So I think last time I wrote something, we were in Mukono. Well, we've done a lot of things since then. So I'll try to cover everything.

We worked with MUMYO briefly last week, and I was not impressed. I don't want to go into a whole lot of detail since this isn't the place for that, but there was a vast amount of unprofessionalism, and we flat out aren't needed there. We tried to teach, but the kids have no structure or continuity in their lessons and they hardly speak English. We went to the local hospital the next day to help with some filing but were basically given busy work. Both days displaced people from jobs they were being paid for. It was incredibly unorganized and disappointing. I hope they get their act together or they won't be receiving many more volunteers. Luckily, for us, we'll have some research type work to do with Educate! in the coming week, which is a breath of fresh air.

We went to Gulu last weekend and had a great time. I'm really excited to be heading to the north for a month after the next week and a half. We didn't have any work to do while in Gulu, but we got to see so many friends. We stayed at the Kakanyero with Lindsay and the other MHIRT workers. We got to hang out with Jeff. And we were very happy and surprised to see our friend Apollo. We had a great time hanging out with them!

On Monday, we had a tour of the Invisible Children offices in Gulu. It was mostly pleasant with only a few low points. We weren't surprised to discover that we really like their projects in Uganda, but the problem lies in the huge disconnect with the San Diego office.

After we left Gulu we traveled to Kyangwali refugee camp in western Uganda. It's mostly Congolese refugees who have made their homes there for over a decade, though there were recently some new arrivals. Kyangwali is where Educate! has its foundations, and it is where COBURWAS was founded, which is an organization that does social projects to better their community. All of them were really great people. We were with all of the Educate! interns as well, and they're a great group this year.

For now, we're staying the weekend in Kampala. I'll have to go to Naggs and get all of my stuff and either stay in Mukono or in Buziga at the Educate! house. After that we'll be heading to Kenya for the weekend of the 4th (what a place to celebrate American Independence, eh?), then back to Kampala, then up to Gulu.

Hope you're doing well. Thanks for checking up on us!

I need to learn Luganda

So, we've been just hanging out around here for awhile, and of course we've talked to Ugandans. Dustyn can speak Luganda, so he uses it. But I can't and people assume I can when he does. So he gets to be all cool and joke around with them, then they turn to me and all I can say that's somewhat neutral is, "Kale, Ssebo." And they're like "oooooookay...." Or... he gets to tell them his cool Buganda name and then they ask me my name and I'm like, "Erin." "oh" So yeah I need to learn Luganda soon. This is gonna be an ordeal without it. In fact, I was just informed by the person that I bought internet time from that I should be knowing it. Also, it's really difficult to speak with kids when you don't know how to say anything and can't understand them.
We're having a meeting with Educate! today to see what we can do and we'll have an informative meeting with MUMYO on Monday. Going back to Naggalama tomorrow for the week.
It's really weird being here without 11 mzungus, though we have been hanging out with a bunch at the guest house this weekend. It's a lot easier to get around for sure, but just different. I like it, though. We went to lunch today with 13 people and it just felt strange to be in such a large group again. Too much of a spectacle.
Hung out a little in Kampala yesterday,went to Garden City, National Theater, etc. Not sure how much we'll be in Kampala this trip. Sadly, I'm most comfortable there since we spent the most time there in December. So I know my way around and everything. But I wish I was most familiar with another place in Uganda, like Gulu. But we will get to go there next weekend.
That's all for now, hope everything is good at home!

Weekend in Mukono

Hello! As you can see, I'm in Uganda safely. Had really long flights with no tv's so I ended up watching Marley & Me and trying not to cry at the end in public.
Dustyn and Shalom met me at the airport, and we stayed in Entebbe at the backpacker's hostel. Woke up to a beautiful morning in Uganda and headed to Mukono and Naggalama to drop off our stuff.
Tonight we're heading to Kampala for a rugby game/fun in the city, and we're staying at the guest house in Mukono for the weekend. There are a lot of other mzungus staying there, some cool and others......
We met with our friend, Vincent, yesterday! We were so happy to see him and he us! He's going to be our neighbor for our stay in Naggalama.
We're having a little bit of NGO drama (surprise), but we should have some kind of work to do on Monday. We'll be heading to Gulu next weekend, then Mombasa the weekend after that. If plane tickets are cheap we'll go to Mombasa that way and get Vinny a ticket so he can go with us.
But Uganda is a wonderful place to be, as always. I just really can't describe how happy I am to be back here. I'll have some more insightful blog posts coming up, I promise.

As a final important note, I need to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DAD!!! Sorry I'm not home to celebrate your birthday with you, I'm sure it will still be a great one.

For now, that's all I got. I'll let you in on more of the exciting things we're doing along the way.

Preparing to Leave

So I woke up this morning and realized that I leave for Uganda tomorrow. TOMORROW. The past few weeks have been such a whirl wind that it kind of snuck up on me. I've been looking forward to going back for so long, and now it's finally here. Now I'm so impatient to leave that I don't even want to properly pack. I just want to go. (Though, really, do I ever feel like packing 

my bags to leave on a trip? No.)

 

Being back from Guatemala, I'm realizing how much I'll miss summer in Knoxville. I'll miss humidity that chokes you when you walk outside. Laying by the pool but somehow never getting tanner. The steering wheel in my car being so hot that I can barely touch it. Driving around with my windows down and the music really loud. Hiking trips in the mountains. Lazing around with all of my wonderful friends (and all those other weird things we do.) Cook outs on the back deck with the whole family and my dad's famous "Phil burgers." Fresh vegetables from the garden. I don't say this to make you feel sorry for me leaving Knoxville behind for the summer; I say this to let you know that my going to Uganda is not an escape from my life in Knoxville. Going to Uganda is one of many travels I hope to have because I love to travel, and the reason I go back to Uganda is because it has completely captured me. So know that Knoxville is and will always be my home, and I'll miss it and everyone here very much. 

So I leave tomorrow from Knoxville, connect in Newark, connect in Brussels, stop once in Rwanda, then fly on to Entebbe at 9:40 pm their time on Thursday night. 1:40 pm eastern time.  My ticket says the last leg of the trip from Brussels to Entebbe is going to last 18 hours. I know I'll have the stop in Rwanda, but how did they stretch a normally 8 hour flight into an 18 hour flight??? Dustyn's going to meet me at the airport and we'll stay in Entebbe Thursday night before heading to Mukono or Naggalama. I'll get a cell phone as soon as I can and give you the number if I want you to have it :) Use skype if you want to call. 

For those of you that don't know, I have some pretty awesome plans for this summer. For roughly the first month I'm there, I'll be in Naggalama working with Mukono Multi-Purpose Youth Organization (MUMYO), a grassroots community development NGO, and Educate!, an American-founded Ugandan-run NGO that focuses on social entrepreneurship and community empowerment. 

For my second month I'm there, I'll be traveling to the northern region to Kitgum. I'll be working as the go-between between Jazz for Justice and Bishop Ochola for a project he wants to work on. It involves recording and saving all of the traditional folk tales he knows. And some of them will be created into cartoons with a peace building emphasis to be distributed to kids. He hopes this will not only promote the folk tales importance with the younger generation, but also be a start to rebuilding the community. I can't draw, and it's certainly not my place to draw any cartoons, but I'll be helping to write proposals for funding and find Ugandan artists that would be interested in this project. 

Last, but not least, I have to thank the University of Tennessee Chancellor's Honors Program and the Parents Association for funding my travels this summer. And I have to thank Jazz for Justice for making all of this possible for me. None of this would happen without the amazing support that I have. 

So that's all for now. I'll try to be vigilant about updating my blog while I'm there. Yell at me if I don't update enough. Like I said, I'll get my phone number to you if you want to stay in touch. I'll be trying to do some twitter updates and the like. If I don't see you before I leave, have a fantastic summer! I'll see you in August!

 

Incredible

I swam in the Nile River today.

Christmas in Gulu

So sorry for the lack of updates! But you don't wanna hear my excuses, so I'll just get down to all the fun, exciting, touching, emotional, meaningful things we've been doing.

I think I last left you telling you that we'd be going to a traditional introduction. Well we traveled to Jinja after taking two hours getting ready and into our gomas. Gomas are traditional dresses that wrap around you under your arms and are tied with a sash. They were very very hot, and I was pretty sure I was gonna have a heat stroke in the first hour outside in the sun. It was really cool, though. We got to be a part of the family and bring in the dowry. We had to in fruit baskets on our heads, and a lot of people at us. It was great, though. We tend to make people laugh wherever we go.

The next day we started a 6 hour trek to Gulu, but it wasn't the worst bus ride I've ever had. Very bumpy, but awesome scenery. We got to cross over the Nile, and it was so beautiful. Gulu is much smaller than Kampala, and it is much hotter and dustier, but I already liked it when we arrived the first day.

We stayed at HEALS (Health Education and Literacy/Sports), and it was so nice. HEALS helps kids that have been affected by the war to recover from the trauma they have experienced, and we got to hang out with them a lot. We did an art project with them, and they performed a traditional dance for us. The man in charge of HEALS is Norman from the movie War Dance, and the facility was founded by Jolly Okot so they hae a lot of connections with Invisible Children.

On our first full day, we went to Iriaga Satellite Camp and visited the child mothers. These women are amazing. A lot of them had been abducted and forced to be wives to the rebels, and they returned home with children that their families did not want. But they are so resilient. They are so full of life, and the children are so amazing. They performed several songs with us and shared their homes.

That night we got to have a meeting with Chairman Norbert Mao, who is basically the Mayor of Gulu and he is running for President in 2010. He talked with us about his plans for his campaign, and he wants to focus a lot on education and health care. His plans are fantastic, and I really hope he gets the Presidency because he would be great for Uganda. He even offered some of us positions to work with him while he is campaigning.

The next day we met with a man named Robinson who is the District Inspector of Schools in Gulu. He's done a lot of things in the North to improve education and catch them up with the rest of the country. There are a lot of factors in the education system that need to be improved, and I'm not sure where I fit into everything. But I know that I would like to live here and pursue an internship or work of some kind.

We spent Christmas Eve at a friend's house after we visited Alokolum IDP Camp. We had fun sharing Secret Santa presents, and then in the morning Santa came and delivered us some much missed candy. We spent the day with Winnie and she served us an amazing Christmas dinner of traditional food.

I was really sad to leave Gulu. That is the place where everything I've focused on for the last two or three years of my life has taken place. That is the place I've longed to travel to for so long, and we had very very few days there. I wish we could've been there at a different time so we could visit some NGOs and really see some more of the North, but the time we spent there sucked me in. There is not way that I cannot spend time there. As our friend Vinnie said, "Every time you leave Gulu, you leave a part of yourself there." Even after just 4 days, I feel like I want to be there and meet more of these people. I love Kampala, but Gulu is where I would like to be.

I hope you are going to have a wonderful New Year's Eve! We will be celebrating in town and then heading to Rwanda on the 2nd. I love and miss everyone at home! Until next time!

P.S. I'm sorry it was so long to get this posted. Internet in Gulu was impossible, and it was closed for the Holidays. Sorry for my lame excuses Alex ;)

computer malfunction

I just used 20 minutes of computer time to type up a fantastic blog, and when I tried to post it, the internet CRASHED. So I apologize for not updating, but I'm out of computer time now. Maybe tomorrow or the next day.

Love you guys and I hope you had a great Christmas!