Mbarara, Uganda

No contract or definite departure date yet, but almost definitely our home for the next two years will be in a village just a few km west of the town of Mbarara which is the main municipality of the Mbarara District. It is located in southwest Uganda (see map in the sidebar). Danny will be working for a primary teaching college in education management. His duties vary and include supporting headteachers and teachers in the district, involving the community in education issues, and developing a resource centre for schools.

Links and maps are in the sidebar.

Mbarara District and Mbarara Town

Population:

• Mbarara Town: 70,000


• Mbarara District: over 1 million

Typical foods:

• Fruits: mangoes, pineapples, bananas (endless varieties), pawpaw, jackfruit, passionfruit, avocadoes, dudhi (melon), oranges, lemons, tangerines. A variety of vegetables are grown as well. Vanilla is a big export product.


• Matoke: a staple dish in Uganda which is a type of plantain banana. It is cooked in a peanut sauce with fish, meat or entrails.


• Stews, beans, smoked or dried fish, beef, potatoes, yams


• Junk food and chocolate can be found! I've been clued in to the ease of finding Pringles, Nutella, and Mars Bars but I will try to ignore them except for occasional treats.

Crime:

• Mbarara Town and surrounding areas seem to be relatively safe. Crime is generally of the type you will find in most cities in most countries--purse snatching, robberies, house break-ins. We are advised not to go out in the dark or travel on roads in the evenings.

Living conditions:

• Electricity is generally available every other day unless you have your own generator.


• Water must be filtered and boiled


• Clothes driers are obviously not used in most homes. All clothing must either be thoroughly ironed or not used or worn for 48 hours. The reason for this is that when you hang your laundry out to dry mango flies will lay eggs on them, which will then burrow into your skin after making direct contact. Ironing will kill the eggs or when left for 48 hours they die on their own. Yuck.


• Toilets. Apparently a flushing toilet is not that common outside of posh hotels. It's considered to be nearly a luxury to have your very own pit toilet. We will be given our own home or flat and will have running water-possibly only from an outside tap, and whether a pit or proper flushing toilet is a surprise we'll have to wait for.


• We will have a refrigerator but will need to limit the amount of times it's opened on off-electric days. There are bottled gas refrigerators which would solve that problem.


• In many areas it is expected that we will give a housekeeping job to a local woman. Hmm... do something good and get a maid!


• Shopping. It seems that Mbarara will have nearly everything we need. If we can't find it there we can probably find it in the capital, Kampala. Street markets will have a huge variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.


• We will have access to the internet and even if it is broadband it will likely remind us of the early days of dial-up connections.


• Mobile phones are common and we will use these instead of landlines.


• Uganda is in the process of switching from analog television to digital.
  

Climate and Critters:

• Mbarara District has a pleasant, tropical climate. Temperatures range between a night-time low of 14C (58F) to a maximum daytime temperature of 30C (86F). Sounds brilliant to me! The rainy season falls between mid August to December and mid February to May.


• Daily applications of sunscreen and Deet are mandatory. It is recommended that we wear light-coloured clothing including 100% cotton loose trousers, long-sleeved loose fitting tops. Wrap skirts or dresses are favoured by women and bright colours are common in many African countries. Wearing shorts by either sex is frowned on unless they are long shorts (3/4 or capri pants). Due to the elevation there aren't as many mosquitoes, but it only takes one to give you malaria. We will, of course, be taking anti-malarial medication faithfully.

Location:

• Mbarara Town is located at an elevation of 1,480 metres (4,850 feet)


• The equator is about 40 miles(?) north of Mbarara Town


• Mbarara Town has a university and several colleges

Republic of Uganda:

• Chief of state: President Lt. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (since seizing power 26 January 1986)


• Independence: 9 October 1962 (from UK) It is still a member of the Commonwealth.


• Capital: Kampala


• Major airport: Entebbe


• Population: approx 30 million in 2007


• Size: 236,000 sq km - slightly smaller than the US state of Oregon


• Religion: Roman Catholic 41.9%, Protestant 42% (Anglican 35.9%, Pentecostal 4.6%, Seventh Day Adventist 1.5%), Muslim 12.1%, other 3.1%, none 0.9% (2002 census)

Landscape, Location, Attractions:

• Uganda's great natural beauty led Winston Churchill to call it 'the pearl of Africa'.
  
• Uganda is in East Africa and straddles the equator.


• The country is bordered by Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo. Lake Victoria forms much of the border between Uganda and Tanzania. See map in sidebar.


• Uganda has rain forests, mountains, lakes and the origin of the Nile


• Gorilla and chimpanzee tracking on guided trips


• Uganda has ten national parks, ten wildlife reserves and seven wildlife sanctuaries, some of which are acclaimed as being amongst Africa's best. The country's main wildlife attraction for foreign visitors is the rare mountain gorilla, found in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, both in the southwest of the country.


• Safaris


• Wildlife: gorilla, chimp, baboon, elephant, crocodile, lion, hippo, giraffe, cheetah, buffalo, and a variety of birds

Language:

• English is the official language of Uganda and is used in government, business and in education.


• There are many tribal languages and we will be learning basic phrases of the language in our area. We can expect that many of the people we deal with in the markets, etc. will not be fluent in English. It also aids us in making local friends and endears us to them when we make an effort to learn their language.

Danger in Uganda:

• VSO does not send volunteers to dangerous areas and if an area becomes dangerous, volunteers are evacuated.


• 99+% of VSO volunteers return home alive and well. The majority of volunteers who die during their placement are due to road accidents.


• Rebel insurgents are in northern, northeastern, northwestern, and western Uganda at the DRC border. The southwest is safe except for occasional trouble at the Rwanda-Uganda border.


• A brief history of the Uganda Civil War.
  

Many people have visions of volunteers as those who go to war-torn areas, areas of extreme famine, or sites of natural disasters. However, we are not with the Red Cross or any other emergency relief organization. Danny will be working for a local employer who provides a reasonable living allowance and housing. VSO provides support and pays for all medical needs for both of us.

More about vaccinations

Today I had jabs for hepatitis A, tetanus, and typhoid. As is always true with tetanus, my arm will be very sore later today. As I recall it feels similar to being hit with a sledgehammer....or what I imagine it would feel like. The typhoid has been the only one which actually was painful while being injected. The jabs I still need to get are my 3rd rabies, 2nd hepatitis B, and BCG (TB), although when we arrive in our country we will need a hep A booster and the 3rd hep B. Next appointment I will also be given the cholera vaccine but it is ingested orally.

Danny is off to Birmingham today for the second training course, so he still has to receive the 3 jabs I got today.

A new British citizen

Today was my British citizenship ceremony. There were 4 speakers, one of which was the registrar whose role was to administer the oath and pledge. I was only allowed 3 guests even though we had a room full of empty chairs, so it was Danny and our dear friends next door, Margaret and Peter.

It was a bit strange.....actually very strange, as the only person being granted citizenship at the ceremony. All the other Americans I know have had large ceremonies, but they are all in large cities.

The ceremony took place in Dunoon Castle in the same room in which Danny and I got married seven years ago.

I am now a dual US-UK citizen, and will have two passports.

Jabs, jags, shots.....immunizations

We've been feeling like pin cushions - 5 vaccinations so far- and no reactions other than sore arms and Danny had slightly swollen glands with one of them. We also had blood drawn for grouping. The requirements for Uganda are:

• Series of 3 rabies
• Yellow Fever
• Series of 3 Hepatitis B
• Hepatitis A
• DPT (diphtheria, polio, tetanus)
• Meningococcal Meningitis
• Typhoid
• Cholera

Since BCG (for TB) was routinely done on children in the UK when Danny was a child, he doesn't need to get one. However, for some reason American children were not vaccinated, so I need to get one. Oh joy.

We've ordered our anti-malarials after quite a bit of research as to which side effects are the lesser of the evils. Any are better than full-blown malaria though.

Our placement has not been definitely confirmed yet. Still waiting, and waiting.....

Courses for Volunteers

Just thought I'd explain about the courses that volunteers and their partners attend as those who are not involved in this process will not have a clue what I'm writing about.

The course we attended last weekend was called P2V - Preparing to Volunteer. This is the first course in a series of courses. All new volunteers must take this course as well as accompanying partners such as myself. It gives an overview of what volunteers do, why and where they are needed, HIV/AIDS, the fear volunteers have that they won't make a difference, an idea of why there is such crushing poverty.....an amount of information that more than fills the 77 page course booklet. There are group activities, case studies, videos, role-playing by the trainers, etc.

The P2V course is not specific to the various professions involved in volunteering. So our group consisted of aspiring volunteers in education, the environment, business, medical, as well as three of us who are non-volunteering, accompanying partners. Some in our group already have definite placements. Countries of placement are Ethiopia, Namibia, Ghana, Viet Nam, and I believe a couple of others including our possible placement in Uganda. Country-specific training does not take place until we actually arrive in our country to begin our placement.

Since I am only asked to attend the above course and the 4.5 hour Health and Security Workshop, I was booked to leave this course early and attend the HSW which was following that same day. This course is the first section of the course called SKWID (Skills for Working in Development) which is for volunteers only. It was nonsensical for me to travel all the way back to Birmingham later to take a 4.5 hour course. Our P2V course happened to end early so I did not need to miss any of that course. A quick lunch and I began the workshop with a whole new group of volunteers.

The Health and Security Workshop was quite informative. It focuses on how to keep yourself healthy while abroad, focusing on clean water, malaria, HIV/AIDS etc. Personal safety was also discussed and how to deal with certain situations and keep yourselves out of danger. I didn't spend much time with this group but all had defnite placements in countries such as Uganda, Guyana, Papua New Guinea, Namibia, The Gambia, Cambodia, Mongolia.....

For those who have been accepted by VSO, you will find the password for the Volzone in your acceptance packet. The Volzone is filled with information such as full course outlines. Go to:
Volzone - Pre-departure - Training and Self-briefing. There are PDF files for all courses.

P2V & HSW courses

Danny and I completed the P2V (Preparing to Volunteer) course this weekend. There was an incredible amount of information to absorb and it was completely exhausting. However, most of us managed to revive ourselves every evening in the on-site bar. I found the format quite effective although the words 'get into groups' began to elicit universal groans after about the 20th time! The trainers were brilliant and my course recommendation was to add a day to the training and to stop earlier in the day. 9:00 am to 8pm was simply too much to cope with. Input overload!

Our group of 18 participants were incredible....articulate, funny, lovely and immensely likable people. Emails have been exchanged and I hope we do stay in touch. I was one of three accompanying (non-volunteering) partners.

As an accompanying partner I am only invited to attend the P2V and the Health and Security Workshops. Since the HSW was beginning just after the P2V I was booked to attend that, and Danny will attend it in combination with the SKWID (Skills for Working in Development) later. So while I dragged my exhausted self into the next course, barely having time for a quick lunch, Danny did research in the library on Uganda.

VSO courses are held in Harborne Hall in Birmingham, an 18th century residential hall and former nunnery. We were given small but adequate rooms, cafeteria-style meals, and there is also a bar on the premises. The only time I left the building at all was to a local pub for a couple of hours one evening. The building has a bit of shabbiness about it with the carpets in need of cleaning, but I found the building to be so full of character I barely noticed what needed improving.

Since our journey home is long and I didn't finish my second course until 6:00 pm, we were booked to stay an additional night. So we are free this evening.