Training Of Trainers

I received an email today from a friend of mine chiding me on my lack of blog posts. Its not that I don't want to update all of you on what I have been up to - indeed I think of you often and want to reach out and let you know that here on the other side of the world (or depending on where you are reading from, maybe only a few hundred miles away), I am happy, or frustrated, enjoying my work or missing my friends. In Nyabyeya however, internet is a luxury we do not have. In fact, electricity to run a computer or spare time to use the internet has been an unthinkable luxury until today!

Being busy has its pro's and con's. Today is only the second day we have had off since the day after we arrived in Uganda (!), and it felt great to sleep in, sit on the porch and journal, shower and do laundry before being picked up at 11 by our CMU driver to head into Masindi for internet, Mzungu food, and a quick shopping. The con of working so much is quite simply exhaustion. We are all tired and yet we never seem to get a break. Now that we have moved into the phase of our project in which the trainers train their counterparts, we are enjoying having our evenings free of lesson planning and team meetings, and instead available for tossing a frisbee, relaxing on the couch, or drinking a beer with friends.


The pro of working so hard is that the participants seem to be really enjoying the training - and getting a lot out of it. I have broken up my health group into 4 small groups; 1)Nutrition, 2)Locally Important Diseases, 3)Hygiene, and 4)Family Planning. Each group is responsible for putting together a session on their topic which they will be presenting to the Agriculture group on Monday and Tuesday of next week. It has been a struggle to get groups to think outside of the box and come up with ways of teaching which go beyond lecture or notes on the blackboard, but with the help of a few really creative and wonderful individuals, we have at least one drama which will be performed!


And so on Monday we will move into phase 3 of the training in which the participants teach one another. It is exciting and also a little sad to see the project nearing its close. I am really hopeful that the information that the participants have gained will help them as they continue to be leaders in their communities, and I believe that the knowledge they are bringing from the training will make a long term impact on the whole sub-county.

Last day before Tomorrow

Today was our last full day in Kampala. Erika is set to arrive tonight at 9:40pm, and she will have less than 12 hours in the country before we set off for Nyabyeya tomorrow morning. The past few days have been busy and fruitful. Yesterday we spend the entire afternoon meeting with facilitator of the agriculture course. I feel that we made progress, but at the same time it was challenging to work with the pedagogy here which highlights lecture, while the focus of a TOT is on practice and participation.

Today, we spent a hot and exhausting day walking through the crowded streets of downtown Kampala, searching for bargains on the many items needed for our project. We will get many of the heavier items in Masindi tomorrow (such as hoes for the agriculture workshop), however today saw bargaining for plates (75 of them!), silverware, washbasins, stationary, photocopies, flip charts, and seeds.

I have heard that the city of Kampala is one of the worst in the world for pedestrians, and it certainly seems that you take your life into your hands every time you try to cross a street. The sidewalks are full of people - open shops stocked with rows and rows of wares from floor to ceiling many times over, colorful people selling peanuts, gum, airtime, socks, (or many other things), young men lounging around on top of the wares they are unloading from lorries stacked high with cardboard boxes tied with twine, big plastic gunny sacks, and the occassional bunches of plantains. Of course there are the pedestrians too - lots and lots and lots of them - women wearing beautiful fabrics, men in suits and soccer jerseys, young women in sharp looking suits or fashionable tanktops (and always wearing high heels), and every other get-up you could possibly imagine. We shove and push and bump into eachother and we make our way down the street, pausing at corners until the coast is (mostly) clear and we can dash to the other side before the endless stream of taxis (public minibusses), boda bodas (motorcycles that carry one or two people on the back for a fee), lorries, busses, and private vehicles continues.

Hopefully, I will get a chance to upload pictures soon. Until then, I will likely be out of internet touch for a bit as we head upcountry and away from the city. The town of Masindi has internet options, but has been powerless for the past three weeks, and we will be working from Monday-Saturday anyway. Much love to all!

No worries

In Tanzania, there were many words to say no worries. The Lion King made Hakuna Matata famous, but there are many other derivations of the same idea. I don't know if there is a word here in Uganda that is used, but the concepot of flexibility around problems is the same. Erika's flight was delayed on Wednesday as she travelled from DC to Brussels, and she did not make her connection in Brussels. Unfortunately, they were unable to put her on the following morning flight through London, so she will now not arrive until Saturday night. I know how much she wants to be here, and I know she must be frustated having to wait at a hotel in Brussels for two nights when she realy wants to be here, getting things moving. She is a strong and independent woman though, and I know she will make the best of her time; exploring the city and enjoying some well earned rest and respite!

Here, we are missing Erika too. We are lucky that Jonah is here in Kampala, and sitting around the table last night and this morning we have been able to work out many details and realize misunderstandings. This afternoon we will be meeting with Ruth, the facilitator of the Sustainable Agriculture portion of our training. It is good to be able to move forward, but we all wish Erika were here to share her ideas and feedback.

Our new lodge is lovely; we have a great little cottage with two bedrooms (with two beds each), a kitchen, dining room, and sitting room, and the campus itself is filled with all kinds of flora and fauna. There are two hostel dogs, as well as a pig, a family of goats, and avocado trees which are home to a large number of vervet monkeys. Outside it is hot and sunny, and we are enjoying the relaxing time before the crazy buziness of the next three weeks begins!

"Nice and Cool"

This morning when we woke up, Sharon commented that it is so "nice and cool" in our room. I vehemently disagreed, "it's hot and muggy!" I pointed out that May in Boston will often get into the 70's or even 80's during the day, but the mornings are still cool sweatshirt weather. She mused thats why there are places like New England - for people like me who like it brisk in the morning. We then proceeded to look at the temperature - 26 degrees at 8 in the morning. After my convenient cell phone converter told us what temperature that is in farenheit - 79 degrees, she agreed perhaps it wasn't so cool afterall. However, to her credit, this morning was much, much cooler than the middle of the day yesterday waiting for public transit (called taxis) to get to Kampala.

We have been staying at a lovely lodge about halfway between Entebbe - where the airport is, and Kampala - the capital of Uganda. Yesterday, we learned that Jonah and his daughter would be driving into Kampala tonight to stay with us and shop for materials for the trainings before we all head up to Masindi together on Friday. With 5 of us staying instead of 3, we decided that today we will move to a less expensive hostel which is closer to the city. We stopped by Red Chilli yesterday, and it seems like a very different atmosphere - more of a backpacker's hostel with lots of young people moving around and hanging out. We will be headed over there later this morning.

view down the road from our Lodge in Lweza

Our trip is going well so far, and we have enjoyed meeting family friends of the Phelps', but we have also been plagued by airplane troubles and missed connections; all of my flights were delayed, including 3 hours on the tarmac in Rwanda because of a damaged cargo door, but luckily it only thing it affected was the amount of sleep I got. Sharon was unable to make her connecting flight in Brussels, and arrived Wednesday morning instead of Tuesday night, sans luggage (we are hoping it arrives on tonight's flight), and after checking on the flight status, it seems that a long delay caused by bad weather in DC and the volvanic ash cloud will cause Erika to miss her flight as well. We are hoping that means she will only be bumped to the flight that gets in tomorrow morning. Still, it means a long 2.5 days of traveling for her, followed by a 4 hour trip by public transit to Masindi.

Good Morning!

Hello from Entebbe, Uganda! I arrived late last night, after a mostly uneventful, but long flight. I arrived to a warm, rainy night, with the chirping of grasshoppers. As we drove along the shores of Lake Victoria, I was dissapointed it wasn't light out to see the water - although the reflection of lights on the water suggest it hasn't vanished.

My travelling partner unfortunately didn't make her connection in Brussels, but luckily was able to get on a flight that arrived this morning. She hasn't arrived at our lodge yet, so I am enjoying a relaxing morning waiting for her to get here. We will then meet up with a family friend and head into Kampala to do shopping and continue making arrangements for our three-week training.

Let the fun begin!

This will be my last post before I leave for Uganda. Thanks to the wonderful support of friends and family, we have reached our fundraising goal of $13,000. Many thanks to all of you! If you haven't had a chance to donate and still want to contribute, please visit the Compassionate Ministries of Uganda website; http://compassionateministriesuganda.org/WordPress/. Any additional funds raised at this point will be used towards supporting our trainers as they bring what they learn out into their communities over the coming year, or supporting members of a neighboring district who were trained last year in building solar powered stoves to bring that technology to Masindi.

I am really excited about the work we will be doing over the next 4 weeks, but that doesn't keep me from being a nervous wreck. The past couple days have been emotionally challenging for me, as the reality of leaving the country; my family and friends - for virtually the rest of the year - has started to become reality. At the same time, I am excited for a new country, a new scope of work, new friendships (and some old), and getting to share it all with YOU - my loyal reader.

Here is my itinerary for the next month:

May 10 (tomorrow) - 3:15 flight. Boston-NYC-Brussels-Kigali (Rwanda) - Entebbe
May 11 - arrive Entebbe, Uganda 9:40pm
May 12-14 - Kampala, Uganda - purchasing supplies and getting additional pages for my passport
May 14 - Travel to Nyabyeya, Masindi District (by bus)
May 17 - 22 - Training of Trainers; Week 1
May 24 - 29 - Training of Trainers; Week 2
May 31 - June 5 - Training of Trainers; Week 3
June 8 - Travel back to Kampala, 10:50pm flight. Entebbe - Brussels - NYC - Boston
June 9 - Arrive Boston, 3:49pm
June 11 - World Cup begins; South Africa v. Mexico - 10am (EST)
and... Jimmy gets married; 4pm

So here we go again. It should be a fun ride, and I hope to take many pictures and update as often as possible. If you are reading, please leave me comments so I know you've been here.

Song of the day: Take a Minute - K'Naan

Boil Order

If you live anywhere near Boston, you know by now that the tap water in most communities around the city is unsafe to drink. If you don't, I'll catch you up - the pipe that brings water into Boston ruptured yesterday morning, and while back-up water supplies are activated, the water hasn't been treated, which means that drinking it, washing with it, or using it in cooking could expose you to harmful pathogens; such as Giardia and E Coli.

And so, all across Boston (and surrounding areas), people are stocking up on bottle water or boiling their own water. What amazes me is the panic this causes. Perhaps panic is the wrong word, because nobody is running through the streets screaming, but as a society we are clearly unequipped to deal with an interruption in our water supply. Most of us don't have large containers or jerry cans to store boiled water in, nor do we have tubs or buckets to allow us to do our dishes with out using tap water.


It is really easy to forget that having clean, potable water piped straight into our houses is a luxury. In 2005, 3.25 billion people - or about half of the word's population - had water piped into their homes. Many of these people had an inconsistent or unreliable supply of water, and for many, the water that did come through the pipes was not treated. Still, water is a necessity shared by every single one of the more than 6 billion people currently inhabiting the planet; none of us could live with out.

As a student of public health, I probably ought to give advice about how to eliminate the risk of disease when you only have access to untreated water, but instead, I'd like to take the moment to be greatful (Really? you ask) for this interruption in access to something we all take for granted. Water is precious - it is one of the most underappreciated resources given to us by mother nature, and it is important that we protect it. So, if you are one of those lucky people in the world who turns on your tap tonight, and has access to safe water to brush your teeth with, take a moment to consider all the people who don't have the same priviledge - 2 million people in Boston included.