Monday, 5 September, 2011

A series of commitments has recently brought me away from Kasese, and I was away from site for the majority of the month of August. The first was a training for the new group of Peace Corps Trainees that arrived at the beginning of the month. Following this, I made my way up to the northern part of the country for the first Peace Camp in Uganda. With the culmination of the camp, I made my way down to the Kampala area for the Peace Corps All Volunteer Conference.

The arrival of the new Community Health and Economic Development class in August was also a milestone for myself and the other forty-four members of my training class. August 11^th marked the one-year anniversary of our arrival in Uganda. It is really strange to think it has been a year that I have been living in this country. In many ways, I feel like I am still settling in, but I guess I will feel that way until I step off the plane on my arrival home. The remarkable thing is that one year in, my entire training class is still serving. That is nearly unheard of in Peace Corps, particularly in a group of my size.

While we were joined by a new Education Class six months ago, we were not involved in their training, and their activities are very different from ours. Having a new group that we are largely responsible for training, and thinking of myself as one year into service is a huge feeling of accomplishment. The only sad thing about this new group is that none of them will be coming to Kasese District.

I trained the new group on the realities surrounding LGBT volunteers, coping mechanisms, and the general sense of how Uganda feels about homosexuality. This followed a similar training that I co-facilitated with the Peace Corps training staff, made up mostly of Ugandans. Both sessions went well, which was particularly surprising in the case of the Ugandan staff. One long time Ugandan trainer even told us she was touched by the session, and declared her support for LGBT PCVs.

While I enjoyed the session with the new PCTs, I was most excited about the opportunity to meet and begin to get to know the new “new kids.” Not long ago, we were the new kids, then we were the “six month kids,” and somehow we are now the “one year kids.” They all seemed really cool and excited to get started with their experience. They are also possibly the most diverse group in the country. Out of 46 volunteers, they have fifteen volunteers over 50 years old, several racial and ethnic minorities, and some LGBT people.

The day after my session at PST, I hopped a bus with some other current PCVs to Gulu in Northern Uganda. Several PCVs worked together to develop the first “Peace Camp” held by Peace Corps Uganda. Peace Camps have been used in other countries where Peace Corps serves, particularly in the former Eastern Bloc countries in Eastern Europe. There are also Peace Camps held in outside of Peace Corps, often dedicated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

For over twenty years, Northern Uganda was torn apart by the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group created by a man named Joseph Kony. The LRA was created in an effort to bring about a government based on the Ten Commandments. Somehow this debilitated into a guerilla terrorist group that haunted the North from the late 1980’s until the government finally repelled them from the country in 2007. Over 200,000 children were left orphans as a result of the LRA. Rebels were notorious for brutal murders, child abductions, and sexual violence. Perhaps most horrifically, they forced children to become soldiers in an effort to maintain their ranks. They would force children to kill members of their community or even their own family members as a way to guarantee they could not escape back. The child soldiers would know that they could not return home to a family or community that they had helped decimate. In that way, the LRA was able to guarantee near total control over child soldiers.

The North was ripe for this kind of rebel activity. The North has traditionally been the least developed part of the country, often intentionally. The people in the North are ethnically different from the rest of Uganda, coming from the Nilotic language and ethnic family, rather than the Bantu family that typifies the rest of Uganda. When the English controlled Uganda as a colony, they used the powerful kingdom of Buganda (which the country is named after and is the single largest ethnic group in the country) to control the rest of the land. By making allies of the Baganda people, the English were able to exert their control over the rest of the country with minimal military effort. The North, which was less fertile and not particularly strategic was intentionally ignored by the Brits, and thus was very late to any development. The West and Southwest of the country also experienced development because of great fertility of the area and the confluence of tourist attractions in that part of the country. The East is more underdeveloped that the Central or the West, but because of its trading capacity with Kenya and Tanzania, is still leaps and bounds ahead of the North. The tribal kingdom that is generally most associated with the LRA is the Acholi tribe. Many of the LRA’s leaders and soldiers were Acholi, and many of the other Northern tribal kingdoms place a great deal of blame on the Acholi. However, this is only a part of the picture, as the Acholi are also arguably the most brutally affected of any of the tribes. At one point the majority of Acholi left their homes and were living in Internally Displaced Persons Camps (IDPs). This has led to a high level of distrust and resentment, if not outright hatred, between the tribes.

Until recently, Peace Corps Uganda was not permitted to place PCVs in the North. I believe the CHED class one year before mine was the first time PCVs were allowed to serve in that part of that country. PCVs who were placed there were specially trained to work in a post conflict area in which Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is common. All of the volunteers from my group who are working there are involved in post-conflict matters in some way or another. Some run support groups or peace clubs with the youth, while others help develop the economic capacity of the North.

One of the PCVs who serves in Gulu heard about Peace Camps in the Eastern Bloc and thought that it would be perfect to bring to the North. After six months of work, it came to fruition two weeks ago. I have had the opportunity to serve as a counselor to a group of ten Ugandan youth between 15-19 this whole week. I wanted to work on the camp because for a number of reasons. I knew it would be great practice for the larger Camp BUILD I am planning for December. I wanted to see the North, which was the only region of the country I had yet to visit. Last, I wanted the opportunity to work with people who had been affected by the war.

I was paired with a Ugandan co-counselor named Hilda. She is a member of the Acholi tribe and from the town of Kitgum, which is even further north towards Southern Sudan. I was paired with her particularly because she is a teacher at a school for the deaf in Northern Uganda, and I had two deaf campers in my group. The kids were supposed to be between 15 and 19 years old, though one girl in my group definitely lied about her age and turned out to be only 13. Oddly though, she turned out to be one of the most outspoken members of our group, the Orange Tigers. I had campers from each of the four tribes represented at camp, including four Acholi, four Langi, one Iteso, and one Alur.

We came into the camp with the idea of building on the skills and healing the youth had already developed in the years since the war ended. We didn’t want to ask them to relive past experiences, or try to pry out some kind of emotional story that would do more damage than good to return to. This led to a debate on the first night of the camp. We had decided to open the camp by showing a movie to the kids. The original choice was War Dance, a documentary about a group of students at an Acholi IDP camp school who went all the way to Kampala to compete in the national dance and music competition. While the second half of the film was triumphant, the first half followed four students through their lives, including some very traumatic stories. We were concerned that this might hit home too hard among the campers. An alternative suggestion was the film Invictus, which is about an integrated South African rugby team right after the end of Apartheid and Nelson Mandela’s election. Mandela is a hero throughout all of Africa, and the national stadium in Kampala is even named after him.

We ended up showing War Dance over the concerns of some of us who were still very concerned about the showing the film. While most campers said they saw the film as inspirational, there were some who were visibly bothered. One of my campers even commented that he wished he had not watched it, because it reminded him of his parents and older brother, all of whom were murdered by the LRA.

The rest of the week focused on developing communication skills, conflict resolution, and team building activities. We had a Kampala-based theater group come in and perform plays about bullying and domestic violence, and had a discussion after. Most of the campers also really enjoyed a day trip to a nearby ropes course, one of the few in East Africa. We also had each tribe perform a series of cultural dances for different leaders from their kingdom, who came in to witness.

The mood of the camp was very positive and everything was going very smoothly. The theme on Thursday, the second to last full day of camp, was “Forgiveness and Reconciliation.” We had an Iteso man who had moved to London to study come in and tell the story of how he forgave the Acholi in particular for the murder of his family. The day seemed to be going fine, and my group was bonding despite their tribal differences.

That night we had a candlelight ceremony in which every camper was asked to write the name of someone they wanted to forgive, and then burn the paper as a sign of reconciliation. Following that, we had a tribal forgiveness ceremony, where the members of each tribe went to the others individually and forgave them for all the pain caused during the war. I was a little put off by the idea, thinking it was all just a little too Christian sounding and idealistic, but it seemed to go well at first. As the last two tribes forgave each other, one of the girls in the Iteso tribe had a series of flashbacks related to PTSD and collapsed. This seemed to open the floodgates, and several other campers left in tears. One of the campers in Shelley’s group pulled her aside and confided in her about his experience. His parents were murdered by LRA rebels, and one day he came home to find his three younger brothers had been literally chopped into small pieces. He hated the Acholi, who he collectively blamed, and did not see why he should forgive them. Several other similar stories came out, and it was clear that despite the progress we had made that week, there was still much more boiling beneath the surface than we could have fathomed. It quickly became clear that we had been idealistic and even naïve in coming to this night.

The next morning we changed the regular schedule around so that we could have more time for reflection and support. We started by bringing all of the individual tribal groups together for discussion, hoping that the campers might be more open among their immediate peers. I sat in with the Alur group, and listened to more stories from these kids about terrible things that happened to them and why they could not so easily forgive each other.

After that, we met for a while with out small groups. While my campers were more composed than some of the other groups, there was still a great deal that came out during that session. Some of the campers had parents or siblings murdered. At least a couple of them were abducted (and I suspect possibly experienced sexual violence) when they were young, some for over a year. They were all significantly behind in their studies and had no way of paying school fees. One of my deaf campers commented that after his brother and parents were murdered, he had to live with relatives who did not bother to sign, and who were very abusive towards him. One of my campers has not seen his parents in ten years, and is still not sure if they are dead or alive. Some of the campers in other groups had even more horrendous stories, including those who were forced to become child soldiers and kill members of their own family or community.

That night we had an awards ceremony and slideshow of the week. Each group also presented a skit about what they had learned and how they would return to their communities. At the end we just played music and let the kids dance and socialize for their last night with each other. It never ceases to amaze me how comfortable Ugandan youth are dancing, unlike American teenagers. Despite the emotional rollercoaster of the last 24 hours, the kids seemed to end the camp on a high note.

Saying that the experience was humbling and eye-opening sounds pretty cliché, but it is also true. It taught me some pretty significant life lessons, and also gave me a lot of hope at a time when I have been feeling pretty skeptical of development in Uganda. I know that the message of reconciliation and forgiveness is an important one because it allows someone to make peace. However, I still left the camp unconvinced that we should have asked these kids to forgive the people who murdered their families, disrupted their lives, and violated them. I agree that collective blame of one tribe is wrong and short-sighted, but sometimes forgiveness might just be overrated. If I had gone through everything these kids had gone through, or seen my own family butchered, I doubt I could ever forgive it. And I am not sure they should either.

Immediately following Peace Camp, we made our way to Kampala for the annual All Volunteer Conference. Last year we were still in training for the conference, and were only able to attend for one lunch. It was really bizarre to be in the opposite situation one year later, welcoming in the current batch of trainees. I feel like I have been here one month, not one year.

After having the conference and the time with all the other PCVs to reboot myself, I made my way back to Kasese. I think that the combination of training the new group, working at Peace Camp, and the All Vol Conference have provided me with just the shot in the arm I need in coming back to site. And just in time, too. As it is now September, we are hard at work on Camp BUILD, and the new school term is about to start. And the rainy season will soon be upon us, so hello cooler weather!

Me and the Orange Tigers, my team at Peace Camp

Campers from the Langi tribe performing a traditional dance

Tuesday, 12 July 2011

I’ve officially hit my sophomore slump.

This week I am at a malaria training with several other community health PCVs. Upon our arrival last night we had a chance to air out some of our frustrations with our experiences in Uganda. They have all been remarkably similar.

Co-workers don’t show up on time, and often just don’t show up for work at all. Our organizations encourage us to champion certain projects but never supply the necessary organizational or community buy-in essential for success. Our supervisors insist that we need to be raising money for them when it was expressly stated during the application that we were not to be involved in finances. Perhaps most annoying, the people we work with are aware of what needs to be done to improve their lives, but just don’t. Instead they seem downright opposed to change, constantly falling back on the argument that all the way they do things is a part of culture.

Many differences between Americans and Ugandans can be chalked up to culture, but many cannot. Unhealthy and even dangerous practices are defended using the mirage of “cultural differences” and the knee jerk response of opposition to modern day Western imperialism.

Let’s be clear- wealthy nations have long tired to exert cultural homogeny over the developing world, and in the process dismissed indigenous culture as “backward.” It is imperialist, patriarchal, and often racist. However, I have seen many examples of Ugandans resisting necessary change by hiding behind excuses of culture. Let me give examples.

Sexual harassment of women, Ugandan or foreigner, is incredibly common in this country. While it is an accurate statement to say culturally there are defined gender roles in Ugandan society that generally feature men in a highly privileged position, it not a blank check to forgive mistreatment of women. Beliefs about men having the right to force women to not use birth control or condoms are justified with culture. The idea that marital rape is not rape because the man gave her father goats is passed off as culture. These are just two particularly egregious examples of how traditional practices involving male and female roles is wrongly justified as culture. Culture is the about larger systematic ideas and ideals. Culture assigns meaning and value to things, including different genders. However, not every traditional practice or role can be called culture. To do so is not only wrong, it is also offensive. To say marital rape is a part of the Ugandan culture is appalling, and seriously miscasts the realities of the people in this country.

The examples do not end there.

My Ugandan co-workers are terrible about keeping time. Every meeting starts very late and runs significantly overtime. When projects are regularly slowed down because of blown deadlines or late arrivals, my co-workers will simply shrug it off. “That’s just our culture,” I regularly hear as a justification. But it really is not. Ugandan culture is much more relaxed when it comes to the notion of time. That is a true part of the culture. That is why many Ugandans do not know their birthdays, or what time certain things happen at. But not getting your work done because you are slow or lazy and then saying it is because of culture is flat wrong.

Uganda’s Christian majority is incredibly conservative and evangelical, but often religiously hypocritical. Most Ugandans will turn to traditional healers as their first line of defense rather than medical professionals. Now, I don’t inherently have a problem with this. In fact, many traditional healers have created holistic approaches that integrate traditional healing with contemporary medical approaches. I think that is an innovative and practical approach. However, in the Catholic and Anglican worldview (which represents the vast majority of the country’s Christians), belief in what they would call “pagan” practices is completely forbidden. Yet people choose to ignore that part.

Uganda has made international headlines for the vitriolic attacks they have made against homosexuality in the name of their evangelism. The country has come very close on several occasions to passing the “Kill the Gays” Bill that would make homosexuality punishable by the death penalty. Yep, Uganda would join countries like Iran in using the death penalty to “cure” their country of the “Western threat” of gay people. However, they will quickly discard the Bible when it suits them. It is true there are many passages in the Bible and the Qu’ran that decry with sex between men, there is far more written about the evils of discrimination and murder. And last time I checked, homosexuality is not mentioned in any Commandment, the pillars of Christian faith, while “Thou Shalt Not Kill” is pretty prominent in that list of ten.

Perhaps the most frustrating piece of my service here has to do with behavior change. When I left for Uganda, my assumption was that I would be working in people who had very little knowledge of how to protect themselves from HIV, malaria, and numerous other ailments. However, I have regularly been shocked to find that almost everybody is very well educated on these issues, albeit with several crazy myths spun in with the truth as well.

They know to use condoms, but they don’t. They know to sleep under mosquito nets, but they don’t. They know to boil or treat their water, but they don’t. They know to eat balanced diets but just eat nutrition deficient starches.  They know to exercise, but never do. They know they cannot keep having eight children, but they do. And no matter what I do, it almost always seems to fall upon deaf ears.

Another common theme I have heard from PCVs is that they feel Peace Corps service has made them far more conservative. One close friend of mine went so far as to claim that Peace Corps is a Republican conspiracy to turn hippies into greedy capitalists. Even I admit that I have become incredibly cynical regarding the role of foreign aid in the developing world.

Now, I am nowhere ready to jump ship from Team Blue to Team Red, but I do have serious problems with the U.S.’s approach to foreign aid. For a long time, I have championed foreign aid, and believed that the U.S. should divert money from excessive defense spending to more development aid. I still believe that foreign aid is important, but I believe our approach is completely flawed.

American foreign aid is distributed primarily through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), along with the State Department, CDC, and Peace Corps, among others. They focus on small-scale change and capacity building within communities, particularly utilizing microfinance. Small community savings and income-generating activities along with increased agricultural capacity are encouraged. This approach seems to make perfect sense, yet it simply has not worked.

Never once in history has this approach delivered a society from poverty. That is not to say a micro focus should not be a component of aid, but rather that the macro seems to have made a greater change. But more on my criticisms of the micro view in a bit. Between 85 and 90% of Uganda’s economy is agriculturally driven. This is derived from a tremendous cache of natural resources and excellent climate for growing. But one needs only look at the rich nations of the world to see that it was solely in abandoning agriculture in favor of industrialization that served as the hand up from poverty. That is not to say agriculture should be completely forsaken. The U.S. has an intrinsic advantage over Western Europe in that’ our sprawling cities are complimented by vast swaths of farmland. However, as little as two percent of the American workforce is engaged in agriculture. Advanced technologies requiring fewer farm workers and strong service-based industries drove Western economies into wealth and modernity.

In his book “The Post-American World,” Fareed Zakaria (one of my best reads here in Ugandan), argues that only industrialization can end poverty, and I agree. He cites the example of China, where booming industrialization has lifted more than four hundred million people out of poverty in the last few decades- the greatest example of poverty alleviation in world history. (Granted, that has seriously negative side effects, notably climate change derived from mass amounts of new pollution. We’ll save that conversation for another day though.)

Aid has been poring into Uganda and the rest of the developing world for decades with varying levels of success. However, the amount of progress this made is vastly smaller than the amount of money spent. Even in cases of great success, foreign aid is only a band aid for poverty, and one that must be constantly reapplied. As soon as the flow of foreign aid ebbs, progress sputters to a halt. The developing countries that have pulled ahead of the rest of the Third World- China, India, Brazil- have done so because of innovation and private enterprise, not aid.

So what should the U.S. do? Start copying China’s approach! While still a developing country itself, China is building an army of loyal foreign nations with its international development. China has focused on the macro, and done so in a way that is helping both the country receiving the aid, and China itself. Building up infrastructure has put people to work and created access to new markets. China has been able to receive advantageous rights to using this infrastructure, allowing them market dominance.

The New Deal in the U.S. focused on putting people to work in order to a) give them a paycheck, and b) build up America’s competitive and modern infrastructure. I see no reason the same logic cannot work in third world countries as well.

During colonial rule, the British built a railway system across much of Uganda and their other African holdings. When Uganda achieved independence in 1962, they completely neglected this system, and failed to understand even how to maintain it. Dictators Milton Obote and Idi Amin were focused on their own wealth rather than economic growth. Even Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986, has promised to rebuild the railway system, but has never been able.

A part of that is a lack of financial resources, but another component is incompetence. The British never taught the Ugandans how to operate or repair the system, and the Ugandans never bothered to figure it out once their oppressors were gone. As a result, I believe the country, lacking knowledge and rife with corrupt politicians with plundering pockets, is unable to construct a major infrastructure system. Even the main roads of the country, which are one lane roads covered in speed bumps that prevent swifty transport of goods, take an unfathomable amount of time to pave. In the year I have been in Uganda, I have seen significantly less progress on the road from Kampala to Kasese than I have repaving multi-lane highways in Chicago in a couple of months.

Uganda grows a surplus of food, which could allow it to be a major exporter of crops (at least until it’s exploding population sinks its progress). However, the opportunity to be a major food distributor is stifled by a lack of infrastructure. Behind my house runs the remains of the Kasese-Kampala railroad. If the U.S. were to fund construction of a new line to Kampala, and then connecting lines to Nairobi then coastal Mombasa, Ugandans could export food all over Africa, the Middle East, as far as India. Furthermore, in exchange for this aid, the U.S. could sign some sort of deal with the Ugandan government that allows U.S. companies to procure Ugandan goods at reduced rates, benefiting both countries!

With new roads and railways new markets will pop up and exporting will become significantly easier. It would also create sizeable opportunities for new businesses. There would be jobs associated with the operation and maintenance of the railroads. With larger markets, more people would be able to break into the trade. And shops and businesses would spring up along these transportations lines to accommodate everything from food to fuel needs. Advertising options directed at more mobile middle class passengers would create a whole new way to raise awareness of business. Increased government revenues from this activity could be put toward large-scale efforts to eradicate malaria and HIV, and improve sanitation and nutrition.

However, we cannot ignore the micro picture, which affects people everyday. Microfinance, the trophy child of international development, only works so far as entrepreneurial capacity exists within the individuals in the community. And herein lies the problem for Community Health and Economic Development volunteers like myself.

From the beginning of our training in Wakiso, we PCVs were told we would need to take our own initiative to begin projects. We were also told that we should not suspect sustainability in our projects if there was not a community buy-in. And again, herein lies a problem. We are expected to create our own work, but also to never try a project that the community itself is not excited about and involved in from the beginning. And let me tell you, that almost never happens.

Take the example of “the Stove Project,” a common Peace Corps project taken on by PCVs worldwide. The project is genius in its simplicity. It involves readily available and essentially free natural resources- mud and saw dust- being used to make stoves. These stoves do not require nearly as much wood burning or other fuel expenditures as traditional stoves used in the developing world. That saves impoverished people significant amounts of money in the long term, and also cuts down on environmental and individual exposure to smoke pollution. Just a few weeks ago, several volunteers worked on this project with Shelley, one of my fellow PCVs in Kasese District. The bulk of work was completed in one Saturday. However, the stove requires someone spend ten or fifteen minutes a day covering small cracks with water and mud as the stove begins to dry. If these precautions are not taken, the stove will quickly collapse. All Shelley asked as a community buy-in was that the Ugandans who attended the workshop agree to come once a day for this simple maintenance. And it just has not happened, despite extraordinary benefits to the people at her health center, and nearly no energy or time required.

That is one example, but it typifies most projects PCVs work on here. I have had many similar experiences when trying to work on projects at my site. For example, my supervisor and I came up with an idea for a monthly weekend support group and camp for HIV positive orphans in town. I was very excited about the project right away. But it quickly became clear than any work was dependent on me, and me alone. I was not offered any help in contacting schools and social services to reach out to these children, and none of my co-workers were interested in assisting on their day off. Furthermore, despite many warning that PCVs are not here to provide money but rather knowledge, my supervisor told me I would need to find funding to provide tea and meals to the kids. I quickly abandoned what was a really exciting idea because I was not getting any support from my health center.

So community health projects and economic development projects generally fail. Even when they do succeed, they rarely are continued after Peace Corps Volunteers leave, despite our constant emphasis on sustainability. Health volunteers are not allowed to do any clinical work for liability purposes, but with public health prevention projects constantly failing due to lack of community buy-in, we are left in a conundrum. As a result almost none of us work the 40 hour a week schedule we were hoping for (not that Ugandans do either). Instead, I focus on smaller projects like Life Skills health education and mentoring programs at the schools around me, and teaching family planning methods to mothers in villages. While I am proud of the work I do, I feel like there is so much more I could work on if I had the support of my community.

I think instead that Peace Corps should focus on the single most important weapon involved in poverty mitigation- quality education. Education PCVs tend to have a much more steady flow of work here because they have a clear existing structure in the form of the schools. I think funneling more human resources towards improving the lackluster education here would go much further than CHED projects continuously failing.

This combination of macro focused infrastructure development combined with micro issues like education would provide a much more logical use of foreign aid resources by the U.S. It would be beneficial to both parties, and would break the stagnation of the donor-donated to paradigm that has only taken Ugandan development part of the way past the finish line.

7 June 2011

So I have just returned from my first African vacation outside of Uganda. I spent a handful of days visiting our neighbor to the south, Rwanda.

I was traveling with fellow PCVs Shelley, Amanda, Michaela, Bryce, Lisa, Gary, and Rashida, as well as Leah, another American volunteer working with the Rotary Club of Uganda.

While Rwanda is very similar to the southwest of Uganda, there are clear differences between the two countries. The first I noticed was that as soon as well crossed the border, the driving lanes switched, so that we were driving on the right, as if we were back in America. Terrible, over-crowded transport is a staple of just about any visit to Uganda. Minibuses called matatus are built for fourteen, but I have seen as many as twice that number crammed into one. Often a goat or a bunch of chicken are included in the trip as well, and it is not uncommon to find yourself asked to host another passenger on your lap! But not Rwanda. There are strict rules for transport in Rwanda. Police make sure that taxis do not overcrowded, though it does occasionally happen outside of the watchful eye of the capital.

The differences between Rwanda and Ugandan are never more glaring than after a visit to both nations’ capitals. Kampala is a huge and chaotic expanse at the heart of Uganda. There are few paved roads, and the lack of traffic control leads to near constant congestion. The streets and sidewalks are paved with trash and dirt due to the lack of cleaning services or waste management. Kigali, on the other hand, is a well-kept picture of the progress Africa can make when resources are properly utilized. There is some semblance of a grid system, and all the major roads are paved and generally lacking potholes. There are sidewalks on most roads, and streetlights and traffic lights across much of the city. Water and power are much more commonplace, and much more reliable than in Uganda.

Walking down the streets of Kigali, I actually forgot that I was in Africa a few times, only to be reminded by the occasional view of mud huts tucked away behind modern shops and businesses. However nothing was more striking about Kigali than how much cleaner it was than Kampala. Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, has made environmental stewardship a hallmark of his administration. Plastic bags are outlawed in favor of paper bags, and cleaning crews literally sweeping roads with brooms is a regular site. In fact, on the last Saturday of every month, all businesses are required to shut down between 8 and 11 AM for mandatory community cleaning. Police officers block roads so that no one can drive, and everyone is required to help clean around their communities. The result is the picture of a well-manicured city that is welcoming to both Rwandan and foreign visitors alike.

Of course, this is only half the story. In fact, I wonder if any of the progress Rwanda has made would have been possible had it not been for the outpouring of support following the 1994 Genocide. In fact, the picture perfect image the city provides is probably in an attempt to clean up the image of the whole nation.

No foreign traveler could come to Rwanda without thinking consciously about the 1994 genocide that killed one million people in 90 days. While most people probably can’t find Rwanda on a map, they have heard of the Rwandan Genocide. Over a period of 90 days in 1994 one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were butchered by a government trained and endorsed militia. The violence began in Kigali and spread all over the tiny country before Paul Kagame, the leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, came in and liberated the city. Kagame had actually previously been based in the southwest of Uganda.

Our time there was nice. We all marveled at how far Rwanda had come, and how in that sense it could serve as a model for countries like Uganda. On the other hand, would this progress have happened without the Genocide and the iron fist Kagame holds over the country now?

We had lunch at Hotel des Mille Collines, which was the hotel where the events of the movie “Hotel Rwanda” were based. The swanky hotel (which was not actually used in the film) made no mention of its role in the Genocide, which I thought was too bad. After that, we visited the Genocide Memorial Centre in Kigali. The Centre was incredibly well done, and was designed by the same people who had designed a Holocaust Memorial in the UK. A flame that burns every year for 90 days to commemorate the dates of the massacres marked the entrance. Around the Centre there are a series of gardens recalling the different stages of the Genocide. What was easily the most prominent component of the exterior was a series of mass graves where unidentified bodies from the Genocide are buried. There are currently over 250,000 people buried in these graves, and more are added as new mass graves are uncovered. While we were there, there was a funeral procession for a new burial.

The interior had a series of exhibits that showed the history of Rwanda from the pre-colonial era through the present. It explains how the Hutu/Tutsi divide was itself a social construction of the ruling Belgians, who created a conflict where none had previously existed. There were various stories of atrocities committed in 1994. One particularly infamous case involves a Catholic priest. Many Tutsis went to churches for sanctuary (the Catholic Church is the dominant religion in Rwanda). However, there were several cases of the Interahamwe (the Hutu militia) surrounding churches and massacring the people within them. This priest in particular offered sanctuary to a group of Tutsis, only to lock them in the church and direct the Interahamwe to them. Apparently “Thou shalt not kill” had a clause excepting violence against Tutsis.

The next morning we went to another memorial in the town of Nyamata, about 30 kilometers outside of Kigali. The church in this town was one of several where the Tutsis went for protection. They were over 5,000 people killed within the church. The Interahamwe first fired round after round into the church, and when that was not enough to kill everyone, they threw grenades into the church. There were still bullet holes and craters and debris from the grenades. The church was preserved exactly as it was left. The bodies of the victims were moved to mass graves under and around the church. Their clothes, however, were left in piles on the pews and all along the floor. There was a machete that had been used to hack people up still left in the church. The blade was so dull that I really can’t fathom the amount of energy required to break through muscle and bone with such a blunt weapon.

Underneath the church is a crypt that holds one casket and hundreds or thousands of skulls. Behind the church are several more such crypts. They were dug deep into the ground, and included shelves full of caskets, skulls, and various other bones. Some of the caskets had pictures of the people who were buried within, many of them children. There are more mass graves behind them. 5,000 people were killed in the church, and in total over 42,000 people butchered in the vicinity are buried at the memorial.

As we were leaving, the new church next door was just finishing mass. Most of the people then came directly to the memorial. The guide at the memorial told us that many of the people there were survivors of either the actual event, or the Genocide in general. As we left to head back towards Kigali, we could hear someone crying loudly inside the memorial.

After these sobering experiences, the rest of the trip was much less sobering and more restful. We enjoyed the food and nightlife in Kigali and found it to feel very safe, even more so than Kampala, which is already one of the safest capitals in Africa. One our way back to Uganda, we spent some time at Lake Kivu, one of the “African Great Lakes.” We were in the town of Gisenyi, which is right on the shore. We could see the Congo on the other side of the lake. Kivu is unique in that it is one of only a few lakes in East Africa free of schistosomiasis/bilharzia. It is also one of only three “exploding lake” in the world, the other two in Cameroon. Due to their proximity to volcanoes, the lakes have been known to have sporadic though rare explosions of carbon dioxide and methane. Luckily, there was none of that while we were there.

Kivu was like being on a tropical island somewhere. We ate fresh fish and swam in what was surprisingly warm water. It is a popular tourist destination, which is understandable after spending a little time there. It is easily one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

After the great short sojourn to Rwanda, I returned to Uganda. It was very interesting to see how quickly things changed when returning to my country of residence. The Rwandan side of the border was well kept, with paved roads parted by grassy islands with functioning streetlights. There was a heavy gate across the border to prevent any quick attempts to get across. The Ugandan side, on the other hand, was much less remarkable. The road was made only of dirt with trash strewn about and certainly no streetlights. The only thing keeping a car from crossing illegally was a rope so thin it was better described as a string. We all sort of laughed and remarked that it was good to be home.

I returned to site at the end of last week. Unexpectedly, my fun did not end there. Jason’s friend Gina from home was visiting, and they planned a game drive for Saturday. We arrived as the Sun was coming up. Our primary goal was to see lions, as none of us had seen them yet in Uganda. Lions were heavily poached while Idi Amin was president of Uganda, and they have not returned in as large of numbers as once existed in Queen Elizabeth National Park. There are now estimated to be about 140 lions in the park. Lions are notoriously hard to track in the northern part of the park, so we were skeptical of our chances of success. However, within two minutes of entering the park, we found a lioness resting in the grass just next to where we had parked the car. We then found another lioness who our guide believed was stalking prey by the way she was walking. The guide told us that male lions were usually patrolling the outskirts of their territory at that time, so we were not likely to see one. So when we ran into a male lion resting alongside a lioness, we were quite pleased. We also saw the usual spread of elephants, kob, buffalo, and various other animals. We just missed a rock python slithering into the bushes, but the car ahead of us had spotted it on the road.

All in all, it has been a successful several weeks here in East Africa. I am in the process of preparing for future trips, as the travel bug will not seem to let up for me. Select members of my family are preparing to by tickets to visit me in December, and then do a bid safari in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. I am also making preliminary plans with some of my friends here for a planned trip to South Africa at this time next year. And of course, I am already salivating at the options for my post- Close of Service (COS) trip. Right now the tentative (and probably overly ambitious) trip includes stops in Egypt, Jordan, India, Cambodia, Thailand, and several European stops.

But for now, it’s back to work. I am working on BUILD, the boys’ camp planned for December, and a few other things for Peace Corps. School is back in session in Uganda, and there are more outreaches happening at my health center. I went to one of the schools were I teach health education and Life Skills today for the first time this term. The students were gathered outside for prayers, and started cheering and surrounding me when they saw me coming. I think that has more to do with my skin color than my character, but it was still a nice welcome back.

Oh yeah, and in two months I will have been in Uganda for a year. Insane how time flies…

The flame at the Kigai Genocide Memorial Centre

The sign at the entrance to “Hotel Rwanda”

One of the mass graves at the Memorial Centre

Myself and some of my Peace Corps besties, Amanda & Bryce, at Lake Kivu

A hungry lioness stalking her prey

A male and female resting in the shade under a tree

13 May 2011

            It has been awhile since I posted here, so I thought I would update people on what is going on in Uganda. It seems a lot has changed in the last month and a half or so. The new group of trainees was sworn in as volunteers a few weeks ago, and this past week marked the nine-month anniversary of when I left Chicago and arrived in Uganda. At this time a year ago, I already knew I was going to be coming to Uganda with Peace Corps. It is amazing how fast the time has passed.

            I would like to take the time to reflect on some interesting experiences I’ve had here. This entry is partly inspired by the realization that many of my fellow PCVs maintain blogs that are a great deal more hilarious than mine. Here goes:

- Yesterday I was out with a Dutch friend of mine at one of my usual hangouts. There was a new waiter there. When he introduced himself to us, he said his name was Adidas. Jorik, my Dutch friend, asked if he was named after the shoe. Our waiter nodded enthusiastically, and told us that when he was born, his mother wrapped him in clothing with an Adidas label. She liked the name so much she named him after it. He went on to tell us that he is one of thirty-five children his father had between his four wives. That means his fathers’ wives had an average of 8.75 children each. He explained that his family is Catholic, and since Catholics in Uganda are now encouraged to only marry once, he will only take one wife. And they will also practice family planning, so he can have a smaller family- he only wants 15 children!

- In Uganda almost everything you buy is bartered. So coming into an exchange, you know that any price given to you is too high. If you are white, then the price is jacked up even higher. We call this “muzungu price.” A few months back, Shelley and I were on our way back to Kasese from Kampala. We stopped in a town along the way, and street vendors came on the bus trying to sell us street food and drinks. Shelley asked how much for a chapatti (sort of like thinner pita bread). The vender responded, “One hundred shillings, but for you muzungu, two hundred!” Needless to say, Shelley passed on that purchase.

- Towards the end of training, the Peace Corps staff took us to a national forest just outside Entebbe. The guide who took us through the forest spoke only Luganda, so one of the language trainers had to translate his speech for us. The trainer went on normally while the guide welcomed us, but seemed to hesitate towards the end of the intro. When he finally translated it, I could see why. The guide was welcoming us to the forest and thanking God for our presence, as we were all “the color of Jesus,” Later he pointed out a small cave and insisted it was caused thousands of years ago when God flooded the Earth, saving only Moses and company. I’m glad we had such a well-read guide!

- One of my constant companions here is my neighbor Biira, who is probably seven years old. Her father is my co-worker and neighbor, and she often comes and sits next to me while I am outside reading or eating. She has become a hit with my American friends here, because of all of her words of wisdom. Early on she warned me not to wonder through the field next to our house at night because it was full of “snakes and people who will kill you until you’re dead.” Later she told me that when I am making friends with Ugandans, I had to stay away from malayas (prostitutes) because they would use me and then cut off my head. Also, if that happened I couldn’t go to the police, because they would cut out my stomach. Apparently the decapitation at the hands of the Malaya would not be enough to keep me down, but this extra piece of advice would be.

- Most Ugandans are not very good at reading despite the fact that more than seventy percent technically meet the literacy requirements. They don’t know how to spell in their local languages because they are taught English from so early on, and they can’t usually read English because they are only taught how to spell certain words, not how to sound out others. So they don’t do much reading for enjoyment. A few months back I was sitting on the stoop outside my house when a group of young school children walked past me. They stopped to look at my book, which was on of the Sookie Stackhouse novels that “True Blood” is based upon. One of the boys looked at me and said “Thank you sir, for reading the Bible.” I don’t know if it was Sookie leaning seductively against Bill with a snake in the background or the fact that there is only one book everyone is expected to read (interchangeable with the Qu’ran, depending on who you are talking too), but this boy was quite sure of the content of what I was reading.

- For a country that is notoriously homophobic, Ugandan men are amongst the gayest I have ever met. They walk down the street holding hands, and lean against each other in classrooms. I suppose this makes sense, because they don’t have many examples of openly gay people to develop notions of how gay people act. However, it still makes me laugh. The best has to be when the men, who are by most accounts quite masculine, are out at clubs standing in front of their own mirrors wearing tight clothes and dancing and singing along to ballads by Celine Dion and Shania Twain. For real.

- One of the first adjustments I had to make was the close proximity between humans and animals. Walking to town, I might have my path blocked by the huge horns of an Ankole bull, or a group of sheep or goats. The same is true of the grounds of the health center I work at. Goats, sheep, dogs, and chickens are just some of the animals you might see roaming around by the antenatal clinic or the maternity ward. In the U.S. we would be shocked to see the sterile white of a hospital or clinic interrupted by cattle. In Uganda it’s completely normal, and nothing is white or sterile to begin with. I like to leave the front and back door to my home open for a breeze. Just a few weeks ago, when it started raining, I heard several goats making a fuss about all the rain, and I assumed they were hiding in the little bit of space between my house wall and the end of the roof. However, upon further inspection, I discovered that there were in fact four goats in my house! I gasped because I was startled when I saw them. They turned and looked at me, then non-chalantly turned back to looking out at the rain. It was if I was some bird that had just flown by them. They did not seem to mind my presence. I let the goats stay inside until it was done raining, which I soon came to regret. The smell of wet goat lingered in my kitchen for a good week. See my Facebook page for videos of this.

- One of the ways Peace Corps urges volunteers to integrate into their communities is by dressing modestly. Men are supposed to wear button down shirts and nice pants instead of jeans or shorts. Women are supposed to wear skirts that cover their knees at least. We learned early on that depending on where you are living, there could be more or less leeway to these rules. Towards the end of training, my language group was asking our language teacher about clothing. Becky and Shelley were particularly concerned with whether or not they could ever wear jeans and other pants. Pants, Biira told Shelley, were okay, but never mini-skirts. Shelley, who is in her 50’s, laughed and assured Biira that she had not worn mini-skirts in thirty years. To this day Shelley and I still laugh at the image of her walking around Kasese in a mini-skirt with a tube top, stilettos, teased hair, and Malaya make-up.

24 March 2011

            I have been living in Ugandan for about seven and a half months. That is astounding to me. I really feel like I was entering the 8^th grade, let alone Uganda, just days ago. While the initial months of training went by very slowly, the time since has gone by faster than I could have imagined.

            I have been settling into a more comfortable routine with work. Much of my new work revolves around a project working in the local schools. I traveled to the five closest schools to my health center. My counterpart Prisca and I approached all the head teachers with a letter explaining who I am and what I want to do in their schools. Two of the schools said they would get back to me, while three said right away they were very interested.

            My goal is to address basic health issues like HIV and malaria, but also to develop what Peace Corps calls a “Lifeskills” program. One of the issues that I have noticed in Uganda is that while the information is usually there for the people, most people lack the critical thinking to process it. Along with a general focus on behavior change, developing critical thinking is one of my main goals in Uganda. Lifeskills was developed specifically for that. Basically, the idea is to get people, particular kids, to start thinking more about why they believe the things they believe, and to develop critical reasoning and decision making. Empowerment is also central to this goal, particularly for girls.

            One of the things I noticed is that Ugandans seem to be used to being talked at. When I say something, they listen. When teachers say something, they listen. They don’t often volunteer their opinions or thoughts unless it is asked for. I don’t know if this is a fault of the educational system, or other bazungu they met before me. Or, more likely, it is both. When I do ask questions of students and adults, I often get the same answer recited back to me verbatim as I have heard a million times.

            I have made asking questions of the group I am working with one of the tools I use to get my point across. Getting people to answer is difficult, but it after I meet the same group more than one time, they seem to be more relaxed and used to my style. But they still give the same answers over and over. For example, when I talk about HIV, I start out by asking people to tell me how HIV is spread. I get the same answers over and over: unprotected sex, playing with sharp instruments (needles), not being faithful, etc. When I then say all those things are true, but not the actual cause, they look very confused.

            Some people have sex or use needles and never get HIV, I’ll say to them. The act of sex does not cause HIV, so what about sex sometimes causes it? I almost always get blank stares. When I say that HIV cannot survive outside of bodies for long and only passes through fluids, they seem to grasp what I mean more. I’ll ask what the four fluids are that carry HIV. I will usually manage to get all four, but I usually always will get saliva or sweat added in as well. When I say that blood, semen, vaginal fluid, and breast milk all carry HIV, they nod because they have heard that before. The know sex causes HIV sometimes, and they know semen and vaginal fluid carry the virus, but they don’t necessarily put two and two together.

            The other problem is making sure information sinks in. English is the one unifying language in Uganda, and is used by the government as well as schools. English begins in Primary Two, and by Primary Four nearly all teaching is in English. Students will be punished for speaking in Lhukonzo or other first languages. However, the English learned is quite different from American English in pronunciation, word choice, and sentence structure. While I am able to communicate with the students, I have to adjust my accent and work selection to what I think would make the most sense. However, I still loose the students at points. While teaching English is an essential part of preparing Ugandans to be competitive in the world, I fear it might also otherwise hamper the ability of students to process information.

            Even when I speak very slowly with a heavy Ugandan accent, there is sometimes still confusion, thought I think in the end they generally pick up on what I am saying. However, I still am asked the same questions over and over again. I was asked three times yesterday by the same class if condoms prevent HIV, and twice if they prevent pregnancy. I was also asked three times what happens if a condom is torn. I gave the same response each time, and when the questions were repeated I would ask the rest of the class to respond. Only a little more than half would know the answer.

            I also met the new Peace Corps Trainees who will be in my district this week. From what I can tell, their group is very different from my own. One obvious difference is that my group is a Community Health and Economic Development (CHED) training class, while their class is solely Education. However, there are differences beyond that. While my group is pretty evenly spilt between men and women, the girls in their group far outnumber the boys. Also, their oldest volunteer is about 37, while ours is 65, with five others who are around fifty or above. One of the guys coming to Kasese is 26, and said he is about the sixth oldest person in their group. My group has a median age of like 27 or 28.

            However they all seem really nice, and I look forward to having a whole new group of PCVs in Kasese District. It sounds like at least two of the four will not be in town, but I am hoping at least one is. When they came to visit this week, they came with Biira, the language teacher from Lhukonzo. It was nice to catch of with her, as she is the trainer who we spent about half our time with during training.

            The other exciting news is that I was selected as one of the co-directors of a boy’s empowerment camp for all of Uganda. The idea came from Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World), a girls empowerment camp that was held this past December. The way it works is that a few directors organize the camp, then pick camp counselors to work with the kids. The boys will be chosen by Peace Corps Volunteers from around the country. Each volunteer is able to nominate about five counselors, with a maximum total of 150. I am really excited to get working on it!

            The only other exciting thing going on is my birthday, which is in less than a week. I am getting together with a group of Peace Corps Volunteers who are mostly in the southwestern part of the country in Mbarara Town. We are all meeting there tomorrow and staying for the weekend, which should be a lot of fun. Some of my friends are even trekking all the way over from the East to come, which is nice, because that’s not a short trip.

            The best news, however, is that despite warnings of a prolonged drought, the rainy season has finally hit Kasese, and the rain is making every thing green again. Most importantly, it is seriously cooling the weather down. I am so happy it’s the wet season I may have to go ahead and bless the rains down in Africa! ;)

 1 March 2011 

February 11^th, 2011 was the six-month anniversary of when I first landed in Entebbe to begin this whole Peace Corps experience. It was also the same day that 44 new Peace Corps Education Trainees landed in the country. That makes me officially a sophomore. 

            Unfortunately, I was not here on February 11^th, 2011. I had to return to the U.S. due to the unexpected death of a family member. We are only a year apart in age and growing up we were close, spending a lot of time together. At the outset, I said I would only return home if someone in my immediate family died or was married. However, I could not have seen this coming, and I knew right away I wanted to come home.

            Considering the circumstances, coming home was very hard, and more than a little bit surreal. I will not detail my time at home, because I want this blog to be about my experiences in Africa. However, it was a very strange couple of weeks for me.

            I had only planned on coming home for a few days, but because of the Ugandan elections on February 18^th, my Country Director wanted me to wait until the official standfast (Peace Corps directive that PCVs should not leave their site) had ended, so I ended up spending just shy of two weeks home.

            Since the first day I arrived in Uganda, the looming presidential and parliamentary elections have consumed much of our attention and that of all of Peace Corps Uganda. While there was no expectation of violence, African countries have been known to tear themselves apart pretty sporadically after elections. One example often cited by Peace Corps was the 2007 Kenyan elections that ended up leading to months of rioting and the decision to temporarily evacuate Peace Corps from the country.

            Talking to the residents of Uganda about the election was always very interesting. Kasese is in the west/southwest of the country, which has long been a stronghold of President Museveni and his ruling Nation Resistance Movement. The president won control of the country in 1986 when he successfully ousted Milton Obote, the dictator who ruled in the 1960’s and early 1980’s (his rule was only interrupted in the 1970’s when his army chief, Idi Amin, overthrew him). Museveni is originally from the area around the town of Mbarara, which is not far from Kasese and someplace I visit often. Most of the districts in this part of the country have supported Museveni in every election, much like the home states of presidential candidates in the U.S. (unless you are Al Gore).

            Museveni was very popular during the beginning of his reign, and did a great deal to help the country develop after the economic disasters that took place under Obote and Amin. In the first two elections after he took over the country, Museveni won over seventy percent of the vote in what appeared to be a free and fair election (by African standards). Museveni made a famous speech early in his reign in which he said, “the problem with Africa is that it’s leaders stay too long,” and ushered in a constitutional limit of two presidential terms. However in the run up to the 2006 elections, he changed the constitution so he could run again. In response to criticism, he claimed that while leaders stay too long in Africa, he was a revolutionary, and revolutionaries do not leave. While Museveni won that election it was by only 59%, and there was wide spread voter intimidation and claims of fraud. The Ugandan Supreme Court agreed with these charged, but in a close 4-3 decision, they upheld Museveni’s victory.

            Since 2006, Museveni has reportedly further lost popularity. The educated classes and people in towns appear to be more firmly against him, with villagers tending to be more pro-NRM. The elections a couple of weeks back saw Museveni win 68% of the vote, far ahead of perennial candidate Kizza Besigye’s 26%. There have been many reports suggesting voter fraud again. I personally have no idea whether or not he won fairly or if he cheated, but it has been interesting to see people’s reactions.

            Since coming back, when I have asked my Ugandan co-workers and neighbors how the election went, I received mixed results. The pro-Museveni crowd all said it went very smoothly and there were no problems. The anti-Museveni people said it was not a fair election, or just shook their heads and laughed. 

            Luckily, the violence that people feared never really materialized. There were some incidences, of course. One volunteer I known got stuck in the middle of his town during a riot, and was tear-gased by the police along with the rest of the crowd. There were shootings in some towns, including one in my town of Kasese just before the election. One PCV even told me someone in her community was speared after rioting broke out when the results were announced. The most interesting case had to an incumbent MP who ran over his opponent in his car! But all in all, things really were not that bad.

            I had asked my friends to keep me up to date while I was in the U.S. They pretty much all had the same sentiments: “anti-climactic” and “boring.” We are certainly lucky that things turned out okay, but I must admit that after all the build up the election ended up as sort of a dud.

            So here I am, with the election out of the way, one unexpected upheaval of a trip home, and sophomore standing. Every time I catch myself saying, “Wow, I can’t believe it has already been six months,” I have to remind myself that I still have twenty-one left to go! Without the election, things will be much quieter here, and there will be no great events to look forward to. However, in a couple of weeks, I am taking a long weekend trip to Rwanda. I had also tentatively planned to go to Egypt in October right after my Mid-Service Conference, but that is probably out with all the chaos that happened there. While at home, I did get my family to sit down and finally decide when they are coming to visit me. They should be here next December, and leave just before Christmas. We plan on going gorilla trekking near Kisoro, and then a safari in either Kenya or Tanzania. That is something fun to look forward too.

Picture form when I was home with my nephew Danny and niece Emma

Silly faces with my Molloy ladies (and Danny Byrne)

Cooking for our homestay families with my language group

Soaking in the vegetation

The day I left my homestay- I am holding Jesse, Grace, is in front of me touching her face, Mirembe Ruth, the oldest to my left, and Joel in front of her

25 January 2011

          A lot of attention has surrounded the fact that 2011 is the 50^th anniversary of Peace Corps. While this is meant to be a celebration, it has also been tampered recently. A recent addition of “20/20” featured a scathing expose on Peace Corps related to the 2009 murder of a volunteer in Benin, as well as how the Peace Corps deals with sexual assault. I just wanted to address those issues for anyone who might be concerned about them after seeing or hearing about the episode.           

            Since first applying to Peace Corps, I heard that it is often not easy to be a woman in Peace Corps. Sexual harassment is common in most of the countries that Peace Corps serves, and sexual assaults also occur too often. When I was invited to serve in Uganda, our welcome packet indicated that most female PCVs received some kind of sexual harassment. Since arriving in country I have seen that the Peace Corps Uganda staff takes the issue very seriously, and has gone to great lengths to make sure the Ugandan staff in particular is sensitized on this issue. That is not to say that there are never issues, but just to say that while some countries may not handle these matters well, I believe they are more likely the exception than the rule. That does not justify any particular failure on the part of Peace Corps. In fact, I think that Peace Corps mad mistakes in all of the cases cited by “20/20,” but I want to assure people that the situation in Uganda is generally much better.

            Well, it has been a crazy new year so far. The first week of work after the New Year, there was very little work at my health center. People only slowly returned to work from their holiday activities. Then, just as things were picking up, I had to leave for Kampala for In-Service Training. This training occurs after the initial three months of service and lasts about a week and a half.

            IST was great because I was able to see and catch up with some people from my training class for the first time since we swore-in late in October. We were accompanied by either our supervisor or counterpart, who by now we are very comfortable with. The trainings themselves were a mixed bag as they are at any workshop. However we did end up having an intense cross-cultural discussion during a session on “Lifeskills,” the approach Peace Corps uses to teach sensitive issues, often directed towards youth.

            Specifically, we were in a session discussing the differences between American and Ugandan notions of gender roles. The conversation started off tame, but quickly become rather heated. We were having a discussion of whether or not it is rape when a man forces his wife to have sex with him. All of the Ugandan men in the room said yes except for one, and most of the women also agreed that it was not rape. This caused a strong reaction from the Americans in the room, myself included. In response to questions from other PCVs, the Ugandans asserted that marriage was a contract, and that when a man paid the bride price to a woman’s family, she became his. I asked what happens when a man cheats on his wife first. Should that not also invalidate the contract? They felt that it was a matter of property and that the man did not have to keep up an end of the bargain, because the woman was his. Furthermore, as his property, she was required to stay faithful to him despite him even if he was cheating on her. Sex is something a man asks for as his right, and she cannot say no. Furthermore, because sex is his right, a woman is not culturally permitted to initiate sex with her husband. Many men share the belief that if a woman is trying to have sex with her husband, she must have been cheating on him and is now oversexed. Of course, I think that a woman who is trying to initiate sex is probably not getting it from anywhere else. But maybe that is just me being ethno-centric and stuck in an American mindset.

            This issue in particular really bothered me from an anthropological standpoint. On the one hand, I think it is incredibly important for PCVs, or any person living in another culture, to be culturally sensitive. This means recognizing that different cultures and peoples believe different things, and that is not only okay, but part of the beauty of diversity. In support of this conclusion, I can look no further than the fact that most of the women in the room shared the beliefs of the men in this matter.

            On the other hand, I also believe people cannot be culturally or morally relative. If you believe murder is wrong in your culture, it is wrong in every culture. If you think beating your children should be a crime in the U.S., it should be a crime in every country. And if you think a man forcing his wife to have sex with him when she does not want to is rape in the United States, then it is rape in Uganda. To say otherwise makes you a hypocrite and undermines the validity of your convictions about your own country or culture.

            This is a dichotomy I think about a lot in my life in Uganda. I think the answer of what is right, at least in this situation, came from another question I asked the Ugandans in the room: If a woman knows her husband is cheating on her, as I have observed in outreaches and the Ugandans in the room were acknowledging is commonplace, and also becomes aware that his other partner(s) are HIV positive, but she cannot deny sex or ask him to wear a condom, does that mean she should be resigned to getting HIV? And if so, is that okay?

            Not a single one of the Ugandans in the room had an answer to that question, and as a result I had an answer to my question.

            After the end of IST, almost everyone in my group went to the town of Jinja, about two hours east of Kampala. Jinja is on the Nile, just north of Lake Victoria. This is the source of the Nile, which then continues downstream into the Mediterranean Sea. We picked the perfect time to go, because the government is going to begin damming part of the Nile in a few weeks, and many of the most famous falls and rapids within the Nile tour will be gone.

            The night before rafting, most of us went on a booze cruise. Many of us were worried that a booze cruise the night before going rafting on category five rapids sounded like a recipe for disaster. However, that was the only day we had the option of doing it. I made the comment that someone was going to end up regretting their decision to go. I was right about that, but unfortunately I was the one regretting it. Thankfully getting thrown into the Nile is an excellent cure for a hangover.

            We arrived early in the morning, had breakfast, and loaded ourselves with sunscreen. We left in boats of six or seven around 10 AM. I was with my friends Amanda, Michaela, Jenny, Britt, Ryan, and Jesse. Our guide was a Ugandan by the name of Alex. He sure was entertaining. He is one of the few Ugandans I have met who seem to understand American humor, and sarcasm in particular. He gave us all the basic rules of safety right away, and then finished by warning us (or just the guys, I guess), that if we broke any of the rules, he would castrate us. He also made us jump out and go through the one of the level two rapids in the water, so that we would be used to it if and when we fell in. We quickly came up with a team name, the SS Shit Show, which seemed to fit my hangover pretty well. We also came up with a team mantra, “Stay in the fucking boat!”

            We had a level four rapid early on, so that prepared us for what was to come pretty well. We went through several infamous rapids and falls and all the while we were able to “stay in the fucking boat.” We even managed to get through all the category fives without flipping. However, the last category four we faced finally beat us and we flipped. Almost all the rafts flipped at that point, including the only other raft that had not yet flipped. I am glad we had the full experience and did flip once, but I have to say, once was enough for me. When we went under, I found I was under the raft. There are holes on the floor of the raft so that you can breath if you end up under a flipped raft. However, the waves made it impossible to breath, so I had to get out from under it. Once I was out, my natural instinct was to swim to the top, even though they told us not to try. I stopped as soon as I remembered this, and let my life jacket carry me up. When I reached the point I expected should have been the surface, a wave went over me and I found I was still under water. I stopped myself from inhaling just in time. I came up and inhaled only to be hit in the face by another wave a second later. The whole time I knew I would end up okay, but in that moment, I have to say panic mode really did hit. My friend Michaela ended up getting hit in the face by and oar, and when I saw her, she was covered in blood. Thankfully, it was only a skin wound, and she was fine minus a little light-headedness. So yeah, one flip was enough. Stay in the fucking boat!

            After the rafting was over, we headed back to the campsite for a complimentary barbecue. We watched videos of ourselves going through all the rapids, which was awesome. We had the option of buying a DVD of the experience for $35. Now, to someone who is paid a small living stipend in Ugandan shillings, thirty-five American dollars is a lot of money. So we decided to all chip in and just buy one DVD, then let one of our more tech-savvy PCVs burn it all for us. Unfortunately, the man who made the video overheard someone talking about it, and refused to sell us the video. So I may never be able to share my conquest of the world’s largest river with family and friends after all. Thankfully, we had already purchased a separate DVD that had pictures of just our raft. I will try and attach them below.

            So now I am back at site. It was sad leaving everyone, since we don’t have another official reason to all get together until our Mid-Service Conference in October. We are trying to get everyone together this summer. We were thinking of maybe going to the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria, which we had initially thought about doing for Christmas but decided against.

4 January 2011

            So I have just spent my first Christmas away from home. I think it would feel much stranger if it actually felt like Christmas in Uganda. Rather, the sweat of Kasese feels more like August in Chicago than Santa’s time of year.

            My fellow PCVs and I first started planning for Christmas back around Thanksgiving. We initially planned on heading to the Ssese Islands, a chain of supposedly beautiful islands in Lake Victoria. However, upon further investigation we realized they would be nearly tripling their prices for Christmas, and many of us would have to stay in tents because they were out of bed space. And for the same price, no less. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy camping, but not for the same cost as a bed. Furthermore, the idea of sleeping outside in what is probably a zest pool of malarial mosquitoes is not terribly appealing.

            One of my good friends from our training class, Amanda, suggested we just rent out a couple of rooms in Mbarara, which is pretty much in the middle of the Southwest. However, travel prices in December can triple, and I suspected the hotels would also raise their prices. It then occurred to me to just have Christmas in Kasese. Jason, Becky, and I all live in town and could easily split up everyone between our different houses. That way no one would have to pay to sty in a hotel.

            We ended up having about ten of us staying at my site. We had dinner on Christmas Eve at Hotel Margherita, an upscale hotel just outside town with a fantastic view of the Rwenzoris. Then next day we cooked brunch with a German couple and my counterpart’s son, who stayed behind to watch the house while his mother was in the village. We then went to Jason’s supervisor’s house for lunch. I make no secret of the fact that I do not love Ugandan cuisine, but this was the best home cooked meal I have ever had in Uganda.

            After the meal, we watched a video of the supervisor’s wedding. This was as interesting as it sounds. The quality of the film was pretty bad, and it was really just recording people dancing in front of the camera for an hour. When it came time to sneak out, we were glad to leave the video, but thankful for a great meal.

            After a brief break at Jason’s place, we continued our food-a-thon at Sandton Hotel in town. I was eagerly anticipating an evening of Indian food, but was disappointed to find the regular menu had been replaced by a Christmas buffet. It was still great and we stuffed ourselves even more.

            After that we went back to Jason’s for a little Christmas party. It was nice to have a nice muzungu night of hanging out. A great deal of hilarity ensued, and we all had a great time.

            After Christmas I headed with my friend Bryce down to Mbarara to meet Amanda and Michaela in Mbarara. After I fulfilled my Indian craving at City Top Restaurant, We headed down to Kabale for the night. We then returned to Michaela’s site about an hour from Kabale Town the next day. We hung out there for a few days. Michaela truly has the perfect site. Kabale is almost never hotter than the mid-70’s, and most of the time the weather was in the 60’s. I actually got to wear a hoodie in Africa.

            Also, Michaela’s site is in the hills, which makes it incredibly beautiful. The cool air brings in a mist that lasts all morning before disappearing in the mid-afternoon. What’s more is that Michaela, who works at a health center operated by the local Catholic Diocese, has a great relationship with the two priests who she lives with. We ate breakfast and dinner with them every day, and they were incredibly happy to provide food for us. They usually feed Michaela as well, even though they have no obligation to do so.

            Most days there we just watched movies of episodes of “Glee,” which seems to be a favorite of everyone in Peace Corps. After watching full episodes we would go back and watch our favorite numbers over again. One afternoon we decided to climb the tall hill directly behind Michaela’s house. It provided us with a beautiful view of the area around her site, and was truly breathtaking.

            That night we sat outside and had a drink while looking at easily the clearest night sky I have ever seen. We sat there listening to music and talking, and watching the bats swoop down to check us out before pulling away at the last minute. It sounds like a bad cliché, but it really was the perfect day.

            On the 30^th we met several other PCVs in Kabale Town and headed to an island in Lake Bunyoni for New Year’s. Lake Bunyoni is the only lake in Uganda that does not have Schistosomiasis in it. Schisto is a parasitic worm that lives in all the other Ugandan fresh water that burrows into the body and can create all kinds of complications. The lake is pretty large, and is full of island resorts. One of the more senior PCVs organized the outing, which saw 31 of us renting out the entire island at a fairly cheap price. While there, we went swimming and just relaxed. Some people went kayaking, but I don’t trust my own skills enough to have gone. On New Year’s Eve the owners of the islands brought in a traditional dance crew to perform, and played music throughout the night. It was a great way to spend New Year’s.

            I am also glad we had the chance to see Lake Bunyoni, which is supposed to be one of the best sites in Uganda. And I can understand why. The weather was perfect, and the lake and island were completely gorgeous. On our way from shore to the island, someone pointed out a very small remote island with a single tree on it. This island is called Punishment Island, and is very significant to the people who live around the lake. In the past, when a young girl who was not married became pregnant, she was taken to Punishment Island and left there. The island is just a few feet around, and there is no way the girl could escape or hope to survive there. The only chance of salvation a woman could hope for is that a man who could not afford the bride price would come out and take her as his wife. Otherwise, she would starve. Thankfully, this practice no longer continues, but it was an interesting piece of history.

            All in all, I had a great vacation. My health center was barely active for the last few weeks of December, so not much was going on at site. It was sad to go back to site after such a great time, but thankfully, we will be seeing each other again very soon. In about a week and a half we are going to Kampala for In-Service Training, which marks the end of the second phase in our service. Phase II was sort of like probationary service, and the focus was on integration. From here on out we are in Phase III, the duration of our service. My counterpart will come with me to IST, and we will plan for the coming months. After that my group and I will go rafting on the Nile River. I have only rafted once before, and it was a relatively low-key river. This is a much more intense trip in a much higher category. I am a little nervous about it, but also very excited about the experience. How many people can say they have been rafting on the Nile River?

18 December 2010

            So let me start by saying the date on this entry may be off from when I actually post them. I am writing these entries of my computer, and trying to upload them on another computer- but having little success. I have let my internet modem’s airtime lapse without buying more. I think I am going to sell that modem and buy a faster one.

            When people in the U.S. heard about East Africa, they tend not to have the greatest impression. East Africa is the poorest part of the world, and though some countries have seen growth recently, others are still stagnant. Now, where exactly do I mean when I say East Africa? I mean Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Burundi, as well as countries like Somalia.

            Much of the negative impression of East Africa comes from a long history of unstable governments. Take Uganda for example. Since independence in 1962, is was ruled by a king (the Buganda Kingdom’s Kabaka), a brutal dictator by the name of Milton Obote, and another, even more infamous dictator, Idi Amin. While Amin was ousted in 1979, and Obote’s second reign ended in 1986, that is what people think of when they think of Uganda. Never mind that Uganda’s economy has grown substantially in the twenty-five years Museveni has been president. Of course, Museveni is hardly a beacon of transparent government and democracy, but he is not killing anyone. At least that we know of. But while everyone seems to know Amin’s name, not everyone is familiar with Museveni. They remember the brutal dictator, not the quarter century of Museveni.

            Even under Museveni, thinks have not been a walk in the park. The northern part of the county is the poorest and least developed. It has also been among the least stable parts of the country. This is because of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a terrorist group that wants to create a dictator ship based on the 10 Commandments, and uses rape, child abduction, and the practice of cutting off lips to spread the Good Lord’s word. Thankfully, within just the past few years, the LRA has been driven out of Uganda. They are still very active in the DRC though.

            Just north of Uganda is Sudan. While this is not really a part of East Africa, it affects Uganda a great deal. The combination of the north-south civil war and the genocide in the western area of Darfur make it a very questionable place to visit. What’s more is that early next year Southern Darfur will take a vote on a referendum that would split the country in two. Most people seem confident it will pass, and Southern Sudan will become its own country.

            Well, the problem is that the Nile runs from the Mediterranean through Egypt and Sudan and into Uganda to its source in Lake Victoria. I suppose it runs the other way actually, but that is beside the point. Well, because of a colonial era treaty signed in 1913, Egypt has near complete control over the Nile. Uganda and allies like Kenya that tributaries of the Nile run through have long been trying to change this archaic treaty. Well, if Southern Sudan, which is mostly Christian and likely to side with Uganda over Muslim Egypt and Sudan takes the side of Uganda, then Egypt has promised to go to war with those countries.

            To the east is Kenya. Usually Kenya is considered a very stable country, and has generally run quite smoothly since achieving independence. Well, in 2007 the outbreak of uprisings and riots and looting after what is widely considered a rigged presidential election undermined this positive impression of Kenya.

            To the southeast of Uganda is Tanzania, probably the most stable country in East Africa. Despite a dictator or two, the country has been quite stable over the years, and was instrumental in bringing Idi Amin’s reign to an end in 1979 when they invaded Uganda following Amin’s attack on Tanzania.

            Then you have two tiny countries to the Southwest, Rwanda, and just beyond that, Burundi. Both are former Belgian colonies with two large ethnic groups: the Tutsi and the Hutu. Burundi has had many problems with these two ethnic groups, but of course it pales in comparison to what happened in Rwanda.

            Rwanda. Anyone who does not know what happened in Rwanda in 1994 should really go find out. Somewhere between 800,000 and one million people macheted to death because they were Tutsi. Now, the tensions between the Tutsi and the Hutu had been going on for decades, and both sides were at fault in the past. But what the Hutu did to the Tutsi remains one of the most horrific things ever to happen in the world. Part of what makes it so horrible is that the rest of the world did nothing, instead debating at end semantics about whether or not it was a genocide requiring immediate action or “acts of genocide” that did not invite immediate response.  Of course, when the world realized what had happened, they swore it would never happen again, because it would be stopped before it got like that again. Of course, it did happen again in Darfur and of course, nothing was done about it.

            Rwanda now is quite different. It has a large Peace Corps contingent that is quite active. The country is cleaner and much better developed. The genocide is a part of the national discourse in much the same way the Holocaust is part of Germany’s. There is not so much of the petty corruption you see in Uganda. However, Paul Kagame, who has run the country since 1994, has been known to deny media much if any coverage of what is going on, and opposition leaders have often been “disappeared.” But ethnic tensions are a fraction of what they once were.

            This is one of the clear results of colonialism. Burundi, Rwanda, and the DRC are former Belgian colonies. When taking control of colonies, Europeans always practiced a divide and conquer approach by allying with one ethnic group to help conquer the others. Spain allied with defeated enemies to overturn the Aztec Empire. Great Britain allied with the powerful Buganda Kingdom to conquer other nearby kingdoms like Toro and Bunyoro, and even named the new colony “Uganda,” a bastardization of the word Buganda. But what Belgium did with the Tutsi and Hutu is particularly frightening. They allied with the minority Tutsi, and used them to control the Hutu. Before that, the two groups were relatively peaceful and lived beside each other. After independence, the Tutsi controlled the government and refused to grant majority Hutus much power. Then the Hutu ran and overthrew the Tutsi. Instead of making an equal society, the Hutu began to persecute the Tutsi and killed many and forced many more to flee. Classic case of oppressed becoming the oppressor. Then Tutsi rebels led by Kagame (based out of Uganda, where Kagame had become a close ally of Museveni’s and helped him beat Obote) rose up again, and the Hutu responded with genocide. None of this would have happed without Belgian involvement.

            Then we go west, to the DRC. The DRC is larger than Western Europe, and it’s borders stretch from the Atlantic all the way over to Uganda. The DRC is also a former Belgian colony. When someone thinks of the Congo, they think of chaos. And there has been a whole lot of chaos in the Democratic Republic of Congo, basically non-stop since independence.           

            When Kagame forced the genocidal Hutu mobs out of Rwanda they went into the DRC, as did many Hutu and Tutsi refugees who were not involved in any conflict. This culminated not one, but two Congo Wars. Many of the refugees were forced to return to Rwanda, many are still in the DRC. But the Second Congo War, from 1998 until 2003, is one of the bloodiest conflicts in history. And no one knows about it. It has been called the African World War, and resulted in 4.5 million deaths, the highest casualty count for any war since World War II.  While the war has officially been over for seven years, conflict has continued within Congo’s borders since then. Add in the LRA taking up shop just over the Ugandan border, and Eastern Congo is not a place one wants to stumble into.

            Then there are the other countries a little further out from Uganda. Somalia stands out. Somalia has not had a functional government since the early 1990s, the longest any country has gone without a government in modern history. The Provisional Government of Somalia, supported by Ugandan and Burundi soldiers, controls a matter of blocks within Mogadishu. It is Uganda’s support for the Provisional Government that led to the Al-Shabbab terrorist attacks in Kampala this last July.

            Like poverty, conflict seems to be second nature to East Africa. It is important to recognize that many countries, like Uganda, Rwanda, and even the DRC to some extent, are much more stable than the used to be. But it is important to note that the scourge of conflict has matched the damage of HIV/AIDS (and indeed the two feed off each other) in significantly slowing down African development.