Monday, October 11, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
September 2010
September
Ok friends and family I was debating about what to write do I write all the positive stuff or keep it real.
So here it is in the REAL Miss Ann in Uganda.
The high and lows of training.
So when I first started training things were at a high of course then as the days sink in and one bad day leads to another if you let it. I am finding it hard for a number of reasons weather you know it or not I am not very social. There is 45 of us from all place in the states with all different types of personalities but one goal make it through training and then start our dreams as a Peace Corps Volunteers. Second reason HOME STAY is very painful. I'm first home-stay family was a little rough around the edges. They spoke very little English and I mean almost none at all. My first couple of days the Host mother would not even get home until 10:00 and then on top of this the family was Muslim and in the middle of Ramadan so they do not eat until sun down. I was excited at first to be placed with a Muslim family because I knew very little and this religion. I was excited to learn about it, but as it turns out only my host mom knew about the traditions and celebrations and them they would feed me left over meals from the night before cause they would only eat when the sun goes down and they eat very late and being used to eating 7 or 8 at night made it very hard.
They were a very nice family, but the communication barrier being sick all the time and not socializing with the family and the food. Made me a little crazy. Thank God Peace corps staff is very helpful and so they placed me in a new family. More to come on my new host family.
9-23-2010
I have been having a rough month and it is still not over yet. I have fallen ill now a total of four times and every time the peace corps medical officer says it is food poisoning and I am very susceptible to the bacteria. I knew I was going to be sick you know the usual vomiting, diarrhea and high fevers not that I can't handle it but it has been consist every two week I fall ill.
The routine of getting sick in training is calling the medical officer take a tablet and if it is during the day and you have the REA ( diarrhea ) the will let you stay at RACO the training site/ hotel that has a toilet, shower and a good food for about two days which is awesome when you are sick and don't want to use the pit latrine. SO thank god for this.
If you are really bad and have been having high fevers then they send you to Kampala the Capital city. Then you are sent to a place called “The Surgery” yup that’s right you are told you are going to the surgery and then you realize when you get there it is a clinic called the surgery lol. Then you wait from anywhere between one to five hours. You are then seen by different characters of nurses and doctors. Then after the clinic you are then sent to headquarters speak with a nurse and sent back to RACO or sometimes home. This all happens when you are sick. Lets just say I am now the expert of what happens when a trainee is sick.
On the other hand you get to go to volunteer lounge and sometimes there will be volunteers there from another group and you can chit chat with them. They also have a room full of books you can borrow sometimes there is left over clothes you can have. Which is nice since in training you really don't have too much time to buy new clothes or get some made. Overall they take good care of you.
So enough of the sick talk.
My trip to Munko in Katiso with my friend Rashida another trainee who is also my neighbor.
8:00 a.m on a Tuesday morning 45 Mungoz's ( white people) hopped aboard a matatu 's( Bus) and headed to various parts of Uganda, but first to Kampala where all the taxi parks are.
Oh how we love Kampala.
All the trainees love to go into Kampala because there is a shopping center that is kind like a shopping mall with really good Food like ½ lbs hamburger yummmy so good. This is usually where we stock up on the feel good foods for me it is usually chocolate, peanut butter, jelly, the good strawberry wafers and some trainees have gone bowling or to a movie I have not yet experience either of those but sure as hell will in the near future. Oh yea Nados a breakfast place had the best jelly filled doughnut every . Well if you can't already guessed it is the small things in life here that make me a happy woman.
After well fill our bags we then try multiples time to track down another bus which is sometimes hard to do because they usually try and over charge us because we a American and they think we have a lot of money, but in reality we only get paid 35,000 shillings a week which is about 15.00 US dollars. To help figure out how expensive things are a bottle of coke cost 1,500 shillings.
The Matatu experience.
So there is no real regulation on how many people can travel in a bus and when I say bus don't think big bus think a 12 passenger van like bus. So when you get in the matatu ( bus) there maybe already 12 people in it so you are squeezed next to someone who usually smells like they have not showered in days. So you get in the bus then the real chaos starts so this bus does not stop when you get there it make multiple stops.
You start going down the road for 5-10 minutes when they pick up more people for the bus so Rashida and I counted 22 people were on this bus with us going down a dirt road at some high speeds where they stop drop off two or three people and then down the road again pick up five more people I hope I am painting an good enough picture for you to see. LOL.
We made it to Katiso.
After beginning drop off in Katiso which is on Lake Victoria ( I have been trying to upload pics but they take super extra long and well I don't want to spend all my limited internet time uploading pics when I can get on youtube and have a laugh. So if anyone has any ideas to help me upload I would gladly take them) we were greeted my the Volunteer Heidi Hall she shows us her town. We hike some high hill and were able to see far out into Lake Victoria it was another great HOLY SHIT I'm in Africa moment. It werid here everything becomes so normal so every now and then i'll get a oh shit i'm in Africa moment. Which is really nice because the days run so short here in training it's get up and go go go go. They do not give us a lot of down time which is good but really bad at the same time.
Ok friends and family I was debating about what to write do I write all the positive stuff or keep it real.
So here it is in the REAL Miss Ann in Uganda.
The high and lows of training.
So when I first started training things were at a high of course then as the days sink in and one bad day leads to another if you let it. I am finding it hard for a number of reasons weather you know it or not I am not very social. There is 45 of us from all place in the states with all different types of personalities but one goal make it through training and then start our dreams as a Peace Corps Volunteers. Second reason HOME STAY is very painful. I'm first home-stay family was a little rough around the edges. They spoke very little English and I mean almost none at all. My first couple of days the Host mother would not even get home until 10:00 and then on top of this the family was Muslim and in the middle of Ramadan so they do not eat until sun down. I was excited at first to be placed with a Muslim family because I knew very little and this religion. I was excited to learn about it, but as it turns out only my host mom knew about the traditions and celebrations and them they would feed me left over meals from the night before cause they would only eat when the sun goes down and they eat very late and being used to eating 7 or 8 at night made it very hard.
They were a very nice family, but the communication barrier being sick all the time and not socializing with the family and the food. Made me a little crazy. Thank God Peace corps staff is very helpful and so they placed me in a new family. More to come on my new host family.
9-23-2010
I have been having a rough month and it is still not over yet. I have fallen ill now a total of four times and every time the peace corps medical officer says it is food poisoning and I am very susceptible to the bacteria. I knew I was going to be sick you know the usual vomiting, diarrhea and high fevers not that I can't handle it but it has been consist every two week I fall ill.
The routine of getting sick in training is calling the medical officer take a tablet and if it is during the day and you have the REA ( diarrhea ) the will let you stay at RACO the training site/ hotel that has a toilet, shower and a good food for about two days which is awesome when you are sick and don't want to use the pit latrine. SO thank god for this.
If you are really bad and have been having high fevers then they send you to Kampala the Capital city. Then you are sent to a place called “The Surgery” yup that’s right you are told you are going to the surgery and then you realize when you get there it is a clinic called the surgery lol. Then you wait from anywhere between one to five hours. You are then seen by different characters of nurses and doctors. Then after the clinic you are then sent to headquarters speak with a nurse and sent back to RACO or sometimes home. This all happens when you are sick. Lets just say I am now the expert of what happens when a trainee is sick.
On the other hand you get to go to volunteer lounge and sometimes there will be volunteers there from another group and you can chit chat with them. They also have a room full of books you can borrow sometimes there is left over clothes you can have. Which is nice since in training you really don't have too much time to buy new clothes or get some made. Overall they take good care of you.
So enough of the sick talk.
My trip to Munko in Katiso with my friend Rashida another trainee who is also my neighbor.
8:00 a.m on a Tuesday morning 45 Mungoz's ( white people) hopped aboard a matatu 's( Bus) and headed to various parts of Uganda, but first to Kampala where all the taxi parks are.
Oh how we love Kampala.
All the trainees love to go into Kampala because there is a shopping center that is kind like a shopping mall with really good Food like ½ lbs hamburger yummmy so good. This is usually where we stock up on the feel good foods for me it is usually chocolate, peanut butter, jelly, the good strawberry wafers and some trainees have gone bowling or to a movie I have not yet experience either of those but sure as hell will in the near future. Oh yea Nados a breakfast place had the best jelly filled doughnut every . Well if you can't already guessed it is the small things in life here that make me a happy woman.
After well fill our bags we then try multiples time to track down another bus which is sometimes hard to do because they usually try and over charge us because we a American and they think we have a lot of money, but in reality we only get paid 35,000 shillings a week which is about 15.00 US dollars. To help figure out how expensive things are a bottle of coke cost 1,500 shillings.
The Matatu experience.
So there is no real regulation on how many people can travel in a bus and when I say bus don't think big bus think a 12 passenger van like bus. So when you get in the matatu ( bus) there maybe already 12 people in it so you are squeezed next to someone who usually smells like they have not showered in days. So you get in the bus then the real chaos starts so this bus does not stop when you get there it make multiple stops.
You start going down the road for 5-10 minutes when they pick up more people for the bus so Rashida and I counted 22 people were on this bus with us going down a dirt road at some high speeds where they stop drop off two or three people and then down the road again pick up five more people I hope I am painting an good enough picture for you to see. LOL.
We made it to Katiso.
After beginning drop off in Katiso which is on Lake Victoria ( I have been trying to upload pics but they take super extra long and well I don't want to spend all my limited internet time uploading pics when I can get on youtube and have a laugh. So if anyone has any ideas to help me upload I would gladly take them) we were greeted my the Volunteer Heidi Hall she shows us her town. We hike some high hill and were able to see far out into Lake Victoria it was another great HOLY SHIT I'm in Africa moment. It werid here everything becomes so normal so every now and then i'll get a oh shit i'm in Africa moment. Which is really nice because the days run so short here in training it's get up and go go go go. They do not give us a lot of down time which is good but really bad at the same time.
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