My name is now Akilo

 

I have arrived now in Lira. First impressions… so far so good. I think I can work with this place.

 

My home is a compounded (gated and walled) house with a smaller house out back. Charles another volunteer lives in the house out back, and I am in the larger house (3 bedrooms) with Lin.

Compared to Brazil this is modern and clean and great. They say it was an office before, but I wonder what type as the ceilings are all painted this Miami Vice light blue.  The place is quite comfortable with a toilet room (with a seat!!) a shower room (with hot water) and lots of room. The grounds have a few fruit trees (papaya, pomegranate, jackfruit) and a garden out back. They have even started a compost heap so once the rainy season starts next month I should be able to get a good start on growing all my own food. Lyn also encouraged me to get some chickens. I am sure if I opened the gate for a few hours I would get a few run in from the street. And a family of feral cats have just had some babies out back so Lyn and I are chatting with them everynight trying to encourage the babies to befriend us.

Considering I will be here for two and a half years, I might be able to get a good deal done. But first I have to identify all the plants and wait for the rains.

 

Anyone inclined to send me something …. Please send vegetable seed. I will post my address soon.

 

We arrived yesterday (Fred drove us up from Kampala) and it was a long dusty 5 hours but good to see the country. We passed over the African Nile past a colony of baboons that had no fear of the car and entered the north territories where there was a dramatic difference which I was told is a result of the more recent war up here. Gone were the trees and wildlife, it looked like clearcut forest that had been just recently replanted. But I believe this is also a challenge as there is land to plant but no money for gas for the tractors to plow or plants to plant. Such is the problem throughout most of this region. Good ideas and donations sit idle as maintenance and supplies like gas are not considered in the initial investment.

 

I had a restful night and met the other volunteer just finishing up her tenure here and a gentleman from the office John. He told me we would visit his village the next day. So I settled in and had a good sleep.

John and Debs arrived at 7:30 the next morning and we headed off. His village is a true small resettled village and consisted of a scattering of mud round huts with thatched roofs. When we arrived we met the local pastor who would be giving the church service and chatted for a while about local life and of course the inevitable questions about my marital status and number of children. Being considered "free" and being here for over two years I am sure there will be some attempts to marry me off and alleviate my "loneliness" as the pastor seemed to come back to this discussion many times. The traditional culture here is one where men have many wives, and 6 or 7 children. I am someone they don't understand easily and pity. They were genuinely shocked to hear we average 2 children per family.

 

The service was wonderful, held in a large rectangular traditional house that was cool despite the almost 60 people who came and actively participated in the 2 hour event. There was a confirmation ceremony for some of the older children, and a lot of fantastic music from a few traditional instruments and a great choir. Once the service really got into swing the trilling during the singing was something I wish I could have captured. Trilling is the high pitched yahyahyah some of the women do.  Of course the whole thing was in Lwo, the local language so Debs and John did their best to translate for me, and I was introduced as part of the service as a new member of the community. The pastor told the community of the work I was to do and to take care of me. Not a bad start for my first day. Certainly a taste of the real traditional Africa I was hoping to be part of.

During the offering a few unusual things were given, a bucket of beans, a jackfruit. I wondered what would be done with them, and later this was answered as they had an auction for the food, the money would go towards the church. So even though they may not have been able to offer money for the service, people gave what they could and those with the means bought the food to contribute money. Not a bad system.

 

We then went to Johns mothers house were we met his other brothers and neighbours and their kids. It was an area the size of about an acre with a few traditional houses, a few more modern ones. Two families lived there and there was a good collection of goats, chickens, cats and duck wandering around.

 

 One or two less chickens when I left; as we were treated to tea and buns and soda, then a few hours later to chicken stew, goat stew, cabbage and this wonderful buttery rice. We ate and talked and visitors came and went and before I knew it it was 4:00.

Again talking a bit about the traditional culture, when women or children meet me they kneel before shaking my hand, when I was first told of this I didn't know how to take it but its done so naturally I only realized after that it had happened. As well for meals the men eat first, but being a muzungo, I was also offered the food first proceeded by a hand washing process where a woman comes and kneels before you gives you soap and pours water into a basin for you to wash your hands. There is a very strong traditional sense with all of this which will take some getting used to. Women dress "smart" so the work dress code will be very high and very modest. Women do not wear pants, the shoulders are covered and the skirt is well below the knees. There is no sense of casualness at all here in Uganda, men are in suits and women are prepared for any emergency wedding or celebration. Dress wise they are solidly stuck in 1960's Britain. Kampala was more casual but it was still unusual to see a woman in pants.

 

I was also given a new name, an African name "Akilo" which in the local language means "the one that comes after". Debs is Apoyo, which is the one that came first. This is also their naming system for children (twins). Lwo language does not have the SSS sound,so I needed a new name, as the pastor said, as he didn't want to bite his tongue everytime he said my name … So I am  now part of the community.

Visit to local animal sanctuary

Wed this week was NRM day (a holiday) and we had the day off from training. So with a bunch of other volunteers we headed out in the morning to the local animal sanctuary/zoo in Entebbe.

It was a great day, as all days are here, 20-25, fairly low humidity and the zoo was better than I had expected. The enclosures were quite adequate and natural and we saw Lions, zebras, white rhino, chimps, giraffe, and other animals from around this area. There was also an area where they rescue african grey parrots from export.

The monkeys roamed free, and were quite friendly. They had quite a few babies with them (so adorably cute).

I am heading up tomorrow to Lira with my housemate (who is down for the ICT2 training I am also on). Anxious to get started. I received a survey completed by the folks in the District office I will be working in and its the same issues technically as we have back home. Should be easy enough to settle in and get started working.

Morning walks

Shiobhan goes for a walk every morning, today i joined here and we went to the top of Tank Hill. The views were fab and it gives a good idea of what the city of Kampala looks like.

 

Living in Uganda and my project

Well its been a week since I arrived and its all be very good. The climate here is beautiful, its dusty so its quite “dull” but it’s a fresh dull not a China smoggy smelly dull. Temp in Kampala does not get beyond 30, and its relatively dry.

For my first week of training I have received as much information as I need and certainly enough to make me comfortable with my project work and the overall living and working situation.
My co-volunteer Shiobhan (Shevon) and I have also had a few adventures, funny how her extra week’s experience is so helpful. The two other volunteers that are living in Lira (and in the house I will be in) are also down in Kampala so I am getting a good idea of my placement area. I will be in a compound area with another volunteer leaving in April. The other is leaving in two weeks, so I won’t see her much. They have told me their concentration will be the north re development so I should expect to have a few new house mates during my time there.

My project specifically will concentrate on post conflict development and is structured like a western project with 4 key deliverables and 3 indicators for each. They are basic: setup resource centers for skills development (mostly agricultural), increase information sharing via technology, bring up the technology comfort of the local government employees and establish youth representative groups

My tutor for the local language Steven and I talked at length about how he has leveraged technology. If he represents how creative individuals can think about their future we will be fine. He taught himself technology and introduced the idea of using email for transfer of files (instead of putting it on disk and taxi across town). He laughed when I told him about the concept of “sneaker net” and called his “boda boda net”. Now he has his own business doing translation work he gets via email and he works at home. This is a radical idea here and one many can not understand. So if I look back on my career that puts me squarely in the early 1990’s back home. Because I started there I hope I can help them leapfrog over the limitations we had in the early days, considering the Internet only appeared in the late 90’s for business in Canada. I can understand how mysterious all of this is, but also understand the value of taking full advantage. I expect it to be overwhelming for them but considering they all use cellular technology, it might be an easier transition. The primary work in the north is brick making, iron work and agriculture,but because of the conflicts they have to rebuild the agricultural sector.

The cost of things is very low. Here they use a Ugandan Shilling, with huge bill sizes it takes some getting used to. But I am getting an idea of the value of the money and the cost of general things. 1L bottle of water – 800 shillings (.35 cdn), skirt or dress in local store 25,000 ($11 cdn). But of course I am living on just $200 month so it does not leave for luxury purchases. I will have a garden at my house, and I hear curry is common as the markets are all east asian so I can grow some of my own food and cook creatively. As well there is nothing to spend your money on in Lira, but lots of work to do. So overall it should be easy to keep in budget.

Settling in

Three days and I am very comfortable here. My luggage arrived yesterday via KLM, considering I never took a KLM flight who knows where it was for the past few days. I am glad to be whole again.
I have come here "out of band" for starting as a volunteer, so there are only two of us preparing to leave for our placements in Kampala at the moment. Siobian is from Ireland, she is heading south west and myself, heading north have now completed our IC1 training which was mostly orientation and essential administration work. I got a phone, a bank account and have developed a comfort with the local shopping area. I still hate the banter expected when purchasing things but that will come in time. We are now getting language training for the rest of the week. Today we got a briefing on the tribes and an idea of why there are something like 40 languages here in a country the size of Oregon. The region I am going to speaks something completely different than where Siobian is going so we are getting private tutor lessons. The language of Lira where I will be living is proving to be easier I think than Portuguese as there are no gender elements, just "I, you and they"; in Portuguese even the verbs were different for male, female, a group of males, a group of females or a mixed group. As well the tenses are easier as its just where you place the emphasis and not completely different words. YEAH I may be able to manage this. There are however some sounds that we don't make easily, like a ng sound you make with the back of your tongue that sounds like Asian languages. But thankfully there will be a good deal of English where I will be going.

We discussed greetings and I quickly understood what they mean by Ugandan English. They express things differently. For example, when I arrived from the airport the driver said "your welcome" when we drove up to the guest house I am staying in. I thought i had missed a queue and quickly said " thank you" and tried to get out of the car. He said "Not Yet Madam" and i became quite confused.
Steven my tutor explained that he was just welcoming me to the place, not like how we tend to use welcome as a final response to something... here it meant "welcome to your destination"... like a doormat placed outside an entrance. As well I am told if you meet someone you have not seen for a long time they will say "You were lost" which really means... I have not seen you for a long time.
Most of the greetings are about how you slept or how your day was and its funny as they joke the greetings here in Uganda can be 30 minutes long as you ask about everything (if you know the person well). No wonder things take a long time.
There is also the concept of Uganda time. No different than Brazil time... you get around to things, but dont expect things to be on time or people to show for a meeting when it is scheduled to start. So for a Canadian who is always early I just need to learn to bring a book or adjust things to account for it. Or as Daniel told me ... people always come for food, so they wont be late for lunch. So serve food i guess is a good rule.

Its supper time now and i can smell the wonderful dinner waiting for me. A bit of food, some reading about my project and off to bed, as the jet lag has finally caught up with me and I have been quite tired today.

One Day???? Just a quick update

I cant believe its been only one day in Africa. So much so soon.
First my delay in Heathrow resulted in my going to Tanzania first before i came up to Uganda. On the flight down we passed over Mt. Kilimanjaro at sunrise. Pretty wonderful, then we flew back up from Dar es Salaam and stopped in the airport at Mt.K to refuel. The flight up was on a small "hopper" plane so i saw the Plains the Mt. and Lake Victoria as my first impressions.

Last night we were out a cultural center were there were dances from various regions of the country, but the highlight was a drumming troup from Burundi. Just wonderful, video coming soon...

So i am here and settling in, I will be living in Lira and going there in the next few weeks.

out the door

Just sitting here at YOW waiting with all the snowbirds. I have to say if this flight works out it will be the most efficient trip time wise i have ever taken. I have 3 hours in Toronto and then 1.5 in London and the rest is in the air time. I arrive in Entebbe at 10pm local time, that will be 2pm Ontario time. So send good karma tomorrow after lunch for me.

The time difference will be 8 hours.

Thanks again to those who have housed,fed and otherwise been my family for the past few months. I will post once i get internet.

One thing is for sure. My boots were the best purchase i have made in a long time.

Lets see how this one goes.

Sal

less than 10 sleeps

Just finishing up a few things. Want to give a big thanks out to my two "families" who have taken me in as their own over the past two months.
You have made it a great preparation time as I once again went through the act of purging/ donating/ moving and re considering everything I own.
Thanks again for fitting me into your Birthday, Hanukkah, Christmas, NYE and other celebrations.

Really sorry I didnt get out to see everyone I wanted to, especially not getting out to see everyone again out west.

But of course my door, if i have one, will always be open. So if you were ever considering a more exotic trip come visit me in Africa. There are direct flights from London and its always summer on the equator.

Final packing also means ... what to include in my >50lb checked baggage and what CAN you carry on these days? Guess i will find out and be sure to again post a picture of my loot before i leave for the airport.