Isha in Uganda

Anger Management

After 5 months of living in Uganda, I am quite proud of myself for having maintained a calm, cool, curious, humour-filled composure (for the most part) in many different situations throughout my experience in a foreign country. There are, however, two incidents that stick out in my mind the most, because they have been the only two times that I have actually gotten really ANGRY since I've been here.

1. The first time I took R&E's vehicle out by myself, I was driving to Kambuga, a town about 45 minutes away from Kihiihi. I had to go pick up a fuse for a DC/AC inverter for the solar batteries. Rogers was accompanying me because he knew the guy I was supposed to see, and Annette's sister Florence was also coming along because she needed return transport to Kambuga where she goes to school. I drove the whole way with no problem until we reached the town, when suddenly people were waving and shouting and pointing at my wheels. I pulled over and got out to inspect the car. I was aghast to find the left front wheel kind of hanging off the truck. Apparently, the wheel had come apart from the rod end of the steering column. It was really fortunate that I had been going slowly (around 20-30 km/hr) and that this happened in a town and not in the middle of nowhere. As always when a vehicle breaks down in Uganda, men come out of the woodworks, all claiming to be experts in vehicle repair. A mechanic was called and he came to attach the wheel back to the rod end - took all of 20 minutes.

   
   What ended up taking most of the time was the negotiation on the price afterwards. It was a bit my fault for not having settled on a price beforehand, but I didn't want to bargain when I had no idea what would be involved in the repair, and the mechanic just went straight to work on it, no discussion about price. When he was finished, Rogers took charge of the negotiation - he knows a fair amount of Rukiga and I figured that they wouldn't try to rip him off because he is Ugandan. How wrong I was.....the mechanic first asked for 50,000 USh (which is like $50 Cdn., and is a completely ridiculous amount - it's what many people make in a month as a salary here in Uganda.) Then it went down to 20,000, then stuck on 10,000. I had been prepared to pay about 5,000, because I knew it was only really worth 3,000 or so (no new parts involved, just re-attachment) but I figured they might up it a few thousand shillings or so for "muzungu tax". But this guy wouldn't go any lower than 10,000, no matter how much talking Rogers did. I was getting slowly enraged at this point, they had been negotiating for over half an hour at this point while I was being harassed by some mad man who kept asking me for money. Rogers finally came back, saying that the guy was stuck at 10,000, even though we were offering him 5,000, well above the normal price for the repair. I wanted to just leave the 5,000 and take off, but Rogers thought that would be a bad idea - we'd likely have police after us for not paying our bill. I had had enough. I marched up to the mechanic, who by this time was already working on another vehicle, and said, "You take 7,000" and he just ignored me. One of his friends took over the negotiations and insisted on 10,000, said we could pay some now and come back and pay the rest later if we wanted. This totally pissed me off, and I started yelling: "Do you think I am stupid? Just because I am a muzungu you want to overcharge me! I am already offering you 7,000 for what I know is a 3,000 repair job, so you should be happy to accept it. If you refuse that amount, then come over here and undo your work and I will find an honest mechanic who won't rip me off. Otherwise, you take 7,000 - I'm not giving you any more than that!" My outburst seemed to do the trick, because the mechanic finally nodded in agreement.

   
   I was really furious. I know that as a foreigner, I am always getting ripped off a bit, always paying slightly more than what a local would pay, but it had never been as blatant as this before! I was outraged at the sheer audacity of it, and also mad at myself for losing it like that (normally I'm the kind of person who tries to avoid confrontations at all costs.) It took me a whole day to recover from that incident.
   

2. Richard, Ellie and I were returning from a birthday weekend (Ellie's 30th) at Bushara Island, Lake Bunyonyi in Kabale. At Kanungu, a fallen tree was blocking the path so we were forced to go up a somewhat steep hill. This was complicated by the fact that it had been raining alot that weekend, so the road was extremely muddy. Consequently, we got stuck and could not proceed. Fortunately (or so we thought), there were very many people at the top of the hill, who eagerly ran down to help push the vehicle out of the muddy rut, and then another person (an experienced local driver) managed to motor it up the hill with Richard in the passenger seat (Ellie and I had gotten out and walked up the hill ourselves). There was much cheering from everyone when the vehicle made it all the way to the top. As Ellie and I were getting into the car to leave, and Richard was giving some money to the driver (3,000 USh; nothing comes for free in Uganda, and 3,000 is a typical amount to give someone for this kind of help), I was prevented from closing the passenger-side door by one of the men who had helped. He said, "You wait a bit" and asked Richard for 10,000. The previously friendly, helpful people were turning into a bloodthirsty mob, surrounding the car and yelling, "How much is it? Ask for more!" I tried to slam my door shut again, and again this man blocked my way, harassing Richard to give him 10,000. This was getting out of hand. I was dealing with the guy on my side, Richard was dealing with the driver who had all these people egging him on to ask for more money, Ellie sitting between us trying to deal with both sides. I tried to explain to my guy that we weren't going to pay him more because we were not rich muzungus, we lived in a nearby village and knew that 3,000 was an appropriate amount for the kind of aid we received. I tried talking with him in Rukiga to no avail - he would not get out of the way. It was getting more heated and heated, and, finally, I just lost it. I was practically screaming at him to get out of the way and let me close the door - I think I was really furious and a bit scared because normally people are not that aggressive with you when they are negotiating prices. The driver who Richard was bargaining with could see that the situation was becoming unmanageable, and so gave Richard back the 3,000 he had previously accepted, saying, "Just go, just go". He was also telling the other guy on my side to stop being such an asshole, I think. My guy finally let me close my door, and Richard gave his guy back the 3,000 before driving off.

   
   

These kinds of situations make you wonder why you stick around in this country, trying to help these people when all they want is your money (or the money they think you have). It was really hard to keep it all in perspective after these two incidents, because the desire to go home is so great. I just had to keep reminding myself of all the great Ugandan friends I have made since I've been here, and that they would never try to do this kind of thing to me just because I am a foreigner. It also helped alot to have someone, other muzungus, to talk with about these situations. Apparently this kind of scamming happens to everyone, not just muzungus. If you are not from the immediate area, locals will try to rip you off no matter if you're white or Ugandan or anything. As long as you don't know what the actual price should be, you will most definitely be taken advantage of. In a way, I can't blame them for trying, because I am familiar with the level of poverty of this part of the country, but the situation made me feel threatened, and I find it hard to forgive that man because of that.

Muzungu = Technology Expert?

When people find out that there is a muzungu computer teacher around, they think that you must be some kind of whiz in all types of machinery, computer-related or not. I think this is due to the fact that technological gadgets are not yet as widespread up-country as they are in more populated, urban places like Kampala or Mbarara, so people have some strange expectations of you if you have any bit of technical knowledge. Here are some of the things I have been asked to fix:

• A rolling machine. I looked blankly at the woman who asked me to fix this mysterious device until she was able to explain that it was a duplicating machine - you know, a copier that operates from the manual turning of the handle, that we used to use back home in, like, the 70s? Needless to say, I had to decline her request, having never even SEEN one of these machines before in my life.
  
• A locked cell phone. This girl had locked herself out of the phone and had forgotten the PIN to unlock it, so she brought it to my house for me to take a stab at it. Due to language barriers, I had difficulty explaining to her that unless my name was Rain Man, there was no way I could come up with the correct combination of god-knows-how-many digits required to unlock the phone. Sorry, my dear, it's off to MTN for you.
  
• (ed. This is the best one) I was asked to decode what resembled a piece of black construction paper. This man came to my house one Sunday morning as I was making my breakfast, and took something out of his shirt pocket. He carefully unwrapped something black and thin that was the size and shape of a dollar bill and handed it to me. I looked at him blankly. He said that his friend from Congo had sent him this piece of paper that had very important data on it - could I pass it through the computer and retrieve the data for him? I was bewildered: "You want me to do what with this piece of paper?" He insisted that there was some very valuable information on this piece of paper, and kept asking why couldn't I scan the paper so that we could see the data on the monitor. I wanted to laugh so badly but I kept my composure and politely explained that here in Kihiihi, in Uganda even, we didn't have the sort of technology necessary to decode his piece of paper. I told him that probably the Ugandan government didn't even have the resources he required, probably only the FBI or CIA would. The man was really confused, as his friend had apparently told him to go to any computer person and they would be able to help him out. He was persistent though, he asked if I thought it would be prudent for him to travel to Mbarara and see someone at the University of Science and Technology - I told him not to waste his 16,000 shillings.
  

More Strange Names

• Milk - no, I'm not kidding. I thought this girl was joking until I heard another kid call out to her, "Hey, Milk!"
  
• Gift - apparently this name is quite common here.
  
• Bright - the boy I met with this name is actually the dullest kid ever (mind you, he may have been sick at the time I met him).
  
• Delic (pronounced "Derek") - in Runyankore/Rukiga, the pronounciations of "l" and "r" are practically the same. This is the name of Ruth's boy. When I questioned her about the spelling of his name, she said the "Derek" spelling she had been using previously was not in the dictionary, so she found this one (because it's short for "Delicate"). Oh my god.
  
• Rover - really, I have no comment....the name speaks for itself.
  

In Uganda, it's bad luck...

• To count your children. If you ask people, especially older ones, they will often say that they don't know and try to evade the question. Sometimes this is because many of their kids have died, which is really sad, but often it is because they are fearful that something bad will happen to the children.
  
• To count your animals. Reverend William is a perfect example of this and of the above - he will never give you a direct answer when you ask him how many children he has or how many cows he owns.
  
• To point at your animal.
  
• To indicate the height of your child or animal by using your palm facing down. Often when people ask "How tall is your daughter?" you could say, "She's about yay high" and use your hand to indicate her approximate height - do you know what I mean? Apparently this is bad luck for some people.
  
• Not give something to each of a pair of twins. If you give anything to one twin (food, gifts, etc.) you must give something, ANYTHING, to the other twin, or else it will curse you. If you have the bad luck to be cursed by a twin, you will get patches of "muzungu" skin all over your body.
  
• To have a woman cross your path first thing in the morning. Say you leave your house to go to work in the morning, and the first person you meet is a woman - this apparently is bad luck for both men AND women. !!!!
  

Forever Giving Belated Birthday Wishes To...

• San Yee (August 7); and
  
• Trace (October 21)
  
  Happy Birthday, gals! Sorry I'm so late...
  
  
  // posted by Isha @ 2:23 AM

Ugandan Sayings

Here are a few of my favourite wacky things that I've heard people say:

• slap - cool, fun, nice, all around good: "I had such a good time in Mbarara - it was really slap"
  
• bounced - you came to see someone who wasn't around, so you left: "I went to your house but they told me you were at the telecentre, so I bounced"
  
• to see stars - to be confused: "At the workshop they were using all this dev.ed.-speak that I didn't understand and I saw stars"
  
• blue bread - maxi pad: "Uh oh, it's that time of month....I'll have to run to the store and buy some blue bread"
  
• Eating bread and jam - (ed. note - This is totally gross!) to be on your period: "She's only cranky because she's been eating bread and jam"
  
• voup - clothes (n.); to get dressed up (v.): "She got all vouped up for the big party last night, but ended up looking like a cheap whore"
  
  
  
  // posted by Isha @ 2:08 AM

Back in Kla
November 11 - Well, I've just returned to Kampala after spending 3 glorious days at the luxurious Nile Resort Hotel in Jinja, where VSO was holding its annual Volunteer Conference. The conference is just a kind of "Thank You" to all of us for being volunteers, and allows us to get together and see people we normally don't get a chance to see. Also there are workshops and discussions related to our work and development as a whole, but sometimes it's too tempting to bugger off and just lounge by the pool (which is what I did all day Sunday - heaven!). The weekend was marred slightly by occasional torrential rain, but for the most part it was fantastic and relaxing. I got to stay in a cottage right on the Nile River, where you could always hear the soothing roar of the river. Food was plentiful and delicious, all you could eat (and I can eat a lot, as those of you who have ever gone with me to a buffet know!) I went back for desserts three times - had to stuff as much as I could in before going back to the dessert-less Kihiihi. I met a ton of people I hadn't met before, and it's kind of a shame that I am leaving shortly because I would have liked to gotten to know some of them better, maybe visit their placements. I did meet a fellow Canadian from Calgary, whom I will stay in touch with so I will have a friend in Alberta if and when I make it to the Rockies!

My program for the next few days...am staying in Kampala until the end of the week, tonight with Ali and Stefan, fellow NetCorps interns, and then Jason, the new Netcorps working at the VSO office, will have returned from whitewater rafting so I will stay at his place (extra room there with own bath, plus I know that area better, plus it's more central). These extra days in Kla are part of my vacation time - have to sort myself out for the trip home, get appropriate visas for travelling, re-validate ticket, buy gifts etc.

On a more serious note, I am also trying to distance myself from Kihiihi for a bit because prior to leaving for the conference, Simon my supervisor and I had a huge fight, and I'm not sure how things will be when I get back. Won't go into all the gory details but he basically screamed at me for half an hour about something that I am not really involved in. I am hugely insulted and hurt, especially because it's not work-related and completely petty and not my fault, and I just know that he won't apologize (because he doesn't think he is wrong and would never admit it even if he did feel at fault). Simon is basically mentally imbalanced, something I only witnessed for myself over the past few weeks. I had heard lots of stories before but this is the first time I have actually experienced it firsthand. Thankfully this only happened now, rather than way earlier into my placement, otherwise I would have just picked up all my stuff and left. Richard says that, given his treatment of me, I would have every right to do so, but I feel that since I have less than 5 weeks left, I can tough it out, ignore him or at the very least, act somewhat civil, in the meantime. I have never in my life been made to feel so small, and Simon is the kind of guy with whom you cannot argue because you will never win. If you argue back, he gets enraged. If you apologize and own up to whatever accusations he's throwing at you, he doesn't believe you. If you cry, he accuses you of being manipulative and trying to play the sympathy card. If you don't say anything, he still gets infuriated because you don't answer his questions. There really is no winning with him. I've never come across someone so irrational, so fraught with anger management issues. I basically just chalk it up to his being cracked.

Anyways, enough about gruesome Simon. I'm just going to watch lots of movies and eat and do my own thing for a few days, and hopefully the situation will have cleared a little by the time I return. In a few minutes I'm off to see "The Sweetest Thing", some Cameron Diaz piece of shite which will be a welcome distraction from life's troubles. (It's either that or "Triple X" - blech).

"Your breath smells like grasshoppers..."
November 7, 2002 - Today, during the bus ride from Kihiihi to Kampala, I sampled fried grasshoppers. It's now the season, and they are sold by the bag for 500 shillings. Not that bad, really. They've been de-legged and de-winged, fried up in oil and salted. Kind of greeny-yellow in colour. Kind of...fleshier, meatier than expected (but I think that's because they were not that warm, therefore not as crispy). Couldn't look at the bag when I grabbed one and popped it into my mouth. I kept thinking to myself as I chewed, "It's just fish, it's just fish" because they reminded me of the small dried fishes that are used in Chinese and Malaysian cuisine - they still have eyes and leave scaly bits in your teeth. Kinda taste like fish, too. Could only stomach about 4 or 5 because I had just stuffed myself on a lunch of delicious chicken on a stick at Lukaya (but I bought them because I just had to try them - people keep asking me if I have! Luckily, my travelling companion Resty (who is a Ugandan) thinks that "ensenene taste sweet" (i.e. she enjoys noshing on 'em) so she polished off the bag, laughing at me every time I scrunched up my eyes and made a grab for the bag.

A True African
A few days ago, I spent the afternoon helping Mariagh cook lunch, helping to unplait Annette's hair (could only do a few braids; Fatumah was speedier because she had more experience) and then I spent a good hour gnawing on sugar cane.

Wedding Bells....They Toll For ME!
In case you didn't catch the newsflash, on October 18, 2002, Allan George McIntosh and Isha May Lee Tan decided to get married. It was very romantic - we did it via MSN Messenger: he was at work in Ottawa and I was in an internet cafe in Kampala. It just sort of happened. We had been discussing the topic of marriage via emails, letters, text messages and the odd phone conversation for a few months now, and then we just agreed to go ahead and do it. There wasn't really any asking involved, although I contend that the whole thing started when Allan sent me a text message saying "Imagine if we got married in Jamaica...what a huge wedding it would turn into with all his relatives there". Allan will tell you that it was me who brought it up, by asking him during our online chat, "So are we officially engaged, or are we officially thinking about getting engaged?". Doesn't really matter - what does matter is that we are going to get hitched, and that we are truly happy.

We haven't sorted out all the details yet (heck, we aren't even on the same continent yet!) but we do know a few things:

• no engagement ring for me. We are going to look for something for us together while we are travelling in Africa (see blog entry about travel plans), maybe matching rings or just something cool to mark the occasion.
  
• the wedding will likely take place sometime next year.
  
• It will be a non-traditional wedding; that is, it will not take place in a church or religious building, there won't be any white gowns or tuxedos, no bonbonnieres, etc. It may involve a gathering of friends and family, and guests will have to participate in some way, perhaps by reading a passage, or performing something, or doing a presentation of some kind, all relating to and celebrating us and our relationship. Suggestions are welcomed. Heidi sent me a copy of "The Prophet" by Kahil Gibran, who says some cool stuff regarding marriage.
  

This has been a shock to a lot of you, I know, especially my parents, but no one is more shocked than me! For a long time I never thought about marriage or getting married, but I now realize its huge symbolic value, the ritual act of publicly declaring that this is the one person with whom I wish to spend the rest of my life. And, yes, it is also an excuse to have a big party (which is always a good thing!) I am extremely happy, and so is he, and we want to share that happiness with those who care about us. It is hard to describe the feelings that have been overwhelming me since we decided. Fear, happiness, giddiness even, excitement, all jumbled up in a big mish-mash. I feel truly blessed. Thank you to all of you who knew beforehand for your kind well wishes and congratulations.

The reason I am posting this on my blog (regrettably rather impersonally) is because our attempts to keep it hush hush for a little while (at least until after we came back from our trip) have failed miserably. It was too hard to keep it a secret - you just want to shout it out to the entire world. Allan told his family, then some friends, then some people at work (which then spread around to the rest of the workplace), and I told my family and some key friends (who are in charge of spreading it to the rest of the people I know, in my absence.) Figured that the blog was a good way of covering all my bases. Also, I found out today from Heather that Andy and Leah were driving one morning a few weeks ago, listening to CFNY, when they heard a cool 80s song that happened to be dedicated to Isha in Uganda, from her boyfriend in Ottawa! The deejay also mentioned that they had just decided to get married. Andy and Leah figured that there couldn't be that many people named Isha in Uganda who had boyfriends in Ottawa, so that's how they found out, and told Heather and Jenny. The song was "Never Let Me Down" by Depeche Mode. (Those of you who know my musical tastes will appreciate that!) The funny thing is, Allan never told me about the radio dedication because he had called on a Saturday, listened all day and never heard it. He figures CFNY must have played it on their All 80s Request Breakfast on the following Sunday, and that's when Andy and Leah (and who knows who else?) heard it. I think it's hilarious that I still managed to get my long-distance dedication, a few weeks after the fact! What a sweetheart, my special guy. Wish I could get my hands on a copy of that radio show, though.

PS: I hate the words "engaged" and "fiance(e)", and am desperately searching for a new and better term for our pre-married state. "Betrothed" just sounds so archaically Victorian. Any suggestions?

Travel Plans
Allan is arriving on December 15 (aka The Best Day EVER!) in Uganda. We will be travelling around Uganda for 2 weeks, then it's off to Zanzibar to take a 4-day scuba diving course at Nungwi. Here is our tentative itinerary:

• Dec 15-22: Kihiihi, safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park (Ishasha sector), mountain gorilla tracking at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park.
  
• Dec 23-29: Xmas in the Ssese Islands of Lake Victoria, visiting Sipi Falls at Mount Elgon National Park
  
• Dec 31-Jan 9: New Years 2003 in Zanzibar, scuba course, eating lots of seafood and general beach&ocean lounging.
  

Trip will be expensive and we are tight for cash - we are therefore trying to save by camping where possible and taking cheaper means of transport (like the 24 hour bus ride from Kla to Dar). If we eat mostly local food, it is possible to getby on about $50 Cdn. per day for the both of us. Parents are, thankfully, supplementing me with some xmas prezzie money!

We return to Canada on January 10 (me to Toronto, him to Ottawa). I will likely be spending a few weeks in Toronto to tie up loose ends, then moving permanently (again!) to Ottawa. I'll be sharing an apartment with Allan and Vic on Elgin st., right above the Lieutenant's Pump! Am really looking forward to getting back to Ottawa, even though it will be the dead of winter when I arrive. I've really missed Canada!

My Midterm Report

The following is the midterm report I submitted to Wendy at VSO Canada recently. Thought I'd post it here because it gives a lot of details that I had been planning to post here anyways. Kinda wordy, not very professionally written, but hey, it was overdue and I was in a rush.

1. Summarise your major work activities so far (including significant achievements, progress & factors that have helped or hindered progress. Refer to the placement description or subsequently revised objectives, if appropriate)

Major Work Activities Accomplished

• Preparation of training materials (course handouts, lab manuals and examinations) for 3 courses;
  
• Training sessions conducted in Introduction to Computers (2 sessions, 13 students completed), Microsoft Word (5 students completed, 4 current) and Microsoft Excel (6 current)
  
• Awareness of ICT in region, slowly attracting students from within district
  
• Creating groundwork of knowledge for people in key sectors of Kihiihi (high school, police station, health unit) where ICT projects will be developing in the future; have identified at least one person in each sector and begun training to build familiarity with computers
  

Factors helping progress:

• The presence of IDP (International Development Projects). This is a California-based NGO with several ongoing projects in Kihiihi and also within the rest of Uganda. Simon sits on the board of IDP and provides them with valuable consultation advice regarding feasibility and sustainability of ICT projects in the region, as well as access to important contacts and resources. IDP had allowed me the use of a spare laptop computer to do work during the day, as well as a computer projector to use as a visual aid in teaching. These two pieces of equipment had served me very well over the past few months, until recently when I had encountered some technical difficulties with the laptop and had to return it to IDP for repair.
  

Factors hindering progress:

• Lack of electricity during the day. Presently the telecentre receives power from approximately 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm every night. This makes it extremely difficult for me to prepare my courses (creation of handouts, examinations, etc.) and work with the equipment in the telecentre to set up management/administrative tools and troubleshoot hardware problems. At night when there is electricity, I am occupied with holding classes and labs for my students; therefore, I am unable to take advantage of the “light” hours in order to complete my own work. This is the main reason that there has been no progress on getting the radio email system up and running.
  
• Limited number of computers. The telecentre has 4 desktop computers, 1 of which is currently out of commission and its whereabouts unknown. The number of computers, coupled with the few hours of electricity per night, greatly limits the number of students I can train during the week. The telecentre has been awaiting the arrival of 3-4 additional computers for the past several months, but there has been no confirmation of their arrival in the near future.
  
• Lack of information resources. The telecentre has some older equipment and equipment with which I am entirely not familiar, so the process of getting them to function has been arduous, to say the least. There are no manuals available at the telecentre, there are no people knowledgeable about the equipment anywhere in the area, and there is no convenient internet access so I can’t even look up information on the Internet.
  
• Lack of management from KAD (Kinkizi Agency for Development). This is the NGO that is in charge of the telecentre project. Unfortunately, prior to requesting the Netcorps intern, Simon was not aware that this agency was responsible for the management and running of the telecentre; he had been told that it fell under the domain of the sub-county local government (in whose building the telecentre is actually housed). KAD is headed by the national Minister of Defence (chairman) and his political assistant (vice-chairman). These two men are quite occupied with their day-to-day responsibilities and are not available to give direction concerning the telecentre – they also have not left any one in charge who is able to advise on the project. The lack of project management has been a hindrance in two ways:
  
  • There is no budget allocated for the running of the telecentre and training sessions, and it is highly unlikely that KAD will be able to provide any funds in the near future (all of its previous projects have failed in the past for exactly that reason). I have been able to carry out training sessions by charging my students a fee per course, thereby covering any costs incurred from preparation and supply of training materials, such as teaching aids (markets, butcher paper, etc.), and printing and photocopying charges of handouts. However, there is no money left over to provide a decent salary – this is not a problem for me as I am a volunteer whose living expenses are covered by VSO and the Netcorps program, but it will be a great difficulty for the local person who is to take over the running of the telecentre when I have left Kihiihi.
    
  • KAD has failed to provide suitable candidates as a counterpart for training to take over the telecentre. It was agreed that one of my responsibilities would be to train a local person in the running and management of the telecentre, and that KAD would be responsible for providing a few possible candidates for this position. Unfortunately, the 4 people whose names were put forth are either not available or capable of handling the responsibilities of telecentre manager. I had notified the vice-chairman of this fact and he promised to provide me with at least one other name, but this was over two months ago and this name has not been forthcoming. Therefore, there has been no training of a counterpart to take over the running of the telecentre.
    

These two factors related to KAD lead to some serious project sustainability issues for the telecentre:

How will the telecentre continue financially? Where will the money come from for:

- preparation of training courses?

- future repairs/replacement of equipment of the telecentre?

- salary of telecentre manager?

Who will be present and able to continue running the telecentre and the training courses?

It is highly likely that, if these issues are not resolved in time before my departure, the telecentre will not continue to function in 2003.

2. Have the original objectives (and/or indicators) of the placement changed in any way? If so, how and why? (Refer to the original placement objectives and indicators in the placement description. Where no changes are made this section may be left blank. Please attach an updated Job Description if it was modified)

Additional training opportunities are available because of IDP’s ICT projects in the area, most notably their TB DOTS program which uses PocketPCs to collect data on tuberculosis patients. IDP requires someone to train the health care workers on the use of this technology and have asked me to fill that role if I have time apart from my telecentre duties. This may require giving instruction on computer basics, as many of the project participants have never used a computer before, as well as training in email (used for data transmission) and databases (all data collected from the field will be added to a centralized database system).

3. Outline the activities agreed for the remainder of your placement, with indicators to monitor progress for each activity (Please ensure you include good indicators, i.e. practical ways of measuring/demonstrating the progress made at the end of the placement - i.e. ask the question: how will I know that the activities/targets have been achieved?)

• Training of health worker and others during the day. Simon has made an arrangement with Kambuga Hospital that I will train one of their staff members in ICT free of charge, in exchange for the use of a DC/AC inverter that will permit me to conduct training during the day. Recently I discovered that there exist solar panels at the sub-county; these solar panels are constantly charging two large batteries which are capable of powering at least 2 desktop computers when used with an inverter of the proper voltage/wattage. The solar battery-inverter setup has recently been tested and found to be functional. The presence of power during the day opens up a whole new set of training opportunities.
  
• There remains time enough to conduct another session of either Introduction to Computers, Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel to a maximum of perhaps 6 students.
  
• There is a need to train at least 4 key people in the use of Microsoft Access, as the health centre will be receiving a database in the next few months. This training will depend on the availability of adequately-equipped computers (i.e. fast enough and with enough hard drive space to work with databases) which may or may not arrive before my departure date of December 14, 2002.
  
• If IDP’s TBDOTS program is implemented in a timely fashion (i.e. before my departure date) and if I am not too busy with my telecentre training sessions, there is the opportunity to teach those involved in the TBDOTS program how to use the PocketPCs to collect data for the study and input that data to the database.
  
• Work on getting the radio email to function again, so that email services can be offered at the telecentre, and training someone to maintain the email system.
  

Indicator for training will be number of people trained. Indicator for radio email system will be the ability to send and receive emails.

4. Are your goals for the placement being met? If not how do you think things could be improved so they are?

My goals for the placement are not being sufficiently met. I think the most important objective of this placement is to train someone who will be able to take over the management of the telecentre (including training responsibilities and offering of computer services such as word processing, email, internet, etc.) Unfortunately, the failure of KAD to provide suitable candidates (see response to question 1) has made this objective impossible to achieve. The lack of financial support from the NGO is another serious hindering factor. To deal with the first issue, I have looked elsewhere for suitable candidates and have managed to locate one who would not require much training (he already has experience with computers, Microsoft Word and Excel) and who would be more than capable of handling the responsibilities of telecentre manager. However, he has made it clear that he would require adequate financial compensation to take on such a role. This is why a budget needs to be allocated for the telecentre project – KAD cannot expect the manager to work for free and pay for training and repair/replacement costs out of his own pocket.

5. Is there any particular information about your work or situation which might be of value to interns looking at posts similar to yours?

• If you are going to a fairly rural area where the existence of electricity is a recent thing, learn about things related to it, like solar power, batteries, adaptors, inverters, voltage stabilizers/surge protectors etc. (I was cursing myself for not having paid more attention in Physics class.)
  
• If you know you won’t have internet access or other such informational resources (other people to talk to, books, etc.), bring them with you – well, not the people, of course. Go over your baggage allowance, pay the extra money, develop strong muscles from lugging around your heavy bags, and bring all the training manuals, books, cd-roms, software, etc. that you think you will need, because you will likely use them. A lighter option might be to prepare cds for yourself, full of information related to the work you will be doing.
  
• If there’s not a whole lot to do in your town, or other muzungus to hang out with, bring lots of books and music – trust me, you’ll go nuts without them.
  
• Time management skills are a major must if you have limited hours of power.
  
• Make an effort to learn local language, even if it’s just greetings. The locals really appreciate the effort, especially in smaller towns/villages where not many people speak English well.
  
• Humans are extremely adaptable creatures. Don’t freak out about not having running water or electricity. It sounds simplistic, but you get used to it. Really, you do. And, in some ways, life is much simpler and more enjoyable that way. Oh yeah, and anti-bacterial hand wipes (like Wet Ones) are really, REALLY useful.
  

6. Describe the work environment at the organization, your working relationship with your supervisor and colleagues, and any conditions you are having difficulty with.

My job title is IT Trainer – Kihiihi Telecentre. The telecentre consists of 3 rather old and slow computers housed in a room at the sub-county local government headquarters. I conduct lectures in the main hall of the sub-county and labs in the telecentre itself. Electricity is supplied to the building from the generator which powers the health centre compound a few hundred metres away. The connection is very weak, and as a result, it is not possible to have the overhead lights on when I am conducting lab sessions (they flash on and off in a strobe-like fashion). My students and I work in darkness, with only the light from the monitors allowing us to see. The telecentre is ridden with insects as the light from the computer monitors attracts them. The insects enter the room via the windows (no mosquito nets) or above (there is no ceiling). Other creatures, such as birds, bats and rats, have also been identified in the telecentre from the presence of their dead bodies and droppings.

Only one of the computers has a cd-rom drive, which makes it difficult to install new software. Also adding to this problem is the fact that each of the hard drives has only 1 GB of storage space, most of which is already taken up by Windows, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel software. The keyboards are not standard 101-key English (American) keyboards, which makes it hard for those students who are learning how to type.

I have spoken with the vice-chairman of KAD about the power situation in the telecentre, and although he is sympathetic to the problem, he is either not capable of rectifying or not willing to rectify the situation. There doesn’t seem to be anyone in town who is an electrician (which makes me wonder how they hooked up the power in the first place?). There is also a lack of knowledgeable people about solar batteries and radio email, two things that were functioning at the telecentre as recently as one year ago – those people with the requisite knowledge seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Unfortunately, I do not have the resources that I would normally turn to at my disposal – internet, library, trained professionals – in order to figure out these problems. The people who work at the sub-county are very nice but have not got a single clue as to how to help me out, or even recommend people who could possibly have the answers to my questions. One of the most difficult things to deal with is that people expect you to be an expert on anything technological or mechanical in nature, and are very surprised and disappointed when you tell them that you are not. For example, I was asked to help fix a “rolling machine”- I had no idea what the man was talking about, and then I realized he was talking about one of those really old duplicating machines where you had to crank out the copies. He was confused when I told him that those were well before my time – I’d never seen one in my life.

My supervisor, Simon, actually has nothing at all to do with either KAD or the sub-county – he is the medical officer in-charge of the Kihiihi Health Centre Level IV. However, he has a great interest in ICT development for Kihiihi and is part of IDP, helping them implement their projects. He is really good at getting things accomplished and lots of big ideas for ICT development in our area. He gives good advice regarding how I should roll out my training sessions and how to deal with any problems I might be having, but there’s only so much he can do as he is not directly responsible for the telecentre. Simon is generally available all the time for consultation and direction.

There is a lot of interest in learning about computers in Kihiihi; however, there is the small problem of communication. Many potential students do not have the ability to comprehend English, and, as much as they want to learn about computers and as much as I want to teach them about computers, it is really a waste of time (mine and theirs) and money (theirs) for them to attend my courses. To combat this problem, I have been concentrating my efforts on making sure that my best students fully understand what I am teaching them, so that in the future they may transfer that knowledge to others in Rukiga. While I do not turn away any student who is willing to pay for training, I do make sure to warn them about the potential comprehension problems that they may face, and that it will be their responsibility to deal with them, not mine. I have adjusted the way that I speak English (slower, more clearly) as much as I possibly can, and I expect my students to have a certain level of English competency in order to successfully complete the courses.

7. Do you feel you are being fully utilized? How could things be improved?

There is so much work that I would like to do during normal working hours, but this was not possible with no electricity during the day. However, we’ve recently gotten the solar batteries at the sub-county to work and now I can use the computers for training or other work during the day. There is a lot of interest in ICT in Uganda and I would love to be able to travel to different towns or districts to give people in those areas an opportunity to learn about computers.

8. VSO finds it very useful to receive from interns detailed descriptions of their daily life at their placement and in the local community. Please use this space to describe the area where you work and live, your housing, local services including health care, your social life and availability of food and goods etc.

KIHIIHI

Kihiihi is a small town located in southwestern Uganda, about 70 km from the border with Congo-Zaire. Its population is probably around a few hundred people. The town itself only has 3 main streets, which do not see a lot of traffic (mainly vehicles going to and from Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, famous for its mountain gorilla tracking, and pickups travelling between nearby towns.) Although the region is quite remote, it is generally very beautiful, lots of green hills and valleys, trees, tea and banana plantations. The weather is quite hot because Kihiihi is not at a very high altitude, and at the moment we are in a wet season where it rains really hard every day for about an hour, usually in the afternoon or early evening. The rain is good because it cools everything down and makes crops grow (so that there’s more variety of fruits and vegetables at the market), but on the other hand, the rain makes the murram roads/paths extremely muddy and also brings mosquitoes (as well as an increase in malaria cases).

The primary language is Rukiga/Runyankore. There are also those who speak Runyanrwanda, Swahili and French (because of the town’s proximity to the Congo-Zaire and Rwanda borders). English is spoken mostly by professionals and those living in town, but the number of English speakers decreases dramatically as you go into the small villages of the surrounding area.

There is a health centre level IV in Kihiihi (one level below an actual hospital) that has two wards for inpatients, a maternity ward and an outpatient clinic during working hours, as well as an ambulance for emergency transport to Kambuga Hospital (approximately 45 minutes away). There is also an operating theatre which is presently closed for renovation (and has been that way for some months now.) Common drugs, such as paracetemol (Tylenol), chloroquine and fansidar (malarial medication) and vitamin C, are freely available. I happen to be really close to the medical officer in-charge (Simon, my boss), the two medical officers (VSO volunteers Richard and Ellie, good friends) and the clinical officer (Kenneth, one of my best students), so access to health care and advice is extremely easy.

There is one bank in Kihiihi, a branch of Uganda Commercial Bank. It is fairly small, but I suppose because I am a muzungu I receive preferential treatment and do not usually have to wait as long as others to withdraw money from the tellers. There is no ATM. To open an account, you require a letter from your employer (or other endorsement) and two passport-sized photos, one of which will be pasted to your passbook. Cheques take at least a month to cash (because it is sent to Kampala, then Mbarara, then back to Kampala, then back to your branch) and the processing fee is quite large; to avoid the wait you should try to receive bank drafts that take only a few days to show up in your account. I don’t think it’s possible to receive wire transfers of money, or to access my account back in Canada, through my UCB branch – for that I would have to go to Kampala.

There is a tiny market that operates daily, from which you can always buy tomatoes, onions, yucky greens, potatoes, cassava and matoke. Nearby shops always have a selection of bananas and pineapples, and often mangoes and passionfruits. The big market day is on Saturday, where people come from villages all over the district and even across the border to sell their goods. There, you can find fruits and vegetables, household goods, secondhand clothes, cloth material, etc. Every other Saturday it changes location, from the big marketplace on the edge of town to the smaller one near the centre. There are two gas stations in town – paraffin can be purchased there if you have your own container/jerry can. Mobile phone airtime and service fee cards are available in a certain shop, but they usually sell it in denominations of 5,000 and 10,000 Ush (which is a pain if you want 20,000 or 40,000 Ush worth – also you don’t get the bonus airtime if you buy small denomination cards.) The only bread available is the sweet bread, which I actually don’t mind so much but all the Brits that I’ve met here absolutely detest it. Packaged convenience foods are hard to find in town – things like processed cheese spread, chocolate bars, potato chips, snacky type foods – as are dairy products (because there is no electricity and therefore refrigerators are rare). There are certain shops/bars that do have gas-powered fridges, and there you can often get cold sodas, beer, or juice.

There is not a whole lot to do in Kihiihi. There is a “cinema”which usually shows awful action flicks. It’s really just a large shop area with a tv and video deck. They turn the volume off and a man with a microphone and speaker basically narrates the movie in Rukiga. (rough translation: “The muzungu man yelled this at her and then the muzungu woman shouted back at him…”) There are a few bars in town but the one we go to is called Garuga’s. It has a tv which shows football matches and the occasional bad movie when Mr. Garuga is in town. The only other place to go to is the Savannah Resort Hotel, which sounds far grander than it actually is. It is a partially-completed hotel about 2 km out of Kihiihi town centre, and it will stay that way until the owner, who is currently incarcerated, decides to sell it to someone. They have sodas and beer and you can get good eggs and chips (if you don’t mind waiting 3 hours for your order to arrive) and it’s completely deserted all the time, so it’s a good place to go when you want a bit of quiet and privacy.

MY HOUSE

I live in a small house with one bedroom and a main sitting room. The kitchen/store is located off of the back porch, as is the shower area. I use a pit latrine (or “long drop”) as my toilet, located a couple of metres behind the house (which can be really scary to use at night when it is pitch black out and you have no idea whatsoever of what is out there; also, proper aim can be a problem….enough said.) Out back is the rubbish pit where I throw all my garbage. I’m supposed to set the pit on fire every so often to dispose of the man-made materials that don’t decompose, but I haven’t yet gotten any strong pyromaniacal urges. Also in my “backyard”is a lot of grass, which provides grazing material for various herds of cattle and goats and chickens (not mine). My house is part of the sub-county compound, shared with my three neighbours who are all sub-county civil servants and their families (and whom I rarely see). It takes less than 2 minutes to walk to the telecentre, which is housed in the sub-county building on the edge of the compound.

The house has concrete floors and (I think) asbestos walls and ceiling. It is quite cool when it is hot out, and since I got the mosquito nets put in, insects are just a minor annoyance now (although you should have seen some of the things that worked their way into my house before the nets were up – but nothing a little spritz of Doom or Tox now and then couldn’t take care of.) The thing that sucks the most about my house is that it tends to get flooded whenever it rains and the wind is blowing in a certain direction. The water gets in through cracks in the doorframes (front and back doors) and slowly trickles in to form large pools on my living room floor. I have tried to solve this problem by duct taping the cracks or by stuffing rags along the bottom of the doors, but this does not seem to be effective, so I often find myself down on my hands and knees, mopping up the floor with rags (it seems that the mop with a long handle hasn’t quite caught on yet in Uganda) during a rainstorm, or coming home after a night of teaching to a house full of water. I noticed this problem only fairly recently, though, because the wet season has only just started, but I don’t think there’s very much I can do about it.

There is no running water; Ruth, the woman who cleans my house, prepares lunch, and does my laundry, brings me water in jerry cans every day from the pump at the health centre compound next door. Drinking water must be filtered and then boiled. Showers consist of filling up a basin with freezing cold water (or hot water, if I’ve bothered to boil some) and pouring it over myself with a small cup. Not as good as an actual shower, but it gets the job done. Hair washing is done once a week because it’s such a hassle. The toilet, as mentioned before, is the pit latrine, which I was really not looking forward to using when I first got here. Actually, though, it’s sometimes preferable when you don’t want to put your bare bottom on some germ-infested toilet seat. You also don’t have to worry about the toilet clogging when you flush it and anything can be dropped down there. The flip side is that ANYTHING can be dropped down there and never be retrieved, there is always the possibility of falling in or the latrine floor collapsing, you don’t want to get stomach upset and have to vomit in there, and I highly recommend the wearing of skirts for women in order to make your pit latrine experience more enjoyable.

Electricity is available each night from 7:00 pm – 11:00 (or thereabouts). Cooking is done on a paraffin (kerosene) stove – I have two of them. I use a flashlight when walking outside at night, and paraffin lanterns and candles inside my house when the power goes out.

TYPICAL DAY

8:00-9:00 am

Wake up. Prepare breakfast of fruit salad (bananas, pineapple, mango, passionfruit – whatever is in season or available). If it is Tuesday or Thursday (when Ruth comes to my house), I get the washing ready for her and tidy up a bit around the house to make her job a little easier.

9:00-1:00 pm

Activities include:

• Preparing for the night’s lesson
  
• Planning out upcoming work tasks
  
• Rukiga lesson
  
• Reading
  
• Sleeping
  
• Writing letters
  
• Running errands, like picking up things from town or the market, or going to the bank
  
• Receiving visitors

Now that we have the solar batteries working, I will be most likely spending my mornings at the sub-county building, using the computers to conduct day training and prepare course materials.

1:00-2:00 pm

Lunch. Ruth works at Richard and Ellie’s (the other VSO volunteers) place on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so I go over there for lunch, or they come to my place on Tuesday and Thursday. Lunch usually consists of some combination of rice, irish potatoes, spaghetti, beans, dodo (greens), and groundnut sauce. If we’re lucky, sometimes there is chapatti, fish, chicken or goat (depending on availability and how rich we’re feeling). In typical British fashion, we finish off the meal with a nice cup of tea.

2:00-7:00 pm

More of the same from the morning.

7:00-10:00 pm

Teaching. Lectures are held from 7-8, then labs from 8-10.

10:00-whenever the power goes out

Activities include:

• Staying at the telecentre to use the computers after the students have left
  
• Going over to Simon’s office to use the printer or email
  
• Going over to Richard and Ellie’s place or Simon’s place in search of food and drink and social interaction
  
• Going home to prepare dinner and do other things while there is still electricity. I usually make spaghetti for myself (sometimes with pesto brought back from the UK or tomatoes, onions and garlic). I have just learned to make toast, so I can have that with peanut butter and jam, or just margarine, or spreadable cheese and tomato. Ruth occasionally leaves me porridge, beans, mandazi (doughnuts), or leftovers from lunch – she makes a kick-ass fried fish and fried chicken.I usually go to bed whenever the health centre porter decides to turn off the generator, anywhere from 11:00 pm to 1:00 am.
  

SOCIAL LIFE

I have some good friends in Uganda, both muzungus and Ugandans. I am very close with Richard and Ellie (I see them everyday), and of course there are the other Netcorps interns to hang out with when I am in Kampala. I am good friends with Simon’s niece, Maria, and her brother Rogers – they helped me out a lot when I first arrived and Richard and Ellie had just left on their 3-week holiday back to the UK. I have a Rukiga teacher, Monica, who teaches English literature at the local high school and is eagerly awaiting acceptance to a teacher training college in Mbarara. She gives me language lessons in exchange for computer lessons (although I got the better end of the deal because logistics has prevented us from having many IT lessons.) My lessons are not really structured classroom-type ones, we just sit around my house and talk or go out for a walk. I have gotten to know a few of my students as well. I have attended a few weddings and at social occasions (Independence Day celebration, functions, church, etc.) the muzungus are often given special treatment.

9. Is personal security an issue for you? If so how do you deal with it?

Being a young, not-typical-looking-muzungu female, personal security is always an issue for me, but I feel relatively safe in Kihiihi. While it is not always first and foremost in my mind whenever I leave the house, I try to take some common-sense precautions, like having someone accompany me (especially at night) when I go out. People are generally friendly and willing to assist you if you need help, especially if you know a bit of local language, and I have not once felt that my safety and security were being threatened in any way.

Kihiihi is about 70 km from the border of Congo/Zaire, which by all reports has been quiet now for the past year, but there is always the small worry of rebel activity along the border.

10. Is your living allowance adequate?

Yes, because there is nothing to spend money on in Kihiihi except for food (and alcohol, but I don’t drink that much). Travel outside of the region can be expensive because we are in such a remote area, but necessary because you can go a bit crazy after living up-country for 6 weeks straight.

11. How does the reality of your placement compare with the expectation you had before you arrived?

It sounds ridiculous to admit this, but I was not fully aware of how the limited hours of electricity each night would affect my working day. It has been a difficult adjustment to life (mostly) without power – I don’t think that I have fully accepted the idea of writing up documents using just a pen and paper, because I have been using a computer to do all kinds of things for over 10 years now.

I also have had to be careful not to turn into a complete hermit with no social life. With my working hours, it is difficult to socialize and mix with people as much as I would like – I am at work when most people are not, and vice-versa.

Please feel free to include any other information or comments at this time.

The Netcorps internship is a great program, but I feel that it would be more beneficial to both the volunteer and employer if the placement were to be extended by six months (i.e. a one-year internship as opposed to only 6 months). This is especially true if the placement is new, where the intern goes in and is the first to set up systems and programs. It takes about 3 months to feel settled and comfortable in both your personal and professional life, and then that leaves only 3 more months in which to accomplish any actual work. In some cases, the settling-in period takes even longer than 3 months. It can be very frustrating for the volunteer and the employer to start to finally make progress on the project, only to have it end because the volunteer has to go home and the employer does not have enough money to support an extension of service. 6 months would be adequate for an intern who is continuing a project that already has systems in place, who doesn’t have to start from scratch.

Also, because the Netcorps internship is such a specialized program, it is vital that VSO ensures that certain resources are in place before sending out an intern. Things like access to a computer and electricity are absolutely essential to the success of the placement. How are you supposed to do any work in ICT when you don’t have the equipment or means to power that equipment? Training someone how to use a computer is not like teaching someone English. For English, all you really need is yourself and your own English skills, maybe a pen and paper as well. With computers, however, you can talk all you like about the different parts of the machine, or how email and the Internet work, or how to set up a database, but what good will it do when your student can’t see the practical applications? I think that 90% of learning about computers is by doing, making mistakes and learning from them, but how can your student do this without having a computer? It doesn’t make any sense.

But, all in all, I have to say that my experience in Uganda thus far has been great – I have not once regretted my decision to go away for 6 months and have not even thought about returning home early, even when it was really tough. I have learned quite a bit about myself, and hope that I have imparted a bit of knowledge to others as well. Support from VSO Canada and VSO Uganda, from other interns and volunteers here in country, as well as that from friends and family, has been terrific. This experience has sparked a desire in me to continue to do development work and travel the world.

So Much To Write, So Little Power..

I have all these blog entries that I have started but just never seem to finish. It occurred to me that I have not yet written about my environment, my house, my new friends and colleagues, my work, etc. and so my life here must still seem a mystery to most of you after 3 months of being away. Well, all I can say right now is that they are coming, hopefully soon - it's just that it's tough when there is only power for a few hours each night and during those hours I am teaching. But here are some things that happened recently that I wanted to get down for posterity:

• The Patriotic Welcoming Committee - Yesterday as I was sitting in the Telecentre in a royally-pissed-off mood because no one had shown up yet for the exam that they were supposed to be writing in Microsoft Word, I heard some kids outside the window saying "How are you muchina?". That just added to my irritation, as I hate being judged on my appearance with such a passion. They continued with "How are you mujungu?", "How are you white woman?", etc. and I continued to ignore them, until I heard a plaintive voice ask, "Where do you stay?"

  
  I paused, then replied curtly, "Canada".

  
  Muffled whispers from outside the curtained window.

  
  "We want to sing you a song to welcome you."

  
  My heart just melted. How could I stay mad at these guys? I pulled back the curtain and saw three boys, about 8 years old. I said "Go for it."

  
  They launched into a song that I soon recognized as the Ugandan National Anthem. I was laughing because these guys were so cute, singing in their high-pitched little voices. When they finished all three verses, I said "Mwebare munonga" to show my appreciation, and then chatted a bit in Rukiga and English with them. I told them my name so now whenever they see me, they say "Agandi, Isa!" (which is not a typo - some Ugandans (depending on their tribe) have difficulty with the "sh" sound - it just sounds even cuter when a kid says it!)

  
  

• Census Day - Today the census person came round to my house. I've been waiting for days for them to show up because I am dying to be counted (don't ask me why, I just was.) Pamela is a secondary school English teacher who is my new "munywani" (friend). She asked the typical census questions, but there were some interesting ones that made me stop and think:

  
  

  
  
  1. Do you bathe with soap?
     
  2. Do you have sugar at least once a day?
     
  3. Do you own at least one pair of shoes?
     
  4. Do you own at least two changes of clothes?
     
  5. What is the roof of your house made out of? (I found out it was asbestos!!!)
     

  
  

• Went to another wedding last Saturday in Rukungiri - Joan's niece was getting married. Actually went to the church service, and although it was mainly in Rukiga, this point was made abundantly clear in English by the priest: "Women, be submissive to your husbands. Men, love your women." I was all rankled up but fought hard to swallow it. Turns out the ceremony was a combination wedding service and baptism - the happy couple have a 3-year old child named (and I'm not joking) "Daisy Precious" who screamed throughout the entire holy-water process. (incidentally, I also shared transport with a very grumpy baby, appropriately named "Pleasure".] The reception was just like the other one I went to, but this time the bride was much more happy (and was fighting not to show it.) Apparently this couple have been "married" for three years but were not yet "wed", if you can understand that. It seems that Ugandans are very relaxed about non-married couples being together.
  

Okay, the generator is dying, gotta run!

"HAVE GOT RECEPTION - WHOOPEE!"
The above is the text message I received a few days ago from R & E - I guess the MTN network is finally stable now in Kihiihi. Thank God - finally I can make and receive phone calls and text msgs in the privacy of my own home. So please call if you're feeling rich (my number is 011 256 77 890 749) - I do miss home a lot!)

My First Ugandan Wedding - August 28, 2002
So I've just returned from my first Ugandan wedding and I am afraid that I won't be able to remember everything that I've experienced this afternoon. It was wild, to say the least. We didn't go to the church service, which was supposed to be at 9:00 this morning, and apparently it only lasts about an hour and then you hang around while they get the reception ready, plus it would have been in Rukiga and mostly incomprehensible, as my Rukiga skills are improving only very very slowly. (I still can't understand when people say things - the Bakiga talk too fast, but that's what the Bakiga say about Abajungu and speaking English.)

Ellie, Christine and I left for the reception around 2:00pm, which was to be held at the groom's family's house in a village called Kibihembe (?), just outside of Kihiihi Town. We arrived just ahead of the wedding party, and caused quite a stir - imagine, a blonde and a strange looking mujungu! There was a huge tent-like structure set up outside - I say tent-like because it was basically any large pieces of material they could scrounge up tied up with string and held up by poles. There were tons of people there, sitting on benches. Apparently whenever there's a wedding, anyone just shows up, so you have the area for the wedding party and important people (like local politicians and church guys), an area for the groom's friends and family, an area for the bride's friends and family, and then the "common" folk. When we arrived, we were ushered directly to the important areas, as Ellie and Richard had actually received an invitation from the groom's side (Ellie had treated in hospital the brother of Fred who owns the shop where we get cold sodas - it was Fred's brother's son who was getting married today) and Christine, a nurse at the health centre, was actually related to the groom's side. We had to make the rounds of greeting all the other important people and then we sat for a while, which gave me a chance to take in my surroundings. I think they basically tried to find anything festive looking and put it up - there was a "Seasons Greetings" banner directly above the wedding party area, little flags of scrap material tied up with string, tinselly-looking strands hanging around, and I think there was even a little plastic Christmas tree on the table in front of the wedding party seats. Some of the women's outfits were even more amazing - tons of colourful, beautifully-printed pieces of fabric tied in different ways on various parts of the body, there was one woman (God, I wish I had gotten a picture of her!) who had this insane purple and white outfit with huge puffed sleeves with a corrugated-cardboard-like texture. It's really indescribable (plus she was just ginormous in size, to boot!)

We were whisked away with the rest of the importants to the house to eat. There was chicken and huge platters of the usual starch - matooke, rice, millet bread. We had to finish in a hurry, though, because we were going to miss the entrance of the wedding party. We got back to our seats just in time to see them sit down in their area. It's weird, they played a taped "Here Comes the Bride", but with African beats underneath! Surprisingly, the outfits of the wedding party were traditional Western, men in suits and the bride in a white wedding gown, her attendants in white as well. I was also surprised to see one of my students, Prudence, up there - turns out she is the sister of the bride.

The reception lasted for AGES - we didn't get out of there until after 7:00pm, 5 hours after we had arrived. Actually, that's not so long, but it felt like it was dragging because it mostly consisted of long speeches in Rukiga from relatives and dignitaries, which wouldn't have been so bad except that the typical Ugandan family has at least 5 children, and about a million other relatives - it's not rare to go to a village where 80% of the population is related to each other in some way or another. I was trying desperately to understand everything, but as I said before, my Rukiga comprehension skills are less than adequate for that task. So, it was a little boring at times, but there were some interesting events of note:

• The bride was absolutely miserable the whole time. Apparently it is custom for the bride to look humble and keep her eyes down, but it is up to her whether or not she smiles! Alice did not smile once, and you could see tears running down her cheeks at times. Perhaps she is scared at the prospect of leaving her family, but most people think that she doesn't have much to cry about - after all, she is the one who accepted Wilson's offer of marriage; she could have rejected him if she thought he wouldn't be a good husband. It is customary for the man to pay a bride price or dowry, but the woman has the option to refuse him.
  
  
• The wedding party has to walk to the table where the cake is, so that the bride and groom can cut it, feed pieces to each other and give each other a drink. This in itself is not weird, but what was strange was the actual way they walked, a kind of Africanized-version of that stilted walk down the aisle that some Western brides have - you know, when they take a step, stop, take another step, stop, etc. But these guys put a little jiggle in their step, so they were sloooooowly boogying their way to the cake. PS The cake (or cakes, as there were three of them) was orange-coloured on the inside and iced with white, blue and orange. I was dying to try a piece but I missed my opportunity when the bride was giving it out to her in-laws - I thought it wouldn't be appropriate to accept but pretty much anything goes here. I wasn't even officially invited to this wedding, I just tagged along with Ellie and was counted among the importants. Anyways, the other two cakes go to the families of the bride and groom to take home.
  
  
• Lots of singing, which was really nice. I don't think I've met one Ugandan who can't sing amazingly well - it's probably considered a disability if you can't sing well. Mostly hymns, like "Jesu Ni Murungi" (Jesus is Good), but people really get into them, with drums and clapping, not all formal and solemn like back home. The odd thing is, people will just break into song whenever they feel like it. For instance, if someone is giving a speech and a member of the audience really agrees with what that person is saying, he or she will just strike up a song and everyone else joins in.
  
  
• The bride's parents are not supposed to come to the wedding and subsequent festivities, nor are they even invited! They have a "giving away" ceremony at their house the day before the wedding, and that is the extent of their involvement in all following wedding-related activities. It is said that it is bad luck to have the parents of the bride present at the wedding, because then the bride will not be a good wife.
  
  
• I had absolutely no idea what to bring as a gift. Apparently no one would have noticed if we didn't give anything, but still I felt bad about going and accepting their hospitality without giving something back. It's okay to give some money in an envelope if you don't want to buy anything (difficult to know what the couple will want if there's no registry!) Many people ended up giving mostly household items, like plastic basins, a sewing machine, livestock, plates, cups, etc., but there were also very many envelopes (collected in a big bucket!)
  
  
• Once the bride goes into the house, the reception is over. She has to stay in the house until the next morning - can't even go outside to bathe or go to the bathroom (they bring her a basin!).
  
  
• I brought my camera with me because I wanted to take some pictures, but was unsure of how it would be viewed (maybe it would have offended?) I thought that maybe if I told them that I would give them copies of the pictures, it would be okay. Turns out I was very welcome to take pictures, no one minded one bit when I asked. I did feel a bit conspicuous because I had to get up in front of everyone in order to get the best shot, though. I asked Prudence if I could take a picture of her and her sister after the wedding, and just before we were about to go (after they had fed us, the importants, another huge meal of goat and all the fixings!), I was called into the house where the bride and groom were. Alice was still miserable, and I couldn't do or say anything to make her smile for my picture. Once I took my shot, everyone wanted to have their picture taken with me - Prudence, Christine, the groom Wilson, his best man. I guess it's cool to have a mujungu at your wedding, some sort of cachet. Wish I had taken more film so I could have fully captured the experience.
  
  

Well, it was definitely an interesting cultural experience. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to do it again. Joan, one of the nurses at the health centre who was at this wedding, told me that her niece is getting married in Rukungiri in a few weeks, so if she can arrange transport, she will invite me to accompany her. As well, Tarsis, one of my students, is getting married in December and has promised to invite me to his wedding. Maybe one day I will finally be able to taste this wedding cake!

Better late than never
Belated birthday wishes to:

• Nat (August 27) - did you finally have a birthday party? Wish I could have been there - hope it was a blast!
  
• Vic (September 3) - did you have fun at the rippers? hahahaha
  
  I'm sure I'm forgetting someone...sorry!
  
  Wedding Bells!
  It looks like long-term commitment is in the air! Congratulations to:
  
  1. Lin and Scott (I knew it the minute I saw the email subject "Big News")
  2. Mike and Laura (belated...I meant to send my congrats much earlier when I found out but I've been a bit isolated communication-wise)
  
  I wish you all the very best!
  
  Hmm, I wonder if this is going to start a trend. Am feeling a bit Bridget Jones-y, if you know what I mean....
  
  
  // posted by Isha @ 3:51 AM

I'm Back in Cyberspace!
After a more-than-one-month absence from internet and email, I'm back (a little worse for wear, but the internet withdrawal symptoms have eased somewhat.) This has been due to a number of factors, such as unpaid ISP account bills (not my fault), limited electricity, and being crazy busy with work. The good news is that a well-deserved break is in my near future, as I will be going to Kampala for almost a week on Wednesday, September 4. Back to the land of cold drinks, dairy products, electricity (most of the time, although I hear that it has not been quite stable recently), faster Internet service and cell phone reception! So, if anyone has any money they feel like blowing, please give me a ring - I would love to hear from you - my number is somewhere on my blog. I will update this thing later when I'm in Kla, lots of tidbits to post.

Congratulations and Birthday Wishes
Just a quick note to extend well wishes to two particular people:

1. To my friend Vic, who just got a job with OEOne (a computer company in Ottawa) after having been unexpectedly laid off a few weeks ago. Congrats, Vic, I knew that a gifted computer nerd like you wouldn't be jobless for long!

2. Happy Birthday to Lorney, who is relaxing at the cottage after having sent me a package of Canadiana (hmmm, if it's full of Celine Dion CDs and poutine, I'll have to send it back, though!) I hope you're having a wonderful holiday and I'm looking forward (or am I?) to getting your parcel in a few weeks. Thank you so much for helping me cure my homesick blues.

I have just returned from a much-needed 3-day visit to "civilization" (i.e. Kampala) and an overnight trip to Queen Elizabeth Park for a safari (not quite as civilized but fun nonetheless). I think that I am slowly overcoming my sense of isolation and feel ready to face the challenge of actually starting some work-related stuff tomorrow. Tonight, however, I am going to finish my bottle of waragi (the Ugandan version of gin) and start the new week with a massive hangover. Will write more about my trips later.

P.S. Thank you so much to everyone who has been sending supportive emails and text messages - it's really nice to be reminded that you have friends and well-wishers when you feel completely alone.