Almost a Volunteer

I am reposting this post in hopes that everyone will be able to see the pictures.  Thanks for letting me know Fred.  By the way I was sworn into the Peace Corps on the 13th!  I will create separate post to tell that story. 
 
I have nearly completed Peace Corps training!  I will complete training in October and if successful will be inducted into the Peace Corps as a volunteer on October 13. 

The Peace Corps introduces American citizens into foreign countries at the invitation of that nation’s government.  A key strategy of the Peace Corps is that the volunteer live in the community among the people the volunteer intends to help.  To achieve that goal volunteers-to-be are trained in the local language, expected standards of behavior, including dress, and cultural norms as well training in the skills of development.  During the training candidate volunteers are considered trainees.  Only after the successful completion of the three month training period are trainees inducted into the Peace Corps as volunteers.  Training consists of classroom work, field trips, and living with a host family.  Classroom training is six days a week.  We often have homework which can be difficult given the frequent and prolonged power outages. My old eyes were not meant to read by battery powered light.  Field trips can be single or multiple day trips.  The host family assists in training by demonstrating and teaching acceptable and expected behavior as well as language.  In today’s blog I will try to give you a sense of the procedures Peace Corps uses. 

 

When we first arrived in Uganda we were given lectures on health and safety.  We also learned some basic survival skills.  Things like the following.

 

·        How to use and maintain a pit latrine.  Burning banana leaves in the pit once a month eliminates the odor, flies cockroaches and other pests, at least if the pit was properly constructed with a vent pipe.  

 

·        How to take a bucket bath.  Potable water is a precious commodity and many places do not have running water.  Often there is a community well or spring and water must be hauled from that location to ones home.  Most families collect rainwater as well as it is free and less polluted than water from springs or wells.  When one has to carry water for a mile or so one becomes very careful in its use.  Having made that statement it is also true that Ugandans are very clean.  Bucket baths twice a day and every restaurant I have ever entered had a hand washing station in the restaurant where patrons are expected to wash their hands both before and after the meal.  At my home stay the bathing area was outside.  It was enclosed on three sides by a concrete wall and open to the sky.  I was lucky enough to take a bucket bath at 5AM, in a rainstorm under a full moon.  It was great! 

My homestay 'neice' harvesting rainwater from one of the roofs in the compound.

·        How to care for our laundry.  Washing machines are a luxury in Uganda.  Laundry  must be washed by hand.  We were taught how to hand wash all of our laundry, not just delicate items, and to remove the thick layer of Ugandan dirt (mud or dirt) that accumulates on cloth.  We were also warned about mango flies and how to address the risk they pose.  Some parts of Uganda have mango flies.  The flies lay eggs in wet clothing.  When a person dons the clothing the person’s body heat will cause the eggs to hatch.  The larvae will immediately bore into the skin and begin to feed.  The person will experience local inflammation as the larvae feed.  We were cautioned to never hang clothing outdoors overnight unless we ironed the clothing before wearing.  The heat of ironing kills the eggs.  

 

·        We learned how to clean and light a kerosene lamp.  Although we were all issued a solar powered lamp I soon purchased a kerosene lamp because it provided brighter light that lasted longer than the light from the solar lamp.  It was also hot and in an enclosed space could have rendered the room uncomfortably warm. 

 

·        We learned how to protect ourselves from malaria.  Take anti-malaria medicine as prescribed and always sleep under a mosquito net.  Only the female anopheles mosquito carries the malaria protozoa.  The female bites only during the hours of ~10PM to 6AM.  During the day it rests.  (The male anopheles eats nectar.)

 

Three weeks ago the trainees were divided into groups.  Each group developed a menu consisting of both American dishes and native Ugandan dishes.  The trainees then prepared the American dishes.  My group selected grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for the American dishes.  The Ugandan dishes were chicken, beans, rice, passion fruit juice, pineapple, and matooke (a kind of banana that is a staple of the Ugandan diet).  Cheese and butter are not readily available in Uganda so a Peace Corps staffer went into Kampala to purchase them.  Cheese is not available because it is not part of the diet.  Butter is not generally available because access to refrigeration is spotty and frequent and unpredictable power outages makes refrigeration capacity unreliable. 

 

Our group went to the market to purchase other items we needed.    We purchased two live chickens.  I grew up on the Southside of Chicago within walking distance of the city center.  My experience with ‘fresh’ chicken is that you find it in a plastic wrapped container in the freezer case at the back of the Kroger, Harris Teeter, Publix, or Wal-Mart Super Center. 

 

We shopped on Friday and on Saturday morning I learned how to kill and dress a chicken.  It was quite an educational and culinary experience for me.  Not so much for the chicken.  The goal of the exercise was to learn how to bargain in an open air market where there are no fixed prices and one most negotiate everything.  This can be challenging as Americans are considered mizungu (wealthy foreigners) and everyone in market knows we can pay well above market rates.  Potential volunteers have to learn how to negotiate for the market price and not the mizungu price. 

 

Also we learned how to evaluate and select foods and to cook in a Ugandan kitchen with Ugandan implements.  No GE, Sears, or Weber Grill products were available.

At the market

Time to learn a new skill

Next step is the pot

Last week, my language group traveled to Kayunga Uganda for what Peace Corps refers to as Language Immersion.  For several days we were to speak only in Lugandan and to stop and visit with people on the street to practice language skills.  It was tough and I did not do well but it was invaluable to become a more effective volunteer.  At the conclusion of language immersion we each traveled to visit the site where we would be stationed for the next 24 months. 

One of my language teachers and some random street kids that entered our outdoor session.

Two of my language colleagues

I will be based in a town called Nakasongola.  I will be attached to a government unit known as LC5.  The Republic of Uganda has a government system called Local Council.  The LC5 level is roughly equivalent to a state in terms of the proportion of geography it controls but it is part of the central government.  Below the LC5 are LC 4 through 1. 

 

Local Government Divisions

 

·        District (rough equivalent to a U.S. state)

 

·        County (usually 3 to 5 make up a district)

 

·        Sub-county (usually 2 to 3 make up a county)

 

·        Parish (usually around 10 make up a sub-county)

 

·        Sub-parish (usually 2 make up a parish 

  
I am still in discussion with my Supervisor regarding the projects I will work on; however, being at the LC5 level makes me confident I can have a substantial impact on Uganda.  The first project will likely be in agriculture (80% of the workforce is employed in agriculture), the second in education, and perhaps a third in forestry.  In addition once I get to my site I will do some community outreach and a needs assessment analysis to take on a secondary project outside the LC5. 

I also selected the place where I will live as a volunteer.  Learning the language is not only a key to effectively completing our projects but it is also an essential element of being safe and secure.  To the extent we integrate well into the community then to that extent the community will protect us from petty theft, breaking and entering, or worst.

 

On the day after returning from the site visit the Peace Corps Volunteers and trainees went to the US embassy in Kampala to attend the 50th anniversary celebration of the Peace Corps and US Agency for International Development.  What a great event and wonderful remarks delivered by Ambassador Lanier.  It was a great event and a chance to taste American food.  I had the two best hot dogs I have ever had in my life!  What a pleasure after two months of native foods.  I also shared a moment that any American that has traveled abroad for an extended period has experienced.  Some of my oldest friends know I was in the Army ROTC.  At the beginning of the ceremonies there was a performance of the Star Spangled Banner.  As the anthem began, I snapped to military attention and my arm was on its way to a salute which I fortunately converted to hand over the heart before my hand reached its original target.  It was an emotional moment for me. 

At the embassy

.  Traveling to a field trip 

At the equator.