Hello, all!
I do not have funny stories, but I want to be slightly more regular with posting so I will write about the last couple weeks.
I have been away from my site for the last two weeks to participate in an In-Service Training for Peace Corps. Somehow, the entire group of 45 volunteers that flew in to Uganda together are still here, and all were called to Kampala to mark our third month at site and the official end of our observation period. We came together with Peace Corps staff to discuss what we've seen and done, how things are at site, discuss issues, and with our supervisors create workplans for the next three months of work.
To be honest, it was very draining. As a backdrop, there was a 20/20 piece on Peace Corps response to sexual assault and rape cases that aired shortly before we arrived for training. Sexual harassment and assault are HUGE issues here in Uganda as I imagine it is in most developing countries. A large part of the week was spent relating stories, exchanging strategies, and commiserating over the things you can't change. As a man I do not have to deal with these issues on a day-to-day basis. Every person in Peace Corps acknowledges that being a young female is the toughest position in Peace Corps, and the things they deal with are incredibly difficult. But as human beings we all want to be able to do something to make things easier and better, and the simple fact is that we can't. Yes, you can work on changing one person or making a group of children think critically about gender roles, but you will never stop the throngs of men hollering, yelling, grabbing, whistling, and smacking at our fellow female PCVs over the next two years. It's a big pill to swallow and it breaks my heart a little bit.
Blergh. OK, so that's out of the way. Positive things did happen. I got to see all the friends I made for the first three months in country. It was great. We watched Black Swan together and we ate tons of delicious food. I took actual showers for 8 straight days. The water temperature was perfect. I learned a lot of worthwhile Life Skills activities that I can take to different groups in my community. A representative from my community came and really understood what it is that I am supposed to be doing here, and will hopefully be able to work with me more to come up with some sort of work. Things are looking up, I promise.
And rafting! Thirty-five of us went from the conference to Jinja to go rafting on the Nile River. We spent Saturday night on a booze cruise on the Nile River and Sunday morning we rafted. It was an opportune time as the Ugandan government is constructing a dam on the river that will disrupt the rapids in a couple months. We split into groups of 6 or 7 people per raft and set off down the river receiving instructions as we went along. I was surprised to see that no one was asked prior to rafting if we had done so before, if we had been in a boat before, or even if we could swim. These were Class 5 rapids, right? Right. Even so, the guides and staff were very talented at what they did and took many safety precautions. Our boat flipped once, it wasn't too bad. The whole stretch was 25km and it was a great time, I will definitely do rafting again sometime.
So that's it, I am back at site, work is going to get started soon and things will start to enter a rhythm. I miss everyone at home like crazy, don't stop sending me emails and notes, I love hearing from everyone.
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