NEWSBYALICE BATOR

Hi!

Sorry for the delay in posts... "time rushed" as they say in Uganda.

I've never made a "video" before, but check out a very unprofessional video for the Kasiisi Project Girls Support peer education programs!

Kasiisi Peer Education Video

I have finally been home for two days in a row since I arrived home last week. I head back to Vanderbilt tomorrow morning and I promise to fill in the blanks or at least outline a bit more very soon!

Time for Sexuality, Relationships and Body Changes Q & A

I’ll let you fill in the answers:

Q: Is it true that if I don’t play sex by the time I’m 17 years old I will develop a bone in my private part and never be able to have children?

Q: Why do girls get their menstrual period and boys do not?

Q: What are the signs of Chlamydia?

Q: If someone with HIV coughs on me, can I get it?

Q: Can I share clothing with someone with HIV, or will I get HIV?

Q: How can I make my breasts develop? Does playing sex make them come faster?

Q: How can I best protect myself against STDs?

Q: If someone has HIV, what is a good way for them to eat to stay healthy?

Q: How can I help a girl who has a habit of playing sex with boys?

Q: I only have one pair of knickers and I have to walk to school when I have my menstrual period. I do not have pads at home and by the time I get to school my knickers are spoiled and then I have nothing to wear with my pad. What should I do?

Q: I live with my uncle and I am ashamed to ask him to buy me a pair of knickers. What should I do?

Q: Are there condoms for primary students even though we are told we have to abstain?

Q: My school gives me pads, but what do I do when I go to secondary school. I cannot afford to buy one for myself.

Q: Is it normal to get my period for more than 3 days?

Q: If I count the number of reeds on my wall can I decide how many days I will get my period?

You get the picture.

The girls in P5 – P 7 (4^th grade – 6^th grade) asked a ton of really valuable questions. Some were alarmingly false (the first one for example…) and others were remarkably intelligent and based in a good understanding of STDs, hygiene, sexual behaviors, and relationships. My hope to distribute surveys for Kasiisi Project and interview girls at the 5 schools did not go quite as planned, as my questions (for example, who do you feel comfortable asking questions about growing up?) were overshadowed by theirs. But, as I’ve found, sometimes the important information comes about in a completely unexpected way. During meetings at the five primary schools with the head masters, senior women, and small groups of P5, P6, and P7 girls I was able to find out what information the girls needed access to and gained an insight into best practices for discriminating healthy behaviors, not only from the answers to my questions, but also (and largely) from the questions the girls asked me. Both the nature of questions and the level of comfort the girls felt in asking questions varied vastly between the schools. Although my observations are nothing more than speculation, I hypothesize that many of the differences can be attributed to characteristics of the schools. For example, Kasiisi Primary School has two trained Peer Educators, and the other four schools do not (the Kasiisi students asked very specific and informed questions). Kiko Primary School, Rweteera Primary School and Kigarama Primary School have male head masters while Kanjuara and Kasiisi have female (Kasiisi and Kanjuara girls were much more comfortable talking and said they bring some of their problems to the headmaster in addition to the senior woman). Kiko is located in the tea plantations and very near the Kibale forest (providing further time constraints and incentive for girls to stay home from school to work) so retention rates are much lower for the girl child.

…again, you get the picture.

Lessons learned…

· Information is found in unexpected ways

· Unfortunately, rumors exist in every school

· The batooro culture does not allow women who have recently given birth to sit in the sun. This is why some of the girls thought that they could also not sit under the sun during their menstrual period (but according to their culture, and health practices...they can)

· In America young girls steal boys’ hats and run away with them, in Uganda, boys steal girls sweaters and run away with them…flirting is universal J

· It is important to equip children with accurate information about sexual behaviors even when abstinence is imperative for young school girls and boys (P5 is 4^th grade. In the five schools I worked with, at least four P5 girls had dropped out last year due to pregnancy).

Above: Girl at Rweteera

Below: Girls' in P5 @ Kanjuara PS

Education is a process of building an individual’s competencies and is a mechanism toward independent thought. For a society to experience the inherent benefits of education, both access to the education and the relevance of the curriculum to the specifics of the community are critical. This concept is particularly tangible in the schools near the Kibale National Park. The rural environment and the conservation efforts of the park invites students to learn about the environment around them. I will talk about conservation education in a future post, but with my transition from MakaPads to Kasiisi Girls’ Support, I first want to chat about the specifics of education for a woman in rural Uganda.

As a source of power, education fuels individual with necessary tools and capabilities to life comfortably and successfully in a community. According to Bassey (1999):

Education must empower the powerless by enabling those traditionally silenced and denied the opportunity to participate fully in the making of educational decisions to become critical subjects in the learning process—that is, people who will be able to exercise power over the conditions of knowledge production and acquisition.

All members of a community should have access to an appropriate education and within that education, should learn relevant and challenging material. In determining the potential of a woman, one must understand the current socio-cultural framework of women in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently access to resources, power and division of labor are inequitably distributed throughout all of sub-Saharan Africa. In rural areas particularly, women are over-worked as their responsibility to domestic work and upholding their family is supplemented by their great influence over the agricultural economy. In rural Uganda women are the primary caretakers of their children and provide for up to 70-80% of the labor force in agriculture and therefore complete an average workday of fifteen hours compared to the eight-to-ten hour daily average work of the men in their communities. Time as a precious resource in the workday a woman due to the tension of their dual responsibilities in and out of the house (which is one reason the decentralized structure of MakaPad production has been successful). School for young girls or income generating activities for older women may come second to the daily work at home putting women farther and farther at a disadvantage.

Because gender “inequalities are created by the education system itself,” the system also holds the power to alleviate these inequalities (Bassey, 1999). If education is understood as a central component of societal structure, issues of gender are approachable and combatable as the implications of a strong education radiate through all facets of society. Studies show that “women are instrumental to programs of population control, increased food production, and the provision of other basic needs” (Beneria & Sen, 1982). When a woman is well educated, her influence is amplified. When a woman generates an income, she is more likely to use that money toward her children’s successes (education, health…) and therefore the society at large.

Although number three of the United Nation Development Program’s Millennium Goals is to eliminate gender disparity, in the history of development in third-world nations, promotion of gender equality is not highly prioritized. Unfortunately, analysis and suggestions for improvement made in articles years ago discussing gender equity are still relevant today. Policy and development from a gender perspective is under-stressed… but this is beginning to change. In meetings with FAWE and with UNICEF last week, we discussed the increasing efforts based on the importance of women’s education. Awareness, advocacy, and action based programs include UNICEFs “Girls Education Movement”, GEMs, and FAWE’s upcoming Girls Education Week (week of Aug. 10^th in Kampala…be on the lookout for MakaPads and other initiatives).

This picture is of the Girl Guides at Kasiisi Primary School in their Girl Scout uniforms.

Watch the Girl Effect video, visit FAWE, UNICEF, Straight Talk, and read the articles I quoted if you can get your hands on them (also notice they were writing a long time ago…and how relevant they still are).

I have only one more nights in my first apartment in Kampala (actually, my first apartment…ever) before my 6am bus ride to Ft. Portal Tuesday morning. Thinking about leaving Kampala is shocking. In some ways I feel I’ve been here for years, but in others I’m shocked my time here is already up. In two days I’ll leave the buzzing city of Kampala filled with crazy jams, urban slums, and business meetings, to begin the second half of my trip in the rural district of Kabarole, about to be surrounded by monkeys (literally walking around the field station where I’ll be staying) and night skis filled with stars and stars and stars. In Kampala I’ve been working with professors, non-profit leaders, and university students while in Kabarole my time will be spent largely working primary and secondary school students, teachers, and administrators. The experiences couldn’t be more different, but one half of the trip without the other would accomplish nothing for Kasiisi Project Girls’ Support Program. So long story short, starting Tuesday I will begin the process of grabbing the lose edges, applying the new additions, and hopefully reeling it all together well enough to move forward when I have to return home for school in a few short weeks. AH.

Reflecting on what I’ve “accomplished” so far in Kampala, again I’m a bit at a loss for what to say. I’ve accomplished so much more than I ever expected with MakaPads, and developed new relationships and partnerships for Kasiisi Project that will be incredibly important in the future. I’ve come to understand the city and how to best operate within the system here. Personally, I’ve learned a ton about not only my project, but also about the process of marketing, networking and developing a place in the market for appropriate technology.  One of the most thrilling parts of working in a foreign place, is that learning and progress are not constricted to the standard 9 - 5 workday. First of all, the organization I’ve been working with for the past month tends to work at all hours and days of the week, but that’s not my point. What I mean is that for me, the student and learner, my personal progress and the “success” of my summer had been influenced as much by my experience chatting with women at the market as learning to make chipati and beans, as having co-workers over for their first “pasta and sauce”, and as getting “quizzed” by my waiter in Luganda between refilling drinks.

Yes, “Africa Time” is a phenomenon that does exist, but the time when we’re waiting for time to catch up to us is not wasted. I’ve found that in the moments when meetings are delayed I make the connections I never would experience in the more fast paced, efficiency driven, results oriented…America. (I don’t hold one as better than the other because I will admit that the relief of a meeting starting on-time reminds me how nice it is to be able to count on a timely schedule, but the slower, relaxed approach is wonderful at times as well…)

So begins part two…

I will write again when we can take a trip to the Internet in Fort Portal from the field station within the next two weeks.

Until Then…

Here's a picture of the Makerere University students working on the final steps of MakaPads.

Oly Otya.

Sorry for the serious delay in blogging. Not having a computer has held me back and I promise that as soon as I return to the states I'll speak more coherently and professionally, but for now let me give you quick updates... ("twitter"-ish style)

-I've been running around Kampala to Embassies, NGOs, Banks, etc. requesting donations of white paper waste to keep the cost of MakaPads low (the US Embassy is the hardest to get into EVEN with a US passport...shocker). The World Bank, FAWE, DFCU Bank, Belgian Embassy, Danish Embassy and South African Embassies have agreed so far to donate their white paper office waste to MakaPads (important given the ambitious goals for the near future)!

-Learned to make chipati and beans from Dr. Musaazi's daughter. Much more labor intensive than I expected for a recipe that consists of 1. water 2. flour 3. oil (can't WAIT to make rolex at home... definitely my favorite street food...chipati with an omelet in the middle YUM)

-Had a great meal with the Musaazi family and the rest of T4T

-Sat with a few Ugandan friends reading through a "Tips on UGandan Culture" guide by Shirley Byakutaaga joking about some of the subtlties of their culture etc. Most specifically I learned that when I ask guests "would you like something to drink" it implies I don't want to give them anything. Instead I should say "I have juice. Here it is."

-Had a great meeting with UNICEF for Kasiisi Project on Friday... hopeful about the future relationship there. More to come on Monday after they get back to me with what's next

-Realized over and over and over how small the world is. (I've ran into 4 GES delegates/staff now, talked on the phone with a journalist from Chronical of Higher Ed. who had just met my advisor and friends from Vanderbilt in South Africa, sat on a bus from Mbale to Kampala and the only other Muzungu on the bus graduated highschool with me...etc. it's acutally ridiculous)

-Learned that the Post bus is not just a bus that leaves from the Post office, but is actually a bus that stops at every single post office and delivers the mail on the way to it's destination. (made for a 9 hour bus ride that took 4 hours on the way back even WITH Kampala traffic)

-PATIENCE is key. Power outages, computer crashes, etc. are part of every day life. ("Coming" means I'll be back soon...)

-Saw Dr. Musaazi's innovations highlighted at the National Ugandan Museum (he is a ballerrrrr... if you haven't looked him up yet, or his work... do it)

And so much more....

I head to Kabarole on Tuesday which means not only no computer, but much more limited internet access.

Each of the bullets have long stories, and I will come back and fill in the blanks (at latest when I return to the states mid August).

Thanks for bearing with me!

Here's another poem to tie you over till I can next write:

We and They

Father, Mother, and Me
Sister and Auntie say
All the people like us are We,
And every one else is They.
And They live over the sea,
While We live over the way,
But - would you believe it? - They look upon We
As only a sort of They !

We eat pork and beef
With cow-horn-handled knives.
They who gobble Their rice off a leaf,
Are horrified out of Their lives;
And They who live up a tree,
And feast on grubs and clay,
(Isn't it scandalous?) look upon We
As a simply disgusting They!

We shoot birds with a gun.
They stick lions with spears.
Their full-dress is un-.
We dress up to Our ears.
They like Their friends for tea.
We like Our friends to stay;
And, after all that, They look upon We
As an utterly ignorant They!

We eat kitcheny food.
We have doors that latch.
They drink milk or blood,
Under an open thatch.
We have Doctors to fee.
They have Wizards to pay.
And (impudent heathen!) They look upon We
As a quite impossible They!

All good people agree,
And all good people say,
All nice people, like Us, are We
And every one else is They:
But if you cross over the sea,
Instead of over the way,
You may end by (think of it!) looking on We
As only a sort of They!

-Kipling

Oly Otya.

Sorry for the serious delay in blogging. Not having a functional computer has held me back and I promise that as soon as I return to the states I'll speak more coherently and professionally, but for now let me give you quick updates... ("twitter" style)

-I've been running around Kampala to Embassies, NGOs, Banks, etc. requesting donations of white paper waste to keep the cost of MakaPads low (the US Embassy is the hardest to get into EVEN with a US passport...shocker). The World Bank, FAWE, DFCU Bank, Belgian Embassy, Danish Embassy and South African Embassies have agreed so far to donate all of their office white paper waste to MakaPads! This will be important because their current goals include moving from producing about 400,000 packets per month... to 4 millon...

-Learned to make chipati and beans from Dr. Musaazi's daughter (an unreal baker/cook). Much more labor intensive than I expected for a recipe that consists of 1. water 2. flour 3. oil (I can't wait to make rolex at home... definitely my favorite street food. rolex is chipati with an omelet in it...yummmmm)

-Had a great meal with the Musaazi family and the rest of T4T

-Sat with a few Ugandan friends reading through a "Tips on Ugandan Culture" guide by Shirley Byakutaaga joking about some of the subtlties of their culture etc... Paul pointed out a paragraph that explains that when I ask guests "would you like something to drink" it implies I don't want to give them anything. Instead I should say "I have juice. Here it is." Oops...

-Had a great meeting with UNICEF for Kasiisi Project on Friday... hopeful about the future relationship there and I will update about that later when I hear back from them on Monday with the next steps

-Realized over and over and over how small the world is. (I've ran into 4 GES delegates/staff, talked on the phone with a journalist from Chronical of HIgher Ed. who had just met my advisor and friends from Vanderbilt in South Africa, sat on a bus from Mbale to Kampala and the only other Muzungu on the bus graduated highschool with me...etc. it's acutally ridiculous)

-Learned that the Post bus is not just a bus that leaves from the Post office, but is actually a bus that stops at every single post office and delivers the mail on the way to it's destination. (made for a 9 hour bus ride that took 4 hours on the way back even WITH Kampala traffic)

-PATIENCE is key. Power outages, computer crashes, etc. are part of every day life and noone flinches when the electricity turns out at the supermarket, the printers stop printing important documents etc. (Evident in Ugandan english as "coming" means I'll be back soon...)

-Saw Dr. Musaazi's innovations highlighted at the National Ugandan Museum (he is a ballerrrrr... if you haven't looked him up yet, or his work... do it)

-And so much more....

I head to Kabarole on Tuesday which means not only no computer, but much more limited internet access.

Each of those bullets could have long stories, and I will come back and fill in the blanks asap (at latest...when I return to the states in mid August)

Thanks for bearing with me!

Here's another poem to tie you over till I can next write:

We and They

Father, Mother, and Me
Sister and Auntie say
All the people like us are We,
And every one else is They.
And They live over the sea,
While We live over the way,
But - would you believe it? - They look upon We
As only a sort of They !

We eat pork and beef
With cow-horn-handled knives.
They who gobble Their rice off a leaf,
Are horrified out of Their lives;
And They who live up a tree,
And feast on grubs and clay,
(Isn't it scandalous?) look upon We
As a simply disgusting They!

We shoot birds with a gun.
They stick lions with spears.
Their full-dress is un-.
We dress up to Our ears.
They like Their friends for tea.
We like Our friends to stay;
And, after all that, They look upon We
As an utterly ignorant They!

We eat kitcheny food.
We have doors that latch.
They drink milk or blood,
Under an open thatch.
We have Doctors to fee.
They have Wizards to pay.
And (impudent heathen!) They look upon We
As a quite impossible They!

All good people agree,
And all good people say,
All nice people, like Us, are We
And every one else is They:
But if you cross over the sea,
Instead of over the way,
You may end by (think of it!) looking on We
As only a sort of They!

-Kipling

Sadly the combination of me being sick and my computer being broken.... mean that blogs will be delayed until I can either fix my computer or have enough time at an internet cafe to write a blog.

**

SORRY! I'll check in with shorter blogs in the meantime if I can.

**

The past few days have been filled with meetings with BRAC, UNHCR, GTZ, FAWE, Straight Talk and various banks etc. interested in partnerships, workshops, and various CSR involvements with MakaPads.

**

(2 sentences about the blog that was saved on my computer ready to go for this weekend about NGOs...)

Think about how many NGOs exist for every issue, trying to achieve the same mission. In the meetings I've found that over and over people have the same brilliant ideas for various facets of development.

BEFORE you start a new non-profit, check out what already exists.

AFTER you work for a nonprofit, make partnerships with similar organizations and share your resources.

I heard a joke last night. A Ugandan man speaking to a group of men and women from England. The Ugandan man, laughing hysterically, said: “Thank you for your language [pause] and that’s it.”

Arbitrary lines drawn on the map of Africa during the late nineteenth century Scramble for Africa was not only a race between European nations to colonize Africans, but also a formation of artificial boundaries that “scrambled” African ethnic groups by dividing and combining communities. The lasting legacy of European influence in Africa today illustrates the longstanding consequences of colonization. The present environment and culture of Uganda is formed by history and therefore to successfully effect change, the history of colonization must be remembered in any conversation about the future. While it should be part of the conversation, it should not be a limiting factor because. As Obama said in his recent address in Ghana, “Africa's future is up to Africans." While the definition of  community is dynamic, a few things remain consistent. Because community is simply a word to describe the relationship among a group of people, when populations develop a new personality, it is the people themselves who dictate that personality.A nonprofit hot-spot since the 70s and 80s and the era of Ida Amin, this country has been an easy place for English speaking do-gooders to come and give the non-profit world their best shot. This influx of a population of westerners “solving the social problems of Ugandans“ is, in a sense, another form of colonialism. Yet the ex-patriot community here is largely comfortable and kindly accepted. As the social sector turns more toward social enterprise, and as models of dependency are slowly diminished, the presence and role of ex-patriots should evolve as well. With that in mind, a successful development project should be defined as such: when a project, program, or organization has fulfilled it’s mission, the external aid should no longer be a necessary component of the community. And this is the necessary future for the relationship between Uganda and western countries: a future of appropriate design, innovative infrastructure, competency building and job creation.

It’s really exciting to be among a group of innovative, practical, and change focused individuals. Professor Musaazi, his two sons, a few interns and the rest of Technoloy 4 Tomorrow, are an invigorating bunch. They see a problem, and look for a solution. Their solutions embrace concepts of “Design for the other 90%” (read this book) and are realistic, simple, and accessible. MakaPads is only one of their many solutions. Interlocking bricks, efficient mixing contraptions made from recycled materials, incinerators, and much more in the incredible innovative minds of these individuals at Makerere’s Faculty of Technology (click here to see more of their products).

Their minds are always working on the next practical solution. Nonprofits alone will not save the world. They have an important role, but keeping a critical eye is important to ensure practical, measurable, and significant change…remembering to avoid into the pitfall of some nonprofits: “the need to be needed” and instead to strive to be essentially unnecessary.

A few days back I was sitting with three young men in a tiny dark room in a small alley in one of the worst slums outside Kampala. These young men, (one year out of high school, age 23-25) complete the sealing process of MakaPads and LOVE their job. Our lighthearted conversation turned into one about the complexities of life as they know it as I listened to their description of the many “ironies of third world poverty.” Our conversation was filled with jokes and witticisms (as are practically all conversations in Uganda), and Abraham, the most talkative of the three, joked, “I’m working and learning. I am a man, but I am making pads.” That being said, the conversation was also filled with interjections about how scary changes in government (especially major elections) are in the third world, and how trapped one can feel when “you can study and study and study and get your PhD and STILL find no work.” These heart-wrenching comments provided grounding among the jokes of marriage and curiosity about my ‘Muzungu skin that can get hurt by the sun and turn pink.”

Abraham commented on how funny it is that when people visit Uganda from a short period of time they end up witnessing so much more of his country than he ever has or will. I, in the past two weeks, have not only taken a weekend trip to explore Jinja, but have also traveled during the week to the outskirts of Kampala and Entebbe for work AND in a few weeks will be in the far west, in the Kabarole District for Kasiisi Project… I have already seen so much more of Uganda than any of the Ugandans with whom I was talking. They talked about how although they’ve known poverty all too well, they have only seen peace because they have never been to the north. Imagination is his source for exploration beyond Kampala. As we looked out the opening of the wall at the hot, dusty red dirt Abraham imagined out loud how thrilling it must be to “run on ice and snow” and to ski. Unfortunately, although he envisions novel experience and travel, his income is not enough to save beyond basic needs. MakaPads have allowed these boys to keep themselves busy and employed after high school when they may otherwise be getting themselves into “typical teenager troubles” (as they said). Employment is more than many can hope for in this starving environment. The boys raved about their employment with MakaPads because:

“It’s relaxed and you self motivate. No one tells you to work. If you work, you have money. It’s self-esteem and motivation.” and because “the more you work, the more money you make, so you find yourself pushing yourself to work hard.” One boy talked about how the hours they work (typically 7 -4), the lack of transport needed to get to work, and the work-week being limited to M-F made their jobs “so much better than a regular African job”.

The complexity of working with people who can see beyond the truly debilitating and overpowering poverty in the slums of Kampala and maintain an open and curious mind is incredibly humbling. These young men are well educated and employed and therefore in a much better position than the majority of their peers. But despite their intelligence, they are stuck in a world of corruption, uncertainly, and deprivation. But they also experience delight, and laughter, and friendship.

I read this poem early this fall and it really resonated with my inevitably mixed emotions inherent in being a privileged white American working in a third world county and seeing poverty, illness, and capability deprivation… and realizing “risking delight” is something we need be ok with as hard and as hypocritical as it may seem at times.

***

When we visited Professor Musaazi at the hospital (our first time meeting him in person) a few days back, it struck me how different the relationship between co-workers is in Uganda than at home.

Answer this: Your boss is sick in the hospital, what do you do?

Well if you’re kind (and can find the time) you might send a short note signed by the office wishing he feels better soon and maybe send some flowers along with it if it‘s an especially free day for you.

Right?

Maybe at home, but not in Uganda.

We casually entered Mulago Hospital (no questions asked) and walked through the front door, hopped up six flights of stairs to the private ward where the “entitled” patients receive care (only 2 of the many rooms were filled…while downstairs patients were seemingly overflowing into the corridors) and passed into the Professor’s room marked “NO VISITORS: this patient needs rest”. His room was filled with his sister, cousins, and co-workers and he happily welcomed us into the small room thanking us for coming and how wonderful it was to finally meet. When I commented on how many visitors he had he chuckled and said he was glad that visitors were slowing down (…5 people in the small room at once is apparently slowing down), saying the first few days he needed to go on oxygen after the visitors left because so many people came to wish him well. He said he was receiving wonderful care and had three doctors tending to him, who would then refer to ten others to decide on treatment. While we were there, we never did see a doctor (or security to question our presence) but we were assured they were around.

In Professor Musaazi’s 58 years, this is his first time admitted to the hospital, so in some ways his observations were as raw and new as mine. Earlier in the day, from his hospital room in the best public hospital in Uganda, Professor Musaazi sat looking out the window feeling particularly saddened by his view of the lawn six floors below. Looking down to where the government “aided” (as he described with a sarcastic tone) patients’ clothing and bedding was lying out to dry, it started pouring. All he could imagine was sick patients having to sleep in wet beds. This is not how things should be. Naturally, as an inventor might, he said he spent the rest of the day ruminating innovative solutions to the problem. Our world needs minds like this.

I’ve found that working in an international setting, culture-shock is not always an obvious entity, but more an enigma that sneaks up in moments or interactions that do not line up with our expectation of “how things should be”. While Professor’s shock in his first experience in Mulago left him speechless, in a much less monumental way, my getting over the fact that I was meeting my boss when he was ill, in his bathrobe, and in a hospital with his extended family left me making the really straight forward cultural acceptance, meaning… this is now how I thought things worked… but that’s ok.