Hello everyone-
Realizing that another month has passed, and that I need to write you all once again, I feel that my time here in Uganda is not so long as it once seemed. The days seem to pass slowly, but the weeks and the months pass by like the wind of a hurricane. I hope that all of you have been enjoying winter as much as possible! I hear that there has been lots of snow, and that the temperatures lately have been brutally low. You know what that means! Get your skis out on the weekends, huddle up by the wood stove at night, and wear those galoshes when it get messy outside! As for Uganda, the weather varies ever so slightly, staying sunny and around 80 degrees all the time. I cannot complain, but coming from Rhode Island, some variation would be nice. Besides the occasional earthquake, mudslide, or volcanic eruption, natural disasters are somehow rare.
Okay, so I’d like to split this correspondence into three main parts. First, I’ll tell about things I’ve done since I last wrote. Secondly, I’ll tell about things I’d like to do in the near future here at my organization. Thirdly, I’ll reflect a bit about how I’ve been coping with being in another country and another culture for nearly six months now.
In the last month, I’ve had waaaaaay too much fun. It’s really felt mostly like I’ve been on vacation more than anything else. I spent Christmas with the people who work at my organization, and we celebrated the holiday by attending a church service, playing volleyball, and “slaughtering the husband of a goat”! This saying comes from the time of Idi Amin, when he told the Queen of England in his broken english that he would repay her hospitality to him by inviting her to Uganda, where he would slaughter the husband of a cow for her. I’m not sure what he meant to say, but the joke still stands! Anyways, after Christmas I travelled to the far southwest district of Kisoro and hiked up Mt. Sabyinyo, a three-peaked volcano in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, where the mountain gorillas live, and which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo and also Rwanda. It was an amazing ten hour hike through the rainforest, up many vertical wooden ladders, in the rain, with the threat of forest buffalos and warthogs. Our group of 18 volunteers had three guides who carried high powered rifles for protection from these beasts. Next, we went to Kabale district just to the west of Kisoro, where we staying on a private island in Lake Bunyonyi for New Year’s. Festivities included swimming, frisbee golf, lots of great food, some wonderful traditional Ugandan dancing, and lots of story telling. Then, after spending two weeks back at site, all 45 volunteers in my group travelled to Kampala to attend our In-Service Training (IST), which lasted a week and a half. We stayed at a great hotel with a swimming pool! This was followed by 36 of our group of 45 going to Jinja, and the source of the River Nile. We went on an evening boat ride that started on the river and took us out into Lake Victoria, so that we could experience the true beginning of the world’s longest and most famous river. The next day was to be one of the highlights of my trip and really of my life so far. We went white water rafting on the Nile and it’s class five rapids. Covering 30km of river, where crocodiles are occasionally spotted, and where the river will toss you from your boat at any second, we conquered our fears and experienced the raging river in all of its glory. I will try to post some of the pictures on my blog website, which is www.pcugandajdc.blogspot.com
So now I am back at my site in Kiruhura District. I have finished the “getting to know your community” phase of my stay here, and am entering the “project development and implentation” phase. This will be the real work that I am here to do, and I am very excited about it! Throughout the first three months at site, lots of ideas were talked about, lists were made, but little work was done. Now, I get to put these ideas into practice, and participate in the change that is needed. One of the first projects that I will be helping to facilitate is a HIV/AIDS Post-Test Club. The HIV/AIDS virus is prevalent here, with an official rate of around 12% in my sub-county. People are afraid to test, and instead are living unaware and spreading the disease to their families or otherwise. This group will focus on supporting those living with the disease through education of healthy lifestyles, creating Income Generating Activities (IGAs), and also showing the general public that knowing one’s status leads to taking charge of one’s life so that quality of life can be enhanced in a variety of ways. Some of the other projects that I will be getting involved with include developing a community seed bank, creating demonstration gardens, outreach for health education in rural areas, working with the primary school next door in various capacities, conducting Life Skills Workshops throughout the community, improving community access to clean water throughout the year, developing LICHI’s webpage to promote volunteerism, funding, and acquisition of used medical equipment, improving waste management in the community, and much more. My project list is long and overwhelming, but things tend to move slowly here, so if I get my hands in a few projects at the same time then maybe I will be able to stay busy. Peace Corps Volunteers are always looking for fellow volunteers to travel to their sites to contribute to different projects and to share ideas, so I think it’s safe to say that I will not be so idle. When I have done this in the past, it has the effect of energizing me, so that I go back to my village with a great attitude, and cannot wait to get to work! I also want to grow my own small garden, I’m getting a dog soon, and have some other small projects that I’m getting into. For example, I have been trying to figure out how to keep food items cold in a place that is 80 degrees and does not have electricity. I want to do some pickling, keep butter and cheese for a few weeks, and maybe have a cold soda pop from time to time. After failing with several attempts, the next thing I’m going to try is to have a huge clay pot dug halfway into the ground, and have another smaller clay pot inside this one and filled with water, and the two vessels separated by a layer of wet sand. I have been told this will work and I hope it’s true! I think you all can get the impression that life can be as interesting as you want it to be here in a rural African village.
Now on a different, more personal note, life here in Uganda after nearly six months has led to many triumphs, yet some struggles as well. To begin, I feel as though I do not fear talking with anyone, as I have in the past. Being forced to fend for one’s self in an environment that thinks you are rich and often wants to take advantage of you leads to the need to say what needs to be said in any given situation. Being a long-term volunteer in a developing country also has the effect of validating one’s existence in a sense. Most people respect what we are doing as Peace Corps Volunteers, and those who do not, it is simply from of a lack of understanding of the meaning of the role of a volunteer in sustainable development. I finally feel like the work I am doing is as important as any work that is done anywhere by anybody, and that allows for active and productive participation in most any circles of discussion. I am reminded of a conversation I had with my supervisor here where he told me that financial wealth only leads to competition, jealousy, and the feeling of never being satisfied with life. Sharing one’s knowledge, helping others whenever and however possible, and cooperating will lead to a lifetime of rewards, both tangible and intangible. Colorful communities will emerge and vibrant, healthy lives will be lived. Despite this and many other positives that result from this experience so far, life is not always so easy. Being away from life in America for so long has shown me how much I value the things I once knew. Family and friends are very dearly missed; I never feel like I talk to them enough. To think that I most likely won’t see the Atlantic Ocean for 21 more months is painful. To be able to go out in public and not draw the attention of everyone around me is something that I think most people in America take for granted. I think that white people in developing nations have some taste of what it’s like to be a celebrity in the sense that there is no privacy, no anonymity when you are in a public setting. Communication can be very frustrating, as in my village most of the people do not speak any english. The local language has been difficult to learn, so most conversations I have with the locals are very rudimentary. When I do find someone who can speak some english, it is usually limited in scope so that I need to slow down my speech, articulate carefully, and choose my words selectively so that we can understand each other. Generally, people who are somehow familiar with english here are most familiar with Ugandan english, followed by British english, and lastly American english. This has to do with word selection and major differences in accent and pronunciation. All of these struggles in language have caused for some feelings of isolation, but I nevertheless do not shy away from interacting with my community because it does help to maintain my place in the village and it always brings about smiles and laughter on both sides. I have made good friends with the people who run the primary school, “Bright Future”, and play Scrabble with them at the village restaurant a few times a week. All in all, life is good here, and it is only going to get more active and more interesting now that we have entered the ‘work phase’ for the rest of the way. There is so much work to be done! Enjoy wintry weather!

Best wishes,
Jesse