So 2008 came and went faster than I could have ever imagined. Just nearly a year ago I was sitting in Corvallis, Oregon, wondering where my life was going to take me. Yes in essence the decision had been made to move to Uganda and join the United States Peace Corps for the next 26 months of my life, but there was absolutely no way to honestly foresee what my life had in store for me. Absolutely no regrets enter my mind on the decision to have taken this giant leap in the journey that I call my life. From Oregon to Australasia and now to Africa the years have taken me and I cannot imagine having taken any other road. Even me, I look back at decision that I have made over the years and how they could have, and would have altered where I stand right now…What if I had not transferred from USF to OSU. What if I had not left New Zealand to finish things up at OSU and move on with things? The fact is none of that happened, and looking back is the wrong way to go, and pushing forward is the best laid plan.
My time spent thus far in Uganda has been one of the most compelling and fulfilling experiences of my life and the end is no nearer than when I began and that is a good thing. True at times I wish I could run to a Taco Bell and gourd myself off the ‘Dollar menu”; I wish I could spend a Sunday evening Monte Carlo Bowling or even spending an entire evening and night filling my house and roommates nasal cavities with the smell of hops and barley as I brewed some new ale, but God only knows what sorts of things in 16 months I will crave and desire. Maybe I will crave Posho (which for those of you who do not know is a mixture of ground maize and water cooked to a consistency of an ever-too thick mashed potatoes-and incredibly bland at that) and beans for a meal, or maybe I will crave Matooke (which again is green, unsweetened bananas steamed to a mashed potato consistency). Who knows what the world will hold for me! But enough of this philosophical nonsense, now to tell you whatever comes to my head from the past few months.
I think the last time I really wrote anything or posted anything was right around when the election was going on, and amazingly in just under a week another historical point, the Oath of Office for President-elect Obama! So next week I plan to meet up with a few other volunteers at a guest house that has promised us to have CNN on all night for us so that we can sit on the edge of our seats, eyes tearing and mouths hanging open for the all-too-surreal moment when we officially have a new president! In fact I am getting the chills at this moment just thinking about it! Back to the past couple months though…School ended for the holiday break in early December, and this is also when the in-service students come to take classes. The past two in-service terms I have taught these students, but with all the chaotic stressful hard-work put in during the first 8 months of being at site, I was much in need of a change of pace. I opted to take a ‘holiday’ as well, and hold off teaching again until the ‘normal’ students returned in mid-February. During that time though I have still done quite a bit and kept myself busy.
Again I attended Imbalu (Circumcision Ceremony) in Mbale district, only this time two of the candidates were the children of one of my friend and colleague at the NTC. Such an incredible experience, and again soon I will have photos and video of the experience. I was also treated to a gift of a chicken, which is an honor to be given as a gift. The family who I had spent most of my time taking photos and filming the first time around in August presented me with a chicken for providing them with photos and videos of their ceremony. The Mzee (elder) of the family was so grateful and thankful, it is rare for someone, especially in the village there to have visual documentation of their life there, and especially of such globally-unique tradition. After spending a couple of days in Mbale, it was nearly a week until Christmas was to arrive.
For Christmas Lisa, the other volunteer in Kaliro, and myself chose to remain in town and celebrate at the NTC with my neighbors. Greg also made an appearance, so we could show the Ugandans some of our traditions. Christmas even we spent drinking local brew (I think there is a picture on this blog of me sitting around a pot with others, drinking an odd-looking substance) which is a a locally-brewed alcohol made out of millet and yeast and is drank around a communal pot with long straws. While drinking this brew with my neighbors we sat and watched African music videos and weird-boy band music videos from the UK and chatting while slowly realizing that the local brew was going to our heads! Ugandans love music videos, and could sit for hours watching the same ones over and over! After a nice little meal of pork and potatoes and greens, Greg, Lisa and I made our way back to my house for a good nights rest before a long day of cleaning and cooking commenced on Christmas Day. An early start to Christmas Day was necessary as in the late afternoon a family from Lisa’s organization was going to be coming over for supper. After spending the day cleaning every nook and cranny (actually we got lazy and didn’t do that much cooking), slaughtering a couple of chickens, boiling potatoes and eating deviled eggs, all while having the movie A Chistmas Story going on in the background, we successfully made enough food for 8 people, and had a nice meal! Even Gizmo, my cat, was provided with his own plate of food, which the locals looked at me like I was crazy giving Gizmo a plate of chicken and mashed potatoes! And so Christmas came and went, oddly enough, and was difficult as ever to believe that I had just celebrated Christmas. The boxes from home containing Christmas lights, and decorations refused to arrive, and the best I could do for a tree was some random bush that was growing in my front yard that had these little red berries on it…it was worse than a Charlie Brown Christmas tree!!!!
Anyway with Christmas come and gone, it was time to prepare for my next holiday in Zanzibar! Zanzibar is a small island off the coast of Tanzania where about 12 of use were going to vacation over the New Years’ holiday. Now slowly during Christmas I had begun to feel somehow tired, and my appetite was small and disappearing as the days progressed. Come the evening of the 27th, I did not sleep a wink! Nearly every 10 minutes I was up running to the toilet, fearing that some sort of bodily fluids were going to escape me! The pains in my stomach and the extreme water loss from the flushing of my intestines was somehow making me delirious…then I burped, and I swore that my burp smelled like rotten eggs…Giardia?! The next morning, after consulting my doctor, I acquired a few days worth of medication to cure what we assume was Giardia. Now Giardia is common, but to me from that point, and even in to being in Zanzibar surprised me how I could wake up feeling almost 100%, and then by the early afternoon was exhausted and even water going down my throat was painful and made me feel nauseas…now that I have that story out there, a little side note: I was going to be descript with this story, but I will leave this for your imagination…We have this saying in the Peace Corps that you are not officially a Peace Corps Volunteer until you have ‘crapped’ your pants; well I became an official Peace Corps Volunteer while walking…yes walking to the taxi park to head to Entebbe…
So Zanzibar! I must say it was strange getting on to an airplane! Felt like a completely different world. Every time in Kaliro that I hear an airplane I look up and am excited when I see them! Our flight stopped off in Mt. Kilimanjaro, Dar es Salaam then made its way to Zanzibar! We had an incredible view of Mt. Kilimanjaro and finally arriving in Zanzibar was such a relief! Immediately we made our way on a few special hire taxis to Stonetown to get a bit of money then made our way to Jambiani! Now I will not go until all the little weird stories that went on, as this entry is already long enough, but after a few struggles in getting our reservations and bookings settled, which just like how things go here in Africa aren’t always as solidified as they should be. Let me just say that our group ended out splitting in half due to accommodation issues, even though all of us had booked rooms. This ended out working fine though as having smaller groups of 7 worked out better, so we were less dependant and stressed in trying to get everyone together for meals and activities! Much of my time in Zanzibar which is amazingly gorgeous was spent lying in the sun, swimming in the beautiful turquoise Indian Ocean and walking the white sand beaches to find different little restaurants and shops. We also went out snorkeling on a dhow one day which was amazing! The water was so warm and at low tide the surf was nearly a kilometer out, so often we would walk out nearly a kilometer from the beach and find swimming holes to relax in. One day we came across a large group of children running and screaming! We noticed that they had caught a large snake maybe 8 feet long and much thicker than a grown mans fist and they had it tied around the neck with a rope and were running, dragging it along the ground. Unfortunately I was not able to get the exact story of all this, but the children would continuously run and jump over the snake and would try to make it touch people, but they would all get freaked out. When Eric and I approached the children they began to chase us with the snake and tried to make it touch us, but we successfully leapt over it! After sometime they began to dig a small little trench as if they were going to bury it in the sand, but then they stopped and started dragging it around more, which by that point we left. After about 5 days in Jambiana we left to go to Stonetown, which is the historical little town on Zanzibar island with amazing winding streets and architecture. We spent a couple nights here as we walked the streets and shops and were as much tourists as everyone else, even though we had just flown a few hundred miles to get here! It was amazing to finally be in Zanzibar and to eat seafood! Being in Uganda one does not really get seafood, so being able to have fresh prawns, calamari and octopus was amazing! If one ever goes to Zanzibar you must check out the night street food where there are tables upon tables of seafood for an amazing price! We stuffed ourselves two nights here until finally we had to wake up, and jump on a plane back to Uganda! Also on the last day in Stonetown, I was just taking a walk along the beach when I was confronted by a police officer telling me I had to turn around a leave. I was confused as ever, but it happens that I had walked on to the premises of the house on Zanzibar of the President of Tanzania…Of course no photography was allowed and I was immediately forced to leave!
So…wow…back in Uganda, was that all just a dream in Zanzibar?! Did that all really happen?! Of course it did, and in a heartbeat I would do it again! So back here in Uganda means back to work, back to the old life, back to the village, and although difficult to return to this world, it was surprisingly comfortable and was not shocking at all, which makes me feel happy. The feeling to me shows how comfortable and happy (in many ways ) I have come to be here in Uganda and how it truly does feel like I live here, not just visiting here. In about 5 weeks school will reconvene but until then I still do have much work to accomplish. In thank to all of your hard work my project was fulfilled and I am able to access the funds to complete the renovation of our Guidance and Counselling Office at the college. We have also received a very generous donation of textbooks which will be amazingly helpful to the students and staff at the NTC.
I just want to thank everyone for their hard work too in making many of my and my counterparts visions here in Uganda come true! Without all of you this would not be possible! If you truly did read through this whole message I thank you and if you did not, I still thank you for having at least supported me sometime in my life, because that is probably while you were directed to this page in the first place! Happy holidays to everyone again and I will write more soon, when we have a new president! Feel free, like usual to send me any questions you have, and I will do my best to answer them!
Cheers!
