My Site Visit

October 6th I traveled to my site! It took 7 hours by bus to go to Loro Corner (about 30 miles from Lira) from Kampala. Then I was picked up by one of the Health Center IV staff that Stephen (PCV) the other volunteer will work with at his site. It took us about 35 minutes to get to his site. Eliza (PCV), Stephen and I are up in the North and our sites are about 15-20 km from each other. We make a triangle with our distance from each other. Eliza is west, Stephen is south and I am east.

Wow, I am really out in the bush! But I have internet and phone access! The main road is 45 minutes via car to my site in Iceme. Iceme is about 65 miles west of Lira, the main town. The main town is not real big, but okay. It will be a challenge getting food and supplies and even a bed for me, but they do it somehow and I guess I will learn. I will try to buy a bike in Lira...so maybe that will be my mode of transportation. They use motorcycles to get around, however Peace Corps strictly forbids us to use a motorcycles and/or even ride on a motorcycles on the back. However, the Country Director has put a request into Washington to try to get approval for us way out in the rural areas to use motorcycles. But it is a international mandate not to be on a motorcycle...so we will see. You would be surprise at what they can put on a motorcycle and carry!

I am so happy with my site! It is a Health Center III and I will be working with Outreach into the villages. It is a Catholic diocese run mission that is funded by NGO’s, Uganda Government and the Catholic diocese. So they have this gorgeous church (for Uganda) on the land. There are nuns and priest on the land as well. The nuns keep the land clean, there are flowers and the land is so peaceful. It is going to be a nice place to live. I got to meet my counterpart, who works in the field. He is a much older man and has a frail structure. He will show me what I will be doing in the field and will translate to the villagers for me until I learn the language completely. My home is on the compound, it is one room building with no electricity and no running water. The HC has electricity, so I can charge my phone and computer in the HC. We will use rain water. The Health Center III is set up with 3 tanks to collect rain water. Here in Uganda, a Health Center is very much NOT the same as in the US!

However, I think that I will be happy here. The North is highest in Malaria, PTSD, HIV/AIDS and to my surprise the highest in TB in Uganda. So definitely the need for help is there.

Going back to Wakiso I went up to Lira and took the bus back to Kampala, then taxi to Wakiso. Also, taxi’s are not the same here in Uganda as in the US. Everyone travels around with either taxi or motorcycle. So they have these huge taxi parks and there can be 18 people stuffed into one taxi.

We had homestay thank you’s at RACO yesterday and it was really nice. My host family had a partial Gomez (traditional African dress) made for me as a gift to wear for the ceremony. That was really so nice of them. Each language group (7 of them) did a presentation for the homestay families and then we ate. There are 71 different languages in Uganda, so everyone (45 of us trainees) that are going to a different region were taught that language.

Today, I am leaving my homestay family and will be in Kampala. Tomorrow we will be at the Peace Corps office. The 3 of us in the North will stay at the PC headquarters and will have a special training of what to expect in the North and how to handle things. Since the war only ended 5 years ago, there is sensitive information that they would like us to know. We have been invited to have dinner at the Country Director’s home on Monday evening. Then on Tuesday will will visit the American Embassy and Wednesday we have our Counterpart workshop, on Thursday (October 21st) we will be sworn in as PC Volunteers at the Ambassador’s home. Our site supervisors and counterparts have also been invited to the swearing in ceremony. I am hoping that we will be able to travel back with them to the Oyam district in the North.

I believe that is all for now! Stay safe.

Hope everyone has a Great Day! Take care.

Love & Light,
Mari

YEA! I GOT MY SITE ASSIGNMENT!

YEA! I finally got my site yesterday!!! We have been waiting for this for 7 weeks now. I will be going to Iceme Health Center in Oyam, Northern Uganda. According to the job description (which may change when I get there), I will be advising/assisting the Health Center and the district health team in planning, implementing, health education programs; take part in designing health training programs especially village heath teams and health care providers as well as participant; take part in Health promotion and advising; take part in community outreach in public health programs. From what I understand this is a Catholic run Health Center.

We go on a site visit next Tuesday so I will know more about the center and my living arrangements next week. I understand that they are still building my home away from home. I have been given a grid of what my living arrangements will be and I have not running water; only rain water and no electricity. I will have a chair and table but no bed. So it looks like I will need to purchase some things when I get there. I will be going to an area that no other volunteer has been to...the first! They said that they wanted someone up there that was resilient and independent to start up the PC programs work there. Hope they made the right choice. Another volunteer will be doing the same, however she will be in another Health Center, but she is only about 5-10 kms from me. According to the Country Director, the people in Oyam not only were affected by the LRA but the Ugandan police as well. They were tormented by the Police because they did not want the people to be influenced by the LRA. There are 5 of us going to the North, and because of all the trauma and war torn people, PC will be giving us a separate training before we go. PC and all the African and Washington head people had a conference 2 weeks ago to discuss the problems and issues in the North and they received training...so they are going to pass that training onto us. So I am excited about the site assignment, I know it will be challenging but I Love a challenge.

We have been so busy since we got back from emersion week. We have gone to a couple of community field trips to visit NGO’s and HIV Orphans organizations. One was funded by the Ireland government and there was an Irish student we met that was here for 3 weeks working with the construction project. It was great to be able to talk with him. It rained really hard that day and we were outside...so our lecture was cut short.

We also had a lecture on Corruption and dealing with conflict resolution in the mist of corruption. In week 6 we had what they call the mock LPI, which evaluated us not only on Language but everything that we had covered from week 1. That was a whole day. We also had to prepare a presentation on a Exploration study and present a 20-30 minute presentation. Mine was on Capacity Building for Health Care Providers. I am glad all that is over...okay so I still need to work on Language.

The training now is going to fly by...we travel to our sites on October 6th, and return October 9th to Kampala. Then we will be back for week 9 and in week 10 we leave from Wakiso to Kampala for swearing in, which will be October 21st.

Well, that is all I have for now. I am not sure if I will have internet access when I get to Oyam. I will let you know.

Hope everyone has a Great Day! Take care.

Love & Light,
Mari