Hips don't lie

Just thought I would post some pics up of the drama group from TASO. I've been spending a lot of my time talking with them. So much to tell and so much to learn, really inspirational.

Yesterday - i sang with them a bit (yes, it wasn't pretty...). Really, really cool experience. They are all amazing at singing - they came second last year at a national competition.

Also thought I would post the lyrics to one of the songs:

Time has come
Time has come for the people of Uganda,
To say no, no, no
To this deadly AIDS.
People of Uganda - wake up, wake up,
and bravely march,
Let us fight this AIDS,
The source of all suffering,
Source of misery and stress

United we stand,
But divided we fall.
Let us arise all people of Uganda.
Join us now, as we are in the struggle,
to reverse the spread of this deadly scourge.

He took my father and took away my mother,
took away my brother and all my relatives.
Sobbing and crying, mourning filled with all sadness,
Pray you help me, save me or I die.
My life is hard.

I think it's probably that much more powerful when you here them sing it. I wish I had a video camera (my camera takes short clips but has no sound).

Also yesterday had my first African dance lessons with the group. Was absolutely hilarious! everyone was dying - and yelling "Namulondo, Namulondo". Not very good so far - my hips don't "break" like African hips but I think I'm going to get a couple more lessons before I go. I have a couple little videos that I'll try to post when I'm back in Canada.

Behind the falls

Vicki and I behind the falls! So beautiful! One of the many chameleons that Tom spotted...

Tom and I walking over the super sketchy bridge.

Coffeee! Oh, tim horton's how i miss you. They grow tons of coffee here but export most of it - and everyone drinks instant coffee :(.

Vicki and I went on a huge day trip yesterday to Sippi Falls (which is close to Mt. Elgon, around the Kenyan border). Looking back probably would have been wiser to do the trip in two days rather than one, but ah well, we're trying to watch the bank a bit and didn't want to pay for a nights accommodation if we didn't have to.

We were at the taxi park by about 7 am or so and found a mtatu - that left right away which is a rarity! Normally, they wait until they are completely full before they leave - which can take hours... So we were off - with a 3 or so hour journey ahead of us to Mbale. Many stops to pick and drop off people on the way and REALLY squishy - i think i counted 20 people (in a car that should fit 14). I enjoy mtatu rides though as you get to see a lot in terms of scenery, houses, etc. and also get to talk with people a bit along the way. Mid-journey we had to stop as we ran out of petrol - they pumped the gas tank with their hands a bit to get it started and then we proceeded to drive on both sides of the road in an S shape (I think to get gas into the engine - or whatever car part it needs to get into as I know absolutely nothing about mechanics). Anyways got to Mbale safe and sound - with very full bladders. Took a bit of a walk, and found where we needed to get our next mtatu (about another hour) up to Sippi Falls.

When we got to Sippi - we found a guide Tom who was hysterical. Really, really nice guy who kept telling us that he would do whatever we wanted so that we would leave happy. And kept talking about how much he liked touring, and how we are all the same. And how he wishes to start a business to sell black skin to tourists so that Ugandans don't automatically assume that mzungus are rich when they see you (or something like that?!!??). Anyways he was a good time - and was expert at finding little chameleons in the trees, and also showed us coffee trees and the plants they use at the "local toilet paper". Unfortunately we were in a bit of a time crunch and had only about 2 and half hours to see the falls. We saw what Tom said was the "most beautiful" falls - which were absolutely breathtaking. Got to walk behind the falls and kind of through them (on the side) - was absolutely incredible! Paradise! After that, it started raining a bit and so we had to go back as we wouldn't be able to get transport back and it would be to hard to climb if it was muddy so our already short climb - was cut to only about an hour.

From Sippi - Tom hooked us up with a ride back to Mbale riding "African Style" in the back of a car (squished in the trunk with one other Ugandan guy). Not that fun. Got back to Mbale and made our way to the taxi park for another long mtatu ride. Nothing to eventful on the ride back - except a chicken was under our seat. Also the conductor (the guy who takes the money) got in a fight kind of with some guy that didn't have enough money to pay for the trip. Made it back safely, long long day (8 hours of driving for about an hour and a bit to see the falls themselves).

This morning went to TASO, and also interviewed one of hte counsellors at the AIDS Information Center which is one of the main voluntary testing and counseling centers in town. It's crazy how quickly time passes. Just a week and half in Jinja, then Vicki and I are off to Rwanda. Wow, doesn't seem like it has been that long. And feels like i could easily stay another 2 or 3 months. Oh, the lady who runs the guest house didn't pay the water bill. So we have been low on water the past little while and weren't supposed to shower - so i smell and look really pretty as it's now Monday and I haven't showered since Thursday. mmmm.... awesome. Vicki and I had a conversation about this morning and realized that the majority of the people here don't have running water ever. kind of embarrassing to be complaining about it.

I'll add pictures later - this computer won't recognize my camera for some reason. Anyways lots of love and thanks again for all the messages of support!

Through my eyes

Things I see on a daily basis here:

- a little fresh black paper on your meal?

- Bikes carrying more things than you could have ever though possible

- funny menu items (Tuna fish “Open your own can” Sandwich; at the bottom of one menu “We are in every order” – awesome, sounds appetizing)

- chickens, cows and goats roaming the streets
- near head on collisions (all the time…absolutely horrifying)
- African time (everything ten times slower than in Canada, expect for when behind the wheel)
- Lots of shoe vendors on the side of the street (not really sure why shoes but they’re everywhere!)
- Men are all very well dressed (even when they come out of mudhuts…they have nice crisp white dress shirts and dress pants). They look “smart” – as they say here (which just means well dressed/put together)
- Women who work incredibly hard (hard physical labour all the time), and long long days
- Swollen bellies
- Beautiful smiles
- People much friendlier and happier to a certain extent than many people you meet in Canada (despite having much tougher lives in many ways)
- Massive portions of food (which I am sadly getting quite accustomed to)
- Off-roading when there are traffic jams
- Knee-deep potholes
- Driving skills that would put even the best Mario cart player to shame
- Boda drivers harassing me (read Vicki’s blog for more on the daily conversations we have with boda drivers)
- Most clothes stores sell second hand clothes from America and Canada (still has tags from Value Village – makes you wonder where clothes that you have donated within Canada end up)
- Little kids – yelling “Mzungu, how are you?” – if you answer “I’m fine, how are you” or anything else they just repeat “mzungu, how are you?” for the most part.

- People asking for money or asking how they can come and live in Canada
- Boda drivers that shut off their engines going over even the slightest bit of a hill to save petrol
- When it rains, everything stops.
- Many friends (mukwano!)
- Green, green tress and red, red, earth

“We are all out of spring”

There’s a restaurant on Main Street that Vicki and I (and Lindsay when she was in Uganda) have been to a couple times, called Kabindi Lounge (which is debatably a brothel by night). Wednesday night we met up with a bunch of people from the guesthouse (Ben, Pete, Will – all british gap year students, and Russell – who is the newest volunteer from GIVE). Got our drinks after a good 20-30 min wait (I think there may have been one other table in the restaurant). Placed our order after probably 45 minutes (which is quite common). After another 20 or so – our waiter came back letting us know that half of the orders couldn’t be made as they didn’t have the right ingredients (or something like that). Someone had ordered spring rolls and we were informed that they were “all out of spring”…hahaha. Oh Uganda. I love it. So Vicki and I ordered chicken lomein, and all of the boys ordered spaghetti and meatballs. After another 45 or so I got my food as did 3 of the 4 boys (the other two didn’t get served at all). Oh what a night. Got back to the guesthouse, and at about quarter to 12, I woke up with the worst pain slash most nauseating feeling ever. Throw up (and wake up Vicki – who sat with me, God bless her). Went back to bed. Power goes out. Proceed to throw up 3 more times using my headlamp to find the toilet. It was a rough night, my oh my. I ended up just staying home the next day and sleeping – feeling much better today though.

TASO, TASO, TASO...

Everything is going really well at TASO. I have gotten to do a lot of different things so far. Friday I spent the morning learning about the aromatherapy and reflexology services they provide and watched one of the procedures, which was really cool. Really elaborate clinical aromatherapy services – which I have never really learned about (they make different combinations of oils depending on the ailment). Mixtures for nearly everything: skin conditions, TB, diarrhead, respiratory problems, stress, sciatica, must have 20 or 30 different things) and then mix it with vegetable oil and massage the patient.

I spent Friday afternoon with the drama group and got to go out to one of the villages with them (about 2 hours away). The group is all people living with HIV/AIDS and they go out and sing (absolutely beautiful) and act out skits to sensitize people in villages, as well as talk about TASO and its services, answer questions about AIDS and HIV as well as provide condoms to the community. So we all crammed into a matatu (taxi van) and were off. The way there was hilarious because they were asking me all these questions about Canada (things that they had heard): that we eat snakes, that we have divorce contracts that we sign when we get married, haha lots of funny stuff. Drama group is absolutely hilarious and is a testament to what positive living should be about. They are loud, talkative, always laughing and poking fun at one another. Also talked to them a lot about issues around HIV and AIDS here – compared to Canada (the age people begin to “play sex” – as they call it, peoples perceptions in Uganda about condoms – they say that many people say that many people believe that “Condoms are not true love”).

Once we arrived at the village there was a group of women pumping water from the well and a big line of jerry cans ready to be filled. I got to try pumping water (I could only last about five minutes!) – it’s really tough work. The audience for the performance wasn’t as large as usual (normally about 70 people) as there were 2 burials in the village that day. They decided to perform a shortened act which I only partly understood as most of it was in Luganda. Then part way through it started pouring so everyone scattered so we ended up leaving a little early.

On the way back we got stuck in a massive traffic jam and took about an extra hour to get home. Went off-roading a couple times which was a little scary. Got stuck in the mud and got out and pushed. Hahah… when in Africa.

Great time – enjoying it soo much! Wanted to say thanks for all the emails with encouragement and sorry if I haven’t replied. Lots of love,

leslie.

Day of the African Child

Saturday (June 16th) was “Day of the African Child,” a day to celebrate achievements in the state of children in Africa. There was big celebration in Jinja where local children sang and performed with their school choirs. Vicki and I had made plans to travel to a little island on the Nile for the weekend so unfortunately couldn’t make it to festivities. As we had heard a lot about it though through volunteering at the orphanage it was on my mind. As we drove Saturday morning – I noticed how many small children were working (they always are, I guess I was just more attentive). 4 or 5 years old girls carrying jerry cans full of water on their heads, young boys and girls working in the fields. Made me wonder why these children were excluded, forgotten from the celebrations.

While flipping through Saturdays newspaper – read about Kony’s atrocities in northern Uganda. Children being abducted, beaten, forced to carry out raids, burn houses, beat and kill other civilians and abduct other children.

Same paper there was a section where children had written in their messages to African Fathers for fathers day on Sunday. Couple excerpts:

“African Fathers should respect their wives and children by avoiding torturing and beating them” – Age 10

“All fathers should love their children. Instead of beating them when they do something wrong, they should show them the right thing to do. Children always learn from their fathers when they do not beat them” – Age 10

“Fathers should live longer and look after their families properly” – Age 12

Not the kind of things you read about fathers day in Canada. Again really puts things into perspective. Although I think there are a lot of things to celebrate for the “Day of the African Child” (universal primary education for one), I think there is still a long way to go.

Luganda Lessons

The Luganda I’ve learned so far. You can easily get around with just English at most places but I’ve been trying my best to learn a bit at the orphanage, TASO and from the gatekeepers at the guesthouse.

Oliotia = How are you?
Bulungee = good
Webale = thank you
Webale nyo = thank you very much
Kale = OK
Mukwana = friend (or friendship I don’t really know – I think it might be interchangeable)
Ssebo = man
Nyabo = woman
Bitano = 500 (useful for bargaining with boda drivers)
Lukime =1000
Nkwagala nyo = I love you very much
Abanna mbagala nyo = Children, I love you so much
Nedda = no
Jabele = well done
Kulikayo = welcome back
Wasizotya = good morning
Ngolaybe = sorry
Kiki (pronounced chi-chi) = what!
Tugende = lets go
Bakuyrta Anni = What’s your name?
Ogendewa =Where are you going?
Ogenda = I’m going…

Vicki's blog!

I just wanted to post a link to Vicki's blog as well (yes we are both big blog losers together hahaha). Might be nice to read how things are here from another Canadian girls perspective: http://www.vkharris.blogspot.com/

HIV/AIDS: Personalized

Prior to coming to Uganda, I tried to prepare through my 3rd year independent study – by reading and learning as much as I could about the pandemic in this country. I read studies, national reports, and attended conferences and lectures to learn as uch as I could about the intricacies of HIV and AIDS – woven into the fabric of this continent in a sense. Although this provided me with a little background, I don’t think I could ever really be prepared.

In the short time that I have been volunteering with TASO (and spending time in Uganda), I have come to learn and appreciate that a national prevalence rate of 7% (approx.), is much more daunting, realistic and saddening when you meet those infected (and affected) – see their faces, and say their names. All the statistics that I had read – seemed dehumanizing. The reality of children being orphaned by AIDS is that much more difficult when you talk and play with them.

I feel ashamed, guilty and embarrassed in a way for the things I worry about at home – be it ex-boyfriends, school, and all the small things. Life seems so uch more difficult here. The people so much more grateful and patient. When I arrive to volunteer at TASO – by 8:45 or 9:00, patients (between 100-300 daily) are lined up waiting to get counseling, medical care and ARVs. Many come for their appointments once a month from villages hours away, knowing thatthey will likely wait for the better part of the day to be served. What’s ore is that, many are peasants with minimal ways of gaining incoe, who ust make the long and relatively expensive journey to TASO in Jinja every month. It makes complaints about wait times in Canada seem kind of ridiculous. Really puts things into perspective.

I have found so far the people living with AIDS absolutely inspiring. Their spirits courageous, unashamed and resilient to the toll the pandemic has had on the country. Most of the clients that come into TASO look very healthy, indifferentiable from other Ugandans I see around town. The other day I spent the morning talking with a group of women living with AIDS, who were making necklaces to sell. They were boisterous, full of life, laughing and talking. They were straightforward in asking me questions about Canada. If there are AIDS support groups for women in Canada? And how stigmatized AIDS is in Canada. Wonderful women, I look forward to more conversations with them over the next month. They also renamed me with a Ugandan name as they (as do most Ugandans), found my name very strange and difficult to pronounce. So my new Ugandan name is Namulondo – which means from the monkey clan in the Busoga tribe (I think…that’s what I understood)

Finding my time with TASO so far incredible – but taxing emotionally at times. I have done some different things so far – everyday a little different. I went on a clinic outreach to a village two and a half hours away (long 11 hour day!!!), helped in the pharmacy counting drugs, helped recording all the clients who have come and spent one day in the children’s day center for HIV positive children (as well as a few negative children whose parents are positive and had no caretakers for the day). There is so much to learn.
I don’t think that my words due justice to what I’m feeling.

Link to TASO: www.tasouganda.org

Lions, tigers and bears...oh my (minus tigers and bears - and add a couple more animals in the bunch)

Lindsay, Vicki and I went up to Murchison Falls national park last weekend for a little safari getaway. We left from Kampala and drove north for about 6-7 hours. Driving still absolutely insane. Technically, driving is on the left hand side here – however in practice it is usually half off the road in the ditch or on the wrong side to avoid massive potholes everywhere. A little nutty, but made it up in one piece. We went with 5 other English people who were also staying in Jinja (Elsa, Gemma, Sarah, Chris and Philipa) – great bunch. And we all got along really well.

Accommodations were proper safari tents with beds inside (but no mosquito nets!). We saw quite a few animals right from the cap site – a family of warthogs and a baboon routing through the garbage (they could teach the raccoons in Hamilton a few tricks!). Sunday morning left at 7 am for the safari. Scenery was beautiful – very Lion King-esque. Breathtaking – took lots of pics and will post more when I am back in Canada as it takes about 10 minutes to upload a picture. The safari was about 4 hours – and we saw lots of Ugandan cobs (kind of like an antelope), giraffes, elephants, buffalo, baboons, warthogs, lots of birds and some other animals which I can’t seem to think of at the moment. Also saw a female lion with two cubs – which our driver wanted to track so we went off-roading and got stuck in the mud about 25 m from the lions. Driver then got out of the truck – which I thought was a little scary…in the end another safari truck towed us out. Anyways great fun and got loads of good pics. The girls and I broke out in Lion King songs a couple of times hahah…

Went back to camp for lunch, followed by a boat cruise up to the falls and saw lots of hippos (and a couple baby hippos) and a group of at least 20 crocs running into the water. Couple more elephants too! Incredible! Next morning went for a hike up the falls which was breathtaking. Murchison Falls are the narrowest point of the River Nile, at about 6m wide – incredibly powerful and absolutely beautiful!