Weekend Update: April 30, 2011

High(s):

Travelling back from Easter weekend. Got an Espresso Milkshake in Jinja and a Calzone as I passed through Kampala. Also got to meet a new Peace Corps volunteer that will be serving just about 15 K from my site.

I found an ally in Michael, my counterpart, who seemed to be the only other person in the room besides me who realized how useless the business meeting described below was.

Low(s):

A 3 day strategic planning session that I found was dedicated to writing a 5 year work plan. I was invited to this meeting the day before (really about 12 hours before it started). When I arrived I found out that I was in charge of the meeting. A few hours of being extremely annoyed with this I hit my stride and we were actually doing good work. We suspended the meeting, assigned some responsibilities for that night, and then set a time to meet in the morning.

It rained the next morning and I had no electricity that night, but I still finished my assignment and emailed it in to the office with instructions on how they should proceed without me while the rain slows down a bit. (I have to walk 2 miles to get to the road) I returned to the meeting to find two of the most useless members of our organization had not only joined the meeting, but hijacked it, and were re-doing everything I spent the last 2 weeks doing. While I found this annoying, I also found it tragically entertaining. It's kind of like reading Hamlet; I am content just to watch the impending disaster.

So I sat through the next two days of the meeting counting the minutes until I get to escape to see some friends over the weekend and eat some Indian food.

Uganglish Annoyance of the Week:

Yes, thank you for that... I agree with XXXXX ... and think that we need to ...

This is how a typical Ugandan business meeting is done, except instead of one person doing this, every person in the room does it. We Had a 3 day meeting to create the strategic plan for our organization, and spent literally more time talking about our ideas on strategic planning in general than we did talking about our organization that we were supposed to be doing strategic planning for.

What I Accomplished:

Built 2 Tippy Taps at the World Malaria Day event in Nkokonjeru, administered 1 day of a meeting intending to build a strategic plan for our organization after I thought I was just attending the meeting. Was visited by my Peace Corps Program manager who apparently thinks I am a rock star. Yay for low expectations.

What Is On The Agenda:

Do laundry, spend time with my friends, and get on a plane for America!!! Also want to setup a demonstration so that my organization can add ISSB bricks to our Building & Concrete Program curriculum. This might have to wait until after I return.

Luganda Exercise of the Week:

None (didn't have it in me this week)

Observation of The Week:

The useless accountant in our office has 3 wives... thats all...

Sanity Meter:

Hitting a low point. One day this week I looked for apartments on craigslist Greenville, looked up business articles about my old company, and went on Monster.com and did a quick search for job opportunities.

Too much strategery planning, and it doesn't help that nobody here gets my strategery joke.

Book(s) I'm Reading:

Continuing Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead' this week. I am not keeping up with my 50 pages a day. Not even close. Too distracted by work during the week and spending too much time with people whose company I enjoy on the weekends.

PCV Quote of the Week:

"You get all the new Glee!!!"

-Nick Duncan (in a jealous spat towards Jenny)

Weekend Update: April 23, 2011

High(s):

Spaghetti sauce made from scratch and chicken molle. I believe I've secured my place against rodents with a roll of duct tape and a bunch of bricks.

Low(s):

Flies & work. My supervisor looked at me this week and I could just see that she was disappointed in what I am brining to the organization. They wanted a volunteer for the wrong reasons, probably lied to the Peace Corps to get me, and are definitely lying to people to secure funding for their other programs. Still... it made me feel like crap.

Uganglish Annoyance of the Week:

"Sure?" or "Are you sure?"

Ugandan's use the word 'sure' or the phrase, 'are you sure,' the way Americans use the phrase "really?" It isn't asking a question so much as it is saying 'wow' or 'what a coincidence.' My favorite example come from Jenny who had an encounter that went something like:

Stranger: "Do you know Jenny?"

Jenny: "I am Jenny"

Stranger: "Are you sure?"

What I Accomplished:

Assembled all notes from last week's meeting and threw together an example of a monthly report that I think would be helpful to the organization. Power was literally out all week and I was stuck at site due to some riots in Masaka, so that is all that I really did (work wise). Did finish 2 books though.

What Is On The Agenda:

Want to further develop an analysis of what the needs of my organization are and how to approach it. My Ugandan Peace Corps Program Manager, Shiphrah, will be visiting my site next week. My strategy right now is to tell her the truth that I have practically no real job responsibilities and am loosing my mind.

Luganda Exercise of the Week:

Ngenda buli lunaku! Nsasula enkumi ssatu!

I go every day. I pay 3000 UGX.

The phrase I yelled at my taxi driver this week when he tried to charge me an extra 1000 UGX after we had 4 people in the front seat of sedan and I was sitting on the emergency brake.

Observation of The Week:

I make babies cry all the time. We all say that people don't naturally hate they are taught it. But fear seems quite natural.

Sanity Meter:

Sanity is good, but then again, I'm currently having an Easter weekend with volunteers so life is easy right now.

Book(s) I'm Reading:

Finished Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix and The Best Game Ever. The Harry Potter was one of my least favorite in the series. I feel like it was a setup book for the next 2. The Best Game Ever is one of my favorites I've read thus far.

Started Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead' this week. Want to do at least 50 pages a day so I can finish before I come home. I'm really liking it, but it isn't a quick read. I'm trying not to read any other books until I am through with this one.

PCV Quote of the Week:

"I haven't turned my phone on in 3 weeks"

-Tien, In response to my asking if he had heard about the dinner next week or if he knew we were on standfast. I responded:

"well, if we evacuate I'll come find you"

Standfast

We have been put on Standfast, the second and most boring level of our emergency action plan. It means as it sounds, that you get to wait. We know something is up, and we've been told to wait wherever we are for more info or for the situation to be resolved.

This is in response to recent protests by the united opposition (candidates from parties other than Museveni's NRM party).

My battery is running low, the power is out, and there is a holiday weekend coming up that I might be stuck in my village for. My internet connection is pretty bad so I can't get much news off the Daily Monitor's website, but you can by clicking here.

This press conference transcript is pretty good.

Weekend Update: April 16, 2011

I've resolved to do a weekly post starting this week. Not only will it force me to post but it will hopefully also inspire me to accomplish more (so that I have more to write about). The format will be about what you see below.

High(s):

Sat down with my org on Tuesday and “went back to the drawing board.” We came to an agreement that I can be of more use planning and developing facilities based projects than trying to solve the AIDS problem by myself without any funding in a village where almost nobody speaks English. Who woulda thunk it?

Was able to complete my 8 mile run for the first time in about 6 weeks, the knee was a little tender the last 4 miles but no severe pain.

Low(s):

Leaving my computer mouse at our office in Masaka. My touch pad is horrible.

Though delicious I’m not proud to say for the first time I ate rolex on 4 consecutive nights from Sunday to Wednesday. I try to limit myself to every other night, but the recent influx of sauce packets plus the lack of electricity lately has made rolex even more of an attractive option.

Uganglish Annoyance of the Week:

"Yes Please"

There is no word in Luganda for please. You can add the letters ‘ko’ to the end of a verb to make it more polite but it isn't exactly an equivalent. Ugandans have noticed Bazungu (white English speaking travlers) to use the word ‘Please’ in conjunction with ‘Yes’ and copy it. Unfortunately they mostly use it after someone has said their name. So if I were to call Francis on the phone the conversation might go like this:

Francis: “Hello”

Me: “Francis?”

Francis: “Yes Please”

What I Accomplished:

Re-vamped my job responsibilities, had 2 meetings with my org identifying needs and opportunities and then had a 6 hour meeting with them prioritizing and doing basic cost analysis on the list we had put together. From this we are going to start moving towards a development plan.

What Is On The Agenda:

I need to assemble and organize the notes from my meeting into some kind of report. Also I have been tasked by with creating a plot plan of the school grounds, something I’m looking forward to. I’m also continuing to research the possibility of a Biogas digester on site and am working with some friends to create a PCV book club.

Luganda Exercise of the Week:

Yesterday morning it rained. (the rainfall leaked yesterday morning)

Enkuba yatonnya jjo kumakya.

Observation of The Week:

Ugandans are told they are poor and they advertise it openly as children. In response to many questions to Ugandans I get the answer, “because we are poor.” Even when they don’t speak English they seem to know this phrase. It is in stark contrast to the American sentiment where even those who live in poverty take measures to hide it from others and even their own children. I don’t know if the attitude here causes a lack of social mobility or the lack of social mobility causes the attitude, but here poverty is viewed as a permanent affliction, whereas in America I think we view it as an challenge that can be overcome.

Sanity Meter:

Feeling highly sane this week. I have my home visit in sight, an Easter weekend with friends coming up, and some new job responsibilities that will give me something to do for next few weeks.

Book(s) I'm Reading:

Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix and The Greatest Game Ever. The Harry Potter book is self explanatory. I started after Christmas and am reading the entire series before the last movie comes out.

The Greatest Game Ever is about the 1958 NFL Championship game, the turning point in American sports history when Football was set on a course to overtake Baseball as the most popular sport. The greatest defense and the greatest offense ever yet assembled met in prime time on national television. More people were watching than any Football game in history. A 2 minute drill by Johnny Unitas forced the first overtime in the history of the NFL. My favorite line from the book, “If radio and baseball went together perfectly, football seemed made for television.”

PCV Quote of the Week:

“I do not have enough movies to make it through another standfast…”

-Bryce, in response to this week’s riots and killings

Nile River Rafting

Here is the long awaited Nile River Rafting video. One of the most fun days I've had in country. It is an edited copy of our full groups video. It contains my group's boat, some of our guides kayaking, and then our larger group's highlight reel. Enjoy!

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

The rainy season has begun. It is a good thing for my village, not a great thing for me. The soil here is best described as a silty clay, and when it is wet it is an very sticky and often deep mud. Trying to run within a day of a heavy rain is mostly pointless. I don't even particularly like leaving my house while it is raining or shortly afterwards.

I received two great care packages in the past few weeks. This has not helped motivate me to leave the house. I've been away several weekends in a row now and had to do some weekday travel, but while I have been in the village I have been living off my care packages and the occasional rolex.

This is all a bad combination as I'm headed home in May. I was hoping to be headed in good shape. That is far less likely to happen now.

The care packages were filled with wonderful junk food and sauce packets. Duct tape reinforcement helped save a lot of the sauce packets, but unfortunately the shape of the Zax Sauce containers just isn't a good structural form. I guess duct tape has its limitations.

Also an annoying feature of the rainy season... what I like to call second rinse...

Stay tuned to the blog... tomorrow I expect to make my long awaited Nile River Rafting Post. (three people in America were excited by that sentence)

Has been LOST & Other News

LOST

One of my least favorite phrases from Uganglish is "You have been lost." When one is away for several days this is a common greeting. The first several times I was presented with it I quickly replied, "no, I have known where I was the whole time." Now I just kind of smile and say, "yes, that is what a Ugandan might say." Of course in English, "to be lost" is derogatory, it implies incompetence and aloofness, but the phrase Ugandans more correctly mean to say is, "you have been lost to us" or "we have lost [your presence]" both of which are actually quite endearing. Maybe as I continue to warm up to Uganglish and village life I'll change my response to "and am now found" or "and now you have me," but for now I'll continue to force a smile.

Other News

50th Anniversary was great. It was good to see everyone, it was good to do some real work, and was good to meet new volunteers.

Our country director resigned today after a short bout with love. Best wishes to Ted Mooney and his wife to be. We'll certainly miss that smile, head cock, and famous "that is a very good question."

Worked the past few days in Kayunga on a basketball court project. After traveling 6 hours back to site today I have 6 emails from, Rebecca, the volunteer I was working with. Hopefully our plans haven't already fallen through. (I haven't read them yet)

I now have video of me on the Nile. I'll edit it a bit the next few days and then post it up.