Christmas in Tanzania

First, I’m happy to say the SWB Uganda staff survived our 2^nd Annual Youth festival. Five six-hour days and over 250 kids each day. Organized chaos at its best. I’ll try and post more on that by the end of this coming week (but let’s be honest all my posts are at least two weeks delayed).

So here’s yet another delayed post. Below you’ll find some pictures from my 12 day trip to Tanzania! I’m currently in Jinja overlooking the great Nile River with the fastest internet connection I have experienced in the U.G. so I think it’s best if I post more pictures and write fewer words.

Tanzania is a country in East Africa and its eastern border is formed by the Indian Ocean.  I don’t think the following pictures will do the beaches/islands I visited justice. We spent about a week on island of Zanzibar and then a few nights on the island of Pemba – the most isolated place I have ever been. I’m not exaggerating when I say there were only a handful of people (read locals) on the beaches we visited. Mile stretches of white sand beaches with no people. It was unbelievable. Not to mention the island had no ATM machine…We literally ran out of money during our stay there. Oops.  Anyways, the trip was unreal and I have nothing except for good things to say about Zanzibar. Well, that’s a lie. The sea urchins there are horrible and extremely painful. I stepped on a few and even though I went to a doctor here in Kampala to remove them my feet are still pretty sore. At least they aren’t poisonous. At least I don’t think they are…Hopefully I return to the states with both my feet.

Cheers! 

One of the hotels we stayed at 

Cows on the beach

3v3 Mzungus (Whites) vs Maasai (tribe of Kenya/Tanzania) on the East coast of Zanzibar. We managed to play soccer with locals almost everyday on the various beaches we stayed/went to.

Our pitch

Stone Town, the main city of Zanzibar

One of the thousand alleys of Stone Town

An ancient door from the 19th century. The city had a lot of Indian, Arab , European and Persian (my people!!!) elements 

Real adults drinking nightly tea 

The beach where I stepped on the darn sea urchins. North coast of Zanzibar

Cory and I practicing our synchronized swimming routine

Cory, Katy, and I

Sea urchins in the foot!

Pemba Island

Pondering life on another beach in Pemba

Shell hunting

We did a secret santa exchange for Christmas. My  Christmas present this year was a squid from the local market. It was actually pretty tasty, but it was a tad cold.

Sunset

Sunset from our room in Pemba

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!