There and back again

I'm back in Toronto.  One more flight until I'm home, and it's a short one to boot.  After being on a plane or in airports for the last 2 days I am ready to be home again.  I already miss the African people and culture and I know that I will have many things to sort through in the coming weeks, but it is nice to be home again too. I thought I would be finding it cold here, but this terminal is a freaking sauna.  I suppose I will find out for real when I actually go outside after I arrive in Winnipeg.

I wanted to post a photo of the last day I was in Uganda which was Tuesday, which was technically yesterday, but really 2 days ago since they are 9 hours ahead of us. All the eMi staff, interns and volunteers were eating lunch outside when all of a sudden a monkey started running along the compound wall, right through the razor wire.  I have a photo that I will post.

And so, this may very well be my last blog post.  Thank you to everyone who has so faithfully been reading and leaving comments.  Writing posts helped me to verbalize and sort through to some extent what I was seeing and experiencing, but it was nice to know that there were people that loved and cared about me following along in my adventures.

I will keep my blog account open for my next adventure.  I'm leaving for Alaska on March 3 to volunteer for 1 week at the Iditarod Sled Dog Race.  I hadn't told many people yet, because I didn't want it to distract from what I was doing in Africa, however I think my Mom told half the universe anyway so it won't be a surprise to everyone.  I'm not sure if I will blog for that or not.  It is only for a week, and won't I don't think be as life changing as Africa was.

While Alaska is in the near future for me, it is Africa and not Alaska that is on my mind.  I'm sure it will be for a long time.  Everyone I met there was asking me when I will return.  I'm not sure what the answer to that question is, but I hope it will be someday in the not too distant future.  I love my job and going to work, however, development work is really where my heart is at.  For those of you that are worried, I don't have any plans to pack up and move overseas anytime soon, but I know that work like this will continue to be part of my life in some capacity, and for now that includes keeping my job and serving overseas with whatever vacation time and resources I have off from work. What the future holds no one knows, even though I love being overseas as much as I love being at home, I'm happy where I am at right now.

So thank-you again to both my faithful followers and also to those who checked in only occasionally.  Continue to think and pray for me as I process my experiences and begin to integrate back into Western society.

Until the next adventure,

Jaimee

 The monkey that came to visit us at lunch.  He just scooted right through all that razor wire.  I will miss experiences like that.

Having lunch at the Amsterdam airport.  I had a 5 hour layover, so I was able to have a nice sit down lunch complete with apple pie, as well as look around in all the stores. It was sure different from being in a remote African village!

Visiting Ester

Today I went to visit the girl I sponsor through Compassion International.  As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I have sponsored her since I was in high school. She is now 17 and almost through the program.  It was so neat to go visit her. 

When we picked up the project director he asked if I had arrived in Uganda yesterday.  The driver said "No brother, she's Ugandan!  She's been here for a month."  Both the driver and the project director were former Compassion children, so it was neat to see how they are now successful adults.

When I got to the Compassion Development Centre near where Ester lives I got to have breakfast and meet the staff as well as take a tour of the centre.  When the project directoror served me breakfast, I thanked him in Luganda which is the local language here. He looked at me with a dazed expression on his face for about 10 seconds, and then once he realized that I had indeed not just spoke in English, started laughing his head off for quite some time.  And then said "SISTA, you know!  You are learning.  This is good, very good"

When we arrived at Ester’s house, which was about an hour off the beaten trail, about 10 people started chasing the vehicle and screaming and making loud noises.  Then when I got out of the van, I started getting mobbed!  It was such a neat experience.  I had a really neat time with Ester and her family.  They gave me a tour of their gardens, and showed me the cow that they had bought with some extra gift money I had sent them.  They served me a huge meal with about 10 dishes, and then gave me several gifts of a mat they had weaved, a lot of stalks of sugar cane, a watermelon, and several avocados.  I'm going to have to leave most of it here, however the interns and myself enjoyed the watermelon after supper tonight, and I'm going to bring the mat home.

 When I arrived.  This picture does not show the full mob effect, as it was taken after things calmed down a bit.

 Ester was so excited to see me.

 Ester's family presenting me with some gifts.

 Me presenting Ester and her family with some gifts.

Ssese Islands

We finished up our project at Eagles Wings.  We had an extremely good and productive final few days.  In the final presentation I spoke on Eco-San toilets.  As such, I was deemed "the voice of the toilet."  It ended up being quite a controversial topic.  Some of the staff were very supportive of it and others were not so convinced that this was the way they wanted to move in the future.  In any case, there was some good discussion on the direction that they will head in regards to sanitation.

After we finished our presentation and said our good bye's and left at 6:30 AM yesterday to head to Ssese Islands.  We took a ferry across Lake Victoria and stayed at a hotel for the night on the island.  It was incredibly beautiful.  Today we took a 3 hour ferry ride back to Entebbe where we ate lunch and did some final shopping for souvenirs.  I am now back at the eMi office until Tuesday night when I fly out.  We had a great closing meeting and one of my highlights was taking a sketchy looking boat a few hundred metres across the lake to get to the ferry.  See pictures below.

Tomorrow, I am going to Mokono which is about an hour from here to meet my Compassion sponsor child.  I am looking forward to meeting her.  I have sponsored her since I was in high school and she is now 17 and almost out of the program.

I am very tired tonight.  We had an intense week of work and visiting.  I am looking forward to going home in some respects, but I know I will experience reverse culture shock, and I am going to miss so much here.  People have commented on how easily I seem to fit into African culture.  Although there have been challanges, I love the people that live here.

So I must get going to bed.  I'm too tired to write anything too philisphical tonight so this will have to do.

 Us on the sketchy boat.  It was so fun!

 A full view of the sketchy looking boat.  It was interesting getting all of us plus our large amounts of luggage on it!

A photo I took on the island.

Singing from the children

Today we went to the property for a presentation by the children.  They gave us a fabulous presentation of African song and dance.  I have some videos from one of the other team members.  I'll post one on youtube when I get home.

The last few days of this project will be really busy so I'm not sure if I'll have time to post again.  I thought I would share a few of my favourite photos though.

I was able to spend some more time with my sponsor boy Ibra.  He is so sweet.  He has written me two letters in the last two days and they were really cute.

Yesterday we also got to tour a construction site of a girls school that eMi had designed a year and a half ago.  It was neat to be able to see the design under construction since I usually only get to see the drawings and proposed ideas.

 Me and Ibra

 Some of the children singing for us

 One of the nursery students.

 He is so cute!

A chameleon that was found outside our guest house

1 week to go

I have been extremely busy working the past few days so haven’t had time to write a proper blog post.  When I am not working, I am trying to spend every spare minute visiting and playing with the children. I have so much been enjoying my work and visiting with all the people.  I wish there were more hours in the day, because I’m feeling like I’m not getting in enough work or enough visiting! I have been continuing to enjoy the fabulous fruit here. We had mango’s for desert the other night.  All the other times I have had mango it has always been cut up.  This time, it was the entire mango served.  They are very messy to eat.  Wes the architect compared my mango eating technique to gutting a deer.

The past 3 days I have been surveying and today I stayed in Masaka to work on the design of the sanitation system along with Joyce who is a civil engineer from Vancouver. The survey crew has consisted of Patrick, myself, K2, and Pat helped us out with some GPS delineation. Paul who is a Ugandan engineering student that stays with Bill & Ann was able to help us out on Monday so it was nice to once again have an assistant to help keep the snakes away.  Also it is astounding to hear from him about the lack of equipment at his University so it was very nice for him to have an introduction with GPS survey equipment.  Patrick is a very gifted teacher and has a passion for passing along his knowledge, so we have all learned a lot from him.

Yesterday I was helping out with percolation and water testing and during lunch break, I had the opportunity to go to the nearby village with K2 and visit the child he sponsors through Eagles Wings.  Quarich lives with his mother who also looks after 5 additional children.  Two of the girls who couldn’t have been more than 4 or 5 years old were HIV positive. It was really hard to see the detrimental conditions they lived in. It was so encouraging though to see the positive influence that Eagles Wings is having on the surrounding community by providing education to disadvantaged children. They are really providing them with tools through education to empower themselves to finish school which will give them opportunities to better themselves and their families.  To all my readers I want to challenge you to evaluate whether it is feasible to provide $40 a month to provide a child with education and 3 square meals a day.  Quarich who we visited yesterday gets 3 meals a day at school.  The family had no food in the house, so he gets nutrition and love that he otherwise would not get. Visit http://www.eagleswingschildrenvillage.com/ to find out more.

I leave Uganda to return home to Canada one week today.  I am not sure I am ready to leave yet. Although I am looking forward to certain things back home, I know I will really miss a lot about African culture. I know when I return home I will feel displaced, like I belong more in Africa than I do at home. It will take me some time to re-adjust to Western ways. The people here work so hard, and yet I have rarely ever heard anyone complain.  They simply accept the way life is.  I’m not sure how to convey many of the things I have witnessed.  How do you put into words the way it feels to have an HIV positive little girl take your hand and stare back at you with her innocent big brown eyes. 

So in closing, I am going to love every last minute I have left here, but I am looking forward to seeing many of you upon my return.  I’m looking forward to going back to work, and to cuddling with my cute little kitty.  Although I may be departing from Africa in a few short days, I will not leave Africa behind.

 This is Trust who belongs to the house parents of Family 3.  She is so sweet.  Whenever I come in the gate she comes running screaming "Auntie Jaimee" and gives me a big hug.

 This is one of the family 2 children.  He is the keeper of the dogs.  He had just returned from his school holiday and the dog Police was so excited to see him.  The dog was jumping up and down really high.

 Here are some of the school children playing football (soccer) after school.

 Pat and Joyce are seen here performing the perc test.  I also helped out with this.

 Here are me and Joyce with the nursery class.

 We ate lunch with Family 2.  Here is me with some of the girls.  Bushira my sponsor child is in the front, second from left in the photo.

 Joyce brought some beach balls for the nursery class.  They had a blast playing with them.

 Here is K2 who is an eMi intern and Quarich.  It was so special for him to meet his sponsor child.

Having fun with the children

The internet has been spotty the past few days, so I haven't been able to get on.  I am now back at Eagles Wings Childrens Village.  Yesterday was a bit of a day off and we got to play with the children.  It was so much fun!  I have been here nearly a month and it feels like I just got here.  I'm not ready to leave yet.  I have been having so much fun playing with the children and surveying with Patrick as well.

Here are some pictures.

 Here is a photo of us surveying.

 Here is me with some children.  My sponsor child Ibra is in the front with the red shorts.

 Here is Elisha enjoying his supper.

 Here are some children at the property.

 This guy had some mad skills on this bike.  He had like 4 kids on it at one point.

 Grace is so cute!

 The kids dancing.

 We had a water ballon game with the kids.  They loved it!

 Boys will be boys.

Pat with Derek who is sponsored by Joan Childs

 

 Me playing with Joseph who my parents sponsor.

 Joseph is full of the dickens.

 Joseph

The team at the equator.

Swimming and Onion Goggles

Today I had a bit of a slower day.  Patrick was conducting a survey workshop for the interns, however I was already  familiar with the equipment so I stayed back at the office. Kara who is Pat's wife picked me up and we went to a recreation club with their daughter Leah and her two friends.  Kara took a tennis lesson for an hour and I watched the three kids in the pool.  It was fun.

Last night myself and the interns went over to Phil and Emily's house for dessert.  Phil is a structural engineer on staff with eMi.  Emily made the most amazing mango pie.  I don't generally love mango's at home, but they taste different here and they are so good.  I could eat mango's all day.  I'm also loving the fresh pineapple.


Tomorrow I leave for my Eagles Wings Childrens Village. Tonight I again had supper with the interns and Tyler who is here from California to do some video work.  One of the local guys came in and cooked for us and it was so good!

Here are some photos from the day.

 They have these goggles in the kitchen for cutting onions.  They look hideous and don't do any good anyway.  We made stew for supper one night and here I am doing some chopping.

 Here is Leah at the pool.  She is so sweet and loves to talk your ear off.

 This is Graham.  The three kids I went swimming with were Canadian.  It was fun.

 Here is us having supper.  Hannah, little miss Southern belle in the middle insisted on making crazy faces whenever a photo was taken.  I know that my mother will be busy looking to see if there are any eligible bachelors here.  I would like to inform here that they are all either dating, engaged, or married.  And how much do you really want me to move to Africa anyway?

More cultural observations

I am going to continue on with my theme or rant if you will of learning to live in a new culture. As I have mentioned previously, being here for an extended amount of time has really given me a sense of just how difficult it is. How the mixing of two cultures is never easy and even a bit messy. Being here has given me such respect for the eMi staff and how they are such patient and culturally sensitive students of Ugandan ways. I admire the way that they move about the culture and interact with the locals.  It reveals and reminds me that I have learned a lot since I arrived, but that there is still so much that I need to learn and so much that I don’t know.

There are times when I deviate between loving and loathing the process of cultural integration.  There are moments when I find it exhausting and in my mind I am ready to board that plane back to Canada, to the land of wondrous winter and cross country skiing, pizza, candy I love, apple juice and the conveniences that I occasionally miss.  There are other moments when I feel like I never want to leave. I have enjoyed the people of this culture so very much. They have been so gracious and I will not soon forget their hospitality. I know that once I am gone, there will be a part of me that wants to be back here on the dusty roads, building relationships with people that have so much to teach me.

Friday I will leave for my eMi project trip with Eagles Wings Childrens Village in Masaka.  I am counting down the days.  I can’t wait to go back there.  I am excited to see Bill & Ann again as well as little Elisha and am so excited that all the children will be back from their school break. I’m really looking forward to spending some time with the children.

I know people at home will be asking me about the weather here.  I’m really not sure what I’m going to tell them.  I really haven’t seen a thermometer since I have been here so I’ll have to guess how hot it has been.  I have started looking online so I have a better idea of what the temperature actually is.  Here in Kampala I’m going to estimate it has been between +25 C and +30 C for the majority of the time I have been here.  Since we are right on the equator though, the sun’s rays are directly overhead and in my opinion feel hotter than the same temperature at home.  Gulu was much hotter than here.  Again I have no idea on what the actual temperature was, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was +35 C or +40 C.  January is apparently the hottest month of the year here. The rainy season will start sometime between February and May depending on who you ask.  Today in fact, it rained and was a dare I say “cool” +22 C.  It was nice to have a break from the heat.

Another part of this trip I have really enjoyed is spending time with the eMi interns.  It has been so nice to be able to interact with a group of people all around my age who have the same love and passion for other cultures and a heart for people.  Although everyone that loves me at home, supports and encourages what I do, it is often hard to put into words just what it is like over here.  As one of the interns recently said they try to explain to people at home what Africa is like, but so often feel like they are describing it wrong. With this group of people, no words are required as we have all seen and experienced this culture together.