Becky's Arrived at Her Posting

Becky is at her posting, and we spoke with her on Saturday. She’s living on campus, in a guest house. There are several other rooms in the guest house, with other teachers as residents. There’s a space in front of her house with marigolds growing. Becky asked about planting a vegetable garden, but roaming cows, goats and chickens create a problem. There is a chance for a fence sometime in the future.

Becky arrived at school just in time for the delivery of report cards, and the students leaving for a month. She’ll spend the time before they return settling in and taking two weeks of training along with other Ugandan teachers in her district.

Becky’s assignment will primarily be to teach S-2 (9th grade) biology, which will include nutrition, plants and animals, transport of water and nutrients, and some other things. There is a standardized curriculum with standardized tests. She’ll be teaching four classes. Also, she has a part of the classes for S-5 (12th grade) covering ecology-related topics, with an ecology project, and S-6 (13th grade – it’s a British-system school) covering evolution.

The school was private, but is now public. The S-5 and S-6 classes are small – about 15-20 students. These students started before universal education started and pay higher fees. Some of these students are up to 30 years old, having interrupted school to work and save money to pay the fees. The S-1 and S-2 students have come up under the universal education program, pay only about $5 per term, and will continue to pay these lower fees through S-6.

The school is very near town and Becky is starting to learn the local shops. One of the staff, an accountant, will take her into town on Tuesday for the full tour. One of the goals is to get a Post Office box; stay tuned for a new mailing address. Also, Becky hopes to find the local internet café.

Food is an area of even more interest now that Becky’s cooking for herself. Milk, about a pint, is delivered daily, for 20 cents. From, she’s told, a “good cow.” Milk has to be boiled before drinking. She’s made yogurt, which “kinda-sorta worked.” Some food is very inexpensive: greens and bananas 5 cents, avocados and tomatoes, 10 cents. Oil and butter are somewhat more expensive. Sugar, and anything containing it (candy, cake, etc.), are much more expensive and are a real treat.

The economy is pretty much cash, and banks are expensive to use. Becky’s stipend goes into a Ugandan bank. An ATM transaction is 35 cents (more if you use a teller inside), which is relatively high compared to local prices. And interest rates on loans can reach 25%.

Barbara (Becky's Mom)

Winding down training, and a trip to Jinja!

So, it's been a while. The internet in town has been down for about 2 weeks now (I think they were switching internet providers), though it just came back Friday! I'm in Kampala at the moment - the Country Director (CD) is having a small Seder at his house tonight, which should be fabulous. Matzoh, haroset, horseradish, and good company; what more could you want? And for those who pay attention to these things, I know that Seder was supposed to be Wednesday night, but it’s more convenient for everyone to come to Kampala on the weekend.

Let’s see, what we’ve been up to the last couple of weeks….we had so many interesting technical sessions recently. One was on starting a Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) which was very helpful, and seems like a great program. They have great return rates (30-60% in a year) and offer people low interest rate loans (10%, whereas the interest rate for loans from banks is around 25%). Most VSLAs also have an emergency fund which is kept separate and added to equally and can be accessed any time for doctors fees, funeral fees, transport fees, etc. Basically, a small, local insurance agency.

Another was on building a “Rocket Stove” which cooks food more efficiently, and uses wood which is much cheaper than charcoal. (see the picture, and my mom’s post – she described it well. Many thanks, Mom!). Let’s see….oh, we also had a couple PCVs who are currently teaching in secondary school come and talk to us about teaching here in general, and specifically about alternative disciplines. There aren’t many secondary teachers here yet, as the program only started a year ago, so it was really nice to finally talk to PCVs working in the same area.

We also got to talk with representatives from two non-profits here in Uganda: Straight Talk and Raising Voices. Straight Talk focuses on HIV and AIDs youth education through radio, newsletters, clubs, and face-to-face interactions. Raising Voices focuses on violence against women and children. They’ve been working in Uganda for over 8 years, and have seen significant changes in the social climate in terms of violence against women. They’ve only recently expanded to children, and some of the numbers he gave us were astonishing: almost all children in Uganda have been subject to at least some form of violence, 20% of girls have been raped, and ~15% of boys have been sexually abused. Both groups sound like they’re doing amazing work, and had some really good advice for interacting with students and encouraging teaching of life skills as well as specific knowledge to both students and teachers. I could go on about both, but their websites are probably more helpful: http://www.raisingvoices.org/ and http://www.straight-talk.or.ug/

There were many other tech talks, but this is starting to get really long….we learned about the National Curriculum Development System, sports in school, how to smoke a latrine (very practical), and sundry other useful topics.

Outside training, we’ve been getting some good group bonding time. We had a ‘sleepover’ last week, with about 12 girls all crashing at Amy’s house for the night. We cooked pasta, made guacamole, no-bake cookies, and watched a movie. Then, yesterday, we spent a day traveling to different sites in the Jinja area – Mbarara Forest, Sezibwa Falls, the source of the Nile, and Jinja town itself. I really liked Mbarara Forest. We went for a nature walk and I finally got a chance to pull out my binocs and bird book. Unfortunately - it was almost noon - so the birds were hard to find. We did see a Black-and-white-cassqued Hornbill, but I ended having much more luck with birds at the Nile. Our tour guide was so knowledgeable about the birds. He could ID almost every call we heard. I can’t wait to go back for a more extended visit. The Nile was fabulous – there was a strong, cool breeze over the water, and lots of birds – Egrets, Cormorants, Herons, Pelicans. It was nice to just sit and enjoy being outside (which is weird to say as I spend so much time outside here…). It was so tempting to just jump in, but the current was strong, and there’s a lot of schistomiosis here, so it sounded like a bad idea all around. Jinja town was really nice, though it’s very obviously a tourist town – extremely clean, and filled with foreigners. It was slightly unnerving, actually. I think I’m beginning to understand why everyone says hello, or at least acknowledges our presences in some manner. We really do stand out.

As per questions (from my Dad, but I figured they were good questions): 1. Our instructors here are almost all Ugandan, though PCVs and NGO workers who come to give talks usually are not. 2. We have had very limited contact with the US Embassy. I think because both sides are too busy, but also because PC wants to keep us as unconnected from the rest of the US government as possible.

That’s about it, I’m off to the Seder, and this is getting long. I finally managed to get some pictures uploaded, yay! I hope everyone’s well. Hellos to all!

A bit of News

Talked to Becky on the phone this morning. Internet has been out for a couple of weeks in her small town, so she hasn't been in touch with anyone. Posting information will be coming next week -- probably Wednesday the 15th. Then the following week it's time to move! Monday to Kampala for meetings, Tuesday a meeting with her counterpart from her posting, and Wednesday on to the real adventure.

On Saturday, Becky will head to Kampala with one of her fellow Trainees to join the Peace Corps Country Director at his seder. She's looking forward to the seder, and being in the big city. Look for a long posting from her on Sunday.

Her one interesting story was that they built an oven. She sounded very excited. A PCV came in to help. They used the bricks (see posting below) locally made, then used mud as mortar. The mud was mixed with their feet -- "It doesn't get much better than that!" Banana logs serve as molds for the plumbing of the oven. Evidently, they will disintegrate over the next 2-3 weeks, and leave space for the fire, ventilation, etc. All-in-all sounded like quite the event.

Barbara