Green Drinks

I have crossed over.

I am officially a "green" geek.

How do I know?

I spent the better part of the week in Kampala getting everything settled with buying the recycling containers/boxes and paints to put logos on them.  While there, I also visited several recycling operations in the city - and yes, I was geek-ily excited.  But that was to be expected; I've been seeing videos and reading articles about all this machinery and the process for months and months now, and getting to see it in person in a developing country, was just exciting.

Outside Omega Plastics

A mountain of plastic bags!  All to become a new material.  

No no, the geeky part came at the polyethylene recycling plant - Omega Plastics.  They recycle plastic bags. When I walked in I was greeted by a very nice looking Indian man about my age.  He was happy to show me around and was very open and honest about how recycling was going well and not going well in Kampala.  He helped me understand what would make it worth their while to come pick up waste in Gulu (having one ton - literally - of grocery sacks.....this is why no one has tried to do what I'm doing!) and posed some important questions for me to consider and made some really good suggestions (including that we buy one of their old smaller machines - only $5,000.  Oh man, how I wish that were in the budget!  Maybe someday.....)

On our walk around the plant we also discussed a bit more friendly topics; his family is three generation Ugandan-Indian.  Half his family moved to Canada during the Idi Amin years, half of them stayed in Uganda keeping a low profile. (Read this article if you don't know about the expulsion.)  He went to the international school in Kampala and then to Canada for university, consequently he has hardly any accent at all.  His father runs the recycling business, and he's willing to help out now but has some things started on the side of his own.  As our conversation wound down and I was getting ready to go, he asked how long I was in town.
"Until Saturday morning," I reply.
"Oh, have you been to Mish-Mash yet?" he asks, referring to a new artsy place in town that just opened up.
"Not yet, but I've been hearing good things about it."
"Yeah, you should come out Friday night, and then we could talk all about recycling and I'll tell you all the crazy stories about why it's so difficult in this city."

......

Did I?....Did I just get picked up on by a guy who used a recycling line?  .......  And was it viable?  Yep.  Yes, I did.  And it was....

I laughed over this for hours afterwords, thinking of the ensuing conversation we would have late Friday night.  "We could...you know, go back to my place?  Talk about....recycling?..."  Oh, how roMANtic!  I have entered a whole new phase of life.  

Plastic Recycling Industries - the land of waste hard plastics.  Owned by the Rwenzori water bottle company. 

That night I went out to watch the football (soccer) game with one of the girls I was staying with there in Kampala.  We were sitting next to this kid who asked what I was doing out here and when I told him he said, "Oh!  You have to come to Green Drinks!"
"Green Drinks?"
"Yeah, my housemate is out here working on renewable energy stuff and started a night called Green Drinks.  It's the first Tuesday of every month and everyone gets together for the evening to discuss the environment and ideas and successes and all that.  It's a lot of fun."

And you know what?  It did sound fun.

I have crossed over.

A few of the plastic sorters that work at PRI.  They laughed and laughed and laughed at having their photo taken.

The sea of water bottles, jerry cans, and other hard plastics.

Whinny gave me a tour of PRI.  Lovely woman in front of a load of trash.

This is the final product for PRI - washed and chipped plastic.  

Rwenzori is the largest bottled-water manufacturer in Uganda.   They now make more money off recycling plastic than they do their bottled water.  

And yet, unfortunately, right across the street from PRI's gate you can see remnants of burnt plastic.  An uphill battle for sure.  

Love's Much Lovelier

You know that old song that says “love’s much lovelier the second time around”?  Well, I have discovered this week that song it totally applicable to my being here in Gulu.  My first six weeks in Gulu last year were some of the most blissfully happy of my life.  I was just so completely smitten by this place and my life that I didn’t have one depressed thought for weeks.  Then there was the moment where I literally nearly socked a bus driver for completely unrepentingly losing an entire case of varnish I had traipsed all over Kampala to find.  It came at the tail end of a very stressful trip to Kampala where I felt lost and taken advantage of at every turn, and I really probably would have hit the guy if my friends David and George hadn’t been there to cool me off.  And like all good things, my time of bliss came to an end.  It wasn’t over night, but a couple months later I settled into rather disparaging feelings about this place I was living.  I wanted a shower, I wanted a bathroom, I wanted to cook pasta, I wanted to stop sweating.  Thankfully, I was able to find a really great place to move into (shower, toilet, and pasta-cooking stove top included) and my body acclimated and I even felt cold sometimes.  And then I felt like I was at home.  I was prepared to stay in Gulu for a while.  But there were still highs and lows, and the highs were pure elation and lows were some of the lowest I’ve experienced. 

Today makes two weeks exactly since I landed in Gulu Town again.  So perhaps I’m putting my horse before the cart here, but I think I’ve calmed down here.  The last two weeks has brought a whole host of emotions (many of them ranging between thinking I’m completely crazy for trying to do what I’m trying to do, and then feeling like this is the most important thing I’ve every attempted to do) but thankfully, none of my emotions have raged the way they did last year – good or bad.  Since I knew exactly what I was coming back to, there was none of the anticipation, excitement and discovery of a new place.  Of course that’s a bit sad, but with it comes none of the feelings of frustration, exasperation and annoyance at all things that are difficult about becoming accustomed to an entirely new culture.  And truthfully, I’m thrilled at the fact that things are bit more even keeled.  As many of you know, I’m a rather dramatic individual, I really experience the highs and lows of life fully, and so those times in life where things are a bit more equal, I almost feel happier about being here than in the crazy elation of my high points.  So all I week I’ve found myself humming, “Love’s much lovelier, the second time around, love’s more comfortable with both feet on the ground.” 

Inside this little (little) doorway is the Gulu Municiple Education Office.  I went on a serious goose hunt looking for it today.  How did I ever miss it?  It's in totally plane sight!

I’ve certainly experienced frustration – I opened my bank account over a week ago, and I still can't access my money.  The company in Kampala making the recycling containers, told me a couple days ago it would take four weeks to fix their broken machine that is supposed to cut my boxes.  Water has been off about 10 of my 12 days here, and power follows right behind that.  But somehow I just feel easier knowing it will all work out eventually, the water will come back, as will the power.  I talked to the boxes guy about how we can work out the problem and he’s going to help me with the sample so I can take it to another company next week.  My donation funds have now been transferred to Uganda, and I should be able to access them soon.  And I had a lovely chat last night with a German girl about how her heart breaks when they print off books worth of paper so they have a copy of everything when the power blows.  She told me to come to her office as soon as I could with my recycling boxes. 

My friend John (on the right) is making the stencils for our recycling containers.  All those things on the shelves ?  More stencils!

In America, once I figured out my fundraising process, everything happened so quickly.  The money started rolling in, and I started making preparations to get back here.  I could hop in my car and cross off an entire list of things in one morning.  I felt a bit like a gerbil in one of those rolling balls.  I could run and spin and really get somewhere, you know?  Landing in Uganda was a bit like hitting honey in my rolling ball.  It didn’t come to a screeching halt, but it has certainly slowed down.  So I have learned to write two lists – the one that I need only myself to cross off, and the one I need others' help to cross off.  One I know I can put deadlines on, the other I know may take days to get anywhere.      

I'm off to Kampala this week (finally!) to get things going and meet with a few recycling programs there in the city.  Wish me luck!

Gulu Town, Revisited

And I'm back.

It's odd just how familiar it all feels.  Truth be told, I was a bit apprehensive coming back.  There were things I was starting to forget.  Things that were so familiar to my day to day life here in Gulu, that when I was in the States and would finally remember, I couldn't believe I had forgotten.  And that made me nervous.  But stepping off the bus into Gulu was like coming home.  I've moved a lot in my life and home has many definitions for me, and I was very happy to realize Gulu fits the description.

It's hot, my ankles and feet were swollen like a pregnant woman's, my bicycle has a broken seat, flat tire, and no brakes, I have ridiculous jet lag (I'll sleep a full night one night and not a wink the next) I have mosquito bites again, and my awesome parasites are having a joyous reunion with the local flora inside me..... But it has been positively glorious walking the streets of town, re-acquainting myself with everything and running into my old Ugandan friends. I was probably most excited when I ran into one of the young women from my church youth organization that I was in charge of last year - Carol.  Her and her sister Faith were my favorites, so when I was unassumingly sitting outside eating breakfast at a cafe one morning and she walked by, we did plenty of girly squealing and hugging.  Oh, and my old motorcycle-taxi driver, Ray.  He was riding his bike down the street and stopped at an intersection.  I was waiting to cross the street, and we saw each other.  White girl running into the middle of the road to bear hug a boda driver......  Everyone around certainly thought I had lost it.  He finally pushed his bike out of the middle of the road and we had a nice long chat.  I love that kid.

This is me and my Young Women my last week in 2011.  Aren't they so beautiful??  Carol is the second from the right, standing.  

One not-so-lovely reminder of Uganda I've had this week is just how long it takes to do anything here.  So my Recycling for Hope to-do list for weeks one and two has been slightly altered.  I thought I'd be heading to Kampala on Monday to get the recycling boxes cut, but after interviewing literally every bank in town and finally deciding on one with the least amount of absurd fees (who charges a fee for depositing money??!!  No wonder no one puts their money in a bank around here!)  I opened the account, only to be told it won't be active until next Thursday.  Without access to money there is not much I can do about the boxes.
Thus, K'la is being put off a week.  But this will give me some time to do a bit of research/observation I need to do here anyway.  I did have productive and encouraging meetings with the organizations I'll be working with this year, which of course got me very excited to get started despite everything.

The living quarters.  You can't see the gardens here, but you can see the hanging herb garden!

The most exciting - and certainly the best thing I could have done RFH productivity-wise  - was to procure housing.  Housing in Gulu is hard to come by and can sometimes take several weeks to find.  I luckily only had to spend two nights in a very classy joint called Sunrise Guest House - which barely fit my suitcase and had a shower that didn't work and a toilet without a seat (my favorite) - before moving into what is now home.  The house is a bit ghetto - it's owned by a British woman named Daniella who is my age and is fixing it up.  So it has tons of nice amenities - an inverter and a generator for when the power goes, an extra water tank and pump for when the water goes, and with my rent money a solar-powered water-heater is being purchased for the shower.  And walls are being patched and painted next week, so I'll post photos of my room once I get everything situated.  The absolute best thing about the house though, is that Daniella is trying her hand at gardening and has tons of space to do so.  She said I'm welcome to join them, and I can't even tell you how happy that makes me!  I have been yearning to garden for a good six years now and am thrilled I finally get to satisfy that yearning.

So overall it was a great week.  Maybe not quite as productive as I had hoped, but I count it as successful nonetheless.  I can say I miss home and having family around all the time and friends just a phone call away.  So don't hesitate to email, skype, or send a letter!  (My address is still P.O. Box 993, Gulu, Uganda.)  Thanks for following my blog and for all your support and encouragement.  Here's to another great year in Gulu Town!

My Parasites are Going Home

Quick post tonight because I am EXHAUSTED.  But there a couple important things I want to cover here.

First, we have exceeded our fundraising goal!  We raised over $17,000 in total.  So amazing!!  I really badly wanted to make that goal before I hit Uganda, and it has happened!!  It gives me a lot of hope and confidence that this project is really going to succeed.  Or at least that I'll be able to do some good in trying.

Second, I am in transit.  I'm currently spending the night in the Washington Dulles airport.  In just spent an awesome three days with my best friend from college, Sarah at her home in Denver.  We saw a fabulous musical starring one of her amazingly talented friends from high school, ate so much good food that I won't get until....who knows when, snuggled her beautiful new baby girl, and of course talked and talked.

On my way to the airport from my parent's house with all my stuff in all my early-morning glory.

Sarah is an incredible and supportive friend, and has volunteered to take on selling some of the paper-bead jewelry I brought back in December from my beautiful Ugandan women.  I can say with near certainty that whatever I make from selling that jewelry will go straight to paying a Ugandan's salary.  So if you're at all interested in buying some, make sure you have liked my facebook page!  (www.facebook.com/recyclingforhope)

Saying goodbye to my 12-year-old puppy.  I will miss her more than nearly anything else.  

But for now, I am sleeping in the airport.  I was trying to figure out why all my friends out here are so dang responsible and I don't have anyone out here chilling with me in the airport at 2:30 am....  I'll have to work on finding some irresponsible friends :-)  My flight out here went well, though they almost didn't let me on the plane.  United Airlines told me my flight had been revoked by Ethiopian Airlines.  I nearly went into cardiac arrest.  After much panic and a few high-stress phone calls, we found out Ethiopian apparently just has a ridiculous policy that all their travelers have to check their bags, show their passport AND the credit card they used to purchase the flight (good thing I have it!!) at their own ticket counter here.  So stupid.  So the near heart attack was for nothing, but now rather than sleeping in the dead quiet terminal, I am sleeping next to the doors by the ticket counter.  Lovely.  

This is my camp out for the night.  Doesn't it look so warm and inviting?

I just have to make it to tomorrow at 11:00 am and I will be in the air, heading over seas.  Full disclosure: I honestly don't remember the last time I was this nervous for something.  Last year I was like a shot out of a cannon as soon as I got word I could go, you couldn't hold me back.  But this year I know what I'm heading into, so that anticipation of the unknown isn't there, but the desire to want things to work out really badly is.  So I'm left feeling nervous.  I don't particularly like that feeling.  I do think once I finally hit the ground in Uganda I will just feel at home again and have the calm assurance like I did before I left that everything is going to work out.  And my cousin Richard pointed out I probably don't have butterflies, it's probably the parasites that have been giving me so much grief since I came home.  I'm not nervous, they're just excited to back to their motherland. Keep your fingers crossed for me anyway.  Oh, and I think I found a place to live once I'm there!  I need to see the place first, but it sounds great.  


The next post I write will be from Gulu!  I can't wait!