Saying Goodbye

Well ladies and gentlemen, this is the last post being written while in Africa. I will post some more pictures next week, once I have fast internet again.

Here is the plan for tonight: eat dinner, get to the airport ridiculously early (O’Hare has trained me well), get on a plane, and go to sleep. I will be getting into Chicago tomorrow (Friday) at 1:00 pm.

As everyone warned me before I came here, I have mixed feelings about coming home. I will miss my new friends, the weather, and UNAD. But I am ready to be home where I do not break the cultural norms on a regular basis. I never thought I would say this…but I miss the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority). I appreciate the fact that in Chicago, I can look at a map and know where to catch the El. And I am ready to be back with my friends and family. I now appreciate all the more the crucial role that you all play in me life. I’ve been amazed at the outpouring of love and support that has come my way over the past 2 months. I couldn’t have done it without you.

I did not learn a ton of USL and I’m sure I will forget some as I return to ASL, but I will never forget the signs I learned and used everyday to explain who I am and why I’m in Uganda, especially the word “research.”

Love, Sarah

Research is finished!!!

Wow, it has been a lot longer since I last posted than I realized. Since my time here is about to end, this past week has been crazy busy with souvenir shopping, finishing up my research, and saying my goodbyes.

This morning I met with Alex Ndeezi, who is the first deaf Member of Parliament. I also met with Martin, who is director of HIV education programs for NUDIPU (please don’t ask me what it stands for, some of the letters mean National Union of Disabled Persons…or Individuals? I don’t know). These were my very last two interviews. Yay!

This afternoon I went to the Entebbe Wildlife Education Center with Renee and her kids. I don’t think I had ever seen an ostrich in real life…or at least this close. Thank goodness for the fence, because the ostrich standing about a foot away from me did not like having his picture taken. My camera battery is currently charging, so I can’t post any pictures tonight.

I went to an amazing (4 hour!) dance performance this past Sunday. It had dances and storytelling from all around Africa. Most of the pictures turned out pretty awful (despite my vast experience taking photos of dance shows), but I will post some of the decent ones later.

So, did I mention that I have been spelling muzungu wrong all along? Well, not wrong, but not the most common spelling for the area I’m living in. I discovered it when I say a tourist t-shirt that says “My name is not Muzungu!” This is unbelievably funny since every person along the side of the road addresses me as such. What I can’t figure out though is why they are surprised that I know they’re talking about me when they’re chatting with others in Luganda…they all yell muzungu all the time, so why wouldn’t I know it means white person? And it always means me because I’m the only one around.

Tomorrow I am going to UNAD to say goodbye to everyone. Then I’m running errands like picking up some African clothes I’m having made and buying some books for the plane ride home.

My flight leaves Entebbe airport at 11:00 pm Thursday night and I arrive in the US sometime Friday. See you soon!

Sarah

Member of Parliament

Want to hear a funny story? So way back in January when I started researching for this trip, I read about Alex Ndeezi, the first deaf Member of Parliament in Uganda. He is quoted in multiple articles discussing the dangerous results of not educating the deaf about HIV/AIDS. He compared the lowering HIV/AIDS rates among the general population due to national education programs to the deaf community that remained at risk due to lack of effective communication with health educators. His urgency is part of why I chose Uganda as the site for my summer of research.

Important side note necessary to understand the rest of the story: Mr. Ndeezi is technically the executive director of UNAD, so his picture his on the website, but he is not in the office on a day to day basis.

So last Monday, I e-mailed Mr. Ndeezi to ask if we could have a meeting. On Tuesday, I went to UNAD and was waiting for the staff’s all day meeting to break for lunch. A man walked through the lobby and into one of the offices. It took me a second to place him, but I suspected it was Mr. Ndeezi. So here’s the first funny part (aka Sarah doing something dumb): I didn’t want him to know that I was talking about him so I signed to a woman nearby asking if that was indeed him. But he’s deaf and could not have heard me AND I chose to speak in the language he does know, so he would have understood me if he came back in the room AND the woman is hearing and knows English so I could have asked out loud.

So I went up to him and introduced myself as the researcher who e-mailed him the previous day. He grabbed an interpreter and asked me about my project, work with UNAD, etc. I asked if we could meet and he said he would e-mail me by Friday and we would meet the following Tuesday or Wednesday.

So Friday came and went and so did the days he said we would meet without hearing from him. This afternoon, I was hanging out at UNAD, working on wrapping up my research. Mr. Ndeezi walked into the room and stopped and looked at me. I smiled normally, but he smiled so slowly and gave me the guiltiest look I have ever seen. So we are meeting this next Tuesday at 8:30 am in the UNAD building. I never knew that guilt was such a powerful scheduling tool.

Sarah

Jewelry and an Anglican Church

Hello, here is what I have been up to for the past few days.

Friday (August 22), I spent the day with Renee. In the morning, all of the children from Julianne’s school came over for a play date (I think there are 26 total). I helped supervise the craft project (turning vegetable cans into pen holders). After that, Renee and I spent quite a long time counting jewelry. One of the many things done by Hope Alive is micro-financing small jewelry businesses for two Ugandan women. Once we had a complete inventory, we went to the Hope Alive office to meet with one of the women…and count a few hundred more necklaces. The jewelry is absolutely stunning. Here is a picture of Renee holding one of the many bundles of necklaces.

Here is a picture of Jennifer (known as Mama Cici because her oldest daughter is named Cici, so Renee is known as Mama Julianne) and me wearing some of her jewelry.

Next, Renee and I went to the craft market and picked up pizza for Friday-pizza-movie-night! We watched Arsenic and Old Lace, which is the funniest movie I have ever seen.

Saturday (August 23), was very uneventful. I spent the day uploading and editing pictures and interview videos. Our next-door neighbor, Jack, came over for dinner. Jack is quite…eccentric. But he is really interesting to listen to. He had just returned from an eight day silent Anglican retreat in Nairobi. For one evening, I was not the only token Anglican :)

Speaking of Anglicans, Sam and Alice (from Focus) took John, Cindy, and me to an Anglican Church service this morning(Sunday, August 24). Unfortunately, it was the praise and worship service (no Eucharist), but it still gave me the feel of Anglican churches in Uganda. The sanctuary holds about 800-1000 people, plus there are two overflow tents outside that hold easily that much, if not more. The tents have projectors and screens so people can still see what’s going on in the church. We literally had to push to get seats in the sanctuary.

Jon, Jen, and Megumi came over for lunch after church…and they stayed until dinnertime. It was a really fun afternoon. It’s weird to hear Jon tell a story about his mother being a teacher and serving ice cream once a year as part of a fundraiser and realize that he’s talking about Tate’s in Wheaton. Sadly, I had to say goodbye to them because they are leaving for language training in Masaka at the end of this week. Here is picture of the gang outside the guesthouse next door.

I’m not 100% sure what I am going tomorrow, but I will report back if it is something interesting.

Goodnight.

Sarah

Silent Theatre

Hello,

This is my new roommate.

Yesterday and today have been super productive research days...which is good because I am going home in 2 weeks.

Yesterday, I had two interviews in the morning with deaf individuals who don’t work for UNAD and I had three more this morning. I only had two scheduled, but one guy wanted to be interviewed so he showed up. These interviews have been really helpful; everyone has different opinions on how the deaf should be educated about HIV/AIDS, so it should lead to an interesting paper.

Yesterday afternoon I watched the rehearsal of the Deaf Silent Theatre Company at UNAD. One of the actors and I were chatting during the tea, samosa, and chapata (flatbread) break. My Ugandan Sign Language skills are pretty minimal, but my ability to communicate with people at UNAD has greatly improved. I can’t really explain it…I guess I understand a lot more than I can say. Anyway, at the end of our conversation, he was telling me that I should get my hair braided to surprise everyone in the US and Florence (who has taken me under her wing) starting watching our conversation. She turned to me and asked, “You understand him?” And I said that I did, and the look on her face was the happiest thing in the world. She looked so proud, and I smiled and signed, “I’m learning.” It made me feel wonderful.

Today, after my three interviews, I went to the performance of the Deaf Silent Theatre Company. They performed at some kind of legal fair; people were waiting in tents to talk to lawyers from different organizations. Honestly, I’m not sure what was going on, but they performed about the discrimination against persons with disabilities in the legal system. It was really educational and entertaining. The audience really enjoyed it. I taped most of it, so let me know if you are interested in seeing a little. Below is a picture of a skit based on a true story where a witchdoctor stole a baby from a deaf couple who were forced to sign a statement they didn’t make (no interpreters) and couldn’t read (no education) at the police station.

Tomorrow will be another full day…but I am taking a day off from research. I am finally going to go souvenir shopping at the craft market, which should be fun.

Goodnight.

Sarah

The Nile

Hello,

It has been a busy week, and next week will probably be even busier. Here are some highlights.

Tuesday, August 12 was one of the BEST days I’ve had in Uganda. Maybe in my whole life. I rode a boat on the Nile. I saw where Lake Victoria ends and the Nile begins. This is a lifetime dream come true. We also went to Bujagali Falls, which is absolutely beautiful...but really are more just rapids on the Nile.

I went with a short-term mission team visiting Uganda to work with Hope Alive. They had a couple extra seats so they brought me, Jenny, GJ, and two Ugandans that work for Hope Alive, Lonnah and Robert. We had the best time taking a ridiculous number of pictures. Here is a picture of Lonnah, me, and Jenny in the boat on the Nile. That man in the picture below is pointing to the source of the Nile, where Lake Victoria ends and the Nile begins.

Wednesday, August 13, I returned to the Ntinda School for the Deaf. The deputy to the headmistress (who I interviewed last week) gave me a tour and I took pictures. I am going to send them the pictures when I get home, and they are going to sell them as a fundraiser. I am happy that I can help in some way. I also interviewed a deaf teacher there. She did not seem thrilled to be answering my questions, but it was short and really helpful to me. Here is a picture of the children clapping in a classroom.

Thursday, August 14, I went with Renee and the female members of the short term mission team to a small fabric market. I bought fabric to have two outfits made, which is really the only way to get Ugandan clothes here, all the rest are imported from other continents. For dinner, we went to a really nice Thai restaurant in honor of the short term mission team’s last night in Uganda. Below is a picture of Christian and me swinging at the Thai restaurant.

Friday, August 15, I went into town to order outfits from a tailor. On a recommendation, I went to see Harriet, who is a member of Kampala Baptist Church. She is making me one dress and one outfit (both blouse and skirt). I am really excited. I go back in a week and a half for a fitting.

Saturday, August 16, was a special day at Hope Alive because it was a “Fun Day” (we played games the whole time) and because it was GJ and Jenny’s last Saturday Club before returning home (to the Netherlands and Colorado, respectively). Jenny and I took hundreds of pictures, so a pretty typical day for me. Here is a picture of me and Jenny trying sugarcane for the first time. It is a lot of work to eat.

Today (Sunday, August 17) consisted of a church service at Lugogo Baptist, a walk with Jenny to the Kamwokya market, and a goodbye dinner for GJ at the mall. I will post pictures from the walk in Kamwokya later in the week.

Tomorrow, I am heading to UNAD to watch a rehearsal of the Deaf Silent Theatre Company, and then I am babysitting the Davis kids, so I probably won’t be online until Tuesday.

Goodnight.

Sarah

Photos!

Hello,

Here are the pictures from the past week or so. We drove over the equator on the trip to Masaka!
I think this is a really interesting sign. It is in Luganda (I think), but an English version is in Kampala that says "Would you let this man be with your daughter? Then why are you with his? Cross-generational sex stops here." I learned from a seminar I attended last spring that this is a serious issue in East Africa that contributes to the spread of AIDS.
This is a roadside stand selling fruit and baskets on the road to Masaka.
These are kids on a field trip to the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre in Entebbe playing with one of the monkeys that run loose.
This is the national bird of Uganda, the Crested Crane.
A couple of students visiting the wildlife center.
Children came up to me to shake my hand all the time. In the picture, you can only see some of the group gathered around me.
This is a picture of the group I went to Entebbe with standing in front of Lake Victoria. John and Cindy (who I live with) are on the left, and I am between Alice and Sam, who are their friends from Focus.
I hope you enjoyed these pictures. It took more than an hour to upload them! I miss everyone at home, but I am over halfway done! I am getting used to being here though, and everyday is a bit easier.

Sarah

The end of a busy week

Hello!

Oh, how I have missed the internet! I am back from Masaka and the repairman fixed the internet this week. So I feel more connected to the US…I now know that People magazine paid $14 million for the first picture of Angelina and Brad’s twins, that Paris Hilton is running for president, and that Selena is dating one of the Jonas brothers. But I can’t get the Chicago Tribune or New York Times to load.

Saturday (August 2), I went to Hope Alive! for a good part of the day. I don’t think that I did anything noteworthy for the rest of the day…

Sunday (August 3), I went to UNAD at 1:30 to begin the trip to Masaka. We drove 2 or 3 hours in the UNAD bus. Lots of people on the side of the road stopped to watch us go by. There are stands along they way where they sell everything from bananas to natural loofahs to drums. If you pull over, they all run over to the car. They are quite aggressive. They all went straight to me and yelled “muzungo,” “auntie,” and “mommy” to try to get my attention (mommy?). They even opened my window. One boy asked me to “photo him.” Once we got to Masaka we started the search for a cheap and clean hotel (I learned that you generally get one or the other). I basically panicked because Florence got a room for two, but there were three of us including the interpreter. So I started to sign to her and she told me to stop…I realized that we were going to have three people in a double room. So she was being secretive, but she didn’t realize that I thought I was left to fend for myself. We went to the hotel where the conference was being held and had dinner, which consisted of the standard Ugandan dishes that I had at every meal for the next two days, including breakfast. I don’t eat the meat in Uganda, but the people who served the food (as you walked along the buffet) said that I did in fact want meat and put in on my plate anyway. It is considered to be the food brought out for special guests, but I would rather have the beans any day.

Monday (August 4), the day began bright and early. I learned that this conference was part conference, part training session. Participants were local service providers (relating to HIV/AIDS) and representatives of the Masaska branches of the DPOs (Disabled Persons Organizations). Each organization from Kampala gave a presentation about why those with their particular disability were at risk for HIV and how to communicate with them. Florence’s presentation was unbelievably helpful; I videotaped it and she is going to give me her notes.

I moved around a lot before the presentations began because they kept changing the orientation of the projector and I wanted to have a good view for videotaping. I ended up sitting with Helen and Agnes in the back, but I had a table to put my tiny tripod on. Agnes is the head of the National Association of the Deafblind in Uganda; she has been blind for most or all of her life, but became deaf about 10 years ago due to cerebral malaria. She has some hearing with a hearing aid, but has an interpreter-guide, like Helen, accompany her on trips like this. Helen’s main jobs seemed to be getting her food and telling other people to be quiet so Agnes could hear the presenter. Helen and I became fast friends. We sat it the back and made faces at each other when the presenters said dumb things or when people rambled on for too long. It was really great to have someone thinking the same thing and finding the same things funny as me because I often feel like no one here thinks like me. All we had to do was look at each other and we would start cracking up, but then have to be quiet so Agnes could hear. Helen is currently working on her masters in clinical psych, which is an interest we have in common. I am going to try to interview her for my research because I would like the perspective of an interpreter.

Tuesday (August 5) was basically the same as Monday. I took lots of pictures out the window on the ride home. I even got a picture of the sign when we crossed the equator!

Wednesday (August 6)…I went to the Ntinda School for the Deaf where I interviewed the deputy to the headmaster (assistant principal). I am planning on going back next week with a camera, so I will tell more about the school then.

Thursday (August 7), we (Cindy, John, and their friends from Focus, Sam and Alice) drove to Entebbe, which is south of Kampala and is on Lake Victoria. First, we went to the Uganda Wildlife Education Center, which is basically a zoo for African animals saved from poachers. It was one of the highlights of this trip so far. I was able to see African animals in Africa! Someday I will get to go on a safari and see them in their natural habitat, but this was almost as good. Plus, there were TONS of children there on fieldtrip, and they are really fun to interact with. Whole groups of kids would run up to me yelling “Muzungo” and they would all touch my arms and hands. Some wanted their pictures taken. Monkeys were running lose and it was fun to watch them interacting with the children too. I got stung by a safari ant and had to pull the stinger out of the fabric of my pants. Next we went to Uganda Botanical Gardens. John and Cindy are both very into plants and birds, so they especially enjoyed it. And I enjoyed taking a couple hundred more pictures.

Friday (August 8) I decided that I was going to have a lazy day and stay in my pajamas until after lunch. By the time it was about noon, there had been multiple rounds of visitors. So I guess I won’t be doing that again. I went with Renee and two of the kids (Hannah and Abby) to Garden City (the mall), where we shopped and went to I Love New York Kitchen. I went back to their house and had Julie read me her “homework book.” Then it was pizza and movie night! We watched the Incredibles and then Dark Knight. Brian bought the copy of the video outside the supermarket…it was a recording someone made sitting in the movie theater. So when I could see what was going on, it seemed like a good movie.

Saturday (August 9) I spent the majority of the day uploading and editing pictures. In the evening, we had dinner with Winston, who goes to Kampala Baptist Church with Cindy and John. He is 73 years old and was born in Africa and has spent most of his life here. He has the best stories I have ever heard. His grandfather started what is now the biggest missionary school/center in Kenya (maybe in all of Africa?) with the help of his buddy President Roosevelt. Winston lived in the room I am staying in when Idi Amin took over, and he told us about putting the mattress on the floor and listening to the rockets overhead.

Sunday (August 10), I went to church at Lugogo Baptist. From there I went with Renee and the girls that are mentors for Hope Alive to an Italian Restaurant. And then we went back to the house for a gathering of the “young workers” from Lugogo. These are the people that have graduated from university and are starting their careers. I ended up feeding children and putting them to bed while the guests listened to a lecture on the importance of being smart about finances. I am exhausted because there are 5 kids, but I think I got the better end of the deal.

So now I am unbelievably exhausted and am going to go to sleep. I still have not recovered from the 12 hour day of walking on Thursday. Tomorrow I am writing new drafts of interview questions, so I am sure that I will procrastinate by posting photos from this past week.

Goodnight.

Sarah

P.S. Sorry this is so long! I didn’t realize it as I was writing it!

Progress!

Today was another very encouraging day. I went to UNAD in the morning and asked Deborah (who was the very first person to respond to my e-mails back in January) if she could help me set up interviews. I was overwhelmed at the prospect of finding willing participants, finding an interpreter, and getting all three of us at the same place at the same time (which might have necessitated hiring a driver, which would have been person number four). So right then and there, Deborah and other staff members brainstormed a list of people, a guy whose name I don’t know is asking all of them and creating a timetable, and Miriam offered to be my interpreter. So a huge stressor is relieved and I can concentrate of coming up with interview questions and interviewing people at related NGOs.

I am going to Masaka on Sunday for a conference on HIV/AIDS education for disabled people. We are traveling there (2 or 3 hours away, I’ve been told) with the very large bus usually used by UNAD’s Silent Theatre Group. I asked Miriam if I was going to be the only hearing person on the bus and she gave me a really funny look. She told me that Florence was going to be the only deaf person on the bus and the other people were all from yesterday’s meeting (members of other DPOs, Disabled Persons Organizations). As much as I like meeting new people, it’s also great to be around people I already know and who know me.

Tonight was American movie and pizza night and Brian and Renee’s house. We watched Batman Begins. Have I mentioned that I live near an arena where concerts are held on the weekends? It is a number of blocks away but this music is so loud (now, at midnight) that I think the singer is in my room. It would never been this loud if I was blasting my own music in my room. Thank goodness for earphones and audio books.

I will post today’s pictures tomorrow; I am too tired to upload them now. Goodnight.

Sarah

My Lucky Day

What a day.

I walked to UNAD this morning, and I think everyone in Kampala got together and decided to acknowledge me more. It was crazy! Twice as many people as usual yelled “muzungo” and tons more cars/bodas honked at me. Two boda drivers actually pulled up next to me and stopped their bikes to try to convince me to accept a ride, offering to drive me for free. They didn’t seem to believe I liked “footing it.” But I walked all the way there.

I got to UNAD around 11:00 am. I hadn’t been there yet this week. I walked in right as everyone was going to a meeting, so I went to a couch and starting reading. Three or four hours later, the meeting ending. In the US, people would tell you to come back because the meeting would be long, but I got another lesson in Ugandan sense of time. They didn’t need to mention it because no one minds waiting. I was actually fine; thank goodness I brought a book.

Florence came back and gave me the details about next week’s conference on HIV/AIDS education for disabled populations, which I decided to attend. It is in Masaka, which is south of Kampala and about 30 miles south of the Equator! I am going south of the Equator! I am so excited; the only sad thing is that I don’t know if there will be any flushing toilets for me to see it drain in the opposite direction from the Northern Hemisphere. If you go to the Equator in Uganda, they totally show you the toilet demonstration. Anyway, I am excited to see another part of Uganda. Masaka is right on Lake Victoria, which hopefully I will be able to see.

Since I hadn’t been at UNAD in a while, one woman asked me if I had “been lost.” It is a Ugandan phrase that means someone was not around for a while, but I still haven’t quite figured out how to respond to it. I wasn’t around, but I wasn’t actually lost. So I just smiled.

Florence invited me to a meeting in the afternoon, and I decided not to attend because I had some other UNAD people I wanted to talk to. After Florence left, someone casually mentioned that the meeting was on HIV/AIDS education, so I ran to catch up with Florence. I’m super glad I went. I met the head honchos of a bunch of DPOs (Disabled Persons Organizations) who I heard speak at the conference a few weeks ago, and they all agreed to meet with me and gave me their cards. The meeting started about 1 ½ hours late…I don’t think I will ever get used to Ugandan time. In addition, the meeting was held in a small library of materials on HIV/AIDS education for the disabled!!! Needless to say, I am going back there soon. It was quite a lucky day.

Tonight we had waffles for dinner, so I will be in a good mood for the rest of the night. I am currently compiling notes and questions from today’s meeting and trying to read the news…those webpages are the hardest to get to load. So let me know is something big happens in the world because I might miss it.

Sarah

Heinz Ketchup

Hello,

The power is back on, the internet is working, and I am ready to blog.

Yesterday was a unexpectedly crazy day. Brian (he is a missionary, he is the one with 5 kids under 7, I might have messed up that age before, but Julie is 7) told me that there were some kids in their program (Hope Alive!) that were from the deaf school. So Dorothy (who is a Ugandan that works for Hope Alive!) took me to the deaf school because she has been their contact. We went via public, taking a taxi (remember that is actually van that runs like a bus) to the school…in the pouring rain. We waited about an hour to talk to the headmistress. I told her about my project and she seemed skeptical. I am not sure exactly what she is skeptical about, but she sure seemed it. Skeptical that she will be able to help me? That I can do this research project? I don’t know, but after some convincing she agreed to meet with me next week. So that is the plan.

So shortly after I got home, I got another call from Brian. He invited me to dinner with his family at a restaurant in Garden City (the mall). I’m sorry, I don’t remember the name of the restaurant, but I remember that its theme was Native Americans. No joke. It had a ton of things for kids to do – two trampolines, a kids movie playing, three videogame consoles, places to color, and probably more. So needless to say it’s a great restaurant for a family with 5 energetic kids. I had a cheeseburger and chips (French fries). But I need to tell you about the horrible realization that I had during this meal. I have forgotten what American Heinz ketchup tastes like. This is how I know: Heinz ketchup is hard to find in Uganda, but I’d had it a couple of times and noticed that it was good, but just a little bit off. But yesterday, the ketchup tasted normal. So I have forgotten the taste of ketchup! But I would take Ugandan Heinz ketchup any day over what is much more common: Top Up, the common “equivalent” is actually tomato-flavored water.

This is Abby. She is two. And she pretty much always looks like this, even when she’s not on a trampoline.

Here is a picture of Brian and the youngest two kids, Emily and Christian, who are both 1 year old. They are climbing out of the enclosed trampoline.

So today has been incredibly low key. I went to the bank and bought airtime for my cell phone. But for the rest of the day I have been working on my research and reading for pleasure.

Pineapple is so much better here; it is a lot sweeter. We had it with ice cream tonight. The ice cream was vanilla, strawberry, and lime flavored. It was actually a really good combination.

So that’s it for tonight. Tomorrow looks like it will be another eventful day. And a shout out to Grandpa – get better so I can come visit in September (I love you too Grandma)!

Sarah

Most Welcome

Here is the moment you have all been waiting for…today’s restaurant was I Love New York Kitchen! I am totally serious. It is a restaurant that serves pizza, bagels, milkshakes, burgers, and everything else American. It is on the ground floor of the parking garage at the mall, Garden City. It has outdoor seating, which means you are sitting in the parking garage. I went with a big group of people. First the family, parents: Brian and Renee, kids: Julianne, Hannah, Abby, Emily, and Christian. Then three other people approximately my age, Kate (in the middle in the photo below), Jenny (on the right), and GJ (he took the picture). Kate leaves tomorrow morning after being in Uganda for 8 months, so we took her back to her apartment to say bye and take all of her remaining American candy sent from home. I got gummy worms and a Symphony bar.

Church was also good this morning. We sang one Happening song (I will call upon the Lord) which was a nice reminder of home. A remarkable number of people there remembered my name, but since Ugandans speak softly out of respect, I never learned their names in the first place. Ugandans are incredibly welcoming though; they always, always say “You are most welcome” especially the first few times you visit. Brian preached; the sermon was an hour long. I am not joking. And we were so squished in the pews that a Ugandan girl was practically on my lap. So I only heard about half of the sermon.

Tonight consists of leftover soup and working on my research. Any company online would be greatly appreciated.

Sarah

Hope Alive!

Hello,

Today I went to the Hope Alive! Saturday club. Hope Alive! is a sponsorship program for Ugandan kids living in poor neighborhoods, which seem to be called slums here. They feed, clothe, and pay the education fees for these children. The Saturday program is breakfast, playing, Bible study, a mini class, and lunch. I spent pretty much the whole time observing and taking pictures. As I have said before, nothing makes me happier than taking pictures of children, especially when they are playing outside in the sunlight. I plan on going back to help out for the rest of my Saturdays here.

I have finally learned more about the Ugandan food I have been eating. Check out the picture I took of my plate. At the very top of the plate is shredded cabbage. Then, going clockwise, is rice covered in g-nut sauce. This is a peanut sauce (they are called ground nuts here), that actually looks much more lavender in real life. Next are beans. Then a piece of Irish potato (there is one other type of potato in Uganda but I don’t know what it’s called and Irish is definitely better), and finally posho (which kinda blends in with the cabbage). Posho is made from cassava and has absolutely no taste whatsoever. You have to mix it with the other food on your plate. All of the Ugandan children eat all of the food on the plates with their hands. My portion was actually a bit smaller than what is given to the children (I was given a “muzungo portion”) because a lot of these kids will only eat the breakfast and lunched provided on Saturdays.

Tune in tomorrow to hear about the restaurant I am going to after church. I have been hearing about this place since the day I got here…but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out what it is!

Sarah

Pizza, chocolate, and American movies

Hello,

Today was another packed day in Kampala. I always dread the days I begin without plans, but I am always pleasantly surprised. I spent the afternoon doing internet research about people I want to interview. I found an amazing website that lists all the contact information, including mobile number and e-mail, for all the Members of Parliament in Uganda. This is really amazing because 4 of them specifically represent persons with disabilities. And one of them is the first deaf member of Ugandan parliament, and I have been reading about him since this whole project started. And he is in Kampala, so hopefully I will be able to meet him.

This evening John and Cindy had three young women that work for Focus over for dinner, Joy, Gabrielle, and Audrey. I spent some time with them; they are incredibly nice. Talking to Audrey was also really helpful because she is finishing a master’s thesis on NGOs so she gave me her opinion about what she doesn’t like about the NGOs in Uganda and also the common perception of disabled individuals in Kampala.

Then, I went over the Brian and Renee’s house for dinner. They have five kids under the age of seven. Friday night is movie and pizza night. So we had homemade pizza (the crust was made from the Giordano’s recipe) and watched the movie Royal Wedding. Once the kids went to bed, it was time for the double feature; we watched Runaway Jury and ate homemade chocolate ice cream, but unfortunately the power goes out a lot in Kampala so the cream was a bit spoiled. Most Ugandans don’t like chocolate, so this meal was 100% American. And I wasn’t dropped off until almost midnight! (The latest I have been out since I got here was about 5:00 pm.) It was a really fun night.

During the past two weeks I have heard a lot about one of the projects here called Hope Alive. It focuses on helping orphaned children and fragile families. So I am going to the Saturday program tomorrow to help out. They also have two deaf children that are part of the program, but the good news is that they think one of them is over 18 years old, so I might be able to interview him. That would be too good to be true.

Goodnight.

Sarah

Yesterday and today

Hello,

Yesterday (July 23), Sam, Alice, and their nine-month-old Timothy came over to the house for dinner. Sam works for FOCUS and Alice is a textile designer. It was a really wonderful evening. Timothy and I played (surprise, surprise) with a teddy bear and blocks. Alice brought over her sketch and design books from college; she is an incredibly talented artist.

Today was a very productive day for my BA thesis. I worked on most of the internet things that I needed to do before heading out to start interviewing. Mainly, I googled the organizations that I learned about at the conference last week. Then Jenny (the very first missionary I met at Kampala Baptist Church) helped me find them all on the map and figure out how to get there via public, as it’s called.

I also walked to UNAD today, but no one was really there. So I borrowed the enormous USL dictionary they have there (different from the one that was mailed to me) and went on my way. I ended up taking a 2 hour walk, circling the entire neighborhood I live in (Kololo). It was great because I passed by NGOs that are applicable to my research that I had never heard of. There are a ridiculous number of NGOs in Kampala. I won’t have time to visit all of the NGOs specifically for disabled people; there are just too many. But I will make it to the important ones.

I am going to go to sleep early. I was woken up this morning by two girls, Hannah and Abbie, that are six(?) and two years old (there are three more kids in the family, all under the age of nine). Their mother stopped by to talk to Cindy, and she told me that her husband has a contact at a deaf school and he has already agreed to meet with me. So that will be good.

Goodnight. Thanks for all of the continued support via e-mails, facebook, blogs, etc. You can’t imagine what a difference it makes.

Sarah

Lazy Tuesday

Hello,

Today was a very, very low-key day because my stomach was acting up. It was inevitable. But I am fine, I just needed to stay where I knew there was a bathroom. Nothing unique to Africa. So I just read a novel and told myself that soon I would work on my research. So it’s 10:30 pm and I should get started any minute now.

I did take a walk today to go to an atm. In Uganda, if you can afford it, you have to hire a house lady. It is considered giving back to the community. So Deborah did my laundry; she washes the clothes, hangs them to dry outside, and then irons them thoroughly to kill the things that got on the clothes while they were drying. So I went to get money to pay Deborah. And on that walk I took some picture of where I am staying and the surrounding streets. Cindy and John (and I) live on the left side of the house (when you are facing it, like in the picture below). The large window on the second floor is my room. I just realized that it is covered by the tree in the picture. Oh well.

Goodnight.

Focus and photographs

Hello,

Today I went with John and Cindy (the couple I live with) to Focus, which is the organization they work for. So this is what I learned: John and Cindy are missionaries sent by the mission organization World Venture. But they knew about Focus and asked World Venture if that could be their project in Uganda. Focus is run by Ugandans and caters to helping students grow in their faith and become young adults. If you want to know more about it, go to http://focusuganda.org/.

I went to morning devotions, which was all of us telling the highs and lows of the week and which Bible passage had spoken to us during the week. Well, I said that getting my research started was a high and homesickness was a low . . . and that God was teaching me patience and how to endure challenging situations. Thankfully, they did not point out the fact that I did not mention a Bible verse. Then they sang two African songs, I think one was in Luganda and one in Swahili. They were the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. They all harmonized and improvised; I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Cindy took some video and she is going to make me a copy.

Next, I went to the home of Beatrice and Vincent on the Focus compound. Vincent is the director of Focus and his wife got her masters in the US in family and marriage counseling (he was also getting a degree, but I don’t know what it was). They have two children, Stephen, 3 ½, and Zoë, almost 2. Stephen is autistic and the family just got back from the US getting him help. So I played for the whole morning and took a couple hundred pictures. Nothing makes me happier than taking pictures of children playing outside. Beatrice made breakfast, African pancakes made with bananas instead of sugar. They were really good. Beatrice was also great to talk to because she is the first Ugandan I’ve met that understands how hard it is to be living in a different culture.

Then I had lunch back at Focus headquarters. This time I was able to learn the names of what I have been eating for the past week. Matoke is mashed plantains (bananas) and tastes/feels a lot like pashed potatoes. Also, there was posho, which is a maize/cornmeal paste-like food. It is not as good as matoke. Both are mixed with whatever meat or bean dish is served with the meal. Today we had a beef stew type thing, plus a cabbage salad and very small bananas.

After lunch, I went to another house on the compound to meet Elaine. She is 2 and hard-of-hearing. She had two hearing aids, but one fell in water and the other shattered. So they have to buy new ones (they are very expensive) and have to stop speech therapy until she gets them again. Her father asked me lots of questions about cochlear implants, and luckily we learned about them in ASL class.

Once we got back home, I promptly fell asleep until dinner. Tonight, I have been brainstorming places to visit for my research and chatting online. Tomorrow will be more laid back, including exploring, shopping, and picture-taking.

One random last thing. A couple days ago, a (hearing) law student asked me if I was for McCain or Obama. She was VERY excited to learn that I live 6ish blocks from his house. A lot of people here support him and are very excited at the prospect of his presidency.

Sarah

Lugogo Baptist Church

Hello,

Another busy day in Kampala. I went to Lugogo Baptist Church this morning, which is different from the Baptist church I went to last Sunday. I was meeting some of the mission girls that are around my age, plus I knew some Ugandans that attend that church. I had been warned before I got here about Ugandan’s concept of time, but I still haven’t begun to get used to it. Since I was getting dropped off at church and others in the car were going to church elsewhere, I arrived early at about 10:35 for an 11:00 service. They have Bible study/Sunday school that starts at 10:00, so I thought I would go join the young adult group. Well, I was the first one there. A few people came shortly, including Robert, who I learned was one of the three original contacts given to me by Ben’s dad’s friend. So I didn’t contact him, but I met him anyway. We started at 10:45 and people wandered in until 11:00. The service didn’t start until 11:15 and the people I was meeting came at 11:20. It was a great way to meet Ugandans in the community.

After church, I went with Megan and Kate, who are missionaries around my age, but they are leaving this week. We met up with other missionaries they know at a restaurant called Sam’s in town. There were only three Ugandan dishes on the whole menu; most of the food was Western or Indian. Then we went to Garden City, the local mall. The group of us went cosmic bowling. I am not kidding. There were only six lanes, but it looked like any bowling alley in the US. I learned that cosmic bowling is really hard to photograph, but this should give the general idea.

That is a picture of me laughing because I got a gutter ball. But I did get two strikes, believe it or not.

The other option besides bowling was ice skating. But not on ice, on plastic. Again, I am not kidding. People were skating with real skates on plastic that is like the top of an air hockey table. It looked completely normal, but then you remembered that it was 80 degrees and they were skating on plastic.

After that I cam home and had dinner. Tomorrow I am going with the couple I live with to Focus, which is the mission organization they work for. I am going to devotions in the morning during which there probably will be traditional Ugandan singing, so I am very excited. Then, I am going to meet a Ugandan woman and her children that are affiliated with Focus. One of the sons is Autistic and they need someone to play with him, so I am going, ready to play. There is also a deaf two-year-old in the building that I will meet either tomorrow or in the future.

I am excited about the upcoming week because I am planning on exploring Kampala both for research and for pleasure. I am going to go to the surprisingly numerous organizations that work with the disabled in Kampala to interview people there. It will be really good to see more of the city, and I am itching to take lots of pictures.

Sarah

Disability Conference, Sugar, and Volleyball

Hello,

Yesterday (Friday, the 18^th) was a really rewarding day. I went to a conference on AIDS and disability with Florence and Barry, who thankfully is hearing and speaks English. The whole event was in English and interpreted into USL, but it was helpful in communicating with Florence. She is one of the nicest people I’ve met here. She grabs my hand when we cross the street. Keep in mind that crossing the street is no easy feat here. The most helpful part of the conference was the handout that included a list of acronyms of all the organizations that focus on disability and/or HIV/AIDS in Uganda. So I am making plans to visit these other organizations within the next 2 weeks. As part of the conference, we were given lunch. All of the times that I have had Ugandan trips two things are true: it is a buffet so I am able to try everything, but also, I am with deaf people, so I still don’t know the English words for the food.

Random observation. Sugar is different here. The grains are much larger, so you can feel it crunching when you eat a brownie. I am not a big fan. On the other hand, sugar improves soda. In the US, soda is made with corn syrup, but here it is made with real sugar which is much better.

Today (Saturday, the 19^th) was a surprisingly busy day. Sometimes the days you think will drag because there’s nothing to do become the fullest and fastest days of all. I slept in until 10 and ate lunch and read until mid-afternoon. Then Liz, a missionary that usually works in southern Uganda, stopped by the place I am staying to visit and use the internet. We ended up talking all afternoon and she invited me to a volleyball game at the house of yet another missionary family. Youth from Lugogo Baptist Church play volleyball everyday Saturday night. I have learned that, in Uganda, the word youth describes someone who is not yet married and does not have kids. So in Liz’s youth group, the youth range from six to thirty years old. The guys playing volleyball were all in their late teens through late twenties, I would guess. I watched with the girls, and they taught me about the Ugandan school system. One girl is studying forestry at a local university and lives at a hostel nearby.

Then, we followed the children to where they were playing. There were nine children of missionaries between the two families on the compound, all under the age of nine. I was handed the youngest, (“Who wants a baby?” I’m totally not kidding) and he hung out on my hip the whole night. Christian, who is one year old, would not let anyone else hold him and was very content to observe the playing. After most people left, we were given homemade pizza. I know that I haven’t been gone long and haven’t eaten Ugandan food that many times, but I really missed pizza. And it was a highlight of my day.

Tonight I am chatting with my mom and Ben while researching organizations that I learned about at the conference yesterday. I am finding them on the map and planning routes to get there. I am basically creating a scavenger hunt to collect data for my project. The prize is getting to write the actual BA paper!

I should be on gmail for the majority of my evening/your day tomorrow. Thanks for the continuing notes of encouragement – they are more helpful than you know.

Thursday, 17 July 2008

Hello friends, family, and faithful blog readers,

This morning I headed to UNAD for the first time all by myself. I walked there from where I’m staying, which took about 25 minutes. I learned that if I walk on the side of the road in the opposite direction of traffic, fewer men on boda bodas (mopeds, a main form of public transportation) will yell muzungo and want to give me a ride. They like to drive white people because they think they can charge more (and they usually can).

I went in today knowing that today I would meet Florence, the coordinator for HIV/AIDS training and education (Her real title is Program Officer for Gender and Theatre coordinator, but they educate using theater). If you want to see her picture, go to http://unadug.net/general/secretariat.php. The other people you can see on that page that I have gotten to know are Joseph (my contact from before I got to Uganda, he’s actually in charge I think because Alex Ndeezi is the first deaf member of parliament and I doubt that he’s in the UNAD office often), Deborah (who was actually the first person to respond to my original batch of e-mails back in January), Noah (who likes to point out when ASL signs are the same as USL and encourages me to keep learning USL), and Olivia (who interpreted for me today even though she just meant to stop by and say hi).

So Deborah introduced me to Florence. Florence doesn’t know any ASL, and I don’t know much USL. But Olivia volunteered to interpret. I expected that I would ask questions, but Deborah started talking about the programs and talked for an hour and a half. She confirmed a lot of my predictions about the similarities of American and Ugandan Deaf cultures. In Uganda, as in the US, deaf with a lower-case d describes someone that can’t hear and Deaf with a capital D describes a culture.

Florence invited me to four or five conferences on the education (about HIV/AIDS or in general? I don’t know) for people with disabilities in Uganda. The first one is tomorrow and held in Kampala, so I am going, bright and early. The others require travel to other regions of Uganda and are longer. I couldn’t seem to convince Florence that I would rather for to the 3-day conference than the week-long one. She said I could share a hotel room with her. Luckily, tomorrow’s conference is only one day.

Once I left UNAD, I took a long walk that was half practical and half exploratory. I walked for about 45 minutes along Lugogo By-Pass (yes, I know the names of a couple streets in Kampala even though street signs are uncommon. I sleep with a map under my pillow). I then went shopping at Game, which is like Target. I bought disposable cameras for taking to the areas that are more risky to bring a camera and pens and notebooks, because despite my mother’s advice, I only brought one of each and promptly lost both. And speaking of my mom, I then bought phone minutes so I could talk to my mom for the first time since I got here!

This evening consisted of that much-needed chat, as well as dinner and brainstorming ways to change my BA project based on what I have already learned and the resources to which I will have access. I intend to be on gmail for another few hours and then a good night sleep.

I feel one hundred times better since writing yesterday’s blog entry because of all of the encouraging notes I have gotten from so many of you. But you set the bar high, my friends. Keep that in mind. Tomorrow (Friday) I will be on gmail for most of the day; the conference ends at 14:00 (which is 7:00 am for Ben and for East Coast family members, and 6:00 for everyone else). So I expect to hear from you all bright and early. Keep in mind that Katie Bailey got a gmail account just so she could chat with me.

Keep me posted about your adventures in the US.

Sarah

first week in Kampala

I left Chicago Thursday afternoon (July 10) and flew into Brussels, where I had a 3 hour layover (12:30-3:30 am Illinois time, might I add). Then I flew into Uganda, arriving on Friday night. I was picked up by a taxi driver sent by the Red Chili Hideaway, the hostel in which I stayed. It was a pretty nice place and a good price. They had a restaurant there, which was very helpful in preventing starvation until I worked up the courage to attempt public transportation. I couldn’t sleep that night so I stayed up listening to audio books on my ipod.

Saturday (July 12), I did venture out of the hostel compound to find an atm (no easy feat if you have a mastercard) and a cell phone store. It was a successful, but surprisingly tiring adventure. That night, I had dinner with a couple, Dave and Rene, who were passing through Kampala on the trip of a lifetime. They were exploring the cities and bush of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. It was nice to have the company.

Sunday (July 13), I had the Red Chili call me a taxi (called a special hire, the vans that run like buses are called taxis) and my driver and I headed out to attempt to find Kampala Baptist Church. Here’s why: my contact in Uganda left for a month the day before I arrived (which I found out via her blog). Ben’s father’s friend knows a pastor in Detroit who was a missionary in Uganda for many years. The friend got contacts from the pastor, including the pastor of Kampala Baptist Church. I had no idea what time the service would start so I just headed out as soon as I was ready.

Well, my driver claimed that he didn’t know where the church was because there are so many Baptist churches in the city. But he picked one and it was exactly the one I wanted. I walked into the sanctuary about 15 minutes before the early service ended. Unfortunately, it was held in Luganda, so I couldn’t understand a single work. But fortunately, very few white people attend that service, so I stuck out easily as someone who needed friends. (The later service in English was relatively diverse). At the end of the service, a woman (named Jenny) approached me and introduced herself. Long story slightly shorter, she and her husband are long-term missionaries in Uganda and his parents, who were visiting, were missionaries in Pakistan. And they were all from Wheaton. I know that Wheaton is a pretty religious place, but what are the odds? So they brought me to Sunday school and invited me to their house for lunch. I also stayed for the English service, where I was introduced to other missionaries and Ugandans.

Susan, another missionary who has lived in Africa for decades, offered to pick me up, help me check out of Red Chili, let me sleep in her guest room, and drive me to and from UNAD on my first day (I am working with the Uganda National Association of the Deaf, both volunteering and researching for my BA thesis). Needless to say, this was both incredibly generous and incredibly helpful. Then yesterday (Tuesday, the 15^th), I moved into another home of missionaries relatively new to Uganda, Cindy and John. It looks like I will be staying here my whole time here. It is the PERFECT location because I can walk to everything I need: UNAD (which I didn’t know was within walking distance when I agreed to live with them), ShopRite (groceries, milk is sold in bags), Game (sort of like a Target), an atm of the only bank in Uganda I can use, a mobile phone store and numerous roadside stands where I can buy phone minutes, and the place to catch a taxi (like a bus stop, but unmarked) to go anywhere in the city. But the BEST part of living here is that they have internet in their house (most of the time). In Uganda, the power goes out very frequently, between every other day and every four-ish days, depending on the neighborhood in which you live. When the power is out, the internet does not work.

So Monday was the first day that I went to UNAD. I arrived mid-morning to the most pleasant surprise: a number of people who work for UNAD know American Sign Language, which makes communication much easier. I signed with a weird mixture of ASL and Ugandan Sign Language, and they continually taught me knew words in USL. This actually developed into a type of game where we tried to think of and use as many words as we could that were the same in ASL and USL. Two of the men took me out to lunch at a Ugandan restaurant. Honestly, I have no idea what I ate because they labeled all of the food on my plate in USL, so I don’t know the English words yet. One thing about Ugandans, they stare. And the sight of a muzungo (the word meaning white person that is constantly yelled at me by people on the street) and two deaf Africans must have been quite the sight. Because everyone wanted to watch. While in the office before and after lunch, I chatted with two of the employees and read through a different USL dictionary than the one I had been sent that was much more complete. I am going back tomorrow (Thursday) to meet with the woman who does the HIV/AIDS education for UNAD.

Today (Wednesday, July 16), I went with the first missionary family I met at church into town, the heart of Kampala. They drove over to where I am staying and we took public transportation from there, so I could learn how to do it. Public transportation is crazy. They pack 13-14 people into a van and drive into town. The people get off right before the taxi enters the taxi park because it can take 1-2 hours to get in there, even though they right by it. Although there is an organization to the madness of the taxi park, you would never know it at first glance. Google image: taxi park Kampala. We went to fabric stores and Aweno, a used-goods market. Stuff that is made in Africa often has “made in China” written on it because they think that makes products more appealing. The center of town is very crowded and you bump into 90% of the people around you. And more staring and shouts of “muzungo.” But everyone was really friendly and eager to engage us in conversation.

So that’s pretty much everything. I promise that none of my future posts will be this long. Please keep in touch. I do feel pretty disconnected from everyone and nights are a bit lonely, especially when the power goes out and I read all night by flashlight (stupid jetlag). But please don’t send e-mail with any large attachments because Ugandan internet just can’t handle it. I have a gmail account, sarahmarguerite@gmail.com, that I use to instant message. Once I have my schedule more set, I will post when I plan on being online and ready to chat.

Omukwaano (love), Sarah