Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending regular updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Work was another challenge for me out in the village.  I was supposed to be spending time learning about the work at the advice centers, but one counselor at the center was hardly ever around. She was from Tororo town, and apparently village life wasn’t for her either. The other counselor would leave me behind at the center while she went out on case handling. I read quite a few books those first few weeks out in the village.

Soon a solution presented itself. The school Greg was volunteering at didn’t have an English teacher and wanted to know if I would be interested. I went to James Ochola Memorial Secondary School  (JOMSS) the very next day, introduced myself, and informed them that I had never taught in my life, had absolutely no training, and would be delighted to try to teach the kids if they still wanted me. That first term, I taught all four grades, S1-S4.

It was a huge challenge to say the least. I’m not sure what the children learn regarding English in the primary schools, but it isn’t punctuation, parts of speech, grammar, writing or reading. I bought a local grammar book during a visit in Kampala to help me come up with lessons. There weren’t books for the students to use, so the only information they received was what I put on the board.

Another challenge I had besides not knowing what to teach was discipline. Caning children is supposed to be illegal here, but it definitely goes on. I think the children were excited to have two white teachers visiting them. JOMSS is a government school with very few resources, but it was definitely a status booster to have two teachers (and I use that term loosely regarding myself) from the U.S.

I think this excitement coupled with the fact that they knew neither of us would cane them, and also my own inexperience in the classroom, led to challenges with discipline. Classes were also huge, with over 60 kids each in the S1 and S2 classes. I survived the first term somehow and agreed to teach for a second term but only to S2 and S3.

At the end of the school year, S4 students have to take a national exam, and those scores determine whether they would go on to S5 or not. I felt like the S4 students needed a Ugandan who was familiar with the exam to prepare them. As far as S1 goes, there were just far too many students and they were far too undisciplined for me to continue teaching that class.

Something else was happening too…I finally found work with my host organization.

Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending regular updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.
_____________________________________________________________________________

I would have never really considered myself a city girl. I don’t exactly consider Owensboro the big city, but it didn’t take long for me to discover I’m not ready to move to Green Acres either.  This became abundantly clear the first time a rat paid me a visit in Mifumi.

 This was a HUGE problem in my book, but when I mentioned it to the administrator at Mifumi, she seemed not to grasp the sense of urgency I was feeling regarding this rat.  The rat situation came to a head one night when it was raining outside and I didn’t have any power.  Water was pooling at the bottom of my door, and I heard a noise coming from down there. When I shined my headlamp down at the door, a rat was crawling in under the bottom.

 Picture me seconds later standing on top of my sofa with my headlamp on, shrieking on my cell phone to my then-boyfriend about the current situation.  Another rat made his way in despite the dishtowel dam I tried to build at the bottom of my door. We had now entered code red as far as I was concerned.

Another “emergency” visit to Mifumi’s home office was made. The staff was laughing when I once again brought up the “rat problem,” but their amusement subsided when I said I wanted a cat. It turns out that many Ugandans fear cats. Rats, on the other hand, are just part of village living and nothing to fear.

 Sister Goretti was tasked with the assignment of finding me a cat. Goretti asked me if I wanted a big cat or a little cat. I told her I thought a small cat would be fine. Moments later she hopped on her moped and zipped away. When she came back, there was half of a yellow jerry can on the back of the moped and inside was an incredibly dirty, black and white kitten.  Hello Oreo!

Oreo cleaned up pretty well, and soon became a bit of a neighborhood celebrity. The children living on the compound would come by knocking on the window looking for Oreo. I would go to the Mifumi market and buy omena (which is the same thing as sun-dried minnows) to mix with rice and feed to Oreo, so the local women liked Oreo because he was good for business.

At first I thought I got jipped when it came to mouse-hunting skills. We would hear a noise, and Oreo would perk up, but instead of going to check the situation out, he would stand there looking at me. I’m pretty sure he was thinking, “After you,” and he never went onto the scene until I gave the all-clear.

 Later, he did better at chasing rats, and I had a new problem of him gifting me with rats. He’d come home with a live rat in his mouth, and proceed to play with it for about an hour before he’d eventually eat it. Despite our little differences of opinion about bringing rats home, Oreo was good company and I became happier with my village living.

Next time … teaching school!

Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending regular updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Charles Osinde, who does legal aid clinics out in the village, was the one who came in the Mifumi truck to pick Jude and me up. Charles was the exact opposite of Jude, and they cracked me up most of the drive back to Tororo. While Jude was happy and easy-going, Charles was impatient and grumpy, but still polite. It was kind of like watching the Odd Couple. The bed of the truck was filled with plastic containers with lids, so all of my belongings were squeezed in the backseat with me.

By the time we got to Tororo town, it was raining. We stopped in town, so I could get some kerosene for my lamp, a box of matches and a couple of basins. I also bought a set of silverware, one plate, one bowl and one coffee cup. From Tororo town, we drove on another hour to Mifumi village. I was going to be living in the staff quarters of the Mifumi Health Clinic. It was dark by the time we arrived, and there was no power. Sister Goretti, who manages the Mifumi Health Clinic, met us and let me into my new apartment. As soon as I was settled in, Charles and Jude took off.  I was exhausted. I found my sheets in my suitcase, and was soon tucked in under my mosquito net.

During our early days of training, we had meetings with our program managers to discuss what kind of site we wanted. One of the questions was if we wanted a rural or an urban site. I had said I wanted a rural site, and I don’t think you could get much more rural than this. The first weekend at my site I decided to go exploring in the “neighborhood.” I could either turn left or right out of the compound – I chose left and started walking. I walked past mud houses with thatched roofs. I walked past rice fields. I came to the first small trade center and asked them if they had rice. No rice.

I decided to search for the school that fellow volunteer Greg was going to be teaching at. We had passed it on the way to my site, but it was dark, and I couldn’t remember which direction it was or the name of the school. I asked some people at the trade center and a man decided to walk with me. We walked to an intersection, and rested there under a big mango tree. I had been away from my site for an hour now and didn’t bring any water with me. The man flagged down a motorcycle for me, and I tried to explain that I wasn’t allowed to ride motorcycles here. I thanked the gentleman for accompanying me that far and told him I would continue on my own.

I decided to turn right at the intersection. I walked for about 30 minutes, during which time I had a mental conversation with myself about how I was in the middle of nowhere and was likely to starve to death before I found food.

Eventually I came to a bigger trade center. I didn’t know where I was, and I didn’t see too many women around. It was mostly men, and I felt very intimidated. I found a shop that sold rice and beans, bought half a kilo of each, and enjoyed a soda before heading back. I gave up finding Greg that day, but at least I had gotten out and looked around. My new top priority was getting myself a bicycle to get to the local villages and explore more. There was still a lot left to see!

<>

The most exciting day of training was the day that we were given our work assignments. A week or two before, a gentleman named Dipak came to our training. He is from an organization called Raising Voices, which works to prevent violence against women and children in Uganda. Dipak spoke mostly about caning in the schools and alternative forms of discipline, but he also touched on child abuse at home, sexual abuse, and violence against women. The statistics he shared were startling and the stories heartbreaking.

After his visit, I went to the internet café in town, and looked up the Raising Voices website. I decided that no matter what my primary work assignment was, working against domestic violence was definitely something worthwhile for me to take on as a secondary project. The website listed one partner organization in the Tororo area that was linked with Raising Voices – Mifumi.

Each of us were later given an envelope with information about where we would be living and the organization we would be working with. When I opened my envelope and read the word Mifumi on my paper, you would have thought I won the lottery. All of the volunteers were running up to each other asking, “What did you get, what did you get?”  It was really amazing because it seemed like all of the economic volunteers got placements perfectly suited for them. We were all so pleased and felt like our program manager Jolie had really listened to us during our discussions about what we wanted. 

We were soon on our way to Kampala. We each met either our counterpart or our supervisor for the first time. My counterpart was supposed to be Janet Otte, but she was unable to make the trip to Kampala; instead, Jude Oboth came to meet me. Jude is about the happiest guy I’ve ever met. He had a huge smile on his face when we met, and he made me feel very welcomed from the very beginning. Jude worked as a lawyer at Mifumi. He went over some organizational basics with me to explain about the work that Mifumi does, but as far as getting specifics on what my role would be, I was going to have to wait.

While we were in Kampala, we were given time for a quick shopping trip. I had no idea what to buy because I had no idea what my place would already have. Fellow volunteer Hunter said he was getting a loaf of bread, peanut butter and jelly. That sounded good to me, and I followed his lead. It turned out to be a good move – that’s what I lived off of my first few days at site. 

The next day we had our swearing-in ceremony. I was very emotional during that ceremony and kept crying. Afterwards, we had a group photo taken, enjoyed a meal together and then were on our way. It felt so sudden to be saying goodbye to all of the volunteers I had just gone through training with, but it was also exciting to be on our way to my new home.

Next time: first days at Mifumi …

<>

Peace Corps volunteers Mike, Laura, Christine and Hunter with a fellow volunteer's counterpart in the Palissa District.

The big event during pre-service training was our volunteer visit. Usually trainees get a visit with a current volunteer at his or her site to see what life after training is like AND a site visit, but due to budget cuts, we only got the volunteer site visit.

The volunteer I visited lived in Palissa district. She came on board as an education volunteer, but it didn’t take her long at her site to realize she wasn’t really needed where she was assigned to work. Instead she found a new counterpart and organization to work with, and her major project was helping to get a demonstration pig farm built. It was still under construction during our visit, but you could tell it was going to be a very nice facility, and you could see how the community would benefit from it.

The idea was that someone who was HIV+ would receive two pigs and produce a litter. They would return two of the piglets to the piggery to replenish the ones they took, and could raise and sell the rest for income. Because it is a demonstration farm, those receiving pigs could come in and be trained on raising pigs before receiving their piglets. Local area youth could also come and learn about raising pigs. I also got to visit with another volunteer in Palissa who was working with women’s groups.

Our visit with current volunteers was great because it showed us what our living conditions might be like, what kind of activities we would be doing out in the community, and it gave us a break from the routine we had been in for several weeks at the training center. It was also the first time we had traveled anywhere on our own, so it showed us that things weren’t quite as scary in Uganda as the safety trainer had made it sound. It was fun coming back together at Wakiso and hearing about the other volunteer visits. The only downside to the volunteer visit was that it gave us all a little taste of freedom and suddenly made us anxious to be done with training.

The good news was that training wouldn’t last much longer. It was amazing how quickly the last few weeks went by. Most of our attention was focused on language as we geared up for the “test” we would have to pass. We had two simulations where there were different language stations set up, and Ugandans who speak our language were brought in to practice with us. One language station was a supermarket with fresh fruit, cookies, candy, etc. I’m not sure how I did it, but I negotiated the purchase of chocolate biscuits in the local language. If I could procure chocolate on my own, I felt that I might just be okay!

Three people who were friends of our language trainer came for the simulations. One lady I could kind of understand and communicate with and so my confidence was building, but then at the very next station, the lady spoke with such speed, I didn’t understand anything. Leading up to our language test, Esther told us that the man Chombo who would be coming to test us was a very, very big man, so we wouldn’t be surprised and nervous when we met him. I had spent a lot of time studying my flash cards. Esther gave us a whole list of potential questions that Chombo would ask us, and I wrote out answers and practiced them.

When the big day came, I was so nervous. I sat and watched other volunteers go in and come out, some confident they passed and others not so confident. My turn finally came, and when I went in I was so nervous I was shaking. I made it through some general conversation with Chombo, and then he asked me a question, and I couldn’t remember the translation for one of the words he said. I struggled a minute or two trying to come up with a response, but never quite recovered. I left feeling very defeated and certain that I did not achieve the intermediate low score necessary to pass the language requirement.

Those who don’t pass the test are given a second chance at in-service training about three months after you’ve been at site. So it wasn’t the end of the world if I didn’t pass, but I had put a lot of effort into it and had hoped I would pass. The testing took a long time, and after we each finished, our trainer and our tester had to go back and listen to each of our tapes and discuss our scores, which meant we wouldn’t find out our results that day. When Esther finally did give me my results, and I found out I passed (due to some lenient grading on the part of Chombo, who noticed my shaking hands), I started crying out of joy and relief and gave Esther the biggest hug I’m sure any language trainer has ever received!

I had made it past my biggest obstacle, and in a couple days I would be sworn in and heading to site … the next leg of my adventure.

Peace Cops volunteer Wesley with some of the Ugandan children he works with.

Today, September 17, 2010, is Constitution Day in the United States.  The occasion, also known as Citizenship Day, commemorates the formation and signing of the U.S. Constitution by thirty-nine men on September 17, 1787.

You can find out more about the day and the Constitution itself at www.constitutionday.com.  You can read the Constitution, check out the Bill of Rights and the other 17 amendments and learn about the 39 Founding Fathers who signed the Constitution.

You can also buy lots of Constitution-related items, including books and DVDs.

If you’d like a free copy of the Constitution, fill this form out and you’ll get a free pocket-sized edition of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

Take a minute and read at least the preamble:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Majestic words that helped to found our country. Read them, know them, think about them — that’s what Constitution Day 2010 is all about.

<>