Speech for Community Outreach Coordinator for FG!!!! Vote for me Pwease!

Name: Sammy Ethridge

Position: Community Outreach Coordinator

Speech:

Hello my Feel Good partners and lovers of grilled cheese! My name is Sam Ethridge and I am running for the position of Community Outreach Coordinator for this coming spring semester with UVM FG! Whoo! Unfortunately I can’t give a real face-to-face speech since I’m abroad in Uganda right now, so for those who don’t know me I hope this speech and online video give you an idea of what I’m all about and more importantly why I am so amped and ready to commit to this position with Feel Good.

The community outreach coordinator sounds like such a broad position and to be perfectly honest…it is! But that shouldn’t be looked at in a negative light or as completely overwhelming. I see it as such an incredible opportunity to tap into the vast amounts of human resources we have at our own FG chapter, other FG chapters, other UVM clubs, and even more potentially great partners in the greater Burlington area. Everyone has something to add. Nobody knows everything and nobody knows nothings so why not harness the incredible amount of potential out there to link up, to partner, to exchange knowledge, and to share in this beautiful vision of a world free from chronic persistent hunger in our lifetime? We first just need to realize we actually can do it, despite various challenges, including that darn winter slump, that can make us distracted from our common vision and mission at UVM Feel Good.

When I talk about this seemingly endless amount of potential we can utilize in our own community, I see it in different partnerships, events, and continued coordination and collaboration between FG members and officers. The community outreach coordinator position is still very new to FG and this past semester has been focused a lot on partnering with the Burlington farmers market and creating even more partnerships for food donations. I definitely think this work is important to continue and that even the outgoing and incoming community outreach coordinators need to work closely, especially in the transitional stage so make sure nothing falls through the cracks. I also think it is very important to work closely with all of the officers in UVM FG since community outreach encompasses so much. Working closely on Jammin’, working closely with Trisha on reaching new audiences and making new connections, working closely with the deli managers when making new food donations and sustaining current donor relations, and especially working closely with the treasurer to be constantly aware of what funds are available for new potential events or partnerships. I would also like or mobilize another flash mob next semester, but this time work more closely with all the officers and partners to make the dance more focused on FGs message than just a show stoppin’ number. This will take collaboration with funds, advertising, mobilization of volunteers to accomplish this and really show our vision to the UVM community. I would like to do a lot of work with linking up with other universities in two ways. The first being with our University Chapter family across the U.S. Creating more opportunities to exchange valuable knowledge and feedback more frequently could help give us more guidance, more ideas, and continued excitement about creating lasting change. The second way would be through starting to ignite, empower, and equip other universities in the area to fall in love with Feel Goods mission. Feel Good World is trying to hard to start up new chapters and members and there’s no reason why we can’t help in that process since there are so many universities just in the Chittenden County area. We can do this by coordinating with their campuses to talk about FGs work, inviting interested persons to a meeting, and coordinating with their schools to maybe have a UVM FG sell day to get our name out there. Ultimately getting 2-3 people amped about ending chronic persistent hunger to start their own chapter is the goal and we can then act as mentors as we add more to the FG family. Finally, linking up with our own UVM clubs is very important in getting more to work towards this common vision and make it easier for all of us. Finding more opportunities to sell at campus events and even using those who aren’t in FG as back-ups for those dreaded slow days where sign-ups are low is a very realistic possibility. There have been multiple persons who have come up to me just wondering how they can sell grilled cheese. We just need to find them and the best way to do that is through partnering! It is also just important to be present around the kiosk a lot in order to chat with people and discover those potential link ups. As stated by many THP members here in Uganda, “you can’t do anything alone. Together it is simple.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Now I know exactly what you’re thinking…that’s a whole lot for just one semester and one position. But that’s just it. It’s not just one semester or just one position. The work of the community outreach coordination is to continue old projects and find opportunities for new ones. It is to constantly be in the know of its member’s skills and talents and to figure how to best utilize them towards the vision. The main reason why I see so much potential in this position and in UVM FG is because I know from my experience right now with The Hunger Project Uganda that is never is one person’s job or one aspect. We all supplement each other. We all have to work closely with one another to support one another to meet our individual goals that are in line with our common goal: ending hunger. As community outreach coordinator I see my in three parts. The first is the mobilizer. It is my job to find people, find the human resources, and empower and mobilize them to get a certain task completed. Whether it’s finding enough dancers for a flash mob or finding 2-3 people at St. Mikes to start a FG chapter, it is my role to get people amped and organized to initiate their own projects to end hunger. Basically I’m the UVM Feel Good animator for the Burlington Epicenter. The second role is the matchmaker. It is my job to find new opportunities, new partnerships, and new programs that are in line with Feel Goods mission and available resources. It is my job to be the liaison between the FG members, UVM community, FG chapters, and Burlington community in order to constantly be aware of what UVM FG and our FG family needs supplementing in. I need to listen to everyone and have a keen ear for new ideas and then communicate such ideas to the proper FG officer for further implementation. This leads me to my third and final role, the carrier pigeon. It is without a doubt my most important role to communicate with everyone on a daily basis. Without communication, there are gaps, and when here are gaps the vision becomes much harder to reach and not as clear.

Again, for those of you who don’t know me I’m Sam, or Sammie the Samwich. As I’m sure many of you are, I am also in love with Feel Goods mission and even more with our own UVM Feel Good family. I have been working with UVM FG for a year and half now and have had a lot of experience with mobilizing people and looking for new opportunities. I organized two Fee Good flash mobs last year to Single Ladies (fabulous I know) to spread the word about FG and Jammin’. I created partnership with various dance groups and acapella groups to get them to perform at Jammin’ last year, and also created a new partnership with said dance groups, namely Orchesis, to sell at their events. I attended the Big Cheese Summer Camp this past July and learned an invaluable amount about partnership and our common vision, but more importantly what effective tools to use to accomplish said goals. I absolute love working with people and have realized while away that it is really the only requisite I have for any future jobs. I’m a dance teacher (teach and work with people), tour guide (talk with people all day about how awesome UVM is), and have been doing research in Uganda with THP about what are the necessary tools, characteristics, and attitudes to have in every partner involved towards achieving this common vision (I just get to talk to people all day about how amazing they are). So from all that, I know I just want to work with people. I am a good listener, in fact (fun fact) Samantha means listener! I am good at keeping timelines and finding the right people to talk to. I am addicted to checking my e-mail. I like seeing things done to the finish line and am very flexible and adapt easily when challenges arise. Honestly, I am without a doubt a passionate optimist. I am visionary and I am exemplary and those are two qualities that literally every person of the 60+ people I’ve interviewed while here have said are necessary to be an effective actor in ending hunger.

In short, I want to develop an open and close relationship with all partners, members and who familiar and unfamiliar with ordering a grilled cheese sandwich. Most of all I just want to get down to business and get up to date with everyone at UVM FG. One women I interviewed who has only worked for THP Uganda for a month so far said that what has influenced her the most from THPs ideologies is “the fact that I can initiate my own ideas and be able to achieve my goals.” I felt like the words were taken right out of my mouth when she said that. I have a vision, I am so ready for the commitment of this position, I just need the opportunity to put it all in action by working in partnership with each and every one of you.

Thank you. Love and SO much Grilled Cheese. (seriously…there’s no grilled cheese in Uganda so I have a lot of love for it right now).

Eastern Excursion Uganda (71 photos), by Samantha Ethridge

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Eastern Excursion Part 1 (48 photos), by Samantha Ethridge

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Success!!!! Yay THP Uganda!

So! Sorry I've been so horrific lately at keeping up with this blog but you can blame The Hunger Project! They're working me hard and it's been awesome so far!! I've interviewed about 30 people and will be going on an overnight this week to Kiboga for two nights to talk to a TON of people since my sole person for being all the way over there and staying overnight is to talk to EVERYONE for 48 hours more or less aha. YES.

The reason I entitled this success is because some the THP Uganda staff has been doing some amazing stuff and I've got to witness it! There is an Epicenter called Wakiso near Kampala that is in stage four: Self-reliant, however, a lot of the members of that epicenter have to travel VERY far and transport is expensive and not easy so they decided to start another epicenter for their community called Namayumba where I've been spending the bulk of my time cause they are really getting down to work! Right now they are in phase one, which is mobilization, of people AND materials. The local government must first approve the THP methodology and project before anything can start and they have. They must also commit some money and materials to the building of the Epicenter which is the central part of THPs approach, gives the villagers ownership of it, and acts as a symbol to the government that their community is ready and willing to work hard to improve their quality of life. The epicenter includes a medical clinic, meeting space, pit latrines, rural bank, farmland, water tanks, nursery school, food bank, and other stuff. So right now the THP field staff, Joel who've I've mainly been working with, has been going around to different villagers and groups learning about THP or already associated with THP to get them to commit to giving money to the building project and/or materials such as lake sand, hardcore, stones, river sand, truck transport, etc. In just a week we have 260,000 shillings committed, about 140 trips of river sand, bricks, and hardcore. Now they just need to get river sand and more stones but its amazing how generous these people are towards this project. One man contributed 100 trips of river sand from his pit for free, as well as his own labour. The entire staff has been humbled by this communities commit to THP and their vision.

Speaking of being humbled. Today I was talking with my colleague Paul who works in Monitoring and Evaluation and he asked how I heard about THP and THP Uganda, so I began to explain to him about Feel Good and what we do and how it started and its ideologies and what not and he was literally in awe. He was so touched and excited and happy that there were these "very young" students in the U.S. all just selling sandwiches to give money to The Hunger Project. He couldn't believe it. We then proceeded to watch some FG videos and another THP staff member came to watch too and he just kept saying "I am so humbled." I wish there was a way we could talk to all the staff members across the world about what we do and thank them because it honestly made their day to find out about these American students who are ending world hunger one grilled cheese at a time and it also made MY day because 1) I got to talk about FG and how awesome it is and how much I love it and 2) It was even more exciting to see their positive responses to FG and it just made me so happy and so excited. I just wanted to watch FG movies with them the rest of the day. Paul even said he wants to write a letter to FG thanking them and says I have to give it to them! YES!

Anyways, as you can probably tell I love working with THP Uganda, it's literally a dream come true. It's a TON of hardwork and I'm working 10-12 hour days but most of the time I'm just talking to people about their lives and their work and how amazing they are so it's really fun! I'll keep you updated on what I found out!!! Isn't it great to see how everyones working together towards the same vision??? YES...it's happening people...we're ending chronic persistent world hunger in our lifetime. More than EVER I am so convinced of that.

p.s. check out feelgoodworld.org and/or thp.org

peace, love, and grilled cheese
Sammy Mac

Uganda: First 7 Weeks! (132 photos), by Samantha Ethridge

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Finally!!!!

So.

yesterday.

epicness finally ensued.

for the first time in what has felt like FOREVER...

I had...

pizza!!!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOO

and best of all it was good!!! which is just such craziness considering pizza isn't really too big here in Uganda

my friend Tim and I were on a mission yesterday afternoon to finally find some glorious pizza and we found it in Wandegeya (which is the town next to Kamwokya where our SIT school is) and it was called Mambas Point. What was even stranger was it was like an actual legit restaurant, or at least the kind of restaurant we muzungus are used to. There was hostess who sat us down, these pretty tables with everything already set up, they took our drink order and then later food order andneither time were breathing down our necks to make a decision.

what was our pizza decision? oh, don't worry, it was a lovely choice.

a large pizza (which was really more of a medium size in my opinion) with mozzarella, green peppers, salami (we thought it was going to be pepparoni but still good), and cooked pineapple....OMG. so good.

we demolished the pizza within minutes and i don't think i've felt quite that satisfied after eating since I've been here. awesomeness.

(p.s. for family and friends who have known me for a long time and are probably very confused by the blog post...yes. it is true. i now eat pizza. it was a long time coming, but now i am full into it. im still not really that into the whole tomato sauce thing, but pizza? it is a definite yes on the sammys favorite foods list now. applause please?)

All in all, it was a good day yesterday. Hopefully there will be many more pizza exhibitions to come.

Until then, please, appreciate the glorious pizza you have at your fingertips because it is SO GOOD back home, alright here, but still nothing compares...especially to American Flatbread Pizza. (hint hint, wink wink)

"You Take Soda"....A Week in Rural Eastern Uganda

bThis past week was possibly the highlight of my time here so far. Since the start of my eventual 15 weeks here, the time has gone by faster and faster and faster. On one hand, it's exciting because I definitely feel in the groove of things here in Kampala, but on the other hand its already been 7 weeks!! What??!!! So going to the east last week was such a great change of pace and VERY different from Kampala...in a veryvery good way : )

On our first day off to the east our destination was Mbale, which is one of the bigger towns in eastern Uganda. As always, the 3 hour or so taxi ride is always an adventure full of glorious snacks (the latest best snack discovery is getting a jar of creamy peanut butter and then pouring in g-nut, which are the Ugandan equivalent of peanuts, and then just diving in...it's like homemade chunky peanut butter!!), "hump roads" where there are speed bumps for miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiles...yes miles, and of course...a crowd of hungry baboons  along the roadside waiting for some muzungus to throw them a banana. They looked just like the baboons from Tarzan! Anyways...our first night in Mbale was really just relaxing time which was sooooo glorious. I believe I got to my room and passed out for 2 hours or so and then proceeded to watch Hidden Passions with some friends..,one of our favorite Uganda soap operas that's been dubbed into English...it's pretty intense. The next day was when we really were getting down to work again. We've done a lot of site visits while in Uganda and many of them have been rather dissapointing because we don't really get to talk with the people there or we don't even get a tour of the site! (that happened when we went to a refugee camp in the West after a 2 hour drive and didn't even get to talk to anyone...not cool.) Luckily though, this site visit was such a positive experience. In fact, many of the people who we met there described themselves as "Living Positively." The reason for this being that we visited TASO, The AIDS Support Organization, which is the biggest AIDS support organization in Uganda and possibly East Africa. We first met the entire staff while they were having a meeting because it was conference day so unfortunately we didn't get to see any clients because the clinic wasn't open, however, we did get to meet an incredible group of people living positively with HIV/AIDS. These people were clients of TASO but also extremely dedicated volunteers to sensitizing communities on the risky behaviors that can lead to HIV/AIDS. They are a drama group and they performed one of their main songs for us that they would sing in a community to educate. It was seriously so impressive the song, their voices, and most of all their attitudes. The song talked about sexual relations, how to prevent AIDS, but most compelling was their repetition of the end of the song which included, "We have a role we have a role to play. You have a role, you have a role to play. I have a role, I have a role to play." They were all so welcoming and so strong. No one looked sick or they were some charity act. These people genuinely were taking control of their lives and helping others to take control of theirs. Absolutely amazing, especially since their just volunteers and they work in this drama group 6 days a week! When they introduced themselves they would either say, "I'm living positively with HIV/AIDS," or "I'm HIV positive, but I'm not sick." Yes, I was in awe too.

Later that day we ventured an hour further east to one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in my entire life. Kapchorwa. It was literally like walking into Jurassic park, which probably isn't a good metaphor for creating a picture of pure beauty and loveliness cause dinosaurs are mad scary, BUT you get the whole mystic jungle crazy awesomely gorgeous type of thing I'm going for. It also just looked soooooo much like the cloud forest in Ecuador it made me sooo so happy. The place we stayed was called the crows nest atop a beautiful mountanous valley right across two epic waterfalls, called Sippi Falls. The second we got to the humble abode (yay bunkbeds!) we set out for the waterfalls and everyone was mad pumped about hiking since Kampala is NOTHING like this place (namely the clean clear air so exercise is actually possible). Muna (from the "Wise Words of Muna" post) was absolutely hilarious and ridiculous per usual on the hike. First of all her went barefoot...power to him, and of course greeted all the animals, "hello mother goat", or to the male animals he would say, "hello general." When crossing an itty bitty stream he said we were crossing Muna River...? I was super happy the whole hike and thought it couldnt get bettter than this....that's when we actually reached the waterfall and yes, it could get better. waaaaaaaayyy better. it was HUGE and MAGNIFICANT (said in David Attenborough accent of course) and we were all being sprayed by the mist and it was sooo refreshing. Everyone was the happiest I've ever seen them. No one wanted to leave the first waterfall but eventually we did leave renewed and invigorated. Then that feeling wore off a bit when we had to hike back up the mountain side...it was like a stair master or something. Once we got back up to the top and to the main road Muna explained to the guys that he would let a man marry his daughter if he could run the hike we did like 4 times. Then he decided we should run to the next waterfall...which happened to be all uphill...how do I know this? Oh, because for some crazy reason i decided to go with him and 6 of the other generals (SIT guys) but it was actually soooo awesome since we dont get to exercise alot in kampala and because the rest of the group walked we got there waaaay before and OMG. the other waterfall didn't even compare...why? BECAUSE WE WERE RIGHT UNDER THIS ONE! We all went rushing under the waterfall and it was absolutely crazy. i think everyone lost their mind for a little because of the sheer excitement and adrenaline from the immense power and COLD of this waterfall. We were screawming, laughing, yelling, it was just out of control. SUch an out of body experience and THAT was the happiest everyone has been this whole trip and some people took some goooooorgeous pictures of us all under the falls. We really didn't want to leave this one, but of course eventually we did and i felt so happy and rejuvinated and wow that was the most amazing waterfall i've ever been to. nothing compared to maid of the mist or anything of that sort. Again we headed back to camp but this time I just walked back and chit chatted. I didnt feel like getting all sweaty cause man that waterfall felt good. That night we had an awesome bonfire and sporadic sing alongs that were sometimes good and othertimes not too cute. but the hotel also had the cutest puppies, i wanted to take one home so badly. I also started reading Watership Down which my friend Jack mentioned one day he had and I remembered that my mom used to read it to me before bed in like middle school so I started reading it again so I could ACTUALLY remember it haha.

Breakfast the next day was epic...eggs, toast, cinnamon pancakes that I doused in peanut butter and honey. so good. Later we split up into three groups to go on various site visits to practice some PRA/RRA methods to get ready for our Practicum research period that starts in less than a week (WHAT?>!) I went with three other students to a farmers association and boy did we just get thrown into the situation blind folded. There were about 20 so farmers from the village who gathered in their small office while we had to act like we knew what we were doing and start doing these different workshops. It was actually really exciting and ultimately rewarding the work we did there and I feel like I learned alot about PRA as well as these awesome amazing farmers who are just rocking at farming and improving their lives. We had them draw a community map that showed their homes, all their resources, village boundaries, etc. and then explain it to us. This one women was so great and when she presented the map to us she was staring at me the whooole time literally yelling the map to us all but she did an awesome job and i was so impressed with her confidence. Then we asked the men then the women at what time do they do what each day. Finally we asked them what the major challenges were they were facing, we narrowed the most important ones down and then compared which ones they considered more important than the others. For them, the lack of storage facilities was their biggest challenge because of their dairy products and produce, as well as transporting those goods to the market, which is virtually impossible considering how HORRIFIC their roads are. Believe me, I experienced it first hand. Near the end of our trip there it rained, not even alot but still it rained and immediately the roads turned to slush. It took us over an hour to get back to the hotel where we were meeting when our site visit wasn't even far away at all. It was terrifyingly funny how crazy that drive back was. Also, since we were driving so slowly back and my window was down, we passed a bunch of people and children and this one little girl, saw me. looked at me wide eyed and a little out of it, said, "muzungu" verrry veryy slowly and as she said that word her face turned to complete terror as she registered the fact that she was looking eye to eye with a muzungu. it was like she had heard bed time stories about scary muzungu monsters her whole life and had finally come into contact with one. i will NEVER ever ever forget that face. wow it was funny and so awful at the same time. am i really that scary?

Finally we made it back...three hours later than everyone else...whoops....but tea time was delicious. that was our last night in beautiful kapchorwa and of course noone wanted to leave. hopefully i can go back sometime before december. The next day was when we were finally heading out to our rural homestay families where we literally were just dropped off at some hoemstay in a random village in Busia district right next to Kenya with only one other SIT student and were expected to conduct a 2-3 research project...yea. BUT! It was awesome! definitely the highlight of the eastern excursion and I wish we had gotten to stay longer but o well.

Arriving at the homestay was craaaazy! Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many kids were waiting for us in a big clump just staring and giggling at us as we tried to communicate with them but only got a few names out of them. we couldnt really talk to them much because they hadn't learned english yet and their local language was Samya, not Luganda. My partner for the three nights was Margie who goes to Colby College and her homestay family back in Kampala isn't around much to hang out, especially the kids, so you could tell she was super pumped about the TON of kids there! it was sweet. There was one baby who burst into tears the second she looked at us. We kinda just stood around for awhile not knowing what to do and our homestay dad was very soft spoken so yes, the first encounter was preeeety awkward. Then we moved into our house which is a pretty nice hut with two mattresses and mosquito nets already up for us which was a nice surprise. Next we went into town and everyone was waving to us and we greeted soo many people because greeting is very important in Uganda. We stopped at a little building that had a bunch of men sitting and drinking the local brew out of a big pot outside. it was definitely a little scary at first and they had us try the millet brew which was warm and sweet and pretty gross but apparently "it makes you strong." They also were drinking maize alcohol which is a kind of gin and you could literally smell it from across a huge room...gross. I was sitting next to a man from Kenya who was very nice and we talked and talked and talked about various subjects and how he's a teacher and what not. I felt like some of the villagers liked us and some of the others didn't, but it also could have just been the language barrier. I was most surprised at how common speaking Sawhiili was in this part of Uganda because if you speak swahiili in Kampala you are thought to be a theif or it just has a very negative connotation to no one speaks it where I've been for the past 5 weeks or so. We stayed chatting with these guys for what seemed like foreveeer and Patrick (our homestay dad) even disappeared for the bulk of our stay there so we got a little worried when he hadn't come back and it was getting dark, but all was well and he came back and the villagers were very nice to us and welcoming.

The next day we worked in the fields for a bit with my homestay mom, Betty, and other family members. The women and young girls who can't go to school yet do so much work its crazy. Then we just walked around the community alot, did alot of greeting, and interviewed Patricks friends for our research project during their conference time aka drinking time. Our project was looking at perceptions of family size in this village so we interviewed a group of men, of women, a p7 class at primary school, a school teacher, some family members, and other various villagers. The second night was good but awful at the same time because conference time went in for forever and we weren't allowed to say no when people ordered sodas for us cause it was rude....i never want to see another soda again in my life. Margie and I calculated how much soda we had during that stay...my count came to 2.3 LITERS and Margies came to 2.1....The men in this village have ALOT of "conference time."Also that day during lunch Patrick and Bettys cute little 6 month old baby Jimmy (pronouncned Gimmy), fell asleep in my arms...then i felt a very warm feeling come over my legs and realized i was being peed on...yes. naturally my entire family found it extremely entertaining, as did I pretty much

The next day guess what our breakfast was...two orange fantas each...yum. and served at 12:00 haha oy. That night we rode a boda-boda home for the first time and it was super fun but also really nerve-wreaking considering ive never ever been on a moving motorcycle before, let alone with four people on it. but it was super fun and only like a 4 minute trip and i spoke luganda the whole time and my dad and the driver found it very entertaining that margie and i know luganda. We also took a longer boda-boda ride to the primary school and it was sooo relaxing and awesome. i wish we could ride them in kampala but its waaay way way too dangerous. I really loved my homestay and could have definitely stayed longer (if conference time was kept to a minimum because it got old veeeeeery quickly). One night we stayed up soooooo late just dancing and singing and talking about anything and everything with my siblings, counsins, neices, nephews, uncles, and mom. it was awesome. they taught me an awesome song that I still can't get out of my head....

tobera tobera mudodo teacher tobera mudodo. teacher waligenda ffena turukava, kubalanga turikava mazigaagaridonyo. (start shaking hips) teacha i donty want, teacha i donty caaare, teacha i donty want, teacha i donty caaare.

then i taught them the bananas of the world UNITE song and boy they loved that one...
Bananas of the world...UNITE. Peel bananas, peel peel bananas (repeat) chop bananas, chop chop bananas (repeat), swoosh bananas, swoosh swoosh bananas (repeat) eat bananas, eat eat bananas (repeat) GO BANANAS GO GO BANANAS GO BANANAS GO GO BANANAS!!!

Near the end of the night I was getting soooo tired my cousin Dorinne whose 17 so smart and so wonderful and wants to go to nursing school, let me just lie down on her and she and my mom started to like examine my entire head haha it was rather funny but also sooooo relaxing. THey were playing with my hair and looking at the freckles on my face as well as pointing out the pimples on my face of course. There's this one picture i have in my photo album that I brought to Uganda and me and Bradford at the ballet in NYC and yes i do think i was little more cubby at the time but also i was wearing a super fluffy dress and literally every uganda i show that picture to they say, "oh your fat here!" in uganda being fat is a good thing but still it was a shock the first time my homestay sisters husband pointed that out to me hhaa. The other kids when i was dozing off were having like school lessons in our little hut, practicing spelling, the aphabet, math. it was pretty sweet. their all so wonderful margie and i would get upset that we had to spend so much time in the evenings at conference time because we just wanted to hang out with all of them all the time. oh well.

we interviewed dory (17 cousin), andrew (our uncle in law whose 18), and bennet (cousin 17) for our research project. We were really excited to get their standpoints since their young and educated. They talked alot about having a small family and family planning and what not and seemed like they knew very well what was good and bad about big families and small families and the many other questions we asked them. sometimes though bennets answers were a little out of character for everything else he was saying and that we wanted to be an engineer. when asked how many children he wanted he said 20 and two wives. hmm. andrew and dory did not agree and i coudlnt tell if he was joking or not but thats just bennet. apparently polygamy is one of the root causes of these huuuuge families. one man we met said he had like 4 wives and 35 kids and 70 grandchildren. who knows.

Margie and I were really proud of the research we were doing and it felt so rewarding. ive never done sucha hands on project before so i really didn't know what to do or expect but we were really happy with our findings and methods and have to start writing up the 10-12 page paper today!! yikes!

The second day we visited a womens savings and loans group with our mom. not gonna lie...it was a pretty disappointing and not fun interview/visit. The women never really answered our questions and the translators (including our mom) weren't very attentive or good at communicating which is pretty key when your doing an interview and are a translator. Some of their answers wre encouraging, with others were not at all. Betty (our mom and alot of other women) seemed very out of it and disinterested in talking with us. Then of ourse the worst part was this old women of the group sitting next to margie who kept asking for our support. Can we support her or who can support her in america and on and on and on. It was so disheartening because it felt like thats all they cared about and cearly had no confidence or belief in what THEY were doing. They even asked us for our thoughts on what they should do and all I could say is you know far more than I but I really don't think they believed me. Some women understood what I was trying to say but the majority didnt I think. It was definitely just a savings group and not one that had any empowerment aspect to it. It was awkward and it made me mad and sad and just totally lose interest or the desire to talk to this group anymore which isn't the right attitude at all. I wondered why Betty had asked Margie and I for 1000 shs for the meeting because when they were collecting the money she didn't give them the 1000 we gave her and gave them a 10,000 shs. I wished so hard that there was someway to get these people to stop asking me for support and stop askingme to take them to America. I understand why they ask and think that I can, but still it just sucks so much when that happens multiple times within a day. It also shows how in bad a shape the morale of the community is,e ven if some families, like mine, seem to be doing relatively well as subsistence farmers. I think this trip really helped me become very good at responding to or i hesitate to say, dealing with, the hard questions and various others like will you marry me? nope sorry. i cant. haha. Before I always felt the need to lie alot to people when they asked me certain questions but now I feel alot more comfortable with being honest and still feeling safe in what I'm saying.

Although the womens savings group was a big downer, going to the primary school to talk to a P7 class (13-14 year olds) was soo much fun. Sometimes the 40 kids or so gave very contradicting answers, but I'd like to believe that they understand whats so much more beneficial about smaller families and the importance of family planning. You could also tell that the teachers were definitely trying to teach them about why small is good and waiting to get married and finishing schooling and using family planning and so on which was very encouraging. One of Patricks friends, Simon, brought us to the school because his wife is a P2 teacher. We interviewed her for our project and it was a short but a great interview. She seemed to be so smart and lovely and really helped us see the bigger picture of family perceptions in Uganda as a whole, and fill in some gaps in our research.

These are just some of the highlights from the 3 nights in Busia District...
1. Pactrick loooooooooooves taking pictures, especially with his friends during conference time
2. He also loves carrying around Margies camera like hes in charge of it
3. You cannot say no to soda, especially since Patrick is so well liked by the community
4. I was so tired one day i fell asleep in my grandmas (?) or aunts living room while Patrick and Margie were talking to her...whoops
5. my family thought it was very funny when i tried to dance like them
6. we met a crazy man in town who was wearing two pairs of pants at the same time and proceeded to show us his "secret pocket" aka a pocket in his second pair of pants
7. when we had soda for breakfast the server never listened to what we or our parents said they wanted to drink. we said fanta he said they was no fanta when there clearly was. my dad said two cokes and spite. he brought two stonys (ginger ale) and krest. i really didnt understand what his deal was, but eventually we all got what we had intended to get. very strange.
8. When Patrick would leave us alone in town or at the hut he would always just say "I'm Coming."
9. He also loved to say "You take." whether it be soda or the VAST amounts of food given to us
And finally 10., my favorite story. Our last night in the homestay everyone was in the main hut for dinner but I went into our hut to get a notebook and looked into the corner of the hut and saw this thing btu it was dark so i couldnt tell what it was at first. i brought a light to it and it was a CHICKEN. i huge mama hen just chillin in the corner under a chair. I tried getting it out but it kept trying to peck me even though i was using my sneaker to shoo it out of our hut. then my dad came over and i was like "theres a chicken in our hut!!!" He looked at the chicken, picked it up, saw that it had already laid like 6 eggs, and said "she will stay." so we had a nice little roommate our last night there and that hen stayed there til we left. for all i know shes still there. very strange and just ridiculous ahha

I want to go back to badly and our last morning there was fun, but also very sad. Driving away on the boda-boda with little Dorinne chasing behind us was a little much to handle. All I could think about was what would happen to all my cousins and siblings. THey're all so wonderful and so bright I just hope they make it. That's kind of a somber way to end this blog entry but it's definitely what has stayed on my mind the most, as well as the good times spent with them. Just gotta hope hope hope : )

Home Away from Home

So the greatest thing happened today! I finally got that feeling of not jut being a tourist or tooootally and completely overwhelmed all the time with Kampala! (yaayyy) I feel like I've gotten the hang of many of the "ugandan" ways, such as taking taxis everyday, i know a lot more Luganda now and had my final exam on it this past saturday. I'm getting to know my way around more, getting to remember landmarks and roads (although most roads aren't marked...whoops!) and getting to know go to places for coffee or restaurants or whatever. Yesterday my homestay brother, Peace, took me on a walk around ntinda and the neighboring town. It was really nice because even though I love my homestay family, we don't really hang out very much outside of the house. But he showed me a good running route and we walked through this beautiful wetland. Then he took me to the following town that's really high up and you can see alot of the city which is nice. its even nicer because you can actually breathe! We went to this really nice athletic complex that has a bunch of different fields and a club house where they watch football most of the time. there was a big game of cricket going on at the time but there was also some soccer games and people running around the track. I think i will go running there sometime or run to the field since its not very far along the main road. it was so beautiful there too, there were trees everywehre and you could even see monkeys playin around in the trees. then on the walk back Peace said he didn't know where our house was and I had to show him the way home so i passed the test and found the way home which was good.m

There's another muzungu staying with us for a few days. Her name is Barbara and shes originally from Montreal, but has been living in eastern uganda since 2007 apparently cuz her church or some organization set up a vocational school there. she's really nice but shes a little high maintenance and a little much sometimes but o well. the point is it was funny when she first arrived because even though i dont actually live here i was showing her the ropes and how to make evening toast and tea and suchthings so that was cool, but this morning on the way to school she made us late and she blamed it on my homestay sister which was not cool but whaaaaatever. my little sister Paula and I just listened to my ipod to tune her out and all was good. she's definitely a source of entertainment at times.

When i had the feeling of not being jut a guest in kampala anymore it was on my short walk from the taxi stage to my house in ntinda. sometimes after school some SIT friends and I go to Jeliza hotel on Bombo road which is more centrally located in Kampala so we got htere after school to use internet or just hang out since we know the staff there really well cause we stayed there for our first week in Kampala for orientation. anyways, my friend Tim and I went there to finish watching Shawshank redemption which ive never seen before and because of the movie i left for home later than usual. Usually i leave for home between 3-5 and usually much closer to ntinda in kamokya (which is two towns over from ntinda). so when i left from downtown later it took me sooooo long to catch a taxi to ntinda cause everyone was coming home from work at that time. I was waiting across the street from Jeliza where you should be able to catch a taxi normally, but i was waiting there for 20-30 minutes and noooo taxi were stopping cause they were all full. then i started talking to a ugandan named Richard who is apparently a Preacher for a Born again church. He didn't try to convert me like most other born agains in Uganda, btu i think that's because when i told him I was presbyterian he said "oh your born again" and i was like "i am?" but o well! he was a very nice hospitable Ugandan which is what they're known for and offered to walk me to Wandegeya which is the big taxi stage close to where I was. I wanted to go there originally but it was dark and I thought i might get lost so that was really great to show me how to get there. After being here for almost 6 weeks now (so crazy!) i've gotten better at reading people. because even though Ugandans are really nice sometimes they expect you to take them back to America with you or give be your best friend or something like that. And i've realized that those people are the ones who call you muzungu or ask alot about you first instead of them introducing themselves alot first. So that's another reason why I feel like more of a Ugandan now because I definitely have a better sense of people who have genuinely good intentions versus just wanna talk to a muzungu. Anyways, it was so nice to get taken to Wandegeya cause otherwisei would have been waiting forever and he talked about alot of stuff and eat africa and speawking different languages so it was really cool. then once on my taxi i started talking to the girl sitting next to me who i think was about my age and we talked and talked and talked the whole taxi ride back and apparently she lives right near me in ntinda! so hopefully we'll get to hang out again at some point. but it's just so nice to finally meet people and make Ugandan friends because even though I'm in Uganda and suposed to be on my own SIT really shelters us. sometimes too much so most of the day im just hanging out with americans and then only my homestay family at night so it's nice to finally get to know the city and my town and how everything and everyone works (sidenote: i still have ALOT to learn). but as i was walking home i felt good for making soem new friends and not being afriad to walk to my house when i was dark and i think some of the boda boda people or other people at the market on the way to my house remember me since i walk by them everyday and there aren't many muzungus around haha. when i first started walking home the taxi conductors would always always ask me if i needed a taxi or "ogenda?" (are you going?) but now they don't ask me as often because i think they know i just walk home or just don't need a taxi so that's nice.

yay Uganda!

Rwanda...where do i even begin?

Sorry for my incredibly bad job at keeping up with this blog, the past week was pretty crazy. So! we left for western uganda last sunday in a very small and very crowded "taxi" which is really just a van. luckily i had many a song ot listen to on my ipod as well as monty python and the holy grail on a friends Ipod so of course it was a pretty great 5 hour journey to Mbarara Uganda. Plus, there were many cookies and chocolate involved which is always key. (I am really missing my daily pints of Ben and Jerrys ice cream though...hint hint, wink wink for when i return hehe) When we arrived in Mbarara we went to visit the Millenium Village Project, which are various villages across africa that are designed to achieve the millenium development goals. it was an interesting trip because they seemed to be doing so much good and really gettting alot done and the community seemed to be working hard on their own. but at the same time it was a strange concept because it almost felt like these communities were just a giant human experiment and the even stranger thing was those in charge of MVP really had to exit strategy or final measurable goal which i was not really into. We then went to a refugee camp but it was a very dissapointing trip because we were supposed to be able to talk to the refugees and finally get africans stories first hand instead of just hearing the same repetitive lectures everyday. but then unfortunately the Uganda government changed their rules about when visitng hours were and failed to inform us of that so we couldnt talk to any of the refugees after a 2 hours drive there. not cool. one thing that alot of the SIT students have been battling with is how we are doing all these really cool site visits, but it jsut feels like we are spectators or tourists and intruders and these peoples lives instead of learning from them or being activly engaged in the work they are doing. today we had a meeting with the dean of SIT whose in charge of all the africa and middle east programs so it was good we got to voice alot of our concerns about the program.

but back to the excursion!
While in Mbarara we watched Hotel Rwanda and Sometimes in April. Ive always loved the movie Hotel rwanda and i believe that was my third time watching, but after watching Sometime in April it really shed light on how hotel rwanda was sooooo hollywood and sometimes a little too dramatic or just after being in rwanda and hearing peoples stories it just really didnt give what actually happened much justice. and even though every time i watch that movie im disturbed, it still barely covers the absolute horrific events that took place for months and months and months and so forth. I liked sometimes in april because it seemed to cover more of what happened in rwanda as opposed to just at one hotel (but i guess the point of hotel rwanda was to focus on the milles collines so really how can i complain too much?). the only frustrating thing about watching sometimes in april was the movie kept on skipping what seemed to be very important parts of the story because the disk was badly scratched, but hopefully we'll get to watch the full version sometime and i bet we will view it even more differently after actually being in rwanda. which in itself was so strange.

so on tuesday we drove to rwanda. again, a very long car ride with many songs naps and cookies along the way. one of my favorite parts of the whole trip was just crossing the border from uganda to rwanda since i had never crossed a border before on foot! once in rwanda, it was literally the most beautiful place id ever seen. it was very ecuador like, but still there was just something so breath taking about it (dont worry i have many a picture, but am still having issues with uploading them on the computer). then we passed by many wetlands that have these crazy strange dr. seuss like plants that are very tallk green stalks with like the head of a peakock on top (big green fuzzy ball things) and all i could think about what how in sometimes in april, those marshes were literally where people lived for days on end to hide and thats when the reality of being in Rwanda set in. every where we went all i could think of was "oh, is that person tutsi?" "was that person a hutu?" "were they here for the genocide?" and so on and so on. it was just such a strange eerie feeling. the weirdest part of all was the main city of Kigali. Kampala is such a crowded, overwhelming, dusty, always traffic jammed, crazy busy, trash everywhere city, and Kigali was EXACTLY the opposite. There were traffic lights, there were crosswalks, there was no trash ANYWHERE, the drivers and even the passengers on the motorcycles or "boda bodas" (which are mad dangerous in kampala) were ALL wearing helmets and following traffic laws...such craziness, i know. it was just so weird that after all that the city of Kigali, let alone the entire country of Rwanda, went through and is STILL going through because of the genocide and just so much hate, that the city is doing far better than the capital of Uganda. it almost felt fake for some reason.

our next two days in kigali consisted mostly of visiting genocide memorial sites. the first one we went to was more of a museum. it was right in Kigali and there were three exhibits to go through. the first one was a history of the countless genocides that have taken place within the 20th century. All the information was a little overwhelming, especially since i felt like a total idiot that I didn't know about half of these genocides around the world that had happened. the second exhibit was the biggest and it focused solely on the rwandan genocide. from tis history to post-conflict, reconciliation. i already knew alot of the information they gave at the museum, but it was the images, videos of rwandans stories, and these three rooms that really just made it so much more real because the exhibit literally tried to put a face to the genocide. one of the three rooms were just walls and walls and walls of pictures of those who were killed in the genocide. men, women, elders, children, teenagers. i felt like we all tried to hard to go through every picture in the room, but after two walls you just couldn't look at each one anymore cause your head started to hurt or you felt as though you weren't giving each picture the time they deserved so instead many of us just sat down in the room for a bit. the next room were about five cases of skulls and various other bones and it just felt so weird to look at them and that they were on display because the last exhibit was putting a face to the genocide, but this part felt as though all these bones were just numbers and numbers of faceless people, but maybe i just wasn't able to effectively put those pictures to the bones, which in itself is a little overwhelming, but little did i know at the time that displays such as those get much worse and more intense (as i found out the following day). the last room was clothing hung from the ceiling so it looked as though there were people in these cases, but there were no bodies. that was the creepiest room for me because i felt as though there were all these ghosts or something looking at me since they looked like real people, but they were just clothing. the last part of the exhibit was the worst. it was a a hallway of huge pictures of individual infants and toddlers who had been killed in the genocide with information such as name, age, favorite food/activity, last memory, and how they were killed. it was just picture after picture and that exhibit upset me the most because you forget so easily at how children were treated and killed in the genocide. one interesting story that was in the second exhibit and i don't remember what made me think of this or how to analyze it, but i feel as though i should say what she said. it might have been about why people didn't do anything to stop it or why/how rwandans could kill rwandans when they have the same language, the same culture, they are such the same people, but still this happened, and the young women (maybe 20 years old?) said she thought that 90% of the population was just evil, 5% were neutral, and 5% were good and that's how she explained how this happened.

there was also exhibits outside that were mass graves but we didn't get enough time to really explore that part of the museum which was a bummer since it felt way more peaceful outside and you could process everything on your own more. a lot of the students talked a lot about how we felt as though we were being asked to compartmentalize so much of our experience not only in Rwanda, but in Uganda. We were given 30 minutes to look at this exhibit and deal with it, 10 minutes to walk around this mass grave, 20 minutes to be carted to another genocide site, and it was just all so disconnected when we al know how interconnected it all was. very frustrating position to be in.

that night we had a "processing session" which we're all still not really sure what it's supposed to entail, but basically it was just a set time where we all at down around a table and were supposed to just talk about our experience that day at the genocide. it was very forced unfortunatley but it ended up being an all right discusion, but we were all just exhausted cause it was 8:30 at night after a long day of traveling and intense stuff. i started off just saying how i had spoken to a man at the museum and he asked me why i was in africa and i said i wanted to learn about what it's really like here and he seemed to be very pleased that i wanted to learn from them and kept saying how we can learn alot from rwandans or africans in general. then he asked what we were doing while in rwanda and i explained we were mostly just going to genocide memorial sites and were supposed to go to a prison but that got cancelled. he said he wished we wouldn't just focus on the genocide and more on where Rwanda is now. Because even though the genocide is such a big part of Rwanda there is still alot of other aspects to the country which is totally valid after i said that we just talked alot about how we were ashamed of the west and many people were just so angry at how the "international community" acted. we also talked about how its so mind-boggling that this just keeps happening again and again and again. luckily, our academic director Charlotte is a brilliant lady and was a great facilitator in the discussion and kind of brought many of us back to reality in terms of how you really can't apportion blame because that's 1. not the point and 2. still doesn't truly resolve anything, which was a breath of freah air when many people were just on a major guilt trip slash anger rant, which is also valid at the same time. im totally for venting. we also learned that its rude now to ask someone if their hutu or tutsi and if you do ask them they will just say I'm Rwandan.

the next day we went to two more memorial sites outside of Rwanda but these were actual places where the genocide occurred and hundreds of thousands of people were killed. both places were churches but the first one was alot bigger than the second. i think somewhere around 15,000 people were killed there, but it could also be more than that. The church was preserved and the second you walked in this damp heavy feeling just took over. there were church benches everywhere pilled up with the clothes of those who were killed. all the clothes were covered in a damp mat of what looked like red clay. there were bullet holes throughout the entire tin roof. the moment we realized what atrocities took place there and how real it was, was when our guide abruptly pointed out that the faint stains on the alter cloth at the front of the church were drenched in blood. that really set the tone. at the back of the church was a little alcove where they apparently hide all the children there so that when the interhamwe would throw grenades into the church it would miss them. but apparently they were all still slaughtered and we were showed that there were stains on the walls where the children had been smashed against and that is how they were killed. again, how children were treated in the genocide is what disturbs me the most. we then went downstairs to a tomb like area where bones and skulls were on display as well as some of the tools used to carry out the killings. in the bottom of the encasement was one coffin where they had chosen to bury this women so they'd be able to tell the story of how she was killed. this women was young and also pregnant and they raped her then killed her, then tried to pull the fetus out of her from the bottom up, which i really can't go into any more detail than that because it is unimaginable. what i learned the most from the various memorial sites is how differently all these people were killed. it wasn't just machetes or guns it was soooo many ways both physically and mentally of torturing these people. some were thrown under piles of dead bodies, some were chained for days as they slowly chopped them away, some were rapped systematically and men who were known to have hiv/aids were the main perpetrators of the those cases, some were thrown into pit latrines many feet below ground while more and more people were piled onto them in the dark sewage pits. some were killed by hand. most were killed by their neighbors.

the second church was basically the same deal. the reason why so many of the genocide memorial sites in rwanda are churches is because that is where people went for refuge, but even the people they trusted most, such as the priests, turned their backs on them and killed. not to say though that there were not countless others who stood up and tried to stop the segregating and the killings at the expense of their own lives. again, the most chilling and disturbig part was when we went into a small childrens room at the second church and there was this huuuuugeee stained blob on the wall. im pretty sure i don't need to explain where it came from.

after that we were carted away to buy african fabric in the market...like i said, so compartmentalized. i did get some pretty sweet fabric though and can't wait to make many a dress and skirt out of them. i also had ice cream for the first time since ive been away and it was a glorious experience and only 50 cents! awesome. crossing the border back to Uganda though might have been the highlight of the trip. there was clearly a big storm a bruin and after handing in our declaration of departure from rwanda we had to walk across to the uganda side. as we were walking across though you could blatantly see a sheet of rain coming from behind us at an alarming rate. all of a sudden rwandans, ugandans, and i don't knwo who else were sprrriiiinnting across the border to reach the visa house and they all started yelling at us "muzungu run!!!!! muzungus run run!" so of course we did what we were told and it was SO MUCH FUN. ooohhh my lord. i felt like i was in a movie or something idk it was just ridiculous and fun AND, best of all, we beat the rain just as we got into the shelter. unfortunately though we had to go back out into the flood to get into the taxi and continue on the journey, so after all that running (and believe, it was alot considering ive done virtually NO exercise since ive been here) we still ended up getting soaked. o well! after rwanda we had a few more nights in western uganda. We went to Queen Elizabeth national park. saw some elephants next to the road just as we were arriving. went on a boat safari saw a bazillion birds, some crocodiles (shout out to sean, don't worry i took a pic of the first one i saw and named it sean naturally), buncha buffalos who decided it would be appropriate to "relieve themselves" quite vividly as we passed by. bunch of hippos that scared the blank out of me (apparently they're the most dangerous animal in africa), some warthogs, these animals that are basically gazelles and so beautiful and glorious and i want to be one so badly. unfortunately though we didn't see ANY lions on our 5 am safari (epic fail). but o well. still was a good trip. we also saw another development project site that was very environmentally inclined and all about conversing the envs and using traditional medicines and jewelry and making livelihoods out of that to finance the local children's education. it was a really cool system and it felt so genuine which was a nice change from some of the projects and lectures about development that we've had. it really reminded me of the reserve i stayed on in ecuador for two weeks.

then a long 7 hour drive back to kampal. yay cookies and dance parties (and acapella! shout out to mah q-notes, i got a fellow SIT students to literally listen to ALL our songs and thoroughly enjoy them as well haha).

photos still to come. so sorry for the delay.

SPOTTED!....The Hunger Project!! Whooooooo

SO! The most exciting thing happened on friday while we were at the Jeliza hotel for the night. As I walked through the parking lot of a random hotel in Kampala, Uganda, whose company car did I see but THE HUNGER PROJECT UGANDA....WHAT????!!???? I am so amped. I was running around, trying to hug the car, wanted to take a pic in front of it but sadly noone had their camera on them. My friend Tim suggested I wake up early and stalk the hunger project people down and convince them to take me with them haha.

For those of you who are wondering what in the world I am talking about, The Hunger Project is an EPIC non-profit organization that works in Africa, South Asia, and Latin America to give communities the tools to empower themselves to end their own hunger and poverty on their own terms. Aka coolest organization ever. In the U.S. there is another incredible organization called Feel Good! Where across the country on college campuses students are social entrepreneurs and sell gourmet grilled cheeses where 100% of the profits go to the sustainable ending of chronic persistent world hunger IN OUR LIFETIME....yea. i know. At UVM Feel Good we partner with The Hunger Project so we invest in them, while FG World and others (like you) invest in us! Just to give you an idea of our impact, if we sell two sandwiches or $8 we end someones hunger for a year. Guess how many we sell typically in a day? I'd liiikke to say near 100. (hehe) Feel Good itself has raised almost a million dollars for the sustainable end of hunger sicne 2005...check us out at feelgoodworld.org and join the movement!

Now that I'm done with my Feel Good/Hunger Project schpeel, hopefully you get an idea of why I was so excited when I saw THP in Kampala. Now what's even MORE exciting is that for the last 6 weeks of my time in Uganda each student does their "practicum" which is basically liek a senior thesis (oy) with any organization they want, on any topic related to Uganda and development they want. So ooobbviouslly THP was first on my list. Yesterday I met with our Academic Director, Charlotte, to talk about potential study ideas. She (luckily) really like the various ideas I came up with for THP and said they'd be doable so now she just needs to pull those strings to get me in there!

Some of the ideas were...

a. Go to different Epicenters of THP to compare how each ones geography, culture, past NGO experiences, and specific characteristics to their region influences their ability to keep on track with the THP 5 year self-reliant Epicenter program. What challenges do each face? What commonalities do each have? These epicenters are located in the southern part of the country from East to West.

b. Look at the “Animators” or change-agents that work for THP and determine what makes them each effective facilitators. Are they local? What is their educational background? How long have they been in that community? What personal characteristics do they each have? Are they all very similar or very different? Do they have different styles of facilitating empowerment? Which ones are more effective and why?

c. Focus on the commonalities of all the various epicenters in Uganda to prove the theory that we are all connected. We are the human family. How does the idea of being part of the human family influence peoples daily decisions as individuals? As communities? As global citizens? Does the THP program help such peoples to realize this connection and does it empower them?

d. Talk directly to The Hunger Project and ask them what they need someone to look at specifically so it can directly benefit their organization. Go from there. I think the director of THP Uganda used to be connected to SIT/World Learning.

e. I’ve heard from many people, including Prof. at SIT who say ,“there is no hunger in Uganda. No one starves, BUT there is a huge nutrition problem.” I could look at the difference between those two, what their root causes are, and above all conclude whether or not Uganda really has no “hungry” people since I find nutrition and hunger to be very interrelated.

For the last idea the reason it popped up there was because since I've been here my homestay family and even some of the academic lecturers from the University that speak to us have been saying "Oh you  can't stave in Uganda." "There's no hunger in Uganda, BUT we have a huge nutrition problem." And 1. I've been like WHAT? are you serious?! No way. and 2. I've been very confused because 70% of those employed in Uganda are in the agricultural sector, but that sector has been declining significantly and is now only 40% of the GDP of the country so how in the world can there be "no hunger" in Uganda, especially if there's a "huge" nutrition problem, since i feel as though they are both so interconnected! I was thinking maybe they just each define hunger differently or I was wondering where this nutrition problem stems from. Is it because of their culture? Meaning they don't eat certain foods so their deficient in some nutrients and what not? OR is there a nutrition problem because these people lack ACCESS to certain foods? If the latter is the case than that problems stems from the same root cause as hunger...poverty! We also had another lecturer yesterday who said that the median voter in Uganda only has two meals a day, if that. I spoke with my academic director about the contradictions I keep hearing and she said that it really depends on who you are talking to and what their standing is. For example, if you talk to someone who has food on their kitchen (like my family) than they'll probably say there's no hunger. She also said that it depends on the "magnitude" of hunger we are talking. I sort of agreed with her on that, but at the same time my gut was like well hunger of any kind still dimineshes the human spirit so people can't reach their potential in the human family, so iiiiiii don't know. Hopefully my practicum will allow me to get some concrete answers and figure out why there seems to be such a perception that it's impossible to starve in Uganda when poverty is so prevalent? 

....If you come up with any other ideas please let me know! And HOPEFULLY everything will work out! If I don't work with The Hunger Project I was also thinking of working with dance organizations to see how dance, like grassroots soccer, can be used as a tool to educate children about health and HIV/AIDS, as well as a tool for therapy since a lot of children were either affected by the civil unrest in the North or the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

ALSO! I've been telling eeevvverryonnnee on my trip about Feel Good and so my goal by the end of the trip is to have my fellow SIT peeps start their own chapters whooooo. So far two girls from GW seem kinda interested but hopefully I can recruit a few more (Corin they'll be gettin' in contact with you hopefully!) 

By Request...My Homestay!

I've officially been in my homestay for a week now and will be living here for another week before taking an exursion to the western part of Uganda and Rwanda (Whoo!). I think my family is well-off and at first I was afraid they weren't going to talk to me because at the meeting event at a hotel they didn't say very much to me at first. But then once we got home everyone talked to me a lot. The family is really big, but they don't all live in the house (pictures to come). There is Jaaja (mom/grandmother) and her husband but we don't talk much so I don't call him dad or grandad or even his first name which I think is Francis. They have five kids, but they're all grown up. I've only met three of them. One sister and one brother both live in the United States with children. The first sibling I met was Helen who is quite the character and speaks english much faster than I can understand sometimes. She is 29 and has a son in the U.S. (I think). She would normally be staying at the house, but her younger sister, Gloria who is 27, is expecting (she's due in November I think) and her husband Andrew who's really nice is away in China for the next 2 weeks, so Helen is staying with Gloria for the time being. Gloria and Andrew got married 3 years ago and live in Kololo. I live in Ntinda. I don't know what Gloria does, but Helen works as a risk assessment and compliance manager (or something like that). Andrew is a total tech nerd and works for some information technology company and is in love with everything Google. He loves his new iphone so much that he never writes anything down anymore, he just takes pictures of tickets or something on a board or a document from a meeting so he doesn't have to copy it. His wife, Gloria, says he keeps forgetting everything because his brain is turning to mush from not using it anymore because of the iphone.

My first night there I spoke alot with Andrew and the two sisters. Sometimes Jaaja and the sisters would start talking in Luganda and Andrew would translate for me. He talked to me the whooolleee time which was really nice. We talked about so you think you can dance and they think that Americans are the best dancers in the world which is pretty cool. We talked about t.v. shows, movies, Uganda, religion, their family, a whole bunch of stuff! I'm excited for when Andrew comes back from China cause he said Gloria and he would show me around the city and take me to contemporary church where they sing christian rock (like Camp Cherokee!) So I'm super pumped for that.

I have my own room, which is nice so I do get a lot of alone time but other than that I play a lot with Paula who is 6 and the daughter of one of the brothers in the U.S. She is absolutely crazy, but really nice too. Most of the time if I need to do work or read she leaves me alone. Last night was the only time I actually had to lock my bedroom door because she wouldn't leave when I was going to sleep. We started watching Monsters Inc. but haven't finished it yet.

There are also two housemaids, I always forget the girls name but she's my favorite person to talk to and helps me alot with my Luganda homework. And then the other is Freddie who I usually watch music videos with. Last night we watched a few Michael Jackson videos, which was awesome.

There's also Peace, one of the brothers, whose real name isn't really Peace, but apparently he was born during the war so his parents called him Peace. I barely even saw him for the first half of the week, but now we always eat together and talk sooooo so much. He is a talking machine and neeeever stops. Yesterday during dinner he was talking so much that he eventually realized I was dozing off cause it was late (Ugandans eat dinner late which stinks). I've showed the whole family all my pictures that I brought but he was the most animated when I showed them, especially the dance pictures. He just couldn't believe them. You would have to be there to get how animated he is about everything, but it's very entertaining. He also showed me his HUGE photo album yesterday at lunch.

All in all my homestays pretty good. I wish I would do more with them sometimes like go shopping or show me around, but I'm sure we will do that more at some point. Jaaja drives me to school every morning cause Paulas school is right near mine so I wake up at 6 am eeeeevverrydaayy ugh. The house is pretty nice and I'm definitely getting more used to the food. Lunch should be served soon which is good cause i'm staaarving.

Wise Words from Muna

So our wonderful Minister of Transport is named Muna and he ALWAYS has many words of wisdom to share with us SIT students so I feel like I should share the wisdom with all of you!

1. So the luckily we have a gorup of 17 where it isn't just 15 girls and 2 boys  (like the last group). We have a pretty equal ratio of boys vs. girls so all the guys are referred to as "Generals" since they're basically in charge of making sure we ladies are always safe : ) yayyy BUT apparently the reason why Muna gave the guys the name "Generals" is because male Elephants are big (obviously) and tend to take care of the pack, especially since Elephants are really big into community and family (awww). So that's why the guys are the "Generals."

p.s. Muna LOVES animal metaphors for his wise words so get ready!!

One of our first nights here we had dinner at this awesome Indian food restaurant and this is where we learned how much Muna loves to share his words : )

2. When the waiter came around Muna said "I'll eat later" (which we later learned made sense since his Muslim and it was still Rahmadan at the time) so we were like "why aren't you eating" and he said "i am a bat!" "I only eat at night" and then made this really funny bat eating some fruit impersonation and it just ONLY got better from that point on at dinner...YES.

3. Then one of the students, Margie, made the mistake of asking Muna what some names of good Ugandan music artists were and he became silent..."I can't tell you that." And we were like "why not Muna??" Then he proceeded to explain how he doesn't listen to music or like music because it spoils your brain. That's all I really remember specifically about that rant but it did last about 20 minutes...maybe longer? Haha he kept having to start over because he thought we didn't understand him or agree even though we were like yes yes yes yes, but anyways it was definitely entertaining.

4. His next words of wisdom were sooo awesome and true! Basically he was talking about the idea of the ying-yang, how there's good and evil, and what not. He said that you need to take everyday as it comes. One day will be good, but the next will be bad. With good comes bad and with bad comes good so you just shouldn't worry about it because that's just the way it is! My friend Tim and I have decided that Muna is in fact, a ying-yang, which is pretty cool.

5. One day when we had class at Mekerere Univeristy we split up into small groups to brainstorm ideas for our group constitution and Muna sat with my group. He said that he had a VERY important rule for us to at to the constitution but he wanted to wait til we were done brainstorming before adding it. The concept was entitled "leave a mark." At first I was very confused when I heard this because when I hear leave a mark I think of the opposite, the girl scout motto "leave only footprints, take only pictures." so at first I was very skeptical but then he proceeded to ask one of us draw a snail (which only furthered our confusion) UNTIL he explained that when a snail moves its goo leaves a mark, a trail, and that we as students in a different country should always leave a mark. Meaning, if we go somewhere we should always let another student know so that they "leave a mark" and we all communicate and take care of one another! That piece of advice was the hit of the brainstorming session even of course.

6. How can an elephant eat a pineapple? Good question. You eat a pineapple like an elephant so if there's a hungry lion and a tree with many thorns would you rather face the lion or climb the tree? Answer: climb the thorny tree to live. Muna: YES so the elephant wants the pineapple so even though it's sharp on the outside it will still eat the pineapple because he wants it.

IN addition Muna was saying that you basically just need to be flexible in life. Don't always eawt with yours hands. If there is a fork then that's great, but if not use your hand as a tool. You will be seen as foolish if you are found dead from starvation because you didn't have a fork, but you did have your hands and other innovative ideas to eat the food.

7. These words of wisdom were alot like Stings glorious song if you love somebody set that free. Muna was saying how you can love someone or something too much because then you become blind to how it is or might be hurting you. For example, you see cute little monkeys everywhere in Uganda and you loooove love love them but then you dont realize that you're too close to one and then maybe they bite! which is no good!

8. My homestay is luckily really close to SIT so its a very short taxi ride home or about a 45 minute walk. But what's even better is that Muna is one of my neighbors! Whooo! So yesterday when we went as a class on a field trip to various cultural sites like the Uganda Museum and the Kings Palace (fancy i know) Muna just drove me home instead of having to take a taxi! So of course he had many wise words to share with me on this journey back to eka or home. First I asked what the last SIT group of students was like and at first he said "no one is holy" which in Muna talk means no one is perfect (that was another word of wisdom he gave previously in the ying-tang conversation) and then he started saying how funny we SIT students are because we complaaiinn and such things, which I can definitely see ahah. But then he got frustrated because apparently some SIT students would say they think they're homestay families only do it for the money (which is rather rude) because Muna way saying these families don't even need money. A lot of our homestay families are pretty well off so I can definitely see that, plus they all seem to be just incredibly hospitable and kind people (like all the other Ugandans I've met) so Muna was very upset when a student would say that since it blatantly isn't fair, which I totally agree with.

9. One his best pieces of wisdom though was that no matter what you (meaning SIT students) will learn so much or even at least something. He said some students may think oh I did not learn anything from this experience, but no matter what you will learn something valuable whether it's knowledge about a field, or just how to greet someone politely! Whether it's learning Luganda or learning how to take a taxi to and from school everyday. No matter what we will all come away with various insights and experiences that will stay with us forever sooo yay : )

That's all! Hope you enjoyed Muna's wise words of wisdom. I'm sure there will be more to come!

Sibabulungi! (have a nice day!)

Let Classes Begin!

So yesterday, monday, classes officially started....yay!!! i always looove the first day back but oh my lord i had to wake up soooo early aka 6 am, but really i woke up at 5:15 because my house is right near this small mosque so around that time there was all this singing out of no where and i was so confused cause i couldn't figure out where it was coming rom, but now i like it cause they also ring at night for a long time since its rahmadan and its just so pretty to listen to!

It's really convenient because literally EVERYONE except me lives very far away from the SIT/World Learning classroom, whereas i live about a 5-10 minute drive away, and hopefully one day i can try walking it because it shouldn't take more than 45, but more likely around 30 minutes.

We have Luganda class every morning for two hours and it's soooo much fun. Yesterday we kept onlearning more greetings, both formal and informal. My new favorite greeting is "Ogamba ki" and then you respond by saying "si bubi" which is just so cute!! I'm definitely learning a lot more, but it's kind of hard to retain all of it so quickly especially since most people just speak English so you have to go out of your way to speak Luganda to them, but then usually they just laugh at you since they think it's funny you know a little Luganda. We have a really big proficiency test at the end of the 6 weeks in kampala so hopefully i'll get the phrases down better.

We then have various Deveclopment Studies Seminars and Field Study Seminars throughout the day. Most of the DSS seminars right now are just learning basic information about Uganda, such as the geography and ethnicity of the state, or history of Uganda. today we'll be learning alot about development studies which should be good. One of the Prof. yesterday was sooooooooo funny though! First of all he kept saying United State of "America" trying to impersonate the way George Bush says America. Also he went to univeristy at University of WIsconsin at Madison so he told us the story of his journey from Africa to Wisconsin and he said that when the plane landed the pilot said "Hello ladies and gentlemen. I am pleased to inform you that we have landed in the Madison airport and it is currently NEGATIVE 20 DEGREES." Luckily the family that was hosting him for his stay in the U.S. brought a huge jacket for him. But we started talking about rivers, since the Nile river starts in Uganda and is the second largest in the world, and he knew a song about the Missouri River and then...just started singing it! But he was soooo good! Like just a beautiful voice I couldn't believe it! we then learned that he loooovesssss national anthems so then he sang the Ugandan anthem and i almost cried it was so good! And THEN he said the U.S.A.'s anthem, but didn't know all the words and just hummed it and he hit ALL those high notes so easily it was crazzy!! I wonder if he sings as a hobby cuz he was mad good.

It was definitely a long school day and there's a huge amount of time from breakfast to lunch so i was struggling soooo badly, but today i brought a little peanut butter sandwich that i am VERY excited about. The tea here is also sooo good its very milky and smooth and mmmm. just so good. But this morning my mom or Jjiji which means grandmother asked me if a brought a sweater because its cold out (i didn't) but it was just funny because its like spring weather and they consider that chilly.

I keep forgetting to upload pictures but I will soon! The one thing I forgot to bring was the connecter from my camera to the computer, but there are a few people who have the same connectors as me so i can just borrow them

ALSO! random news not related to Uganda! BUT I just heard from a few of my advisors and so im officially going to change my dual degree to be a Environmental Studies Major, and have two minors: Community and International Development, and Dance!!! Yayyyyyy

Culture Shock!

Sorry for not posting in a few days but since thursday its been caraaaazy busy going from place to place.

Thursday was the big "drop-off" day and we split up into groups of 3 for different categories and had to go out into Kampala and found out certain information. My group was entertainment, the national theatre, dance halls, cinema, and restaurants. I was super pumped to go to the National Theatre after seeing the movie "War Dance". Hopefully I can go see a bunch of shows since they're sooo inexpensive and the Uganda Contemporary Ballet performs every 2nd to last wednesday of the month. My friend Margie and I (who! very randomly knows one of Bradfords best friends, David Jensen, sooooo random) but we made a friend who is a student at Makerere University as a music student and he invited our group to basically start up an exchange program type thing with his dance and drum troupe which would be increddible. He also is a teacher for a kids dance and drum group called Children of Uganda (i believe) and they are apparently coming to NYC next fall to perform all over the city! There is also a really big festival of the arts coming up that is free and there's a film festival coming up in the end of October. We also found out that AT the University you can get a gym membership and workout, take aerobics classes, and dance classes so that's very good news.

The funniest thing though about Ugandans that we discovered are the following...

1. THey give extremely vague directions such as...  "So what restaurant would you recommend?" "There are some good ones on Jinja Road" "Oh really? Where and what's the name?" "Oh you just go this way" and then they make a very twisted arm motion and you have really no idea what direction they are referring to ahha. There was one man we spoke to on how to get to the National Theatre who gave us the right directions except we discovered finally that when he told us left, he really meant right. It's also funny to just ask different people how to get to the same place and they all tell you different ways...of course, vaguely.

2. Everything takes muuuuuch longer than you think it's going to. For example, you can't just say hello in passing, you have to commit to like a 10-15 minute conversation with a stranger about various things. It is definitely true that Ugandans are such friendly hospitable people, but they are definitely on what we refer to as "Africa Time." One night our dinner at the hotel was supposed to start at 7 and it didn't get put out til 9:45 haha whoopsiee. I was fine though cause I just had someone awesome Skippy Peanut Butter. Another time for lunch we got the restaurant at 11:45 and were told the buffet would be ready soon, which translated as not ready til 1:15.

We found a good movie theatre, some dance halls, but not very restaurants since people never really told us a specific place they liked, whereas if you were in the U.S. someone would give you like 3 specific restaurants and then tell you exactly how to get there on a map, but again that's not reallllyyy fair to compare to Kampala since many of the roads just don't have names...they're really big into landmark directions with funny hand motions.

There were some other great stories that other SIT kids had on their "drop-off" experience. Two people, Erin and Jack, had to go around to the various markets and compare their prices and goods and what not. Jack found this cool watches being sold and the salesmen tried and tried and tried to sell him this one "automatic watch". Apparently Jack pointed out that the hand on the clock was moving and the main replied "oh! well you have to start walking away and THEN it starts working" Of course, Jack and everyone else who heard this story just assumed it was a trick to get him to buy a broken watch, but later someone told us that there is such a thing as automatic watches that start working once you move them around haha

Two other guys, Shreyas and Tim, had to go to the Police Stations and Hospitals and ooooh my lord their trip to the Central Ugandan Police Station is one of the most ridiculous stories I've ever heard. I probably won't remember everything so it might not be as good, but I'll try my best to re-tell it. THey went to the police station and just from the beginning all the police men were just very suspicious of htem being there 1. because they're these random white dudes all dressed up because guys always have to wear button up collared shirts in Uganda. But basically they just go trapsing around the police station trying to find the information desk. They get sent up to the top top floor which apparently ended up being a restricted area and the policemen up there didn't know how they got up there so they of course asked who they were and they said "SIT students" and they policemen just got even more suspiscious cause they had aaaabsotutely no idea what SIT was, so then they asked for I.D. and Tim didn't have any I.D. on him except his medical bracelet so he tried using that but that was just a joke and Shreyas had his Driver liscense but the policement came back over to him with and said "ok, it does say you're from the United States, but then right next to that it also says Georgia" which he clearly took as the COUNTRY Georgia not that state so they just weren't getting anywhere. Eventually after a huge crowd of Ugandan policemen had gathered they left and its a much longer story, but still just funny.

Yesterday, saturday, we went to the source of the Nile in Jinja, but I'll talk more about that once I upload pictures from it.

Survival Luganda!

Today was aaallll about Uganda, Buganda, Baganda, and Luganda....alot of gandas i know. Uganda = the country, Buganda = the region of central africa, Baganda = the culture/people of Buganda, and Luganda = their language...which we had our first lesson in today!

Here's some basics about Luganda!

Lesson 1: How to greet someone!

Sammy: oli otya ssebo (how are you sir?)
Mr. Buganda: gyendi nnyabo (fine madam)
Sammy: Mm (confirm)
Mr. Buganda: oli otya (how are you?)
Sammy: gyendi ssebo (fine sir)
Mr. Buganda: Mm
Sammy: Mm

If it's the morning you say: Wasuze otyanno? (how did you spend your night?)
"           " rest of the day:   ossibye otyanno? (how have you spent your day?)

Nze Samantha: I am Samantha
Ggwe Samantha: You are Samantha
Yee Samantha: She is Samantha

some funny key phrases that I thought were extremely entertaining as we mazumgoes aka white-people (also funny) wee all repeating this phrases extremely loudly at our hotel where many Ugandan people are and were probably making fun of us...here's why (i apologize if my humor doesn't come across, it's kinda of hard not in person BUT hopefully you'll see the humor in the situation)

my personal favorite go to while walking through the city...
Salina sente kubanga ndi muyizi aka I DON'T HAVE MONEY BECAUSE I AM A STUDENT
--> I don't really see how that excuse will get small children to stop begging for money, BUT you do see that excuse alot in the states

more great go to's for the mazungo's first time in africa are:

Ddamu mpola mpola: repeat slowly slowly
Ndeka : leave me alone
Sitegedde: I have not understood you
Nsonyiwa: forgive me (i will definitely be using that one maaaaannyy times)

It was a really fun lesson but at the same time a bit overwhelming cause they gave us like almost 50 words to know in order to survive a day in Uganda aka TOMORROW and we just learned it BUT i am definitely goona have my cheat sheet with me. The teachers were sooooo funny and awesome though and it was really fun. The language seems pretty straightforward and the spelling makes alot more sense once you've heard a few of the words, but it was just soo much information all at once it was a little crazy.

Incase you were wondering what in the world a mazungo is (and i'm totally spelling it wrong) but it's what ugandas call white-people and it's not a derrogatory word it's actually just really friendly and they're just identifying you as diffrent from them, but you shouldn't take it as an insult by any means. it's actually just really funny! The teachers will be like "be back in here in 5 mazungo minutes" which means on-time whereas Uganda time is alot like other countries, like Ecuador. Meaning, they're very flexible and are late but that's ok at least they arrived and such. For example! We were supposed to have dinner tonight at 7 Buuuuutt apparently we were on Uganda time and it wasn't served till about 9:45...whoops. LUCKILY i brought two jars of skippy peanut butter and had a decent amount of it which was glooooriouss.

Everyone in the group of 17 is really great. No ones really irked me in any way and everyones soooo different but just so friendly and wonderful...it's just like UVM!!!! : D

Anyways we also learned social etiquette and had a general in the Uganda ARMY come and give us a lecture on safety and security and THEN gave us HIS cell phone number AND the armys cell phone (happy dad? lol)

Weeraba! (goodbye!)
Sam

p.s. i can't decide whether to introduce myself as Sam or Samantha or Sammy. I've been tryin gout Sam and Samantha to see which one is easier for Ugandas to say, but surprisingly I think Sam is harder, but sometimes it's Samantha so maybe I should try out Sammy! ANyways that's really random but whaaatver!