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