But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying: Hoima for the Holidays

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I’ve heard it is very cold with a lot of snow over in the north east; where I am it couldn’t be more opposite! I’m literally always very hot if not sweating.

Leaving Hoima Town (the center) to go back to my village

My House

For the past two weeks I have been in Hoima, which is in Western Uganda, for language training (this is not where I will be permanently). I am learning the local language of ‘Runyoro/Rutooro’. This is spoken by the Bunyoro tribes including the youngers students I will be teaching (they start to learn English around age 7). It’s fairly easy, but a lot of the words look and sound the same. On January 18 I will have an exam and it must be passed to be officially recognized as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

I have been staying with a host family and they are lovely. My host mother, Vivien, is a teacher at a local school. The first time we met she told me that she is 30 so I should call her sister not mom. Yet, every time she has mentioned her age it has increased, so who really knows, lol?! So my ‘sister’ Vivien has 2 kids with Kenneth, a taxi driver, and they are to be married this year! He drives a taxi from Hoima to Kampala (about 3 hours) and sometimes he is unable to fill his taxi so he has to stay in Kampala some nights. Their two kids are AWESOME! Desire is 9 going on 30 and Johnah is 7 & very curious about America. They also took in a young cousin, Kimmy, who suffers from HIV and an orphan, Chrispus, who they use as a houseboy but treat like one of their own. Lastly, there is an actual hired house girl, Oliver, who is very sweet and a great cook!

My brothers and sisters

I call all of these people my brothers and sisters. They have truly taken me in as one of their own and I cannot thank them enough (aka I’ve been trying to wash dished, sweep, do any chores whenever I can but they rarely let me).

They're starting to let me cut potatoes!

They have taken me in so well, that they’ve even asked me for money… 5,000,000 Shillings (about $2,000) : /. I debating telling this story but I believe it truly exemplifies a reason why I am here. I am not at all happy with this huge request that they have asked, as it really makes everything awkward and uncomfortable. I guess I will start from the beginning (sorry if this does not make complete sense, I really don’t want to dwell on it so I am telling the extremely abridged version):

New Years Eve morning I was saying good bye to my host ‘sister/mom’ after enjoying an omelet, mangoes and delicious Ugandan Tea (it’s the MFing best). I was walking out of the compound when she said she’d like to show me something. As we walked down the driveway she started; her sister had died leaving behind 4 children all in secondary (high) school. (At this point I could sense she was in need of money, not even thinking she would ask me). She pointed to the plot of land in front of her house and said she’d like to buy this land and make it into a ‘pigery’ to earn extra cash as pigs are expensive here. She continued by saying that the plot cost 10,000,000 Shillings and she already saved up 5,000,000. She then concluded by asking me for the remaining enormous amount of money.

Many times when I told someone I was joining the Peace Corps they would congratulate me then immediately state that they could never do it, and they’d rather just give money. This ALWAYS made my blood boil but I kept my cool. Giving money does nothing but create beggars; what happen to me is a perfect example. The family I stay with is a great family with good morals and education/knowledge, but maybe they heard through the grapevine that someone’s cousins, neighbors, sister got money from some organization now everyone can do it (why not them!?). Additionally, it wouldn’t be a complete day if a random person on the street demanded that I give them money, or my watch, or in one case my water bottle?! Typically when a Ugandan sees me, they see US Dollar$. This school of thought stems from Muzungu’s (what Ugandan’s call an out-of-towner, were pretty easy to spot) coming in and giving away something (usually money). Textbook classical conditioning.

Our classroom

This is one the reasons that made the Peace Corps stand out to me, it’s sustainable. For example, it’s not about giving food and money to people who truly need it, it’s about teaching the people to farm and sell their crops. Peace Corps isn’t the quick fix, it’s the smart and lasting fix. I’ve told this to my Mom this a million times because it’s also the reason that I am here for 27 months. Implementation and integration into the community takes time. A real life example that I will be implementing is HIV/AIDS awareness. Uganda is the only country that saw an increase in HIV/AIDS over the past years. The quick fix would be handing out condoms; however, I’ve already been told that I will be planning HIV/AIDS curriculum for my elementary school and the neighboring teachers’ college. The curriculum would include, but is certainly not limited to encouraging abstinence and how to use a condom (respectively) while totally including awareness education. Developing the curriculum and learning materials will take a few months, then training the other teachers adds on a few weeks so I probably won’t be teaching an HIV/AIDS lesson until early summer (that’s about ~7 months into my service).

Okay enough of my rant… I just really wanted to drive that point home.

“Da Place”

That was the actual name of a venue that I went to on ‘Boxing Day’ (None of the Ugandans I asked knew what this day is for but I Googled it & it’s the day after Christmas that was once dedicated to giving away presents to the needy that were just that received from Christmas). I went there with my super cool neighbors. The family in front of my house has a bunch of kids all around my age and they’re awesome! They always try to include me in hip things that young people in the area would do & that includes going to ‘Da Place’ having a few drinks and dancing! I think they get a few laughs out of my horrible dancing skills too! They also introduced me to my new favorite song, ‘Personally’ by a Nigerian boy band ‘PSqared’, check it out!

I live in a neighborhood with lots of young families too. There are a lot of kids that my younger brother and sister play with whose’ families are way nice! They all welcome me into their homes with open arms, let me hold their babies or are just straight stoked that I’m in Hoima, Uganda and I know some of the local language.

One of the families is also Catholic (my family is protestant) so they bring me to prayers (what they call mass). It’s pretty fitting that the mothers name is Anna (it’s like going to MOQ with Gram and not paying attention, but just admiring her jewwls). BUT can I just say that I’ve been in a church and received the holy communion more times these past 2 weeks than I have been for the past 6 months. I better be getting some good karma points for that, especially because the services last for… wait for it… 2 HOURS! I’ve also spaced out more times in these past 2 weeks than I have for the past 6 months ; ). I sat through a 30 minute sermon, in the local language that I’m just learning, so I obviously didn’t pay attention and instead I thought of the best bars I’ve been to in my life (Top 3: B-o-b (Thursdays), Jackie Kapnis’s pre-games, and Marquee).

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Mike, Ravi, & Rachel

Brit, Jenna, & Madison

On Christmas I went to church, actually in English and I was able to sing a few Christmas songs. Then, I met up with my Peace Corps friends for stir fry & the WORST red wine I’ve ever had in my life… I really miss good wine : /. New Years Eve was spent with the same people after class for some beers and sparkling white wine that we managed to find at a liquor store. It wasn’t half bad! I then went to bed at 930 and woke up at 11:50 to see fireworks with my host family, from our backyard. It was the most low key new years I think ever had lol.