Wednesday afternoon I came back to the world of consistent electricity, hot showers, and the Internet. I was very surprised by how overwhelmed I was to be back. Maybe it was the hundreds of emails and the dozens of facebook notifications I had to sort through, but being on the Internet after so long was so overwhelming. Not having to think about charging my phone and laptop because of power shortages is strange. I got so used to my rotation of 4 skirts that now my eight skirts and three pairs of pants seem completely excessive. It is wonderful though to be allowed to wear pants again! It is very nice to have a shower and feel like my hair is actually clean for the first time in a month. I never did end up taking a shower when we visited Kampala. It is also so nice to be back with everyone else on our program. I missed them all a lot and it's wonderful to hear about everyone's experiences.
The rest of my time on practicum was extremely challenging, but overall good. It was definitely a great experience, but also one of the most difficult experiences of my life. It was really hard feeling like all anyone saw when they looked at me was that I am a muzungu. Having flocks of children screaming "muzungu, muzungu!" and crowding around me to touch my hair and feel my skin wherever I went just became too much at times. Allison and I were the only white people in the community, so it was pretty alienating. We felt misunderstood, and even disrespected, most days. Some of the living conditions were also challenging. I was perfectly content without electricity and whatnot but our freedom was very limited in Kyoga. We weren't allowed out much at all and feeling so confined was really hard for me.
I definitely take away some amazing lessons and memories from my time on practicum. I met people that I will never forget and heard stories of struggle that will stay with me for the rest of my life, I am sure. I was welcomed so warmly and enthusiastically into the communities I worked in. Many of the people I met send their greetings to everyone I love at home. The homes I visited often gave me gifts of eggs, jack fruit, milk, and sugar cane. These gifts were not just simple gifts for them though, but sacrifices of their only sources of income for their families. Their sacrificial generosity was so moving. One lady even tried giving me her kitten because I liked it so much but I had to say no since I wasn't sure how bringing a pet back to the guesthouse would go over.
Throughout the month, I visited officials at the district and county levels, held three community meetings, visited many families' homes, led a couple of children's Bible clubs, visited schools, and led a career guidance session for high school kids. Still my favorite thing to do was visit people in their homes, where they felt comfortable and were more open to share with me about their lives. It's a bit intimidating after meeting with so many people and being in the community for so long to now be writing a report on what I think the greatest needs are and how Food for the Hungry can meet those needs. It's no longer just writing about community development but my report will influence how FH will affect families I know and have come to love. FH is leaving Mukono in 2012 and I worry about how families will do after that. I don't know how parents will put their kids through school or bring in enough money to sustain their families. I pray that a lot of change happens in those communities by 2012, so they will be ready to function without FH.
It's weird to be leaving that part of the semester. It was such an intense experience that most days I couldn't remember life before Kyoga and couldn't imagine leaving. So it's strange to be moving on to something new, though I am ready. Tomorrow we leave for a safari in Queen Elizabeth Game Park then we will head for Rwanda. I will be in Rwanda for 5 weeks taking classes on community development and peace-building. We will be living in Kigali, the capital city, and will be staying at a guesthouse similar to the one we stay at in Kampala. I will have Internet much more consistently again and will update my blog more regularly. Thank you so much to everyone who leaves me comments on here. They are so encouraging and it helps to know who is reading. In case anyone wants to send me anything, I will have a new address in Rwanda. It is:
Rachel Kleinow
P.O. Box 911
Kigali, Rwanda
Well, I need to spend the rest of the day working on my needs assessment. Hopefully I can finish today so I can just enjoy Kigali when we get there. I hope all is well at home!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Rural Uganda
Yay for the Internet!! As Gavin wrote, the conditions in Mukono have been a bit different from what I was expecting. Our electricity was broken for the first week. We still have shortages and only have electricity about 50% of the time. Right now I am writing from the Kampala guesthouse I stayed in last month. Allison, the other student I am working in Mukono with, and I are visiting for the day. We have only had the Internet in Mukono once since we have been there. We decided to come back here for the day to use the Internet, take a real shower, and do some shopping. We are doing fine without the power but it is nice to have a little break from that.
In Mukono, we are living at the FH office with a couple of other staff members. Allison and I have our own bedroom, which we also often share with a gecko we named Frank. The guard and his two sons, Stephen (age 8) and Moses (age 7), live here too. Allison and I are completely in love with those boys. We play with them most days when we get home from work. We let them play with our cameras, draw and color with them, and have showed them my Disney DVDs on Allison's laptop. They really liked watching Peter Pan. They couldn't understand a lot of it because English isn't their first language but they loved the idea of kids being able to fly.
The food here is surprisingly good. We have not had to eat much matooke so I am pleased. They also are surprisingly okay with me being a vegetarian. We usually have rice for every meal with either beans, peas, peanut sauce, or fish. We also usually have white potatoes and cabbage. Sometimes we have spinach or sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes. The only bad thing about the food here is that we have milk tea about three times a day. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so hot outside and if the milk wasn't often chunky. We have tried explaining that Americans don't drink so much tea but they just can't believe that is possible, so they keep making it for us. They also can't believe Americans could possibly dislike Wheatabix, this cereal that tastes and looks exactly like cardboard that we are expected to consume each morning. Our supervisor was appalled that we don't like the stuff, because a couple from England who visited before liked it. Allison tried explaining that America and England are vastly different but she didn't seem to think that was possible either.
Since we often don't have power, Allison and I have gotten used to using a lantern at night. We also don't have running water so we are getting used to bucket bathing. I never feel quite as clean as I would like to, but I'm getting used to it. We have a Western-style toilet out back but it just drops into a hole in the ground. The toilet is usually covered with a couple dozen little black flies, and toilet paper is hit or miss, so we use it as infrequently as humanly possible.
The work I have been doing so far is really good. It is really challenging, but it's good. I am doing a needs assessment so I have mostly been interviewing families in their homes about their struggles, and meeting with community leaders to talk about community needs. I have also spent some time at one of the schools. My favorite is visiting people's homes and talking with them. I prefer talking one on one with people who are living in poverty rather than either meeting with lots of people at once or talking with community leaders who are middle class. Most of the families I talk with have up around eight kids and maybe two or three are sponsored by FH. The sponsored ones go to school but the families usually struggle to send the others. Finding clean water and finding work to do are also common struggles for people here.
We will be working in three communities for practicum: Kyoga (the community we live in), Musombwa, and Namasumbi. Mostly I will be continuing to do home visit interviews, interviews with community leaders, and working on the actual report for my needs assessment. I will also be doing some children's Bible clubs and women's Bible studies here and there. Last week, Allison and I went to a chapel at school and were asked fifteen minutes beforehand to speak. It was kind of hilarious. We were expected to speak for an hour about values and goals. I think we made it for about thirty then the guy in charged expounded on what we said for another half hour. We have already been forewarned that this Sunday we will be expected to preach, so at least we have the chance to prepare this time.
Well that's all for now. Allison and I are going to go enjoy a day in the city. We are going shopping and will go to an Indian restaurant for lunch. I have no idea when I will be able to post next. Hopefully sometime this week I can get on the Internet though. I hope all is well at home!
In Mukono, we are living at the FH office with a couple of other staff members. Allison and I have our own bedroom, which we also often share with a gecko we named Frank. The guard and his two sons, Stephen (age 8) and Moses (age 7), live here too. Allison and I are completely in love with those boys. We play with them most days when we get home from work. We let them play with our cameras, draw and color with them, and have showed them my Disney DVDs on Allison's laptop. They really liked watching Peter Pan. They couldn't understand a lot of it because English isn't their first language but they loved the idea of kids being able to fly.
The food here is surprisingly good. We have not had to eat much matooke so I am pleased. They also are surprisingly okay with me being a vegetarian. We usually have rice for every meal with either beans, peas, peanut sauce, or fish. We also usually have white potatoes and cabbage. Sometimes we have spinach or sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes. The only bad thing about the food here is that we have milk tea about three times a day. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so hot outside and if the milk wasn't often chunky. We have tried explaining that Americans don't drink so much tea but they just can't believe that is possible, so they keep making it for us. They also can't believe Americans could possibly dislike Wheatabix, this cereal that tastes and looks exactly like cardboard that we are expected to consume each morning. Our supervisor was appalled that we don't like the stuff, because a couple from England who visited before liked it. Allison tried explaining that America and England are vastly different but she didn't seem to think that was possible either.
Since we often don't have power, Allison and I have gotten used to using a lantern at night. We also don't have running water so we are getting used to bucket bathing. I never feel quite as clean as I would like to, but I'm getting used to it. We have a Western-style toilet out back but it just drops into a hole in the ground. The toilet is usually covered with a couple dozen little black flies, and toilet paper is hit or miss, so we use it as infrequently as humanly possible.
The work I have been doing so far is really good. It is really challenging, but it's good. I am doing a needs assessment so I have mostly been interviewing families in their homes about their struggles, and meeting with community leaders to talk about community needs. I have also spent some time at one of the schools. My favorite is visiting people's homes and talking with them. I prefer talking one on one with people who are living in poverty rather than either meeting with lots of people at once or talking with community leaders who are middle class. Most of the families I talk with have up around eight kids and maybe two or three are sponsored by FH. The sponsored ones go to school but the families usually struggle to send the others. Finding clean water and finding work to do are also common struggles for people here.
We will be working in three communities for practicum: Kyoga (the community we live in), Musombwa, and Namasumbi. Mostly I will be continuing to do home visit interviews, interviews with community leaders, and working on the actual report for my needs assessment. I will also be doing some children's Bible clubs and women's Bible studies here and there. Last week, Allison and I went to a chapel at school and were asked fifteen minutes beforehand to speak. It was kind of hilarious. We were expected to speak for an hour about values and goals. I think we made it for about thirty then the guy in charged expounded on what we said for another half hour. We have already been forewarned that this Sunday we will be expected to preach, so at least we have the chance to prepare this time.
Well that's all for now. Allison and I are going to go enjoy a day in the city. We are going shopping and will go to an Indian restaurant for lunch. I have no idea when I will be able to post next. Hopefully sometime this week I can get on the Internet though. I hope all is well at home!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Practicum
So, due to Rachel's current situation, I am writing this entry for her.
On Sunday she moved to Kyoga for her practicum. In stark contrast to Kampala, Kyoga is very small and rural town. (So much so, in fact, that you can't really even tell that the town exists though a Google search.)
Currently, the house that she is living in is not connected to the power grid. Until today, they ran a generator for 2 hours a day, but now they are out of gas indefinitely. The lack of power doesn't bug her (she actually likes using a lamp for light), except for the inability to communicate with us here. For a couple of days (hopefully that's all) her cellphone is going to be dead until they have more gas for the generator, and until the house's connection to the power grid is fixed she will have no access to the internet. Hopefully the fact that others living in the house are hopeful that the connection to the power grid will be fixed soon is indicative that this predicament will end soon.
The whole situation in this practicum should be interesting. She and a fellow student that she was with in Kamapala (Allison) are the first U.S. students to be sent by Food for the Hungry to this location. Because of this, there have already and will continue to be some struggles. But, the food is more diverse there (she was getting really tired of matooke), and she needed to get away from the city.
They are living in a building with a couple of other people with Food for the Hungry. The building serves not only as living quarters for these workers but also as the main location for Food for the Hungry's work in the area, so it also contains offices and a school.
Already she has started in her research. Today she held a meeting with many parents of the students who attend the school to talk to them about the greatest needs in their community and how an organization might help meet those needs. She was quite apprehensive about it, as she had only an hour allotted of their time and there could have been anywhere from 30-100 parents, most of which can not read and write, and many of which speak only Luganda. She said that the meeting went well. (I don't know any more because she had only enough power left in her phone to have the quickest of conversations today).
In addition to her research, part of her job is to help Allison in teaching, and doing activities with the kids at the school. Part of their "orientation" was doing this. On the spot they were asked to give them a message for "only an hour", but ended up talking for about half an hour. They were instructed to lead the kids in playing sports, which Rach wasn't exactly excited about. But overall she's really glad to have the chance to work with the kids and is quickly falling in love with them.
Well that's about all I know about how things have been going so far in her new location. Hopefully soon she'll be able to update this herself.
-Gavin (her boyfriend)
On Sunday she moved to Kyoga for her practicum. In stark contrast to Kampala, Kyoga is very small and rural town. (So much so, in fact, that you can't really even tell that the town exists though a Google search.)
Currently, the house that she is living in is not connected to the power grid. Until today, they ran a generator for 2 hours a day, but now they are out of gas indefinitely. The lack of power doesn't bug her (she actually likes using a lamp for light), except for the inability to communicate with us here. For a couple of days (hopefully that's all) her cellphone is going to be dead until they have more gas for the generator, and until the house's connection to the power grid is fixed she will have no access to the internet. Hopefully the fact that others living in the house are hopeful that the connection to the power grid will be fixed soon is indicative that this predicament will end soon.
The whole situation in this practicum should be interesting. She and a fellow student that she was with in Kamapala (Allison) are the first U.S. students to be sent by Food for the Hungry to this location. Because of this, there have already and will continue to be some struggles. But, the food is more diverse there (she was getting really tired of matooke), and she needed to get away from the city.
They are living in a building with a couple of other people with Food for the Hungry. The building serves not only as living quarters for these workers but also as the main location for Food for the Hungry's work in the area, so it also contains offices and a school.
Already she has started in her research. Today she held a meeting with many parents of the students who attend the school to talk to them about the greatest needs in their community and how an organization might help meet those needs. She was quite apprehensive about it, as she had only an hour allotted of their time and there could have been anywhere from 30-100 parents, most of which can not read and write, and many of which speak only Luganda. She said that the meeting went well. (I don't know any more because she had only enough power left in her phone to have the quickest of conversations today).
In addition to her research, part of her job is to help Allison in teaching, and doing activities with the kids at the school. Part of their "orientation" was doing this. On the spot they were asked to give them a message for "only an hour", but ended up talking for about half an hour. They were instructed to lead the kids in playing sports, which Rach wasn't exactly excited about. But overall she's really glad to have the chance to work with the kids and is quickly falling in love with them.
Well that's about all I know about how things have been going so far in her new location. Hopefully soon she'll be able to update this herself.
-Gavin (her boyfriend)
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