Happy Memorial Day Everyone!

I'd like to take this moment to remember to be thankful for all the freedoms and opportunities we enjoy on a daily basis as Americans. It is truly remarkable and we are blessed to live in such a privileged country.

I've been a little MIA on my blog, all part of my life goal to go completely "off the grid". Anyways, I'm still alive. Things are going well at my site overall. No major complaints.

Distinguishing Achievements Thus Far..

• A side dish proposal via written note from my married, 20-year old neighbor, left in my book while I was in the latrine. Her heart longed for me.
• Being placed in a Lugwere speaking region after 10 weeks of Ateso language training :)
• Listening to my supervisor curse himself for 30 minutes because he considers himself too lazy to finish my house (as a side note, I have all the necessities, but I'm told more progress is coming)
• A bat, mouse w/ "squirrel tail", and about 30 lizards living in my home - time to get a cat!
• Digging a garden and planting tomato and pepper seeds
• Halting all productivity after 7 PM due to complete darkness
• Riding my bike to Pallisa Town, good bye death taxis!
• Learning to clean, gut, and cook fresh fish

I've been in Kamuge for over a month now. Last week I began teaching math and physics. I'm currently teaching five classes from S1-S3. Total in-class teaching amounts to 16 hours. I think this will be more than enough to keep me busy over the next 13 weeks. When I'm not in class I will be working on lesson plans, term schemes, grading, and writing exams.

My first day of school consisted of me walking the 2-minute walk from my house to the school at 7:55 am (school starts at 8) to discover there were about 3 students out of 593 present and no staff or teacher had arrived. The head teacher (our equivalent of principal) was not there. The entire school looked just as it had during term break, with the exception of the 3 students. So I guess it was a "soft" start to the term. By mid-week about 50% of the students showed up and a few teachers had also decided it was time to begin a few lessons. Since i was there, I began the first day. Overall, teaching is going very well. My students are very quiet but very motivated at the same time.

They are incredibly timid in the classroom. They raise their hands ever so slightly and respond to questions speaking just louder than a whisper. I'm like, are you serious? You expect me to hear you at that volume? Anyways, there is definitely a huge disconnect between American style teaching and Ugandan style learning. I think its going to take me half the term to fully realize how I can be most effective as a teacher. Oh, PS, I've never taught before. But I don't feel like that should be a requirement anyways.

I got my first real moment of euphoria since being at site on Wednesday. I was standing in the middle of my classroom watching my students perform an exercise I had just taught them, and I just thought, wow, I'm actually doing this. It was pretty incredible. That was swiftly followed by frustration, as most good moments in Peace Corps are.

Attached below are some pictures of my house as it was a couple days after I arrived at site. I have spent the last month filling it with furniture and making it a little more comfortable.

My main road, turn right for Mbale, turn left for Pallisa

View of my house from the front (main road) side

View as you walk in the front door (living room)

View of front door and window (living room)

Main bedroom, notice the lack of ceiling

How long has it been since your last digestion?

So it turns out I spoke to soon when it came to the absence of any bowel emergencies. Shortly after I posted that, I came down with some nasty food poisoning and/or Giardia, woo hoo!

Needless to say, I got a picturesque Peace Corps experience that I’m sure every trainee aspires to (not), thank God for that bucket! I will spare the graphic details.

So…I’m still alive! After many hours of purging the systems, I have officially become a Peace Corps Volunteer. We swore in on April 21st at the US Ambassador’s home. It was a wonderful ceremony, attended by the ambassador, Peace Corps’ staff, along with the different host organizations that have requested Peace Corps’ assistance.

Oh…did I mention we got to go to the embassy? Bad ass! It was incredible. We also learned WHY the USG (United States Government) is spending ~ $521 MM here a year. They want to see, essentially, the same things the Ugandans want to see, a peaceful, secure, and healthy Uganda that is governed by a body that is elected in a free, accountable, and transparent manner. Sounds good right? That whole democracy thing sounds great when you condense it into one sentence.

Great, so hopefully Peace Corps is a part of that in some small way.

The next day after swearing in, I promptly left for my new post and home for the next two years. Kamuge, Pallisa, Uganda!

I have been here for a few days now and am just starting to get settled in and feel a little bit at ease with my new environment. I’m super excited about my location and the people surrounding me. They’re incredibly warm, friendly, and engaging.

I’ve got a two-bedroom unit that is ½ of a duplex house that I share with a Ugandan family of four. I have a spacious living room, a kitchen, and a bathing area. I even have a roof! No ceiling yet though. Completion on that is TBD. Pit latrine in back.

Plenty of room for a garden, so I figure I’ll throw a few seeds in the ground and see what happens. My house is sans power, sans running water. I like to think that makes me more hardcore than some of the other “volunteers”. Some volunteers have palaces!

So it turns out my new locale speaks mostly Lugwere. Of course, as you well know I have been learning Ateso for the last seven weeks. I speak almost zero Lugwere (I learned how to greet this week). I guess this is part of the flexibility part of Peace Corps. So I will learn both.

Ugandans are massive proponents of the open market. This afternoon I went furniture shopping in Pallisa Town. I was looking at a dining room table and set of chairs. The chairs were quoted at a price of 80,000 shillings, about $40. Pretty high for Uganda.

Upon hearing the price quote, my supervisor was so offended, he offered to pay exactly nothing for the chairs and then proceeded to get into a heated rapport in Lugwere that ended with our abrupt departure. It was hysterical. I did not get my chairs. Ugandans bargain for EVERYTHING.

My head teacher is a great man. I can already observe that he is very well respected in this community, my community. And I can see why. He understands how the world works and what Ugandans must do to enable progress and develop. It is such a relief to have a high quality supervisor.

Happiness

“If you are not growing, you’re dead.”

So I was talking with a good friend of mine here in Uganda today and this quote came up in our conversation.

We were talking about the importance of the work we are doing here. We were both struggling with just how big an impact we could make. Asking each other questions such as “So what if I teach these kids math and physics? What difference will it make in their lives?” or “So what if this man expands his business a little more this year, he is still going to be living in poverty for most likely the rest of his life.”

In a country that has an estimated unemployment rate of 60%, opportunities are few. Even for the students who manage to make it past A level and go on to university. So what impact can we as volunteers really have?

Well, there wasn’t a real clear answer to these questions, unfortunately. But what the conversation boiled down to was this, “If you are not growing, you’re dead.”

Growth can be defined in many ways. One can grow his mental capacity, one can grow his revenue, one can grow by approaching the same problem a different way, one can grow by opening the mind to a new experience. It is not the relative scale in which progress is taking place, but the fact that it is taking place at all. That is the key. Continuous improvement – at any level, is better than none at all. It sounds pretty simple, but I had to stop and think about this for quite a while.

So progress (and people) are like plants, if they are not growing, they are dead. Who are the dead people walking among us? Stay away from them! We must focus on the living!

And that is what we are here to do. That is why we are here. To unlock some of the potential that exists in fantastic abundance. To build capacity, not wealth. Wealth is the result of progress and increased capacity. So many people see money as the end goal, when really it is the result of pursuing something with intensity. It is like a promotion, you shouldn’t seek the promotion, you should seek the personal growth in yourself, and the promotion will follow.

My mind was put to rest. Phew.

So I’ve been reading this book and it has also been helping me discover a new kind of peace in my life. It has been a great experience. It is difficult to describe, but reading this book and living in Uganda for the past two months have already reshaped my perspective on life in general.

When I was living in the states, I sometimes felt like the life I was leading was one based on selfishness. I got good grades and went to college so I could get a good job and make money. And even joining the Peace Corps. What really was my internal reason for coming here? Was it to help Uganda? Or was it to build an experience into my life I know I would never forget and would cherish forever? The latter sounds a bit selfish. Not so?

Today, I realize that none of that is important. What matters, are the decisions you make based on your experiences, beliefs, values, education, etc. And how these decisions ultimately affect your own personal happiness and ability to perform whatever it is you were born or chose to do.

The decisions you make determine your level of your ability to enjoy your work and work hard at it. And there is nothing selfish about that pursuit (granted there are some exemptions). Every soul is endowed with such challenges. And it is certainly a challenge, one of my biggest.

What is my job? Well Peace Corps has made it quite clear for me, I am here…

TO LEARN
To learn from the Ugandans about their way of life, to learn from teachers about Ugandan education, to learn why things are the way they are, and why they aren’t the way they aren’t

TO TEACH
To teach Ugandans about our way of life, to teach math, to teach physics, to teach Ugandans why they should do things a certain way, to teach them why they shouldn’t do them a certain way

TO SUPPORT
My fellow PCVs, the road can be difficult for all of us at times – getting Giardia, getting food poisoning, being stared at 24/7 and called “muzungu” wherever you go, dealing with the cockroaches, the heat, the insane taxis and buses, adjusting to no power, water, toilet, and the smells – mmmmm the smells…can all wear on us

I will close by leaving you with an excellent reading by John Gardner.

…

(read slowly)

…

(and with reflection)

…


MEANING

Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it passes on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success and failure is of less account.

Hey Everyone!

Fantastic news from the Peace Corps Uganda world. We received our site placements yesterday. I'm going to be in a small town called Kamuge. I will be teaching math and physics at Kamuge High School.

The town looks to be about 10k east of Pallisa and about 40k outside the major city of Mbale. I'm really happy and excited with where I have been placed.

So I'm in Kampala today. I will travel to Kamuge tomorrow for my initial site visit. I will get to see my future home and meet my counterpart and supervisor. I will also get a tour of the school I will be teaching at.

I have so much to write and update you all with. My mind is filled with too many thoughts to distill in this internet cafe. I will try and write again soon.

Cheers,

Joe

P.S. - Here are two more random pictures I managed to upload.

My fantastic host sisters, Fina and Sala

This enormous wasp that decided to fly into our room one day in Kidetok. Score: Joe - 1, Wasp - 0

More Pictures from Kidetok and Soroti

Tony, Ted, and I in Kidetok. There were some very cool clouds that day. Very opening credits of the Simpsons-ish, if you get my drift.

On top of the rock with Soroti Town in the background

Another shot from on top of the rock

Education in Uganda

March 26 marks the completion of our sixth full week in Uganda and our second week of immersion training. This past week I was given the opportunity to teach in a Ugandan classroom. It was a phenomenal experience and I walked away with a great sense of reward and accomplishment.

Teaching in Uganda differs in many ways from America. First, there is the size of each class. At this particular school, each grade level contains roughly 170 students. The grades are broken down into two streams each. So each stream, or class, consists of 80-90 students. Class sizes can range from 60-150 students, all with just one teacher in the room.

The students sit in groups of three to four on long benches in front of another higher long bench that serves as their desk. They have very little room to write or do anything else.

The students do not have textbooks. Most of them do not have calculators. Some of them have protractors, rulers, compasses, etc., but not all. There are textbooks available at the library, but I’m told this specific library has many more resources than the typical Ugandan secondary school library.

Basically, the students have writing utensils and small notebooks to record notes in. That is all. This is how they are expected to learn. This is how they are expected to study for exams. Whatever I write down on the board, the students copy down in their notes. This notebook is their only resource for learning outside the classroom. They can go to the library and use textbooks there, but they cannot check them out.

The Ugandan curriculum and text structure differs significantly from that of what I’m used to. Children attend school for seven years at the primary level, P1-P7. They have a state exam at the completion of P7. This exam determines whether or not they are competent enough to move on to secondary school.

Students attend secondary school, the equivalent of our high school, for a period of four years, S1-S4. I will be teaching math and physics at the S1 and S2 levels. I will also be trying to teach some of the higher-level math and physics courses once I get to my site.

You might be asking, “How does a high school freshman learn physics?” This marks another huge distinction of the Ugandan school system. A typical secondary student takes 8-15 subjects concurrently! So, at any given time, the students are responsible for learning at least eight different subjects at a time.

Of these 8-15 subjects, physics, math, biology, and chemistry are mandatory. English is mandatory. Social sciences (history, civics, religious studies, etc.) are mandatory. The students get to choose maybe 3-4 different subjects to take each term. Ah, another distinction, they teach religion in school here.

There is CRE, Christian Religious Education, and IRE, Islamic Religious Education. I’m told the classes do not advocate for a specific religion. They serve more to educate the youth on the history and principles of the religions themselves. Uganda is mostly a Christian nation. They do have a large population of Muslims. I think the breakdown is somewhere around 85% Christian, 15% Muslim.

So…back to teaching. At the end of the day, the only resources a student has to study are their notes and maybe a textbook at the library. So what I teach and the notes I put on the board, are extremely important!

A term is 13 weeks. There are three terms each year. The first term begins in February. The last term concludes in early December.

Quizzes and homework are scarce in Uganda. When a term begins, the only structured form of assessment is the end of term exam! This means, in theory, the students’ entire term grade could come down to one exam! Peace Corps Volunteers have begun implementing quizzes, homework, and in class exercises to help relieve some of the emphasis on one test.

The end of term exam has two purposes: to assess what the student has learned during that term and to give the students a feel for the test format of the end of S4 state UNEB exam. UNEB is Uganda National Examinations Board. They control the content and structure of all major examinations in the country.

If a student does well on the S4 UNEB exam, they can move on to “A” level, Advanced Level Education. These are called S5s and S6s. This would be the equivalent of our high school senior and college freshman. During these two years, students still attend secondary school, but concentrate on far fewer subjects, typically 3-4. Students can choose what emphasis they want to place on what subjects before going on to university.

Despite all the challenges mentioned above, teaching has been an amazing experience. The Ugandans are incredibly enthusiastic and eager to learn. They are quiet, disciplined, respectful, and motivated. They know that education is one of the key factors to success and giving themselves the opportunity to bring them out of poverty. Poverty - a common affliction in Uganda.

There are problems. They have great strides to make in the areas of critical thinking and applying learned knowledge to different concepts. But I see great hope and promise of progress in the future.

I somehow managed to upload two pictures in this internet cafe before the connection got terribly slow. Here they are:

Here is me in the school library. Decked out in "smart" dress.

Here I am in front of a huge boulder/rock structure in Soroti Town. We climbed it shortly after.

Why I'm Here + Kidetok Arrival

Before I left the states, many people asked me why I decided to join Peace Corps. Throughout the PC experience, it is important for every volunteer to remember the reasons why they joined. The reasons can be easy to forget when you get caught up in the day-to-day activities and frustrations.

For me the reasons seem both selfless and selfish. I’m supposed to be here to help others that are in the deepest need. However, I know I have already personally benefited from being here for just a month. The intangible benefit for me is hard to put into words, so I won’t try.

Nevertheless, I can describe the more concrete reasons for joining.

My main motivation to join came from both my background and personal belief system. I grew up in a white, middle class family in the most affluent country in the world. I was privileged enough to get a good education and challenging career. Many, many people invested in me to ensure I was successful and happy.

I joined the Peace Corps because I wanted to channel some of that energy invested in me into helping and improving the lives of those most desperately in need. My focus was on Africa. I would go anywhere the Peace Corps deemed me qualified for, as long as I could make an impact.

Other reasons for joining vary greatly and sound cliché sometimes. They are, however, true.

I wanted…

• to live and work abroad for an extended period of time
• to directly impact the lives of others
• to serve
• a challenge
• an experience

Surprise, surprise! Joining the Peace Corps seemed to be my next best move in life. I remember back in 2006 when my initial interest was sparked along with a few of my good friends’, and the feeling has never died. That must mean something.

I feel blessed. I believe that anyone with a similar foundation should seek to enact positive change, no matter what his or her career interests or fields of study are. Positive change can be as simple as altering your attitude towards a particular situation. Or it can be more involved, such as donating your time, money, or energy to a higher cause.

A wise man once told me, “Patience is the key to realizing any progress in the developing world”. I really appreciate these words because of the truth and reality behind them. Granted, I have only been here a little over a month, but I can already witness the legitimacy of this statement.

My patience will definitely be challenged. Whether or not I am able to adapt my mindset to these challenges will determine to a large extent how successful I am at implementing some positive change in this country. The successful volunteers I have talked to were those that were able to adapt and embrace different cultural paradigms.

The word embrace takes on a new meaning here. It’s really about altering your attitude to see the best in each situation that presents itself. To expect nothing, hope for the best, and prepare for the worst.

I’m in Kidetok this week for cultural, technical, and language immersion training. From Wakiso, it Is a one-hour taxi ride to Kampala, six-hour bus ride from Kampala to Soroti, and then another 1½-hour taxi ride from Soroti to Kidetok, pretty remote. Time to practice Ateso!

Kidetok consists of a single band of dirt road plowing past two schools, half a dozen shops, and a church. Surprisingly, the roads (I should say road) here in this region are in incredibly better condition than those in Wakiso. This had made my morning runs and travelling by matatu (taxi) much more comfortable.

The weather has been dry and fairly hot with very minimal rain. The town has two boreholes where the locals can access clean water. The home we are staying in has an ample supply of collected rainwater. This saves us from having to trek 2-3k back and forth to collect water for bathing/cooking/cleaning/drinking.

We are getting some great exposure and experience working in the Universal Secondary Education system. We will begin teaching next week.

That is all for now! Unfortunately the internet cafe I'm at is far too slow to attach any pictures at this time, but I will try in Kampala the next time I'm there. I've got lots to show. Until next time...