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.
Friday, March 27
Monday, March 16
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.
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.
Saturday, March 7
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
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.
Friday, March 6
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 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.
Monday, February 23
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.
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.
Saturday, February 21
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!
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!
Thursday, January 22
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.
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