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Digeus Registry Cleaner
Check back for my experience.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
1 Year in Uganda !?!
1 Year in Uganda
I am writing this on August 6, 2010. I arrived in Uganda on August 6, 2009 to begin my 27 months of Peace Corps service. The reality that I have lived here for a year is somehow difficult to grasp. Someone once described the passage of time here as dual-speed; the days can last forever, but the months fly by. This is not always true but it is a pretty decent representation.
I have also been told that the second half of service tends to move very quickly. In fact it seems that the pace of my daily life has already been picking up speed as some activities are finally taking root, a research idea for my thesis is taking shape(fingers crossed!) and maybe also because the pace of life here is taking hold of me. Whatever the reason(s), it is a nice change and I am doing my best to embrace the change and make the most of the opportunities as they come along.
Since a year is a long time, and even if the pace of life has been slow (even painfully so at times) there is still too much talk about in detail so I thought I would just hit some of the high points. Please write to me if you want to know more about something.
Some uniquely Ugandan/African things I have seen and experienced:
• Using a squat toilet almost everyday for the last year- toilet is being generous, mostly it is a latrine, or outhouse for us Americans. They dig a deep hole, build a basic structure over it, pour a concrete slab with a, sometimes way too small, hole in it where you simply squat and do your business.
• Taking bucket baths- pretty straight forward, get a bucket, cup and some soap and then go to town.
• Feeding monkeys on a hotel balcony- The Munyonyo Resort on the shores of Lake Victoria…highly recommended.
• Feeding monkeys not on a hotel balcony- The Entebbe ‘zoo’
• Pulling a monkeys tail and scaring myself as much as I might have scared him- also the Entebbe ‘zoo’. They were so cute, and so many of them, just wandering around. One of the smaller ones was on top of the canopy over the seating area but his tail was dangling down next to me…. I couldn’t help it.
• Developing an intense hatred of goats due to the truly horrific sounds they make, but somehow I still am not crazy about eating them
• Learning that I love matooke and G-nut sauce- matooke is a truly Ugandan food made by steaming plantains, then mashing them into a paste and steaming them a little longer. This is a staple food that is then served with some sort of sauce, like a thin meat stew, beans or my favorite, G-nut sauce. G-nuts are a type of peanut that is ‘pounded’ while still raw then the powder is boiled until it makes a purple-ish gravy that is served over a starch- my favorite being matooke. When you add a little chili sauce (spices are not commonly used) it is damn near a delicacy.
• Whitewater rafting on the Nile river- highly recommended. I have a video for when I get back home.
• Discovering the magical chemical transformation that occurs when you combine Uganda Waragi- a banana spirit- with Krest, bitter lemon- a soda made by Coca-Cola company. Individually these liquids border on disgusting, but mixed together they make a magical elixir that rivals some of the best cocktails I have ever had. Ok, that might be overstating it, but it is really f-ing good.
• Becoming a fan of Eagle beer, preferably cold, but even warm it is better than most other cold beers. Made with sorghum so for all you glutards (technical term for people allergic to wheat gluten) out there can also enjoy it.
• The Rolex!- this is the single best food in Uganda. It is scrambled eggs cooked into a circular patty, with cabbage, onion and tomato that is placed on a chapatti and rolled up for easy consumption. There are variations on this of course, but this is the standard version. I prefer to add a wedge of ‘smiling cow’ cheese, sprinkle of garlic powder, some avocado and a dash of hot sauce to mine. I am hungry just writing this….
• Using public transportation here- Riding in a Mutatu (minivan used as a taxi) that has seating for 15, including driver, but that is carrying 29 people and a few chickens. Riding in a ‘squeeze’ (Toyota corolla) carrying 10 people, including driver, and that’s inside the car. Seeing Boda-Boda’s (motorcycle taxi’s) carrying entire families of people, 4 is not uncommon and many times the women are also holding babies.
• Hiking at Sipi Falls on the slopes of Mt. Elgon- Incredibly scenic place where despite the fact it almost straddles the equator the river is ridiculously cold, almost too cold to swim in. In fact we used it to cool our beers on the second day there, and it worked very well.
• Buying movies on DVD even before they are out in the theaters in the USA- sorry for any copyright violations….sort of.
• Shopping for clothes that were donated and shipped from the USA to ‘needy’ people here in Uganda- thanks for your donations because I really like some of the clothes I have bought.
• Having my trash rummaged through almost daily- mostly by kids but also my previous supervisor used to like to go ‘dumpster’ diving whenever I put my rubbish out.
• Having my definition of personal space be adjusted to about 1cm- unless using public transport then it is 0.
• Seeing hippos playing in the water as we glided by in a dugout canoe on Lake Albert- New Year’s 2009, Pan Afrique Resort near Queen Elizabeth National Park, very nice.
• Eating “white ants” fresh from the ground- these are actually a type of termite. During the rainy season they take flight from their mounds and it is a rush to gather them up to eat. Its really cool seeing all the kids with their cups, buckets and other various containers catching them as fast as they can to take home and eat. You can eat them raw/live or fry them in oil. I ate them raw….not much to report other than that.
• Intestinal parasite- nuff said
• Eating fried grasshoppers- I am mostly sure this one and the previous one are not related
• Lots and lots of birds including the Marabou stork- truly a frightful creature that could never have inspired the story about where babies come from.
• Surprised by the number of lizards and toads here- but still have not seen a live snake
• Love the fact that I can eat locally (food from within 100 miles) and enjoy fresh pineapple, bananas, mangoes and coffee!
Things I miss from America:
• My friends!
• My family!
• 4th of July at Chris and Linda’s- with boating and fireworks!
• Paved roads
• Running water
• Constant electricity
• Refrigeration
• Air Conditioning!!!
• My house
• Lakes I can swim in without fear of hippos, crocodiles or bilharzias
• Restaurants where you can use the menu- rather than here where using the menu usually leads to a prolonged conversation where you ask for something you want, are told that it isn’t there, you ask for something else, are told it isn’t there, and this goes on until you either wise up and simply ask what they have, or you run out of options.
• Good baked goods- About 99% of everything that is baked here is horrible, sorry to my Ugandan friends but its true.
• My cats
• Memorial Day celebration at Lakeside Cemetery, with a trip to Ft. Snelling to visit my peeps.
• Autumn
• Beer- cold, tasty, frothy, tap beer. KBC beer in particular. All you Yoopers know what I am talking about.
• Snow- Wow, I NEVER thought I would write that but its true
• Sailing- Can’t wait to get back on the DigitalDan and show those other Perf 2 boats how its done
• Not standing out like a sore thumb- yeah, surprisingly 6 foot tall white guy is a very small demographic in Uganda, who knew.
• Veterans Day pub crawl
• Driving- We are not allowed to drive while serving in Peace Corps, and after being here I completely agree with the policy. Some of you might think you deal with bad drivers, but I assure you that you would have a new appreciation of their skills after living here. Still I miss the freedom of being able to go places without being at the mercy of public transport, bad public transport.
• NPR
• Meat- Steaks and Cheeseburgers to be specific. Meat here is generally pretty bad, even when you disregard the unsanitary conditions, it is usually tough, and can be full of bone shards since the meat is hacked off the carcass with a machete rather than cut off.
• Jim Beam Black, on the rocks
Well, there are probably other things I have missed, but hopefully I will get to them some other time.
Those of you that notice I did not mention missing Spam, the thanks for that goes to those friends who have sent me packages which included my favorite meat in a can, mostly mom and dad. Not sure if I would have made it this long without it!
Peace
I am writing this on August 6, 2010. I arrived in Uganda on August 6, 2009 to begin my 27 months of Peace Corps service. The reality that I have lived here for a year is somehow difficult to grasp. Someone once described the passage of time here as dual-speed; the days can last forever, but the months fly by. This is not always true but it is a pretty decent representation.
I have also been told that the second half of service tends to move very quickly. In fact it seems that the pace of my daily life has already been picking up speed as some activities are finally taking root, a research idea for my thesis is taking shape(fingers crossed!) and maybe also because the pace of life here is taking hold of me. Whatever the reason(s), it is a nice change and I am doing my best to embrace the change and make the most of the opportunities as they come along.
Since a year is a long time, and even if the pace of life has been slow (even painfully so at times) there is still too much talk about in detail so I thought I would just hit some of the high points. Please write to me if you want to know more about something.
Some uniquely Ugandan/African things I have seen and experienced:
• Using a squat toilet almost everyday for the last year- toilet is being generous, mostly it is a latrine, or outhouse for us Americans. They dig a deep hole, build a basic structure over it, pour a concrete slab with a, sometimes way too small, hole in it where you simply squat and do your business.
• Taking bucket baths- pretty straight forward, get a bucket, cup and some soap and then go to town.
• Feeding monkeys on a hotel balcony- The Munyonyo Resort on the shores of Lake Victoria…highly recommended.
• Feeding monkeys not on a hotel balcony- The Entebbe ‘zoo’
• Pulling a monkeys tail and scaring myself as much as I might have scared him- also the Entebbe ‘zoo’. They were so cute, and so many of them, just wandering around. One of the smaller ones was on top of the canopy over the seating area but his tail was dangling down next to me…. I couldn’t help it.
• Developing an intense hatred of goats due to the truly horrific sounds they make, but somehow I still am not crazy about eating them
• Learning that I love matooke and G-nut sauce- matooke is a truly Ugandan food made by steaming plantains, then mashing them into a paste and steaming them a little longer. This is a staple food that is then served with some sort of sauce, like a thin meat stew, beans or my favorite, G-nut sauce. G-nuts are a type of peanut that is ‘pounded’ while still raw then the powder is boiled until it makes a purple-ish gravy that is served over a starch- my favorite being matooke. When you add a little chili sauce (spices are not commonly used) it is damn near a delicacy.
• Whitewater rafting on the Nile river- highly recommended. I have a video for when I get back home.
• Discovering the magical chemical transformation that occurs when you combine Uganda Waragi- a banana spirit- with Krest, bitter lemon- a soda made by Coca-Cola company. Individually these liquids border on disgusting, but mixed together they make a magical elixir that rivals some of the best cocktails I have ever had. Ok, that might be overstating it, but it is really f-ing good.
• Becoming a fan of Eagle beer, preferably cold, but even warm it is better than most other cold beers. Made with sorghum so for all you glutards (technical term for people allergic to wheat gluten) out there can also enjoy it.
• The Rolex!- this is the single best food in Uganda. It is scrambled eggs cooked into a circular patty, with cabbage, onion and tomato that is placed on a chapatti and rolled up for easy consumption. There are variations on this of course, but this is the standard version. I prefer to add a wedge of ‘smiling cow’ cheese, sprinkle of garlic powder, some avocado and a dash of hot sauce to mine. I am hungry just writing this….
• Using public transportation here- Riding in a Mutatu (minivan used as a taxi) that has seating for 15, including driver, but that is carrying 29 people and a few chickens. Riding in a ‘squeeze’ (Toyota corolla) carrying 10 people, including driver, and that’s inside the car. Seeing Boda-Boda’s (motorcycle taxi’s) carrying entire families of people, 4 is not uncommon and many times the women are also holding babies.
• Hiking at Sipi Falls on the slopes of Mt. Elgon- Incredibly scenic place where despite the fact it almost straddles the equator the river is ridiculously cold, almost too cold to swim in. In fact we used it to cool our beers on the second day there, and it worked very well.
• Buying movies on DVD even before they are out in the theaters in the USA- sorry for any copyright violations….sort of.
• Shopping for clothes that were donated and shipped from the USA to ‘needy’ people here in Uganda- thanks for your donations because I really like some of the clothes I have bought.
• Having my trash rummaged through almost daily- mostly by kids but also my previous supervisor used to like to go ‘dumpster’ diving whenever I put my rubbish out.
• Having my definition of personal space be adjusted to about 1cm- unless using public transport then it is 0.
• Seeing hippos playing in the water as we glided by in a dugout canoe on Lake Albert- New Year’s 2009, Pan Afrique Resort near Queen Elizabeth National Park, very nice.
• Eating “white ants” fresh from the ground- these are actually a type of termite. During the rainy season they take flight from their mounds and it is a rush to gather them up to eat. Its really cool seeing all the kids with their cups, buckets and other various containers catching them as fast as they can to take home and eat. You can eat them raw/live or fry them in oil. I ate them raw….not much to report other than that.
• Intestinal parasite- nuff said
• Eating fried grasshoppers- I am mostly sure this one and the previous one are not related
• Lots and lots of birds including the Marabou stork- truly a frightful creature that could never have inspired the story about where babies come from.
• Surprised by the number of lizards and toads here- but still have not seen a live snake
• Love the fact that I can eat locally (food from within 100 miles) and enjoy fresh pineapple, bananas, mangoes and coffee!
Things I miss from America:
• My friends!
• My family!
• 4th of July at Chris and Linda’s- with boating and fireworks!
• Paved roads
• Running water
• Constant electricity
• Refrigeration
• Air Conditioning!!!
• My house
• Lakes I can swim in without fear of hippos, crocodiles or bilharzias
• Restaurants where you can use the menu- rather than here where using the menu usually leads to a prolonged conversation where you ask for something you want, are told that it isn’t there, you ask for something else, are told it isn’t there, and this goes on until you either wise up and simply ask what they have, or you run out of options.
• Good baked goods- About 99% of everything that is baked here is horrible, sorry to my Ugandan friends but its true.
• My cats
• Memorial Day celebration at Lakeside Cemetery, with a trip to Ft. Snelling to visit my peeps.
• Autumn
• Beer- cold, tasty, frothy, tap beer. KBC beer in particular. All you Yoopers know what I am talking about.
• Snow- Wow, I NEVER thought I would write that but its true
• Sailing- Can’t wait to get back on the DigitalDan and show those other Perf 2 boats how its done
• Not standing out like a sore thumb- yeah, surprisingly 6 foot tall white guy is a very small demographic in Uganda, who knew.
• Veterans Day pub crawl
• Driving- We are not allowed to drive while serving in Peace Corps, and after being here I completely agree with the policy. Some of you might think you deal with bad drivers, but I assure you that you would have a new appreciation of their skills after living here. Still I miss the freedom of being able to go places without being at the mercy of public transport, bad public transport.
• NPR
• Meat- Steaks and Cheeseburgers to be specific. Meat here is generally pretty bad, even when you disregard the unsanitary conditions, it is usually tough, and can be full of bone shards since the meat is hacked off the carcass with a machete rather than cut off.
• Jim Beam Black, on the rocks
Well, there are probably other things I have missed, but hopefully I will get to them some other time.
Those of you that notice I did not mention missing Spam, the thanks for that goes to those friends who have sent me packages which included my favorite meat in a can, mostly mom and dad. Not sure if I would have made it this long without it!
Peace
Justice in Uganda
Justice in Uganda
What is justice?
What does it mean to live under the rule of law?
What would you do if the law was failing to protect you, your possessions, or the safety of you and your loved ones?
I honestly gave little thought to these questions before coming here to Uganda, but they have been hard to avoid lately. I want to share some experiences I have had while in Uganda. Some of these happened to me, while others only affected me.
First I want to tell you a little bit about my personal experiences with justice, or lack of, in Uganda. As many of you know, I have been the victim of a robbery and burglaries here. These have all occurred in the last 3 months and so maybe I had a false sense of safety after 9 months, maybe the security situation is worse here in Kasambya than it was in Budaka and Wakiso, or maybe its just luck…I don’t know.
On May 2nd, Katherine was here visiting, we left my home for about 45 minutes to walk into the market area and buy some food. The house was locked but my back window was not latched. The window has bars to protect against burglars and the bottom of the window sill is more than 5 feet above the ground. I can only see inside if I pull myself up on the ledge slightly, and then I cannot see onto my desk, which is lower than the window level. So with all of this in mind, as well as the lights off in the room, we headed to buy a couple of chapati to make Rolex’s and a soda. We returned around 7:30 pm to finish fixing dinner. Soon after coming back home we discovered that Katherine’s phone had been stolen from my desktop while we were away. Eventually we discovered that her camera and my ipod were also stolen. These items were almost 3 feet inside the bars on the windows and would not have been visible to anyone walking past. Most Ugandans are much shorter than I am and so the combination of window height and darkness inside the room meant that someone climbed up using the bars to search inside my bedroom. We even found a half-burned wax match on my desk later. This was very upsetting especially when in fact some of the blame fell on me for not latching my window and therefore not taking my own security seriously enough.
So, the next day we spoke to my supervisor and he sent us to the police station to make a statement but did not accompany us, or send another to help us navigate the vagaries of the Ugandan police system. We filed a report with the investigator on duty and received a letter to take to the phone store so that Katherine could get her same phone number back. There was little talk of any investigation or hope of recovering the items. In fact it was only after talking with my counterpart that we learned about the possibility that the phone could be tracked by the phone company and that information could be used to find the thief. In fact she had used this method to track down a boy who had stolen her phone not many weeks before this occurred. With that knowledge, and the police report, we went about trying to get the phone company to assist us in tracking the phone. Our efforts were unsuccessful for many weeks. We would arrive at the offices in Kampala and be told the department was out on a promotion promoting their sponsorship of the 2010 World Cup, and so no one could help us. We returned to be told that their computer systems were down but were assured they would contact us when they were working. Several weeks went by without any success.
On May 21st I went to Kampala to see our medical personnel about my intestinal distress (for another post) and to attend a meeting of the Volunteer Advisory Committee that would take place on Sunday the 23rd and Monday the 24th. I was elected to the committee to be one of 3 representatives for our intake of volunteers and to work with Peace Corps staff providing input on many different issues from the volunteers perspective, but I digress. I stayed in Kampala for medical tests until Wednesday the 26th when I returned to my village. Upon arriving I saw that my supervisor and several other people were standing around my front door. My house is one of 4 ‘apartments’ in one building. I am on the southern end and the 2 middle units were vacant at that time so my closest neighbor was on the other end of the building. When I approached my house I was informed that sometime that previous night my house had been broken into but they were not sure if anything was taken. I went inside and searched through my things to see what had been taken. As it turned out the list was extensive and included things like my short-wave radio-my only source of music after my ipod was stolen and my best source of news-my camera, some cash I keep for emergencies, and my personal passport. Many other things were taken but these were going to be the hardest to replace.
I went back to the front door to see how they entered and I found a broken window which they could not have entered through due to the security bars, broken window sill where they tried to pry the window open, again I am not sure why since they could clearly see the bars, the door latch had been broken, a board that runs along the bottom of my door had been pried off, there were signs of where they tried to pry the door open at the lock and finally the floor inside my front door was broken from where they must have used a large pry-bar to force the door open. In fact the door, which is very solid wood, is cracked from the force used. The man my supervisor hired worked into the evening to repair the damage he could and make my home lock-able again.
I learned that my neighbors had not heard anything during the night but had discovered the break-in that morning when they saw my first-aid box lying open n the front step. From that discovery they saw the broken window and then the open door. My supervisor was notified and he sent one of the workers from the clinic to file a police report. The police did not come to see what had happened, they simply made a note in their ledger the same as they had for my previous incident.
This situation made me very angry. This time I had no responsibility, my house had been as secure as possible and yet somehow the thieves had managed to enter and steal my possessions. I was angry and frustrated because I immediately figured that these must be the same people who had taken my other items and had not been caught yet. It was also clear that I was the target- no other homes had been broken into and in fact some of my neighbors keep some of their kitchen items outside all night and these things were left alone. So now I was being targeted by criminals in the village I called my home.
Ugandans have a cultural aversion to displaying negative emotions. It is considered improper to show anger, frustration or negativity. This caused me additional anger and frustration because it seemed that my co-workers, friends and neighbors were not upset by the fact that my house had been broken into and most of my valuables were stolen. There were general platitudes about how bad it was and they were sorry, but yet almost no action like taking me to the police, local leaders or anything that I felt might have helped actually find the people responsible. I was not bound by Ugandan culture and so I was pretty clear with everyone that I was upset and that I wished they would provide me with some assistance in how best to proceed.
The next day my supervisor took me to the chairperson of the sub-county, basically the mayor of our town and surrounding areas, to explain to him what had happened and ask for his assistance. He was very upset by what he heard and immediately began calling the heads of the area into his office to express his wish that everything be done to solve the crime. The OC, chief of police, the DSO, district security officer, and the chairperson of the local council were all brought into his office and told that he took this seriously and it was their responsibility to keep me, and my property, safe while I was here. From that point on things began to happen. I went to the police station and they took an actual report, an investigating officer was assigned to the case and he even walked with me to my house to see how the break-in had occurred. He said they would begin trying to work with the cellphone company to track the stolen phone because they also felt the two crimes were likely connected. Then a lot of nothing happened.
Eventually I was able to obtain a summary report from the phone company that showed which sim-cards had been used in the phone and so we had 2 phone numbers to try and track the people down. After having made multiple trips to Kampala to get this report I was then told that it would not help the police and they needed the actual detailed phone records for the phone. I was then informed that in order to get these I would need to give an officer 10,000 shillings to pay the court fee to get an affidavit and then travel to Kampala to file this along with other paperwork at the phone company. The phone company would then charge me 20,000 shillings to provide these records, and of course since the police do not have vehicles they would need some help paying for the public transport to accomplish these tasks. I was informed of this 3 weeks after my house was broken into! So for 3 weeks nothing had been done. I paid the money- which was essentially a bribe and could easily be prosecuted as corruption in the US, and waited even longer for the records to come. I visited the police at least once a week, called the phone company to make sure their computers were working, and generally did everything I could to try and speed the process up, but it was time wasted. In fact to this day the police officer I paid the 40,000 shillings to has not even produced those phone records. Once the investigation is complete I intend to go to the district police and file a claim for my money to be returned.
Fast-forward to July 23rd and I visit the OC of the police station to tell him I am now certain that his officer is not serious about getting the phone records, or solving my case. I told him that I have now given up and I want him to have the investigator just return my money since even if they do catch the people I suspect most of my items will have been sold off or destroyed. He apologizes profusely and asks me to give him until Monday to speak to the officer and try to make some progress. The next day I am talking with my friend from the village and he asks me how the case is proceeding. I explain that I have accepted that no one is concerned about catching the thieves and so I have given up. He is a good man and he asks me to give him the phone numbers from before and he will see if he can get someone to answer the phone and try to find out who they are so the police can arrest them. Later that evening he arrives at my home with a woman and the stolen phone. He had called her, convinced her to meet him, then had brought her to me to verify that the phone was the one stolen. I confirm it is the phone that was stolen. My friend explains to me that she told him that her boyfriend gave her the phone a few months ago. He calls the OC and has a police officer come to my house. The police officer arrests the woman and then he and my friend go to the village and arrest her boyfriend, the one who gave her the phone.
The next day I go to the police station to learn about what has happened. I arrive to find out that they have arrested the woman’s boyfriend, a local mechanic, and he has told them he bought the phone and a camera from another man. The camera was recovered and I confirm that it is Katherine’s camera. So this mechanic said he bought both the phone and camera from another man who’s nickname is scrap and who is a known criminal. The police had already arrested scrap and he is in jail also. The police tell me they are actively interrogating the men and trying to recover more of the stolen items. The next day, Monday the 26th, I had to go to a workshop for Peace Corps for several days. While I was away my friend called me several times to let me know that the police were recovering more items that had been stolen. Scrap had finally admitted that he was the one who stole my things and had broken into my house where previously he had denied it. I would later hear from several people that his confession and subsequent information he provided was due to some very ‘aggressive interrogation techniques’. This is a euphemism that some of you probably understand, and for the rest of you it means that the suspect was subjected to treatment would be considered illegal in the US and in fact none of the evidence recovered would be admissible and he would probably go free and then win a civil suit against the police and never work again. But not here. Here if you beat a man and he then tells you something that is proven to be true, all is justified and he goes to jail where he belongs, and in fact that is where this man is now sitting awaiting his trial.
So this situation forces me to confront my views on the issues of civil rights and such. Now most of you know I served my country in the US Army as a paratrooper from 91-93. In fact I signed up with the thought that I would be shipped off to fight for my country in Iraq, but as it turned out that was not in the cards for me. So you also know how much I love the USA, and our constitution is the reason for my love. Our constitution is what makes our country so special and has allowed us to become the amazing place it is today. In fact when I swore my oath of service to the Peace Corps it was the second time in my life that I have sworn an oath to protect that very document from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Our constitution protects us citizens from our government, including the police, and it is one of the very special qualities of our constitution. It strictly limits the powers of our government to protect the citizens from the abuses that so many other countries have, and continue, to endure over the centuries. I love this about our country, even though I know it sometimes means that guilty people are not brought to justice. And now I am here in Uganda and I have had to confront my feelings of pleasure and satisfaction in the fact that this man got ‘tuned up’ and that resulted in my getting some of my things back and him going to jail. Is it just that I am living by the rules of my host country? Is it my human desire for vengeance? Justice? I don’t know, but I do know that I AM glad he was caught, confessed, and provided information that seems likely to get some of my belongings back. I truly wish that it had not been necessary to resort to primitive treatment, but the police here would never have succeeded in closing the case without this man’s confession.
So if it was within my power, would I wish that the police had behaved the way I expect police in America would have behaved even if it meant the case would have gone unsolved and my things unrecovered? I don’t know. I still have 15 months to live here and I know I would have never felt my home was secure without the case being solved and the criminals brought to justice. I want to believe that I am a good enough person that I would wish for things to have resolved without violence, but today, my feelings of happiness and satisfaction are too strong for me to say that…..maybe tomorrow.
For me, this highlights why our country is so incredible and why it is so important that we live by the rule of law. The rule of law allows us to overcome our very real human emotions and arrive at the outcome that is best for our society as a whole, even when it means that we as individuals might not be vindicated. It is why I am opposed to the death penalty while still knowing full well that if someone committed some horrible act against me, or the people I love, I would want them dead…even by my own hand. And I understand and empathize with those people who have to struggle with the conflict created when the law does not allow for the satisfaction of their own personal desires for justice, or vengeance. Mine is but a small taste of how that might feel and even it has caused me to deviate from my intellectual truth and submit to my emotions. Wonder if I would feel the same if this happened at home?
Now I want to give you some more context. I moved here to Kasambya on February 25th from Budaka. 2 weeks after I arrived here I was walking through the trading center(main street) and saw the remnants of a tire fire that had crossed the entire road. I knew it was a tire fire because there were pieces of the steel belts, a few patches of tread and the very distinct black soot. I had not heard any commotion the night before, or that morning, and so I wondered what it was from. There is an army barracks about 10km down that road so I wondered if it had something to do with that. When the riots were happening around Kampala last August the crowd had lit tires on fire to form barricades across the roads to stop traffic, but I was sure I would have heard a riot. So I began asking people what had happened, I asked Fina, my favorite shop owner, Josephine, my counterpart, and a few others but didn’t get an answer. Then a few nights later a youth named Jacob stopped by to visit and I asked him about it. He told me what happened.
A man had tried to beat a boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) driver and steal his motorcycle. Another Boda driver saw the man stealing the motorcycle and quickly got other drivers to help catch the man. They quickly caught him. They beat him and brought him back to the center of town near the taxi stage where the theft occurred. By that time a crowd had formed to see what the drivers would do. The beat the man and then put 3 tires around his body restricting his movements. Someone doused the man with gasoline. And with the crowd standing there watching they set him on fire in the middle of the road. Once the fire was finished the police came and scraped up the human remains and that was the end of it.
Three weeks ago a young boda-boda driver went missing. A day later his body was discovered in a ditch. It seemed that he was hacked to death with a machete and then the person took his motorcycle. This young man was well liked in Kasambya and people were very angry. This young man had recently lost his father and was working to support his brothers and sisters because their mother had died several years before. The police and the villagers began a massive search to find the person responsible.
A few days later they had a suspect. The police caught a man who was using the murdered man’s cellphone. The police arrested him and were bringing him into town for questioning. People got word and a very large, angry crowd was waiting in town for the police and the suspect. When the crowd saw the man they grew even more upset, so much that they began to try and get the man away from the police so they could kill him. The police had to fire some rounds into the air in order to control the crowd. The police then immediately loaded into a taxi and took the man to Mubende town for interrogation and safe-keeping. I saw this part of the story with my own eyes.
The man spent more than a week in jail in Mubende. He was interrogated and his story was investigated both police departments. The police determined that the man was guilty of having a stolen phone but had not been involved in the stealing of the phone, the motorcycle or the murder. They released the man from jail in Mubende on Monday August 2nd. Word got out that the man was leaving Mubende and on a taxi to Kasambya. A large mob formed in the village that neighbors Kasambya. When the taxi arrived the mob stopped the vehicle and pulled the man from the taxi. The mob then put tires around him, splashed him with gasoline, and set him on fire in the middle of the road. Word got out that the man was free but somehow word did not get out that he was not guilty of murder.
Before you think this only happens in the western part of the country I should note that we saw the aftermath of mob justice in Budaka when we traveled there for training in August of last year. 4 men had stole some cattle. They were followed as they tried to get to the market in Mbale to sell them and a lynch mob intercepted them near Budaka town. They beat 3 of the men to death and then set the 4th man on fire. The 5 of us in our language group and our instructor walked past the large mob at the health center on our way to dinner. When we were having dinner our instructors friend stopped by and told him the story.
Since that time I had heard of 2 other instances of this happening in Budaka while I was there. These others happened near my friends Caleb and Cassandra and they related similar stories to what I have already told you.
So what is justice in these cases? We in the USA used to hang cattle rustlers not that long ago. So what makes it wrong here in a country where more than 80% of the people depend on agriculture to survive? Maybe nothing, maybe everything. Certainly the man who the police found innocent, if indeed he was innocent, deserves to have the police find the killers and bring them to justice, but it feels hard to have faith in that happening. Maybe that is why I want to advocate for the man who stole my shit to be released from jail because the police ‘tuned him up’. Because the more you justify the little wrongs, the easier it is to justify the big wrongs, the harder it is to do right. Ultimately, this country seems to want for people in power who will do the right thing, and the wanting seems to be a long way from ending. Hell, every country seems to have room for leaders who can be counted on to do the right thing, even ours. While it sounds stupid when I say it, it feels right when I imagine it, I think the man who stole my stuff deserves to have someone stand up for his rights, even if I have to do it. Ugh.
What is justice?
What does it mean to live under the rule of law?
What would you do if the law was failing to protect you, your possessions, or the safety of you and your loved ones?
I honestly gave little thought to these questions before coming here to Uganda, but they have been hard to avoid lately. I want to share some experiences I have had while in Uganda. Some of these happened to me, while others only affected me.
First I want to tell you a little bit about my personal experiences with justice, or lack of, in Uganda. As many of you know, I have been the victim of a robbery and burglaries here. These have all occurred in the last 3 months and so maybe I had a false sense of safety after 9 months, maybe the security situation is worse here in Kasambya than it was in Budaka and Wakiso, or maybe its just luck…I don’t know.
On May 2nd, Katherine was here visiting, we left my home for about 45 minutes to walk into the market area and buy some food. The house was locked but my back window was not latched. The window has bars to protect against burglars and the bottom of the window sill is more than 5 feet above the ground. I can only see inside if I pull myself up on the ledge slightly, and then I cannot see onto my desk, which is lower than the window level. So with all of this in mind, as well as the lights off in the room, we headed to buy a couple of chapati to make Rolex’s and a soda. We returned around 7:30 pm to finish fixing dinner. Soon after coming back home we discovered that Katherine’s phone had been stolen from my desktop while we were away. Eventually we discovered that her camera and my ipod were also stolen. These items were almost 3 feet inside the bars on the windows and would not have been visible to anyone walking past. Most Ugandans are much shorter than I am and so the combination of window height and darkness inside the room meant that someone climbed up using the bars to search inside my bedroom. We even found a half-burned wax match on my desk later. This was very upsetting especially when in fact some of the blame fell on me for not latching my window and therefore not taking my own security seriously enough.
So, the next day we spoke to my supervisor and he sent us to the police station to make a statement but did not accompany us, or send another to help us navigate the vagaries of the Ugandan police system. We filed a report with the investigator on duty and received a letter to take to the phone store so that Katherine could get her same phone number back. There was little talk of any investigation or hope of recovering the items. In fact it was only after talking with my counterpart that we learned about the possibility that the phone could be tracked by the phone company and that information could be used to find the thief. In fact she had used this method to track down a boy who had stolen her phone not many weeks before this occurred. With that knowledge, and the police report, we went about trying to get the phone company to assist us in tracking the phone. Our efforts were unsuccessful for many weeks. We would arrive at the offices in Kampala and be told the department was out on a promotion promoting their sponsorship of the 2010 World Cup, and so no one could help us. We returned to be told that their computer systems were down but were assured they would contact us when they were working. Several weeks went by without any success.
On May 21st I went to Kampala to see our medical personnel about my intestinal distress (for another post) and to attend a meeting of the Volunteer Advisory Committee that would take place on Sunday the 23rd and Monday the 24th. I was elected to the committee to be one of 3 representatives for our intake of volunteers and to work with Peace Corps staff providing input on many different issues from the volunteers perspective, but I digress. I stayed in Kampala for medical tests until Wednesday the 26th when I returned to my village. Upon arriving I saw that my supervisor and several other people were standing around my front door. My house is one of 4 ‘apartments’ in one building. I am on the southern end and the 2 middle units were vacant at that time so my closest neighbor was on the other end of the building. When I approached my house I was informed that sometime that previous night my house had been broken into but they were not sure if anything was taken. I went inside and searched through my things to see what had been taken. As it turned out the list was extensive and included things like my short-wave radio-my only source of music after my ipod was stolen and my best source of news-my camera, some cash I keep for emergencies, and my personal passport. Many other things were taken but these were going to be the hardest to replace.
I went back to the front door to see how they entered and I found a broken window which they could not have entered through due to the security bars, broken window sill where they tried to pry the window open, again I am not sure why since they could clearly see the bars, the door latch had been broken, a board that runs along the bottom of my door had been pried off, there were signs of where they tried to pry the door open at the lock and finally the floor inside my front door was broken from where they must have used a large pry-bar to force the door open. In fact the door, which is very solid wood, is cracked from the force used. The man my supervisor hired worked into the evening to repair the damage he could and make my home lock-able again.
I learned that my neighbors had not heard anything during the night but had discovered the break-in that morning when they saw my first-aid box lying open n the front step. From that discovery they saw the broken window and then the open door. My supervisor was notified and he sent one of the workers from the clinic to file a police report. The police did not come to see what had happened, they simply made a note in their ledger the same as they had for my previous incident.
This situation made me very angry. This time I had no responsibility, my house had been as secure as possible and yet somehow the thieves had managed to enter and steal my possessions. I was angry and frustrated because I immediately figured that these must be the same people who had taken my other items and had not been caught yet. It was also clear that I was the target- no other homes had been broken into and in fact some of my neighbors keep some of their kitchen items outside all night and these things were left alone. So now I was being targeted by criminals in the village I called my home.
Ugandans have a cultural aversion to displaying negative emotions. It is considered improper to show anger, frustration or negativity. This caused me additional anger and frustration because it seemed that my co-workers, friends and neighbors were not upset by the fact that my house had been broken into and most of my valuables were stolen. There were general platitudes about how bad it was and they were sorry, but yet almost no action like taking me to the police, local leaders or anything that I felt might have helped actually find the people responsible. I was not bound by Ugandan culture and so I was pretty clear with everyone that I was upset and that I wished they would provide me with some assistance in how best to proceed.
The next day my supervisor took me to the chairperson of the sub-county, basically the mayor of our town and surrounding areas, to explain to him what had happened and ask for his assistance. He was very upset by what he heard and immediately began calling the heads of the area into his office to express his wish that everything be done to solve the crime. The OC, chief of police, the DSO, district security officer, and the chairperson of the local council were all brought into his office and told that he took this seriously and it was their responsibility to keep me, and my property, safe while I was here. From that point on things began to happen. I went to the police station and they took an actual report, an investigating officer was assigned to the case and he even walked with me to my house to see how the break-in had occurred. He said they would begin trying to work with the cellphone company to track the stolen phone because they also felt the two crimes were likely connected. Then a lot of nothing happened.
Eventually I was able to obtain a summary report from the phone company that showed which sim-cards had been used in the phone and so we had 2 phone numbers to try and track the people down. After having made multiple trips to Kampala to get this report I was then told that it would not help the police and they needed the actual detailed phone records for the phone. I was then informed that in order to get these I would need to give an officer 10,000 shillings to pay the court fee to get an affidavit and then travel to Kampala to file this along with other paperwork at the phone company. The phone company would then charge me 20,000 shillings to provide these records, and of course since the police do not have vehicles they would need some help paying for the public transport to accomplish these tasks. I was informed of this 3 weeks after my house was broken into! So for 3 weeks nothing had been done. I paid the money- which was essentially a bribe and could easily be prosecuted as corruption in the US, and waited even longer for the records to come. I visited the police at least once a week, called the phone company to make sure their computers were working, and generally did everything I could to try and speed the process up, but it was time wasted. In fact to this day the police officer I paid the 40,000 shillings to has not even produced those phone records. Once the investigation is complete I intend to go to the district police and file a claim for my money to be returned.
Fast-forward to July 23rd and I visit the OC of the police station to tell him I am now certain that his officer is not serious about getting the phone records, or solving my case. I told him that I have now given up and I want him to have the investigator just return my money since even if they do catch the people I suspect most of my items will have been sold off or destroyed. He apologizes profusely and asks me to give him until Monday to speak to the officer and try to make some progress. The next day I am talking with my friend from the village and he asks me how the case is proceeding. I explain that I have accepted that no one is concerned about catching the thieves and so I have given up. He is a good man and he asks me to give him the phone numbers from before and he will see if he can get someone to answer the phone and try to find out who they are so the police can arrest them. Later that evening he arrives at my home with a woman and the stolen phone. He had called her, convinced her to meet him, then had brought her to me to verify that the phone was the one stolen. I confirm it is the phone that was stolen. My friend explains to me that she told him that her boyfriend gave her the phone a few months ago. He calls the OC and has a police officer come to my house. The police officer arrests the woman and then he and my friend go to the village and arrest her boyfriend, the one who gave her the phone.
The next day I go to the police station to learn about what has happened. I arrive to find out that they have arrested the woman’s boyfriend, a local mechanic, and he has told them he bought the phone and a camera from another man. The camera was recovered and I confirm that it is Katherine’s camera. So this mechanic said he bought both the phone and camera from another man who’s nickname is scrap and who is a known criminal. The police had already arrested scrap and he is in jail also. The police tell me they are actively interrogating the men and trying to recover more of the stolen items. The next day, Monday the 26th, I had to go to a workshop for Peace Corps for several days. While I was away my friend called me several times to let me know that the police were recovering more items that had been stolen. Scrap had finally admitted that he was the one who stole my things and had broken into my house where previously he had denied it. I would later hear from several people that his confession and subsequent information he provided was due to some very ‘aggressive interrogation techniques’. This is a euphemism that some of you probably understand, and for the rest of you it means that the suspect was subjected to treatment would be considered illegal in the US and in fact none of the evidence recovered would be admissible and he would probably go free and then win a civil suit against the police and never work again. But not here. Here if you beat a man and he then tells you something that is proven to be true, all is justified and he goes to jail where he belongs, and in fact that is where this man is now sitting awaiting his trial.
So this situation forces me to confront my views on the issues of civil rights and such. Now most of you know I served my country in the US Army as a paratrooper from 91-93. In fact I signed up with the thought that I would be shipped off to fight for my country in Iraq, but as it turned out that was not in the cards for me. So you also know how much I love the USA, and our constitution is the reason for my love. Our constitution is what makes our country so special and has allowed us to become the amazing place it is today. In fact when I swore my oath of service to the Peace Corps it was the second time in my life that I have sworn an oath to protect that very document from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Our constitution protects us citizens from our government, including the police, and it is one of the very special qualities of our constitution. It strictly limits the powers of our government to protect the citizens from the abuses that so many other countries have, and continue, to endure over the centuries. I love this about our country, even though I know it sometimes means that guilty people are not brought to justice. And now I am here in Uganda and I have had to confront my feelings of pleasure and satisfaction in the fact that this man got ‘tuned up’ and that resulted in my getting some of my things back and him going to jail. Is it just that I am living by the rules of my host country? Is it my human desire for vengeance? Justice? I don’t know, but I do know that I AM glad he was caught, confessed, and provided information that seems likely to get some of my belongings back. I truly wish that it had not been necessary to resort to primitive treatment, but the police here would never have succeeded in closing the case without this man’s confession.
So if it was within my power, would I wish that the police had behaved the way I expect police in America would have behaved even if it meant the case would have gone unsolved and my things unrecovered? I don’t know. I still have 15 months to live here and I know I would have never felt my home was secure without the case being solved and the criminals brought to justice. I want to believe that I am a good enough person that I would wish for things to have resolved without violence, but today, my feelings of happiness and satisfaction are too strong for me to say that…..maybe tomorrow.
For me, this highlights why our country is so incredible and why it is so important that we live by the rule of law. The rule of law allows us to overcome our very real human emotions and arrive at the outcome that is best for our society as a whole, even when it means that we as individuals might not be vindicated. It is why I am opposed to the death penalty while still knowing full well that if someone committed some horrible act against me, or the people I love, I would want them dead…even by my own hand. And I understand and empathize with those people who have to struggle with the conflict created when the law does not allow for the satisfaction of their own personal desires for justice, or vengeance. Mine is but a small taste of how that might feel and even it has caused me to deviate from my intellectual truth and submit to my emotions. Wonder if I would feel the same if this happened at home?
Now I want to give you some more context. I moved here to Kasambya on February 25th from Budaka. 2 weeks after I arrived here I was walking through the trading center(main street) and saw the remnants of a tire fire that had crossed the entire road. I knew it was a tire fire because there were pieces of the steel belts, a few patches of tread and the very distinct black soot. I had not heard any commotion the night before, or that morning, and so I wondered what it was from. There is an army barracks about 10km down that road so I wondered if it had something to do with that. When the riots were happening around Kampala last August the crowd had lit tires on fire to form barricades across the roads to stop traffic, but I was sure I would have heard a riot. So I began asking people what had happened, I asked Fina, my favorite shop owner, Josephine, my counterpart, and a few others but didn’t get an answer. Then a few nights later a youth named Jacob stopped by to visit and I asked him about it. He told me what happened.
A man had tried to beat a boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) driver and steal his motorcycle. Another Boda driver saw the man stealing the motorcycle and quickly got other drivers to help catch the man. They quickly caught him. They beat him and brought him back to the center of town near the taxi stage where the theft occurred. By that time a crowd had formed to see what the drivers would do. The beat the man and then put 3 tires around his body restricting his movements. Someone doused the man with gasoline. And with the crowd standing there watching they set him on fire in the middle of the road. Once the fire was finished the police came and scraped up the human remains and that was the end of it.
Three weeks ago a young boda-boda driver went missing. A day later his body was discovered in a ditch. It seemed that he was hacked to death with a machete and then the person took his motorcycle. This young man was well liked in Kasambya and people were very angry. This young man had recently lost his father and was working to support his brothers and sisters because their mother had died several years before. The police and the villagers began a massive search to find the person responsible.
A few days later they had a suspect. The police caught a man who was using the murdered man’s cellphone. The police arrested him and were bringing him into town for questioning. People got word and a very large, angry crowd was waiting in town for the police and the suspect. When the crowd saw the man they grew even more upset, so much that they began to try and get the man away from the police so they could kill him. The police had to fire some rounds into the air in order to control the crowd. The police then immediately loaded into a taxi and took the man to Mubende town for interrogation and safe-keeping. I saw this part of the story with my own eyes.
The man spent more than a week in jail in Mubende. He was interrogated and his story was investigated both police departments. The police determined that the man was guilty of having a stolen phone but had not been involved in the stealing of the phone, the motorcycle or the murder. They released the man from jail in Mubende on Monday August 2nd. Word got out that the man was leaving Mubende and on a taxi to Kasambya. A large mob formed in the village that neighbors Kasambya. When the taxi arrived the mob stopped the vehicle and pulled the man from the taxi. The mob then put tires around him, splashed him with gasoline, and set him on fire in the middle of the road. Word got out that the man was free but somehow word did not get out that he was not guilty of murder.
Before you think this only happens in the western part of the country I should note that we saw the aftermath of mob justice in Budaka when we traveled there for training in August of last year. 4 men had stole some cattle. They were followed as they tried to get to the market in Mbale to sell them and a lynch mob intercepted them near Budaka town. They beat 3 of the men to death and then set the 4th man on fire. The 5 of us in our language group and our instructor walked past the large mob at the health center on our way to dinner. When we were having dinner our instructors friend stopped by and told him the story.
Since that time I had heard of 2 other instances of this happening in Budaka while I was there. These others happened near my friends Caleb and Cassandra and they related similar stories to what I have already told you.
So what is justice in these cases? We in the USA used to hang cattle rustlers not that long ago. So what makes it wrong here in a country where more than 80% of the people depend on agriculture to survive? Maybe nothing, maybe everything. Certainly the man who the police found innocent, if indeed he was innocent, deserves to have the police find the killers and bring them to justice, but it feels hard to have faith in that happening. Maybe that is why I want to advocate for the man who stole my shit to be released from jail because the police ‘tuned him up’. Because the more you justify the little wrongs, the easier it is to justify the big wrongs, the harder it is to do right. Ultimately, this country seems to want for people in power who will do the right thing, and the wanting seems to be a long way from ending. Hell, every country seems to have room for leaders who can be counted on to do the right thing, even ours. While it sounds stupid when I say it, it feels right when I imagine it, I think the man who stole my stuff deserves to have someone stand up for his rights, even if I have to do it. Ugh.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
October 09 through February 2010
In an effort to keep people up to date, and not lose my sanity by trying to blog about everything that has occurred since my last real update, I am going to summarize my experience in large time blocks. I will then try to fill in, and expand, on some of those experiences.
On October 16th I left training and went to live in Bukomba Village, in Kaderuna trading center, Budaka district in eastern Uganda. I was assigned to work with the Bulangira Disables Association (BDA). This turned out to not be a good fit, for reasons I may talk more about later. So during this time I did not have much "work" to do and spent a lot of time reading, walking around and just plain killing time.
After attending an In-Service-Training (IST) in the middle of January, I was able to convince my Assistant Program Country Director (APCD) to come visit my site to help evaluate the issues I was having with my organization. She visited me in the middle of February and came to the same conclussion I had...that staying with the BDA was not an appropriate use of my skills, training and time.
Within 2 weeks I had a new site and was on my way to western Uganda.
More to follow......
On October 16th I left training and went to live in Bukomba Village, in Kaderuna trading center, Budaka district in eastern Uganda. I was assigned to work with the Bulangira Disables Association (BDA). This turned out to not be a good fit, for reasons I may talk more about later. So during this time I did not have much "work" to do and spent a lot of time reading, walking around and just plain killing time.
After attending an In-Service-Training (IST) in the middle of January, I was able to convince my Assistant Program Country Director (APCD) to come visit my site to help evaluate the issues I was having with my organization. She visited me in the middle of February and came to the same conclussion I had...that staying with the BDA was not an appropriate use of my skills, training and time.
Within 2 weeks I had a new site and was on my way to western Uganda.
More to follow......
Back again!!!
Ok, I am making a very real effort to begin keeping my blog up to date. So here is a little about how PC Uganda is arranged.
Background for Peace Corps Uganda
Peace Corps Uganda’s program differs from the programs in some other countries. Here in Uganda volunteers are assigned to work with local NGO’s, or CBO’s, to support their programs. These host organizations provide housing for the volunteer as well as a supervisor, to help manage the volunteers work within the organization, and a counterpart, a person who will work directly with the volunteer on a daily basis to assist in community integration, language learning and work projects.
The volunteer is expected to devote a majority of their time to working with, and for, the host organization in whatever capacity the host organization has indicated to Peace Corps country staff is needed. This work is considered the volunteers primary work assignment and is intended to be primarily in a capacity-building function rather than performing specific “jobs” such as office work, accounting, etc.
The host organization is also expected to make time available for the volunteer to work within the community on secondary projects which are determined by community need and volunteer interest. The volunteers counterpart is also asked to assist the volunteer, as needed, with their work on secondary projects. Due to the high rates of HIV/AIDS in Uganda all volunteers, regardless of their primary assignments or training, are expected to work in some way to help address the problems associated with HIV/AIDS in the community.
While projects that volunteers participate in outside of their host organizations official work are termed secondary in many instances these projects have a larger impact on the community than a volunteer’s primary work. Due to organizational challenges some volunteers find that their secondary projects can occupy the majority of their time and energy. This is recognized by Peace Corps Uganda and is supported as long as there is clear communication between the volunteer, host organization and Peace Corps staff.
This organizational structure for Peace Corps Uganda places a significant burden on the staff to find and develop sites for volunteers that are with organizations which are actively undertaking activities that benefit the local community, can provide appropriate housing and are not corrupt. This challenge is not always met by the local staff and this can result in volunteers terminating their service early, being in unsafe environments, being ineffective or simply working without the benefit of support from a local organization or individuals. These challenges result in a certain percentage of volunteers terminating their service early or changing to a new site. The exact numbers are not readily available but it is accepted that as many as 40% of volunteers will change sites at sometime during their service. It should be stated that many times the problems that result in a site change may not have been due any failure of staff or volunteer, but simply from unforeseen, or unknowable, circumstances.
Background for Peace Corps Uganda
Peace Corps Uganda’s program differs from the programs in some other countries. Here in Uganda volunteers are assigned to work with local NGO’s, or CBO’s, to support their programs. These host organizations provide housing for the volunteer as well as a supervisor, to help manage the volunteers work within the organization, and a counterpart, a person who will work directly with the volunteer on a daily basis to assist in community integration, language learning and work projects.
The volunteer is expected to devote a majority of their time to working with, and for, the host organization in whatever capacity the host organization has indicated to Peace Corps country staff is needed. This work is considered the volunteers primary work assignment and is intended to be primarily in a capacity-building function rather than performing specific “jobs” such as office work, accounting, etc.
The host organization is also expected to make time available for the volunteer to work within the community on secondary projects which are determined by community need and volunteer interest. The volunteers counterpart is also asked to assist the volunteer, as needed, with their work on secondary projects. Due to the high rates of HIV/AIDS in Uganda all volunteers, regardless of their primary assignments or training, are expected to work in some way to help address the problems associated with HIV/AIDS in the community.
While projects that volunteers participate in outside of their host organizations official work are termed secondary in many instances these projects have a larger impact on the community than a volunteer’s primary work. Due to organizational challenges some volunteers find that their secondary projects can occupy the majority of their time and energy. This is recognized by Peace Corps Uganda and is supported as long as there is clear communication between the volunteer, host organization and Peace Corps staff.
This organizational structure for Peace Corps Uganda places a significant burden on the staff to find and develop sites for volunteers that are with organizations which are actively undertaking activities that benefit the local community, can provide appropriate housing and are not corrupt. This challenge is not always met by the local staff and this can result in volunteers terminating their service early, being in unsafe environments, being ineffective or simply working without the benefit of support from a local organization or individuals. These challenges result in a certain percentage of volunteers terminating their service early or changing to a new site. The exact numbers are not readily available but it is accepted that as many as 40% of volunteers will change sites at sometime during their service. It should be stated that many times the problems that result in a site change may not have been due any failure of staff or volunteer, but simply from unforeseen, or unknowable, circumstances.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Very late update
Sorry for the tremendous delay in updating this blog As it turn out living without electricity or an internet café in your village makes it very difficult to keep a blog updated, who knew.
Since a significant amount of time has passed so let me ‘splain what has happened……. no, there is too much. Let me sum up.
Training:
Well training went on, and on, and on, and on..well you get the idea. It was a long process covering many things, including much language training. Some of my difficulties with training may have actually resulted from the wonderful pre-training I received from my Incredible professors at MTU while I was there. Many of the difficulties trainees face along with a good portion of the material covered in the “Tech” training sessions were covered very well by Blair Orr and others. So while this preparation was really helpful in dealing with some of the stresses that many trainees feel it may have also led to a certain amount of complacency and perceived extra ability. These in turn may have led me to be a little more social than was prudent during training. And by that I mean I was generally out socializing everyday after training.
Now before some of you begin disparaging the way I spent my little free time you should know that the time was extremely valuable in forging some great friendships with my fellow trainees, the regulars at my host family’s shop, and the very friendly servers at the “New Friends Guesthouse”, They only act like the hate us there. In addition I took many walks throughout Wakiso town and the surrounding villages observing the daily life of the people of the area. And last, but not least, I developed a deep appreciation for some of the finer things in life(in Uganda) such as; Alcohol sold in 100ml plastic pouches, Uganda waragi with Krest, and Eagle beer-cold or warm.
Much of training went by in a non-descript blur, one day blending into the surrounding ones, but there were a few notable times I will share with you. First is when we went for our ‘Language Immersion’ trip during our 4th week of training. Because there are currently no volunteers working in the region where Lugwere is spoken our language group traveled to 2 destinations to satisfy our training for the week.
The group of us who were learning Lugwere traveled to the east to Tororo, a nice town near the Kenyan border that’s 2 most notable features are a huge volcanic rock that rises out of the landscape right outside of town, and the largest cement factory in Uganda, Tororo Cement. We spent 2 days living in relative luxury at the Crystal hotel in Tororo, with electricity, hot showers and sit-down toilets. In case I didn’t mention it I had none of those things during my 10 weeks living in Wakiso. During those 2 days we visited with 3 current volunteers to try and learn a little more about what the daily life of a volunteer is like. These volunteers were education volunteers, and it just so happened that school was on break when we were there so the volunteers were not actually working, and so our view of daily life may have been slightly skewed from what we have now found at our sites…but only slightly for some of us.
Since the people of Tororo do not speak Lugwere we then proceeded to Budaka town, the district hub for Budaka district, a small town inside a small district that lies about 30km west of Mbale-get an atlas. Budaka is the center of the Bagwere kingdom, the Bagwere tribe being the ones who speak our target language of Lugwere. We stayed for 3 days in this small town, barely above a village really, and were back to living without running water, sit-down toilets or showers (hot or cold). During this time we had formal language classes as well as many smaller assignments which involved going into the community and practicing our very minimal skills, as well as meeting the leaders of the community to introduce ourselves. When our time was finished it was back to our homestay families in Wakiso with an afternoon layover in Kampala for some western style food, ice cream and internet.
The second notable event some of you may be aware of is when riots erupted in Kampala, and surrounding areas, for 3 days beginning on September 10th. The riots, and riot control by police and army, left 21 dead and many more injured. The riots spread as far as the village of Wakiso where we were getting ready to celebrate the birthday of one of our trainees at the Desert Paradise bar. Jenny, one of our trainers saw the crowd and stopped to tell us that riots had broken out in Kampala and had reached the next town over from Wakiso and we were all advised to go immediately to our homes and await further communication from Peace Corps staff.
Most of us did exactly as told and immediately left and went directly home to await further communication. But at least 3 trainees, who shall remain nameless, did not follow the rules exactly and had a slightly more up-close experience with the riots in Wakiso. One particular trainee left the bar with very good intentions of going straight home when he met a fellow free-spirited trainee walking through town. She had not heard the news and was on her way to get a rolex-best food ever and I’ll talk more about them later- for dinner. Well the 2 looked around wakiso and all appeared calm, so they thought no harm could come from a 10 minute journey to their favorite rolex stand for some dinner. As it happens this rolex stand, Nassar’s Fast Foods, sits on the side of the major road from Kampala to Hoima, the road the riots were spreading along.
The scene played out something like this:
Walking through town approaching Hoima road-People gathered around the few shops with tv’s watching the news stories of rioting in Kampala and surrounding areas. Many, Many people lined up along Hoima road watching as smoke from burning tires- being used to barricade the Hoima road- began appearing very close to town.
PCV#1 “it sure seems pretty crazy. Maybe we should skip dinner and head home?” its about a 10 or 15 minute walk from there.
PCV#2 “Don’t be a pansy. Look at all these people. We’ll be fine” she says
PCV#1 “Yeah, I’m sure your right. Nassar is still open even so it must be fine” he says as they step in front of the food stand to place their order. “Hi Nassar.” They say.
Without responding to their greeting Nassar simply stares past them, down the Hoima road towards Kampala-and the riots-and then pulls the clear display case off his stand and begins frantically gathering his things, trying to pull them back towards a store front where he can secure them.
Bewildered the 2 PCV’s look around and realize that in an instant everything has changed. Where shops had been open their owners were frantically pulling their items inside and locking them up, where people had been standing along the roadways they were now running away from town or yelling and running towards a brand new burning tire barricade only a few yards away, where only a minute ago there had been calm spectators there was now a mix of angry protestors-soon to be rioters-and frightened people.
PCV#2 “Wow, I guess you were right. Let’s get out of here.”
PCV#1 “Holy Shit.”
They begin quickly walking back the way they had come realizing that in less than 2 minutes everything had changed around them. Shops were closed, people were running away, and some were running towards the burning barricade. We would later learn that the vice president and his wife were travelling that stretch of road and the rioters were intent on stopping their motorcade with the burning tires and flying bricks…lots of bricks.
Once a few blocs were between them and the main road the panic in the air had dissipated slightly, although it was still there, and some shops were still open, although they were all in the act of closing. So our 2 PCV’s decided that they could at least stop for a few samosa’s at one of their favorite stands. The old lady looked at them as if they were retarded and gave them almost twice the amount they had paid for, then she immediately pulled everything inside her building and began locking it.
PCV#1 “ok, so maybe we should just take them with us and eat them when we get back to the village.”
“Agreed”
Another few blocks and the road opens up on the left and provides a nice view overlooking the Hoima road and much of the main town. “Let’s eat a few of these here and see if we can watch what happens” “Cool”
So out comes the bottle of Top-up Chilli sauce and they stand on the side of the road eating samosa’s covered in chili sauce while watching people alternately fleeing and running towards the main intersection and the now very large tire fire. Other people in the same area were moving more deliberately and so the PCV’s again felt that they were a safe distance away and that if things were going to be dangerous the people around them would be behaving differently. Such slow learners. Again everything changed in an instant.
Gunshots. For anyone who has spent years training to be a soldier, or maybe even just spent a lot of time shooting automatic assault rifles, the sounds are unmistakable. A few short bursts from the main intersection in town. “Oh Shit!”PCV#1 says “Let’s get the fuck out of here!”
“Those are gunshots aren’t they?” PCV#2. “Yes, let’s go” People all around them are running for their homes. Then, more shots-very close to their location. They begin to move very quickly towards their homes, away from the craziness. A taxi speeds up and skids to a stop next to them “Get in!” the driver shouts. They do, along with several other people in the immediate area. The taxi immediately speeds off towards their village and away from the riots.
“What were you thinking?” the taxi driver says. “It is very dangerous”
They simply look at each other. What could you say to that question? Neither of them gave the only correct answer “Well it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Instead they thanked the driver profusely when he dropped them in their village near their homes. Things here were still calm and it seemed most people were not even changing their daily activities. Children were still wandering, people were talking, everything seemed mostly normal.
A short walk to their homes as they both expressed their amazement, fear and excitement over what they had just experienced.
The story of the 3rd trainee will have to be told by another, but if you get the chance it is a great story. One that actually made at least one person from this story a little jealous because he felt the other persons story was cooler. Oh well, maybe next time.
Training ended with a 3 day workshop at a fancy hotel near Kampala. It was a very fun time for most of us. Finally finished with the daily tedium of training and heading out on our own to do actual work! But before that there was bourbon, wine, a sweet swimming pool, beer, good food, hot showers electricity and sit-down toilets for 3 days. Good times.
It was during this time that the PCV’s got to meet their supervisors and counterparts. These are the people from the host organization that would be working directly with the volunteer over the next 2 years. This experience was, well…an experience for some of us. More to come.
Since a significant amount of time has passed so let me ‘splain what has happened……. no, there is too much. Let me sum up.
Training:
Well training went on, and on, and on, and on..well you get the idea. It was a long process covering many things, including much language training. Some of my difficulties with training may have actually resulted from the wonderful pre-training I received from my Incredible professors at MTU while I was there. Many of the difficulties trainees face along with a good portion of the material covered in the “Tech” training sessions were covered very well by Blair Orr and others. So while this preparation was really helpful in dealing with some of the stresses that many trainees feel it may have also led to a certain amount of complacency and perceived extra ability. These in turn may have led me to be a little more social than was prudent during training. And by that I mean I was generally out socializing everyday after training.
Now before some of you begin disparaging the way I spent my little free time you should know that the time was extremely valuable in forging some great friendships with my fellow trainees, the regulars at my host family’s shop, and the very friendly servers at the “New Friends Guesthouse”, They only act like the hate us there. In addition I took many walks throughout Wakiso town and the surrounding villages observing the daily life of the people of the area. And last, but not least, I developed a deep appreciation for some of the finer things in life(in Uganda) such as; Alcohol sold in 100ml plastic pouches, Uganda waragi with Krest, and Eagle beer-cold or warm.
Much of training went by in a non-descript blur, one day blending into the surrounding ones, but there were a few notable times I will share with you. First is when we went for our ‘Language Immersion’ trip during our 4th week of training. Because there are currently no volunteers working in the region where Lugwere is spoken our language group traveled to 2 destinations to satisfy our training for the week.
The group of us who were learning Lugwere traveled to the east to Tororo, a nice town near the Kenyan border that’s 2 most notable features are a huge volcanic rock that rises out of the landscape right outside of town, and the largest cement factory in Uganda, Tororo Cement. We spent 2 days living in relative luxury at the Crystal hotel in Tororo, with electricity, hot showers and sit-down toilets. In case I didn’t mention it I had none of those things during my 10 weeks living in Wakiso. During those 2 days we visited with 3 current volunteers to try and learn a little more about what the daily life of a volunteer is like. These volunteers were education volunteers, and it just so happened that school was on break when we were there so the volunteers were not actually working, and so our view of daily life may have been slightly skewed from what we have now found at our sites…but only slightly for some of us.
Since the people of Tororo do not speak Lugwere we then proceeded to Budaka town, the district hub for Budaka district, a small town inside a small district that lies about 30km west of Mbale-get an atlas. Budaka is the center of the Bagwere kingdom, the Bagwere tribe being the ones who speak our target language of Lugwere. We stayed for 3 days in this small town, barely above a village really, and were back to living without running water, sit-down toilets or showers (hot or cold). During this time we had formal language classes as well as many smaller assignments which involved going into the community and practicing our very minimal skills, as well as meeting the leaders of the community to introduce ourselves. When our time was finished it was back to our homestay families in Wakiso with an afternoon layover in Kampala for some western style food, ice cream and internet.
The second notable event some of you may be aware of is when riots erupted in Kampala, and surrounding areas, for 3 days beginning on September 10th. The riots, and riot control by police and army, left 21 dead and many more injured. The riots spread as far as the village of Wakiso where we were getting ready to celebrate the birthday of one of our trainees at the Desert Paradise bar. Jenny, one of our trainers saw the crowd and stopped to tell us that riots had broken out in Kampala and had reached the next town over from Wakiso and we were all advised to go immediately to our homes and await further communication from Peace Corps staff.
Most of us did exactly as told and immediately left and went directly home to await further communication. But at least 3 trainees, who shall remain nameless, did not follow the rules exactly and had a slightly more up-close experience with the riots in Wakiso. One particular trainee left the bar with very good intentions of going straight home when he met a fellow free-spirited trainee walking through town. She had not heard the news and was on her way to get a rolex-best food ever and I’ll talk more about them later- for dinner. Well the 2 looked around wakiso and all appeared calm, so they thought no harm could come from a 10 minute journey to their favorite rolex stand for some dinner. As it happens this rolex stand, Nassar’s Fast Foods, sits on the side of the major road from Kampala to Hoima, the road the riots were spreading along.
The scene played out something like this:
Walking through town approaching Hoima road-People gathered around the few shops with tv’s watching the news stories of rioting in Kampala and surrounding areas. Many, Many people lined up along Hoima road watching as smoke from burning tires- being used to barricade the Hoima road- began appearing very close to town.
PCV#1 “it sure seems pretty crazy. Maybe we should skip dinner and head home?” its about a 10 or 15 minute walk from there.
PCV#2 “Don’t be a pansy. Look at all these people. We’ll be fine” she says
PCV#1 “Yeah, I’m sure your right. Nassar is still open even so it must be fine” he says as they step in front of the food stand to place their order. “Hi Nassar.” They say.
Without responding to their greeting Nassar simply stares past them, down the Hoima road towards Kampala-and the riots-and then pulls the clear display case off his stand and begins frantically gathering his things, trying to pull them back towards a store front where he can secure them.
Bewildered the 2 PCV’s look around and realize that in an instant everything has changed. Where shops had been open their owners were frantically pulling their items inside and locking them up, where people had been standing along the roadways they were now running away from town or yelling and running towards a brand new burning tire barricade only a few yards away, where only a minute ago there had been calm spectators there was now a mix of angry protestors-soon to be rioters-and frightened people.
PCV#2 “Wow, I guess you were right. Let’s get out of here.”
PCV#1 “Holy Shit.”
They begin quickly walking back the way they had come realizing that in less than 2 minutes everything had changed around them. Shops were closed, people were running away, and some were running towards the burning barricade. We would later learn that the vice president and his wife were travelling that stretch of road and the rioters were intent on stopping their motorcade with the burning tires and flying bricks…lots of bricks.
Once a few blocs were between them and the main road the panic in the air had dissipated slightly, although it was still there, and some shops were still open, although they were all in the act of closing. So our 2 PCV’s decided that they could at least stop for a few samosa’s at one of their favorite stands. The old lady looked at them as if they were retarded and gave them almost twice the amount they had paid for, then she immediately pulled everything inside her building and began locking it.
PCV#1 “ok, so maybe we should just take them with us and eat them when we get back to the village.”
“Agreed”
Another few blocks and the road opens up on the left and provides a nice view overlooking the Hoima road and much of the main town. “Let’s eat a few of these here and see if we can watch what happens” “Cool”
So out comes the bottle of Top-up Chilli sauce and they stand on the side of the road eating samosa’s covered in chili sauce while watching people alternately fleeing and running towards the main intersection and the now very large tire fire. Other people in the same area were moving more deliberately and so the PCV’s again felt that they were a safe distance away and that if things were going to be dangerous the people around them would be behaving differently. Such slow learners. Again everything changed in an instant.
Gunshots. For anyone who has spent years training to be a soldier, or maybe even just spent a lot of time shooting automatic assault rifles, the sounds are unmistakable. A few short bursts from the main intersection in town. “Oh Shit!”PCV#1 says “Let’s get the fuck out of here!”
“Those are gunshots aren’t they?” PCV#2. “Yes, let’s go” People all around them are running for their homes. Then, more shots-very close to their location. They begin to move very quickly towards their homes, away from the craziness. A taxi speeds up and skids to a stop next to them “Get in!” the driver shouts. They do, along with several other people in the immediate area. The taxi immediately speeds off towards their village and away from the riots.
“What were you thinking?” the taxi driver says. “It is very dangerous”
They simply look at each other. What could you say to that question? Neither of them gave the only correct answer “Well it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Instead they thanked the driver profusely when he dropped them in their village near their homes. Things here were still calm and it seemed most people were not even changing their daily activities. Children were still wandering, people were talking, everything seemed mostly normal.
A short walk to their homes as they both expressed their amazement, fear and excitement over what they had just experienced.
The story of the 3rd trainee will have to be told by another, but if you get the chance it is a great story. One that actually made at least one person from this story a little jealous because he felt the other persons story was cooler. Oh well, maybe next time.
Training ended with a 3 day workshop at a fancy hotel near Kampala. It was a very fun time for most of us. Finally finished with the daily tedium of training and heading out on our own to do actual work! But before that there was bourbon, wine, a sweet swimming pool, beer, good food, hot showers electricity and sit-down toilets for 3 days. Good times.
It was during this time that the PCV’s got to meet their supervisors and counterparts. These are the people from the host organization that would be working directly with the volunteer over the next 2 years. This experience was, well…an experience for some of us. More to come.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
My first Blog Entry!
Hello everyone. I hope this finds you healthy and happy, just like me. First let me apologize for not having communicated very much since I arrived, but our training schedule has us very busy and the town where I am living has only 1 small internet café and it is painfully slow, when it works at all. So I have not been spending either of my most precious resources, money and free-time, at the internet café. Ok, so now on to an update of the last 2 months.
I flew to Philadelphia on August 4th for our staging event. We had about 4 hours of ice-breaker exercises, some information sessions on Peace Corps and Uganda and since it is a government program we filled out piles of paperwork. We woke up on the 5th and quickly boarded charter buses and drove to JFK airport in New York for our 5:50 flight to Brussels, Belgium. We arrived in Brussels at about 8am local time, 3am our time, and proceeded to have a few half-liters of good Belgian beer before boarding our flight to Kigali, Rwanda proceeding to Entebbe, Uganda. We arrived in Uganda around 10pm August 6th, local time, or 2pm central time. After spending 22 hours traveling we gathered our significant amounts of luggage and boarded busses to be taken to Lweza, Uganda, a village about 30 km from Kampala, where we would spend the next few days recovering from jet lag, learning the basics of Peace Corps service, Ugandan culture, and some basic phrases in Lugwere(the primary language for south central Uganda). And for anyone who is counting there are about 54 languages spoken in Uganda even though English is the official language of the country. So while many people in the cities speak English the people in the rural areas, and those who have not had much education which sadly is a fairly large number, speak only their local language. Our time at the Lweza training facility was failry uneventful, but we did get to spend a fun afternoon in Kampala on our first Sunday in the country.
On Monday August 10th we piled our things back onto the busses, vans and trucks and headed for our official training site in Wakiso town. When we arrived at the Raco Training site, actually it is a hotel with a conference center, we received our mosquito nets, matresses, kerosene lamps, blankets and wash buckets. Later that day we met the families that would host us for the next 10 weeks. My host family is composed if a husband, wife, 3-year old daughter and a maid. Now before you get all worked up about me having a maid you need to understand that I live in a home with no running water or electricity. Dalton, my host, works in Kampala all day and then runs a small shop near our house until 10 or later every night. Harriet, his wife, works in far western Uganda in the town of Mbarara. She is a nurse and due to her schedule, and how far away she works, she has not been able to come home since I have been here and so I have not even met her yet. So Rekemah, the maid, has to take care of the house and the daughter. With no electricity or running water the tasks required to maintain a home, and child, require an incredible amount of time, therefore we have a maid. The daughter, Blessing, is very sweet and seems to like me, as do the neighbor children. Dalton and I get along fine and have spent many an evening outside his shop drinking beers, or the local Gin called Uganda Waragi and talking with each other, as well as many people from the community. This time has been really good for learning about how people here live, what they feel the issues are with their country and ours, and mostly just learning how to make friends and live here in Uganda for the next 2 years.
For the last 3.5 weeks or so I have been spending 9 hours 6 days a week learning to speak Lugwere, the language that is spoken in Budaka district where I will be working while I am here, learning about HIV/Aids, Uganda culture, history and politics, Malaria, agriculture and many other interesting topics, as well as a few not so interesting ones.
That is all I have for now, but please keep checking back for more updates to be coming soon.
Steve
I flew to Philadelphia on August 4th for our staging event. We had about 4 hours of ice-breaker exercises, some information sessions on Peace Corps and Uganda and since it is a government program we filled out piles of paperwork. We woke up on the 5th and quickly boarded charter buses and drove to JFK airport in New York for our 5:50 flight to Brussels, Belgium. We arrived in Brussels at about 8am local time, 3am our time, and proceeded to have a few half-liters of good Belgian beer before boarding our flight to Kigali, Rwanda proceeding to Entebbe, Uganda. We arrived in Uganda around 10pm August 6th, local time, or 2pm central time. After spending 22 hours traveling we gathered our significant amounts of luggage and boarded busses to be taken to Lweza, Uganda, a village about 30 km from Kampala, where we would spend the next few days recovering from jet lag, learning the basics of Peace Corps service, Ugandan culture, and some basic phrases in Lugwere(the primary language for south central Uganda). And for anyone who is counting there are about 54 languages spoken in Uganda even though English is the official language of the country. So while many people in the cities speak English the people in the rural areas, and those who have not had much education which sadly is a fairly large number, speak only their local language. Our time at the Lweza training facility was failry uneventful, but we did get to spend a fun afternoon in Kampala on our first Sunday in the country.
On Monday August 10th we piled our things back onto the busses, vans and trucks and headed for our official training site in Wakiso town. When we arrived at the Raco Training site, actually it is a hotel with a conference center, we received our mosquito nets, matresses, kerosene lamps, blankets and wash buckets. Later that day we met the families that would host us for the next 10 weeks. My host family is composed if a husband, wife, 3-year old daughter and a maid. Now before you get all worked up about me having a maid you need to understand that I live in a home with no running water or electricity. Dalton, my host, works in Kampala all day and then runs a small shop near our house until 10 or later every night. Harriet, his wife, works in far western Uganda in the town of Mbarara. She is a nurse and due to her schedule, and how far away she works, she has not been able to come home since I have been here and so I have not even met her yet. So Rekemah, the maid, has to take care of the house and the daughter. With no electricity or running water the tasks required to maintain a home, and child, require an incredible amount of time, therefore we have a maid. The daughter, Blessing, is very sweet and seems to like me, as do the neighbor children. Dalton and I get along fine and have spent many an evening outside his shop drinking beers, or the local Gin called Uganda Waragi and talking with each other, as well as many people from the community. This time has been really good for learning about how people here live, what they feel the issues are with their country and ours, and mostly just learning how to make friends and live here in Uganda for the next 2 years.
For the last 3.5 weeks or so I have been spending 9 hours 6 days a week learning to speak Lugwere, the language that is spoken in Budaka district where I will be working while I am here, learning about HIV/Aids, Uganda culture, history and politics, Malaria, agriculture and many other interesting topics, as well as a few not so interesting ones.
That is all I have for now, but please keep checking back for more updates to be coming soon.
Steve
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