Hello from Uganda!!

May 20th, 2009 by Cristina

Well here I am in beautiful Uganda! I still have trouble believing I am here sometimes… It’s been almost a week now, and so far so good! I am not crying for my mom, I am not screaming at every bug I see, and I am eating food that I would normally refuse back home! I am all together very proud of myself.

I am working with an organization called Youth Focus Africa Foundation (YOFAFO). So far I have visited 2 villages. One of them is (believe it or not) called the Cockroach Village! The Lugandan name of the village means cockroach. So most people call it the Cockroach Village. It’s up in one of the hills near Lugazi and you COULD take a car there, but I wouldn’t recommend it… There road isn’t very good, and then it disappears into a path about a foot and a half wide. There are many mud huts and mud houses in that area. YOFAFO has a program there called the Piglet Project. What they do is give a piglet to a family and see after a year what they have done. This is related to Animal Husbandry. This is a program used to help these people generate some income. They get the piglet, take care of it, and when it gives birth, they sell the new piglets for money. They then can use that money to pay school fees for the many children in the village. There is one boy there that we got to meet briefly who will be the first graduate in the village! The people there do not have much, but what they definitely do not lack is food. Almost every house I went to, they offered large quantities of food! I was so full by the time I got home that I couldn’t eat the delicious meal that my host family made!

Today we went to another village where YOFAFO has a micro finance project. They give loans to very poor village women who have no collateral, and the women use that money to start a business and pay that loan back in 20 weeks. Because they have no collateral, the women have to come in groups of 5. That way, if one can’t pay their portion of the loan, the other women help out. It’s a great program and many women are benefitting from it!

I can see the improvements that YOFAFO is making in the community and it really is inspiring. I visit the Childrens Village next week. That is where I will be spending most of my time.

My host family is fantastic and they have a 5 month old baby who I get to play with on my down time. I am also with another volunteer who has been placed with this organization and family before so she has been a big help.

There are many luxuries that I am learning to live without and some that I REALLY miss… like my shower… But I am learning how to do bucket showers and I am getting pretty good at it! Here the Ugandas are very clean. They bathe every day and always look very nice. Sometimes I feel like I am the one underdressed… maybe I should go shopping… hahaha

I am meeting with some other volunteers on Friday for a lesson in Lugandan, the local language. It will be fun! And I can learn more that the 3 words I got which are “Masa” – stop and “kali” – yes/ok, and “Mzungu” – white person. I hear that last one about 200 times a day. And about 195 of those times it’s from kids. When I walk by, all I hear is “Mzungu! Mzungu! Bye Mzungu!” and then I end up with a trail of kids following me, the Mzungu… hahaha I feel like a celebrity sometimes. It’s funny. Everyone is watching, people are talking about me, and kids are following me around and wanting to hold my hand or shouting “Mzungu!” and waving until I finally wave back at them. Then they get all shy and just smile.

Oh! And at the Cockroach Village, they like to name the volunteers that visit them. My name is Nansubuga. It is Lugandan for Leslie. And since there is already a Leslie who lives in Uganda and works with YOFAFO and founded the organization The Real Uganda, they called me “Baby Nansubuga”. And after the first time of calling me that, they just shortened it to baby. hahaha So I was called baby for the last few hours in the Cockroach Village.

Well that’s all for now. More to come!