Malnutrition Outreach

This week I began to work on a new government outreach program that was aimed at treating malnutrition. The program is helping malnourished children ages 5 and below, HIV positive people, and pregnant mothers by identifying those that need help and supplying supplemental food.  I was so excited about the project because I thought I could help make a real difference around our community. Like many of you, I figured malnutrition would be a serious issue in the impoverished village in which I live. The first day, Rogers, a colleague of mine, Nalong (a woman who is 8 months pregnant and expecting twins), and myself went out into the village to find those people who were malnourished. We went house to house, weighing and taking the Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) of everyone we thought needed our help. We then told all of the mothers to bring their children to our medical clinic later in the day to receive free supplement food from the government.My first day doing malnutrition outreach shocked me in many ways and also taught me some very valuable lessons. First of all, I was totally wrong about thinking everyone in our village was malnourished and needed our help. On the contrary, most of the kids were perfectly healthy, even though they are skiiiiiiiiiiinny compared to American children. I found this shocking, but then realized that because we live near the lake, the people are able to meet their very basic needs. They can get semiclean water from the lake to drink, bathe, and water crops. Additionally, they can find almost all their food in the ground in the form of potatoes, eggplants, and corn. These people have not survived thousands of years without being able to properly feed themselves, yet there are certainly other places in Uganda that struggle to find food.
Second of all, I grew to highly respect our neighbor Nalong. She is pregnant with her THIRD set of twins and is still willing to put a lot of time and effort into this program. She must have been absolutely exhausted after walking in the village all morning and helping in the clinic in the afternoon but she always remained positive and composed. Lastly, I learned how to deal in a very high stress environment when I  volunteered to man the clinic as the physician and nurse took their lunch break. They left me to take the name, height, weight, and MUAC of all of the 30 toddlers in the clinic. There were mothers throwing their babies into my arms, children peeing on the floor, and others screaming because they are afraid of the white lady. On top of that, I speak only a few words in Luganda and thus could not communicate to them that I couldn't physically take care of all their children at the same time!I feel so lucky that I am able to live in a place that teaches me a new lesson everyday. Whether it is how to  take the MUAC of a screaming baby or shower using less than a gallon of water, I am constantly being challenged. I can't wait to see how the next 9 weeks go!

Mzungu

One of the most surprising and hilarious aspects of living in Africa is being one of the only white people around. I didn't realize how different my skin color would make me from the rest of the population. Whether you are driving in a car or walking down the road, people will almost always stop to stare at the white person, especially in small villages. The first time I walked down the dirt path to where most of the villagers live, I was BOMBARDED with about 20 little kids holding onto my arms and yelled "mzungu, mzungu!!!!!!!!" (mzungu is the Lugandan word for white person). It was so shocking and hysterical that I had no idea how to react! They love to touch my skin, feel my hair, and listen to my foreign voice. Some of the elders in the village are even afraid of white people because they have never seen anyone with my skin color before. The funniest part is that it still happens every time I walk down that little dirt path to the village! It really makes you feel like a celebrity, but it also makes you realize how much you stand out. I would like to think that by the end of my 3 months in Uganda I will have really meshed into the culture, but my skin color is preventing me from doing that. No matter how "African" I act, people will always be staring and wondering what silly thing the mzungu will do next.

Sandra

Sandra is my sweet, kind, innocent roommate here in Uganda. From the moment I arrived in our village, Sandra has been teaching me everything I need to know about Ugandan culture. Like I said in my previous post, without Sandra, I would be totally lost. 
Sandra grew up in complete poverty. When she was very young, her father took her from her mother and left her with her grandmother in a village while he took off to live in South Africa. While living with her grandmother in a village, she suffered greatly and even has the scars to prove it. She was expected to cook, clean, and fetch water, like many other village kids. If she burned the food or took too long carrying the 40lb jerrycan of water, she would receive a severe beating. After 10 years of living in the village under the "care" of her grandmother, her mom received word that her daughter still lived here in Uganda and not with her father in South Africa. Her mom literally had to lie and steal Sandra away from her grandmother.
From then on, her mother worked day and night to provide a stable life for Sandra. She was lucky enough to attend University in Kampala, but her mother could not find enough money to help her finish.
Every night, the two of us stay up late, talking about the differences between our worlds. She so longs to understand mine, and I hers. Sandra has taught me so much without even realizing it. She takes joy in the simplest things, like eating pizza, looking into a full length mirror. Although she has been a motherly figure for me here in Uganda, she has been an inspiration. She is always full of life and is ever curious. Without even trying, Sandra has really taught me to appreciate what I have. The first day here, we took a short walk to Lake Victoria from our house. On the way, we passed by tons of kids, many of whom I took pictures of. When we got home, we were looking through our photos. I pointed to one kid and laughed because this adorable little boy was wearing a shirt with a hole so big his whole stomach was hanging out! Sandra said in return "So many kids wear dirty, ripped shirts like that.. wouldn't it be nice if someone could give them a new shirt?" The next day, we marched down together and gave that little boy one of my tshirts.

Wonderful Week One

After 36 hours of traveling through Friday and Saturday I finally arrived in Uganda!  I was lucky enough to have been greeted by 4 new friends who were so happy to see me! The first night in Uganda, 2 other colleagues and myself stayed in a hotel in Kampala, the capital. Lucky, there was running water so the transition wasn't THAT rough the first night...
The next morning, the 3 of us got up and traveled 2 hours outside the capital city on dust and pothole-filled roads into the jungle, where we are living. We are living in a village called Kankobe, which sits on the beautiful Lake Victoria, which is just a 10 minute walk from my front door. The people in the village are so friendly and happy, even though they are amoung the poorest people I have ever met, many of which are suffering with HIV. Most of the houses in the village are about 7x7ft and are made out of dirt and stone, yet the children living in them are full of life!
I am living in a guest house around the corner from the headquarters of SOVHEN with a girl named Sandra. We are lucky enough to each have a bed, a mosquito net, and a shower (which is really a room with a drain and a bucket of water). The "bathroom" is outisde and up the hill but it is really just a gorified hole in the ground.
The very first time I showered here, there was a red bucket, a blue bucket, and a jug of water in the shower room. Not knowing what I was doing, I decided to poor the water into the blue bucket and then all over my body to wash. I found out after that the blue bucket was actually called and "African toliet" and that it is used for a bathroom at night when you don't want to walk all the way up to the other bathrooms..............
It is safe to say living in Uganda has been qute and adjustment and without Sandra, my sweet and kind roomate, I would have been lost! She has taught me so much about Ugandan culture that I could not have known prior to coming. Some of the most important important tips she taught me is that you have to take off your shoes before entering a house and that women cannot show their thigh at any time.
The organization I am working with, SOVHEN, has proven to be full of the most energetic, caring, compassionate, brillant, and driven people I have ever met. Richard, Jerimiah, and Rogers are truly an inspiration to me. This week, we visited all of the places that SOVHEN has contributed to or built. Firstly, they built a clinic and are in the works of building a maternity clinic up the road from where we live. They also found a way to manufacture sanitary pads from a local plant and have taught various village women how to make them. This creates jobs for the women and a clean sanitary pad for school aged girls, who would have previously dropped out of school when they reached maturity. They are also involved in a school, where I will have the opportunity to teach english for 2 weeks.
I am so thrilled and honored to be working with SOVHEN and to be living in a beautiful country such as Uganda!
More to come soon!

1 day until take off

The time has finally come for me to leave the comforts of home and spend 3 months in Kampala, Uganda. Although I am physically prepared with a camera, vaccinations, and journal in hand, I don't know if I am mentally prepared. When I greet someone for the first time, I am not sure if we hug, shake hands, kiss on the cheek, or bow. Moreover, although the national language of Uganda is English, most people speak either Swahili or Luganda. I am still not 100% positive what my internship position will be, although I know I will have the opportunity to go on business trips to Tanzania and Burundi!

Here is what I do know:
~Uganda is in Eastern Africa and shares borders with Kenya, South Sudan, Congo, Tanzania and Rwanda
~It was a British colony, and just celebrated its 50th year of independence
~The capital of Uganda is Kampala, where I will be working
~Lake Victoria is Uganda's main body of water
~Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) began their destructive rampage in northern Uganda
~Uganda has many natural resources, such as oil, copper, and gold
~Uganda is said to have amazing wildlife

Almost everything I know about Uganda can be found on the wikipedia page, which hopefully makes you as curious as it makes me.

a presto