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!