I know that I could get a lot more done by myself, but I feel that we really need to do things as a team if the work is going to be sustainable, especially where the community volunteers are involved. This can be frustrating at times but throughout the month we have improved, so I am still optimistic. Change is really slow and difficult to achieve, especially when it comes to more abstract subjects like 'empowerment'. I think that sometimes all we can do is give people information, so that a few people can act on it. One of the questions we had to ask in our focus group discussion (one of the baseline tools) was about gender-based violence, and the participants turned the question on us by asking what we thought they could do to prevent it. This came after a really discouraging discussion about the persistence of gender inequality, and made me feel like we are getting somewhere, if only little by little. The more I talk to people in the community, the more I see that there is so much false information out there, mostly because there is nowhere to get any accurate story. Knowledge in this case really is power.

March is going to be really busy, but I hope to get a couple more blog posts up to let you know how the real work is going. I am planning another weekend in Jinja at least, so stay tuned.

Cheers,
Lauren

P.S. The title of this blog post refers to the disney song of the same name, which is played constantly in Busaana by the "ice cream truck", which is a motorcycle with a box on the back. I am not brave enough to try the ice cream (the travel health guide says no to dairy!), but I am serenaded almost daily. The only other song they play is "My Heart Will Go On", but I didn't think that one would make as good a title... lol.

P.P.S. As promised, here are some pictures.



My placement team. Left-to-right: Alex, Clare, Agnes, Fred, and Me!

 

My friends in Busaana.



Where we live... only we have a little room at the back.

The kitchen.



The bedroom - where Clare and I stay.



First two weeks in Busaana

Hi again. I am writing from Jinja, on my first weekend off from placement. It is really nice to have a bit of a break from bucket showers and latrines, and to see some people from other placements. However, now that I have started work, I think I should tell you all about it.

We arrived in Busaana on January 31st, in the afternoon. There are no paved roads beyond Kayunga town, so the last part of the drive was really dusty. That is one constant in Uganda, and especially in rural communities - the dust is everywhere. I'm sure that I will come back with red dust coming out of my pores. Busaana is no exception - we sweep our room all the time, and somehow the dust just gets back in every day. The place we are staying is alright. We have one room at the back of the police station, so it is very safe. The room served as last year's youth resource centre when Restless Development was working in Busaana, but since they couldn't find another place for us to stay, we are living in it for the time being. This means that our room is decorated with posters having to do with sexual reproductive health! On our walls you can learn about how to use a condom, or even some relationship advice for young people - "show your girlfriend love by helping her carry a jerry can".

The toughest part of living in Busaana has been adjusting to the day-to-day routine. I shower using a bucket, and have to carry my own water to do it. We cook on a small charcoal stove, eating mostly rice, plantains, and beans. The latrines are probably the least enjoyable part, and I know that I will not miss them at all. There are also some improvements from training. I am eating a lot of fruit - every day we have jackfruit, sugar cane, or the occasional pineapple. My placement partners are continually surprised when I tell them that these things do not grow in Canada, and they don't really get it when I explain that Canada has no national cuisine. It's a hard thing to explain.

Work has also been going pretty well. So far, we have been doing a lot of surveys and assessments, so that we can get to know the community and plan our work around what is most needed. We have been going to various schools, local government officials, youth groups, and religious institutions to introduce ourselves and the organization. This is the second year that Restless Development has worked in Busaana, so we still have some groundwork to do.  I am one of the only 'muzungus' in Busaana (so far the only other is an American missionary named John, who is based in Jinja), so people are really interested in talking to me. Some have asked for things or money, but as a volunteer representing Restless Development, I can't do anything about that because it would set a bad precedent for future volunteers and also sends mixed messages to the community about what we are there to do.

I have also been doing some more informal assessments on my own, trying to observe and learn from what is around me. The most shocking thing that I learned was that child sacrifice still occurs in Uganda - this was from an NGO poster in the headmaster's office at the primary school. I'm not sure what work is being done to stop this, but it is definitely something that needs attention. The other main thing that I have noticed is gender inequality. This has shown up in our official assessments as well, as we have done some testing with young people in and out of school. Some manifestations of gender inequality are quite obvious. For instance, women here will sometimes kneel to greet men, even in the dusty roads. While I knew that polygamy was common in Africa, I was quite surprised to learn that some of my colleagues are polygamous themselves. One of the volunteers on my team has three wives! It has been difficult to hold my tongue in some circumstances, but I am trying my best to be respectful and learn more about cultural practices in the community, and also explain that this is not the case in Canada. I'm really interested to see how the community will react to some of the sessions we will be holding on things like gender and relationships, and I will make sure to write more about this as I continue working.

I have to catch my bus back to Busaana (there are only a couple each day), but I will be back in two weeks with another update.

Cheers,
L

P.S. Will post photos the next time, as the internet is too slow this time around.