July 8, 2019
Today, I studied and reviewed my Lumasaaba very thoroughly because tomorrow we have a mock Language Proficiency Interview (LPI) and examination. It isn’t something that I’m looking forward to, because how proficient can someone really be after only two weeks of learning a language? Still, it is something that must be done, and I’ve been memorizing my daily verbs, my vocabulary words, and my conjugations for various tenses. I’ve been reviewing and practicing so much that I feel like my brain is going to leak out of my ears. But at least there was some distraction when I got home to help my homestay sister Stella prepare dinner. I learned a lot about how to prepare and cook the local foods that I’ve been coming to love, so having that as a reprieve before reviewing more Lumasaaba was extremely welcome.
July 9, 2019
Well, that mock LPI was a complete and utter disaster, no matter what my teachers might tell me. Out of nowhere they decided to spring a voice recorder on us, and it must have put me in an extremely anxious state. I couldn’t get hardly any words out of my mouth, let alone form a complete sentence. And despite the encouragement of my instructor, Beatrice, to make mistakes and to not worry so much about being perfect… well, it’s rather rare for me not be good to great at most anything I try. Language was always something that I never had any talent in, no matter the drive or the ease of the language itself. Still, with agreements with Beatrice and Maango, I will be practicing with them one-on-one everyday as well as with friends I’ve made here in Mbale and with my family, while trying not to care about making mistakes… wonder how long it will last.
July 10, 2019
We got our language assessments back, and just like I thought, I’ve got a long way to go. Luckily, my teachers are confident in my potential, and I’ve assumed a new strategy for learning and practice. With plenty of new flashcards, and with all the practicing with others I’ll be doing, I’m sure progress will be made.
After lunch, we visited the Mbale chapter of the Bethel Institute of Health Sciences. The Health Volunteers and I met with some of the staff as well as some of the students. This facility of higher learning focuses on being certified in skills such as laboratory sciences, medical record keeping, and patient case management. All of which are professional skills desperately needed within the medical sectors of Uganda, but there are a variety of societal and structural factors that keep those necessary positions from being filled. Still, the drive and the ambition of the students was very promising, and the entrepreneurial philanthrope of the doctor, nurse practitioner, and the public health official who started the institute are very inspiring.
Afterwards, back at home, the family and I (but really my Ugandan siblings and I) had our very first movie night! Maayi Katherine was away for work, but I was happy to introduce some good American cinema to them on my laptop’s tiny screen. It was a nice bonding experience, and Katherine said she would be home for another movie tomorrow, before she left to go pray until the sun rises in the morning.
July 11, 2019
Sent a birthday message to my father before heading to more language training and practice. Progress does feel like it’s being made, but there’s less focus on sentence structure as we learn more about numbers, finances, and communicating the time of day. But watching Wonder Woman was definitely the highlight of the evening. The family had an early dinner before the show, and with tea and snacks in hand. I smiled, chuckled, and very much enjoyed the entertaining reactions my family had to one of my favorite movies, and my favorite superhero.
“How is that woman so strong?!”
“She will have to get used to people telling her what she can’t do.” “…Oh, never mind.”
“That is a very bad man. Diana will have to stop him soon.”
“Stop shooting! You can’t stop her; you don’t know what she is!”
“Oh, my God… She is so strong!”
It was another successful movie night, to say the least.
July 12, 2019
Turns out, I’m going to be staying right here in Mbale! My site is actually – possibly – less than two kilometers away from downtown. I’ll be working with ‘Spotlight on Africa.’ They are an NGO, non-profit registered in partnership with the UK and in Uganda. Their focus on health, water, education, and economic empowerment. The organization has multiple establishments. There is a school – both nursery-level and primary-level – with around 1,000 students enrolled. A health center, and a team of Community Health Promoters (CHPS), work to motivate and encourage members to access their free health services. They have secured access to both clean and potable water to more than ten thousand citizens. And they support economic empowerment activities that benefit the CHPS, women, widows, orphans, urban forgotten dwellers, and other disadvantaged individuals.
Some of my responsibilities will potentially include:
- Conducting HIV/AIDS training and HIV risk assessments
- Participating in activities aimed at promoting compliance and adherence to patient treatment
- Training in water and proper sanitation and hygiene activities
- For Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC),
July 13, 2019
Today, we met our Supervisors and Counterparts. Today, we met our bosses and our peers. Today, we were better able to learn about where we will be working, and what we will be doing, and with whom. My supervisor and my counterpart, both named Richard, are kind, welcoming, ambitious and driven. They jokingly – but still somewhat seriously – remarked that with me on their team, the entirety of Spotlight on Africa will have to be restructured. Whatever the case, though, whatever the work, I am more than ready to begin.
July 14, 2019
First thing in the morning was church, at Mbale First Baptist, with a Sunday school lesson among the congregants. Not a single one of them laughed as I introduced myself in Lumasaaba as best as I could. They even applauded me when I finished, and the minister raved about ‘this muzungu fluent in Lugisu.’ While it was certainly embarrassing, it was also rather heartening. My comfort in the language is growing, and I’ll have to keep at it.
Since I’ll be staying here in Mbale, my future home is within leisurely walking distance of my homestay house. It is a separate structure – the interior still unfinished – but is next to my supervisor’s home. Richard, and his wife Carol, have welcomed me with all the hospitality that I’ve come to know in Uganda. Their home is cozy and warm, filled with the love of their many children, birthed and adopted. They are two people who have devoted their lives to service. Richard at Spotlight, and Carol working with street children.
My home is, well, wonderful! A large, open living room, a spacious bedroom, a small cooking nook, and a bathroom. With electricity and running water as well! I have a flushing toilet, a shower, two sinks (one in the kitchen), as well as space for a double-burner gas stove. It is more than I could’ve hoped for, to live with all this for two years. The exterior is modern, but also natural, and the neighborhood is really quite charming. Richard has even told me that the fancy Wash and Wills hotel – a prime establishment in the center of the neighborhood – has a modern gym with a monthly membership program! So, I’ll be looking into that too.
This afternoon, I met Sam, an agricultural business partner with Spotlight, and he took me to a future expansion site for the organization. Together, we planted a tree: I have named her Geraldine, the Unrepentant Jacaranda Tree, and she will grow there for two hundred years! Her leaves, bark, roots, and flowers will serve as naturally occurring anti-inflammatories, anti-biotics, and anti-parasitics for people in the communities for generations to come. She will bear witness to the new facilities, the new gardens, the new opportunities. She will stand tall and strong as a reminder of me in the community! …or so Sam would enthusiastically say, again and again.
The night was quiet, full of introductory conversations, but tomorrow will be a full day of travel, visiting and meeting many more new people.
July 15, 2019
What. A. Day.
My counterpart Richard came to collect me, and we walked to the first of our stops. The Musoto Christian Primary and Nursery School is one sponsored by Spotlight on Africa. As per usual, the sight of a muzungu was enough to turn every little head, calling in chorus for his attention. And the muzungu responded often, but other times conversation or observation captured his attention too much to wave in greeting. We met the headmaster and some of the administrative staff of the educational institute boasting more than 1,000 students. Interestingly, through the partnership with the United Kingdom, as well as other donations, the Musoto School can stay afloat and prosper with significantly less school-fees from the student’s parents. The compound holds several buildings, employing a dozen or so instructors and faculty. The bathrooms have flush toilets, water and soap are available, and every child receives a hot nutritious meal for lunch… sometimes the only meal they might have that day.
Afterwards, we walked to the local Health Center, supported by Spotlight on Africa. This is a Health Center III, and was originally opened only for immunization services. However, the community members kept coming back, requesting more and more, and now the team employed with the small still-under-construction building provides dozens of services, seeing upwards of one thousand patients a month. And in a community of around 33,000 residents, that is a staggering amount of people treated a month and every day.
Next to the health center, there is the still-very-much-under-construction building for the vocational trainings held by Spotlight. Interestingly, in a complete round-about from ways of the United States, the contractors and their teams were actually ahead of schedule in constructing the building. Not only that, they actually started building before they’d been paid any money! It seems impossible, but I was told that straight from my supervisor, Richard, the executive officer of Spotlight on Africa.
Then, I was encouraged to go into the field with a Volunteer Health Trainer (VHT), named Ahmed. He was going “into the bush” to interview a handful of pregnant women on the nature, status, and treatment of their pregnancies on behalf of the health center. We drove into a rather rural outlying village of Mbale City, and had some very educational, and influencial conversations with the women Ahmed was assigned to speak with. While these families lived in very obvious poverty, each of them had power lines running to their houses, every house was clean and orderly, and all the people very hospitable. And Ahmed was shocked and exhilarated to hear how much Lumasaaba I was capable of speaking and understanding. He was so impressed that eventually every woman in the village was stopped, and Ahmed egged me on to introduce myself to them again and again.
Following a quick lunch of local, traditional Ugandan pork – and making a new feline friend who lived at the restaurant – it was time to finally end the day at the Spotlight on Africa office. Now, there’s a Shell gas station that is on our route into town, but also on the same road that my homestay family lives on. The third floor up from the ground, on the same land of that Shell station that I’ve walked past dozens of times by now, is the administrative office for Spotlight on Africa! I spent the rest of the work day getting to know all my co-workers in the office, before returning to Richard’s home for dinner and some well-deserved rest. After all, I had tons of ideas, possible ideas, and general musings in my head from all that I’d seen and learned, so compartmentalization was necessary.
July 16, 2019
Tuesday was meant to wrap up the Future Site Visits and to travel back to Mbale. But I already live here, so I actually spent more of the day meeting and working with new people all about the community. First, Richard, Richard, and I visited another educational institute that Spotlight partners with: Nashisa Primary School. And after speaking with the headmisteress, and from my time at Musoto yesterday, I’m beginning to suspect that these school want me to help them design an entire health curriculum for their students. It’s something I don’t have the slightest idea where to begin, but I’ll just add it to the list of exciting future prospects while working with Spotlight.
Afterwards, we traveled to the Bukasakya Sub-County Local Government Administration Block. There we met the Parish Chief, and the Sub-County Chief – who are both women! Two kind, driven, intelligent women, elected to their positions by the people they serve, who are passionate about the work we do with Spotlight! They seemed to have a fraction of the excitement of working with me as I do with them, so that combination will be more than enough to get great things done!
We ended our day in the office once more, visiting with the workers of Spotlight for short while, before meeting my returned fellow volunteers for tea and sharing our experiences. Most seemed very positive, and we were all very excited.
July 20, 2019
Today is a friend’s birthday, and we’re celebrating at the Mt Elgon Hotel and Spa! As I wrote in an earlier entry, we can get a good meal, good drinks, and a pristine pool to enjoy for the whole day at a very reasonable price. Today is a rather warm day, so being able to cool off after such a long walk. In addition to a hilariously difficult and preposterously cheap mini-golf course, and the good times with friends, I haven’t forgotten about all of you, my Wonderful Readers. I’ve uploaded a few pictures to better stimulate your envy, but until next time: be well, be wise, and be good to one another!
Peace, Love, and Uganda 