Intro to Kitgum and the Start of Practicum

The last couple of weeks I had been loosing enthusiasm about Africa. That ended today! I am back to my old, enthusiastic, Africa-loving self! Let me tell about my week leading up to this point, and then I will talk about today.

On Tuesday, the eight Go Ed students that have practicum in Uganda left the guest house around 7:30am. We drove until a little after lunch, when we had reached our first practicum location - Mbale. Mbale is where Susan and Nathan will be this month. We were given brief introductions and then it was time to say goodbye to Janae and Brittney. We prayed for them and hugged. The van then left to take them up the mountain to Kapchoura before it rained. I took a bit of a nap. The Mbale staff took us out for a lunch of rice, beans and chipote. We came back and I took another even longer nap until dinner. Something about the heat makes it possible for me to sleep for hours. Dinner was spaghetti noodles and potatoes. The six of us played cards for a few hours and then went to bed. The next morning we were startled out of bed by the Mbale cook, Justine, insisting that we must take "tea" before we leave for Kitgum. So we had our breakfast of toast with jam, said farewell to Nathan and Susan (who I will miss dearly), and were on our way. Ten minutes later we were back again to get the pillows and cell phones we had forgotten. Susan gave me one of her motion sickness pills to take. after I took it she told me it was also a bit of a sleeping pill. The four of us each had out own row, so I fell asleep for most of the ride. The farther we drove, the hotter it got. The paved roads had ended early on, and we were driving on what seemed like one big pothole. It was also incredibly dusty. On one particularly bad stretch of road, we heard a popping and hissing sound as one of our tires burst. We stopped for an hour to put on a spare, and then at the nearest gas station to fix the broken one. The drive seemed to go on forever, until we finally reached Kitgum.

We pulled in the gate of FH Kitgum, and saw that the fence was lined with buildings, and then farther inside were clusters of huts. There was a half fence, behind which was a small house, and two guest houses. The house belongs to Pius, the director. Cassie and I are in the bigger guest house/hut. It has a bedroom with three twin beds, a toilet room, a bath room, a living room with a refrigerator, and a big front porch with a table and chairs for us to take our meals at. The boys are in a round hut/house that has a room, bathroom, and living room. These accommodations are very comfortable, I almost cried with relief when I saw them. I had assumed that we would be "roughing it" a little bit more, but it is a blessing to at least have a comfortable place to sleep when everything else is new and challenging. I think the reason I have been so negative the past couple of weeks is that I have a hard time dealing with change. It really stresses me out when things are different. But now that I am here in Kitgum and the unknown is behind me, I feel a lot more comfortable and happy. We spent the afternoon napping and then eating. Our cook's name is Betty, and our housekeeper is Conci. They are both very sweet. The four of us went out to play with the kids that live on the compound. Their mothers were looking on, and then brought out some drums and started dancing. I joined them, which was apparently very funny. As they watched me try to learn their traditional dances, they would turn their faces away to try and cover their laughter. I'm sure I did look a little bit ridiculous trying to shake my hips the way they do, with minimal success. I chased some adorable children around, and then sat down with their mothers. They brought me some mangos from a nearby tree to eat with them. Our conversation was limited because they only knew a few things in English, but I learned their names and then found out that most of them are ages 19-24. I couldn't believe it. So many young mothers! The four of us had dinner and then watched an episode of Star Wars together before bed.

This morning I woke up early to the sound of the rooster crowing. I eventually got up and prepared myself for the day. It was a decent temperature in the morning, its a shame it had to get hotter throughout the day. We ate breakfast and then joined the FH staff for a morning devotion. At the end of the devotion time we went around to introduce ourselves and then went with our respective sectors to learn about what we will be doing. I followed a man names William, who is the leader of the Engineering staff. We went to the office that is shared by six staff members who are either engineers or work for LAN project (what I will be doing). William told me a little bit about the program. Basically, during the in 21 years of insurgency in Uganda, Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) were moved to camps. Now they are moving back to their homes. FH is working with the communities to fund ways for the families to make money and support themselves. Right now, they are creating teams of people based on their sector who can help build roads. These roads will be helpful to the development of the community, as well as making schools and clinics more accessible. Laborers would also get paid cash, which they would use to build the assets of their households, and spend in local markets which would boost the local economy. What I will be helping with is called the Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA). Each sector will have its own savings group. To be part of the group, members pay a minimum fee at each meeting. This sum accumulates, and members can take out loans which must be paid back with interest. There is also a welfare fund for small household problems which is loaned without interest. At the end of 8-12 months, all members get back the money that they saved, and a portion of the interest based on their overall contributions. I am going to be teaching new groups how to do all of this. There wasn't any office work for me to do today, so I visited with some of the men who taught me some words in Acholi. They said the most important thing for me to say is "An anyaka aa ki America" (I am a girl from America). They said that as soon as people hear this they will be very happy to see me and have confidence in what I tell them because the United States has done many beneficial things in the area. The men were waiting around all afternoon for somebody to bring back fuel for the motor bikes. Apparently there was a fuel shortage in town. After lunch, one of the FH workers on a motor bike pulled up to my guest house and told me he was taking me to West Pader to see one of the roads they were going to build, and to meet one of the supervisors in that sector.

Being in Africa has been a chance for me to do many things that are outside of my comfort zone. Getting on the back of a motor bike was one of them. I donned my helmet and swung onto the back, then held on to my driver tightly. For the first twenty minutes, I was in a state of terror and prayer. As I have said, the roads are really terrible out here. there were points there the wheels of the bike were balancing on a foot of pavement between two big pot holes, and I was whispering prayers for protection. Eventually I felt more comfortable and loosened my grip on my driver's jacket. It was a very bumpy ride. Thank goodness for my sunglasses, because there was so much flying at my face, and little pebbles bouncing off of my lenses. It was a forty minute ride to West Pader. I started enjoying myself and watched the beautiful scenery pass by. Picture a motor bike flying down a dirt road, surrounded by tall grass and those African trees from The Lion King on either side. It was breath-taking. We got out at the West Pader office and I met Joseph and Clarence. We rode out onto a dirt walking path that they want to turn into a new road. The unfortunate thing about wearing a skirt was riding on a tiny path with pricker bushes on either side that scratched up my legs as we passed them. Back at the office again, I got some more information about the savings program and made plans to visit one of the savings groups to watch how everything is done. Then we headed back to the FH compound. I felt very proud of myself for getting over my fear of motor bikes today. Now I am feeling very sore. almost two hours of riding on a metal seat, on a very bumpy road was very hard on my rear end. :) When I got back I looked in the mirror and saw that everything except for where my sunglasses covered was brown with dirt. Washing my face produced very muddy water. We ate dinner, spoke with Pius and now we are trying to use the internet.

Cassie told me today about the women that live with us on the compound. FH does trauma counseling for women that have been raped, kidnapped and abused. Most of these women go to their counseling sessions in the villages. The women that live with us are the ones that were considered "at risk". They were severely depressed coming in, and many of them were suicidal. Here they have gone through intensive counseling and have been rebuilding their self esteem. Most of the children running around are the products of rape. They are such beautiful children. I hope that their mothers can see past the pain of the rape to see the beautiful miracle that their children are.

I am very happy in Kitgum. Three weeks does not seem like nearly enough time to be here. I can see myself coming back for longer. Everything about today was exciting and new. It made me feel so alive.