Dear Everyone,
WOW, I can not believe it has been 4 months since I entered a blog update! I hope everyone is doing well and that All the Father’s out there had a great Father’s Day!
I have tried to keep the photos coming on Facebook, but it seems like forever for them to load...so only a few at a time. Every month I continue to do some of the same things in Iceme that I have been doing when I am there. The last 3 months I have been traveling at least 10 days to 14 days out of the month.
So that said, I will fill you in on my travels under the months, and this is what I have continued to do when I am in Iceme.
I still work with my HIV support group and the War Victims support group. It really is something that when the Ugandan’s come to anything, they expect money or to be feed. So my first meeting with them, I explained the purpose of the support group and that no money was coming, and no food....only water, information and sharing! Well, it took a while, but they found out. My first HIV/AIDS meeting there were 46 people and the War Victims we had 25. Because of no food or money, I was really surprised when the next meeting came, I thought that 1 or 2 people might come. But, we had 83 people for the HIV/AIDS and 28 for the War Victims. They are really hungry for information. I always thought that they were well educated in that area because of all the NGO’s putting money into HIV/AIDS...but not so. The basics they do not know. So I will continue even if 1 person comes to the groups. I am still doing Basic Life Skills at the Iceme Secondary Girls School when they are in session. They just started a new term. I continue to go on Outreach to the villages to follow up with patients that have been sent home on Hospice. Boy, we have it great in the States with Palliative Care and Hospice! I met one 18 year old girl with AIDS that was about 70 lbs, nothing but bones. She was sent home on “Hospice,” however the father did not buy any pain medication for the girl, because he said that he did not have any money. This is not the first case I have seen that children and adults are dying in Severe pain...and I am sure it will not be the last. But this case really hit me.
I am still working on my secondary projects. I did get the Grant written for 3 computers, copier/printer, internet airtime, and lying cables at the Health Center. The Grant was approved for $10,000. Once the money comes I will go to Kampala and buy the computers and start training the H/C staff. The borehole is now fixed and they have had another NGO fund a second borehole. So we will no longer be without water when the electricity goes out. I still need to meet with the Local Council 3 of Iceme and the Farmers Chairperson to fill out a proposal to submit to the Heifer International. I would like to get some more Livestock in Oyam District!
The project that has taken most of my time was the Peace Camp in Ocer, outside of Gulu. This was a great success, I will talk about it in the August section! I also applied to work on the Boy’s Camp called BUILD in December and have done a little with the curriculum committee.
I am still showing movies to the kids when I am in Iceme, the joy that they get out of watching the animated cartoon’s are great. Angel, my daughter sent me the Karate Kid movie and they LOVED IT! They were laughing, and really got into supporting the boy and cheering him on. It was not too violent for them and taught them a good lesson in teamwork, and that discipline and practice will help you be successful in life. It was a real hit! We have had many movie nights, I try to combine it with some HIV education. But it is really a highlight for me to watch their faces, the projector was the best investment I could have made!
I have started teaching the young kids (7-13 yrs) that come for the movie about HIV/AIDS and Sex while I am setting up the movie, then we watch the movie. It really took me by surprise that the next day I was working in the office and here comes 5 of the boys...wanting to know more about what I had said. They had in there hands a booklet called, “Making Healthy Choices ‘Using lifeskills education in managing our sexuality and controlling HIV/AIDS,’”and wanted me to go over it with them! I thought that was really great, just another verification that they are hungry for education!
Someone in the States ask me if they could send eye glasses and the answer is Yes, they need them here and if you want to send them my address is on the right side of this blog.
I have to apologize about not getting back to people who have sent me emails.....Thank you so much. I do read them. Because alot of time when I have internet, I don’t have electricity and when I have electricity, I don’t have internet. So I try to get on the computer and off as fast as I can. I will have to contact Apple when I get back....you all know that I bought this computer mainly for the 10 hours battery life....well I have NEVER gotten 10 hours. Now I only get 4 hours of battery life, sometimes I think it is even less. It is only 1 year old! Anyway....so I am sorry if I have not gotten back to you.
So when I am Iceme, I work on the above, but now for my travels!
In June I went to Rakai for a HIV/AIDS mural painting. Rakai is south of Kampala, so it took me about 6 hours to get to Kampala and then another 2 1/2 or 3 hours to get to Rakai. Alot of PCV’s and the community also came to paint HIV scenarios on the walls. I taught Lifeskills to about 120 teens on HIV definition, transmission, prevention, STD’s and Disease Progression and Positive Behaviors. We had condoms there and a model for them to do a return demonstration on how to apply the condom.....it really was great to see them and be able to correct them when they were putting the condom on the model wrong. The kids really had great questions and stayed for 3 hours even though the STD pictures were graphic! Some of the questions were...what do I do with a condom after I use it? You may have seen pictures on facebook on the Rakai trip. Also, in June I traveled to Gulu a couple of times for the Peace Camp meetings.
July was a busy month of activities and travel. But I did take a rest with other PCVs over the weekend at Sesse Island. I really had a great time of just relaxing and spending time with my friends. It did take a long time to get there. I took a bus to Kampala (6 hours), then a taxi to Entebbe (45 minutes due to traffic), then a 4 hour ferry ride to the Island! But it was great. Then off to Mbale (5 hours on bus from Kampala) for a mandatory community health Malaria training. The PC, Uganda Ministry of Health and Uganda Government formed a PMI (Preventive Malaria Initiative) collaborative to decrease Malaria 70% by 2014. So now that initiative is added to my projects. I do plan to submit another Grant request for Education, pregnant mothers/children, mobilizing the community and community involvement, as well as purchasing mosquito nets for the Health Center and the Iceme Girls Boarding School (they have no nets currently.) No one here takes malaria prevention meds because they can not afford it. So I just finished collecting data from 2010 to now on positive malaria test at Iceme. Northern Uganda has the highest rate of Malaria in Uganda, with Apac and Oyam districts having 1,564 cases/year; 63% of children are affected in the North and 75% with anemia related to Malaria. 25% of all admissions to the hospital are from Malaria, 20% of child deaths in the hospital are from Malaria. Northern Uganda has an endemic of Malaria. Did you know that 658 Million US dollars are spent annually on Malaria (all the interventions.) Because the North is so high, they did IRS (Indoor Residual Insecticide Spraying), which cost 14.5 million! Since it is so expensive to do, only the North got IRS. IRS has to be sprayed every 4 to 6 months. The government only planned to do it 2 times because of the expense. The data that I collected shows a significant decrease in the Iceme area after IRS in Jan and June.
After Mbale I went to visit Linda in Soroti about 2 hours away for the weekend before heading back down to Lweza (6 hours away) for Train the Trainer workshop. We all have to attend if we are going to train the PCT's.
Then off to Gulu for another Peace camp meeting. I had been receiving alot of applications from the teens to go to the Peace camp. The applications are out for the Ugandan and PCVs who would like to help also. They went out this month.
So I was gone almost 2 1/2 weeks from Iceme this month...”I was lost,” they say.
August, I also was lost 2 1/2 weeks. I made a trip up to Gulu for a Peace Camp meeting....camp was getting closer (August 21-27, 2011) so the last minute details had to be worked out. Peace Camp was for war victims (abducted, defilement, physical abuse, raped, child soldiers, or saw their parents or brothers/sisters murdered) ages 15-19 years old. We decided to have the 4 tribes in Northern Uganda that were involved in the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) war to begin peace-building skills in order to establish and maintain a violence-free home and community. The Lango, Acholi, Teso and the Alur tribes participated. There were 4 of us PCV’s that were putting this together (Mary Beth, Me, Bina and Chelsea). You would be surprised, there is so much hostility between the tribes because they blame each other for the acts of violence on their tribe. Not just the LRA, but each other. You see, the youth were abducted and forced to go into the other tribes and kill. So this was really going to be a heavy camp and we were prepared for alot of PTSD. I am really proud of how the camp turned out and how the teens rose to the challenges of facing trauma and starting the act of forgiveness between each other. Yes, we did have a number of teens that had PTSD episodes. The week was geared towards ongoing healing, building on the theme of the day before, and ending with a celebration dance. It was a week long of 80 teens, divided into 8 groups of 10 with 1 Uganda Counselor and 1 PCV Counselor. We had lectures, lifeskills, drama, arts/crafts, a rope course nightly rituals, reflection time and sports. Prior to the camp each tribe met and practiced their traditional dance and song. Lango (my tribe), of course was the Best! Each tribe performed for their Cultural Leaders. Hopefully, I will be able to upload that video to facebook someday, also I plan to upload the slideshow that was made of the camp...it really was great! The teens are to go back to their villages and start a Peace Club. We will meet in Iceme next Monday night to start the first Peace Club. I had 88 applications for only 30 Lango teens for the Peace Camp. So it was really hard to tell the others that they had to wait for the Peace Club and could not go to the camp. All in all, the camp was a success, so the Peace Club should be able to benefit from the week at Camp!
Then I was off to Seeta (another 6 1/2 hours bus trip from Gulu) for the PC All Volunteer Conference, which was really inspiring. I was able to get some great ideas from volunteers about Income Generating Activities (IGA’s). Plus, I got to be with other PCV’s.
September. Next stop was Wakiso to train the Peace Corps Trainees (PCT) in Mental Health/Stress/Alcohol and Drugs with the Medical Team. Finally, I headed back to Iceme from Kampala on the 7th. It was not a good trip. I got on the bus at 7:30 am, but we did not leave until 9 am. Then it took us 2 hours to get just alittle outside of Kampala. We were close to Luwero when the bus broke down. We waited 3 hours for another to come and pick us up. But that was not the worst...when the bus came, everyone got up and started gathering their things. A 9 year old boy saw that the bus arrived and ran across the road and was hit by a car and died. It really was tragic. Please pray for the family, the mother had 3 other children with her.
I will go back to Wakiso around the 20th to teach the PCT’s Sex Assault with other PCVs and Medical. At the end of the month, PC will send 5 PCT’s to my site for me to work with them on Emersion Week. I have alot planned for them, but I was shocked when they told me that it was 5 people instead of 1 or 2! I reminded them that there are no hotels or restaurants here in Iceme! Anyway, during Emersion Week they see if they are going to like staying here in Uganda.
The US Embassy is hosting a 50th Celebration for the Peace Corps Volunteers next week in Kampala. However, I think that might be too much traveling for me, so I will not go. I did want to meet everyone at the Embassy though.
I found out that Healing Touch International published my article in the HTI Perspectives Newsletter about my classes earlier this year. I was so pleased and shared it with the new Country Director and Program Managers.
When I got back to Iceme this time, my counterpart did some work in my garden and planted some beans. YEA!
Do you know that fuel in Uganda now is 3900 UGX, which is about $2.00/gallon? That is alot for Uganda. Also, prices on food have skyrocketed. Inflation has gotten really bad here. The teachers wanted to strike because they are not getting paid enough, however Museveni said if they do not go to school they will get fired, so all the teachers are going in to school, but not teaching. Inflation really is getting bad here.
Well, this is long enough and I hope that I will do a better job updating my blog sooner in the future. Hopefully, I will be able to post the pictures that have not been posted yet. In the meantime, take care of yourselves and stay safe!
Love & Light,
Mari
