My Pictures Are Here

Well, yes, I'm not actually in Uganda anymore, so this blog is somewhat of a lie, but I did finally go through my pictures. They are now online for all to enjoy. So check them out here, or click to view them fullscreen.





There are some low quality videos somewhere in there too.
Thanks for reading,
Ali

The Home Stretch

Wowzers, so I guess we are almost done with our trip. We fly out of Uganda next Wednesday morning, headed back to the world of fresh vegetables, cheese, sushi, tv, movies, cars, highways, supermarkets, malls, walmarts... Well, I guess I digressed a bit there. I am pretty excited about some of those things, and some of them I imagine will seem a bit strange.

Jeffrey and I are currently in Jinja, Uganda, the "source" of the Nile River, which is pretty nutty. We've been to too many places since I last wrote to really do any justice to them. We made it Lamu Island in Kenya and spent a lovely 3 days wandering the narrow "streets," wide enough only for 2 loaded donkeys to pass, saying "Jambo!" to the friendly residents, drinking coconut water straight from the coconut in the market, sitting on a nearly empty beach, etc. It was a very cool place, like none other. From there we headed back to Mombasa, then made our way over to Hell's Gate National Park. We chose this park specifically because you are allowed to walk and bike through, so we biked and got to see plenty of giraffes, zebras, ostriches and warthogs. It was amazingly cool, and all the better because we got to do it alone, without a guide or a car, just us on our bikes, hanging out with the zebras.

Then back to Uganda, up to Sipi Falls, where I won't fill you in on the details of my time experience, just know that it was necessary for me to be near the bathroom consistently for 2 days. That brings us up to here, I'm sorry I don't have time for any more musings, or interesting tales. But there will be plenty of time for that next week, when I'm home!

The 24 Hour Bus Ride

June 15 3:30 pm - Board bus to Nairobi in Kampala
4 pm - Bus leaves Kampala
6 pm - Ali and Jeffrey each take pre-emptive Immodium tablets after eating some wierd falafel in Kampala and feeling concerned that this could come back to haunt them in a bad way on a bus with no bathrooms.
9:30 pm - Cross Uganda/Kenya border

June 16 5:30 am - Bus arrives in Nairobi
6-9 am - Wait in bus station, both because we are getting another bus, and because it's still dark and we are in a notoriously sketchy part of the city
9:30 am - Board bus to Mombasa
9:45 am - Bus hits another bus in Nairobi, breaking a back window
10 am - Board a new bus
8 pm - Bus arrives in Mombasa
9:30 pm- Jeffrey and Ali sleep

So we are now in Kenya, after quite a lot of busriding, as you can see. Luckily we had seats. And in fact, we managed to not be to cranky despite our lack of sleep/food/comfort. And, neither of us had any ehem..problems with the falafel and hotsauce we'd downed before boarding the bus in Kampala. Mombasa so far seems quite nice, and much more architecturally pleasing than Kampala, or really anywhere in Uganda. Tommorow we head up the coast to Lamu Island, where the only form of transport is donkeys and your own 2 feet. This requires another 6 hr busride, but will hopefully be worth it. I'll try to keep you posted.

Being White and RIch

It's amazing how often I feel guilty since I've been traveling here. Everyday I see scores of people who are drastically poorer than I will ever be. I see them along all the roadsides, outside of all the stores, in all of the taxis. As much fun as I may be having traveling about here in Africa, looking for elephants and drinking cheap beers, there is always this darker side wrapped up with it.

When Jeffrey and I were headed to Lake Bunyoni, our boda-boda trip took us past vast rock mining areas with men and women high up on the rock escarpments chipping away with sledges. At the bottom were more people, but mostly women and children, who were breaking the rocks into fist-sized and smaller chunks with hammers. Kids as young as 6 or so, spending all their days sitting on a never-ending pile of rocks, hammering them into smaller pieces. I can't really even imagine what the future must hold for these kids, nor can I understand how they still smile and wave as we pass by them on a motorcycle. You can here the shouts of "Muzungu!!!" echoing up the hillside as the kids pass along the message that we are there. There is the typical "give me money," from many of them, or the less correct grammar/funnier: "give me my money." To which there is really no good reply I can give. I give none of them money, both because I can't afford to give all of them money, and because it will only encourage them to follow all white people around begging. So it remains heartbreaking.

Whizzing past the abject poverty of people who live just a few miles from a major tourist destination in Uganda, I can't help but feel terribly guilty.

I don't really know what the answer to all of this is. I know that we in the west, despite our financial downturn, have much more than we need. I know that giving aid is never as simple as it seems, and that so much done in the name of helping is actually hurting. I know that I came to Uganda to try to learn a bit, and to help where I can. But knowing all of this doesn't help me when faced with these thin, dusty children breaking rocks with their hands. In fact it leaves me even more confused than ever.

Notes

I'm nearly out of internet time, but here are some of the things from this week:

- Jeffrey and I took 2 taxis and about 12 hrs to get up Fort Portal on the western side of Uganda. On the way, the road passes through Queen Elizabeth Nat. Park so we got a free bit of animal viewing (elephants!) as the sun set over the Rwenzori Mountains. It was ridiculously picturesque.

- We hitched 2 rides and walked a bunch and finally reached the Lake Nkuruba Community Campsite, where we stayed in a little banda (round cabin thing) at the edge of a crater lake. The lake was beautiful and hidden amongst a jungle of trees and vines. We saw 3 types of monkeys around the camp and jeffrey blew out the camera batteries trying to get video of them.

- We met up with a couple that recognized Jeffrey's Common Ground shirt as a Maine thing and we proceeded to find out that they are a strange mirror image of us: she majored in ceramics, he's into agriculture. They both know Brunswick well and they just sold their house a few miles from Goucher. Very strange, we liked them a lot, obviously.

- We hiked through the mountains and saw a number of other crater lakes, as well as about a million kids asking us for money, sweets, pens or books.

- Today we hitched back to Fort Portal in the back of a matooke (plaintain) truck. We had a few unscheduled stops (matooke delivery, cassava drop-off, tea plantation detour, police pull-over, etc).

- Tommorow we head for the park to try to see some animals!

out of time! love you all!

On the Road

Jeffrey finally arrived in Uganda on the 25th of May, so we are traveling like crazy until we head home the first week of July. Our internet access has been spotty, so I apologize (again) for the randomness of this blog.

Last week we headed from Entebbe to the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria. There is actually a ferry that runs at set times and with set numbers of passengers, somewhat unheard of. We spent 2 nights at a campsite run by a crazy german couple. I think they were both either drunk, high or both the whole time. Very interesting people though, and friendly. Getting off the islands turned out to be quite the "adventure," as we decided not to take the ferry back, but to get off on the other side of the island using the public transportation. Not the best idea we've had. We first took a boda-boda (motorcycle) to a tiny town. Unfortunately it kept dying as we went up hills so Jeffrey and I would walk for a bit and then get back on with all of our bags. In all of this on and off-ness, I managed to burn my leg on the muffler of the boda, which was also not the best in that there wasn't anything to ice it with for miles. So I sucked it up, not much else to do.

From the boda, we took a matatu taxi to the other side of the island. This thing was probably the worst vehicle I've been in so far. I could see the road through a crack in the floor, exhaust poured in through the back windows, there were strange burn marks on the roof over my head and the sliding side door was either jammed shut or flying open when we hit bumps, which happened frequently.

We arrived at the other port of the island, only to find that the vehicle ferry wasn't running that day and we would have to hire a lake taxi. Long story short, it was an Ali/Jeffrey Rip-Off-Fest for all of the people there, and we both were pretty soured on the whole experience. We finally managed to take a boat across to the mainland and then a small car with 6 other people over to Masaka. It was a long and exasperating day.

From there we headed to our current location in the very southwest of the country, a few miles from Rwanda. (hitched a ride with 2 Ugandans who had a dvd player in their car and we all watched that terrible Tom Hanks movie, The Terminal...a bit surreal) I won't fill in all the details, this is getting long. But we are staying in Lake Bunyoni, which is amazingly beautiful and lovely. We will be here for a few days more before heading up the western edge of Uganda. Meanwhile, just imagine us paddling our canoe made out of a giant tree around a picturesque lake and eating pineapple and mangos that we got for a few cents.

My Dear Mukeesa

Things are not so good here in Kyetume, in fact, I feel pretty disheartened with humans right now. Mukeesa is one of the dogs that lives at our house, my favorite dog at that. He's kinda ugly and pretty scrappy and extremely dirty. But I like that about him. Two nights ago he apparently killed 6 chickens. Yesterday morning I woke up to the sound of someone beating him and him screaming. They were hitting him with a giant stick. We finally managed to get them to stop. But the witch-hunt was on--- all of the highschool kids that showed up during the day were told what he did and they all wanted to beat him. Scott found a bunch of boys that had trapped Mukeesa next to a woodpile and were attacking him with sticks Lord of the Flies style. He finally managed to get them to leave, but it wasn't easy. Mukeesa was terrified, he wedged himself under some sticks and wouldn't come out. By the time I found him I didn't think he was in very good shape, he seemed really hurt and could barely move. He did manage to come out after a while, Scott and I tied him up and hung out with him all afternoon.

I've never had to see animals beaten. And I guess that makes me lucky. But what happened yesterday will go down in my mind as a lasting memory, as something that powerfully turned my stomach and confused my heart. Everyone seemed to take such pleasure in beating him, there was lots of laughing and smiling. I don't know what would have happened had Scott and I not been here, everyone knew how upset we were about it, but I suppose they just added it to the list of what makes us ridiculous. We could come to no understanding with our volunteer coordinator (the first person to attack him in the morning) about how we felt and why.

At this point, Mukeesa's future is uncertain. we have him tied up now, which he hates and we are going to try to find another home for him. He is a sweet dog, despite the life that he's lived here. It's heartbreaking to see the way he cowers away from everyone now. I would bring him home if I could.

Randomness Time

My time here at URF is winding down, I've meant to add so much more to this blog, but each time I get ready to work on it, the internet seems to be down or occupied or too slow...Oh well.
Here's some of the stuff that's happened in the last few weeks:
- I ate my first salad since I've been here, my first veggies really
- I had a bagel and milkshake in Kampala, deliciously awesome
- I went dancing at a nightclub (is Ali really writing this blog?) The most entertaining part of the night was watching the Ugandans watching themselves dance in the mirrors lining one wall.
- We constructed a raised bed veggie garden at one of our student's houses. It has yet to be planted, but that should happen next week sometime
- I've been teaching English and Computer during the Holiday After-School Program. Both are frustratingly difficult to teach due to lack of resources and crappy computers. I tell myself that any time that the kids get to use a computer will be helpful to them in the long run, the nearest computers outside of our school are an hour's drive away, not doable for the vast majority of kids here.
- I've been painting the school "library." It's been my pet project and is almost finished.
- Engineers Without Borders has hired a company to drill a borehole next to the school. Once complete, water will be pumped directly inside from it and possibly come out of a tap. Right now there is a large rainwater catchment system in place.
- The workmen from the drilling company have been told to sleep in the library, thereby halting all of my work there.
- I got a package from Jeffrey stuffed with Swedish Fish, candy bars, tea, etc. It only took 2 months to get here.
- Biting safari ants took over the house for a couple of days, marching in a thick line through the living room and hallway. We dealt with them by flicking paraffin all over the floor and rug with an old broom. Not what I would have done, but I've very little safari ant experience.
- A feisty chicken took to entering the house whenever possible. She was discovered in Scott's room and proceeded to scwak and flap around in there for a while. We named her Aida and she continues to cluck through the house sometimes.

That's a random assortment of what's been happening here. I'm sorry it's not more exciting. And that there are no pictures. They take quite a long time.

A Week of Life and Death

This week has been a strange one, even by Ugandan standards. On Wednesday we went to the Rakai District, which is just over an hour away. We work with a number of families in the area, helping them with basic needs like mattresses, soap, pots and pans, etc., and so we try to visit the area every month or so.

On our way however, we were stopped at a police checkpoint. There are checkpoints all over the place in Uganda, where cars are stopped seemingly randomly, though I would assume that many taxi drivers have some sort of bribery agreement that lets them through. The police asked Adrian, the owner and driver of the car to get out and proceeded to take his license. We waited in the car, wondering why this checkpoint wasn't going quite as smoothly as hoped, we had an adequate number of seats per butt and the car was, on a whole, very nice. We got away with a 50,000 shilling (25$) fine after they first tried to pry off the license plates (unsuccessfully) and stared into the car for a while with their AK-47's (everyone seems to have those here). The fine was for having unsafe tires, which was completely made up.

So, we were on our way, cursing the extreme, blatant corruption of the Ugandan system. We arrived in the village and set out on foot down a muddy road to reach some of the other families. 15 minutes into it, we came upon a pig tied to a tree by the leg. A man came out as we walked by wielding a machete in one hand and grabbed the pig's ear. I quickly realized what was happening and turned my head and walked as fast as possible past the scene. I know that this pig lived and died a better life than the vast majority of pigs at home, but this was little comfort to me as I heard the thwacks and squeals. The pig butchering cast somewhat of a shadow on the rest of our walk. By the time we passed back by the area an hour or so later, he had been reduced to chunks and was being cooked over the fire.
We headed home feeling sour and jaded. I think we were all wondering exactly what we are doing here and to what end. We headed to bed after a depressing conversation about mob "justice" in Uganda.

This blog says that it's about life and death, and so far I have only covered the death part of that statement. The life side of things is this:

I woke up Friday morning and Scott, another volunteer, told me to come outside to see something. Praying that it wasn't anything beaten, dead or bloody I followed. The beautiful cow who lives next door had given birth during the night to a lovely little calf. He was only a few hours old and wobbly on his legs, but he looked healthy and happy, if not a little worried. I would be too.
This morning I was standing outside brushing my teeth when I noticed an unfamiliar black goat among the herd. A new baby bumbling around!


We have been watching this mom and baby closely as he didn't nurse for quite a while and his mother seemed utterly confused about what to do, maybe a bit aloof. Another volunteer and I ended up wetting the baby's appetite with a fingerful of milk on his gums and he has been attempting to nurse ever since. His mother still seems a little frigid, but I think they will be ok.

Public Transport

I just felt that this was necessarily the next blog that I write, due to the number of ridiculous rides that I've had in Uganda in the last couple of weeks. Most of the time here, we get around using public transportation, which consists of "taxis" ---minibuses, "shared taxis" ----sedans usually containing 6-11 people, or buses. Also, let me just say that I am fairly ok with the amount of person-cramming that goes on in african taxis and buses, it's all part of the experience.
However...there are times when I just can't get over the crazy situation that I've found myself in.

In the last two weeks riding in small, 5-person sedans I have:
- sat in the front seat with 2 other people
- bribed the cops (well, not me personally)
- sat in the back with 6 other adults and 1 child
- sat on a man's lap for 45 minutes in the back with my head against the roof with 6 other people
- run out of gas in the night and waited in the dark on side of the road for the driver to return
- pushed the car backward
- pushed the car forward
- and broken down twice
So I'm trying to tone down the number of times that I ride in this type of taxi, it's simply not comfortable to ride in the back of a small car with 6 other people, especially over the potholes. I suppose it's a good cultural learning experience (the first few times). Americans enjoy quite a large bubble of personal space, and it pops as soon as you land in Uganda. In the meantime I think I will use the lesser-crowded minibus taxis, where they (so far) have not made me sit on a strange man's lap.

Dancing and Drumming

Here is some video that I took during dance practice a couple of weeks ago. They are in the front yard of the house where I stay. The kids do drumming and dancing every week as part of their after-school activities. This time however they were practicing for a goodbye party for one of the long-standing volunteers here, and so they were especially pumped for their performance. I hope the sound works...

As you can see, Ugandans are pretty great dancers, even at a young age. They can shake it like what:

Update

So, I will be sticking with URF for another month, I guess probably 2, which is exciting news. I guess that's my biggest update.
Things are going along well here. I've been doing a lot of office work for the URF, making files for all of the students at the school and planning out what the heck I should teach to my After-School class. I kicked 2 kids out of class the other day for being late, very un-Ali of me, but it had to be done.
We've also made some good progress at the orphanage this week. We managed to get some money to hire a second person to help take care of the kids. This was pretty much the number one priority since there was just one lady pretty much running the whole show. I will try to post some pictures of me holding multiple babies soon, since I know that most of you would never believe it....
Life in Kyetume is slow and relaxed. We have some stunning sunsets out over the valley that our house looks across. There are 5 or 6 goats tethered outside each morning, nibbling on reed mats and laying in the sun. There are screaming happy children running by and smiling at me. There safari ants marching in lines 2 inches thick and many feet long that will swarm all over and bite you if you stand still. There are students singing as they walk up the path toward home after school.
As I'm out of time, I won't ramble on any more. I hope to get internet back at the house this week and will try to put up some pictures or even video.

Food in Uganda

Well, I decided that I should probably write a new blog, since I have some internet time. Honestly though, I wasn't sure what to write about, so I'm going with food, cause everyone loves to eat...
You are probably wondering why you've never seen any Ugandan restaurants around your neighborhood. You're thinking, "I'm hip to ethnic food, why haven't I been eating Ugandan? Am I behind the times?" No my dears, you haven't missed the boat to new multicultural edibles. I think possibly there just isn't the American market for hot banana mush...which brings me to Ugandan Food.
Matooke is the staple food here, which is basically bananas or plaintains smushed up and cooked over the fire in a shell of banana leaves. It's not as sweet as it would be if made from bananas in the US, in fact, it's not very flavorful at all.

Posho is another staple, though not as readily available. It's made from cassava (a root veggie) and is sort of like cream of wheat in the form of clay, and with less flavor.

Stew is eaten with matooke and posho. Generally you would dip fingerfuls or forkfuls into the stew to give them some flavor. Stews can be made with many different things but are most typically meat, beans, or groundnut, which are peanuts.

Mogo or Mogol- I'm not sure exactly the spelling is deep-fried cassava and is pretty good. It's similar to french fries but in larger chunks and a bit more bland. Salt is imperative.

Generally, this is what I eat everyday for lunch and dinner along with some other starches, usually some rice and some pasta, though they tend to be a bit gritty. Vegetables are not so common in our meals here, usually we have some salty chopped, cooked cabbage and some extremely tiny eggplant type things that are very bitter. Breakfast, if it happens, is stale white bread with margerine and sometimes jam and honey. Sometimes we get chapatis which are round, flat breads, a bit like Indian naan, but a little tougher and greasier.
Probably my favorite Ugandan food however is the Rolex. In the evenings you can find lots of little stalls with cooking fires setting up along the roadsides and among them is sure to be a rolex man. Rolex is a chapati with a sort of omelet with cabbage and tomatoes rolled up inside it. You can get one for about 50 cents almost anywhere and it's delicious.

The food here in the village gets old pretty quickly, and unfortunately, I'm a 20 minute walk down a main road from the nearest rolex man. (And the nearest beer, soda, juice). But I suppose that it just makes it all the more awesome when I get to go to the bigger town and eat some other types of food. We all had dinner in a western-style restaurant last weekend and were in heaven over our the delicious sweetness of the pie we got for dessert. We didn't even mind that the beers were warm from the recent power outtage. It's amazing how we take even pastries for granted.

My Address

You can send me letters (or packages if you really love me) here:

Ali Hunsberger
Uganda Rural Fund
P.O.Box 1220 Masaka, Uganda

Be aware that it might just take forever to get here. Or it might take a week. I have committed to the project until the end of March at this point, so please keep this in mind when sending things. I will let you know if I will be here longer, hopefully I will be. I love letters, pictures, books, magazines, chocolate, candy, etc.

The Uganda Rural Fund

Yes indeed, I've set down in yet another location in Uganda. I'm now volunteering with the Uganda Rural Fund (URF) in the village of Kyetume (pronounced che-toomay). Hopefully I will be able to blog a bit more regularly because we have reasonable internet access here, slow as it may be.

Life in Uganda is....well....very different, and sometimes good, sometimes bad. You probably already realize this if you have read my other posts. It's a major adjustment for pretty much everything that westerners take for granted, time, comfort, food, toilets, privacy, water, bathing, all of it. And although that sort of makes it sound terrible, it's not. It's amazing how quickly you become accustomed to peeing in a cement hole, or sitting in the back of a car with 4 other adults, or washing your hair and body with a gallon of water. But although many things are harder here, they tend to be simpler as well, which provides a sort of balance.

So, what do I do? Good question. As I discovered when I was volunteering in Ghana, and rediscovered during my time here, volunteering in Africa is tough. You come here ready for anything, ready to help out wherever you can, but it turns out, there generally isn't enough infrastructure, much less funding, to accomplish anything. For instance, my first day on this project, 3 of us were asked to mop out a new office and paint part of it. We were happy to do it, but the lack of any tools but for one scrub brush, one basin for water and some soap, we weren't really as useful as we could have been. We did cut an amusing picture as we swept the water off the concrete floor with chunks of wood we found in the bushes. Maybe we are just here to amuse the kids with our ridiculousness, I guess that would be alright.

Back to what I do. I do pretty much whatever someone asks me to. We work at a school here in Kyetume doing construction, cleaning, paperwork and teaching. We also run a number of community programs aimed at women, from basket-weaving and livestock raising, to workshops on everything from domestic violence to using a condom. We ALSO work at an orphanage about 50 mins from here each week. There are about 25 kids living there, 10 of which are under the age of 5, and pretty much just one woman who takes care of them all day, everyday. She's amazing. So we go there and help her in any way that we can, laundry, bathing, playing, dishes, you name it. It's amazing how much dirty laundry that many little kids can make each day, and how long it takes to clean it by hand with minimal water. The kids aren't necessarily always wearing any sort of diaper, so there's also a lot of floor cleaning and soiled clothing. The children at the orphanage are amazingly cheerful despite their circumstances, which just makes it all the more mind-blowing.

When I'm not attempting to help out on these programs, I pretty much have a lot of down time. I live with a family and with the other volunteers so there are always people around and there is always someone greeting me and asking me how I am. Ugandans are extremely friendly and are always ready to have a chat with you about how Uganda is, or whether or not you are in personal contact with Barack Obama. (If only!)

That's my update for now. Stay tuned for more from Ali in Uganda, I'm sure there will be plenty of adventures to report. I hope to have an address soon so that you can all send me letters and care packages filled with candy.

Life & Times in Uganda

So things are still crazy here, but I have some time to write some general notes so far:

Shops
-Store keepers come up with some very innovative signs to get at the western market. Who wouldn't want to enjoy an arresting dinner at "finger-linking chicken" or bite into something delicious from the bakery next door: "Hot Loaf"?

Toys
-As a former toy expert, I feel obligated to report on Ugandan toys. So far I've seen approximately 3 toys in my travels.

1. the most popular and probably the coolest is a wheel attached to a stick--a homemade push toy basically. Other variations include a cardboard wheel instead of metal or a hunk of circular plastic.

2. rolling an old tire with a stick and trying not to hit stuff. I guess this is considered a toy, it's cool nonetheless and I think is popular round the world.

3. a belt buckle. Ok, i've only seen one of these in action, but it was well-enjoyed by two 2-year olds on a blanket. pretty simple.

In general-- most American parents would tweak out a bit at the lack of obsessive parental hovering and safety measures. In the village that I recently stayed, Simatico, a 2-3 yr old was often seen playing with a rusty old hoe or, occasionally, carrying a machete. I'm fairly certain these things aren't approved for his age bracket.

Bricks

Well, not everyone is that interested in bricks, brickmaking or clay, but I'm certain there are a few die-hard fans who care, so I will report on them.

People make a ton of bricks here. The vast majority of houses are made of local bricks which are then covered with a layer of cement. (unfortunately). Traveling thru rural areas or even just ouside of Kampala you can see people forming bricks in molds. Once formed, they are set out to dry for a bit under some grass. Then, at some point they are stacked into a sort of kiln shape, sometimes very tall, and covered with a layer of mud. The brickmakers leave a few holes in the bottom which they then light fires in. Fire away and after a while you've got yourself fresh bricks.

I was going to write a bit about the food here but I think that will have to wait as my time on this computer is nearing the end. Hopefully more updates will follow. I'm heading to a village near Masaka on Wednesday to check out a new project that I hope to work with so wish me luck.

Ahh! What Am I Doing!?

Well hello everyone. I have a bit of time so I thought I'd post an update of my Ugandan situation. Because things here have not gone quite according to plan.

I've been here for about 2 weeks now and have had moments of being super sad and moments of complete happiness and excitement. I suppose that's not unusual for any traveller though. The most difficult part of my time here has been trying to decide whether or not I can actually do the project I came to work on. I travelled to the village where I would be staying and saw some gardens and some schools. I stayed with the poorest family I've ever met, who also happened to be some of the most open-hearted people I've met. My time in the village was very nice, but was overwhelmed by my inability to understand anyone around me or communicate with anyone except for my host, who is not always on top of updating me. In the end, this issue, coupled with a few other things led me to the decision that I wouldn't be able to swing it in the village for 4 months by myself with no one to really talk to. It was a really tough call.

So I ended up back here in Kampala, living in a hostel and attempting to figure out a plan b. This week I will be heading back to Masaka district to try out a program called the Uganda Rural Fund for a week or so. (www.ugandaruralfund.org) So wish me luck as I venture about and search for some way to contribute my time while I'm here!

I'm sorry this post has not been more exciting and really hasn't said much about what I've been doing/experiencing here. I promise to update at some point, either here or through email.

I miss everyone very much. Hope all is well!

Growing Futures & The Suubi Center

The Suubi Center is one of projects that Growing Futures is currently involved in. While I'm in Uganda, I will be helping to get it set up, as well as traveling to schools to create gardens and harvest crops. (see pic)

The Center will be used by children who are unable to continue their formal education as well other underprivileged community groups. Construction of the Suubi Center started at the beginning of this year.

Suubi hopes to provide training in a variety of fields, from farming techniques and livestock care, to English and Math classes.


Eventually they plan to offer a wide array of courses and training while serving as a community center. Most of this depends on finding ways to fund these projects.

I didn't include the pictures of the pit toilets that are also under construction, but I have been informed that they will be 100 ft deep when completed. Impressive poop pit. At some point there will also be demonstration gardens at the Center, as well as some small buildings to house volunteers.

I'm Still in Maine...

So this is my tentative blog. Tentative in that who knows if I will ever post again once I've headed off. Although, I did set this up using a dial-up connection, so Uganda can't be too much slower than that. But I set it up just in case. So maybe I will...don't get mad if I don't.

A little bit of info:

1. I'm moving to Uganda on February 4, and will be there until the middle of August. Uganda is here:



2. I will be working with a group call Growing Futures that sets up organic gardens at primary schools and then gets the kids involved in growing their own food through hands-on classes and demonstrations. The aim is to teach kids about vegetables and nutrition, as well as provide food to an otherwise hungry group of students.

3. Jeffrey is also coming to Uganda, though not until he finishes his Winter Residency at Watershed at the end of May.

That's about it. Feel free to comment to me here, especially if I end up using it...Otherwise you can email me at alibelle@gmail.com and wait patiently for a response.

Wish me Luck and Love to All!