Mom Does (Did?) Uganda

My mother visited me for three weeks in November, but it honestly felt and still feels like she visited for only one. Time is a funny thing here in the U.G. It’s hard to believe that the next day or so marks the fifth whole month I’ve spent here. I feel like I am in some sort of time warp and I believe that time warp has all to do with the weather.

During the last four years the seasons played a significant role in my ability to tell how much time has passed. First, there was pre-season. Summer time in the dirty jerz is hot, humid, and disgusting to say the least. Then fall slowly crept up and everyone arrived on campus. A few short weeks later, hoodies and light jackets came out. The middle/end of fall was characterized by unpacking the big guns, AKA the 500 down jackets I owned. The months of December, January, and February seemed like an eternity. Then the wonderful month of March hit and towards the end of the month my puffy jackets were back under my bed where they belonged. By April I was on the slip and slide.

This year, I haven’t experienced any of that and the next few months are the hottest I will experience, not the coldest. It’s really throwing me off.  Today is December 14^th and it’s still 80 degrees out. Every day I wake up and can’t tell the difference between the weeks or months – it all just mushes together. In my head I believe it must be the month of July since it’s so hot. And next month when it’s extremely hot again it’s still the month of July. I can't believe it’s December until I see some snow…

Anyways, even though it felt like far less, my mom visited Uganda for 20 days. Here some highlights from her visit accompanied by pictures:

PRIMATES. I have a weird obsession with monkeys as I’m sure you all know. During the course of my mom’s visit, I fed (wild) monkeys straight out of the palm of my hand two different times! That’s two times more than I have ever before. Not to mention I just saw more monkeys in general than I have ever before. Oh, and I went chimpanzee trekking. Yup, I followed their calls, droppings, and prints throughout the forest to find the little suckers. Then I got to hang out with them for an hour and half.

Feeding some monkeys

Feeding more monkeys

Chimp

 Food. They say nothing tastes better than your mom’s cooking and I can attest to that statement, especially when you’re in the midst of perfecting and expanding your culinary skills (read newbie) in another country on another continent.

SWB Uganda Staff enjoying some Persian food

 Four day safari/trip around western Uganda.

nap time

Natural hot spring

Thanksgiving. Last year was the first time in eight years that I celebrated this holiday at home in the Bay.  Before college, I spent Turkey Day in sunny San Diego for a soccer tournament. During college, my parents came out to the East Coast and we celebrated the holiday East Coast style with my brother who lives in NYC.

Anyways, the point I’m trying to get at is that it wasn’t that weird celebrating Thanksgiving so far from home. The weird part was getting our turkey. A turkey dinner is one of my favorite meals, so I obviously had high expectations and needed a fix for my four month withdrawal. The day before the feast, we ran around town (read the city) in search of a turkey. We began in a grocery store where the price of a frozen turkey was too high, and we somehow ended in an outside market buying a live turkey and a live chicken for our feast. Ugandan style if you ask me.  Of course they were not alive anymore on the motorcycle taxi ride back to our house. We spent hours cooking the next day (read my mom with a little of our help) and dinner tasted better than I could have ever imagined.

The turkey and the chicken

     American Candy. Yes, that’s a highlight. Four months of no sour punch straws/sour belts can really get to a person.  

The new classroom. I saved the best for last. My mom left her own mark on SWB Uganda by fundraising for and initiating the construction of a new classroom at our center. 

Soccer Without Borders Uganda has been growing like crazy over the past few months. While this is extremely exciting, it proved to be difficult at first. Our classroom is very very small. We have been teaching 60+ kids in a room smaller than the size of my common room last year. Words cannot express how difficult it is at times to teach a classroom of that size. Just trying to manage them is a crazy task in and of itself, and the language barrier that exists doesn't make it any easier. Now the size of the classroom is another thing. Towards the end of our classes, there are always a handful of students peaking their head through the windows or sitting outside as close to the door as possible to hear the lessons. There simply just isn't enough space for everyone to sit (or should I say squeeze) in the classroom. 

After seeing this for a few short days, my mom decided to make some moves and start the process of building a new classroom. Since our arrival, Katy, JC, and I have discussed the potential of a new classroom countless times and now our dream was becoming reality. After 27 days of construction, the building is now finished. Well, almost finished...We still need to paint the new desks and paint a logo on the back. Nonetheless, we have a new classroom at SWB Nsambya. The organization has had a tremendous impact on this community over the past few years and this new classroom enables us to continue this impact even as the number of participants rise. 

One of our coaches told me the other day that the building symbolizes trust. I was confused at first by what he meant and then he explained: "Our program is a school for the children we serve and the construction of a new building shows that we are working hard to educate the youth. Many of our participants do not attend school. For many it's because they cannot afford a formal education, and for others it's because they are refugees and do not speak English. Beyond financial demands, integrating into the school system in Uganda is difficult for refugees, especially for refugees coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo like many of our students. School in the DRC is not taught in English, but rather in French. That has proved to be difficult when refugee children try to integrate into the Ugandan school system since school here is taught in English and they do not speak English. The new classroom builds trust between our organization/mission and the families we serve. Parents trust us to educate their children.This building shows that we are serious about it."

Laying the foundation

Putting the iron roof up

Timber and roof going up 

Timber and roof are completed!

Painting

Kids sanding the desks as coaches paint the inside

Coaches finished painting the new room

New desks

Kids pretending to be in class

The kids pretending to teach

Right now we are on our holiday break and will reopen the center in the beginning of January. In the middle of January, we plan on opening the new classroom. Thank you so so much to all that donated to this project. We are all very grateful for your contribution!!!

Having my mom here was an amazing experience. It was a special three weeks that I will always remember. Thanks for traveling across the world to see me, mom!

Mom jumping the rope

Here I am posting a few weeks late again. Sowwy. I’m taking off to Tanzania tomorrow for some island hopping and a little R&R before we undergo our five day festival in early January. We are estimating more than 250 kids from 8am-2pm all day err day during this time. More on that soon!

I wish everyone a safe and joyous holiday season!

May I use your bathroom?

In the beginning of October I went to Kigali, Rwanda for a four day conference held by streetfootballworld. Compared to Kampala, Kigali feels and looks like a whole other world – there isn’t one piece of trash on the streets, there are trashcans everywhere, there are no squatters (in visible sight at least), and a majority of the streets are lighted and paved. Although the city is very clean and orderly, it honestly seems as if the genocide and its remains still haunt the city and the people. Instead of focusing on the conference or my thoughts on the genocide, this post will focus on one particular event that happened on my last night in Kigali. Katy and I decided to extend our stay in Kigali to explore the city a little more and I’m glad we made that choice. If we didn’t, the funniest moment since my arrival (and maybe my life?) will have never occurred. Katy wrote about the moment in her latest blog post, which you will find below with my very own commentary in aqua italics. Enjoy.

The Rwanda Bathroom Incident: 

I can confidently say that this is the most hilarious thing that has happened since I’ve been here. I second this statement. Actually, looking back on it, it might be the most hilarious thing that has happened in my life. On our last night in Kigali, Olivier (SWB Coach and Rwanda native) took us to meet his family and a few of his friends. When we arrived at his friend, Vincent’s, house, Sara asked to use the bathroom. Let me preface this by saying I usually hold it in when I’m at someone’s house – many do not have running water so the toilet situation is always unknown and I feel bad if they have to prep water or the toilet (in most cases just a casual hole in the ground). Squat toilets are really a different world. Anyways, there was something different about this time. I decided to suck it up and ask. Not going to lie, I was even a little nervous to ask so Olivier initiated the conversation. Vincent’s wife, Clarise, said that she first needed to “prepare the water.” For about ten minutes, she walked back and forth from the kitchen to the outside bathroom carrying basins of water.  At this point, I was really concerned. These ten minutes seemed like a life time. What did I just get myself into? Why does all this water need to be prepped? I had no idea how toilets work in Kigali for those who do not have running water. Not to mention I felt bad that I put Clarise to work for a solid ten minutes. But hey what is the worst that can happen, right? (Side note: meanwhile, Vincent woke up their 7 month-old baby, and handed him to me. This baby was the BIGGEST baby I have EVER seen. I’m not kidding, he is the size of a five year old, and I had trouble holding him.) True story. Okay, so after Clarise finished “preparing the water,” she told Sara to follow her into her bedroom. I agreed to follow her with a smile on my face, a nervous smile. Why am I going to her bedroom? 

A few minutes later, Sara emerged wearing only a towel. I found out later that Clarise told her to take off her clothes and gave her the towel. Sara’s explanation for following those directions: “I don’t know how the bathrooms in Rwanda work!” It’s true!  I have no idea how bathrooms in Rwanda work. They can shoot out water or something, so I still strongly believe it’s valid that I followed such directions.  I couldn’t help but nervously laugh when Clarise took me into her bedroom, told me take off my clothes and handed me a towel. I was a little confused, so I asked if I should only take off my jeans. Why would I need to take anything else off to go to the bathroom? She laughed and said, “Everything.” Right as she left the room to give me privacy my nervous laughter took over. What did I get myself into? I knew I should have never asked. I did as the host wished and took off my clothes. I regained my composure by repeatedly telling myself, “Sara, you do not know how bathrooms work in Rwanda, so respect the host and do as you are told. You cannot laugh as you exit this bedroom into the living room in a towel. Look straight down. Whatever you do, DO NOT make eye contact with Katy or Olivier.” Then I walked out of the bedroom into the living room… Shockingly, my speech to myself didn’t work. At this point, I was laughing so hard that I had trouble holding the enormous baby that was still in my arms. Olivier saw what was going on and also started to laugh, but he did a much better job of controlling himself (since Clarise and Vincent had no idea what could possibly be so funny). Right as I stepped foot out of the bedroom, Katy burst out laughing and I couldn’t control myself. I rushed to the door (but not too quickly since the towel was on the shorter side) and headed outside where Clarice was waiting for me. I tried to hold back my laughter as she guided me in the dark to a wooden shack 10 yards away. What the heck is going on? I was a tad hesitant to enter the shack, but as Clarice handed me the lantern I saw a glimpse of a basin, a jerry can, and soap. Then it all came together. A few minutes later, after I had somewhat gained composure, Sara returned. Still in a towel. I lost it. I kept my cool until Katy started laughing hysterically. I couldn’t stop thinking about what just happened and lost it as well.  She went and got changed, and after I handed the linebacker baby back to Clarise, we all left. Apparently, Clarise thought that Sara was asking to bathe, because when she got to the bathroom there was a bucket shower waiting for her.  I honestly had no idea what I got myself into until I saw the basin, jerry can, and soap. The towel, the water prepping, the demand to take off all my clothes all came together when I saw these items. Like I’ve said a hundred times the past few weeks, how am I supposed to know how bathrooms in Rwanda work?! But, I must admit that it was a much needed and extremely refreshing bucket shower after a day of wandering the streets of Kigali.

Seriously though, how was I supposed to know how bathrooms in Rwanda work? I think I will stand by that argument forever. It was quite the experience to say the least and sometimes I find myself (and Katy) randomly chuckling about that night. GT’s, GT’s.

Classic selfie with Katy and Olivier's niece and nephew

To all on the East Coast of Amurrica, please stay safe!

Cheers from the U.G.

Global Peace Games

“Peace can only come when there is love. If you cannot love, there will be no peace.”

– Believe, a five year old refugee boy from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Last Saturday SWB Uganda celebrated the 12^th edition of the Global Peace Games for Children and Youth. The Global Peace Games are an annual event held each year on or around the United Nations International Day of Peace, September 21^st. Like thousands of others around the world, we used the sport of soccer and its values to celebrate a culture of peace and nonviolence.

We expected 150 participants for the festival and exactly 150 registered, ranging from the ages of 4 years to 20 years. We split up the participants into six different groups and began the day by reading letters from Wilfried Lemke (United Nations) and Sepp Blatter (Fifa) about the Global Peace Games for Children and Youth. Then, each group had a discussion about peace and signed a manifesto stating that they pledge to respect all life, reject all violence, share with others, listen to understand, preserve the planet, and to contribute to the development of community. After discussing in their groups, each group presented what they discussed in front of everyone and shared their ideas on what peace means to them, what it looks like, how it can be achieved, what they can do to achieve it, etc. These presentations were 9 days ago, yet somehow I still find myself thinking about what was said by some of these children. At one point, I vividly remember thinking to myself how sophisticated our participants’ statements sounded in the discussions and presentations, and I couldn't (and still cannot) get over the fact that they are so young. One example of many is the quote in the beginning of this blog and it’s even better because the individual who said it is named Believe and is only 5 years old. I’ll let you think about that quote and its context for yourself. After the presentations, we played soccer for an hour and then headed back to the center for some good old rice and beans. It was a pretty chaotic and exhausting day, but I truly enjoyed every minute of it.  

Participants with their certificates.

No need for a caption.

My group. Believe in the front throwing up double peace signs.

The Peace Games Celebration also fell perfectly around the same time as the culmination of a unit on the history of East African countries. Over the past 4 weeks, we have been teaching the history of Uganda, DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania during our Life Skills classes and our participants seemed to truly enjoy the lessons. I’m not certain, but it may be because a majority of them are refugees from these neighboring countries. Or, it may be the fact that Katy, Jean-Christophe, and I are very engaging teachers. Either way (pretty sure it’s the latter), it was a pretty successful Life Skills month. We ended the unit on Thursday by outlining Africa on the back wall of the classroom and having the children place a hand print or two throughout the continent in paint.  

Showing the little guy how to make a hand print. He ended up just rubbing his hand  on the wall. A for effort.

The end result!

Okay, now I’m off to start packing for my trip to Kigali, Rwanda tomorrow morning for a four-day conference on antiviolence and soccer held by Street Football World, one of the leading organizations in soccer for development networking. The conference is the second of its kind in East Africa and I’m really looking forward to be a part of it!

Peace and love, mukwanos*

*mukwano is Luganda for friend. Yup, I’ve also started to use friend everywhere I go here with my broken Luganda. Old habits never die.  

Real Life Lion Queen

Hello fellow blog followers. I had planned to write this post three weeks ago upon my return from the safari, but I was hit with a big wave of blog laziness. I’m glad to announce that the wave has passed and I have finally mustered up some energy to write a post. Actually, I decided to take it easy on the writing for this post because I know everyone would rather see pictures than read words. I swear it has nothing to do with my laziness.

Anyways, on Thursday August 24^th I took off to Murchison Falls for my first ever safari. And it was quite the experience.  I honestly felt like I was in the lion king. I saw elephants, giraffes, hippos (actually swam in a crater lake that had a lone hippo, but thankfully we didn’t meet), real life lion king and queen, cubs, herd of buffalos, Ugandan kobs, hartebeests, a leopard, crocs, baboons, and since the Nile River is within the park and hosts a variety of waterbirds, I saw a lot of birds too. And by saw these animals I mean I was literally 10 yards away from them. It truly was an unbelievable experience. I have never been a fan of zoos, so it just made the trip that much better to see such animals in their natural habitat.

After the early morning game drive, we headed to a town in the Western part of Uganda called Fort Portal. Words really cannot describe how beautiful the town is. Uganda was voted number #1 place to travel to in 2012 by Lonely Planet, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Fort Portal was the only factor in that decision (it’s obviously not, but just saying). We camped right above one of the several crater lakes that lie within the town and went on a hike to a beautiful waterfall the next morning before we headed back to Kampala. 

6AM Murchison Falls Wake Up Call 

Baboons

Ugandan Kobs

Literally 10-yards away from these cubs

Run, giraffe, run

Can you spot the leopard?

The lion queen eating a warthog

Hippo Love

Fort Portal

Fort Portal

Monkeys the next morning next to our tents

Swimming in the crater lake at our campsite

Another crater lake

The waterfall at the end of our hike

Power shower in the waterfall

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Better late than never, no? I have a pretty exciting (but very busy) few weeks ahead of me – we are throwing a community wide festival this Saturday for International Peace Day and then I’m heading to Rwanda in the beginning of October for a conference held by Street Football World on anti-violence and soccer – so stay tuned!

One Bottle Down

I just finished the first bottle of my daily malaria pills, making today a pretty significant day if you ask me. Before swallowing the last pill, I spent some time staring at the almost empty bottle and reminiscing about my time in Uganda so far. I couldn’t help but focus on the last two or so weeks, especially this past week. When we initially arrived, us three interns floated around while Kelsey and Eric, the summer volunteers, showed us the ways. During this time, we made note of how things at SWB work and what we wanted to implement/fine-tune. Kelsey left Uganda a little over two weeks ago, leaving the three of us long-term interns to take over the reins. It’s been a pretty chaotic time, especially because August is a holiday month for schools so we have more kids than usual, but it’s been nice to jump into things and implement/adjust the various things we have discussed and observed since our arrival.

One of the biggest adjustments so far has been to our youth English class. A majority of our participants are refugees who cannot afford to go to school. As a result, many do not speak English. Well, all the kids do know at least two words. No matter what you say in English, you are guaranteed a response of I’m fine. I can’t even count how many times I hear that phrase a day. Anyways, SWB offers a two hour English class every morning, which has proven to be rather difficult to run because of the age range (about 4-13 years) and level of fluency of our participants (some don’t know what the letter A looks like and others are able to hold a basic conversation). So for a while we were confused on what to do – Do we teach verbs and lose the younger/less fluent kids, do we teach the alphabet and lose the kids who are fluent, or do we attempt to teach the middle of the class?

We decided to split up the class, which sounds a lot simpler than it actually is. The reality is that there are more participants than our center can handle. There are days where people are standing outside the door trying to listen to what we are teaching because there is simply no room for them to sit or stand in the classroom. Our center only contains one classroom, so we transformed the small equipment room into another classroom that can barely fit 12 students. At first it was a difficult transition because of the tight squeeze and lack of a chalkboard. But last week we interns bought chalkboard paint and made the wall of the main classroom into a chalkboard. The ‘classroom’ in the equipment room now contains the chalkboard from the main classroom and I no longer have to use a poster board as a chalkboard. This has allowed us to teach the two groups simultaneously – one of us is now able to teach the older, fluent kids about adjectives and science, while the other teaches the younger kids about the ABCs in another room. I am excited for the progress of these two separate English classes over the next few months.

In addition to refining English class, we are also in the process of fine-tuning our programming and ensuring that it consistently contains the five elements of SWB: soccer, team building, off-field workshops/lessons, cultural exchange and civic engagement. We started the process this past week and took our Under 17 girls team on a team building trip to KK Beach of Lake Victoria. After their Saturday training session, we all ate some rice and beans a player cooked and all 16 of us squeezed into a matatu, or Ugandan taxi (not a little yellow car like America, but rather one of those white vans that parents warn their children about). Right when we arrived to the beach, the girls stripped down and dove into the cold water without hesitation. I can’t put into words how happy they were to be there for that hour and a half. As two girls told me at separate times, “It will be a day they never forget.”

The girls playing in the water

Group shot at KK Beach

A few days later, the team packed into a matatu once again and headed to play another local team. Although we tied 0-0, we played extremely well and had plenty of chances. I’m convinced that if we played with full size goals, the score would have been around 3-0. Of all our SWB teams, the only team that plays in a league is our Under 17 boys team. The other teams train about four times a week and only play scrimmages/tournaments with other teams when able (not even once a month), so this scrimmage was a big event for our program.

Team shot before the game

I’m excited to continue working with SWB and solidifying the great work that the program does here. This week has been pretty hectic, but I truly enjoy every minute of it. Tomorrow morning Katy and I are taking off to Murchison Falls and Fort Portal for our first safari. We were just warned to not have bananas in our tent because of the baboons and to buy pepper spray so the elephants won’t come near our tent. I’m excited to see more of this beautiful country and will post about it next week. That is, if I survive the Ugandan bush...

Pics on pics on pics

Today officially marks a full month since I arrived. Crazy how fast time goes!

I think the title of this post gives it away. Keep your eyes on the screen at all times. I can’t change the time setting so the pictures will be flying by.

Enjoy.

  

Home visits and baby naming

For the past few months I have grappled with what role Soccer Without Borders plays in the local community and what my role exactly is as a Team Leader. From when I first accepted the position in mid-April to my arrival, a seven page manual defined and described these roles. Since my arrival, these roles have continuously evolved and gone far beyond the descriptions in the manual. An evolution I expected – there was no possible way a manual could inform me 100% on what SWB means to the community and the part I would be playing in the organization.  Even though I knew this, I spent my first three weeks here floating and trying to figure things out. I kept asking myself, “What am I doing here exactly? What is Soccer Without Border’s role in this community?” I know SWB uses soccer as a positive platform for change and that I’m here teaching and coaching underserved youth, but does it stop at that? I know it’s naïve to think that, but it is something I have been trying to figure out since I have been in Uganda.

I’m working in a country where approximately 48% of the population is under the age of fifteen (in America, only 13% of the population is under fifteen years. Globalhealthfacts.org). When you walk the streets, there are swarms of children running and playing with limited to no supervision. For the past three weeks I kept wondering if the parents of SWB participants know about our organization and what we do – Do they know that their children run off to the SWB center in the early morning until the early afternoon to learn English, various life skills, and to play soccer? Or, do they just think that their children disappear to play in the neighborhood/streets with other children (a very normal activity for children who cannot afford and therefore do not attend school)?

On Wednesday a very powerful experience changed this all and SWB’s role in this community became as clear as ever to me, making me even more excited (if that’s possible) for the year ahead. We went on our first home visits. Ever since my first day here, I have yearned to know more about the children that attend SWB, their stories, their lives outside the center, Uganda, the various refugees in Uganda, etc. and what better way to start than home visits?

JC, Katy, Kelsey, Rapha (our local director), Junior (a local coach) and I headed to Dark’s house for our first visit. Dark is a 5 year old female refugee from the DRC who lives right near our compound. She’s a charismatic girl with a strong personality, but is also shy at the same time. She’s also the queen of the streets. Every time I walk outside the compound, I see Dark running around with other children. It’s extremely hard to recall a time where I haven’t seen her or heard her screaming my name as I walk through the neighborhood. When I first arrived, Dark attended a majority of the programming but in the last week or so I noticed she hasn’t been present. On Monday I was told that she had a new baby sister who was born sometime the week before. I was so excited to visit her place and couldn’t think of a better first house to visit.

I should start off by saying that our house visits are not planned and the participants/families do not know that we plan on visiting. This is not done intentionally, but rather done because of the culture here. Many people are unemployed and therefore spend much of their time at home. Imagine the complete opposite of America where many work 9-5 jobs and coordinate when to visit each other. Since Dark and her family weren’t expecting us, Dark was absent when we arrived to her house (probably because she was just fulfilling her role as queen of the streets) but her mother, Odette, and aunt still welcomed us into their home with open arms. Their home consisted of one small, very clean living room and a bigger bedroom. There were only four plastic chairs in the living room, so Rapha and Junior sat on the floor. While I only spent an hour or so with Odette, she seems like a soft-spoken, humble lady. She does not speak English, so Rapha and Junior did much of the talking in Swahili. When I introduced myself, Odette repeated my name in an interesting way but I did not make anything of it until Kelsey pointed it out afterwards. After stating our names, Odette went into the other room and brought out the newborn baby girl. When we asked what the girl’s name is, she stated that they have yet to name the child and are open to suggestions. Rapha then suggested the name Sara (not sure on the spelling here, but they pronounce my name Sar-rah) and Odette nodded her head smiling. I then replied and said that Sara is a beautiful name. Odette and the coaches started to speak Swahili and I was lost. Until I heard my name a few times.  Then I was completely lost.  Junior just looked up at me and casually said, “She likes the name Sara. It is the baby’s name.” I looked at the other interns and giggled quietly. What had just happened? Was it real?

She handed the newborn to Junior and disappeared for about 10 minutes. I thought she went off to find her daughter and let her know that her coaches came to visit, but instead she returned with a bag of six sodas. Instantly, we interns looked at each other and didn’t know what to do. To buy six sodas is costly for some and the last thing we wanted to do is impose on Dark’s family especially financially. We were extremely grateful for the sodas and chatted away while we drank them.  We told her that we missed having Dark around and Odette told us how Dark has been oversleeping the past week. She continued to tell us how she appreciates our organization and how she enjoys dressing her daughter in the mornings before she sends her off to the center. A few minutes later, Odette held up the newborn (not lying when it was like the scene of Lion King) and said, “Sarrah.” It was real. The newborn was named right there and then. I guess I can’t say that she named after me, but I did have something to do with the naming.

We then headed to Benny and Esther’s house to visit their family. Benny is 12 years old and his younger sister Esther is 9. They are also refugees from the DRC. The both of them are part of our core participants who attend all our programming. When we were around the corner from their house, another participant Emmanuel (an 11 year old) grabbed our hands and looked so happy when I told him we were going to Benny and Esther’s. He then mumbled something along the lines of “my house” to me. I was a tad bit confused what he meant, but just concluded that they are neighbors and that we could go to Emmanuel’s house after to visit his family too if he lived nearby. The language barrier here is tough even though the language of Uganda is English, so I just nodded and kept walking.

When Esther saw us, she smiled shyly and continued playing with her miniature plastic doll. Her mother was sitting outside the house with an infant at her feet and her face lit up right when she saw us. She invited us into her house with a huge smile. Children kept following as we piled into the living room, including Emmanuel. I thought they were neighborhood children until the mother told us she is a single mother of 9. I do not remember the mother’s name, but she introduced herself in English and said that her name means happiness/joy. She lived up to her name – she was one of the most joyful ladies I have ever met. During the course of the conversation, it was clear that her appreciation for SWB was endless. Some tears were even shed at various times when she talked about the organization and what it means for her, her children, and the community. She then stated that she doesn’t have anything to offer us to repay us for our work, but that if we wanted something she could go out and get it. We told her that seeing her children daily was enough for us. It may sound cheesy, but it is a very true statement. Her eldest son then chipped in and said that he wished we had programming for older kids his age. Other than our adult English classes, which aren’t even held at the center, our programming is tailored towards younger children. To hear such a comment from an older boy was a powerful thing. At one point, the mother talked about Emmanuel and how he used to be a disturbed boy (their way of saying misbehaved), but now he disturbs less because of SWB. She talked about his transformation with so much pride and was extremely thankful of SWB for transforming her son. This is when I learned that Emmanuel is not a neighborhood boy, but rather one of Benny and Esther’s brothers! Now it made sense why he said “my house” and why he was happy to see us all.

Words cannot describe what happened on Wednesday. Somehow everything I have been grappling with the past few months clicked. I am not quite sure if it was from hearing parents talk about the program and its impact on their child or seeing tears shed because of our work (and as a result getting watery eyes myself) or just removing myself from what I do on a daily basis and looking at the bigger picture. Whatever it was I am delighted that it happened during week 3 instead of month 3.

Cheers from Uganda!

Hittin' the ground (and the Nile) running.

Where to begin? First, I guess I should start off by saying that I am safe and sound in Uganda. Sorry for not posting earlier and slacking on e-mails and messages – I have been extremely busy to say the least...It’s been 8 days since I arrived, but it honestly feels like I’ve been here for a month.

From the 10^th to the 15^th I was in Boston for SWB intern training with my fellow Uganda interns (Jean-Christophe and Katy) and the two Nicaragua interns for 2012-2013. Although training was a bit draining, I truly enjoyed learning more about SWB and my role as a Team Leader in Uganda. It was also great to meet and spend quality time with all of the interns, SWB staff, and past Uganda interns who trekked out to Boston for some of the training. Seeing all the different people who are so passionate about SWB’s mission made me even more excited for my upcoming journey and by the end of training I couldn’t wait to head to Uganda.

After hearing horror stories of past intern flights, I think it’s safe to say that our flight to Uganda was extremely easy. From Boston we flew to London and after an hour layover in Heathrow we were on our way to Entebbe, a total of 16 hours flight time. Those of you who have gone on long car rides/road trips with me should not be shocked at the fact that I slept the whole way to Londontown. My ability to sleep in situations where others can’t is unbelievable. Maybe (most likely…) it’s because I’m petite and have more space than others. Whatever it may be, I got some much needed rest on the first leg of the trip to Uganda, but by the second flight I was wide awake.  As a result, I watched four whole movies and took advantage of British Airways impeccable drink/food services. A pretty nice flight if you ask me.

We arrived to Entebbe (the only international airport in Uganda; about a 40 minute drive to Kampala) on Monday morning and headed straight to our compound. Our living situation currently is a little hectic, but I’m really looking forward to when it all settles down. The compound we are living in consists of 3 houses, one of which is ours. Currently, there is a German family in the house until August 17^th, so for the next few weeks Katy and I are staying in a room that has two beds, a cold shower, and a ground toilet.  When things change in a few short weeks, I’ll post about the casa. 

There are currently 2 summer SWB volunteers here, Eric and Kelsey, who have helped ease the transition to Uganda for us new interns. It’s been nice to sit back and learn things about the program from afar. During a typical week, English class runs from 8am-10am Uganda time (meaning it starts around 830am) on Monday – Thursday. After English class on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday there is life skills class for about an hour followed by training. Fridays and Sundays are off. On Saturday, there are 2 trainings at different locations. In the next week or so, we new interns will start teaching the English and life skills classes.

This week’s schedule was a bit different because on Friday and Saturday we held a cultural festival to celebrate the various cultures represented in the organization. In addition to local Ugandan children, a majority of the children who attend SWB are refugees from the DRC and Rwanda, and a few are from Kenya and Sudan. On Friday, approximately 140 kids came to the center in the morning and we divided them among 5 teams. The teams spent the better part of the morning making posters and creating skits about the different cultures represented in their group. In the early afternoon, each team presented their posters and skits. It was amazing to watch all the skits and the see the children so proud of their culture. Some groups drew on their bodies with chalk and used cardboard to make tribal outfits. I was blown away by the kids’ creativity. One boy even blew fire (no idea what it had to do with the skit, but it was pretty cool).  At the end of the day, we served the children rice, beans, and a juice bag. After the day was over, the local coaches kept reiterating that we had to prepare for even more kids coming the next day because the word that we were serving (free) food will get out.

Kids dressed up for their skit.

Presenting their poster/skit in front of everyone.

The coaches after a successful first day. Just wanted to note the hands by the ball on the banner are mine.

On Saturday, an extra 50ish kid joined the festivities. We spent a majority of the day on the pitch playing various games including a banana eating contest, dress like a footballer, 400m relay, 100m dash, and egg toss among others. During the competitions, I saw and felt that my team really came together and put aside their cultural differences. It was powerful sight and made me excited for what the future holds for these kids and SWB programming. After a few hours on the pitch, we headed back to the center and announced the 1^st and 2^nd place teams based on their presentation/skit score from the day before and scores from the different games. We then served lunch to all the kids and called it a day.

Kids playing a game.

It was a pretty exhausting first week and instead of taking it easy on Sunday (our only day off that week), we took a spontaneous trip to Jinja where we rafted and bungeed into the Nile River! Jinja is the source of the Nile River and only about a 2 hour drive from Kampala. I’ve been whitewater rafting before, but doing it in the Nile River was just a whole other experience. We jumped off the raft a few times to go swimming and the whole time we kept repeating the fact that we were swimming in the Nile.  I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that I just went swimming and rafting in the Nile. It was an unbelievable experience. After rafting, Eric, Kelsey and I went bungee jumping. 140 feet into the river. Kelsey and I did a tandem jump and we held on to each other for dear life. It was so exhilarating. Being on the top was the scariest part and I blacked out the quarter of a second that we dove off the edge, but once we were free falling we both screamed for a short second and started to laugh hysterically until about 3 minutes post jump. I foresee more Jinja trips in the future and my goal is to solo jump at some point during my time here. When we got back from Jinja, a stomach bug got the best of me and I didn’t have a pleasant night. Not sure what it was from. Maybe from getting some of the Nile in me while rafting/swimming or maybe from all the blood in my body rushing to my head while bungee jumping. Or maybe just getting used to the food here. Whatever it was, I’ve had better nights, but the weekend is one I will never forget.

The bungee deck in the distance.

Bungee jumping the Nile. Holding on to Kelsey for dear life.

So much has happened over the past 8 days and I hope this post gives a little glimpse of it. I’ll try to do a better job of posting more often so my posts aren’t just descriptions of what I did over the week. I also plan on posting about SWB programming specifically very shortly. Stay tuned.

Until next time!