counting

I learned to count to 10 in Lwo. The building blocks, the ABCs--I am a toddler now. Wide-eyed, curious, asserting an independence that I have not earned.

1, Acel

I can do my laundry by hand now and I have done it exactly once. It takes two bins--one for soaping, one for rinsing. My wrists ache as I wring out each item and carefully hang it to dry.

2, Aryo

I have eaten two restaurant meals by myself since being here. I had chicken and potatoes once and rice another time.

3, Adek

Dek means food. I think Adek is three because you eat 3 times a day (in theory).

4, Agwen

The number of books I have read since being here.

5, Abic

The oranges in Uganda are green.

6, Abicel

I never feel very clean, but taking a bath in a bucket is ok now. I brace myself for the cold water I pour over my head. Some days it feels like my personal form of torture. Other days it feels very normal.

7, Abiro

The number of people who work in my office. Mostly very nice men who care a lot about how much tea/coffee I am (not) consuming.

8, Aboro

The number of mosquito bites on my left arm alone.

9, Abungwen

By 9pm, I am usually reading in bed.

10, Apar

My walk to work takes about 10 minutes. It is the time that I feel most present in my life here.

“it was there before you noticed it.”

In the mornings I walk to work. The road is red dust and it cakes into my fingernails so deep only scrubbing a load of laundry gets them clean again. The road is lined with round traditional homes, businesses selling odds and ends (and airtime), the occasional cow, and notably, people. I feel shy and awkward walking to work, surrounded by children walking themselves to school, precious in their uniforms. We exchange the obligatory “hello, how are you” and some children respond, and others look away (a completely tangible mix of wonder and fear on both of our parts). Sometimes I try out my greetings in Lwo: I say Kopango, meaning hello/how are you. The response is Kope, meaning I am fine. My conversations usually don’t sustain much longer than that.

The quote in the title of this post is from the book “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” by Alexandra fuller. Appropriately, this book is a memoire of a British woman who spent her childhood and adolescents living with her farming family in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi. The subject of the quote, if you did not assume, is poverty.

There is poverty in Pader. There is poverty in Uganda, in Africa, and the world. It is a global reality tied up in complex systems of power and paternalism and globalization and indifference. Poverty is not simple. Money certainly won’t fix it. (and capitalism definitely won’t). Access, equality, human rights, education, innovation, and infrastructure just might.

Before Pader was in my vocabulary, before Uganda was on my radar, before Africa was part of my geography, these places existed.

And poverty, too, was there before I noticed it. And honestly, it will still be here after I am gone. My ability to perceive poverty, to take notice, does not validate its existence or make it any more real than it was before (especially for those who know it most intimately). But now it is a part of my reality (and responsibility), too. It is part of my humanity.

reality

When I was four years old, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) began kidnapping children in northern Uganda. When I was eight years old, thousands of families in northern Uganda were being relocated to internally displaced peoples camps (IDP camps). By the time I was eighteen, more than 95% of Pader's citizens had been forced from their land and into crowded IDP camps.

I am 23. The insurgency and terror in Northern Uganda lasted for as many years as I have been alive. People are talking about peace, development, and change now. Bravely, people are moving home in order to face their new realities living in a post-conflict region.

In a small way, I am also facing a new reality. I don't know anything about what public health or development or gender equality means in a post-conflict society. I don't know anything about what it means to live through 23 years of fear, challenge, or marginalization.

I hope I can learn.

up north

Orientation and training in Kampala was a whirlwind. I learned so much in such a short period of time, that I am still processing the details. It was wonderful and fulfilling to get to know the other people who will also be volunteering their time and skills in Uganda and Kenya through AJWS. We are a diverse group with varying experiences, motivations, and interests, but all of us are eager and excited to become a part of something bigger than ourselves; to act as catalysts for global change in solidarity with the organizations that are hosting us.

Yesterday I moved up to Pader, Uganda. It took nearly 8 hours to get here from Kampala and in many ways feels like a different country. Pader is small—one commercial street, a small market, and overall has a very rural feel. I am excited to learn more about this community, as from what I understand it has grown out of a former IDP camp. Before the war in Northern Uganda fizzled out a few years ago, Pader district was subjected to much violence. Peace feels somewhat precarious here, but of course I have no true basis to back that feeling up. I have found everyone to be very friendly, but shy. Whereas in Kampala many people would say hi to me because I look different, people here seem quieter and more reluctant. I wonder if that has anything to do with the way development work has been approached in this area. There are many NGO signs, though most are gone now. The organization I am working at is located in the WHO’s former office. I know because the sign on the gate is still there.

It is the weekend now, and according to my counterpart, the town is mostly empty over the weekends. People work here at NGOs during the week, and then disperse to Gulu and Lira for the weekends. It’s an interesting dynamic, but right now I am just observing and trying not to place any expectations on my time here. (trying, trying, trying).

I am staying in a guest-house which is basic, but adequate. I seem to have running water sporadically. There is a sign in town that says something like “USAID groundbreaking water project!” It’s so interesting to see signs with familiar development organizations on them. For better or worse, everyone wants credit for their contributions, I suppose. It bothers me, but I haven’t totally figured out why yet. I will keep you posted!

It is very hot and dry here. Before I arrived the only description of Pader I saw was “dusty.” While I agree with that depiction, I hope by the end of my time here I will have additional insights to share! It is lonely here, but I think that it will improve as I meet people/feel more comfortable being alone.

My motivations for working here are varied, with some being more altruistic than others. I haven’t deluded myself into believing that my presence here makes any difference to anyone but myself. I want to learn and if in the process I also teach, I will be satisfied. I am trying to think of ways to measure success, because my old paradigms will not get me very far in this situation!

*A note on pictures and why there aren’t any in this blog (yet). I have a strong feeling that photographs, though powerful, can be exploitative. It seems rather voyeuristic for me to take a photo of my town and show you just how different it looks from your town, before I even know this place. Similarly with photographs of people—showing you a photograph of a stranger is not productive. It only gives a false sense of connection. Anything I could show you would be grossly out of context. When I am more comfortable here and am able to accurately (though still biased by my own perspective) present my surroundings, I will show pictures.

if anyone has questions, I’d be happy to try and answer them.

mjb

arrival

For all those patiently wondering, yes, I made it Uganda! I got in on Friday morning after a very long journey, but I was immediately energized by being here. I was picked up from the airport by the hotel and driven out of Entebbe and through Kampala, to the small town outside of Kampala that I am staying at this week. That drive put me in complete sensory overload as I began to re-understand what a developing world city means. Livestock on top of vans, traffic, slash and burn agriculture, smells of smoke, crazy driving (Kampala beats any city I saw in South Africa in that department!) Kampala is chaotic, but interesting. I wish that I had more of an opportunity to spend time there, because I am sure that with time the chaos begins to makes sense. There is always order, even if it's not clear at first glance.

Last night I slept under my first bednet. I still managed to get several mosquito bites. I wonder if I missed that day in public health school where we learned the practical skill of bednet-use? Anyone?

I have met several other volunteers who will be throughout Uganda and Kenya. Unfortunately, none of them will be very close to where I am going to be living way up north (none closer than 2-3 hours, anyway). I am excited about going so far away, but also completely terrified. I hope that I am able to handle the isolation of living in a small town, essentially knowing no one. I think that I will learn so much through this challenge, but I can't lie and say I am not a little scared. I am reminding myself that my trepidation is normal and reasonable, but I still have to fight through it. These feelings plus the jet-lag (yes, I am awake at 5am) are keeping things interesting.

So far I have gone into town several times to pick up the essentials--modem for internet, phone and sim card, etc. I feel like kind of a dork needing all these things, but I guess that is my new reality!

This week there is an orientation where we will learn, among other things, a few cultural dos and don'ts, how to build the capacity of the NGOs we work with, and how to ensure the sustainability of our work in Uganda. These topics are very important to me, so I am excited to learn more. Later in the week the head of the NGO I am working with will be here, and I am excited to meet her and ask her about 1.67 billion questions. Let's just hope I remember them all!

I will check in later in the week.

mjb

this time in Uganda

Who am I:

I am currently a Master's student at Tulane's school of Public Health and Tropical medicine in New Orleans, where I will earn my MPH degree in International Health and Development. I graduated from Beloit College in 2010, where I was first introduced to public health as an academic discipline and career choice. As an undergraduate I traveled to South Africa and Nicaragua to enhance my education in the liberal arts and global public health. Somewhere along the way public health became way more than just what I was studying... it is something I could talk about literally alldayeveryday. It became the lens through which I see the world.

Beginning tomorrow I will officially be enrolled in my public health practicum at Tulane as well as a member of the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) Volunteer Corps in Uganda.

To orient you:

Uganda is a country in East Africa that borders Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and (Southern) Sudan. Although Uganda has a tumultuous past, it has been relatively stable and secure in recent years. In public health it is best known for its (almost miraculous) ability to lower its HIV rate from around 15% in the 1990s to around 6% currently. Although HIV is still a major public health problem in Uganda, it is generally seen as a success story in sub-Saharan Africa.

(http://research.ncl.ac.uk/reimpact/Uganda.htm)

Uganda is a developing country with a Human Development Index (HDI) ranked 143 out of 169 countries scored. Uganda is a PEPFAR country, meaning that it receives monetary aid from the US state department for HIV prevention and treatment. The current president of Uganda is Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986.

During my time in Uganda I will be living in Pader district, which is located in Northern Uganda, east of Gulu (Uganda), south of Sudan, and north of Lira (Uganda). Pader has been deeply impacted by the conflict in Northern Uganda, but has enjoyed relative stability for the past few years. Northern Uganda is currently considered a post-conflict region, which has many complex implications for public health and development in the region.

My dual role:

As an MPH student at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, my goal is to further my public health education and skill-set through immersing myself in public health and development abroad. I hope to gain a better practical understanding of what it means to live and work in a developing country as a citizen of the United States with a bilateral NGO. I will engage myself in a local community based organization so that I can better understand the contexts of poverty, culture, and politics that produce health outcomes of populations. More specifically, I will hone my skills in programatic research and application, as well as practice my monitoring and evaluation (M&E) skills within a limited resource context. Full disclosure: I will be earning credit for this experience towards the Practicum requirement that the MPH in International Health and Development at Tulane requires.

As an AJWS volunteer my goal is to help alleviate some of the burdens of limited resources in a developing country NGO by offering technical skills and assistance where I am able. Secondarily, but equally as important, I hope to engage the Jewish communities that I am a part of in what it means to promote social justice as a Jew. This blog will help fulfill that goal. It is my intention to bring my experience in Uganda back to the Jewish community in the United States through outreach and mentoring. Certainly one does not have to be a Jew to be involved in social justice and Tikun Olam (repairing the world), but my Jewish identity is deeply intertwined with service and my passion for public health and development.

The American Jewish World Service mission statement:

"American Jewish World Service (AJWS) is an international development organization motivated by Judaism’s imperative to pursue justice. AJWS is dedicated to alleviating poverty, hunger and disease among the people of the developing world regardless of race, religion or nationality. Through grants to grassroots organizations, volunteer service, advocacy and education, AJWS fosters civil society, sustainable development and human rights for all people, while promoting the values and responsibilities of global citizenship within the Jewish community."

Well, there you have it. Tomorrow I will embark on a seriously long journey through LA and London to Entebbe, Uganda. Upon arrival, I will spend about a week in Kampala getting oriented and preparing for my departure up north to Pader, Uganda, where I will live and work for the next six months.

I plan to update this blog when I can. Thanks for taking this journey with me.

mjb