Holy Rock and Roll

The church next-door is about a football field away from my bedroom window, but sounds as though it is much closer. They have been building it since I moved in and have only put the roof on during the past week. I had high hopes that once the roof was on the volume would go down. It seems to be acting as an amplifier as the sun beats down on the corrugated tin. It is my destiny, it would seem, to live near a loud speaker when not in Colorado. Viet Nam, before after and during the war always had speakers that would announce the daily news that came on just outside my window. This would start at about 5 am with the national anthem; it must have been helpful to the comrades who did not have a radio or TV. Local community announcements were also made over the speaker as well as a few lost and found announcements. In the Middle East I was always near to a mosque, a real call to prayer is beautiful but a recorded one at full blast over a tinny speaker isn’t a great way to wake up in the morning. Then there was Ngoc Khanh in Ha Noi with a karaoke bar on either side of our house with competing songs by Korean’s or locals going full blast. Now I have a church. They gather on some weekdays and it sounds like a very wild party and sometimes almost like a disco. They are playing some pretty heavy “rock” music right now, this has been going on all day and doesn’t sound like it will let up any time soon. No idea if every single person within a mile belongs to this church or if they are just broadcasting for all of us. Whatever it is, they are loud but certainly seem to be having a very good time. It is already after 10 pm and they have been at this for about 12 hours and it doesn’t seem to be winding down at all. And no, I haven’t thought of going to join them. I fear it is way too lively for me! 

The power has been out so much of late that I don’t seem to ever be able to get caught up but have finally figured out that to try to do my lessons on the weekend will only leave me frustrated as the biggest power cut days seem to be on Saturday and Sunday. If I leave most of my work for Monday I accomplish more and don't get frustrated.  When the power came back on last night the fan blew a fuse but Douglas loaned me his as he said, “Ugandan people aren’t like you whites.” I am starting to become accustom to being called “you white’s.” You whites or just "whites" is used frequently and doesn't seem derogatory and I assume that it could be similar to you Westerners or Ferengi’s, Parangs, Feranges, Foreigners, Nguoi Nuoc Ngoai’s, etc. anywhere else.

When I applied to Seed I started following every single blog and would be so frustrated at volunteers who got in country and then didn’t write much at all about it. Here I am just a month into it and it seems I haven't written in ages. 

Classes are now in full swing and I have about 39 students in my class. I am still getting accustom to the lifting of eyebrows as a way of saying "yes." It is unique for me and I find it quite interesting and probably am starting to do it myself! 

To ask a question and not get a yes or no, just an eyebrow wag is definitely unusual, I am assuming it means “yes” or I am following you, or I agree. Wednesday has been "media" day but this week we begin working in the hospital.  I spent a fortune on data to download video’s to show the class that were filmed in low resource settings. It was going to be exciting or so I thought, Ugandan students watching childbirth in Kenya. It did not work out as well as I had hoped. Then I came across some DVD’s that Agnes had that were donated by one of the first GHSP volunteers. These are of regular US Nursing students in the clinical setting. The students seem to love these DVD’s. They are tuned into how inquisitive the student nurses are with the nurse educator, how they ask questions, how they do not hesitate to say “I don’t know how to do that” and how many times they wash the hands and how politely they approach the patients. So would have thought?

Irene from GHSP came up from Kampala to make sure that I am still among the living, It was great to meet with someone that I have known for a few months and we had a nice talk, we met at the University in my office and then she came to the house. She was nice to talk to and I had met her during our Orientation so it was good to see a familiar face. My first box that Sue sent to me in c/o PC in Kampala still has not reached but the one that she sent directly here to Lira did. Christmas!! It was so exciting to at last have some respectable skirts to wear to the University. However, just about the time I got skirts a few faculty members started wearing slacks so now I am also wearing black well made trousers and appear to be able to teach just fine in them. I continue to get weekly calls from GHSP in Boston, we always seem to find lot’s to talk about. I have told them that I am starting at the hospital and made arrangements to talk with Julie after that. I cannot say what my reaction will be to the shortages or to what I saw when I was here during my homestay, perhaps it will look more "normal" now. Lira has started to feel very much like home so I might see this differently. 

My home situation is good. Janet is still here most of the time although she took an extended trip back to her village and then proceeded to call me every single day and tell me that she was returning the next day, and then did not. Finally when she did come back I asked her why she always said she was coming back the next day and she said she just called me so she could hear my voice and she wanted me to be happy. Oh. I understand? You had no intentions of returning but thought it would make me happy to hear that you were coming back so you said you were! that makes perfect sense. No matter what though I really love this kid. She is very funny and I usually tell her she is behaving like a mother hen. The hardest days for me are the ones when we have no power but I am managing.  I mentioned that in India we call it "load shedding" and was told, "In Uganda we call it load shedding, too." So here's to LS 

I have found a man who spent about 15 years working with Indian’s here in Lira who loves to help me out sometimes making smoothies and chai and he made paneer and I showed him a recipe for Uttupam and we made it. I am eating better now then I have in ages. Yeah! My car situation is a work in progress and not in a good way. The car is fine but some small problems with the pilot that I must work out.

The power outages do not seem to have bothered the church as they have plenty of loud speakers, not sure if they have a generator or maybe they just have a direct source.

ONE MORE WEEK until I start making some racket of my own! Seems very hard to believe that it is already Labor Day Weekend. 

Got a doctor in town?

I posted this on my FB page and despite many funny replies and some shares it brings home some of what we face in the medical community. Many of the patients are coming to this "doctor" and others like him as their first line of treatment. Sadly most of what he offers can't work and we know it. This is all real and causes huge problem.

We had class again today and these students are just delightful. The communication issue is always going to be there. For one, when I ask them a direct questions often they reply by raising their eyebrows, sometimes not by all that much. If I had not seen this over the past month I would just assume I am spitting in the wind, or not getting through. I usually ask, is that yes? no? or maybe? ........ the students? Let me tell you a few things I have learned here. There have never been quieter students in any classroom I have ever seen. These kids come almost to attention as a Lecturer walks in the room, I observed other classes today and they sit there......waiting. I have attempted to make my lectures have a bit of humour in them but fear that it might somehow get lost. Some of the kids are trying to smile back at me now but for the most part they are just sitting there. Now at the end of the lecture I start a ten minute question and answer period and without exception they can repeat back to me all that I was saying. If not? I would assume that I was wasting there time and mine. They are a great bunch, don't get me wrong. They are just amazingly serious and quiet. They speak in the softest tones which always requires me to move forward and ask them to repeat. American Professor's ........read and weep. There are teachers in Viet Nam who would die for such a classroom. They are engaged but they are quiet. It is refreshing but at times almost a bit scary.

Hotter than Hell in Lira and the Mosquito's are out in full force. We have not had any power at all for almost 36 hours. I am online because of a local woman smart enough to put in solar power that charged my mac in about 3 hours ....... the internet is fast but not always here. I was sailing on high street all of last week and thought I had fallen into the garden of eden but this lack of power, the fact that my hair must look like something from a freak show (thankfully no mirror) and the fact that I haven't felt actually clean in days is a bit of a damper on the spirits. It is humid and hot, not a scorching hot but a all encompassing I have no way to escape this hot. Last night with no power I managed to get a dim light from my PC issued solar lamp and found the PC issued mosquito net, I've been using the fan but this wasn't going to make it with no power. The mosquito net was reminiscent of Calcutta in the 70's, by the 80's are mosquito nets felt less like brillo pads and more like something that could let air move. I laid there counting mosquitos and sheep thinking that if I could make it though last night I could probably make it through anything. Half way through my painfully long night I realised that most of the population of Lira is not waiting for the power to come on at all, they are not waiting for the fan to cool them off, they aren't waiting for hot water, or gas to make it to town. Even in my homestay we did not have such luxuries. I realised that I was being a spoiled American longing for an ice cube in the middle of the desert. If I have found myself all the way to Arica might as well adjust to the pulsating ever present heat, or call Dr. Sekenoy to see if electricity and the power supply is number 21 on his list in that he fails to list anything.

Class today and then a bit of an escape. They actually had a generator at the university today. It sounds like the old diesel one that we had in Cal. I sat in on the other lecturer's presentation, it was on pharmacology and he did a very good presentation and also used a power point. He also is very nice but soft spoken and I took a seat back with the students. If ANYONE could hear him I wonder where they were sitting. Meanwhile they participated as softly and with the same deference to him that I have received. Just nice, respectful kids. Every now and then someone just breaks out and smiles and I know that I am getting through. I asked them today if I can take their picture in class, I passed around a paper giving me permission and told them they are free to opt out if they so desire but they all seemed very eager to be photographed. Lovely bunch of kids, I mean, come on what's a few mosquito's and stifling heat?

Peace Corps Bike!

Of course I wanted to get one but had no idea that it would be so much fun. Janet has been polishing and washing it most of this afternoon. She borrowed it and rode over to see friends and then spent more time putting some shine back on it then she did using it. This is a well loved two wheeler! Made in China, of course.  Janet said at the bike shop they kept asking, "Who is that Mzungu?" and she said, "my mother."

I like this guys smiling face, giving us a ticket to park. 

Janet AKA Wonder Girl 

Adam and Janet looking at the bikes! 

Classroom time!

Met 10 of the 40 students today...... these were some of the best students I have ever spent time with. They are 2nd year BSN students and I got in the habit of quickly asking them to repeat back what I had just said to them as I wasn't quite sure that I was actually getting through. That blank, "Huh?" look is very universal. In all we communicated well and I had two emails from them this afternoon. Nice, quiet, well behaved and very soft spoken.  The University is so far out there that I honestly don't know how anyone could have made it without wheels, hats off to those who did it last year. 12 kilometres from home to University and then quite a bit more if you are in the mood for a bottle of water from town.

The students arrived with pen and paper today and were all ready to begin taking notes. Hard to even imagine that all of this information is passed without visual aids, or many visual aids and that they have spent most of their life studying without books. I would not have been able to do it, I'm not altogether certain that I can even teach without books! The library is okay but the students are restricted to when they can use books and that seems to be during the class room hours. They have nursing books that were donated through books to Africa and there are a few copies of many subjects. My super duper projector plays about zero in the class room. I am going to have to get very creative in the days to come, it is a fantastic projector but there is so much light in the class room. From what I hear it is going to get much "lighter" in the days to come. Sunshine in abundance. I came home from the University and began working on a lesson plan that does not involve them having a text book or me having electricity, wi-fi, or power points. Seed came through and I did get the printer to work yesterday but not this evening. Adam fortunately was able to help me get some cords for it for the Mac and I printed out some nonsense yesterday but haven't been successful tonight as I prepare for the next lecture.

Why ten students? That's the way it is here I am given to understand. The students do not all show up to begin classes when the University opens. Of the ten who were here today only a handful are local and the rest have moved up here to attend University from various places. This starts with a trickle of students which could make the first week of classes boring for those who come late. My host family explained that in some cases this is because the family is struggling to get the financial means to pay tuition and boarding for their children. I am going to ask their permission next time to take pictures and will introduce you to these lovely people. Fortunately almost all of them also have a "western" sort of name, which makes things infinitely easier for me. There are some bright, eager faces in the crowd and I look froward to spending time with them. I cannot say that I am terribly eager to go back to the hospital but hopefully we can do some good. My last few visits were very sad and I am never going to become accustom to bigger kids dying, or at least I hope not. It is awful.

 My car had a leak of some sort today and that appeared to be water... I need superglue. Went to the post office and nothing there as yet, it has been almost a month since the first box was sent so maybe soon, that one has all of my text books! All is well except the internet has been very sporadic at best. I usually have to walk around the room with the laptop to log on. Actually I was spoiled by the several weeks of near perfect internet I had. I continue to ramble on offline and then post it so sorry for grammar, half completed thoughts, etc.  Things are "okay" ...... Janet is still here with me. She has a very sad and amazing story, to think that she has had such a life at about 16 years of age is something to give me pause. Mother is gone and those who have been her caretakers have all died, that being a father, an uncle and her grandparents. She has had a difficult time and one would not know it from the way she glows. Her English is so good and she only attended school up until class 6.  I will post pictures of her as soon as possible right now neither of us are at our finest.  This girl anticipates everything long before I realise that we might need or want it. We are cooking on a charcoal stove inside the kitchen as they are still waiting for gas to arrive in Lira. It is rare to see Janet without a big smile on her face.  Her goal seems to be to make sure that I eat at least two square meals a day ..... That is a challenge my friends. It isn't that I don't like the food here, I just haven't been able to get past all of the potato's, rice, and more white foods, so far. Living on an Ayurvedic diet wouldn't be possible here although we ate smoking of green veggie today.  Love this Kid.  Adam continues to be very dependable and I hope things will stay just as they are, except I want my internet to come on whenever I need it, spoiled!

This kind of summed up a bit of how I am feeling today...... complaining about not having instant wifi, the printer not doing what I want it to right now, the projector not projecting as well as I wish and others have kids laying in a hospital bed up the road. I am grateful for what I have.

Returned safely to Lira

We had a safe ride up here and the car made it although there were moments when it seemed best to replace the tires sometime soon, that needs to wait though for now. We picked up my bag from my host families home and one of the young girls who lives with them, Janet, came to spend a few days helping me settle in. The house is "okay" ......pretty dusty and needs some cleaning but I will manage that tomorrow. For now I am just settling in and hoping that things work out here. There is no gas available in Lira for the store, GHSP sent the printer they had been promising me since DC somewhere else and in general I have been getting so "cha-cha-cha" about it. Bonnie called with one story which was the exact opposite what Irene told me.  I was reminded I hardly needed a printer yet as my classes don't start until Tuesday, why bother setting things up 24 hours earlier then I need to seems to be the attitude. Lira seemed bright and happening today and I am so happy to at last be able to take my clothes out os the suitcase after a month of living on the road. Can't wait for the University to open but whether or not I will have a printer feels doubtful at this point. I was given some gloves and some other supplies to bring up here with me and can't wait for classes to start. 

"Never buy shoes in Uganda after dark" Robert, GHSP Nurse Educator

Robert was born in Uganda but raised in the US and allowed me to share his quote. I am hopeful that it doesn't extend to cars as well!

And this friends is what happiness feels like. I got my car. This was the one that I found on Sunday (dream car pictured previously). I have been wading through parking lots, met at least twenty sincere owners and sellers of cars, walked through mud and dust, discussed tax ID numbers, log books, insurance and heard hilarious stories about how Ugandan’s “don’t use AC because it is too hot, radio’s in cars are not safe, etc.” It was in the end a great cultural experience as people selling cars are pretty much the same everywhere. I know having just sold one. As it was I ended up with all of those unnecessary things.  Bargaining on a very short budget helps. I had nowhere to go but down. The fact that this car was on a website advertising cars in Uganda gave me a baseline to bargain from. 

For now, I love my car, which has been affectionately named: Lefty 2. In America, Brian and I named the car Lefty 7 which was on my vanity plates, me for political reasons and 7 is his favorite number and I thought this new one should also be a Lefty. This car is sweet, or as sweet as a 1999 car that started out in Japan and ended up on a lot in Uganda can be. The fact that changing the oil filter and making all other repairs is on me is okay and standard practice.

The chance that I could have purchased and can have this car brought back to drive without Adam is zero.  I most certainly won’t drive to Lira on these roads.  They aren’t as bad as Viet Nam or India but I’m not driving there either. Adam the driver accompanied me through three car sale adventures yesterday, all done in the parking lot mainly with three or four people crowded in the vehicle while I sat there saying, “Sir I really don’t want this car at any price.”  When we went to Western Union to pick up my funds that Sue sent Adam, who isn’t exactly a small dude, and three other guys running from large to larger, accompanied me. The man at WU asked me if I wanted an escort to the car with my three thousand bucks I shrugged and told him I was going in their car. He nodded with a bit of a perplexed look. Who goes inside WU with 4 people?

Shout out to my sister Sue for always, always being there for me though Viet Nam, India and now Kampala, she hopped on line and transferred the money so I could buy this baby in record time. Sue, I love you.

We went out to meet the regular volunteers yesterday; they are a great group and some of them referred to themselves as the “fossils.” They are above 50 and joining volunteers who are mostly in their 20’s. Met some great people who will join us for swearing in today.  I moved on to the important things and met a Bronco’s fan that is going to a site in Southern Uganda.  He is also from Colorado and found a café in his village where they live stream Bronco games. The owner has returned to Uganda to live and brought the spirit with her, he tells me that she shows every game and that she airs them at any time day or night, he is worried about his curfew as he is outside the city. My data plan is exploding so I need to try to change it before heading back to Lira tomorrow. Clark family members when in Viet Nam, Indonesia, Thailand, Mexico, India, the UK, the US, Costa Rica, Palestine or Israel don’t let other family members miss the game.

As for this “privilege” of buying a car in Uganda. So grateful that Lefty 2 and I are on this journey. The University is at least 10 kilometers from my house and despite my passion and my desire to make this work, I can't manage that. The idea that I have arrived, that I can do this, that I can make this happen is so real for me. The fact that one of the great enemies that I face is Malaria and HIV I am ready to get out there and make try to make a difference. I have already seen one kid too many die of something that should not even be on the radar. To ask me to come fight malaria was a great idea and I am so blessed to be here. Seeing several children arrive in wards when it is already too late is jut not acceptable These kids do not fir the profile of what you might imagine, they are well nourished children who arrived for care too late, most with something viral that should have been prevented.

I met young PC volunteers yesterday who will be far more vulnerable that I am who are going to be living way outside of Lira without a walled compound surrounding them, even though I feel that even with my limitations I could scale that wall. Easily. The PC volunteers are the people who are making an amazing contribution and will utilise public transport and live at a very local level as I worry about if the radio on the car is working. (It does).   I can make this journey happen in part because I have wheels. I am so fortunate that my time came just as SEED was developing this program. To quote Hesse in Siddhartha,  “there is no such thing as chance.”   

We took out oath this morning, it was touching and we will swear in after just a few more hours. I am excited, happy, expectant, ready and willing to move in to whatever position now awaits me.  We had a Skype call with Seed yesterday; I summed up how things are going.  It was great to hear the voices of those who have been following our journey. Much has happened since then, I have jumped into the owners seat while preparing to be the driver.

Our GHSP group swearing in at the US Ambassador's house. 

My brief introduction to Lira gave me the opportunity to meet some students and this is all incredibly important. Our visit to the hospital here in Kampala was informative and taught me a few things.  I can walk for four hours, climb steep slopes, and not lag behind or fall over in the Kampala sunshine.  We actually made several trips up and down the same flight of stairs and … I made it. My internal thermostat is no longer working at optimal condition, so it took me a bit of time to cool down after the time spent in the hospital but I wasn’t alone.  I am enjoying this journey so much and it has only just begun.

Buying a car in Uganda, 101

First of all, the fact that a Peace Corps volunteer can even thing of buying a car is a bit remote for most people to grasp. The GHSP volunteers have a bit of an advantage in that our host group. Seed has negotiated and worked hard so that we can buy a car. So from there......the fun starts. And no matter what I say this has been fun, and a great cultural experience. I might at the end have a car, and maybe not.

When we were in DC, Dr. Bonny the GHSP rep told me I could buy a car for around $1500. that seemed amazing, and doable. I know for me the fact that transportation is a major concern that actually having "permission" to purchase and drive a car was huge. Next things was to arrive here with destination Lira, check it out, and move forward. The options that the University have seemed sketchy at best. PC provided me with a local driver and car and everywhere we met, sometimes 10 to 12 km. outside of town ended up with me arriving and waiting for them to arrive in the hospital ambulance, which seems to function more as the hospital transportation vehicle. My goal was to become as independent as I can at my age, within my budge and with what might be available. As luck would have it I seemed to have stumbled upon a driver who was willing to work with me toward that goal. Cautious optimism, at best. Steven the PC guide and language instructor has also been helping as has Jesse one of the drivers for PC that I happened to meet who is also an Iraq survivor having worked for the UN.

And this 

Onward and upward. Anyone can go online and find cars for sale in Kampala, an abundance of them. Finding your car and finding one that will suit the roads of Lira even when it is flooding and finding one that suits your budget (extremely tight) begins the highlight of the search. We went out today with a driver who picked us up. I am leaving Lefty 7, my 2012 vehicle far behind and now looking at cars made in Japan circa 1999. I have tried to forget that the Japanese team obviously wasn't utilizing a female design team back then and have tried to forget that I really dislike that boxy look. I don't care about the style of the car much, what I care about is what is under the hood. We have found slipping fan belts, which I am told can be fixed and with one Honda I was told that Honda manufactures cars so that the door has a distinct clicking sound when you open it, two of them in fact but only on the left side. This I am told is a particular Honda design. To have perfected this on the left side but not on the right is a fete that I applaud Honda for. I have not seen a single Hyundai in all of the parking lots I have been through. The brokers are nice, but let's face it I am a foreigner looking for a cheap used car. Transferring the money to buy said used car from my almost non-existent savings is quite another fete that I am tackling. The rest of the group I am here with are off to a cultural show again tonight. They went last night but it was closed due to some wedding or something. I had a good day, Jesse the driver and I spent some time swapping war stories about Iraq, as a UN troop member he was on the side that was at the check points and hopefully not shooting at us civilians. I was once in a convoy, took out my camera to take a picture of an incredibly long line of tanks and saw the gun barrel moving toward me as the person in the carrier noticed a silver flash. Maybe Jessie? Wish me luck in this adventure. My goal, Wheels by Thursday. But, I am resigned to whatever happens, happens. If I can't accomplish this it isn't from lack of effort.

Spent the day at the hospitals, even though this was one of the best in Kampala many departments were lacking in significant interventions. We saw one little girl about five years old who had been brought into outpatient at the nutrition ward and moved to ICU, there was no truly no hope for her. Very very sad.

All that separates us is $$$$$