Happy Birthday to Me

Today, July 2, 2013, is my 24th birthday. How did I spend it? 8 hours of batiking and then waiting 2 hours for dinner of course! Actually the batiking was pretty entertaining, especially when wowing Katie with my useless ability to name each member of S Club 7 as well as confessing I can name, and describe, every person from the game Guess Who.  And at dinner - at the newly finished (as of a year ago, i think) Jinja Nile Village - we just so happened to be able to participate in some special marketing promotion/feedback gimmick which allowed us to get free food! The only downside was the service was very slow, even for Uganda - but hey, it was free . . . and tasty! :D

As a special my-birthday treat for you, here is a random picture of what you'd see if you were to sit on our toilet. Enjoy!

Painting on the bathroom door

Meow!!! . . . Please, Make It Stop

Apparently the idea of not not living with annoying cats for the next few months was a false one (no offense Leana). The apartment above Lori's, which we are temporarily living in, also houses the cat of the former resident. I forgot this.

Meet Meow. 

(She's more terrifying in this picture than real life. And yes, that is a cat-aract in her right eye - pun intended)

And believe me, the name could not be more appropriate . . . unfortunately for us. I made the mistake of petting her one evening and now she's taken to following me around the house and meowing loudly. The other night I forgot to close my bedroom door, remembering during dinner. That's strike one. 'She'll probably be in our room when we get back,' I'd jokingly thought to myself. Strike 2 for Sarah. Later that night Katie and I walk into our room, turn on the light and barely see Meow as she runs lightning quick off of my bed and out of the room.
"She was laying on my bed!!!!" I cried (only realizing after it came out I'd totally channeled Buster from Arrested Development 'it walked on my pillow!!!').

The next day before I'd gotten out of bed, I heard Tara through the door. "The cat pooped on my dress!!! I was going to wear this today!" Apparently Meow was mad that Tara didn't let her into her room the previous night and decided to let her have it. So it seems that not only is Meow super annoying, but vindictive too.

As a safe guard for myself, I've decided to threaten never to pet her again should she do something like that to my things. We'll see how well that works out . . .

Looks relatively innocent in this picture, huh?

Town Pics

As promised here are a small number of pictures from around town - mostly side streets (as opposed to main street) because it was less embarrassing to take pictures that way. ;)

The birthday girl, Katie, sitting at Flavours - a popular coffee shop

View from the tapas restaurant we went for Katie's birthday dinner, overlooking the Nile River

More pictures to come - some of which will hopefully show the differences in run-down-ness, if you will (meaning not all of Jinja looks like the photos above).

Out and About

Well the first trip out and about in town proved to be quite successful. We got our sim cards for our phones and some airtime as well as stopped by The Source Cafe. This was the best part of the day for me because I got to see my friend Maxi - who is now expecting a baby!!! Also, Irene from the gift shop definitely remembered me and I wasn't sure that she would, so naturally that put me on cloud nine. :)

We did pass by Eva at her craft shop on the walk to and from town, but I don't think she remembered me. But that's ok, and to be quite honest, somewhat expected. Many people here think that most Mzungus look the same and if you're working at a craft shop you're guaranteed to see A LOT of them.

Today is Katie's birthday and so far has been a pretty lazy day. Mostly because we haven't started working on our projects yet. Since we don't really have anything planned today (other than a possible meeting with Tara and a woman named Tina) we thought we might embarrassingly play tourist and take pictures around town for you kids to enjoy. ;)

Ugandan Adventures – Take 2

Monday, June 24, 2013

Well, I haven’t even reached Jinja yet, and I’ve already got bug bites – thank you hot and humid last night in Chicago. Fingers crossed I’ll be mostly spared the remainder of my trip. :D On a more serious note, leaving for Uganda was much harder this time than I anticipated. The most obvious reason being the amazing friends and loved ones I’m leaving behind. But as with all things, time will pass and I’ll forget all about them – just kidding! Time will pass and we’ll all be back together again. But until that time comes, I am extremely happy to be going back to my African home to see and work with my surrogate family!!!

The stories for this great adventure started early, at O’Hare Int’l Airport and the baggage check. Hopping into a relatively short line Joshua and I thought, ‘this won’t take long at all.’ Eh, not so much. Despite having to wait for what seemed like quite a while we were given some good entertainment; entertainment in the form of a small, mischievous boy. Forget running around, not listening to your parents. This kid was running around between various attempts (most successful) of climbing on top of the luggage scale and peering around the corner at the Lufthansa employees working behind the desk.

Finally the mom managed to block his way to the scale but it wasn’t without GREAT effort on his part.

Fast forward to the middle of my first plane ride (destination – Frankfurt, Germany)

The flight attendants are pushing a cart down the aisle collecting dinner trays and who should come strolling up behind them? The little hell raiser from the baggage check back in Chicago! Being a kid and not knowing better, he tries to squeeze past.

Attendant #1 – “Just a minute”

He tries to squeeze by.

Attendant #1 – “Wait just a minute please.”

Still not listening, he makes another attempt to pass through.

Clearly asking him to wait is out of the question. After a quick conversation with Attendant #2 on the opposite side of the cart, Attendant #1 bends down, picks up the boy, and passes him over the cart to her coworker who then sets him down on the other side. Unfazed, the kid takes off only to be seen running around the plane multiple times later, a family member chasing behind.

Airport – Frankfurt, Germany

Not too much excitement here, other than 30 minutes of free internet and a few hours of waiting for the second leg of my trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The flight there was barely noteworthy (shocker). I slept most of the way which was nice and was elbowed intermittently throughout the whole flight by the lady sitting next to me.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Airport

Very. Confusing. Perhaps I was just thrown off from sleep, lack thereof, or the time change, but figuring out where I needed to be in this place was not easy, or obvious . . . at all. Eventually I was able to find someone to help me, learning that I was in the wrong terminal and needed to catch the bus to the correct location. However, multiple busses came and went only allowing passengers off and on rare occasion a select few on. Eventually though, I got on a bus and made it to my gate to wait for my final flight of the trip.

I knew I was definitely in Africa when I got sandwiched by two men heading to Entebbe as well, and one of them eventually asked for my contact information.

Him - “Do you have a card?”

Me – “No”

Him – “Do you have a phone?”

Me – “no” (well technically yes, but I didn’t know the number and certainly wasn’t going to give it to this random person)

Him – “ok, well why don’t I give you my number so you can call me?”

Me – “ok, sure” (‘that will never happen’)   - and time to get on the plane.

The last flight was short and other than everyone’s baggage taking ridiculously long to appear, everything went smoothly. Customs were a breeze and my ride was waiting for me when I came out. I finally reached the house around 3:30am on the 26^th.

Now we wait and see what new adventures unfold…

Much Overdue Sewing Class Report

As if you hadn't already noticed, I'm a total slacker. That is why I am just now - an entire month later - filling you in on the great things that took form during my Beginning Sewing Class teacher training with Margaret and Sarah.

In case you forgot, my last post on the topic was all about the first class and how awesome it went. From that early success I had great plans and ideas forming on how I would continue on with each lesson. Little did I know that absolutely none of these early plans would actually work out. But that's ok - I can improvise! (That's Margaret showing one of our 'students', Eva, how to hand sew a whip stitch - fyi -->)

The rest of the 8-hours a day, 2-days a week, 6-week long training went a little something like the following. The first 3 weeks I played teacher; Sarah and Margaret following along in their curriculum books as 'students'. This was actually a really good way of introducing them to the material they (once done with training) will be expected to know and be able to teach. It also allowed me to show them the best ways of presenting certain information or demonstrating new techniques.

It wasn't until the last 3 weeks of the lesson that I was truly able to see how much Margaret and Sarah had absorbed and actually listened to. This is because these were their sink or swim weeks - they had to teach by themselves, alternating lessons. And they had to teach it to students that I brought in. The idea behind this was not only to make sure that they would teach each lesson exactly as it is written in the curriculum (this in itself was a BIG concern), but also to make sure that when translated into whatever language would be used for class the content still made sense - and if not, we could work together to fix it. (There's no way they can deny having at least a little bit of fun during our training - I've got proof! -->)

These final weeks proved to be the most entertaining. My friend Alex agreed to help out translating each lesson for me as well as sit as a 'student' (Note Alex proudly modeling a sample skirt I had made for the class which he continued to wear in public while we got lunch) along with a FOM friend, Eva. I was overcome with 'momma bear' pride during the first solo lessons Margaret and Sarah taught. They really were listening!!!! I was beaming and couldn't have been more pleased. However, it wasn't always smooth sailing - particularly when it became apparent that one or both of them hadn't fully grasped some of the concepts we'd gone over in the weeks before. But all in all the training as a whole went very well (especially for my first solo training ever and not knowing what I was doing)!

Completing the training however did not secure a teaching job offer for either Sarah or Margaret. That depended on the completion of the required technique sewing samples as well as 4 sample projects we went over during class. This was the part that made me VERY nervous. It would be such a shame for these ladies to go through the whole training - and prove their abilities - but not be able to gain a certificate for the training or acquire further contracts with Fount of Mercy because they didn't complete their homework. Seriously, this seemingly minor detail had me on the edge of my seat routing for my students as they, pretty close to literally, raced against the clock to get their work done.

When 5pm Friday, February 24th -the deadline to turn in all samples- rolled around would I be filled with success or disappointment? Well let's just say I was the happiest fake teacher in all of Uganda walking home with bulging tote bags full of samples to grade.

Our training wrap-up and graduation ceremony was set for the following Tuesday, February 28th - the day I would officially acknowledge all of the hard work these two amazing women had put into the class the past 6 weeks as well as the day I would leave Uganda. Talk about bitter sweet. We presented certificates, talked about Sarah and Margaret's individual strengths and weaknesses and then had lunch. It was a great day and an even greater honor to say I was able to work with Nalongo Sarah and Achom Margaret, two of the most amazing, hard-working, determined women I have ever had the privilege to meet.

Politics in Jinja Town

Political elections stir up trouble virtually everywhere in the world, and the Ugandan small town of Jinja is no exception. Throughout my time here I’ve heard about the riots that commonly accompany political elections and the entertaining stories that go along with them – at least to an unseasoned third party like me. So you can imagine my excitement and intrigue when I heard a few months back that there would be a re-election for Jinja’s MP due to accusations that the winning party didn’t have the papers needed (or probably more likely, wanted) to document his education.

Election Day was set for Thursday, February 9^th with the results to be announced that evening. In the days leading up to the election this week there was enough busy anticipation to help even the dullest of individuals clue into what was about to take place. The most obvious sign was the numerous, and seemingly spontaneous, parades that marched down main street. Monday kicked things off in the morning with a substantial chunk of the Ugandan army marching down the street wielding not only guns, but large leafy branches as well. Tuesday was peppered with parades made up of cars, music, and woman wearing banana fiber outfits, finished off by one of the election candidates waving to the crowds from the back of a truck bed in which he stood talking on the phone. Huge masses of people swarming to the court house also caused quite a commotion throughout the day. Wednesday surprised me, with virtually no disturbances at all and before you knew it it was the big day, February 9^th.

The day started off just like any other Thursday morning, however it ended very differently than your average weekday. At around 3pm my friend Liza and I were headed down Main Street, me to the office and her to talk with a local crafter. However, about 10 minutes after Liza left me she reappeared in the doorway “Sarah they’re going to set off tear gas at 4pm. We need to be out of town before then.”

“What?! I always miss the good stuff! Can’t we LEAVE at 4??” My response was a very stern NO, which is good otherwise I could have been in a VERY bad situation later.

As we quickly made a stop at the supermarket so I could make a hasty purchase of dinner ingredients Liza peppered me with questions in a “I told you so” sort of way - “Look how empty the streets are now, isn’t it weird?” “It’s so quiet out now, don’t you notice it?” - But I didn’t really feel, or see rather, the severity of the situation until she pointed out the huge police trucks. Two giant armored trucks were parked across the road, each filled with soldiers ready to release tear gas at any given moment. There were also swarms of soldiers on the ground, rerouting traffic and just making their presence known in general. This was definitely a different Jinja than I walked into this morning.

“Ok, now I guess I’m glad we decided to leave when we did,” I reluctantly admitted. . . but I still wish I could have seen some of that action that took place that night . . .

Apparently things didn’t get really heated until around 9pm. Tear gas was being set off all up and down Main Street as unruly citizens – undoubtedly reacting to an unsatisfactory election outcome – began throwing rocks and large pieces of wood at policemen, cars parked on the street, and probably anything else that they could potentially cause damage to. From the eyewitness accounts I’ve heard it sounded like a crazy night and I’m glad Liza made me leave when she did . . . just in case.