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!