Unintentionally on Set of a Ugandan Music Video

A couple weekends ago, Mom and I went to go hang out at the Entebbe Botanical Garden. We found a wonderful spot right next to the Lake to hang out, play cards, and relax. Not many people around. A breath of fresh air.

All of a sudden, a big ol’ SUV came charging down the hill toward to the Lake, and parked within a couple feet of the shore. We just assumed that they were going to wash their vehicle. It was pretty dirty, and we had seen quite a few people doing that already. Well – turns out we were wrong!

4 people piled out of the vehicle, and there was a flurry of activity as they pulled out changes of clothes, video camera and tripod, and light reflectors. No way – they were going to make a video. Turns out it was a music video. Not sure who the music artist was, but we got to watch most of it. It started with them turning on a cd player in the car, and playing the music for the video over the car’s speakers. Then the musician – a young Ugandan man sits on the front of the vehicle, lip-syncing and gyrating to the music. With this little flutter hand move that had mom and I cracking up.

Then – a beyond full figured woman in a tight blue mini-dress got in on the action. It was like a low grade model shoot on the vehicle hood, and then this love story between the two actors. We couldn’t stop laughing. After about 6 repeats of the song, mom and I were getting pretty sick of the music, so it was time to take off.

Still haven’t found out who the artist was, but hoping to see it on TV soon so we can see how it actually went.

Adventures at the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC)

Just for a little preamble – UWEC is an animal orphanage for rescue animals (from accidents, capitivity, etc…) overlooking Lake Victoria – extremely well put together, great enclosures for the animals, and a lot of free ranging monkeys and birds and such.

So – our adventure began on the set of a Harry Potter film – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. For those of you who are familiar with the books or film, you will definitely remember the acromantulas that hang out in the Hogwarts Forest and that capture Ron and Harry. Well – we were extras on that set today, but the spiders were real! They were huge, and we were surrounded! Massive spiders, webs creating a canopy over our heads, completely filled with spiders that are inches large – almost as large as our hands! And you look around, and you notice, that besides the path immediately in front and behind you, there are webs on every other side of you as well. Packed chock full of spiders. At one point Mom pointed out the spiders above us, we both screamed and started running. And neither of us are afraid of spiders! It was a little too creepy! (now, we’re a little afraid to go to sleep!)

Then – we ran into the ant equivalent of the Pan-African highway. Hundreds of thousands of ants marching on a specific path. And there were guard ants that were huge, about 3 times the size of the other ants, and their pinchers were massive! When we got a little too close, they came out in formation and almost started chasing us. We jumped (like we were doing the long jump in track!) over the highway and continued on into the spider infested woods.

Then there were the chimpanzees! We got to watch 11 chimps playing/fighting and more. They were lounging on hoses hung from the trees, swinging from tires hung from ropes, clapping their hands, picking through each others fur, fighting over jack fruit, and banging branches against the ground. All while making the most amazing sounds.

Last but not least, mom and I got to star in our own little zoo exhibition. We were walking to our dormitory just at dusk, and there was a Ugandan mom and her small daughter in front of us. The little girl stopped, in awe of a mama and baby vervet monkey hanging out on the roof. She was so excited. Then she turned and saw mom and I – two mzungus walking behind her. She wore the same expression of awe on her face, like she had just seen the most amazing animal at the zoo! While we walked away, mom said – ‘you know, she was just as excited to see us as she was to see those monkeys!’ We started to laugh, and soon we couldn’t stop. We both had to bend over as we almost peed our pants, it was so funny!

So – that was our little adventure at UWEC! Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Matatus, Boda Bodas, Piki Pikis and TukTuks

Just wanted to share with you some of the transport stuff from here…

The main form of transportation here in Uganda is the shared taxi. This is basically a small Nissan van with four rows of seats shoved into the back licensed to carry 14 passenger – 3 per row, plus 2 in the front. This is in addition to the driver, and the conductor, who collects the money. It really isn’t too bad, especially when you compare it to matatus, which are the equivalent in Kenya. There, they shove at least 4 people per row, and if they can get away with it, 2 or 3 people will be standing and leaning over the other passengers – plus two or three in front. This basically means that there will be over 20 people in this little van at one time. Clown car if I’ve ever seen one.

Then – there are the boda bodas (or piki pikis in Kenya). These are small motorcycles, that have a padded seat on the back, and foot pegs below for passengers. Usually they carry one passenger, sometimes two. Occasionally 3 or 4. These are not strong bikes either. Small CC, bad brakes, bad suspension. But – they are amazing sometimes. They can take you through the mud, after its been pouring, huge puddles – and you don’t get anything on you! Amazing!

Last but not least are the tuktuks! Non-existent in Uganda, but in Kenya they are omnipresent. They are a little three wheeled taxi that putts around looking for fares. They are so cute. I can’t believe I am calling a form of transportation cute, but they truly are. They look like little metal bugs rolling around on the road.

Lost in Translation

As I was walking up the road to our office from lunch the other day, I was walking past a little cinema. The awesome part about this little cinema (which is basically a box room with a small TV, where people can watch movies for a small fee) is that they play all kinds of movies from all over the world, that are all dubbed in Luganda, the local language. But – how it works, is that they play the movie in its original language for about 5-10 seconds, then they pause it while they translate what just happened into Luganda.


Imagine watching a movie like that. And all of them are like that. There is even a national station on TV that plays really horrible American shows… these ones – unlike the movies are played continuously, and translated/dubbed over in Luganda. The bad part though, is that they don’t get rid of the English and just play the Luganda. Both are played at the same time. Imagine!

Perpetually Underdressed!

Have you ever thought that Americans are slobs? I really never thought so. I thought that we dress fairly comfortably and casually. Well – I have started to notice that compared to other countries, we are slobs! Well, not slobs, but I definitely feel underdressed most of the time!


Here, even though the clothes may be mended numerous times, the men are always wearing slacks, dress shoes and button-up shirts. Many are wearing suit coats. And these aren’t just the business men. These are the carpenters, the hawkers, the guys working at the shop down the street, and the guys we work with at RWEYOWA. On a daily basis. And the women – if we were seen wearing the clothes they wear on a daily basis, you would think we were on our way to a wedding! I rarely see women in pants, and almost never in jeans. They are almost always in dresses, and very nice fancy ones at that. And high-heeled shoes. Which I will never understand in any culture! I love walking down the road after a heavy rain, and it is complete mud! Red mud! Gooshy and slippery and it splatters everywhere. And walking down the road toward you, or sitting on the back of a motorcycle, is a woman dressed in bleach-white skirt and dressy shirt and high-heeled silver shoes. How in the world does she keep it clean? I think this is one of those mysteries that I will never, ever solve!

L's and R's

L’s and r’s here are basically interchangeable. It cracks me up. It is hard when listening to a word to distinguish how it would be spelled just by how it is pronounced. A word that you swear would be spelled with an L, has an R, and vice versa. But not every word. To most people, I am Arena. Even though I am careful to enunciate the L!


Just below the office, there is a dry cleaner. Which I think is just a laundry place, and not actually a dry cleaner. However, on one side of their sign, it says ‘dry cleaner’ and on the other side, ‘dly cleaner’. Hmmmm… Maybe they are just appeasing both sides of the argument?

No Medium Play!

To borrow a phrase from Christina – there is no medium play here – in anything! Things can go from fine to catastrophic in a moment – and often do. There is either nothing, or excessive amounts.


Just to illustrate, here are some examples from my daily life.

Water – we either do not have any (as in, it gets turned off, and doesn’t come back for a few hours, or 5 days) or it explodes out of the faucet. You turn on the water, even just a tiny bit, and the water explodes with such force, that your pants get soaked. You flush the toilet, and when the tank is refilling, it sounds like someone is trying to fill it with a firehose, and there is the backsplash that you have to take into account as well.

Sun – I am used to getting sun-burnt. Always have, always will. But I am also used to the fact that when I get sun-burnt once, it turns into somewhat of a tan, and I really don’t get fried after that. I may get a little pink. But not fried. Here – I get fried, over and over and over again. I actually have tan arms. They have good color – for me! And today – we walked home from a town called Ndejje – about an hour. I got fried – on top of my tan. No medium play!

And lastly – rain. We have gone about 10 days without rain. But, when the rains started again, it is like this massive downpour. It lasts 5-10 minutes. Up to an hour tops, but it is the hardest rain – the most intense drops for that time. There isn’t a medium play – no sprinkles, no drizzle – either downpour or nothing!

There are so many more examples here, but those are a few that I have noticed on a daily basis to illustrate. So many more to share…

Kasubi Tombs

This last week, a very important cultural emblem in Uganda was destroyed. The Kasubi tombs are the burial site of four kabakas (kings) of the Buganda Kingdom. The Buganda Kingdom is the largest surviving kingdom in all of Africa. There is still a kabaka who rules over the kingdom. He does not hold political power in the country, but he does still hold a lot of sway over the Baganda people.

On Tuesday, the Kasubi tombs were burned down. It is suspected that it was arson, though no one really knows. The Kasubi tombs hold so much cultural importance to the Baganda people, so this was a devastating loss. Thousands of people turned up at the tombs, the kabaka called for a week of mourning, and many religious and political leaders have called for funds to be raised to rebuild the tombs (even though many of the cultural items within were lost). However, there was also unrest. 3 or 4 people were killed, and many more were taken to the hospital. There was small scale rioting, and the people around the tomb tried to keep the President (Museveni) from visiting the site. Thankfully, there was not full scale rioting as there was last September, but cultural/tribal tensions run deep, and this event exposed that those tensions are still there

Ghosts and Demons

There is still a lot of belief here in ghosts and demons.
Today I saw a headline in one of the 2 main national newspapers (I haven't read the article yet, but planning on it) about the Bujagali dam - this is a dam that is going to dam up part of the Nile. It has been in the works for over 10 years. Just below the headline, it said: Ghosts attack dam workers.

No joke!

I am really curious to read the article. I can't believe that is in one of the main, most respected newspapers.

And then - last night, Miriam, a good friend, was telling me about a girl that lives near our office. She is about 15 years old. She was talking about how her father was a really poor man, and how when he was struggling and struggling, he decided to make a deal with the devil. So - he sold the soul of his daughter to the devil. I guess she is a very beautiful girl as well. I have not seen here, though i am really curious now.

The demons do not possess her all the time, but when they do, she sleeps with 4 or 5 men a day. She was talking about how her mom has taken her to all kinds of pastors, churches and such to get the demons out of her. They all help, but when they go back home, the demons come back and take her over again. They laugh at the mom and tell her that the girl belongs to them!

And - the father is now a very rich man working in Kenya.

I would love to hear more about this story, and meet the family. I wonder if talking about demons is a way of explaining away behavior problems. Where we would put someone on drugs, or label them as ADHD or bi-polar or something, they seek an explanation based on God, the devil and demons.

To Play Sex...

English here is interesting. A lot of it is more British than American, which isn't hard to understand, as they were a British colony until the 1960s. Their education system still has colonial structure, and is definitely a remnant from that time.

But there are some interesting sayings. I think it is mostly that someone misunderstood how it was said, said it a different way, and it caught on.

You know how we say 'How's it going?', well they say 'How's the going?'
And then there's 'How has been your day?' instead of 'How's you day been?'

But the one I find the most interesting, and culturally relevant, is how they talk about sex. And this is a topic that a lot of people talk about - from a young age. and it's not just because I am working with a group that works on HIV/AIDS.

So - people say 'to play sex' instead of 'to have sex'.
I am curious if this is how it is said in Luganda as well. If it is, I think it is very informative of a lot of issues surrounding HIV. If you look at sex as a game, as playing, then this helps to explain why kids want to have sex, and think that they should. it's a game. this is why so many young people start 'playing' sex early.

This is just my thought. I haven't really looked into it very well. But I find it really interesting.

Paid or Unpaid?

I have a slight conundrum going on in my head. There are a lot of people here that work, work, work, and don’t get paid. They are supposed to get paid, but it just doesn’t happen, and they keep working. Is it in the hopes that someday they will get paid? Is it because they have a job, and that means something, even if they don’t get paid?


Let me give you an example. Our neighbor (we have a compound of four houses/apartments) is a Spanish woman married to a Ugandan man. They have 3 boys. They’ve been living here for about 2 years, and have spent the last 15 years between Spain, the UK and Australia. He is a part-time professor at Makerere University. He gets paid twice a year. At the end of each term. She works for a bus company in administration. She hasn’t gotten paid for the last 3 months. She gets a travel stipend of about $5 a day (which, granted, is a lot more than a lot of people make a day anyways). This gets her to and from work, and basically buys food for the day for her family. She continues to work every day. 6 days a week.

No one besides the top 3 people at the company has seen any money besides their daily stipend.

My question is this: Would we stand up to this? What would happen in the States? My thought – the company would close down. They would sell off any assets, the employees would be laid off, and no one would stand for it. They wouldn’t keep working. We couldn’t survive on that. So – why do people stand for it here? Why don’t people stand up to the company? Is it because people are so desperate? Is it because there are other people that would take that job if you left it, even though they know they might not get paid? Is the hope of getting paid eventually enough to sustain people? Is that why things have not progressed here as it has elsewhere in the world? Is it apathy? This really makes me wonder. Our friend who is going through this said that even the $5 a day is nice. It helps her get food for her family. Yes – food is cheaper here, but really?

Celebrity for nothing...

So my biggest pet peeve here is that I am a celebrity for no reason at all. Well, not for no reason, it’s because I’m white. And I hate it!!!!!!!!!!!


When I walk down the street, at least 1 in 8 people screams out the word ‘mzungu’ (white person). I just want to scream back ‘black person’. I remember this from Kenya, but for some reason, it is even more annoying here. The kids are kind-of funny and cute when they do it, but if you acknowledge one of them, then it encourages the other ones to say it as well, hoping that you will wave to them, say hi or smile at them. Doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, right?

Now imagine walking for about 15 minutes to the road to catch a taxi to town. It is a beautiful day, you are enjoying the beautiful green trees plump with mangoes and papayas, trying not to slip in the mud from the rains that morning. Up ahead, there is a group of kids. They start screaming ‘mzungu’ the moment they see you. They keep screaming it as you pass, and you smile and wave, hoping that they will quiet down, and not alert the entire neighborhood to your presence. The couple kids that think that they are the beneficiaries of your wave smile and go silent. The others are sped on in the hopes that you will acknowledge them. And when you don’t the screams go shrill.

And then there are the adults. They are a little more reserved, but when they do say ‘mzungu’ it is in a high girlish voice that sends them into giggles. Everyone is your friend, and everyone expects you to stop and talk with them. If you do stop and talk with them, then they ask you to buy something for them, or give them something. You must have medicine in your bag, can you buy this juice for me, can you find me a sponsor.

I hate to say that I have gotten really good at ignoring people. For the most part, I just pretend that I don’t understand the word mzungu. If they want to get to know me, then they would ask my name. It would be so nice to hear someone call my name. I know I’m asking for a lot. I know that I can’t blame them for being excited that a white person is staying in their area. I know that they don’t see white people often, and that the kids are only following the example of their parents (many of them are egged on by their parents, as their parents are too afraid to do it themselves). Doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Last little bit about this. I was sitting in our office, which is a fairly main thoroughfare into the neighborhood. I was busy working on a grant application on the computer, and all of a sudden I would look up (after ignoring the pleas for the mzungu for 5 minutes) and the office would be surrounded by 10-15 kids. STARING. And in the background would be the older ones, STARING. They would stay there for 10 or 15 minutes. When someone would walk past, many of them tripped, because their eyes were on me the whole time, and not on the muddy crazy road. Really, how long can a person put up with that?

Sorry for the long – had to get that off my chest!

HIV Sensitization

went to my second HIV sensitization today! basically, it is HIV education and awareness in a school. Today we went to a local secondary school, and worked with the equivalent of 7th graders. As students start school here at different times, and may fall behind because of problems with school fees or not passing exams, the age range in a class like this is huge. The age range today was 12 - 18. The majority of the students are were girls, and they seemed to be younger than the guys.

They were so interested to have an mzungu in their classroom. Lots of giggling and talking, and wanting to ask questions. I helped with a little of the question/answer stuff, but mostly it was just watching today, to see how they do these sessions here.

It seemed like a lot of the questions were the same between here and the US. Can I get HIV by sharing a fork with someone who is HIV+? Can I get it from kissing, or holding hands with someone? There are definitely differences, and it is really interesting here, as there is a lot of talk about being faithful to one partner. Seems similar to the US, until you start to look a little deeper. There are a lot of concurrent relationships here, often out of economic need or desire. What that means, is that a woman may have a husband, but also have a long-term boyfriend as well. She may not get enough support from her husband, so she has a boyfriend that helps her with food or gifts of clothes or jewelry or such. And then the husband also has another long-term girlfriend or two, and so on. What this means, is that this creates basically a super-highway for HIV to travel on. Which is a major reason why HIV spread so quickly here and why the prevalence is so high, as compared to the US and other developing countries outside Africa.

It is really interesting when you see commercials on TV that show how this networking looks, and the slogan 'get off the sexual network'. and then you hear radio announcers talking about the sexual network as well. urging people to think about it before they take their 'side-dish' (girlfriend or boyfriend on the side) out for dinner - to think about the consequences.

Even more interesting is to hear people talk about their relationships, and the lack of trust of partners. No one trusts anyone of the opposite sex here. It is amazing. It is expected that your partner is going to cheat. One person even asked me, when I told her that I had never cheated on Jeremy, 'but don't you ever get annoyed with him?' as if that were a valid explanation and reason to cheat. AMAZING! if all it takes for a person to cheat is to be annoyed with someone or mad at someone, I feel sorry for all these people. Life and relationships are not all pretty. It is wonderful when they are, but a rose also has thorns.

Anyways - I am definitely gaining more insight into the epidemic here, and the social context in which this plays out.

Can you bring someone black?

There was a meeting this morning in the sub-district for community leaders, religious leaders and HIV/AIDS service providers. It was about an hour walk from our office, and RWEYOWA was invited. As we had a lot going on today, the guys decided that Christina and I should go to the meeting, while they dealt with stuff at the office. So - off we went on a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) to the meeting. Took about 30 minutes. Got there, and there were only 2 people there.... and we were 45 minutes late! They were still waiting for the participants. You could tell that our arrival was not expected, and that we threw a little hitch in the plans.

Unfortunately, we don't really understand Luganda (the local language here), and they were discussing what to do with us in Luganda. We asked to confirm that the meeting would be held in English, and they confirmed. Then they asked for our invitation to the meeting. Unfortunately, we had left it at the office. They didn't believe us that we had been invited. I'm sorry, but how else would we have known that there was going to be a meeting in the middle of no where, about HIV/AIDS service in the district at this exact place and time, if we weren't invited?

It caused a lot of problems. Eventually, one woman came to us, and said that there must be another meeting, because this meeting was for local leaders only. We explained about our invitation, the organization that we represent, etc... Well - they weren't having any of it! They said, can't you go and get the invitation and come back!!!! WHAT? And then they said, aren't there others in your office? Can't you go and bring someone with you who is black, then you can stay! WHAT? She repeated it a few times. Can't you bring someone black?

Our response - if you don't want us here, we will leave! and so we walked the hour back to our office.
Once there we confirmed that we were invited, found the invitation, and it did not say anything about a requirement being black! It was a bit frustrating, and interesting. We asked a lot of questions, and made them aware that all the information would be shared with the whole organization. She wouldn't have it. If anyone else (that wasn't white) would have shown up, it wouldn't have been a problem.

So - the lesson? There are a lot of problems that come up when you are a white person working in 'development' of any kind in Africa. just another thing to think about.

Breast of Cow

Was wandering around Kampala yesterday with a couple of the guys from RWEYOWA, picking up supplies, money and such. We went to a stationery store, where I hung out down the street, so the guys didn't get cheated on the price. Just having an 'mzungu' (white person) with you will increase the price by at least 50% or more. After they had finished paying, I walked in, and there was a man selling kabobs of different kinds of meat. Sam, one of the RWEYOWA folks, bought some, and asked if I had ever had their 'red pepper' meat. As I hadn't, it seemed prudent to try it out.

He gave me a piece of what I thought was chicken, and as I bit down on it, it felt and tasted a lot more like a big chunk of grilled fat. I couldn't quite handle it. So - I wandered outside as I was chewing, and proceeded to spit it out like a little kid. Thankfully no one was watching. I had some stuck in my teeth even!

As we were leaving, Sam said, 'That was breast of cow.'

What? Breast of cow? Is that like a chicken breast, but on a cow? Well - if it were, it would be red meat right? so - my only other thought is that it was the udder of a cow. I ate a piece of udder. Wow! Bet there aren't many 'wazungu' out there who can say that!

Long Hair Not allowed for girls at school...

Just wanted to share a little news article that I came across while reading the paper today.

There are schools here that won't allow the girls to have long hair - basically they have to have a buzz cut - more or less.... the reason?

They proclaim that if girls are allowed to have long hair, they will not do well in school. Why, you may ask... as I did... well - they say that they will spend too much time plaiting their hair and maintaining it, and therefore they won't study. Also - then they will become competitive about their hair, and they will lose focus on their education.

This wasn't just a little column either - it was an entire 2 page article with comments and everything!
Wow!!!!

RWEYOWA

What can I say about RWEYOWA. They are an all-volunteer organization that does some amazing work. The three guys who started this organization are young Ugandan men who are so compassionate and really want to make a difference in the AIDS epidemic here. They do so much for the people of this community with the small amounts of money and resources that they have.


The three guys are:

- Ssekibuule Wilson (23 yrs)

- Ronald Kassamba (27 yrs)

- Tony (32 yrs?)

It seems amazing that these young guys are doing so much, and have gained so much respect in their community to be doing all of this. Their stories are amazing, and have made them into wonderful men who really care about the people they serve, and their volunteers. There are more people that work with the organization, but these three are the main organizers.

In the short three days that I have been here, we have helped to bring a client to the hospital, helped another to attain medicine and food after we checked her health status, did an HIV sensitization (education and awareness) at a local primary school, and also performed a VCT (voluntary counseling and testing for HIV) outreach.

I think the one that amazed me the most was the VCT. It was a small VCT, as we only had 45 people come to get tested – usually there are 70-200 people. However, it amazed me as to the different people who came. There were 60 year old men, 18 year old girls and everywhere in between. They all had different reasons for coming, but they were all so brave. I can’t imagine getting tested and getting my results in that setting. A small NGO (non-governmental organization) held the VCT in their center, where the counseling was held in not-so-private areas. Everyone had their blood drawn in the open, and we did all the tests right there. The results were all private, and it was wonderful that only 1 person was positive. That is amazing, as normally the rate here is 6-7%, while today we were closer to 2%. However, when you are in a situation where there are not a lot of resources, and there is still a lot of stigma, how do you not react so that everyone knows that you are HIV+. I can’t imagine.

I got to actually work in the ‘lab’ today… filling out forms, helping read the test results and such. It is really quite amazing to watch.

It is so good to see these guys at work.

For bad drivers, call 078.956.784.888

Hello from Namasuba!
Wow! It has been an amazing couple of days already. Got in about 10pm on Tuesday, got to the new house, ate dinner, talked, went to bed about 1am. Proceeded to wake up at 8am, and hit the ground running!

My first day was a busy one - we were lucky to have a vehicle for a short time, so we were able to take a client with TB to the government hospital. She couldn't afford the $1 that it costs for transport into the city, so she wouldn't have been able to go if we weren't able to help her.

We then proceeded to another clients house, who is not only HIV+, but also has TB and malaria. Her medications were causing a very painful skin condition, and she was unable to buy the medication for it, as it is not provided for free like her other meds. It cost about $1.50. Her family of 8 (including parents, sister and her kids and her and her kids) live in a room about the size of most people's bathrooms.

Then - on to a sensitization, which is an HIV education session at a local primary school We were working with the equivalent of 5th and 6th graders,and it was really quite scary how little they knew about HIV. And all of this only on my first day. Needless to say I was tired, hungry, and ready for bed....

But - I wanted to share this and a little story of somee of the signs we see. It is hilarious, as English is well-known, but spelling and some explanations in English are not quite understandable to native English speakers. Today I almost got a sandwich with 'sauntered' onions, and I also saw a sign on the back of a bus saying 'for bad drivers, call #'. I love the english language! Especially when it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Anyways - I should leave it at that for now.
I will try to write more soon!
Love and smiles from Namasuba....

The Journey Begins...

So life has a funny way of working.
Sometimes I wonder how I ever got into this life style - where did this passion for travel and overseas adventures come from? Where did this passion for helping others come from?

Well, wherever it came from, its here... and I leave tomorrow morning.
Everytime I think about the trip, my stomach does a little flip-flop, and I almost feel sick. Not sure why - it could be because I don't want to leave Jeremy for that long... it could be that I really don't know that much about the people I am going to work with, and what I am really getting myself in to. Sometimes I think I trust too much - but it has always worked out before, so why not this time? Right?

Today I get to do the last minute packing. My two check-on bags are fully packed with donations for RWEYOWA, and I just have to repack my clothes, books and laptop into my carry-on. Feels so weird.

Lastly - I want to say thank you to the many people who have given so generously to support RWEYOWA and our effort to bring as many donations as we can. Thanks to your efforts, we are going to be able to bring around 200lbs of medical supplies and other donations, and give money to the organization for purchasing more supplies in the community - that way we are not only helping out the people that the organization helps, but we are also helping to support the local community, and increasing the positive views of the organization in their community. This will surely help them in their continued work.

So - THANK YOU! You are all in my thoughts and in my heart on this trip. I want to say thank you so that you really know how I am feeling. Not sure how to do that in words.

One Week to Go!

It's Monday - and I leave in a week.
Sometimes I wonder what I am doing... Why am I doing this? Why am I leaving my wonderful husband for two months to go work in Uganda? Can I really do this?
Yep - I have doubts about myself...
But then I remember my passion - my love for this work - my love for Africa and its people - my desire to increase access to primary health care, work toward decreasing HIV prevalence and stigma - and to help build the capacity of local organizations to keep doing this work themselves.
Then I know that I am doing the right thing.
Am I still scared - yep... a bit...
Do I wonder how it will all turn our - yep...
But I keep moving and keep heading toward that goal and I know that everything will work out exactly as it is meant to

So - with one week to go - I want to say thank you to everyone who has helped support my mom and I and helped us to realize this dream. I want to thank you all for being there - whether you know it or not - in my mind - pushing me on to greater heights. I couldn't do it without you all.

Thank you!

Donations...

So - I guess I lied. I am posting again before I leave. This is a letter that I put together to ask for donations for our trip with. They are donations for the organization, and will all go straight to the organization.

If you would like to help with donations, please let us know. We would love to take as much as we can to share with the people of Namasuba, Uganda.

...

In the coming months, my mother (Michelle) and I (Alena) are heading off to Uganda to volunteer with a small, community-based organization that works with people living with HIV/AIDS. The organization, RWEYOWA, which stands for ‘Rescue Widows, Elderly, Youth and Orphans with AIDS’, was started after a group of concerned citizens became aware of the conditions of people living with and affected by HIV. They started the organization to work toward improving the living conditions of people living with HIV/AIDS and increasing HIV education and sensitization opportunities in the community. The community they work in is a semi-rural community close to the capital city of Kampala. RWEYOWA reaches out to community members through donations of food and clothing, vocational training opportunities, and the procurement of scholarships for orphans to attend primary and secondary school. They also help to administer treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS through a partnership with a local treatment center, and by providing home-based care and health status checks to individuals and families who are unable to make it to a clinic.


Although we have different life experiences and training, we are going with the same goal of trying to assist the organization in any way that we can. As a Public Health Practitioner specializing in health education and outreach, I am hoping to work with the organization in a professional manner while taking part in all of their organizational activities. Michelle, while working with the organization on outreach programs and vocational training, will also be partnering with a local primary school to assist in teaching English to local school children.

As part of our goal of working with this organization, we are trying to bring as many donations for the organization as possible. The main donations that we are seeking are monetary and medical supplies. As the organization performs health status checks during their outreach programs and works with individuals in all stages of HIV disease and AIDS, they are in need of many medical supplies. Any monetary donations will go straight to the organization for use in their outreach programs and for donations to the community; none of the donations will go to administrative expenses or toward our travel, as we are covering these expenses ourselves.

After speaking with the organization, the main supplies that they are seeking include:

* First Aid Kits                                 * Gloves

* Antiseptics                                     * Blood Pressure Machine

* Thermometers                                * Stethoscope

* E.N.T set


We are hoping to take donations in two installments, as we are travelling at different times. I am leaving near the middle of February, while Michelle is joining me a month later, near the middle of March.

We appreciate any help that you can give, and thank you in advance for your generosity and kindness.

With much thanks and gratitude –

Alena Mack & Michelle Workowski



For more information on the organization, please see their website: http://www.rweyowa.org/

Getting Started...

T-minus 37 days til departure for Alena, and 61 days for Michelle.
We are getting super excited, and trying to get all of the logistical details figured out.
Just wanted to make a quick post to get us started.
Probably won't post again until just before I leave...
See you then!