this town is deserted on sundays. church here isn't just a two-hour deal on sundays, it goes on all day. especially in the villages, it's an all-day event. most of the shops are closed, as are many of the internet cafes. a lot of the store-fronts here are the income-generating side of christian projects. cool idea, but it sucks on sundays.
has bridgehead moved yet? i'm kinda nervous about coming back to a brand new bridgehead. and hoping, fingers super crossed, that i'll still know most of the staff. anthony, megan, jjess, phil, bryce, mark, jamie.... you'd better still all be there. well, unless you go insane, jamie. in which case we all understand. without the insanity, though, you have no excuse. :P
ever since i had that nightmare, i'm scared shitless of what it's going to be like to go back home. i'm sure i'll adjust. but i'm starting to understand that the culture shock of coming back home might be a lot more difficult than the one you get leaving home....
christine, i wanted to tell you all about our trip to visit derrick. as much as sean and i wanted to just hang out with derrick and his grandmother, we spent the entire day either travelling (on the bus or in WV's car), or talking to WV people. the drive into kampala was... probably about as bad as trying to get into toronto during rush hour. but it's always rush hour in kampala. so we woke up at 6am, and didn't get into town until 9am. there we met with a few World Vision people at their office, who briefed us on the project that derrick is in, and on how to behave while we're there (basically, wear appropriate clothing, and don't sexually abuse the child, and don't take pictures without their guardian's consent). from kampala, we drove to derrick's town, about another two hours away, and talked there with the people working on the project.
there are about 3000 sponsors for that area. all of their money doesn't go straight to the children, but goes to providing schools, shelters for people who don't have them, and a community of people who provide AIDS/HIV knowledge. i'm not sure about this one, i'll have to check with sean, but i think they also provide family's with potential sources of income. derrick has three goats, a few coffee plants, and some banana trees. overall, i think that their goal is to provide communities with all the means to have more productive and successful lives. encouraging them to make money, go to school, eat proper meals, and be educated in HIV/AIDS.
our visit with derrick himself was very brief, only fifteen minutes perhaps. it was difficult speaking with him and gramma (we had three WV people translating for us), because of the language barrier, and because derrick was so shy. other kids of his age have very functional english, and he seemed to understand what we were saying, but mostly just seemed shocked at our presence. christine, you should have seen how happy gramma was to see us! even though she couldn't understand us, she seemed very touched by the visit. that's one of the things volunteers and visitors like so much about uganda... they people here have a very good relationship with visitors. people contiually tell us that our presence makes them feel hopeful, that they're so happy to have us here, that our help is very welcome...
so, mostly, we drank tea, ate meals with, and spoke with the WV folk. they seem to have a pretty solid way of putting their projects together. sean might have something different to say on that front, but he's more educated and more critical about projects around here.
oh yeah, i don't know if i mentioned this in a previous post, but sean and i are going to be teaching lifeskills to the P5-P7. we tested their basic knowledge of HIV/AIDS on friday, took the anonymous tests home and analyzed them. this coming week we're just going to play games with the kids, ice-breakers and stuff, and get to know them. monday with the P7, tuesday P6, wednesday P5. we've decided that we're going to focus on basic AIDS knowledge with the P5 level. the older grades already have basic knowledge of the disease (unlike the P5, they don't think that you can get AIDS by playing with or sharing clothes with an infected person). so with P6+7 we're going to focus more on self esteem, confidence, and especially trying to break down the stigma surrounding infected people. of the ~100 tests we handed out, only two kids said that someone with AIDS is not different from themselves. and about 2/3 said that they have seen people being treated poorly because of their disease.
anyways... i should be off. i spent 20 minutes waiting for this page to load, so i've been here fourty minutes now. it gets expensive after a while.
bye now!!
wish us luck with the school!
9.28.2008
9.27.2008
me minus some metal
two brief new things:
sean took my tongue rings out, so i now have no metal in my face.
and i had my first fear-of-leaving nightmare. apparently sean used to have the same ones. i dreamt that i somehow accidentally made my way back to ottawa, and was absolutely devestated. i was talking with the buddies, thinking nothing was wrong, and slowly realized that, "heyyyyyy, i was only in uganda for three weeks! it was supposed to be four months!! how did i get back here?!" devestating.
and i had no more money left to get back to uganda... :(
gotta run!
sean took my tongue rings out, so i now have no metal in my face.
and i had my first fear-of-leaving nightmare. apparently sean used to have the same ones. i dreamt that i somehow accidentally made my way back to ottawa, and was absolutely devestated. i was talking with the buddies, thinking nothing was wrong, and slowly realized that, "heyyyyyy, i was only in uganda for three weeks! it was supposed to be four months!! how did i get back here?!" devestating.
and i had no more money left to get back to uganda... :(
gotta run!
9.23.2008
s23
at a few points in every day, i notice something, or something happens that makes me think, "wow, that's something worth writing down and remembering." and when i get around to writing anything down, my mind goes blank. there are two things i can think of right now: traffic, and language.
yesterday we went to kampala. people say it used to only take a bit more than an hour to get there. it took us an hour and a half to get to the outskirts of town. and then it was traffic jam. an hour of inching along, trying to get into town. but, that's expected. most cities don't grow in a way that will make traffic good. once we were in town, though, holy.. it was insane even trying to cross a road. there was a ridiculous (extravagant, even) of all variety of travelers. people on foot, on bicycles, on bike-bodas, on boda-bodas, in cars, mini-taxis, buses, and sometimes an oldschool greyhound bus. it took me a little while before i could figure out exactly why everything was so hectic: it's the combination of the sheer number of people moving around... and that every single one of these people (regardless of their mode of transportation) thinks that they have the right of way. pedestrians just barge accross streets, bike and bodas almost never wait or slow down before crossing a jammed and fast intersection...
as entertaining as the traffic is in that city, i hate kampala. it's basically a huge version of jinja. if you look 150 jinjas and crammed them all together, without widening the streets for traffic, you've got kampala. and might as well throw another 10,000 bodas into the equation. crazy!
language. so every once in a while, when i forget that i'm in uganda, and i'm somewhat sleepy or disoriented, i'll be incredibly surprised when i tune into the sounds around me, and the talking that's happening, and notice that none of these people are speaking english.
i'm heading out now, but just a quick note: i took a D in a long drop for the first time!!!
yesterday we went to kampala. people say it used to only take a bit more than an hour to get there. it took us an hour and a half to get to the outskirts of town. and then it was traffic jam. an hour of inching along, trying to get into town. but, that's expected. most cities don't grow in a way that will make traffic good. once we were in town, though, holy.. it was insane even trying to cross a road. there was a ridiculous (extravagant, even) of all variety of travelers. people on foot, on bicycles, on bike-bodas, on boda-bodas, in cars, mini-taxis, buses, and sometimes an oldschool greyhound bus. it took me a little while before i could figure out exactly why everything was so hectic: it's the combination of the sheer number of people moving around... and that every single one of these people (regardless of their mode of transportation) thinks that they have the right of way. pedestrians just barge accross streets, bike and bodas almost never wait or slow down before crossing a jammed and fast intersection...
as entertaining as the traffic is in that city, i hate kampala. it's basically a huge version of jinja. if you look 150 jinjas and crammed them all together, without widening the streets for traffic, you've got kampala. and might as well throw another 10,000 bodas into the equation. crazy!
language. so every once in a while, when i forget that i'm in uganda, and i'm somewhat sleepy or disoriented, i'll be incredibly surprised when i tune into the sounds around me, and the talking that's happening, and notice that none of these people are speaking english.
i'm heading out now, but just a quick note: i took a D in a long drop for the first time!!!
9.20.2008
pillows
we moved into our place today. after waiting for a couple of hours for the landlady to copy keys for all of us, for a guy to clean the place (so we could move our shit in) and for an huge armoir to be taken. so it's erica, sean and i. and maybe brooke, if she can keep her job here.
at some point sean went to talk to the landlady to make sure that our electricity bill would begin on the day we move in... one of erica's friends had in another situation payed four months' worth of the previous tennant. ehh. so sean came back with the biggest grin on his face, and said, "you guys have -got- to check this out!"
it turns out that this appartment has more perks than we'd thought. the staircase we take to get to our place goes straight up to the roof, where we have a choice view of lake victoria and the source of the nile, and very much of jinja. it's only three storeys tall, but that's taller than most things around. heh, as howa said, "ehhh, you canadians... you will do anything for a nice view.."
and it's true.
so today we're on a search for mattresses (sheets and nets), a countertop gas stove thingy, and we've all decided that we'll just furnish the place with pillows. and i wasn't even the one to suggest it!! erica and brooke did!!
today's probably going to turn out to be one of the more eventful days here, what with moving and furnishing our new place. and breaking it in later with some chilling on the roof.
oh hey, megan, if you can at about noon (your time), that's 9pm (our time). so if you happen to wake up before 2pm (hahahahha, it's not summer anymore! you have to pretty much every day!!!!), call us. anytime after then is probably too late for us. so like, you're not burning out with school and work are you?! take it easy, alright?
alright, i'm off. lots of love
at some point sean went to talk to the landlady to make sure that our electricity bill would begin on the day we move in... one of erica's friends had in another situation payed four months' worth of the previous tennant. ehh. so sean came back with the biggest grin on his face, and said, "you guys have -got- to check this out!"
it turns out that this appartment has more perks than we'd thought. the staircase we take to get to our place goes straight up to the roof, where we have a choice view of lake victoria and the source of the nile, and very much of jinja. it's only three storeys tall, but that's taller than most things around. heh, as howa said, "ehhh, you canadians... you will do anything for a nice view.."
and it's true.
so today we're on a search for mattresses (sheets and nets), a countertop gas stove thingy, and we've all decided that we'll just furnish the place with pillows. and i wasn't even the one to suggest it!! erica and brooke did!!
today's probably going to turn out to be one of the more eventful days here, what with moving and furnishing our new place. and breaking it in later with some chilling on the roof.
oh hey, megan, if you can at about noon (your time), that's 9pm (our time). so if you happen to wake up before 2pm (hahahahha, it's not summer anymore! you have to pretty much every day!!!!), call us. anytime after then is probably too late for us. so like, you're not burning out with school and work are you?! take it easy, alright?
alright, i'm off. lots of love
9.19.2008
a place to live
as of tomorrow, sean and i will have a place to live. we were hoping to find someone through on of his friends here, but had no luck with that. one of them, marky, told us about an post he saw on a billboard at Two Friends. we checked that out. two american girls, both working with the same NGO found a kick-ass house (huge, balcony, no smoking inside, in town... kick-ass, basically), for 400,000UGX. pennies. for three months for both of us, that's $375CAD. lucky, is what i'll call that.
yesterday we went to mbiko to check up on a school that sean had worked on last time he was here. he'd left them with all the tools they needed to continue recruiting volunteers, and he was curious to see if corruption (all too common) had had its way... or if (unlikely) it had been doing well. the unlikely latter was the outcome. the school has a whole lot of kids, all brilliant (and beautiful), 10acres of land that they grow matoke (a kind of banana), maize (weird corn), some beans, and potentially cabbage. we talked a lot with ernest, the headmaster, about his vision and his plans. this man is definitely the soul reason the school is still intact and doing so well. sean and i are hoping to attach his very underfunded school to a partnership with a school in ottawa. i don't know if you know what that is, but basically the students from both schools correspond and send updates, and the one in the developed nation does fundraisers and stuff for their partner school. ernest's plans for the school are very optimistic, and though they seem far too optimistic at times, it's clear that it's his vision that has kept the school looking up in harder times.
oh, by the way, we decided to -walk- to mbiko. hahaha, a one hour walk out of jinja, over the nile, and down a long highway. at high noon. sorry mum, i got a sunburn, but not a bad one. today, i'm wearing sunscreen for the first time in years. anyways, sean calls this highway the "aids highway".... it's the main artery from everywhere else into kampala (the capital of uganda), so there are a plethora of bus stops, truck stops, boda boda stops... and much like any other port or main artery where there are many travelers, there are tons of locals with aids. that, is how it spreads. think of how it got to america: via a shipping port. these communities along highways are the ultimate shipping port.
the most frightening thing about learning all of this was the sobriety with which ernest explained it all. it's just a fact of life.
alright, it's time to hit the town. we're meeting with brooke and erica (our roommates to be) at 4:30 to sign for the house. gotta run!!!
yesterday we went to mbiko to check up on a school that sean had worked on last time he was here. he'd left them with all the tools they needed to continue recruiting volunteers, and he was curious to see if corruption (all too common) had had its way... or if (unlikely) it had been doing well. the unlikely latter was the outcome. the school has a whole lot of kids, all brilliant (and beautiful), 10acres of land that they grow matoke (a kind of banana), maize (weird corn), some beans, and potentially cabbage. we talked a lot with ernest, the headmaster, about his vision and his plans. this man is definitely the soul reason the school is still intact and doing so well. sean and i are hoping to attach his very underfunded school to a partnership with a school in ottawa. i don't know if you know what that is, but basically the students from both schools correspond and send updates, and the one in the developed nation does fundraisers and stuff for their partner school. ernest's plans for the school are very optimistic, and though they seem far too optimistic at times, it's clear that it's his vision that has kept the school looking up in harder times.
oh, by the way, we decided to -walk- to mbiko. hahaha, a one hour walk out of jinja, over the nile, and down a long highway. at high noon. sorry mum, i got a sunburn, but not a bad one. today, i'm wearing sunscreen for the first time in years. anyways, sean calls this highway the "aids highway".... it's the main artery from everywhere else into kampala (the capital of uganda), so there are a plethora of bus stops, truck stops, boda boda stops... and much like any other port or main artery where there are many travelers, there are tons of locals with aids. that, is how it spreads. think of how it got to america: via a shipping port. these communities along highways are the ultimate shipping port.
the most frightening thing about learning all of this was the sobriety with which ernest explained it all. it's just a fact of life.
alright, it's time to hit the town. we're meeting with brooke and erica (our roommates to be) at 4:30 to sign for the house. gotta run!!!
9.15.2008
jinja!!
sean and i have successfully made it to our destination: uganda. we ended up spending a couple more days than expected in kenya because our host there was so damn cool. so we hopped on the bus (a very old version of you standard greyhound bus) at 7am and got to jinja a long and scenic 12hours later. it's absolutely beautiful here. i was expecting to be surprised at how it is here, but the image i had in my mind before leaving canada (pieced together from random stories, textbook case studies, and all that...) was pretty much right. i didn't expect, though, all the "towns" that were basically rows upon rows of 'houses' constructed from odds-and-ends materials... corrugated metal, some brick, some mud... with a bunch of 'shops' along the street. sean says they're called trading centers. there are a few companies that advertise by painting these shops in bold colours. so every village we went by had these hot pink buildings, painted by zain, and lime green ones, painted by safaricom, and in uganda there's also bright yellow ones. i think it's the only time that i've seen attractive advertizment... it adds so much colour to these otherwise brown and metal places. well, i guess the orange soil does a bit, too. the contrast bt the blue sky, rich green landscape, and bright red soil is beautiful.
so today sean and i had a couple of errands to run. i got a phone. (my number is 011 256 779 350 898, call me!!!). we're about to get me some malaria pills (there's no shot, so you take preventative pills). we had some breakfast...
we're staying at the busoga trust house, and sean's on the prowl for a cheaper and nicer place for us to stay. we went out last night to meet with a couple of his friends at a restaurant called Two Friends. it's owned by elin's mom, and apparently she offered him a job there. inflation has made things more expensive than we previously thought, so we're on the look out for payed work.
overall, i like it here a lot. jinja itself is a more modern town, by african standards. it takes ten minutes to walk across the town, and another ten to get to where we're staying. it seems to be very touristy, there are many shops with doo-dads... carved stuff, clay stuff, woven stuff... all very nice in the way that tourists like nice things. there are also way more mzungu's than i expected. we see them on the street now and then, and there are a few at the guest house where we're staying.
i should run for now, and get some malaria medication.
lots of love!
so today sean and i had a couple of errands to run. i got a phone. (my number is 011 256 779 350 898, call me!!!). we're about to get me some malaria pills (there's no shot, so you take preventative pills). we had some breakfast...
we're staying at the busoga trust house, and sean's on the prowl for a cheaper and nicer place for us to stay. we went out last night to meet with a couple of his friends at a restaurant called Two Friends. it's owned by elin's mom, and apparently she offered him a job there. inflation has made things more expensive than we previously thought, so we're on the look out for payed work.
overall, i like it here a lot. jinja itself is a more modern town, by african standards. it takes ten minutes to walk across the town, and another ten to get to where we're staying. it seems to be very touristy, there are many shops with doo-dads... carved stuff, clay stuff, woven stuff... all very nice in the way that tourists like nice things. there are also way more mzungu's than i expected. we see them on the street now and then, and there are a few at the guest house where we're staying.
i should run for now, and get some malaria medication.
lots of love!
9.13.2008
touch down
uhhhh, i just did that thing where a long post just got deleted... so you're getting the incredibly truncated version.
first and foremost: we flew, we landed, we're safe.
i'm in sensory overload, we're happy. my word of the day is juxtaposition. the contrast between the various lifestyles within kenya is... baffling.
mum+dad, sean got a new sim card, so the number you have is wrong. we're 11timezones apart, so your 11am is our 10pm. his new number is 011 254 738 098 130.
i think we're off soon to have dinner. sean and i just accidentally took a six hour nap, and its time for supper. we'll be waking up bright and early tomorrow to head for jinja. sean's face lights up anytime jinja is mentioned. all i can think about is how excited i am to be in and learn about this place that defines sean. *smiles*
lots of love.
first and foremost: we flew, we landed, we're safe.
i'm in sensory overload, we're happy. my word of the day is juxtaposition. the contrast between the various lifestyles within kenya is... baffling.
mum+dad, sean got a new sim card, so the number you have is wrong. we're 11timezones apart, so your 11am is our 10pm. his new number is 011 254 738 098 130.
i think we're off soon to have dinner. sean and i just accidentally took a six hour nap, and its time for supper. we'll be waking up bright and early tomorrow to head for jinja. sean's face lights up anytime jinja is mentioned. all i can think about is how excited i am to be in and learn about this place that defines sean. *smiles*
lots of love.
9.09.2008
t minus 2days
time's been speeding up for the last couple of weeks. our bags are mostly packed now, we've both worked our last shifts, sean found us new tickets to london w aircanada after zoom bummed out... i suppose we've gotten to the point where everything we could have done to prepare has been done. except for throwing our toothbrushes in our bags, and saying, "goodbye (for now)."
it's neat seeing and hearing of things that are going to be happening here after we're gone. those little moments where i realize, "hey, we're not going to be here for that, we're going to be.... somewhere else. cool." i just called mum and dad to say bye, that's the biggest slap int he face. mum, don't be surprised if you get a couple of five a.m. home-sick phone calls. same to you, megan. and and and and. i, uh, i've got to admit, even though it's only for months, it's hard not to get all sentimental about saying bye to the fam. and extended fam.
but that's that! bye!! keep in touch!!
it's neat seeing and hearing of things that are going to be happening here after we're gone. those little moments where i realize, "hey, we're not going to be here for that, we're going to be.... somewhere else. cool." i just called mum and dad to say bye, that's the biggest slap int he face. mum, don't be surprised if you get a couple of five a.m. home-sick phone calls. same to you, megan. and and and and. i, uh, i've got to admit, even though it's only for months, it's hard not to get all sentimental about saying bye to the fam. and extended fam.
but that's that! bye!! keep in touch!!
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