Outreach, Vacation and Peace Camp

Dear Everyone,

Hope all the Father’s had a great Father’s Day!  Mother’s you too!  I did!  Shelley, Linda and I went to the Nile Porch for Mother’s day and spend 4 nights.  It was beautiful and relaxing.  Hope you saw the pictures on facebook!  

Well, only 2 1/2 months left in Uganda before my close of service (COS).  I will be glad to get home and see everyone.  I feel like I have missed so much with Ryan’s, and Catie’s wedding, Austin’s graduation and all the holidays, birthdays and events.  So it will be good to get back into the swing of things in the US.  My COS date is still October 19th.  I will leave Uganda and go to Egypt, then to Thailand, and finish in India with a 24 day meditation retreat before returning to the US.  I will fly back to VA before getting back home to CA.  Future plans are to look into applying for a Respond Peace Corps position that is only 6 to 1 year commitment.  Or work with Healing Touch International teaching HTI courses overseas.   I really enjoy International Development!

After Mother’s Day weekend in Jinja I traveled to Kampala for TOT.  Then off to Gulu (6 hour trip on public bus) for the Peace Camp meeting before returning to Iceme (only 52 kms, but takes 2 hours on public transport).  I actually traveled to Gulu twice in May for the Peace Camp meetings.  The Rainbow Peace Ambassador’s did another drama for the community in May.  

We had alittle excitement in Iceme with one of the community males who came off his mental health medications.  He was disturbing the health center patients, hanging out at the H/C and knocking on my door at 12:30 at night...wanting sex!   Boy, he must need glasses...to not notice that I am old ):.  Anyway, the Peace Corps Security had to intervene with the local Police.  Hopefully, he got the help he needed.

In June, I traveled alot, but I was able to make outreach visits to end stage AIDS patients.  We really are so blessed in the US with Hospice, these people die with such extreme discomfort.  It really breaks my heart, you just do what you can.  

I visited a HIV Support group to do a presentation and will go back next month to teach them how to cook Moringa seeds and leaves.  It grows all over in Uganda and it is so nutritious and builds the immune system and they have it Free!  I also did an outreach for Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA).

On June 23rd I flew out of Entebbe airport to Cape Town, South Africa for vacation.  I had a fantastic time!  One day though, PC sent me to Pretoria, SA (2 hour flight from CT) to see a plastic surgeon.  I had a basal cell carcinoma behind my ear.  It was great, I flew up that morning, had it removed and flew back that night!   The plane going back to CT from Pretoria had us all board and then said that a passenger had put his luggage on, but did not get on the plane.  So we all had to get off the plane and identify our luggage!  They said it was a security risk and that never happened before.  So they found the luggage and we were off.   I got back to CT around 1 am.  But that did not stop me!  I was lucky because I went during there off season (rainy) so it was real cheap!  I really got some great deals!  They said that the worst time to go is Oct to Dec.  Prices are real high, it is there prime time and hot.  The accommodations that I got would have been 4 x’s what I paid for them and you would not get to do a whole lot because the lines would be long.  They also said that the real best time to go is February because it is not rainy and it is after prime season, warm and still really nice...no lines and kids are back in school.  I was able to go to City Central, the Winery’s (great wine by the way), Robben’s Island, drove down the Chapman’s parkway along the west coast (just gorgeous), horseback riding on the white sandy deserted beaches, then drove down to the east coast and saw the African Penquins, went down to Cape of Good Hope and the Cape Point, Camp’s Bay, Hout’s Marina, the famous gardens, Table Mountain and I got to Abesail 112 meters down the 3rd wonder of the world...Table Mountain!  So all in all I did alot!  I also looked into volunteer work in CT at an orphanage, which I may come back some day and volunteer at.   One thing that everyone will get a good laugh at was that I went to the Nelson Mandela Hotel and got an exclusive massage.  Well, part of the massage is that they do a Body Stat on your skin with a machine.  Now, with my age, weight and height I am 6.1% TOO FAT!  I lost alot of weight here in Uganda, approximately 19 lbs..which I was happy about!  So I was 57 Kgs and normal weight for me to them was between 50-55 kgs, so I was already 2 kgs over (5 lbs over, but really should be 15 lbs less).  So my body fat should be 22-30% and I am 36%...over from 14 to 6%!  So I guess I have alot of work to do...but the worst part was that I gained all my weight back that I had lost in Uganda in SA!!!!  How about that!  Now more weight to lose :).  Anyway, CT was great and I will be back, hopefully with family that can come in the future!

Once I got back to Uganda I went directly to Pre Service Training (PST) and did two inservices to the the new group that is coming in.  My presentations were on HIV/AIDS Community Outreach and Behavior Prevention Support (Village Health Teams).  Washington has now standardized all the presentation for pre service training for new volunteers coming into country.  So we must follow there competencies that have been distributed.  So it was not too bad!  

I then left and went to Close of Service (COS) training in Munyonyo.  It was held at the 5 star Speke Resort Hotel and Conference Center for Uganda July 10th to the 13th.  COS is designed to assist us in reflecting on our service-to-date, to look toward the final few months of our service, what we still want to accomplish as well as help us plan for the future after Peace Corps.  I got my COS date....OCTOBER 19th I will be officially no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer!

I then traveled back to Gulu for a Peace Camp meeting.  I am Director of the Peace Camp Greater North 2012!  So I have been planning this now for about 4 months and the time is getting closer.  I have to stay in Gulu for about 2 to 4 nights to get things done, everytime I come in for a meeting.  It is so different from the States here in Uganda when you are putting on an event.  It takes so much more time, energy and money to get things accomplished.  For example: to arrange for a meeting people have to travel up to 100 kms on public transport.  Everytime you call someone to arrange something...it cost you airtime, so you have to talk fast and repeat yourself many times.  Just to get applications in (no internet or computer access for the majority of people) you need to go into the villages and have them fill in the application with you.  You need to go first about 48 kms in order to print out the applications just so you have them, which takes almost a day on public transport.  So things are not easily done here.  You need to constantly call the Ugandan staff to make sure they are coming and have completed everything that they are suppose to do.  It really is a monumental effort!  

I then traveled back to Iceme for 2 weeks before going back to Gulu for another Peace Camp meeting.  In Iceme, I was able to do some Outreach and work with the youth groups.

I was happy to find out that I won 3rd place in the Alicia Keys Peace Corps AIDS-Free Generation Photo Contest.   Alicia Keys chose the photo entitled “Outreach HIV Testing” as the third place winner of Category Two: Treatment, Care, and Support.   They announced the winners of the Peace Corps AIDS-Free Generation Photo Contest on Thursday, July 19!   Singer/songwriter Alicia Keys, co-founder and global ambassador of Keep a Child Alive, selected the winning photos and she broke the news via Twitter.   Photo’s were chosen due to there creativity, photographic quality, and effectiveness in representing Peace Corps work in the field of HIV/AIDS, concentrating in treatment, care, and support.  They also  announced to your local media. The winning photos were on display at the Convention Center in Washington, D.C. during the 2012 International AIDS Conference, July 22-27, and exhibited across the street at the Carnegie Library from July 23-26.   Shawn and Kenny went to the conference and were able to see the display and took pictures.  They had blown the photo up to half the size of Kenny!  All in all I was pretty happy about that.

I am sure you heard about our Ebola outbreak here in Uganda.  It was mainly in the West and in Central Uganda.  On August 13, 2012 it was reported to us that there have been six (6) confirmed SEBOV cases (3 of which have died), 4 convalescent cases, 16 total deaths (3 confirmed SEBOV), 1 patient currently in the convalescent ward and 7 in the isolation facility at Kagadi Hospital (2 of which are confirmed SEBOV), 408 (165 under follow up and 243 that have completed the 21 day follow up) cases from Kibaale District that are currently healthy, but potentially had contact with an infected case, are being monitored, and 13 cases from Kampala’s Mulago Hospital that are currently healthy but had contact with a probable case, are under home quarantine and are being monitored.  They were telling people not to shake hands and get in close contact with body fluids!  Well that is close to impossible here in Uganda, because in public transport you are just about on top of each other...so alot of sweaty people are brushing up aside of you!  

In August, I traveled back up to Gulu for another Peace Camp meeting.  The first week of August was very stressful, I did not know if I was going to have to cancel the Peace Camp or not, because a new Policy was implemented at PC Uganda after my VAST grant was approved.  It was that PCV’s would need to open a join account with there partners for any grants.  Well, opening an account is a very difficult job here in Uganda.  It is not like going to the bank in America and opening an account!  Well, anyway the bank account, we thought was opened...however the account was placed on hold because they wanted an Introduction Letter.  The Introduction letter has to come from the partners and they submitted a letter 4 times and it was never satisfactory to the bank.  So the bank placed the account on hold and never told us.  When the money came in from the US, the Ugandan bank sent it back to the US!  So hence, no money for camp!  In order to send it back to Uganda the money would not arrive until after the Peace Camp.  So we got a small advance from Peace Corps and other PCV’s and myself put there money together in order to start the camp.   Also, some of the vendors told me I could pay them later when the money arrived, which was great!

Still stressed and worried that we would not have enough money, I started preparing to receive all the PCV’s and Ugandan Counselors for orientation of the Peace Camp on August 10th.  The campers were scheduled to arrive on August 12th!     So we were preparing Ocer Champion Jesuit College for the youth.  

Peace Camp is about the residents in the northern and northeastern regions of Uganda that were unwilling victims of a 20+ year conflict. The proposed Peace Camp was an attempt to address some of the issues facing mid-to late adolescent young people who reside in areas impacted by the trauma and violence of this war.  Peace Camp provided them an opportunity for Ugandan youth affected by the conflict with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to begin developing the peace-building skills necessary to establish and maintain violence-free homes and communities. The vision of Peace Camp Uganda was to engender in the participants respect, compassion, the ability and willingness to listen, openness to learning, and the skills needed to resolve differences through peaceful means.  As well as to develop the basic peace-building skills necessary to establish and maintain violence-free homes and communities. We strived to push participants out of their comfort zones, help them reflect on their experiences, and to find ways to use their unique perspectives to bring about peace building in their country, their communities, their schools, their families and their hearts.   Peace Camp brought together 80 youths from four tribes—Eteso, Acholi, Lango and Alur—in the Greater North between the ages of 17 and 25 for a 6-day residential experience in Gulu District at Ocer Champion College, August 12 - 18, 2012.  The four tribes were evenly distributed.  The Peace Camp focused on moving forward and building on the strength of all those who have survived the tragedies of the past.  The program was very interactive in order to channel the energy of this age group.   An important aspect of the Camp was the daily Reflection/Counselor groups and the Forgiveness and reconciliation ceremony.  All in all it was a very successful camp!  

I started writing this blog August 1st, now it is the 19th, after camp.   So I am so proud of all my CoDirectors, Staff and Counselors!  The Peace Camp 2012 was a hugh success!

So now I will finalize reports and get back to Iceme for outreach.  It has been a great and challenging three months!  I am so looking forward to travel after COS and getting home in December!  

I will try to get a blog out close to my COS, but in the meantime.....Stay safe and Happy!

Love & Light,
Mari