I cannot believe we only have a couple more weeks left in uganda, it makes me really sad to think about it. Sometimes i still cannot believe im here and every morning i wake up to a rooster it hits me. I am so excited that we have water again in our village! I definitely realized how I take running water for granted and that I cannot live taking bucket showers. As I was talking to my mom about it. it made me realize how many people in the world live without the basic necessities that we take for granted such as electricity and water every day.
On a lighter note, Im still teaching primary 2 for the kyetume sda primary school and today i learned to never give kids stickers. They went absolutely nuts with the stickers. I'm not sure they have ever had stickers before because they wanted every single sticker I had. It was so much fun seeing how much they loved putting stickers all over eachother and their faces.
Oh and on my way to work me and jules saw green chickens. It was very strange but our conclusion was that the owners dyed it to distinguish their chickens from the rest.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The Eets-Beets Spider
After arriving home from a fun weekend in Entebbe/Kampala it was wonderful to find that water is back in Bukasa! woooo!
Every one has already talked all about the safari, so I don't need to say too much, but it was amazing! I had been dreaming of going on a safari for the good part of my 19 years on earth and last weekend it finally happened... The only thing we missed was a lion, but we saw every thing else!
Last week I got a mild case of malaria, which put a slight damper on things. I felt pretty sick for a couple days, but because I have been taking my malarone, it wasn't too bad. Besides my sickness, we had a good week at work. We taught, as usual, and worked on a newsletter for Kyetume CBHC. Even though the computer program we used was pretty frustrating, I had a lot of fun designing and organizing the newsletter. I was on the newspaper staff all 4 years in high school, so it's always been something that I've enjoyed doing.
This weekend was awesome. We went to Aero Beach with our "mom" and a 4 year old that lives near where we work named Tracy. They both were thrilled to take a day trip, and we all really enjoyed it, too. After a day at the beach we went to Kampala for the Fourth of July! I got all of my gift shopping done and am really excited about the things I got. I don't think I'm cut-throat enough for the markets... I am a bit of a push over when it comes to prices, so it was nice to have people like Regina around to help me with the whole bartering thing :).
This morning I taught my P4 class again. Their teacher was sick with malaria, so I basically was on my own for 4 hours. She wanted me to teach them a song, so I went with "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," and the kids loved it. It was SO funny to hear them try and pronounce the words "Itsy" and "Bitsy" (it came out as "eets-beets"), and they thought it was even more funny to hear me try and sing the high notes.
Afterwards, I taught them their science lesson, which was about interdependence among animals. As part of my lesson on predators and prey, I let them draw pictures of different predator/prey relationships. I didn't realize how excited they would be to have some sort of creative outlet and it was very interesting to see the different creativity levels. One kid, who the teacher has clearly identified as one of the slower kids in class, drew an amazing picture and clearly mastered the ideas of parasites, predators, and prey by being able to draw them and see a visual representation. Kids all learn in such different ways, and it is a shame that many schools don't have the materials necessary to meet the different needs of these different learning styles.
Later on today we are going to get the paint for the clinic and will hopefully start painting tomorrow. I will try to update this again later on this week, but only one computer at work has internet, so it's pretty hard to update as often as I want to.
Every one has already talked all about the safari, so I don't need to say too much, but it was amazing! I had been dreaming of going on a safari for the good part of my 19 years on earth and last weekend it finally happened... The only thing we missed was a lion, but we saw every thing else!
Last week I got a mild case of malaria, which put a slight damper on things. I felt pretty sick for a couple days, but because I have been taking my malarone, it wasn't too bad. Besides my sickness, we had a good week at work. We taught, as usual, and worked on a newsletter for Kyetume CBHC. Even though the computer program we used was pretty frustrating, I had a lot of fun designing and organizing the newsletter. I was on the newspaper staff all 4 years in high school, so it's always been something that I've enjoyed doing.
This weekend was awesome. We went to Aero Beach with our "mom" and a 4 year old that lives near where we work named Tracy. They both were thrilled to take a day trip, and we all really enjoyed it, too. After a day at the beach we went to Kampala for the Fourth of July! I got all of my gift shopping done and am really excited about the things I got. I don't think I'm cut-throat enough for the markets... I am a bit of a push over when it comes to prices, so it was nice to have people like Regina around to help me with the whole bartering thing :).
This morning I taught my P4 class again. Their teacher was sick with malaria, so I basically was on my own for 4 hours. She wanted me to teach them a song, so I went with "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," and the kids loved it. It was SO funny to hear them try and pronounce the words "Itsy" and "Bitsy" (it came out as "eets-beets"), and they thought it was even more funny to hear me try and sing the high notes.
Afterwards, I taught them their science lesson, which was about interdependence among animals. As part of my lesson on predators and prey, I let them draw pictures of different predator/prey relationships. I didn't realize how excited they would be to have some sort of creative outlet and it was very interesting to see the different creativity levels. One kid, who the teacher has clearly identified as one of the slower kids in class, drew an amazing picture and clearly mastered the ideas of parasites, predators, and prey by being able to draw them and see a visual representation. Kids all learn in such different ways, and it is a shame that many schools don't have the materials necessary to meet the different needs of these different learning styles.
Later on today we are going to get the paint for the clinic and will hopefully start painting tomorrow. I will try to update this again later on this week, but only one computer at work has internet, so it's pretty hard to update as often as I want to.
Monday, July 5, 2010
blog happy
so even though i just posted yesterday i figured i would post again because i am officially the worst blogger of all time and i always forget to do it. in continuation to rhea's story from last year...5 foot vultures do exist. a couple weeks ago when the kyetume girls were in jinja we saw one, whose beak that is the size of my entire body and was dripping with a very sinister looking liquid. all the animals here are supersized, including cockroaches, jumping spiders, and swarms of honey bees.
there is no longer any running water in bukasa, therefore im learning very quickly how it feels to take the luxurious "bucket shower." not the greatest feeling in the world. not showering for five days is also not so great. but in a sort of twisted way, im actually glad im getting the full african experience, even with the sacrifice of my personal hygiene. i better have excellent arm tone after carrying jerrycans full of water up from the well.
project paint the clinic is a go; everyone at work was really excited about the idea. we agreed on a light tan for the walls and a pretty bright green for the trim around the bottom. wearing a huge painting jumpsuit...not my best look, but you cant really have any fashion faux pas here (i.e: the cargo pantaloons i own, the green poncho size XXL given to me by my father dearest, julia's turtle-esque one piece bathing suit from 1985, etc.).
4th of July was fun, although i forgot how to party like an American. i'll need to get back in the groove when i come back to US soil. im going to discontinue blogging now before i start posting more lame words like "groove." I spent about 479237423 dollars/shillings at the craft market this weekend, but i love buying gifts....and what better way to spend money than in a real african craft market? sorry dad. the shopoholic girl in me comes out even in a 3rd world country.
there is no longer any running water in bukasa, therefore im learning very quickly how it feels to take the luxurious "bucket shower." not the greatest feeling in the world. not showering for five days is also not so great. but in a sort of twisted way, im actually glad im getting the full african experience, even with the sacrifice of my personal hygiene. i better have excellent arm tone after carrying jerrycans full of water up from the well.
project paint the clinic is a go; everyone at work was really excited about the idea. we agreed on a light tan for the walls and a pretty bright green for the trim around the bottom. wearing a huge painting jumpsuit...not my best look, but you cant really have any fashion faux pas here (i.e: the cargo pantaloons i own, the green poncho size XXL given to me by my father dearest, julia's turtle-esque one piece bathing suit from 1985, etc.).
4th of July was fun, although i forgot how to party like an American. i'll need to get back in the groove when i come back to US soil. im going to discontinue blogging now before i start posting more lame words like "groove." I spent about 479237423 dollars/shillings at the craft market this weekend, but i love buying gifts....and what better way to spend money than in a real african craft market? sorry dad. the shopoholic girl in me comes out even in a 3rd world country.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
tippy taps, stars, and a rhino named obama
Last week was one of the best weeks in
Anyway, so we asked the P4 (fourth grade) teacher if he thought a sanitation club would be a good idea, and if he did, if he would be willing to be the lead teacher of the club. He agreed! But first we had to see if the students were interested, which they were (about 75 out of 80 kids in the 3rd and 4th grade wanted to join!), and then we had to get the approval from the headmaster and the elder of the school since we don't want to be imposing anything on the school. The headmaster was really open to the idea, but the elder was a little worried that we would be taking away too much classtime from the students (which is definitely understandable!). But we compromised so that we take a little class time each week, and a little of their break time each week for anyone that wants to to meet for sanitation club!
Our first project was to build tippy taps, which are really cool contraption things that are an easy and clean way for kids to wash their hands (it is basically a can of water hanging from a structure of sticks, attached to a string and piece of wood that act like a pedal). St. John Bosco only had one bucket of dirty water for over 300 students to wash their hands before our tippy tap project started. Now they have five clean places to wash their hands! First, we demonstrated how to build a tippy tap and everyone watched quietly and attentively while Teacher Martin translated for us. Then we divided the students into groups with each of the four interns as the leaders (it was a little chaotic at first, since there were like 80 kids!). We sent them to collect sticks, dig holes in the ground so the sticks could stand up, and tie string to the water can to make a pedal. It ended up taking only about 30 minutes to build four tippy taps!
The students probably never really needed our help in the first place; they just needed some guidance and resources. Everyone, even kids, are so resourceful here and they can pretty much figure out how to do anything they need to do (one group even invented a drainage system for the extra water, and the boys used the leftover sticks to builds their own soccer goals!). Everyone seemed really excited to participate, it was one of the coolest things I have ever been a part of. It helped that we gave the students some incentives, like for my intern project called Kicks for Katosi I am going to give out shoes to the students who participate most actively in Sanitation Club. I really like my shoe idea, especially because last year the interns gave kids shoes based on their grades in school (eek!!). But I am also a bit worried about having to decide who to give shoes to! Teacher Martin said he would pay attention to who was participating and tell me who to give shoes to, and I plan on leaving some shoes so that next term when I am gone the students that work hard can still get shoes. still though, i dont think i can give shoes to just a few kids, i wish i had enough money to buy 80 pairs of shoes!! I am applying for a grant from an American youth organization that gives out $500 every week, but if I dont get it, i am going to have to figure something else out. Any ideas???
Anyway, I thought the Tippy Taps were really successful! By the end of the day, everyone was using them because the big kids had taught the little kids how to use them too! Now perhaps the kids will go home and build Tippy Taps for their families and communities to use! This week for sanitation club, we are going to start school gardens so that students can grow their own food and eat it for lunch! The week after that, we are going to paint murals about the importance of health and sanitation. At the end of the summer, Avery and I are going to type up a booklet with instructions for a lot of sanitation projects and donate them to as many schools as possible in Katosi. I hope it goes well!
That night after the tippy taps, Lauren, Avery and I celebrated by looking at the stars! The stars are seriously SO beautiful in Katosi, I honestly felt like I was at the Morehead Planetarium. We could see the southern cross, which is apparently like the big dipper of the southern hemisphere (even though we are not quite in the southern hemisphere..?), and we could even see the bands of the milkyway! Um, and this is even cooler...we could see satellites rotating around the earth! The look basically like stars, but they are just moving slowly and steadily across the sky. It was a pretty baller night!
Oh yeah, and last weekend I went on a safari in Murchison Falls National Parks. Everything was absolutely awesome, aside from the tsetse flies that were biting us (they really really hurt!). We saw waterfalls and a lot of really cool animals like hippos, giraffes, elephants, and leopards! Then we went rhino tracking, where we had to walk through the grassland/jungle and search for two rhinos, one of which was named obama! The baby rhino we saw was named obama because his rhino mother was from Animal Kingdom/Disneyworld in
pick which one doesnt belong: bathroom, toothbrush, hippo.
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soooo about the safari. it was literally one of the greatest experiences of my life. however, it turns out every time you wanted to use the restroom in the middle of the night you actually couldnt because huge hippos roam around and grunt outside your tent at night. and in the brochure for the safari it warned "not to call the emergency contact if you encounter a hippo because there is really nothing we can do about it." this upset me, because i feel like people that are constantly around creatures that apparently kill more people on land each year than crocodiles or wild cats should at least have a hippo reference book for situations such as these. if i came face to face with a hippo you better freaking believe i would have called that emergency contact faster than you can say " citrus fanta." it was also difficult to use the restroom because there were huge monsoons/ mini hurricanes that swept through the red chili safari camp every night. welcome to the wild wild west (well, east, technically).anyways, the safari game drive was amazing. we saw tons of animals, and my two favorites, elephants and giraffes, were literally ten feet away from our van. i had to stare and drool like an idiot tourist for a good thirty seconds before i even caught my breath enough to take a picture. in the beginning i was a little overzealous about any animal i saw and so now i have about 20 million pictures of a guinea fowl (a small bird that waddles awkwardly...not so different from myself). we took a boat ride on the nile up to Murchison falls, which is one of the more scary and powerful waterfalls ive seen, and saw crocodiles, a ton of cool african birds, and even MORE hippos. plus, i got to hang out with a rhino mom and her baby. all in all, this was probably my favorite african experience so far.
tonight im ready to rep america and celebrate my country's independence 4,000 miles away. should be a good time. Happy 4th!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
"Good Evening, Madame Everine, Ah-vry....Avery?"
Greetings from Katosi!
Exciting things are happening this week in Katosi at St. John Bosco Primary School! We had our first official Sanitation and Health Club meeting on monday and had about 80 kids attend and sign up to be in the club!! Tomorrow, we're starting our first project and building tippy taps!! Tippy taps are hand washing stations that are pretty basic but let the kids wash their hands after they go to the bathroom, so I'm really excited to get those implemented. Lauren and Scarlette-the two KWDT interns that work in the Kampala offices, are coming tonight to help us build the tippy taps tomorrow! I can't wait, everyone at the school seemed really excited to get them built!
Life in Katosi is still great, but no signs that electricity is returning any time soon! (can you believe it Mom- 4 weeks sans electricity, doing pretty good eh?) Colleen and I have our little routine carved out and have gotten to know some of the different shops/stands, etc. We have our regular chipatti man that usually gives us a discount or free mandazi, Rachel, the world's most precious 3 year old that waits for us to walk by so she can run out and shake our hands, and finally there are enough kids that know us to call us "madame" when they see us instead of screaming "MZUUUUNGU!", which is a pretty nice change.
We went for a run yesterday to the top of the cell tower hill- and had a whole procession of kids run with us! By the time we reached the top, 6 of the kids had stayed with us and sat in our laps once we got to the top. It was one of the cutest things I've ever witnessed. It's going to be a change running at home without having my little support group behind me!
For the 4th of July, myself and some of the other interns are going to attend the American Embassy's 4th party in Kampala- pretty exciting! Hoping for a meet and greet with the ambassador, but who knows! Can't believe we have less than 4 weeks of our internship remaining! Until next time!
avery
Exciting things are happening this week in Katosi at St. John Bosco Primary School! We had our first official Sanitation and Health Club meeting on monday and had about 80 kids attend and sign up to be in the club!! Tomorrow, we're starting our first project and building tippy taps!! Tippy taps are hand washing stations that are pretty basic but let the kids wash their hands after they go to the bathroom, so I'm really excited to get those implemented. Lauren and Scarlette-the two KWDT interns that work in the Kampala offices, are coming tonight to help us build the tippy taps tomorrow! I can't wait, everyone at the school seemed really excited to get them built!
Life in Katosi is still great, but no signs that electricity is returning any time soon! (can you believe it Mom- 4 weeks sans electricity, doing pretty good eh?) Colleen and I have our little routine carved out and have gotten to know some of the different shops/stands, etc. We have our regular chipatti man that usually gives us a discount or free mandazi, Rachel, the world's most precious 3 year old that waits for us to walk by so she can run out and shake our hands, and finally there are enough kids that know us to call us "madame" when they see us instead of screaming "MZUUUUNGU!", which is a pretty nice change.
We went for a run yesterday to the top of the cell tower hill- and had a whole procession of kids run with us! By the time we reached the top, 6 of the kids had stayed with us and sat in our laps once we got to the top. It was one of the cutest things I've ever witnessed. It's going to be a change running at home without having my little support group behind me!
For the 4th of July, myself and some of the other interns are going to attend the American Embassy's 4th party in Kampala- pretty exciting! Hoping for a meet and greet with the ambassador, but who knows! Can't believe we have less than 4 weeks of our internship remaining! Until next time!
avery
intern project, COMPLETE
It is Monday evening, 6:31 pm. And my intern project is complete! (well, almost)
Today we had a successful training for some of the leaders of the women's groups, 12 out of 13 came, 2 representatives from each. Our agenda was somewhat delayed due to a storm that hit this morning, right as we were about to get under way. All twenty four participants were shuffled inside into the garage and other random rooms. We all took "tea time", which consisted of tea and butter sandwiches (literally, bread and butter. I made them)
After the rain subsided, all the chair were moved outside again under a tent, which was there in case of more rain, but more to protect the women from the hot sun that eventually moved in. Rehema then talked to them about the program for the day and gave a talk on good records keeping. Vaal then spent most of the morning going over detailed examples of how to keep records on milk production, cows, loan payback, meeting minutes and project reports. When the workshop was over, everyone was divided into four groups and then their reports were analyzed in detail. This analysis was used to rank the book keeping ability of each of the groups and their records management. Using this information, the top three women's' groups were awarded bio-sand filters as an incentive for the other groups to improve their book keeping.
Rehema translated for me when I talked to them about the bio-sand filters and the importance of keeping good records in order to properly document current and future projects. Afterwards, I carried out a trust building activity with the women called "Mine Field." I set up some obstacles on the floor of the garage to create an obstacle course. The women were then partnered with the other participant from their respective group and one of them was blindfolded. Their partner then had to direct the blindfolded person across the "mine-field" without knocking over any of the obstacles. It sounds simple, but culture gaps make explanation difficult and I wasn't sure how grown Ugandan women would respond to such a seemingly trivial game.
The activity was a great success! While the women were hesitant at first, after seeing the first group of 3 pairs go across, they all were eager to participate. Everyone was laughing and enjoying the activity. After everyone had gotten a chance to be blindfolded we had a short de-brief where we discussed the lessons learned and how to apply the game to daily group interaction. The women took a lot away from the activity and many of them said they learned patience, listening skills and how to trust their partners. I was very impressed at their level of interaction and with the comments they had about the lessons they learned.
I used my intern funds to pay for the bio-sand filters and the transport of each filter to the respective women's groups as well as for 13 bags and folders to help the women keep their records organized. Everyone is exhausted from the long day and now we are planning to go to Katosi tomorrow afternoon to stay the night so that we can help Avery with her project on Wednesday building tippy taps!
Today we had a successful training for some of the leaders of the women's groups, 12 out of 13 came, 2 representatives from each. Our agenda was somewhat delayed due to a storm that hit this morning, right as we were about to get under way. All twenty four participants were shuffled inside into the garage and other random rooms. We all took "tea time", which consisted of tea and butter sandwiches (literally, bread and butter. I made them)
After the rain subsided, all the chair were moved outside again under a tent, which was there in case of more rain, but more to protect the women from the hot sun that eventually moved in. Rehema then talked to them about the program for the day and gave a talk on good records keeping. Vaal then spent most of the morning going over detailed examples of how to keep records on milk production, cows, loan payback, meeting minutes and project reports. When the workshop was over, everyone was divided into four groups and then their reports were analyzed in detail. This analysis was used to rank the book keeping ability of each of the groups and their records management. Using this information, the top three women's' groups were awarded bio-sand filters as an incentive for the other groups to improve their book keeping.
Rehema translated for me when I talked to them about the bio-sand filters and the importance of keeping good records in order to properly document current and future projects. Afterwards, I carried out a trust building activity with the women called "Mine Field." I set up some obstacles on the floor of the garage to create an obstacle course. The women were then partnered with the other participant from their respective group and one of them was blindfolded. Their partner then had to direct the blindfolded person across the "mine-field" without knocking over any of the obstacles. It sounds simple, but culture gaps make explanation difficult and I wasn't sure how grown Ugandan women would respond to such a seemingly trivial game.
The activity was a great success! While the women were hesitant at first, after seeing the first group of 3 pairs go across, they all were eager to participate. Everyone was laughing and enjoying the activity. After everyone had gotten a chance to be blindfolded we had a short de-brief where we discussed the lessons learned and how to apply the game to daily group interaction. The women took a lot away from the activity and many of them said they learned patience, listening skills and how to trust their partners. I was very impressed at their level of interaction and with the comments they had about the lessons they learned.
I used my intern funds to pay for the bio-sand filters and the transport of each filter to the respective women's groups as well as for 13 bags and folders to help the women keep their records organized. Everyone is exhausted from the long day and now we are planning to go to Katosi tomorrow afternoon to stay the night so that we can help Avery with her project on Wednesday building tippy taps!
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