We're Coming to America!

Sarah in the airport, waiting to take her first-ever flight!

I met Sarah Monday morning, April 4th, and we made our way to Entebbe, the Ugandan airport.  The airport gave me a few mixed feelings over having an American passport.  Everywhere we went, I got through without a hitch.  I’d start walking on, turn and see Sarah being held up, either waiting for some supervisor that had been called or being questioned endlessly.  Always, I’d go back, answer their questions and then she’d be allowed to come along with me.  Part of that was certainly just because this little Ugandan woman had no frame of reference for what she was doing or where she was going, so she would get all mixed up when they would ask her questions.  “What is your final destination?”

“Ecuador.”

“Please wait here.”  That’s when I would start heading back.

“What’s the problem?" I would ask.  "She has a ticket and a visa.”

“Her ticket says she’s going to America, but she’s now telling us a different story.”

“She is going to America.  She’s not heading anywhere else on Ethiopian Airlines, we are going to Washington.”

It was like this all day.  I was thankful for my passport that let me go where I wanted without question, but quite frustrated that Sarah was treated so differently, even with a visa in her passport.  Finally though, we made it on that plane and took off.  And Sarah flew like a pro.  She didn’t get nervous at takeoff or landing, she didn’t have any pressure problems or get sick at turbulence.  And that woman can sleep anywhere.  After a long layover in Addis Abbaba and an even longer flight afterwards, we finally touched down on American soil.  And that’s when it hit me, I was home!  I had been so busy the last few weeks, and so concerned with getting Sarah onto that plane, it truly hadn’t really registered that I was going back to my motherland.  But seeing that masonic temple through the airplane window had never felt so good.  

We walked into the airport and made an immediate stop in one of the restrooms.  Walking in, I was amazed and just had to wonder what Sarah was thinking.  The place had at least 30 stalls.  It was so huge and shiny with it’s stainless steel doors.  It had just been cleaned and we were the only ones in there.  I was so giddy about the clean and normal toilets I just sat my bare bottom right down on that toilet seat without even putting down a paper liner (which I used to do compulsively in public restrooms) just for the novelty of it all. Oh, it was good to be home.  

Being stopped in customs for 45 minutes because of the 10 necklaces I had brought back for Barbara deflated my elation just a bit, but as climbed into Barbara’s car and she drove us down the George Washington Parkway so Sarah could see it, my excitement returned.  Though I couldn’t stop commenting on how big all the houses and buildings were, seeing all the familiar sights and all the lush greenery everywhere, I felt at home.

Barbara dropped me off at my friend Allison’s home, and as I walked in the door I became slightly overwhelmed.  I was there alone, Allison and her roommates were at work, and while I had remembered Allison had a nice sized home, suddenly it seemed monstrous.  As I took my stuff down to the room I’d be staying in, I immediately started breaking the house up room by room, counting how many people would live in this place if it were in Gulu.  But then I shook my head, I was only here for three days, I didn’t want to suffer from too much reverse culture shock.  So I dumped everything I owned into their washing machine (imagine, a machine that washes your clothes for you!) and went and took the longest, hottest shower of my life.  I just reveled in the novelty of the fact that the water just poured out.  It just came right out of that little spout that was above my head, right on to me.  I didn’t even have to do anything.  And it stayed hot the entire time.  Wow.  After my shower I raided Allison's closet for sweat pants and a sweat shirt, and then raided her pantry for soup and wheat thins (which I ate the entire box of!)  I got myself some water (which comes right out of the refrigerator door and is cold!  Imagine!) and proceeded to hunker down under several blankets for the next three days, because I was COLD!!  OK, so I didn’t just stay under blankets for three days, but truly I was cold all. the. time.  

It was so fun to see old friends, visit old haunts, and eat yummy bad-for-you American food.  I’ll admit, I had a really hard time when my friend Crystal came to pick me up to take me to the airport.  As worthwhile as I think what I’m doing is, sometimes it gets really heavy and hard.  America is just so easy in so many ways I’d never even thought about.  Was I sure I wanted to continue on?  But of course, when I get serious about it, continuing on is exactly what I wanted to do.  And so, I had Crystal take me to one of my favorite health-food stores, MOM’s (My Organic Market,) so I could get my favorite Mango Tango drink and my favorite Kiss-My-Face chapstick, and then she dropped me at the airport. 

In writing this post, I have realized I really stink at taking pictures.  I just rarely think about it when I’m in the thick of things.  Which makes for a very boring blog post, and I’m sorry.  These are the only two pictures I took all week.  Lame.  I’ll try to be better in the future.  Really.  I’m sad thinking of all the pictures I don’t have with my friends.  

The only reason I even have this picture is because on our way in, I told Jamie, "Don't let me forget to take a picture when we leave."  And she didn't because she's amazing at remembering things like that.

This one I took so you all could see the finished product of the necklace I video recorded Lucy making.  This isn't the actual necklace but it's made from the same paper and is the same style.  When I went to buy it for Barbara I saw Lucy had an extra, and I just couldn't resist.  Isn't it awesome??

I'm Back!

Bet you all thought I just up and quit the blog thing, huh?  Rest easy, that's not the case, life just got away from me for a bit.  I apologize to my most loyal followers (that's you, Grandpa!) and I don't forsee needing to take such a long blogging-hiatus ever again.  I'll do a quick re-cap of my last couple weeks in Uganda and then on to the US and Ecuador!

I headed out to a little village named Keyo to video a woman named Lucy making a 12-strand "zebra grass" necklace.  Barbara wants the footage to auction off the necklace with.  The zebra grass necklaces are my personal favorite.  And they're one of the most expensive, but after watching it be made, seeing how stinking long the process takes, I definitely think we don't pay these women nearly enough. 

Lucy also attempted to show me how to make the beads.  The finish products looked OK, but Fiona and Lucy laughed mercilessly at how large the hole was - it's like learning to drive a stick-shift - starting out is the hardest part.

Two things to learn about this culture from these photos:  anyone in any sort of leadership position sits in a chair while everyone else sits on the ground on mats.  I know it would be considered quite rude if I didn't at least start out in the chair they've provided me, but I always feel really awkward up there so I end up on the mats by the end of whatever I'm doing.  Also, the Acholi are a gift giving people - almost always giving the visitor some kind of gift, usually food, often soda.  In this case, unripe mangos.  I've seen kids sucking them down for weeks now, and I finally was given my own to try.  And man that thing is SOUR.  Again I was laughed at mercilessly for the puckered faces I involuntarily made.  I understand now why it's just the kids that eat them!  The good news is, when I get back from the Galapagos, the mangos will be in season and they are everywhere.  I can't wait to walk outside everyday and pick myself a mango!

I've been meaning to visit St Jude's Orphanage out here since I arrived, and after things got so busy I decided I had to stop waiting for a day with nothing else to do, I just had to do it.  It's the largest orphanage in Northern Uganda, and they run a primary school right next door, though unfortunately, they don't have a secondary school.  But, there is this amazing woman in Seattle named Suzy who orders large amounts of jewelry from my women a few times a year.  She sells the necklaces in America and sends all the proceeds back to Uganda to pay for orphan's secondary school fees.  She doesn't pay herself or anyone who works with her, amazing right?  I'm constantly stunned by the good people of the world.  Obviously she can't pay for every child at the orphanage, but I think she is making an awesome difference.

When I got to St Jude's, the little guys just came right on up to me, grabbed my hand and walked around with me while one of the "mothers" gave me a tour.  Later, I grabbed a couple books and started to read stories to a few kids, and the next thing I know, I had 14 kids climbing on me like I'm a jungle gym, and another 30 are fighting over the books that were brought out.  Needless to say, quality story time was a major fail, but it was fun anyway.  

I also spent a number of afternoons taking step-by-step pictures of Sarah making a necklace.  Sarah is the woman with me in Ecuador, and the organization responsible for the trip, wanted a booklet showing how the beading process is done for the artisans to refer to once we've left.  Sarah works quickly - she's good at what she does - but no matter how many times I explained, "I'm going to say 'pause' and you hold the position so I can take a photo," it didn't work.  I tried "pause," "freeze," and plain "STOP!" but she just kept on going. This made the picture-taking process a very long one, but I laughed a lot along the way, so it was OK.  Finally, we had all the pictures we needed.






What made my last week the craziest was that I had my first-ever, all-on-my-own, full-on Market Days with all six co-ops of women.  The Market Days consisted of two large orders (one from Barbara and the other from Suzy - the saint-like lady in Seattle paying for orphan's school fees) and I had to get them in suitcases before I left for Kampala on Sunday.  Suzy's husband, son and father were in Gulu for a week and they were supposed to take all the beads back with them.  It was a tight schedule for the women because the order came a bit late considering it's size, so I pushed the market days back as far as I could to give them more time and ended up doing two Market Days a day the three days before I left Gulu.  Suzy's family came with me to half the market days and it was fun to have them along.  Bruce, the father, is a photographer and he snapped a ton of pictures with his amazing camera.  Since I was slightly overwhelmed that week, I didn't take many pictures, thinking I would just get his from him.  That just means I don't get to put many up here, unfortunately. 

I did snap this one of Benson, the son, in the back of the car.  We were all heading up to Pabbo - the three of them in a car and Fiona and myself on the back of motorbikes, when they pulled us over and suggested we all ride in the car together.  Benson was more than happy, rather excited really, about giving up his seat to climb in the back of the car.  I consented, paid our motorbike taxi-drivers (called boda drivers) for their time and we squished in the car.  Pabbo is far away however, and though Benson never once complained, his enthusiasm for riding in the back diminished quickly on those rough roads.  I can't say he was nearly as eager to climb in the hatchback on the way home....poor kid.  He was a trooper though.

Somehow, we finished six Market Days in the 72 hours before I left.  Between the Market Days , several meetings, and making sure all the loose ends were tied up and things were ready for Sarah and me to fly around the world, I hardly felt like I had time to breathe.  I also got a cold that I just could not kick - pretty sure it came from from one of the adorably unhealthy children at the orphanage.  But, as it always does, Sunday came and I had to get myself to Kampala. After church I hitched a ride with one of Janet's (the lady I live with) family members who was on his way south.  It was quite eventful....he ran out of gas on the way and had no money to buy any.  He tried to convince me to just take a taxi the rest of the way, but instead I just paid his gas and we continued on.  I have no idea what he would have done had I not been there, I have no idea what he was thinking making the trip with out enough gas and no money.....  Eventually I made it - oh and I saw these on the way.  Just hanging out on the road.

Once in Kampala I stayed with the friend of a friend in his enormous house on his enormous spare bed with a thick comforter and five pillows.  Since I was still sick, my head felt like it weighed around 832 lbs, and I was exhausted from the previous week and especially from the 16 hour day I'd had on Saturday, I thought I was in some corner of heaven as I laid down and fell asleep in no time flat.

And for those of you curious, no it was not malaria.  I had my blood tested, just to be sure.  It came back negative, and miraculously, I woke up from that glorious night's sleep feeing 90% better.

Bless the Rains Down in Africa

Rain-and-mud-spattered skirt from walking around town. 

Rainy season has officially started!  Bless the rains down in Africa!  It has been so unbearably hot here the last few weeks.  I’ve never really been a sweaty person – unless I was in my dojo doing kicking drills – but here, I sweat sitting still in the shade.  It is SO HOT.  But Monday night, the heat broke, the skies opened and the rains came.  Hallelujah.  That also meant a lot of mud, some legitimately cold winds and nights, but I tell you, I’ll take it. 

Me and the women of the Opit Co-op.  The lady on the left is my absolute fav.

I distributed supplies I got in Kampala last week to my six different cooperatives, which meant overpaying a driver to take me and Fiona in a car because of the rain.  I can’t complain though, two hours on the back of a motorbike both ways can get you a little saddle sore, so it was nice to have an excuse for hiring a car.  It was awesome to visit with many of the women, they have a great energy about them and are always so happy to see me because I'm bringing a new order.  And of course a new order means they have a payday coming soon.  This payday will come especially soon since we are trying to get them to finish the order before Sarah and I leave for the Galapagos on April 4^th.  It’s a big order for them to fill before then, but they all seem confident they can do it. 

Fiona got really excited when she saw this lake near Opit.  I get excited when people get excited, so we hiked over and heard the AMAZING chorus of hundreds of toads serenading us.

I also interviewed several Respond ReNU groups for one of the sponsors, which means I hit up ten villages this week.  Busy week!  But it felt good to have a long to-do list, you know how I like crossing things off my list.  

One of the groups I interviewed in a village named Liliya.  It kinda looks like I photoshopped myself in.

This time I was interviewing the groups as a whole instead of individuals, which illustrates a lot of things about this culture.  Many of the groups are largely women; many men out here 1. Don’t work 2. When they get money they drink it instead of save it 3. See saving money un-masculine.  It’s a fairly exasperating situation, especially since it seems everyone out here just accepts it and moves on, even the NGOs and westerners. 

In the middle of the Opit village where now-unused huts were torn down after they were abandoned post-war.

Before the war hit 20 years or so ago, the men worked and they worked hard (so I’m told,) most as farmers.  Then they all had to move into Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps and suddenly villages that were spread out became condensed, huts sprang up between huts, and three times as many people (if not more) were living in them.  There was no land left to farm, and little means to start a new business considering people left everything they had behind to escape the terrorism.  In the camps people were largely given their food and basic supplies by emergency organizations.  Women still had children to rear, homes to clean, food to cook, and these things took all day.  Women kept their work ethic through necessity.  Men’s work, however, became largely obsolete.  So they learned to play cards and drink a lot.  

Today, even though most people have moved home and there is space again and life has returned to a peaceful state, men still play cards and drink a lot.  Women continue their chores, but because they are no longer in a state of emergency, having their food supplies handed to them freely, women have also taken it upon themselves to earn the money to pay for everything as well.  Of course this isn’t the rule, there are men who work and support their families, but largely men here are just lazy.  

The part that drives me most crazy is when I go to groups of women and hear about how they are saving for school fees through selling tomatoes in the market.  They have a baby strapped to their back, and two more in tow.  And then there is one man in the group, and somehow he ends up as the chairperson. Women do so much here and yet they are still so willing to sit back and let men make the decisions and call the shots.  And of course, men gladly call those shots, even the ones who have done nothing to earn the right to do so.  I’m not suggesting men become marginalized, quite the opposite.  I am suggesting they level the playing field a bit.  Imagine what would happen if the men took it upon themselves to work again, if they had double income houses, or if the women just had a bit of support.  The state this country is in would turn around in double-time.  Yet this is a problem I don’t know how to solve.  So I guess I understand why people don’t dwell on it.  How do you change a culture created by 20 years of war and handouts?  I. Don’t. Know.

OK, drastic changing of gears; I want to introduce you all to my friend Pascah.  She is one of our neighbors and one of my favorite people I’ve met here.  She always has a smile on her face and is very quick to laugh.  And you know me, no one really thinks I’m as funny as I do, so when I meet someone who thinks I’m funny, they are instantly my friend.  She is tiny and adorable; the first time I met her I thought she was 14 or 15, but she’s 20 next month.  She just finished her entrance exams to enter school to become a lab technician in the hospital.  She’ll find out next week if she made it or not.  Keep your fingers crossed for her!  

Amony braiding Pascah's hair who is sporting the snowflake fleece.

I came home from another interview on Saturday and Amony (Janet’s niece living with us) was plaiting Pascah’s hair on the front porch.  It’s a pretty common sight to see women braiding each others hair.  They sit patiently for hours while the braids are put in, sometimes threaded with extensions, sometimes with their hair only.  They leave it in for about a month and then they take it out and do it all again.  

Anyway, because it was rainy and Ugandans dress like it’s December in Montana when it dips below 80 degrees, Pascah was bundled up in a big red fleecy sweater with snowflakes on it.  I asked if she had ever seen snow, and of course she had not.  I tried to describe it to her, but found it much more difficult to describe than one would imagine.  She thought when snow fell you could ice-skate on it.  I told her it was like cold soft sand that would melt if you held it in your hand….

Winnie has made it to Uganda....

Anyway, later she took the scarf she had over her left shoulder off and I saw her sweater had Winnie-the-Pooh on it and started laughing, asking if she knew who he was.  She had no idea.  With Pooh as pervasive in American culture as it is, it kind of surprised me she’d never even heard the name, though it probably shouldn’t have.  So I sat and told her about Christopher Robin and the Hundred Acre Woods.  She was fairly fascinated that this little guy on her sweater had stories and movies made about him and he had friends named Tigger and Rabbit, Kanga and Roo.  I told her I would see if I couldn’t get her a book sent from America.  So, I am now soliciting you all.  Could I get a volunteer to send me a copy of the original Winnie-the-Pooh?  Pascah would love it, I know, and I will greatly appreciate it!!

FOOD:

Remember the chapatti I blogged about a few weeks ago?  Well there are street corner vendors here who will make the chapatti, and then they’ll turn it into a rolex.  No, no, not the watch.  They beat a couple eggs and if you’re lucky they throw in some green pepper, tomato, onion and garlic.  Then they poor it on their hot skillet and make a sort of omelet.  They throw the chapatti on top, and roll it all together.  Like a breakfast burrito.  But better.   Originally it was called “roll eggs”, but it’s definitely called a rolex now.  I generally still prefer the chapatti alone, but sometimes there is just nothing better than a piping-hot rolex.

I also finally had my first taste of meat on a stick here.  It’s sold all over, but I’ve always been a bit afraid to try.  They skewer the meat and roast it over a charcoal grill and sell it.  Last weekend when I was watching the rugby match with some friends (rugby is an awesome game by the way, who knew??) and after witnessing multiple people eat them, none of them dying, I was finally brave enough to try.  And I was not disappointed.  Slow roasted sweet pork.  On a stick.  Pretty awesome. 

Ugandan Profundities

I spent the better part of this last week highly overwhelmed in Kampala.  I was there for a couple reasons; one, to buy supplies for the women to make their next order of jewelry, and two, to get one of our beaders a visa from the US embassy.

The visa is needed because in April, I will be taking beader Sarah Akot to.....

Are you ready??!!

The Galapagos Islands!  That's right folks, Sarah and I will take the murderously long flight to South America, where she will then teach elementary school children to make the beads from recycled paper.  It's all being done through the Linblad Organization which is under National Geographic, who is one of Paper to Pearls' longest standing customers.  I haven't said anything up till now because I wasn't positive it was going to happen, but now, well, it is definitely happening.  We will fly from here to DC, spend a few days (and yes, DC friends, I would LOVE to see you all!)  fly to Ecuador for ten or so days, back to DC, and then back here to Uganda.  Crazy, I know.  Totally crazy.  But I'm excited!  I find it rather ironic that I had to come to Uganda to make it South America....But whatever, I'll take it!  So anyway, because of the extended layover in DC, we had to get Sarah a visa.

The embassy was a complete nightmare.  Take all the bureaucracy of America, mix it with all the inefficiency of Uganda, and you have waiting for your interview for seven hours (without any books or iPods or anything - they make you leave it all at the front) only to be turned down by a British woman (I'm sorry, but who the heck is she to decide who gets to go to America or not?!) for Sarah's visa, only to return the next morning and be accepted by the same British woman!  Think of your worst experience at the DMV and multiply it by about a thousand and you have my Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.  It was AWFUL, but, Sarah got her visa, so I will be coming home for a couple days, and then on to the Islands!!  Woohoo!!!

As I mentioned, I was also there to get supplies.  Sarah had done it many times before, so she was showing me where to get everything, and we gallivanted all over that crazy city.  I had many good intentions to take all kinds of pictures, but suffice it to say, I was highly overwhelmed by the experience and forgot to take even a single picture.  Also, it was so crazy that at this point, I'm not sure I could properly blog about it, so we will wait for a future order for such a thing.  It will come, and you will be entertained, I promise.

And now, The Measure of My Creation presents; UGANDAN PROFUNDITIES!  There are so many random things that make up this crazy place and culture, and I've been trying to catch them on camera.  In thinking about which ones I should post, I realized there are LOADS, many of which I haven't yet got on film.  So, there will be further Ugandan Profundities episodes to come.

First:  The carrying on the head business.  They carry everything on their head.  Literally.  Those neck muscles have got to be enormous, because some of those loads are seriously heavy.  

Second:  The cast-off food.  Most of the candy you can buy here is expired.  And most of it is awful.  Most everything processed is shipped in and most of it is the old junk that didn't sell in it's original market.  (This actually happens in a lot of industries - my phone here being one of them.)  Anyway, Uganda is terrible in the processed food category.  Which isn't a bad thing, really, so I think they should just stick to what their good at, and stop trying to sell English Christmas Pringles in March.  Though, I am the sucker who had a serious salt craving one day and bought them.  But don't worry, I checked the expiration date, they are good until next Christmas. 

Third:  This was on the TV in Jojo's Palace, my hotel my first week in Gulu.  I had just left Utah and it's snow and was sweating during breakfast one morning when I looked up and saw the sticker.  I started laughing out loud and everyone thought I was nuts for taking a picture of a TV that was turned off.  Amazing what giving your stuff to Good Will can do. 

Fourth:  The bugs.  Oh, they are everywhere.  And I am an avid bug hater.  Just ask my brother and sister-in-law, when I was living with them I was haunted by the jumping crickets that would sneak into my room at night.  I've surprised myself with being uncharacteristically calm when it comes to bugs here, but there are two things I still can't handle: weird things that fly at my face and cockroaches.  One would think I'd be used to the suckers after being invaded by our nasty neighbors roaches in Alexandria, but they were, at biggest, the size of my pinky nails.  These guys though, oy.  

Fifth: Naked babies.  They're everywhere.  And they don't use diapers.  I'm not sure what happens when "it" happens, but no one seems to worry about it.  They even carry the babies naked.  All the time.  Or have them in the bus that way.  Always makes me nervous when I see one on someone's lap, but you know, if they're not worried, why should I be?  And really, their little butts are pretty adorable. 

Sixth:  You can't see it very well, but this is what the ATM tells me every time I go to pull money out; "Please wait for a while."  Oh, that is so beautifully typical of Uganda.  "A While."  Could be 30 seconds, could be thirty minutes.  But please, be patient and just....wait. 

Seventh: Animals in all the wrong places.  Now, this lizard was not in my toilet, and I didn't even get to see it, but it was in my friend Ali's toilet in Kidepo.  The lizards are everywhere and are crazy-fast.  There really are no set boundaries here.  Chickens walk into my room, goats meander down the streets of town, lizards hang out in the toilet.  It's, you know, Uganda.  

 

Eighth:  Misspellings.  They are ALL over.  These just happen to be the two I have pictures of.  One is intentional, and one is not.  Obviously, they just left the 'S' out of RESPOND.  The other, "FUNITURES," is supposed to be "furniture."  They don't pronounce many of their 'R' sounds here (something I blame on the British) so why, when you say "fuh-ni-chuh" would you put an 'R' anywhere in there?  You wouldn't.  Clearly.

OK, that's all for now.  I hope you enjoyed.  Like I said, there will be many more to come.  

Food is a short one this time; I craved sugar like a mad woman this week.  Which is very odd for me, I usually crave salt if I'm craving (remember the Pringles?)  But not this week.  And Gulu is, as I mentioned before, really really awful at candy and sweets.  And I'm not much of a chocolate person (unless it comes from the Austria/Germany/Switzerland region of the world.  And maybe Belgium.)  So when I stumbled across these goodies - caramel!! - I was thrilled, to say the least.  I went through three packets in no time flat and just purchased these two babies to get me through the rest of the weekend. They're hard candy and, contrary to their mountain love name, they are made in Taiwan.  But I close my eyes and pretend I'm back in Austria and that I can walk into any number of pastry shops and order any number of amazing sugary goodness-es.  Pretty sure I won't be partaking of any other Guluian candy after having found these.  Thank you, Prince Supermarket! 

My Time in Hades

My many traveling companions.

Last week David and I decided I would go to a small town a few hours north of Gulu called Kitgum to get some interviews for him (I’ll explain in a bit.) Sunday night he told me he would call at 7:40am and let me know if there was an 8:00am bus, but most likely I would be on the 9:00 or 10:00 bus.  Instead he called me at 7:25am, waking me up and telling me he’d be there in ten minutes to pick me up for the 8:00 bus.  He showed up about three minutes later saying me “We have to go, now!”   I barely had time to brush my teeth and wash my face before climbing on the back of his motorbike on our way to the bus park (where busses bussing all over creation hang out between transit.)  I soon realized why the big hurry.  The so-called “bus” was actually one of Uganda’s so-called “taxis.”  In actuality, it is a 15 passenger van, of which there are a million here.  They pack people in like sardines and ship them off to their desired destination and the one I was supposed to be on was filling up fast.  David had NOT warned me this would be my mode of transportation and  I was not prepared.  After being told I needed to sit in the middle of two seats that were not on an even plane, and arguing incredulously, “That is not a seat!” I wound up being the last one in, sitting next to the door instead.  With my bag under my legs and my feet up on the wheel-well I was congratulating myself on landing the best spot on the bus.  As the driver was literally pulling away, this kid (about 17) picked up my backpack and put it on my lap, straddled my legs and sat where my feet had been two seconds before. I was within kissing distance of the boy, face to face, for the next two and a half hours. 

The face I stared at for  2 and 1/2 hours.  Yes, he was this close.

Our 15 passenger van was now carrying 23.  Of the five rows of seats (that should hold three people each) mine took the cake, carrying eight people.  No joke.  Four adults on the three seats, three children being held or sitting on the floor, and then my new best friend sitting rather uncomfortably close in front of me.  Oh, and my big backpack on my lap (because everyone else packs their stuff a mile high on the roof of the vans.  My computer and visa and everything else was not going up there.)

Somehow though, I made it to Kitgum.  As I mentioned earlier, I was going for David’s organization.  He needs some reports to send to sponsors, and the reports need to include some personal stories and facts about individuals who are currently using the savings and loan business.  They have a growing branch in this smaller-than-Gulu-but-larger-than-just-a-village town.  So I went to interview 10 individuals and find out about their monetary situation before joining Respond ReNU and their current situation; how much they were saving, what they were saving for, if they had taken loans, that kind of thing.  Through this I would try to decipher if there were any problems or successes.  I was really excited to do this.  I enjoy getting out to the surrounding areas and meeting the local people and seeing the way they live.  I found my two days and 10 interviews to be rather frustrating, however.  Over and over I talked to people who, yes, they were saving more now than before they had joined a Respond group, but they just did not have the first clue about what to do with their money or just what savings or a loan could really do. 

To be fair, David has really done a nice job setting up the business so that when a group joins they go through eight training classes where people are taught not to “eat” their money – when they open the box they should use their savings to buy something that will be an investment, whether to improve quality of life or their business, and not just food.  They’re taught about what amount of loan is reasonable for them to expect, especially in the beginning, and what kind of things are best for them to invest in, i.e. something they can make profit off easily enough pay back the loan and have some left over.  All that said, this is a highly uneducated group of people we’re dealing with.  Just because you get someone to join a group where they have to save something every week, and just because you tell them to spend wisely, doesn’t mean they understand money.  It doesn’t mean they know how to write a budget so they can save the most possible each week.  It doesn’t mean they really know what to save for.  Especially since Kitgum is a fairly new branch, people had quite a few mis-conceptions.  I talked to person after person where this was a typical dialogue:

                “How long have you been saving money?”
                “About five months.”
                “And how much have you been able to save during that time?”
                “About 100 thousand shillings so far.”
                “Good for you.  How long until your group opens the box?”
                “We open the 1^st of May.”
                “And how much do you hope to have saved by then?”
                “I hope to have saved 300 thousand shillings.”

The first couple people, I just wrote what they told me and continued on thinking, “Oh, I’m sorry, you’ll never make it.”  After a while, those words started coming out loud.  People most often responded with a blank stare.  Sometimes they would say something about the interest they were supposed to earn off of their savings.  I started doing the math for them, explaining how much they need to save in order to reach their goal, how much, given what they’ve typically saved in a week so far, they can actually expect to save and just what kind of interest they could earn.  I tried to help them see it wasn't magic, money wouldn't just appear.  Then I would ask what they’re saving for. 

                “I am saving for my business.”
                “Good, that’s good, but what specifically are you saving for?”
                “Specifically for my business.”

I finally made everyone tell me something truly specific they were saving for and I also made them all give me a very loose five-year plan as to what they wanted to be able to obtain long-term through the savings and loan.  

Me interviewing one of my more frustrating interviewees.

My last question was always something along the lines, “Is there anything else I should know, good or bad, about how things are going within your savings group?”  At least four people told me they needed to be empowered.  “Yes!” I would think, “that’s exactly what you need!”  Until they went on, “We need to be empowered by you giving us money so that we can live.  We are too poor, we need more money.”  And then I would just get frustrated again.  I tried hard to explain empowerment came from the mind and heart and not from a hand-out, but I’m afraid too many NGOs have gone before me, handing out the money, for my words to have made any difference.  

Frances, my least frustrating interviewee.  He's done really well and vastly improved his nice store.

The two days was spent having these conversations, walking from village to village in unbearably hot weather, which left me very….I'll say it again, frustrated – there’s no other word for it.  These people were better off for their association with Respond, yes, but they had so many struggles to overcome.  They are uneducated, often illiterate, they are living in a desert waste-land where even if they invest in more or better seeds for their farms, there is no guarantee it will ever rain again to produce more food and therefore more profit.  No one has ever taught them a Family Finance class.  They have never read a book entitled Starting your Own Business!  Many of them have never learned basic math skills, much less how to write and balance a budget. 

I sat in that unbearable heat waiting for my bus Tuesday afternoon with George Otim who is running the business in Kitgum and who acted as my interpreter.  I pulled out my travel alarm clock which has a thermometer in it and discovered it was 102 degrees.  We were in the shade.  I asked George why it was so bleeding hot in Kitgum?  He responded, “Maybe God doesn’t care about Kitgum.”  

The traveling chicken.  Before eight people had their feet on him.

I got on the bus (which was a real bus this time) and sat next to my assigned window seat.  A small family sat across the aisle from me in three seats.  A mother, father and their three children.  A big Acholi man came and sat next to me and from the very beginning was encroaching on my half of the space.  He definitely took up two-thirds of the leg room.  And then someone informed the lady sitting behind me she was sitting in his seat.  She was supposed to seat in the same row as that family across from me.  One would think she could find another seat, one with a bit more space, but one would be wrong.  They packed that bus the same way my van the day before and been packed.  People stood up in the aisle when there was no seating left.  So, in the three seats were now crammed three grown adults, three children, and, you guessed it, a chicken.  A live one.  Sitting under their feet.  Did I mention it was 102 degrees outside, in the shade?  So the whole way back, I was just inhaling dust through the open window, sweating profusely because the man next to me was basically sitting on top of me, and feeling extremely frustrated by the events of the past two days.  And yet, somehow, I was happy as a clam.  Watching the dusty scenery go by outside my window, I pondered this, trying to figure out how that could be.  Why was I so happy?  Why in the face of what I just experienced and discovered was I allowed to feel such calm, serene happiness?  I still haven’t figured out the answer.  But I know I love it here.  I know it makes any problems I ever thought I had seem infinitesimal.  It makes me wonder why I should ever leave. 

The next morning at the office, David and I talked over what my impressions had been and I told him of my frustrations.  I am proud to say he took my suggestions to add a couple pages to the savings booklet he passes out to every member of the organization.  The very first thing they will see now is a space for four goals for each saving cycle, how much each costs, and how much their weekly savings needs to be.  Next are a couple pages for people to keep track of how much they’ve saved each week and to show if they are on target with their goal savings.  It’s already in the booklets that were printed on Thursday.  That is the great thing about working with grassroots organizations.  There is no bureaucracy to cut through, just an obstinate Irish guy who is surprisingly good at taking criticism and suggestions from me.  I know the extra pages won’t solve all problems.  Obviously.  But hopefully it will at least help a couple people improve their monetary situation.  

On a lighter note, I would say the highlight of my week was that I actually got to visit one of my Paper to Pearls groups this week and buy some necklaces from them.  There is a lady in Seattle who makes a couple personal orders a year – large orders.  She sells the necklaces and uses the proceeds to pay for Ugandan orphans’ school fees.  She doesn’t pay herself for the work at all.  Kind of amazing.  So this is an order that she had placed back in November, but because of all the project manager transitioning, etc., it had not yet been picked up.  So I got to go buy a ton of Zebra Grass necklaces from a group in a village about thirty minutes’ drive outside of Gulu, called Awer.  It was a lot of fun to be with the women, they are all so warm and friendly, especially since I am there to give them money!  I’m including a little bit of a video that one of Suzy’s (Seattle lady’s) friends took.  She came to meet the women and see how things were done.  You can see me and Fiona and all the Awer women.  Lucy, the woman in orange is the chair person of this particular co-op.  She is really smart and makes awesome necklaces.

Alright folks, I have tried again and again to upload this video and it's just not working.  Maybe someday I'll internet that works properly and I'll get it on here.  Until then, just use your imagination :-)

OK, onto the food.  Since much of my week was spent in tiny villages, I ate a ton of rice and beans.  But there was one morning when Concy brought me this amazing dish for “tea” (breakfast.)  It’s called Nyoy - though I really have no idea how to spell that.  It consists of several types of beans – including chickpeas, which I love – and onions.  Now, I’ve never been a huge onion fan.  I love the smell of onions, I love the flavor they give food, but I have a hard time just eating onions, especially if they’re raw and I have to bite them.  Ew.  It’s a texture thing.  But these onions.  They are fried to a crisp and taste kind of like the fried onions you buy in a can and put on salads and what-not.  These are fresh however, and are just amazing.  I have no idea how they’re made, but I will find out!  It’s safe to say that while eating that dish, it was the first time in my life I sat picking out the onions so I could eat them instead of throw them out. 

No Tigers, No Bears, but LIONS!!

I had good intentions to write this post days ago, but this week became “Goodbye, Ali!” week, so I had very many social distractions.  Ali (full name is Alastair) is one of the med students here from Manchester and it was his last week before he headed off to Tanzania.  He was my favorite friend I’ve met so far out here, so I was sad to see him go.  I’m sure he’ll have an amazing time in Tanzania though, and luckily, I met an awesome group of people – many of them long-term stayers in Gulu – on my trip last weekend. 

Speaking of trip…..KIDEPO NATIONAL PARK!!!

Last Friday our group of 11 headed north to see the animals.  Saturday morning we went on a game drive and saw…..

Loads and loads and loads of water buffalo.  It reminded me of when I was kid growing up in small-town Wright, WY, just outside of one of the largest plains buffalo ranches in the nation.  Some days they would be out by the highway and the herd seemed endless.  That’s how the water buffalo seemed that morning.  Our guide told us just to keep driving through the middle of the herd and we were literally inches from some of them.  They looked at our jeep rather angrily and some made a few rough noises, but none of them made any move toward our car.  Whew.

It's hard to take them seriously with that thing on their head....

Baboons!  We came across a large boulder that had a dozen or so climbing all over creation.  They jumped from rock to rock, crawled to have a closer look at the car and swung happily through tree limbs.  I literally could have sat and watched them all day, they were so entertaining.  

They blend into the rock pretty well, but if you look closely you can see quite a few of the little guys!

 Wart hogs!  I know it sounds weird, but these little guys are really cute.  Especially the babies.  Oh, the babies are adorable.  They run away if you get very close, tails straight up in the air like a little antenna.  I was kinda sad I got to see a Pumba but no Timon.  Maybe next time…

Why is the baby version everything cute??  Even wart hogs?!  YES!!

A LIONESS AND HER THREE CUBS!  This was truly the highlight.  Particularly since I was not expecting to see one.  I figured since lions are called The King of the Jungle, a lion would look pretty majestic out here in the wild, but I was surprised at just how majestic she looked.  She sat lazily gnawing away at a buffalo hide with her three cubs a little ways behind her.  She was huge, much bigger than I anticipated, and just couldn’t be bothered by our jeep creeping ever closer.  Consequently, we were able to get quite close.  The cubs were still quite far away, but we could see the three of them hiding in the grass and I really just wanted to squeeze one and keep them for my own. 

Look very closely in the center of this pic and you can see the cubs.  Gah!  I want one!

That night we went on another game drive.  We didn’t see nearly as many animals as we had the night before, but we still saw some, and I’m very glad I went because we saw….

Elephants!!  There was an entire herd of them, and we kept driving around trying to cut them off so they would pass in front of us, but to no avail.  We did get closer though and were quite close at one point to a mama and her baby, which, obviously, was extremely precious. 

We went back to see if we could see the lion again, but she was gone and instead we saw a bunch of vultures.  We didn’t get close enough to get good shots, but there were a couple hanging out in the trees nearby.  

More baboons

This sunset

Other highlights:

On the drive up to the park I wound up in Tiziana’s car.  She’s a 31 year-old Italian woman working for the World Food Project and has been here since June.  All she wanted to talk about was music, which was sincerely a lovely change of events.  Strangely enough, I don’t find many opera-goers here in Gulu, so someone with a sincere passion for classical music in general and choral works specifically, is a welcome rarity.  Leave it to an Italian.

Tiziana’s car is minus AC, so it was a long and DUSTY trip.  When I finally got to wash my hair it was horrifyingly dirty.  The picture doesn’t do it justice at all.  I was yelling at Tiziana to grab my camera so she could capture it, but by the time she found it and started snapping photos, most of the amazing redness had already washed down the drain. 

The first night we were there the only other American with us – Mollie – decided it was time for a round of Murder (some of you may know it as Mafia.)  It was most amusing watching a bunch of 20-something non-Americans learn to play this game I’ve been playing for years.  I always got killed off early *except* when I was actually the murderer.  And then I won every time.  People started wondering if there was something they were missing about this girl who came off as so innocent….Mwahaha.

Later that night….  My doxycycline (anti-malaria) pill bottle tells me to take it on an empty stomach with plenty of water.  Well, I didn’t eat much for dinner, and only drank water afterwards, so when I went to bed that I night and forgot to bring water with me I thought, “Oh, I’ll just swallow the pill, it’s fine, there is plenty of water in my stomach.”  About an hour later I woke up in some of the worst pain I’ve ever experienced.  Massive heartburn.  Massive.  Like I wanted to literally rip my chest out.  Pretty sure my attempt to swallow got stuck half-way down and it sat dissolving in my esophagus for an hour.  Yikes.  So…that’s not a highlight, but because of that, I was sitting up in bed in extreme pain when Tiziana walked in.  She immediately knew something was wrong and went to go get some of the medical staff to see what they could do.  Our friend George is a doctor here in Gulu and three people from Manchester are here – two med students and a nurse.  So, George and Ali came to see what they could do.  Since no one had any antacids, I threw up the milk (it was warm and was in a bag, can you blame me?!) and eating was horrifically painful, there wasn’t much anyone could do.  However, Tiziana had a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird on her bed and I said something in my dazed state about loving the book.  Tiziana said, “You can have it!” and Ali said, “Would you like me to read from it?!”  I started laughing, “A Brit reading a southern American classic.  This I gotta hear.  Yes, please!”  He responded, “I’ll read it in a southern accent.”  Oh, I have never hurt so bad and laughed so hard.  What I wouldn’t give for a recording so you all could hear that.  He also turned to Irish, Cockney and Scottish.  Sorry Harper Lee, it may have been an abomination to your novel, but that was an amazing moment of my life.

The next morning after our game drive we had an enormous breakfast.  Mollie, (the other American girl) had actually organized the whole trip and assigned everyone food to bring.    Remember the chapatti I blogged about last week?  That morning I had it with Nutella and banana slices.  I’m sure the crepes we make back home with the same toppings are just as good, but somehow, when it’s a novelty in remote east Africa, it just tastes like I would imagine food in paradise.  Though it hurt like Hades going down since the heartburn wasn’t gone.  It was worth every painful bite.

When you aren’t out on the game drives, there isn’t much else to do in the parks.  So, after another evening of Murder dissolved into conversation, people slowly began drifting off to bed.  We needed a new game.  So I busted out Spoons.  I don’t know why it was so much fun listening to Sarah in her English accent yelling, “Four of a kind! Four of a kind! Four of a kind!” instead of grabbing a spoon, and listening to David go on endlessly about his spoon strategy (fyi – the only strategy in Spoons is “be quick about it!”) but it sure was.  It didn’t hurt that I won every time as well. (Well, kinda.  I couldn’t remember what you did when it got down to two players, so top two won.)  It also didn’t hurt that they all seemed to enjoy the game as much, if not more, than I did. 

Just before we went in for the kill.  I can't remember exactly, but I would guess Sarah (to my right) got four of kind and David (to my left) missed the spoon.  Thanks to Ali for taking the shot (who had already lost. Ha.)

There is an elephant named Bulbul who hangs out in the camp.  Apparently, his father did the same.  Consequently, he is not shy of the campers whatsoever.  The morning before we left he came sauntering right through the middle of where we were staying.  He was inches from my friends George’s car.  He was massive and looked at me through his left eye as I chased after him to get the photos.  Maybe not my smartest move ever, but totally worth it.

Aren't you glad that's not your car?!

Two little monkey’s jumping on my bed.  OK, not really on my bed, but there are these two monkeys that hang out in the camp, like Bulbul does, and if you gave them the chance, they would jump on your bed.  Guaranteed.  They are quite playful and apparently quite vicious.  Mostly I just loved watching them hop around and get into things just the way you would imagine two monkeys doing.  Our last morning there we had some avocados and bananas hanging out in the dining hall that we were deciding what to do with.  No decision necessary, before anybody realized, the monkeys had stolen them all.  Sneaky little buggers!

Monkey-see, Monkey-do

Double Trouble.  Truly.

When we got back, we all showered (I was even dustier from the drive home if that’s possible and Tiziana let me come over and shower in her real, live, water-pouring shower – bless that child) and met back at the Ethiopian restaurant in town.  Easily my favorite place to eat in Gulu, the food is great and the company was great.  The weekend, was great.  

Yummy food, and we're all shiny-happy clean!

All the happy travelers.  Two Americans, three Italians, one Ugandan, four Brits, and one Irishman.