You are lost!

You are lost! A common phrase said to someone here when they have not seen you in awhile, a phrase i have been receiving quite often this past week from all the people along my walk to work, as i had been away from my site for about 3 weeks.  As i walked with my friend Tony to go buy eggs from people who rear hens in their homes, I heard a man call out Chelsea! I had met this man, Patrick, walking home one day from work and recognized his face as someone i had recently traveled on a taxi with to a town outside Jinja.  We became friends chatting, him curious about my work and me also curious about him as he was so friendly (not in that way where he wants something from you!) and never once called me "muzungu".  Anyway, i stopped to chat with him and the first thing he says to me is "ah but you are lost these days! We have not seen you around Nakabango and we were all beginning to think you had left and went back to America."  I laughed and explained to him that i had been in Kampala and Mukono for some work trainings, reminding him that i still have 1 year left here in Uganda.  I had gone away for a few days sometime back and had not told my friend Tony that i would be gone.  When i returned he said to me "I was so worried you had left back to America!" with a concerned look on his face.  So, this time i made sure to inform him i would be gone because i can not imagine the anxiety that 3 whole weeks would have caused him! There is really no sense of privacy here, everyone must know your business and your whereabouts.  Just yesterday my neighbor said to me "ah i did not see you yesterday so i thought you had gone to Kampala since we had no electricity!".  As if i am not used to having no electricity sometimes?  I find it funny that because i had been away in kampala for sometime he now assumed i would just pick up and leave for the capital if he didn't see me around for one day (by the way, i was at work that day).

When i finally made my journey back to work after being gone for 3 weeks (in the US for my sister's wedding, and then after away for PC trainings), it was as if i was having to integrate into this community for the first time.  Kids were shouting muzungu, forgetting my name, yet i had worked tirelessly everyday for the past 3 months to teach them my name and not to call me muzungu.  Anyway, i guess this is what happens when you are lost for a long time! It only took one walk to work and a few reminders for them to remember my name and continue shouting "Kyomugisha, Byeeeeee!" as i returned in the evening.

I have also realized that i have been "lost" from blogging. Sorry sorry! The past month has been so busy with visiting home, all volunteer conference and then mid service conference (MSC).  Its hard to believe i have been here now for 15 months, to be quite honest it has FLOWN by.  MSC reminded me that my time here is short, although to people in the states 2 years may seem like forever, it really is a short time to volunteer and try to create some sort of sustainable impact in your community.  I struggle with this everyday, thinking to myself, "is what im doing here making an impact and will anything im doing actually continue on after i leave?"  The two biggest questions every PCV struggles with.  Anyways i am trying! The next week will be busy busy busy.  I received 100 mosquito nets through PC to be given to my community and health center.  I am working right now with 2 local counterparts going door to door identifying homes that do not have a net.  These homes then receive a voucher i made for 1 bed net and must come to the health center next Tuesday where they will receive health education from the nurses, my 2 counterparts and myself on malaria symptoms and treatment, bed net maintenance and repair and the importance of sleeping under a net every night.  This coming up weekend i will be traveling out far east to Mbale for welcome weekend - a fun weekend hosted by older PCVs to welcome the newest PCVs to Uganda.  I will then rush back home on Sunday, prepare myself to look "smart" and head to my neighbors wedding!  Then in just over a week i will be receiving my final visitors to Uganda, my mom and dennis.  I am so excited to see them and travel around Uganda.  Lots to look forward to this month!  Enjoy the random pictures of my babies.....

My little family 

Sweet baby Abdul

If i leave anything behind here it will be teaching these kids to make silly faces :D

In the middle of a stare off with Shaima ;)

Lets talk about sex babyyyyyyy

Ok, well not JUST sex... Reproductive health, menstrual hygiene, puberty and reusable menstrual pads...but it all relates! I've been busy working with my two interns from Makerere University, Sam and Elsie (who have been a GODSEND to me) preparing all the supplies for my project.  I finally received my grant money about a month ago to teach reproductive health and how to make reusable menstrual pads (RUMPS) to school going girls.  The goal of this project is to teach girls about a topic which is considered a very private issue in Uganda and in many parts of the world, MENSTRUATION.  I am working to try and break the silence about this topic and engage both females and males in discussion about menstrual hygiene.  This is a sensitive topic, however not talking about it can be harmful to the emotional and physical wellbeing of young girls.  

In Uganda, you can find girls beginning their menstrual period (MP) without ever being taught about it by their parents or in school.  Can you imagine as a young girl finding blood on your knickers while you're at school and having no idea why it's there or where it came from? This can be pretty traumatizing!  In a culture that encourages silence on this subject, this contributes to the cycle of poverty and under development of a society.  For example, a girl who has no access to adequate sanitary pads due to lack of money will miss school during her MP, or she may skip school for fear of bleeding through her uniform and boys laughing and pointing at her, or she may not go to school because her school doesn't have proper hygienic facilities equipped with toilets and water, where she can manage her MP.  These are problems girls face not only in Uganda, but much of the world, yet materials and support for girls everywhere should not just be a privilege but a right.  We know that in order for a country to develop, it takes both male and female involvement.  If a girl is forced to miss school during her MP every month, she falls behind in her studies, sometimes has to repeat a school year and if she's unlucky she drops out.  You may have heard of the recent initiative started by Michelle Obama called "Let Girls Learn".  They have partnered with Peace Corps and Peace Corps Uganda is one of the pilot countries for this program which is exciting! Taken from the Let girls learn website   https://www.whitehouse.gov/letgirlslearn : "To educate a girl is to build a healthier family, a stronger community, and a brighter future. Unfortunately today, 62 million girls around the world are not in school. Half of them are adolescents. We know that countries with more girls in secondary school tend to have lower maternal mortality rates, lower infant mortality rates, lower rates of HIV/AIDS, and better child nutrition. But too often, a girl who could change her world for the better is locked out of that future by the circumstances of her birth or the customs of her community." 

My goal for my project is to do exactly that, Let Girls Learn; allow girls the same opportunity i had at their age and go to school during their MP.  I wish for girls not to fear to go to school because they were born with a body that undergoes a NATURAL and very NORMAL process each month!

P6 Girls Class learning about Reproductive health!

Teaching the female reproductive system 

We began the session by teaching about the female reproductive system.  We discussed each part of the reproductive system and its function including the ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, cervix and vagina.  Although there were a few laughs in between, i was proud that at the end the girls could correctly identify each part.

Nakabango Primary School - In uganda, primary schools go up to class P7, then the students move on to secondary school for between 4-6 years.  This is a government primary school found about 30 minutes outside the large town of Jinja.  It is about a 10 minute walk from my health center.  I immediately formed a partnership with this school when i got to my new site and have been working with them to teach health education.  Most of the government schools in Uganda are known to have less resources, poor facilities for teaching, large class sizes,  and teachers going many months without receiving their salary.  

Elsie teaching about what happens during puberty 

 Elsie then engaged the girls in a conversation about puberty.  Again, there were some laughs, however there were also some very serious girls writing down in their notebooks what she was teaching them!

Showing the girls the example RUMP i made

A bit about Reusable menstrual pads (RUMPS):

- They are reusable, and can be used over and over for up to 1 year. 

- The base pad is made with bed sheets and a piece of mackintosh (thin plastic) sewn inside to prevent leakage and two straps sewn on the outside to hold the towel/ liner

- Each girl received 3 towels which were cut and sewn along the edges. The towels act as the absorbent material for the blood

-  Each base pad has two wings which wrap around the knickers and a button to secure the pad to the knickers

-  The girl removes the towel liner when its time to be changed and soaks, washes and lays the towel out in the sun to dry and reuse again.

- Using reusable pads helps to slow down the filling up of latrines, which is a problem due to girls and women throwing disposable pads (Always pads) in latrines.  These decompose extremely slow! 

- RUMPS are very cost effective compared to disposable pads.  Girls usually use 2 packs of always pads per MP, which costs 5,000 shillings ($1.51) per month. This is 60,000 shillings ($18) per year.  Many families in rural areas cannot afford to spend this money every month, so their girl child doesn't go to school during that time.  The cost to make 1-2 RUMPS is between 1,000 and 3,000 shillings ($.30/ $.90) and they last for a year.  

Sam teaching the girls about RUMPS

One of the biggest issues when it comes to discussing menstrual hygiene, in my opinion, is a lack of involvement from males.   In a country where women hardly discuss this topic, you can imagine men definitely don't, however men are critical in addressing the needs of young girls as they make up a large part of the government and are the ones making policies! My friend and intern i have been working with, Sam, has been so involved in this project and i think it has really helped him to open up and talk about this issue.  Every man has a sister or a wife or a girlfriend or a girl child and it is important for them to also be involved and understand this so that they can support the women in their lives.  Remaining ignorant and silent about it is NOT the answer.

Sam demonstrating how to put the RUMP on the knickers....the entire class was cracking up laughing, including me! He was a good sport about it :) 

The girls beginning to make their pads, we had enough supplies for each girl in the class to sew 2 pads

My supervisor Tabitha even came to see the project ! 

A very well sewn finished product (minus the button)!!

All the girls in P6 (34 girls)!

My project is far from being finished; this was the first step!  Next week we will tackle the P5 class, then i still have to teach P7 and move on to the secondary school nearby! Preparing for this has been a lot of work and stressful at times, but it has all been worth it after seeing the smiles on these girls' faces! 

Starting Over

Starting over is never easy.  You have to say goodbye to friends, family, loved ones and a place you love.  In the past year i have had to do this twice - first coming to Peace Corps and second leaving my site in Southwest Uganda where i was supposed to be for my entire service.  After about a month of having no site, i finally moved into my new home in early May.  It all happened so fast, I went away for a week on vacation to Zanzibar, Tanzania, came back and had a new site within a week! I was so happy to finally have all my things again and my own home.  I am now living in Eastern Uganda in a village about 20 minutes outside of the popular tourist town, Jinja, home to the source of the Nile.  I am working at a private health center which my supervisor, Tabitha, opened on her own several years back.  Tabitha is not your typical Ugandan woman - she is extremely educated, has her PHD, has traveled and worked in Europe, works as a professor at Makerere university Jinja campus, is very progressive and open to any and all ideas for my work, is not married and has no children (not because she doesn't want either, because she can not find a man who matches her intellectual level!). She opened this health center using her own personal funds and continues to partially fund it from her monthly salary.  I admire her and have a lot of respect for her, its rare to find a woman of this caliber here! The clinic is still very small with 2 nurses, a lab technician, and her mother who has worked as a midwife her entire life.  As of right now most of my work is within the community and getting to know the place.  I was connected to a well respected local elder of the community, Mr. Steven, who is an older man in his late 60's who spent his entire life working in civil service and was once a member of the local government in that village.  He has been crucial to introducing me to the community and connecting me to the schools and already organized groups such as a woman's savings and loans group.  He has been so welcoming to me, inviting me into his wife and his home and also inviting me to an introduction ceremony for his nephew.  I attended with some girls from camp GLOW who came to stay with me.....photos of me below..... Anyways back to my work.  I am working with 2 of Tabitha's students who are doing their internship with me in the community for 2 months.  We have already done many outreaches to the primary and secondary schools within the community of the health center in the areas of HIV, Family planning, Primary health care and sex and gender.   We are working to create a youth group where youth meet at the health center once a week to learn information in the areas of health and life skills.  My goal is to create young leaders within the community who are passionate and motivated to go out and be the ones to facilitate lessons and teach others in these areas.

I live and work in 2 different villages (they are next to one another).  This has its pros and cons.  Pro's- work and personal life are separate, greater area of people i meet and can become friends with Cons- 25-30 min walk to work every day, sometimes feel disconnected from the community i work in since i dont live there.  Overall i like it though.  My walk everyday is beautiful, so green, and has allowed me to meet many people who live along the way who i would never have met had i lived near my work.  I live in a compound with two buildings which have 6 units in each.  Each unit has 2 rooms, a front living area and a back bedroom.  I have electricity but no running water.  I down-graded a bit from my last house to a latrine and no shower with running water, but thats ok! I never expected to have running hot water when i came to Peace corps!  This means i now have to fetch my water, lucky enough for me we have a tap inside the compound, so my walk to fetch water is maybe 20 ft.  There are several families living within the compound as well as a couple teachers who work at the secondary school up the road.  My direct neighbors next to me are great and i couldn't be happier to live next to them.  They are a young muslim couple, the man works as an engineer in town and the woman stays at home caring for the kids for now, but hopes to go back to work soon in the saloon.  They both speak english well and have 3 kids - Shaima (3.5), Sultan(2) and Abdul (9 months) (no family planning as you can see, but she says they are now finished!).  I immediately fell in love with their kids.  From day one they were always excited to see me and didnt have an ounce of fear for the new omuzungu.  Sultan is by far the funniest child i have ever met.  How do i even begin to describe him? He is very stubborn (in the Ugandan sense), he gets into EVERYTHING, does the silliest things, is constantly making me laugh while at the same time driving me CRAZY, but one thing i can always count on from him is a giant smile and a big hug every time i see him.  His poor mother definitely has her hands full with him and i feel so bad for her sometimes!

My new site has had its challenges, the first being my home was broken into within the first weeks, during the time my friend Brenna was visiting me.  Long story short, i wasn't home but came home and caught the boy in the act and nothing was stolen.  He somehow got a key to my door (we think from the prior tenant), but immediately the next day a welder was here to change my door and i now lock it with a padlock.  I am safe and lucky nothing was taken.  That was a huge upset for me and has really made me feel un-trusting of anyone here, but unfortunately thats just the way it goes.  Simply being new in a community has been hard, especially hearing "omuzungu" everywhere i go.  Ive worked hard to teach people my name "kyomugisha", and have made good progress, especially with the kids, however some days i just dont have the energy to correct people and just try to ignore it.  Some boda men at the roadside have also decided to give me a local name, "Nangobi", so where ever i go i hear either kyomugisha, nangobi, omuzungu or chelsea.  I really have acquired many names, but the one i mostly go by and tell people is Kyomugisha.  It became my identity and i like it much better than nangobi.  Also another challenge has been trying to learn a new language, Lusoga.  It is also a bantu language like Runyankole/Rukiga (the ones i studied), so there are some similarities.  I've got the greetings down and as i tell people, "i am learning, slowly slowly!".  So, a lot has happened in the last month and overall i am generally happy and feel like im making progress much quicker here in my work! My life generally is much easier here- I live much closer to a big town which makes it easy and cheap to go into town for things, i am closer to other PCV's which is great for emotional support and simply my sanity, however i do still miss my life and my friends in Kitanga.  Thank goodness for phones which make it easy to stay in contact!

Heres a BUNCH of pics from the past month and half at my new site....

Zulah and Irene (campers from camp GLOW) came to visit me in Jinja for a weekend :) 

Irene

Zulah re-arranging my food shelves (apparently i wasnt organized enough)

Irene preparing dinner :)

We went to a traditional introduction ceremony in the community i work in.  Here i am wearing a gomezi- the traditional wear of the Busoga people.

Zulah in her gomezi 

We decided to jokingly enlarge my bum (put a pillow in there) since they told me it was too small under the gomezi

The thing they put under the gomezi to make my bum look bigger :)

The bride

Stubborn Sultan and Shaima 

Heading to our outreach at the primary school 

handwashing session at the primary school 

Mercy (one of the nurses) and I 

Brenna's visit to Uganda!

some girls from camp GLOW 

ziplining through the mabira forest 

This is Tony.  Probably my closest friend in my new community.  He is in P6 and is so curious with such an appetite for learning.  He is well mannered, respectful, translates for me and loves teaching me Lusoga. He is an orphan- his parents died in a car crash and him and his sister are now cared for by their grandmother. She is always welcoming me with open arms into her home giving me tea and snacks and always sending Tony with mangos, avocados and beans for me.  Its amazing how people who have so little are SO much more generous than people who have so much!

Me, Tony and his grandmother

Elsie, one of the interns i have been working with 

Samuel and Elsie (interns).  When it rains here, the dirt roads become SO muddy that sometimes its just better to go barefoot!

Sultan enjoying my new couch 

Playing games with the kids at the primary school 

HIV session with P6

Learning about HIV

Some of my neighbors, Sharifah and Joann 

Free condoms for our outreaches!

Sultan being silly in my rain boots