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

Emersion trip

Yesterday, I received my emersion trip to Padra. The emersion trip is to get us familiar the region that we will be working in with a Peace Corp Volunteer already working in the region. I will leave Wakiso on Tuesday next week and traveling to Gulu to visit some of the NGO’s (Non Profit Government Organization). One of the NGO’s I will visit will be with Invisible Children. Then I will travel on to Pader, to see a less developed area of the North. The PVC I will be visiting works with an organization for girls’s secondary school, which I will see and participate in a life-skills class. She works at a former return and reintegration center called Christian Counseling Fellowship, which has now begun to focus on education, health and child protection for those impacted by the war with the LRA. I will also be able to visit the heath center in the area and observe procedures and classes. I heard that Pader is off the beaten path!

We will be coming back to Wakiso that Saturday, so it should be a fast trip. The pictures you see above are of Wakiso where I have been staying. As you can see, it is totally like I expected. I am still in training from 8 AM to 5:30 PM everyday, still working on Lango! We learned yesterday about the Emergency Action Plan. They really do have and extensive plan and I feel that it is very good! Last year they used the plan 3 times, so they do have experience with it. I am not sure if you have heard about the PCV that was murdered, but from what I understand he was out after dark. That put him at high risk for violence. Please pray for his family.

We have been told that we will be sworn in on October 21st at the Ambassadors home. That should be exciting! Hope all is well with everyone.

Love & Light,

Mari

Uganda Culture

Let me tell you a few cross cultural things about Uganda that I have learned.

President of Uganda is Yoweri Kaguta Musaveni. Elections for the Presidency will be March 6, 2011. It is best not to visit between February to April 2011. The population of Uganda is 33 million. Activities are coffee, lumber, minerals, tourism, agriculture is 80% Milet, Rice, Potatoes, Beans, Peanuts, vegetables and fruits. Exports are coffee, cotton, fish, hides and skins, tobacco and flowers. The average life expectancy is 53; males 52 years of age and females is 54 years of age.

Climate is 70-80 all year with 2 raining seasons; mid August to December and April to July. Political Organizations is the Local Council (LC) System. They have LC 1 (Village), LC 2 (Parish), LC 3 (Sub county which is 10 Parishes), LC 4 (County) and LC 5 (District level). There are 111 Districts in Uganda.

The official language is English, Luganda is next and Sweheii is the next language. However, there are 56 different languages in Uganda. I will be stationed in a region in the North that speaks Leb Lango. I don’t know yet where I will go, but I am thinking it is either in Lira, Guru, Padra or Kitgum. I have been informed that there are no Peace Corps Health Care workers in the North. Myself and another nurse are going up there, so I guess it will be part of our job to develop and implement the Healthcare program in the north.

The Health Care System in Uganda is ranked by Level of Care provided, i.e. HC 1, HC 2 (at parish level), HC 3 (Sub county level), and HC 4 (Sub-district Health Service), HC 5 (District Health Service, Regional referral Hospitals). We went to visit the Wakiso Health Care and we were told it was a HC 4. We were also told that they had 1, yes 1 doctor on duty with other healthcare workers. They see approximately 100 patients per day, they have 4 to 5 births per day. Now that is a working doctor! Major illnesses that they see daily: Malaria is number 1, then pneumonia, then HIV/AIDS and opportunistic diseases. They have a Lab, Clinical section (Diabetes, Maternal Health), Dental, OB, a small Mental Health clinic. Medications are only brought in every 3 months. They see approximately 330,000 patients/year.

I think that I have had every vaccine imaginable. We have had training in the most common illnesses that plague the people of Uganda, which is not just HIV/AIDs, but Malaria (everywhere), TB (High percentage in the North), Schistosomiasis, food borne illnesses, Skin problems i.e. fungal infections, ringworm, bacterial infections, nairobi eye, Mango-Worm Tumbu Fly, Scabies, and Rabies.

We heard that 50% of PCV’s get Schisto, a worm that lays eggs in the liver, spine, abdomen or somewhere in the body and causes many problems...no fear you can get treatment that will get rid of them and PC follows you when you finish service to make sure you are A Okay!) Schisto is in all water in Uganda, so we have been advised not to get in any lakes, rivers, streams, etc.

We not only studied about a Permagarden, we created one! Wow, we planted so many things.

The culture here is more verbal than the US, everyone talks to everyone. It is a relationship culture. If your neighbor has something you need, you give it to him and you are expected to give it to him, but mostly they Love sharing. Families, friends and neighbors share everything. When you come over to visit and/or for advise, the family fixes you a plate of food. They have breakfast; tea with food; lunch; tea with food again then dinner. I have eaten alot here. Depending on your Religious beliefs, men can have 1, 2 , 3, 4, or 6 wives. Men are expected to produce as many and more children than their fathers. I met one man the other day that had 31 siblings! It seems that women do all the chores (which is alot!) and care for the children; while men go to work. However, the unemployment rate is high in Uganda. Also, it is not unusual for women to greet their men by kneeing in front of them and/or the children kneeing to give their father something to eat. There is so much Respect for parents here and children really appreciate their parent and what they have been given. I also learned that when someone dies that the body is left in the house and everyone comes over and stays the night, even if they need to sleep outside on the grass if there are so many people. They do not leave the family or the body.

Anyway, we went to a PCV conference luncheon today and hear from the Director that we will have our swearing in at the US Ambassador’s home on October 21st. So keep praying that I learn the language!

Take care of yourselves.

Love & Light,
Mari

August 29, 2010

Yesterday we had language an then we went to the Uganda Museum and to the Peace Corp office in Kampala. It was pretty good! Best part of the day was when I was able to go into Garden City and buy a modem and airtime. Yea, so now I am able to get internet! Still need to get on and off, not like home where you can stay on forever. Every minute counts, I purchased 1 month and that gives me about 1 hour everyday if I don’t send pictures. So Yea!

Today, after Mass, I washed cloths outside! Wow, it took me 1 1/2 hours!

Love & Light,

Mari

August 25, 2010

My homestay family is very poor, but my host sister (who is my age and the mother) wants to have her children educated at the university here. Her daughter will be going to the university next September and then she has another that will follow her. So she is thinking about going to the US to earn money for their school. She works amazingly hard. Boiling water, cooking outside, cleaning, washing dishes outside, taking care of the hen farm and the children, washing cloths outside and ironing everything. You have to iron everything here that is put on the line to dry. Because there is a fly that when they land on your wet cloths they lay eggs. You put the cloths on and the eggs go into your skin and then cause a boil. Then worms come out of your skin. Not fun!

My host sister, Margaret has been so nice to me and I really have been welcomed into this home. The father is a Rev and he started a school, he made a DVD to send out as a fund raiser and I saw it the other night and it is really good. He wanted to help the young people and educate them so that they would not be out doing nothing.

I would like to send you all a copy of the DVD if he gets me a copy.

Amaro wun,

Means I Love You All in Lango!

Get this: Amari is I Love You! Can you believe, A Mari....my name!

I think that is neat!

Love & Light,

Mari

August 24, 2010

We got some more vaccines today Rabies #2 and Meningitis. Last week one of the young guys had to have stitches in his head because he fell and they have asked me to take them out tomorrow for them. There are only 3 nurses in our group of 45. We learned today about many of the skin diseases in Africa. We are going into the community this afternoon to teach some of the community people....our first encounter! One good thing is that we have a translator!

All the internets were down again. Many times, like last night there were was no electricity or running water. Many times that happens.

Still looking forward to going to my site.

Love & Light,

Mari

August 21, 2010

Today is Saturday and we still had to go to the classes. We had Language today and then the bank came and introduced us to the VISA cards that the Peace Corp will issue us. We are to use those during our stay here, it is with Stanbic Bank. PC will deposit money once a month into that account for us to live on while we are here. We just filled out paper work and should get them next Wednesday. Then I came home and my host sister brought a modem from work home for the weekend, I brought 4000 UGS for airtime and We Got On the Internet from Home! It was great and we were happy until it went out in less than two minutes. The air time goes fast. Just like the air time on the phone calling the states.

This afternoon, my host sister helped me wash my laundry. Also, another first here in Uganda was washing my hair in the bucket when I washed up. I feel like I am back in school full time, 8 to 5pm we are in classes, and we have so much homework!

When I was at the market, I met a Peace Corps Volunteer that is stationed up North and speaks the Lango language. He said that I will not be far North, I may be in Kitgum, but in South Kitgum if I am there at all. He said it will probably be in close to Guru or Lira. Either way, he said that it is flat, hot and green...that it is beautiful. So I am looking forward to going.

Take care of yourselves and I will be in touch.

Love & Light,

Mari

August 19, 2010

It is beautiful today! Classes were good, we had 2 volunteers talk with us today on some of there experiences and a network they started, Peer Support & Diversity Development. It is a great network to ask questions and get real time knowledge and help. I rode my bike home and stopped at 3 internet cafes and many air-card places for a modem access....no luck. One place losted electricity. My language instructor was sick today, so we only got instruction in the morning. But we had homework last night and we had to introduce ourselves, where we were from, where we are now and what out profession was without looking at our notes. Wow! I did it and did it well. So maybe all will be well.

I rode my bike home today and boy was that rough. Many holes in the rode...some of the volunteers turn their bikes back in today because it was too hard for them to ride up and down the hills and to dodge cars, taxis and motorcycles. I like riding the bike, verse walking.

Take care of yourselves and I will be in touch!

Love & Light,
Mari

August 18, 2010

The Internet Cafes are challenging. I went yesterday, but they said that they did not have an antivirus yet on the computer, so I did not use it. I am still learning the phone system, they use airtime instead of monthly charges, and boy does it go fast!

We had class all day today and I got my bike, but I was not able to ride it to my homestay because my skirt was too long and was getting stuck in the bike. So I will get it tomorrow.

Anyway, things are going well and challenging.

Love & Light,

Mari

August 17, 2010

We had training all day today. I walked to RACO this morning and saw some on the young children that were out.....Wow what poverty everywhere here. Americans are so blessed. Not sure how much the government money trickles down. About 2 pm it started to rain and really rained hard until the end of the day. It was bad that I had to walk home in the pouring rain....good thing for my rain poncho from AAA!

We started learning our new Leb Lango language and it is going slow, but I think it may be easier than Luganda. I cannot wait to get my bike! Everyone is so nice here. So far I still have not been able to get Internet.

August 16, 2010

We left for Wakiso today and meet our host families for homestay. I have a wonderful loving family, Rev. Luyinda and his wife Margaret. They have 6 children, 5 live at home, the youngest is 13. The oldest is in the US and finished nursing school and lives in Washington DC. Her mother said that she will only visit Uganda now, she is applying for citizenship in the USA. I will be here for 10 weeks during my orientation period and am learning how to survive in Uganda when I am on my own. They have electricity, but it goes out alot and no running water. I take a bath outside and the pit lateran is outside. But it is good to learn what to do. I will walk about 3 miles to the class from their home and then back at the end of the day with a full backpack. We will get our bikes on the 18th.

Love & Light,

Mari

August 14, 2010

Well it was a fun day today! This morning we had the 3 PCVs speak to us and tell us alittle about the host families that they had. Then we learn how to make a tippie tap (that is a little fountain to wash our hands without touching anything made from whatever you can find. We then learned about a bike for 45 minutes...Wow, that was something.

We found out what region that we are going to because we were learning Luganda and different regions have other languages that they speak. So they are changing the curriculum to accommodate the 8 other languages. We will meet our teachers tomorrow. The AD stated that our scheduled regions 99.9% correct. Well, my region will be somewhere in North Uganda and I will start learning Leb Lango! There are a couple of places in the North that have community health, so I have an idea where I may be. It will either be in Lira, Pader, or South Kitgum, Uganda. I heard it is gorgeous up there and they only send people that can work independently. Only 5 of us are going there out of the 45 and 3 of us are over 50. Me and 2 others who are a married couple. It is however, close to the Sudan boarder.

After training some of the trainees walked into town and some went to play soccer, I meet up with the people that went to play soccer to take some pictures. Oh my Goodness! The kids Loved the camera and everyone wanted their picture taken and then they wanted to see the picture. I was mobbed by the kids. It was great, they were all laughing and so excited...it was so good to see. These are children that live in poverty and they are so happy with the simple things of life. It really put a smile on my face and the guy trainees where laughing at me getting mobbed by the kids!

Tomorrow we are going to Kampala to get a phone, exchange our money (exchange rate is 2200 shillings for every $1.00) and do some shopping to get things we need for when we move into our host families. Some of the things we have to buy are a pot bucket to pee in, toilet paper, a cup to sponge bath, a sponge to clean with, etc...fun stuff like that!

Stay healthy and continue to pray for me for learning now the Lango language!

Love,

Mari