Cher in the World?: Mar 12, 2016

Where have I been you ask?

A Family

Reaching With Supplies!

Baby Cherie and Baby Xavier Clark

I've had a few friends write to say that they have checked up on my blog and are wondering if I am still in Uganda! I have no excuse for not writing, and in fact did write at length a few weeks back. Just never had enough electricity, data, or energy to actually put this up on line as I want to share pictures as well. Things are going well. I'm healthy and happy and busy with ......busy work. We are preparing for a major GHSP conference here in Lira and I find that running about haggling over the price of a bottle of water have somehow consume me. I will post what I wrote and then try to catch up!

A Few Clarks At Christmas

Long time no write! So much has happened since I last posted and I have not really had the motivation to sit down and make a summary of it all in any kind of a written format that I could put out there in cyber space. Coming back to Lira felt like coming home, along with all the joy and the nuts and bolts that “home” implies. Not always an easy place to be, no matter where it is. I was blessed that my son Nam made the trip back with me and that was a tremendous boost.

Fun and Games Christmas

The holidays in Colorado with family were as always a precious time. We treasured the time we had together and missed those family members who couldn’t be present. It was a great season and for me somewhat sweeter as I thought I would be taking off to return to Uganda shortly after we welcomed in 2016. The upsides were plenty with some major snow storms that even caused the schools to close and time with family that I will always cherish. Some of it surrounded watching the Bronco’s and yelling at the TV set and other were quiet times with family members. Tushar and Shauna were able to come visit so that was great but just having most of my kids with me doesn’t make up for the fact that I start missing those who are not there so much more. Who doesn’t know that feeling? Cherish them when they are young and noisy as they all grow up fast and if you raise them internationally then all head off to distant shores.

Fortunately, while back in Colorado I was able to complete all of the final paperwork for my Ph D In Nursing Education and with the help of many new and good friends I can officially say, I did it. This is now Dr. Cherie Clark. I honestly can’t say “what next” but I will keep finding something to study or research or go back for some other kind of degree, engineering? Ha! Couldn’t be any harder then studying Arabic. I am happy that both Nam and Beth are taking more classes and achieving higher degrees among my children and of the grandchildren, wow! We have lots of them graduating this year from high school and others at University or getting ready to start. I have 3 grand daughters graduating in May and I fear I am probably going to miss them all. Initially Agnes felt that I would have my final exams in early May and might be free but the elections have probably made that impossible. Khazana has been longing for me to come to see her graduate in Mexcio City and has written about it often and they already have my ticket but since she was the one who actually brought up the idea of the Peace Corps I think she will understand if I just don’t make it back. She casually mentioned one day that after University she was thinking of joining the PC. I was simply staring at her, listening intently and then thought of Lillian Carter, next thing I know I was online and submitting my application and here I am now waiting for the electricity to come back on in Lira in no time at all. I do not want to miss this important occasion but it doesn’t look possible but I will be with them in spirit and I know that all three have great things in store for them, boo hoo.

Being in Colorado was a time of reflection for me and I could see Uganda in a different light, perhaps with a rosy glow but much of what seemed so difficult in December started to seem a bit trivial. I missed my students every day, they are bright and fun and so eager to learn. I kept busy with ordering supplies, researching a shipment, and with the help of friends and a SEED grant purchasing items that are so desperately needed here. I am forever grateful to family and friends who helped me gather the supplies to equip my 2^nd year students as I had vowed to do with a nursing kit. There were times when it seemed impossible but with help from my friends I achieved my goal and arrived back in Uganda with hundreds of pounds of luggage.

My car with the supplies getting loaded in!

Not long into my visit at home Agnes informed me that school would not reopen until after elections and that I could come back around Feb. 22^nd. Wow, That felt impossibly far away but I cannot kid myself about Lira, it is a tough place to live at times and what keeps me sane is just going to class. If the students were not coming back I really could not imagine what I would do with my time, at all. It just was not worth it for me to come over and sit and do nothing but wait for elections. I did some work with United and my mileage points and managed to get a seat back arriving the day before Nam, considering that we were brining in so many supplies I was somewhat worried about being on two different flights but Nam could not change his ticket without paying a hefty fee. We settled in with our idea of traveling over here on Feb. 3^rd and 4^th and I shipped a 70 pound suitcase out for him to divide into two bags and bring over. Once we settled into that idea and started making our plans I began working on a shipment as well as purchasing a piece of medical equipment for one of the surgeon’s here in Lira that I had incredibly grateful to.. Talk about frustrating. I imagine that I have contacted everyone in the US and Africa regarding purchasing equipment from Bard. Good luck with that. I managed at last to secure it but felt like I had moved a mountain but with trying to get a shipment for the Hospital that the University plans to open, that was another entirely different story. I did end up making a few good contacts and remain determined to help Lira get what they need to keep grow and improve. Nothing is easy about shipping here and sadly most of the problems appear to come from brining things into Uganda. Just as I found that purchasing a simply piece of medical equipment from Bard would be far more expensive in Africa then the US I also began to see how complicated brining even the most basic supplies in can become. Way too much for a blog post I fear.

We were pretty much snowed in so staying focused on my big plans for Uganda just kept me wanting to return all the more. I took a deep dive into using Amazon Prime to brush up on modern American hospitals and watched all 12 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy. I am very new to watching TV programs except Game of Thrones which is a close 2^nd in my life to the Bronco’s (of maybe not) but without commercials the episodes went pretty fast. I actually enjoyed the storyline and my daughter Joanna walked in one day to find me sobbing because one of the lead characters had died. We laughed so hard and I still laugh when I think of it. Yes, it was time to get back to real life and again, Lira saved me. An email arrived saying that had decided not to delay the opening of the school until Feb. 22^nd but would be opening on January 30^th. Why be surprised?

I looked into changing my seat, again and much to my joy couldn’t get a seat back earlier but could get a seat on the flight with Nam. Considering that the students had not arrived back, that the school actually hasn’t started that worked out rather well.

We met up in Brussels and my “original” driver Adam met up with us. He certainly knows his way around Kampala and that was a boost. We visited the PC, picked up my malaria meds and headed up to Lira on the 5^th. I was able to meet Rebecca who is a new GHSP volunteer here in Uganda, she has previously served in Tanzania and she was having her swearing in ceremony while we were there and preparing to join me in Lira. I have to admit that the idea of having a room mate at my age has been a huge fear for me since I first learned of this place in Lira, it seemed that the other volunteers here with GHSP do have their own private spaces and I was having a hard time envisioning my somewhat crazy life suiting another adult. The PC Volunteers in the locality have been hanging out here quite a bit of late and this place gets a bit crazy on the weekends and in particular because I found some football fans, I even adore a Patriot’s fan Anna who I have written of before. Imagine having guests almost every weekend and then add to that the fact that the games are at about 2 in the morning! It feels a bit like a Clark house where anything goes and usually does.

PCV's and Nam doing some cooking, Anna back in the kitchen, of course

I had fretted about having a roomy long enough and was pleased to meet Rebecca and had the highest of hopes that we could share our living apace which is huge by Ugandan standards (I have five bedrooms and 3 baths) but a bit like an American ranch style home where we would share the living area (often filled with bodies lying about on mattresses) and we would share the fridge and kitchen. It was pure joy to reach Lira and to start pointing things out to Nam. I had told him to be very surprised about Uganda, it is lush, it is green and it has great big Colorado Blue Skies. The Uganda we passed through is hotter then hell and the lush green is crispy brown now, oops wrong season. Lira looked different under this sun and my garden which I frequently refer to as a Garden of Eden, is wilted and brown. However Nam is a forward looking guy and got a glimpse of some of what I was trying to tell him it had looked like when I left in December. We arrived home and I felt overjoyed to be here. We un piled all of those precious bags and of course was greeted by the caretaker Douglas who was busy cleaning one of the back cottages here on our compound. Cleaning it for who? Rebecca. No one had mentioned at any point that there had been a slight change in plans. This slight change involved Rebecca living in a cozy one bedroom apartment next to Douglas and me still with spare bedrooms. It just seems like with all of the emails going back and forth that someone might have mentioned this to me! I spent so much time pondering this, anticipating it, worrying and fretting over something that never happened, which is a summary of most of life in general. I am getting a little bit better with all things Lira these days and the attitude of “oh well this will all work out.” Nam knew that I would be busy with my classes but down to the real stuff first. We had purchased two bottles of very nice champagne because this was after all my son Ron’s birthday and Super Bowl Sunday all rolled into one big night. The PCV joined up early in the evening and we had Chinese/Indian food and got ready for the game to start at about 2:30 am. We had a few guest, slept a bit, and then…….. I could not get logged on. Talk about all dressed up and no where to go. Finally we managed to get the internet to come on and watched our boys bring it home. Forget getting a Ph.D. a Super Bowl victory? This doesn’t happen often in life. It was so much fun sharing that with Nam as well as texting endlessly with my kids who were quite scattered about the world.

WE WON THE SUPER BOWL!!!!!!!!!!!! the normal tension was increased by the fact we couldn't get the internet on until the Bronco's had scored 3 points! But we made it, Dab, Dab

I will cherish those texts always and have gone back to read them a number of times. On Ron’s 50^th birthday my beloved Bronco’s won the ir 3^rd Super Bowl title and made us proud. Love those guys, all of them. We even made Superman fly! I happen to really like Cam Newton but when they hit the turf against my Bronco’s, well, that’s enough. Left the crowd who were beginning to wake up and have Mimosa’s and headed out to the University. We had a very large as well as a quite long faculty meeting. They announced that quite a number of our Lira Nursing faculty had been awarded 5scholarships and were going to be heading to Kampala the following day for formalities and therefore we most likely we would not have classes. Oh? Grateful we rushed up for that!

Considering that I had been up all night, considering that I was in an absolutely orange cloud of joy that sounded okay to me and I returned home and Nam and I set out on a task to find a place to head off to so that he could see some wildlife. We ended up back at Chobe which is over priced, has pretty poor service, but has lovely Giraffes. Nam’s pictures of our trip are just beautiful. Nothing but lovely sights. I remained on half/ Colorado time most of the time and then we headed down to take him back for his departure on Thursday. WOW that was a short trip and it was so hard to suddenly have him just here, then gone. I think he got a good glimpse of Uganda on his first trip to Africa and he seemed to have a good time playing tourist and being a great son. I love spending time with him.

Bronco Pride

We more or less rushed back up to Lira, this is a great deal of miles on my old car/body and settled in so that I could begin classes yesterday, I was again blessed to have Monday. Oops, no classes would be held, or only a few until after elections that will come this Thursday the 22^nd. In reality the projected date to open the university that I initially had heard seems to be right on time. Rebecca had her first class yesterday and we had a very long but productive meeting with Professor Jasper who is my hero and an inspiration. I was able to fill him in on our plans for the GHSP conference here in April in a more complete manner and he seems very excited. He suggested that we form a committee. Considering that we GHSP volunteers already have a committee this is going to be a every expanding committee within a committee but we will focus on housing about 150 guests for the conference which has really been pushed along by one of the volunteers Jill. It was gracious on their part to help us to have it in Lira but most of the planning has been on their side. Our committee is going to concentrate on making sure we get the best price possible and looks like we will also have a cultural show. Thankfully someone else was in charge of that because I probably would have just set up the projector to show a rewind of the Bronco’s winning the Super Bowl so best that there are others in charge of entertainment.

POWER's ON? Let me charge a few things!

I was busy with meetings when the students met with Lecturer Anna Grace so I had her distribute their supplies. I have an odd feeling about being Santa Claus so the students carried the box in to the room and she distributed the supplies. I made the promise to them at the beginning of our semester that we would obtain nursing kits for them, something that any American student would expect to have, and we did it. We actually did it. I could never have done this on my own but I know that these supplies will benefit my 40 students for a very long time in the future. It felt so wonderful to see them again in briefly and to get lots of hugs, even from the guys. These students were my introduction to Uganda, they were the students who taught me as much as I ever can imagine that I taught them. They watched me go through the crazy first semester just trying to get my footing in this distant land and I will forever be grateful to them for the humor, the fun, the lessons and I am quite certain that I could present most of them with the same final exam today that I gave in December and that they would remember most of it. Good Kids. VERY good kids. My students do not have an easy time of it. They have families, they have responsibilities and they are working very hard to manage under difficult situations. If I helped ease that just a bit, yeah. Let’s move forward.

Uganda’s elections will take place Thursday and there seem to be sporadic disturbances but our students are given the option to go back to their local region to vote or to stay in Lira so there isn’t too much going on for me in the way of work, just planning for the conference and working on a proposal for the shipment and attempting to have some kind of a rough idea what my schedule might look like this semester, I still as of now am not quite sure what I am going to be teaching. With most of the nursing faculty heading down to Kampala to further their studies I don’t know much more then anyone else. I know that Agnes is looking for someone to teach Med-Surg, not me! I watched way too much Grey’s Anatomy for that. I would be yelling for the crash cart while hoping to find a thermometer. Speaking of which, I brought back a total of 72 thermometers and hope never to find myself on a ward again without one.

Life is good. I am happy to be back. I fantasize about a better internet connection but for now am satisfied that the University is trying to get a better connection going and have formed a what? A committee of course. They sent me a copy of the findings of the committee yesterday and I made it through about 10 pages of the proposal which correctly sums up that we rarely have internet and it is slow and that we have several proposals from alternative carriers. Yeah.

I missed Ron’s birthday last week but my son finds so much joy in his family and his Bronco’s that I know how very happy he was. It was great seeing pictures of them drinking the champagne that I bought for the Super Bowl two years ago (that we lost) and so they were finally able to toast this win. I am missing Beth’s birthday today but see that she was gifted a great Super Bowl Manning jersey and she shares my passion and love for our team, for nursing, and for Viet Nam. (India too) I need to get her over to Africa to help her find a new cause.

Three months of my life in less then 4 pages. Not bad!