Hello from Jinja. I'm not really sure where to start with the blog post this time. I've been like a yo-yo over the last few weeks-very up and down. It's all part of the Restless Development experience but for the last couple of weeks I've been like one of those fancy yo-yos that stays down longer than usual...... I'm feeling better now but it is always hard to write an interesting and exciting post about the lows without sounding like a big whinge!
It is funny how quickly things can go from amazing to really negative. After a fantastic weekend in Kampala where all the internationals made my Birthday really special, we had lots of fun and were able to relax I headed back to placement with a spring in my step. Ben came back from his weekend at home with a Birthday present for me- a fluffy bunny rabbit! He thinks I'm a big kid as I have Barry the lion Mugs gave me and in fact the present was very appropriate given mine and Alexis obsession with soft toys when we were young! (Sure enough the Birthday package from my awesome sister contained another teddy bear and other kiddie goodies!) I was really touched he had got me a present and we were all getting on really well in the house after a refreshing weekend.
That didn't last however as the sports event was looming and the stress levels and sickness levels were rising. I was healthy but am limited in what I can do without the language. This limitation is often exaggerated which is frustrating but it meant I wasn't able to help to reduce the stress and the atmosphere in the house was tense. I've also learnt I have slight control freak tenancies and like to know what is going on so I found not knowing what was going on all the time a real challenge!
There have been other difficulties in the group and I am struggling to adjust to many of the cultural differences. My obscenely polite British-ness is finding the lack of thanks and constant criticism hard. This is all part of the challenge I signed up for though so I'm developing a thick skin and have decided I just have to keep positive and pick myself up and get on with it. There is absolutely no point in dwelling on the problems.
As I said previously though these highs have been interspersed with some fantastic highs. I am really really enjoying the facilitation in the class room. The students are really engaged and have been asking me loads of questions. It is really encouraging that they feel comfortable to ask me about these issues, many of which are about sensitive issues. Some of the questions are text book myths around sex eg. "can a girl get pregnant if she has sex standing up?" Hearing their eagerness to ask these questions and the fact many of these myths are so well known reinforces that we need to be here and that it is important. One of the greatest challenges for the young people is having people to ask about these sensitive issues so I feel I have a great opportunity to answer their questions and provide them with the knowledge they need to stay healthy. Now I'm teaching alone I'm enjoying utilising all the non-formal education techniques (doing role plays and games) and get a real buzz from the sessions we do. I would happily do sessions all day every day but sadly that is not feasible. We have limited time in class and soon there will be exams and the Easter holiday so there will be more free time. I feel I need to find something to fill this free time so I feel like I have achieved as much as I can during my time here. My constant need to be busy and productive is still really strong so free time is a real challenge.
Filling the free time with productive stuff is easier said than done but we'll soon be setting up our youth resource corner (a place for young people to come and speak to us for advice and support) which should give us something to do and we're hoping to grow some food on the land behind our house to use as an example for the livelihood sessions (and ease the food budget).
Currently we have just over 40 pounds to feed the three of us for a month (we also feed the community volunteers for lunches). Our group have been really good at budgeting and we haven't struggled so far but inflation is huge in Uganda. Rice which we were getting for 1,800 Ush is now 2,300 Ush for a kg....this increase has been for everything. Needless to say our budget doesn't allow for much luxury or waste. We're eating rice and beans for most meals. Sometimes rice and cabbage and once a week we have meat or fish (the fish from the river, tilapia, I think it is called is really really good). This diet is probably the reason why I have lost 8kg! I saw myself in a long mirror for the first time in weeks here in Jinja and I was shocked! I haven't been this slim for a long time! Don't panic though I've been very healthy and it is just beer and Jon cooking deprivation which has led to the weight loss not sickness. And as Mummy Ness told me in India "well at least you had some stores!"
There have been some other fun moments for example the International Women's Day celebration was held on the site where I live. I came back from teaching and there was a brass band playing outside my house. They weren't bad but it was really surreal hearing a brass band in Uganda! I ended up having a really interesting chat with the teacher leading the brass band. He had a really interesting life story starting in a really poor family. He is now a very successful man working in a variety of NGOs in Kaynunga and Kampala. His outlook on life was really inspirational and it was really interesting to hear his perspective on development in Uganda and the contrast in donors. I asked him about Global Fund funding (one of the things I was campaigning for in Stop AIDS before I left) and was reassured to know he felt the funding from Global Fund was effective and he praised the funding body. He also compared funding from UK donors and US donors which was interested and I felt encouraged to be working for Restless Development. That is one thing which has really kept me going -I really believe in the Restless Development method of development. Yes their are faults and sometimes things don't go to plan but on the whole the way in which we work in communities is, in my opinion, more beneficial than other NGOs. It has however led us to be nicknamed the "broke NGO" in our community but I am proud we are able to achieve big impact with a small budget. For example we reached over 100 students with our health talk for less than three pounds and we held a whole day sports gala with around 30 pounds. It means these activities have a better chance of continuing without us here which is the ultimate aim-sustainability!
The best thing is certainly the community. I feel at home now in Busaana. I stop and chat to a lot of people in the community. Th health centre staff always ask me how I am (and spend a lot of time discussing what is causing my spotty face!) and are interested to hear about me and the UK. They struggle to grasp the concept that most families only have 2 children (the fertility rate here is over 6, 2nd in the world) and laugh about how we have machines to do everything-even a doctor diagnoses you using a computer. The kids from the schools know my name and stop to talk to me in the trading centre and the shop where I buy my sweet buns from are really welcoming and smiley!
This weekend has been a relaxed one in Jinja-no RnB videos this time! We've had plenty of time catching up with the other volunteers and eating dairy! Went for a swim yesterday (but it clouded over and got really cold just as we got there so didn't stay long!), ate a yummy curry and found an arts festival (little bit disappointing).
Keep emailing with your news and gossip-it is always nice to keep in touch with what is going on back home.
I hope this wasn't too negative a blog. Despite the ups and downs I have no regrets about coming, I am learning a huge amount and discovering a lot about myself (some good some bad!). I'm now looking forward to getting back to placement tomorrow and doing what I'm here to do.
Love to you all
xxx
Sunday, 27 March 2011
Monday, 14 March 2011
A day in the life
OK so yesterday was a blog of burble-today I will try to give you a little idea about what my life is like living in pretty little Busaana.
5.30 am I am woken by the sound of the gong which they use to wake the prisoners who are my closest neighbours.
6.30am I actually wake up and make the first trip of the day to my delightful latrine....there is nothing delightful about a latrine and it still puzzles me that people haven't grasped the concept that you relieve yourself in the big hole....not in the surrounding.
7am Laze around in bed for a bit-if I'm lucky and the wind is blowing in the wrong directions then the eau de latrine wafts into my room!
7.30am Up to collect water and wash while Ben starts the charcoal stove for our morning tea. The bread and honey for breakfast (a micro banana if I'm lucky).
8am some days I'll be at the school teaching and waving sanitary towels around in front of a room full of teenage boys (one of our topics in menstruation) but other days we have nothing to do except wait for our afternoon session or hand wash my clothing with a bar of soap in a plastic basin unsuccessfully!
10am start to prepare lunch (if we're enjoying beans)
1pm eat lunch, collect more water and try to convince the group to session plan (usually unsuccessfully)
2pm Wash dishes collect more water, get charcoal and read/sit around some more
3-5pm most days we have some kind of session teaching in schools or meeting with clubs.
Then back to the house to cook dinner. Sit around a little and watch the sun go down. Collect water, have a shower. This consists of hiding in a concrete structure with no door with a bucket of water and a cup. The cup provides the makeshift shower and the lack of door adds to the sense of danger-especially when the cows and goats and children are right outside the shower! "well done Ness" they all shout!
The evening involve more sitting-this time inside and we usually eat and go to bed pretty early. I try to listen to BBC world service if the signal isn't drowned out my one of the Jesus FM stations (of which there are many).
Writing this I've realised it is not as interesting as I had hoped (not feeling particularly witty today) but hopefully it gives you an idea of my day to day life. The next couple of weeks are going to be busier so maybe they'll be less sitting on the floor but we'll see!
Keep the texts and emails coming it is nice to hear what is happening out there!
Love to you all
xxxxxxxxxx
5.30 am I am woken by the sound of the gong which they use to wake the prisoners who are my closest neighbours.
6.30am I actually wake up and make the first trip of the day to my delightful latrine....there is nothing delightful about a latrine and it still puzzles me that people haven't grasped the concept that you relieve yourself in the big hole....not in the surrounding.
7am Laze around in bed for a bit-if I'm lucky and the wind is blowing in the wrong directions then the eau de latrine wafts into my room!
7.30am Up to collect water and wash while Ben starts the charcoal stove for our morning tea. The bread and honey for breakfast (a micro banana if I'm lucky).
8am some days I'll be at the school teaching and waving sanitary towels around in front of a room full of teenage boys (one of our topics in menstruation) but other days we have nothing to do except wait for our afternoon session or hand wash my clothing with a bar of soap in a plastic basin unsuccessfully!
10am start to prepare lunch (if we're enjoying beans)
1pm eat lunch, collect more water and try to convince the group to session plan (usually unsuccessfully)
2pm Wash dishes collect more water, get charcoal and read/sit around some more
3-5pm most days we have some kind of session teaching in schools or meeting with clubs.
Then back to the house to cook dinner. Sit around a little and watch the sun go down. Collect water, have a shower. This consists of hiding in a concrete structure with no door with a bucket of water and a cup. The cup provides the makeshift shower and the lack of door adds to the sense of danger-especially when the cows and goats and children are right outside the shower! "well done Ness" they all shout!
The evening involve more sitting-this time inside and we usually eat and go to bed pretty early. I try to listen to BBC world service if the signal isn't drowned out my one of the Jesus FM stations (of which there are many).
Writing this I've realised it is not as interesting as I had hoped (not feeling particularly witty today) but hopefully it gives you an idea of my day to day life. The next couple of weeks are going to be busier so maybe they'll be less sitting on the floor but we'll see!
Keep the texts and emails coming it is nice to hear what is happening out there!
Love to you all
xxxxxxxxxx
Pictures
My birthday cake, the Nile, International Volunteers celebrating in Kampala and my customised t-shirt.
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Getting "old" in Uganda
Hi all,
Thanks for all the messages saying you are reading my blog-it is nice to know people are interested. So since my last post lots has happened but I'll try to give you a brief overview and the highlights and low lights from the past few weeks....
So life on placement is settling down. Adjusting to life in the house was initially challenging-I think I mentioned that the lack of intellectual conversation was proving to be a real challenge and the cultural differences were really apparent. Living with any people 24/7 in a stressful environment is always going to be tricky but I'm glad to say things have been getting better. Me Ben and Maureen have settled into a nice routine and the atmosphere in the house in nice. I've got used to eating rice and beans for everyday (we've had a bit of avacado and fish to liven it up a few days) and the community members have learnt my name so I'm no longer "muzungu" but now Ness.
This month we started to deliver our lessons in the school-I'm teaching sexual reproductive health with Iginitius one of the community volunteers. It has been a little challenging t say the least. We do not work well as a team as we are both stubborn and think our method of teaching is the best. Anyway-I won't dwell on it but let's just say it is improving and the sessions overall seem to be effective even if it can be stressful! The other major challenge with placement is the amount of free time. I have far too much free time and I feel like I could be doing a lot more and achieving a lot more but it is the African way. Everything takes a long time-you can
t just set up a meeting you have to suggest a meeting, then call to confirm the meeting and then call again to tell them the meeting has started etc! The others complain if we have more than one session in a day! I've got good at entertaining myself though-lots of books, journals and I'm sewing a skirt by hand. These have been my main challenges, so fairly trivial really.
The other day I felt like I had a little break through-two girls from the school we teach at asked my some questions related to sexual reproductive help. I was able to give them advice and support and I felt like this is why we are here and that young people are going to benefit from our presence. That was nice.
There are also comical things around every corner-chickens walking into classrooms, people delivering beds on motorbikes and men dressed in yellow raincoats, one wellie boot and a sandal whistling and dancing in the middle of the street. All good to brighten up the day!
So since the last blog I turned 25....half way to 50 as Mugs likes to tell me! I had an amazing day on my placement. It was International Women's day (a public holiday here) so we had no sessions. I'd already had too many days of doing nothing in the house so I got up early and went for an epic walk. I walked for 2 hours to the Nile (around 9km I think)). It was hot and all the villages I passed through I was greeted and they all wanted to know where I was going. Someone even called one of the community volunteers to say they had seen me in the village. I was the talk of the town! It was nice, getting out on my own and being a bit independant. The constant greeting waving and smiling was a little draining but also really nice. After 2 hours I finally reached the river Nile. It was beautiful-I saw the blue sparkling water over the brow of the hill as I made it. It was lovely-birds and fishermen and a glorious blue sky. I found some shade on a disused ferry and made friends with the security guards guarding the ferry. I spent a few hours just watching the world go by. It was exactly what I needed and certainly a memorable birthday. The walk back (another 2 hours, this time in the hot sun) was tiring. Also I had to bat off many offers of motorcycle rides (too dangerous and not allowed by Restless Development). I got back tired, hot and with aching calves (flips flops maybe not the best shoes!) but very content and happy.
We had a few more days of sessions and event planning before we came to Kampala for the weekend. Kampala in mad-crossing the road is insane and there are people everywhere! Getting used to it now I've been here for a few days though. All the internationals came to celebrate my birthday so we've been stocking up on food , beer and conversation. They all clubbed together to get me a beautiful necklace and made my birthday really special. We went to try out the Ugandan nightlife at Steak Out and I had a lot more fun than I was expecting. We met some fun Ugandans and had a good dance. A welcome change from the evenings on placement which are fairly boring! We went to a big shopping centre full of Muzuzngus which was a massive culture shock (6 of us spent on lunch what we would spend on our entire food budget for 3 people). Coming home is going to take some adjusting! Found a great book shop though so I've stocked up on reading material :)
Then today we went to see the art exhibition of a guy we met at the club last night. He has set up an NGO teaching kids music and art and he screen prints t-shirts. It was really interesting (and ultimately hilarious). We looked at the exhibition and purchased some of his work as it was really nice. We'd been there for a while while he screen printed t-shirts to order for us and at the end he asked if he could do a short film clip with us....... They wanted us to be in a music video. Everyone knows white people can't dance the way Aficans dance.....! They make music videos with the young people they work with. So we stood in his bedroom/exhibition/art studio/music video studio dancing in an awkward dweeby white person way behind this very "cool" Ugandan rappers......hilarious! Search for destreet on facebook to see some of his stuff.
Back to placement on Monday ready for a busy few weeks we have lots of events to plan and run.
Will try to upload a couple of pictures
Love to you all-hope this wasn't too rambling!
xxxx
Thanks for all the messages saying you are reading my blog-it is nice to know people are interested. So since my last post lots has happened but I'll try to give you a brief overview and the highlights and low lights from the past few weeks....
So life on placement is settling down. Adjusting to life in the house was initially challenging-I think I mentioned that the lack of intellectual conversation was proving to be a real challenge and the cultural differences were really apparent. Living with any people 24/7 in a stressful environment is always going to be tricky but I'm glad to say things have been getting better. Me Ben and Maureen have settled into a nice routine and the atmosphere in the house in nice. I've got used to eating rice and beans for everyday (we've had a bit of avacado and fish to liven it up a few days) and the community members have learnt my name so I'm no longer "muzungu" but now Ness.
This month we started to deliver our lessons in the school-I'm teaching sexual reproductive health with Iginitius one of the community volunteers. It has been a little challenging t say the least. We do not work well as a team as we are both stubborn and think our method of teaching is the best. Anyway-I won't dwell on it but let's just say it is improving and the sessions overall seem to be effective even if it can be stressful! The other major challenge with placement is the amount of free time. I have far too much free time and I feel like I could be doing a lot more and achieving a lot more but it is the African way. Everything takes a long time-you can
t just set up a meeting you have to suggest a meeting, then call to confirm the meeting and then call again to tell them the meeting has started etc! The others complain if we have more than one session in a day! I've got good at entertaining myself though-lots of books, journals and I'm sewing a skirt by hand. These have been my main challenges, so fairly trivial really.
The other day I felt like I had a little break through-two girls from the school we teach at asked my some questions related to sexual reproductive help. I was able to give them advice and support and I felt like this is why we are here and that young people are going to benefit from our presence. That was nice.
There are also comical things around every corner-chickens walking into classrooms, people delivering beds on motorbikes and men dressed in yellow raincoats, one wellie boot and a sandal whistling and dancing in the middle of the street. All good to brighten up the day!
So since the last blog I turned 25....half way to 50 as Mugs likes to tell me! I had an amazing day on my placement. It was International Women's day (a public holiday here) so we had no sessions. I'd already had too many days of doing nothing in the house so I got up early and went for an epic walk. I walked for 2 hours to the Nile (around 9km I think)). It was hot and all the villages I passed through I was greeted and they all wanted to know where I was going. Someone even called one of the community volunteers to say they had seen me in the village. I was the talk of the town! It was nice, getting out on my own and being a bit independant. The constant greeting waving and smiling was a little draining but also really nice. After 2 hours I finally reached the river Nile. It was beautiful-I saw the blue sparkling water over the brow of the hill as I made it. It was lovely-birds and fishermen and a glorious blue sky. I found some shade on a disused ferry and made friends with the security guards guarding the ferry. I spent a few hours just watching the world go by. It was exactly what I needed and certainly a memorable birthday. The walk back (another 2 hours, this time in the hot sun) was tiring. Also I had to bat off many offers of motorcycle rides (too dangerous and not allowed by Restless Development). I got back tired, hot and with aching calves (flips flops maybe not the best shoes!) but very content and happy.
We had a few more days of sessions and event planning before we came to Kampala for the weekend. Kampala in mad-crossing the road is insane and there are people everywhere! Getting used to it now I've been here for a few days though. All the internationals came to celebrate my birthday so we've been stocking up on food , beer and conversation. They all clubbed together to get me a beautiful necklace and made my birthday really special. We went to try out the Ugandan nightlife at Steak Out and I had a lot more fun than I was expecting. We met some fun Ugandans and had a good dance. A welcome change from the evenings on placement which are fairly boring! We went to a big shopping centre full of Muzuzngus which was a massive culture shock (6 of us spent on lunch what we would spend on our entire food budget for 3 people). Coming home is going to take some adjusting! Found a great book shop though so I've stocked up on reading material :)
Then today we went to see the art exhibition of a guy we met at the club last night. He has set up an NGO teaching kids music and art and he screen prints t-shirts. It was really interesting (and ultimately hilarious). We looked at the exhibition and purchased some of his work as it was really nice. We'd been there for a while while he screen printed t-shirts to order for us and at the end he asked if he could do a short film clip with us....... They wanted us to be in a music video. Everyone knows white people can't dance the way Aficans dance.....! They make music videos with the young people they work with. So we stood in his bedroom/exhibition/art studio/music video studio dancing in an awkward dweeby white person way behind this very "cool" Ugandan rappers......hilarious! Search for destreet on facebook to see some of his stuff.
Back to placement on Monday ready for a busy few weeks we have lots of events to plan and run.
Will try to upload a couple of pictures
Love to you all-hope this wasn't too rambling!
xxxx
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