I attended my first Ugandan wedding yesterday. My counterpart from my organization was getting married which was awesome because I actually know him pretty well. I had an outfit made for it, which I’ll be posting the pictures of very soon. It takes forever to upload pictures so that’s why there haven’t been any up yet. All in all, it was a good time. The basics of the wedding were the same—speeches, food, cake, gifts, etc.—although the set-up was a little different. The activities were more of a performance of the bride and groom. There was a gift-giving ceremony when everyone lined up to personally hand his or her gift to the couple. For the wedding, I was given the task of helping to cut the cake. One difference there is that they have many cakes in addition to the main cake. They cut and serve the main layered cake to the guests at the reception and then the rest of the cakes they wrap up and give out to certain people at the wedding. My organization received one of the cakes—so we’ll be eating it at work one of these days.
One more exciting thing…I felt my first earthquake here. I was sitting in my room when I felt my bed start to shake a little—almost as if a train was going by. There’s no train here…so I was a little confused and then I realized it must be a baby earthquake. Anyway, it was the first one I’ve ever remembered experiencing. I don’t think it’s a normal occurrence here, so it shouldn’t be a concern. But I have to admit I was a little surprised and confused.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
May 31, 2007
I had a very interesting transportation experience recently that I felt I needed to share…I was on my way back from a not-so-far away place, about 25 kilometers or so. I was the first one in the taxi and so as usual, I expected it to be a little while before it filled up and we headed off. Well it was a small sized sedan, and after squeezing four of us in the back the driver proceeded to find more passengers for the trip. There clearly wasn’t enough room and the Ugandans beside me voiced this to the driver. After much arguing back and forth, the passengers all exited the vehicle and I followed. I got into another taxi, now waiting for this one to fill up. When it did we were off…not for too long though. The bus stalled and we were stopped on the road. This isn’t so unusual, so about 10 men got out to push the vehicle to push-start it. We got going and the engine started again…we were off…no we weren’t…the bus quickly filled up with exhaust. We stopped, but the smoke was quickly pouring into the cabin and people were scrambling off the bus. Of course I was in the back of the bus, so what did I decide to do…I climbed out the window…HA. Maybe this wouldn’t be such a big deal in the US, but everything that a muzungu—white person—does is somehow the most interesting thing—even when it is nothing out of the ordinary. So the fact that I was doing something out of the ordinary made it very amusing to them…
Monday, May 28, 2007
May 28, 2007
Entry #2…finally…better late than never, right?...
I officially became a Peace Corps Volunteer on May 10th—my PCT status changed to PCV. We said goodbye to our host-families who had taken care of us over the past 2 months in training. My family gifted me with my first Ugandan outfit--pictures are to follow so check them out. It was a really nice surprise. They also invited me back to spend Christmas with them…who knows, I may have to celebrate it with them this year. They also named me…well they named me a while ago but I haven’t written. My Ugandan name is Nakku. The name comes from the Fumbe clan, which is my host-father’s clan.
The swearing-in ceremony was held at the Ambassador’s house. Immediately after, we headed off to our new sites. I’m living in a relatively large Ugandan town. I live with 3 Ugandan women, a man, and a 4-month-old baby. The organization I’ve been assigned to work with aims at re-settling children who are living on the streets back into their homes. They also enroll them in the local primary or secondary school. Education in Uganda is not free and many families struggle to pay the school fees. As an economic development volunteer, I’ll be working with many of the mothers’ of these children on income-generating activities. There is a women’s club and a men’s club that meet once a week. These are the people that I’ll primarily be working with. Some of these women have small businesses where they sell things like charcoal or fish. I’ve visited 2 of the women so far and I’m just beginning to learn about them. It’ll take a little while before I get going on this, but I’m really excited about it.
I visited Kalangala last week, which is part of the islands in Lake Victoria. My organization had re-settled 2 of the kids there with their families so we went to check on them. It was really very beautiful there—although my site is also beautiful with rolling green hills! But it was really nice to see the water and the sand beaches. It’ll be a nice vacation spot…although you can’t go swimming in the water because there’s Schistosomiasis (Bilharzia), which is a not-so-fun parasite that makes you very ill. Not worth it at all. It was still really pretty though. After the visits, we headed over to take the ferry back home. Well, we got there at 1:45…the ferry left at 5:45…time in Uganda is not kept the same as it is in the US…ha.
That’s about it here…oh yeah, I gave myself a haircut yesterday...it’s not so easy to cut your own hair…I’ll get better at it though, I hope…
I officially became a Peace Corps Volunteer on May 10th—my PCT status changed to PCV. We said goodbye to our host-families who had taken care of us over the past 2 months in training. My family gifted me with my first Ugandan outfit--pictures are to follow so check them out. It was a really nice surprise. They also invited me back to spend Christmas with them…who knows, I may have to celebrate it with them this year. They also named me…well they named me a while ago but I haven’t written. My Ugandan name is Nakku. The name comes from the Fumbe clan, which is my host-father’s clan.
The swearing-in ceremony was held at the Ambassador’s house. Immediately after, we headed off to our new sites. I’m living in a relatively large Ugandan town. I live with 3 Ugandan women, a man, and a 4-month-old baby. The organization I’ve been assigned to work with aims at re-settling children who are living on the streets back into their homes. They also enroll them in the local primary or secondary school. Education in Uganda is not free and many families struggle to pay the school fees. As an economic development volunteer, I’ll be working with many of the mothers’ of these children on income-generating activities. There is a women’s club and a men’s club that meet once a week. These are the people that I’ll primarily be working with. Some of these women have small businesses where they sell things like charcoal or fish. I’ve visited 2 of the women so far and I’m just beginning to learn about them. It’ll take a little while before I get going on this, but I’m really excited about it.
I visited Kalangala last week, which is part of the islands in Lake Victoria. My organization had re-settled 2 of the kids there with their families so we went to check on them. It was really very beautiful there—although my site is also beautiful with rolling green hills! But it was really nice to see the water and the sand beaches. It’ll be a nice vacation spot…although you can’t go swimming in the water because there’s Schistosomiasis (Bilharzia), which is a not-so-fun parasite that makes you very ill. Not worth it at all. It was still really pretty though. After the visits, we headed over to take the ferry back home. Well, we got there at 1:45…the ferry left at 5:45…time in Uganda is not kept the same as it is in the US…ha.
That’s about it here…oh yeah, I gave myself a haircut yesterday...it’s not so easy to cut your own hair…I’ll get better at it though, I hope…
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
March 22, 2007
My first post, finally. I'll try to sum up the last two and a half weeks now...
We arrived in Uganda safe and sounds. A long flight for sure, but I survived. We flew from JFK to Brussels; Brussels to Nairobi; Nairobi to Entebbe. We arrived late on a Monday night. The first 5 days were spent at this little "resort" outside of Kampala. We met the Peace Corps staff and were introduced to the culture, language, health, safety, etc. of Uganda. We were also just becoming aquainted with the other volunteers--we are a huge group--there are 50 volunteers in my training class. It was a nice couple of days to relax before training began. We even got to visit Kampala one of the days to see what life in the capital is like...very different.
That Sunday, we drove to our training site which is Northwest of Kampala. We met our host families which we will be staying with for the next 9 weeks. I'm staying with an older couple who take care of many grandchildren. I'm still not really sure who lives there and who doesn't...but they are all really great. They don't speak English too well, although some of the kids speak some so my communication is primarily through them. I have my own room in their house, and we have running water and electricity about half of the time. Not too bad. I go to bed early and get up early--when the roosters are up, I'm up...not by choice. I think my family gets up before the rooters sometimes. It'll be about 4 in the morning and I hear them...and Ugandans typically eat dinner at about 10pm every night...I don't know when they find the time to rest...
Training is from 8-5 Monday through Friday. We have language for a few hours a day--I'm learning Luganda which means that my site placement will be somewhere in the Buganda region. Luganda is the official language of Uganda, so I'm lucky to be learning it. It'll make traveling a lot easier. A little less than half of us are learning Luganda; the rest are learning various languages spoken in the Eastern region. Technical training also takes up a lot of the time. My group is the first Economic Development group for PC Uganda and there are 12 of us with this assignment--most being former Guinea volunteers. The others are Health and Education volunteers. We also have cross-cultural training, health, and safety throughout the day.
Alright, I'm off to visit a current Peace Corps Volunteer for 3 days to get a glimps of life at site. Pretty excited...Can't promise when I'll get the chance to write next, but I'll try. In the mean time, I love mail!
We arrived in Uganda safe and sounds. A long flight for sure, but I survived. We flew from JFK to Brussels; Brussels to Nairobi; Nairobi to Entebbe. We arrived late on a Monday night. The first 5 days were spent at this little "resort" outside of Kampala. We met the Peace Corps staff and were introduced to the culture, language, health, safety, etc. of Uganda. We were also just becoming aquainted with the other volunteers--we are a huge group--there are 50 volunteers in my training class. It was a nice couple of days to relax before training began. We even got to visit Kampala one of the days to see what life in the capital is like...very different.
That Sunday, we drove to our training site which is Northwest of Kampala. We met our host families which we will be staying with for the next 9 weeks. I'm staying with an older couple who take care of many grandchildren. I'm still not really sure who lives there and who doesn't...but they are all really great. They don't speak English too well, although some of the kids speak some so my communication is primarily through them. I have my own room in their house, and we have running water and electricity about half of the time. Not too bad. I go to bed early and get up early--when the roosters are up, I'm up...not by choice. I think my family gets up before the rooters sometimes. It'll be about 4 in the morning and I hear them...and Ugandans typically eat dinner at about 10pm every night...I don't know when they find the time to rest...
Training is from 8-5 Monday through Friday. We have language for a few hours a day--I'm learning Luganda which means that my site placement will be somewhere in the Buganda region. Luganda is the official language of Uganda, so I'm lucky to be learning it. It'll make traveling a lot easier. A little less than half of us are learning Luganda; the rest are learning various languages spoken in the Eastern region. Technical training also takes up a lot of the time. My group is the first Economic Development group for PC Uganda and there are 12 of us with this assignment--most being former Guinea volunteers. The others are Health and Education volunteers. We also have cross-cultural training, health, and safety throughout the day.
Alright, I'm off to visit a current Peace Corps Volunteer for 3 days to get a glimps of life at site. Pretty excited...Can't promise when I'll get the chance to write next, but I'll try. In the mean time, I love mail!
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