Installment #4--Oh Charles, you crazy guy you.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday contained a full compliment of classes and experiences in Gulu. We had a language workshop, Colonialism in the classroom discussion, an ESL strategies workshop, a discussion about Invisible Children programs, a lecture on Education from war to peace, a session on culture and customs, and an informational session about the different Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Uganda. We have also had a few meals out in Uganda, met our team-teaching partners, had a follow up meeting with our teachers, and gone shopping for supplies. The good news is that in all of the business, I have actually been able to get a full-night’s sleep the last several nights.

My first meeting with my cooperating teacher happened Friday night. The whole group got dressed up in slacks, shirts, ties, and dresses (boys and girls wore gender appropriate clothes goofball). We walked from the IC house over to Kope Café—a bit of an NGO hangout during the day. This night though, the café was closed to the public so that we could host a party for the cooperating teachers. Starting at about 6:00, the teachers began to slowly arrive. Over the next hour, most of the teachers showed up. My cooperating teacher, Oola Charles, arrived about a half hour into the party. We sat for a while and made small talk. I had already met his colleagues that will be teaching with Danielle and Trisha. Charles and I talked about our own lives in the states and Uganda, we talked about the differences between our school systems, and about a few other elements of Acholi and American culture. Conversation went smoothly at times, was awkward at others, and we definitely hit a few silent spots. Charles’ English skills and mine are a bit different, both based on culture and familiarity with the language, so that caused a little bit of miscommunication to happen periodically. Charles would not understand a question I asked, or vice versa. But by the end of the night, we had at least started to get to know each other.

Saturday Morning, I met up with Charles again. We went to breakfast at the Kope Café. All of the Pabo teachers decided to meet before the Geoffrey, Vasco and Charles went back to their homes for the afternoon. Geoffrey and Vasco both (Danielle and Trisha’s coordinating teachers) arrived at 9:00 for breakfast, and Charles came by at about 9:45 (not terribly unusual for Uganda). Unfortunately, we had already ordered breakfast, so Charles went inside to place his order. At about 10:30, everyone but Charles’s breakfast had arrived (as is customary—you get your food in the order that it is prepared, not all together). By 11:00, the two teachers from Pabo needed to leave. By 11:30, Danielle and Trisha needed to leave to run errands (thanks to them for picking up my slack on errands too!), and by 12:00, Charles and I had run out of things to talk about. Or conversation at breakfast went much more smoothly today, with only a few instances where we misunderstood each other, but having just met each other the night before, we had a limited number of topics that we could discuss. Charles food ended up never arriving. It turns out that the café apparently looked for him inside (we were sitting on the patio), didn’t find him, and returned his food to the kitchen. Charles ordered a Fanta pop, we sat for the next half hour watching the people on the street (Even though it is somewhat uncomfortable for me to sit for 30 or 40 minutes without talking, this too is not awkward in Acholi culture,…or at least so I am told). At about 12:30 we parted ways (from our three and a half hour breakfast), and I met up with Danielle and Trisha to help with the errands.

Today, I am going to be heading off to St. Jude’s Children’s orphanage to visit with the children there. I will be packing up for Pabo this evening, and tomorrow night I will be heading out to Pabo to start my stay there! I will continue to try to post every weekend, but there will be a weekend or two when I am traveling in Uganda and away from the internet café. I hope that all is well back in the states!

As the Acholi say, “apwoyo matek!”(Thank you very much) Thanks for reading!

Best,
Matt

Installment #3--Uganda Uganda (or look out Gulu, here I come!)

Uganda schools work in a slightly different way than in the states. As mentioned before, students go through seven years of primary education (P1-P7). At the end of P7, they sit for their national examination. If they pass, they are allowed to go on to secondary school. Here, there are six levels of education (S1-S6). S1-S4 are considered “O” level, or ordinary, and S5 and S6 are “A” level, or advanced. Students sit in S1-S4, and then have to take their next national exam. This exam includes everything they have studied in secondary school (including foods class) and is apparently pretty intense. If they are able to pass the test (many do not), then they can go on to S5 and S6 where students will receive a specialized education (to become a doctor, lawyer, teacher, engineer…) based upon their test scores. The curriculum that students learn is all determined by the Minister of Education for Uganda, and all students, no matter where they attend school, receive the same education.

By dinner time of our first day in Kampala, I was beat. Not only had my body not caught up with the eight hour time change, twenty plus hours of flying, and two (or three?—I was too confused to know for sure) sleepless nights, but we had also had a full day of classes and tours. Many people were in the same boat as I was, but we pushed through it to go to dinner at Sam’s. About twenty of us (any time there are twenty white people (muzungu) together in the same place it causes quite a spectacle) sat around a large table, shared various fantastic Indian dishes, had a few beers, and desperately tried to keep our eyelids open, our heads from hitting the table too hard when we had the nods, and the drool from making too large a puddle in front of us. Dinner was great, and of course, when we returned to the hostel that evening immediately following dinner, everyone caught his or her second wind. Damn. Another sleepless night.

Wednesday (the next day silly) held another experience and more travel. We started the morning by traveling to the Bavubuka Foundation’s house in Kampala (please check it out here www.bavubuka.com). In Luganda, Bavubuka means “the youth.” Silas, a famous Ugandan rapper decided that student needed a place to learn skills and participate in the arts so that they can help to foster respect for each other, desire (and affect) positive change in their world, and build community that looks toward growth. Students engage in art projects, singing, dancing, weaving, and many other activities at the house that is run by an all volunteer staff that subsists on donations. The organization is growing and, though they currently only have a house in Kampala, they have volunteers in many of Uganda’s larger cities. While we were there, we shared a few activities with the house volunteers so that they would be able to do them with their students.

After returning to the hostel and packing up, it was time to hit the road for Gulu. Yup, here it is, another woot woot! The trip to Gulu was made in a minibus that just barely contained the whole group (23 volunteers and 2 drivers). There are two seats along one side of the bus and one seat along the other side. When extra seats are needed (and they were), jump seats folded down to fill the aisle so that there were four seats across. I, of course, wound up in a jump seat (the leg room is honestly a big plus here). Unfortunately, the jump seats have very low backs, so that when I was actually (finally) ready to sleep, I had nowhere to put my head. It is almost impossible to prop your head up on your hands to sleep on a bumpy bus ride, so I wound up not getting any sleep yet again (except for the few minutes that I passed out on the shoulder of the guy next to me, drooled on the back of the person in front of me, and snored on the shoulder of the person to my left). The bus ride itself took a little over six hours, was fast, was slow, was highly erratic with the bus swerving from one shoulder to the other trying to avoid any multiple of the millions of large potholes along the route, and ultimately, a bit tedious. But finally, we arrived in Gulu. We had a fantastic meal prepared by a wonderfully sweet woman, Doreen, who is the chef at the Invisible Children’s House.

Installment #2--T.I.A. (This is Africa) Man--and a very long post

We spent the next two days in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. Kampala is not like other capital cities that you have probably experienced. Uganda is a Lesser Developed Country (LDC), and poverty affects all but the very few privileged. This is definitely apparent in Kampala. There are many small buildings sprawled out along the streets selling almost anything you can imagine. Some of the buildings are solid brick structures that house large general stores and others are small shacks, shoddily constructed out of wood, corrugated metal, and whatever else can be found. Many of the large buildings are covered in large painted advertisements for phone companies, soft drinks, or paints. The advertisements add to the brilliant color palette of the city. Kampala is also a rather busy city. There are people walking, riding bikes, on motorcycles, in vans, and they are all competing for road space with each other and the large delivery trucks that frequent the streets. If you are at all squeamish about reckless driving (Mom, Em-this is you), then it is advisable that you travel with your eyes closed. In Kampala, the horn is a safety feature on most vehicles that rivals seat belts and airbags for importance.

While in Kampala, the group had several workshops intended to inform us about the situation in Uganda as well as prepare us for our cultural exchanges. Our first full day included heading out to the U.S. Embassy, Traveling to Garden City, visiting Lubiri Secondary School, and dinner at Sam’s Indian Restaurant. At the Embassy, we met a general representative of the embassy, a women working for the education program of U.S. Aid, and two gentlemen working for the Refugee program at the embassy. The discussion we had brought up several of the complexities of Education in Uganda. The country has Universal Primary Education for all students, meaning that there are no school fees for primary school. Students take seven years of primary school (P1-P7), after which they take a Country Exam that will determine if they can pass to Secondary School. Though Education is free through P7, many students cannot attend because they do not have the money to pay for school uniforms or other essentials. Secondary School is not free in Uganda yet, so more students do not attend. School fees typically run from $500 to $600 a year, which is more than much of Uganda can afford (especially if there are multiple children in a family). Girls also face struggles in education. Because of a lack of sanitary supplies (and sometimes knowledge), when a girl begins puberty, she usually has to miss several days of school a month. Because girls begin missing so much school, they eventually have to drop out. Another complication is brought about as a result of the war and the displacement of people and schools. With the displaced people beginning to move back to parishes (halfway camps between the villages and IDP’s where people can still live as a community as they get their villages up to snuff) and there villages (where schools currently are not operating), they are forced to leave their children behind. Sometimes families will leave older children to fend for themselves so that they can continue in school, and other times children will live with foster parents in the camps or towns (and sometimes on an impromptu notice). This leads to issues of neglect and abuse.

Garden City was a large shopping mall in Uganda where we got lunch and changed our money for the trip. Because so few in Gulu have much money in hand (and are therefore unable to make change), it is necessary to break large bills into much smaller denominations. I ran from store to store purchasing as many small things as necessary (mangos, bananas, a notepad…) to make as much change as possible. I also stopped and had a quick (really, nothing is quick in Uganda—meals are usually made one at a time, and delivered as they are finished—it is not unusual to wait an hour for a sandwich and finish eating it before your friend receives it) lunch. I ordered a Coke, which the restaurant apparently did not have (but didn’t say either), so after taking my order, the gentleman from the restaurant ran next door to pick up a coke from the neighboring restaurant (he also did this to get change—which is called the balance in Uganda—when I paid for my meal).

After Garden city, the whole group headed over to Lubiri Secondary School, one of the higher performing schools in Uganda. We met first with the Head teacher of the school who told us a little bit more about Lubiri and Education in general. After that, we were unleashed into the teacher’s room where we met and talked with several teachers. One of the teachers (and I cannot unfortunately remember his name) took a small group of us out to show us several classes. As we toured the open-air classrooms, one thing was apparent. Even though class sizes reached upwards of 100 students, the students were much disciplined and intent on learning. The teacher giving us the tour actually had students working on projects while he had left to come meet us. After being out of his room for forty minutes or so, he walked back in, (as the students worked together on physics questions—not a single student goofing) and introduced us. We talked with several students at their desks, and soon left to visit other classrooms. We saw a biology class, a foods class, a computer class (there was a computer lab at Lubiri—a luxury most schools do not have), a fine arts class, and a few others. All the while, we were discussing the educational system in Uganda with our new teacher-friend.

Installment #1--Travel, Travel, Travel

I have made it safely to my almost last stop! On June 21, at about 3:30 p.m. I left my good friend Scott at the Jet Blue gate and headed over to the International terminal at JFK Airport in New York. After sitting for a while, I ran into John Magee and Danielle Davies, two of the people who have made the trip to Africa with me. The three of us chatted for a while and hung out, and the rest of the group slowly drifted in. By 8:00, we were checking in to our Emirates flight to Uganda. At 11:30, we were in the air and off!!! I have to pause for a moment though and say, the seats on an international flight that lasts thirteen hours should definitely take into account that a sizeable portion of the U.S. population is over six feet tall and can’t fit comfortably into 20 inches of legroom. All right, I’m being unfair, 22 inches of legroom. As Murphy would have it, my seat assignment was, of course, in the middle of the middle section of the plane.

Finally, after two movies, three meals, two naps of two hours, and several conversations with two friendly, but equally large seat neighbors, our plane landed in Dubai. As a group, we cruised through customs with ease (that is except for one of our teachers who wears dreadlocks and has two arms full of tattoos—he was treated to a royal strip search care of the Emirates airport security). We caught a shuttle to the Emirates Airport Hotel and found our rooms. By the time we dropped our bags, it was 9:45 p.m.—23 hours after we left NY (but only 15 hours real time). That doesn’t bode well on a body. Still feeling like it was 1:45, our group headed out to the very eloquent and ornate Emirates mall, home of the world famous “Ski Dubai”—an indoor ski hill. Five of our group took the opportunity to ski on the slopes while the rest of us enjoyed a nice stroll through the ridiculously large (supermarket included) mall.

After the stroll, it was back to the hotel for a few quick hours of sleep before hopping on the plane again. Or, at least, laying in bed and listening to your roomie (who is hilarious, genuine, and one heck of a guy, and who also has a blog—check it out here www.mageeinuganda.blogspot.com) sleep happily (while sawing some serious logs—redwood style). We got to the airport, hopped the plane, flew three hours to Ethiopia, sat on the tarmac for an hour to drop people off and pick a few others up, and took off for another two and a half hour flight before we landed in Uganda.

We were met at the airport by Amy Cordileone (the IC Teacher Exchange Coordinator), James, and three mutatus (special hire taxi-vans). We loaded our luggage and an hour or so later, arrived at Backpacker’s Hostel in Kampala, Uganda. Most of the group was pretty tired, and our bodies, our internal clocks, our digestive systems were all out of whack, but the excitement was unbearable. Five or six of us kept saying over and over, “We’re in Africa! We’re in Africa!” I’ll admit it; I did even let out a little Woo Hoo.

Note about posts from Uganda

In Uganda, the access that I have to computers is especially slow. I also will only be able to get to the internet ocassionaly (some weekends). I will be posting large amounts of information at a time, but I will post it in installments so that you can read bits at a time. I will also most likely be picture free for a while as pictures take way too long to upload. Once I have access to a faster connection, I will post pictures for all to see.

Best,
Matt

Here I go...

With all of the business that goes along with the end of the school year, summer workshops, and preparations for a six week trip to Uganda, I have yet again neglected to post a blog for some time.

Here is a quick (very quick) run-down on the situation in Uganda. It's not good.

Here is the briefly expanded version: The Government of Uganda (GoU) has been coordinating military action with Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the UN. The LRA has made several attacks on villages outside of Uganda, is increasing its numbers, and is moving in small groups towards northern Uganda. The GoU has increased its military presence in the villages and towns and has sworn that the LRA will not make it into Uganda again.

For a couple of good summaries of events, check out these two Invisible Children posts:

Peace and Conflict Update #24: Re-arming, Re-igniting and Re-settling
Peace and Conflict Update: From the Ground #1

Now for the good news...I am off to Uganda! And this is what I am bringing:

I am packed and ready to go. I leave for New York today at about 4:00 p.m., and will spend a few days there with a good friend. On Saturday night, I head off to the great unknown.

I'll try to post a few photos from the big apple, and will blog again in Uganda as soon as I am able to. As I will be living outside of the city (Gulu), I will not have any regular access to e-mail or the internet. I will periodically check though when I am able to get to an internet cafe. I still have a bit of cleaning to do, and some final preparations to make, so I must say farewell for now!

Best,
Matt