Fish Eagles & Other Birds

Sick, sick, sick. Let's hope it's just a bad case of stomach flu. Regardless, I'm heading out to the secondary school to provide teachers with textbooks for the older deaf students. Just waiting for Robert, my boda-boda driver!

In other words, some pictures from Lake Mburo National Park. Hippos, zebras, topis, birds, warthogs, and...maybe you can spot the buffalo?

What a crazy week! My co-worker berated me for not being what she requested: a "deaf" volunteer with a capital "D". Namely one who only signed and didn't wear hearing aids, namely one who was exactly like the deaf children of Uganda. Really...any foreigner who only signed and didn't speak would not be *exactly* like the deaf children here. Apparently, I've "undone" all her hard work in getting the parents to realize that their children will not benefit form hearing aids or speech therapy (no money for either). They've been calling and asking why I didn't come with the necessary "equipment". So heartbreaking! I get her point, but there are ways to solve this dilemma through educational meetings, fundraising, and more one-on-one time with individual families. Frankly, I think my co-worker needs to have her baby and take a lot of time off. So...there's a challenge for next week.

In addition to fundraising for Silent Voices, I'm going to work PT with Beacon of Hope (an orphanage that caters to children with PTSD) and Butabika Psychiatric Hospital in Kampala. One week a month I'll be up in Mukono, about eight hours from Bushenyi. More on this later -- off to training and then Lake Mburo for a weekend of birding!

Nicholas

This picture of Nicholas climbing a tree is my favorite! The village kids are very limber and can outrun (and outclimb) me any day.

Silent Voices Annual Meeting

These photos are from the Silent Voices annual event. The parents of the deaf children from the Butare school performed their drama play. The story line, in brief: the mother has a deaf child, the father blames the mother and leaves. The child first attends a hearing school, suffers, and then attends a school for the deaf. The father eventually comes back, and the community accepts the deaf child, etc., etc. The story line is very simple, but then again most of the audience (local parents) aren't well educated. The play is performed in the local language and translated into English and USL. Nicholas, the boy in the play, is one of the deaf children at the school. I did some of the interpreting!

The girl in this picture is Erica -- she's a deaf child at the Ishekyke school. Her mom Amanda, also in the picture, is the parent rep. at her daughter's school. Both are such awesome people here, and good role models for the other families. Amanda's sign is quite good.

Some more photos from the play! You can see the locals in the background looking on. They came out in droves from the nearby villages.

Hallelujah!! Got my first package...one month to the day! Maybe mail doesn't take THAT long? Anyway, so I'm standing outside the post-office eating a power bar when Moses rides up on his boda-boda. The following conversation ensues:

Moses: "Boda-boda?" (back to the district office)
Me: "No, I'm walking -- you took the last of my change this morning."
Moses: "Aww...come on. So, what are you eating?"
Me: "Umm..it's an energy bar with granola, kind of like maize! And lots of sugar and peanut butter. It's very American."
Moses: "Can I have one?"
Me: "No! I only have a few. But, here, you can have half of mine."
Moses chews for a minute, makes a funny face, and then says, "Is this from...Wal-Mart?"

Hahaha!! Probably so!

I always have an abundance of mangos and avacados!

At every gathering the parents bring local food to auction to teachers and myself; these photos are from the parent and annual meetings. I got the jackfruit for 3,000 ($1.25)!! I can't say I liked it...too gummy. I usually get a bag of avocados or mangoes -- last week I ended up with ten of each. You can guess what I had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! The long sticks on the floor are sugar cane...the children break them into pieces to suck on, like hard candy.

SV Parent Meetings

These photos are from the weekly parent meetings that I coordinate. This particular group is at the Butare School (furthest from Bushenyi Town). They ranked the areas (education, health care, etc) they thought were most important for their deaf child (all translated into the local language). Bad photo of me! I have to keep my shoulders covered, hence the shawl.

Music Primary School

These photos are from the local primary school. Donations went to materials needed for the children to make their own drums.

District Office

My workplace - the Bushenyi District Office. Takes five minutes and 25c to get here by boda-boda from my house.

I’m still figuring out my goals and projects for the five months I’m here…things move very slowly in Uganda. One meeting can take an entire day…depends on how far the locals have to walk to get to the meeting place and how well they understand English. At yesterday’s meeting with the director of the Disability Rights Fund (from Boston!), I realized the focus needs to shift from the parents to the children. My co-worker Natalie, the Dutch founder of Silent Voices, wants to keep the focus on the parents (because she thinks the parents can educate the children), but DRF probably won’t continue funding SV if the focus doesn’t shift to teaching the deaf kids how to advocate for their rights. Also, the children tend to know more English than the parents. Natalie seemed annoyed by this, but couldn’t say anything because she obviously wants the money for next quarter…quite frankly, I think she’s tired of being in Uganda. Ten years is a long time, especially when you have four kids and another on the way. She’s always cranky and negative (good thing this blog is private!). She told me last week I was like all the other Americans she’s met, “loud and flamboyant”. Haha!! Thus far Silent Voices has focused on educating and teaching the parents about deafness, sign language, etc. Good things, of course – the parents are important members of the village. But the children need more sign instruction, the children should be telling the elders what they need and want. And eventually (hopefully??) the deaf children will want to make their own life. The most difficult part of the meeting was teaching the parents about the importance of advocacy…many want their deaf child to learn how to sign and speak, but they can’t imagine them having a life of their own (i.e., getting married). To them, the child will stay behind and help with the farming.

At the moment, the deaf children of the Bushenyi District (over 100) are isolated in their respective schools; most haven’t met their fellow peers at other schools. This is mostly due to lack of money for transportation costs. The Kigarama School has the highest number of deaf children – maybe 25 – and one teacher for the deaf. The others have a few teachers who know a handful of signs, but no one specific teacher. Anyway…so far I’ve been to all five schools in the district: Rugazi, Ruhandagari, Kigarama, Isheyke, and Butare. It takes an entire day to get to the school (most are located hours from town in rural areas), hold the meeting, eat lunch (matooke), and get back home. We usually sit under a tree and go over the simple agenda: sign language lessons and auctioning (the parents bring home-grown vegetables – usually avocado – to the meetings to sell to teachers --this is in lieu of paying Silent Voices membership fees). I had an interpreter b/c many of the parents don’t speak English. The interpreter translated what I said into the local language – for example, I might say, “this is the sign for ‘house’” and the interpreter would say “house” in Runyankore and then I’d give the USL sign for “house” – which happens to be similar to the ASL sign.

Next week I’ll start developing subject-specific curriculum for the deaf classrooms. For example, a math lesson that can be taught in sign language…so the kids are learning new words as well as basic algebra. Natalie will think this is too ambitious, but who cares? These are smart kids!

Photos to come soon!!

Ndere Troupe, Kampala

A few photos from my first week in Kampala. The Ndere Troupe travels the country giving performances. Awesome dancing -- wish I could get the video to upload.

Some pictures from Kabale

A few photos. The guy I'm with is Noah, who works for UNAD. We went to Bashara Island, owned by the Church of Uganda and run by a group of basket weavers. More to come...internet slow to upload here! The best part: the pizza for dinner and lemon scone for breakfast! Real food!! Can't find this stuff in the villages.

More of Bushara Island

Bloody food illness! Day 3...a slight improvement. In other news, the New Yorker arrived today - post dated four weeks, but who cares? Mail is mail!!

“What is not mine to sense is taking shape there without me. Cypresses tremble slightly, back, in a motion of mourning, I think beside the wall. Something there is touching some other thing. Something is expiring. Ostensibly all this is taking shape right before my eyes as I watch the garden from this window. So I think. In fact all this has always happened and always will but only ever behind my back.” - Amos Oz

Some common sights I encounter on my evening jogs:

•Bright green and yellow school uniforms worn by barefoot children
•Rolling hills dotted with cows and goats, and acres of dark green matoke plants
•Huts and brown mud houses, brightly-colored clothes on the line.
•Abandoned school houses converted into churches
•Teenage boys, shirtless, playing cards and eating bananas under rainforest trees. Somewhere, the sound of a radio.
•Bicycles being pushed up hills loaded with pounds of matoke, rice, beans, pineapple, and wood.
•Women, men, and children staring at me, always staring at me. Most wave and smile. Some ask for money, for my sunglasses or hat.
•Around 6pm the villagers, the ones who can afford it, will start to cook goat on charcoal and wood pits dug in the fields. You can spot the black smoke a mile away.
•Women sitting sideways on the back of a boda boda.
•Children gnawing on whole potatoes and chatting in the local language.
•The African sunset…this is the best part, and exactly like what you’d imagine.

Christine and Peter are the two other VSO volunteers in town. Christine, from London and a math teacher at the local college, is in her sixties and full of energy. She’s reminds me of my grandmother. This morning she came over to Peter’s in her nightgown and argued with him on the messy condition of his house. Peter, the special needs teacher at the college, is a transplant from South England who keeps extending his placement.

The kids often come by Christine’s house. I suppose she’s something of a fairy godmother to them, always giving out sweets and change. The day of my arrival, a local boy, trying to raise money for an organization similar to Boy Scouts, went to Christine’s house to ask for money. She gave him 500shs, and then told him a new volunteer was coming from America. He looked perplexed, and then said, “Is she Muzunga...or the color of Obama?!"

I’m sorry to disappoint him!

Muzunga Price of a Sandwich

Me: "You've charged me an extra 500shs here. The chicken sandwich* should only be 3,000shs." I point to the "menu" on the wall, for good measure.
Waitress: "Today...sandwich...3,500shs!!"
Me: "I've paid 3,000shs for this exact same sandwich for the past five days."
Long silence. The locals stare. Outside, the sound of metal on metal, as something crashes.
Waitress: "Yes, but the bread is an extra 500shs. Today I used...'good' bread. Tomorrow I may not."

Oh, really?! Haha.

*The sandwich is white bread (no crust) toasted and topped with a mixture of mayo, chicken, and some veggies. At first glance it looks unappealing, but it's actually quite tasty. Chicken is hard to find in small villages; most eat beef, pork, or lamb. And "muzunga" means "white" in African tribal language.

UNAD

Noah (on the left) is my best friend here thus far, and the only man I've befriended who hasn't asked me out...yet! Haha!! He's completely deaf, signs, works for the Ugandan Nat'l Association for the Deaf as a teacher. We went to the "shirt factory" in Kampala to chat with the guys who iron the UNAD/USAID logos. They do this all day and into the night...only to make a ten thousand shillings a week (approx 2,115 Ushs = $1.00). But they are very passionate and engaged in promoting deaf education.

More on this later...power will be out in a few minutes for the rest of the afternoon, which means it's time to go to the vegetable market.

Very quickly you get used to the smell of B.O. and woodsmoke...! Especially in the district courthouse where I work. Ugandans are some of the nicest people I've ever met, and I feel much safer here than I did in Morocco (and DC at times), but, damn, they need to invest in deodorant!

The Norwegians

The Norwegians are in town for two weeks helping to raise money for Silent Voices. They're part of the Lions club in Oslo. A hilarious bunch, and I'll miss them when they leave. Here, Andreas is reciting Shakespeare to a group of locals at the Bushenyi guest house. The others are Maria, Sofie, and Annette.

Bushenyi

This “town” has one main road with a handful of run-down shops and a few clothing stores. Peter showed me all the good places to shop, and the vegetable market. He bartered for twenty minutes for a pair of trainers. They finally settled on 15,000 shs (about $7.50) after he walked out, saying he wasn’t a tourist but a “local” and wasn’t going to pay 20,000! Lunch is often a two hour affair at a local hut in town that serves excellent chicken sandwiches (for about $2.00) and Nile Special beer (for about $1.00).

Some photos of my house and street, and my first African bird sighting. The guy in the picture is Moses, who runs the butcher shop. He's very sweet and helpful.