This is what I learned from my trip to Africa. There was great, there was good and there was the heartbreaking. But I'm learning to fly. I'm earning my wings. Thanks for taking the ride with me. LG
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers live from Bonnaroo 2006
Learning to Fly
Well I started out down a dirty road Started out all alone And the sun went down as I crossed the hill And the town lit up, the world got still
I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings Coming down is the hardest thing
Well the good ol' days may not return And the rocks might melt and the sea may burn
I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings Coming down is the hardest thing
Well some say life will beat you down Break your heart, steal your crown So I've started out for God knows where I guess I'll know when I get there
I'm learning to fly, around the clouds But what goes up must come down
I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings Coming down is the hardest thing
Absolutely every single person in Africa has their own NGO. And absolutely every single one of those people wants you to hear about their "program".
There is a neighborhood drunk where I work named "Sam". A couple of weeks ago while I was buying a bottle of water, he accosted me with his "program". Everyone with an NGO feels they MUST tell ME about their "program" every time they see me.
The basic tenets of Sam's particular "program" are as follows:
1) To remain drunk at all times;
2) To "do something" for the youth of Kenya/Africa while remaining drunk 24/7;
3) To "do something" for the youth of Kenya/Africa who suffer directly or indirectly from the scourge that is HIV/AIDS while remaining drunk 24/7;
4) To "do something" for the orphans and other vulnerable populations in Kenya/Africa while remaining drunk 24/7;
and
5) For me to finance all of the above, most particularly the portions of these programs that will allow Sam to remain drunk 24/7.
I have left Kapuwai, Uganda and many friends to work for the Arrow Web Hospital in the Kayole-Soweto slum of Nairobi, Kenya. I will miss my many friends from Uganda, but it is time to move on.
I'd like to thank my husband, Charles Grose for this gap year in Africa. I have grown more patient, more understanding and more caring for those who aren't as fortunate as I am. Thanks honey!
The Rolling Stones sang in Mother’s Little Helper the
following words “What a drag it is getting old” and nothing could be truer for me
this morning.There is not enough
caffeine in this world to get me going, but I go on.
I am now in Nairobi, Kenya working for Arrow Web Hospital as a volunteer for the hospital that is in the Kayole-Soweto slum. I don't live in the slum, but in a nice townhouse in Donholm with a couple of co-workers. Nairobi is a far cry in many, many ways from rural Uganda.
My job is to develop a set of spreadsheets that will compile
the information that all 14 of the reports that the Ministry of Health (MOH)
requires the hospital to report, some are daily, some are weekly, some are
monthly, or quarterly or annually.Much
of it is repetitive and the hospital needs something to save time filling out
reports.Hence, I have work to do.And not enough time in the day to get this
done by the time I go home in May, but I will be an Excel wizard when I do go
home.
It is said that time flies when you are having fun, but I
say time flies when you hit middle age.So back to my nested^infinity IF statements and linking cells and
endless compiling the same information repeatedly as my need for more caffeine
grows.
Six weeks into the beginning crochet class, things are going
well.My students are eager to learn and
I have found that I love teaching.The
yarn I had shipped is running out too quickly, but that is a good thing because
it means that my students are practicing morning, noon and night.Some of the students have invested in
battery-operated night lights so they can crochet after dark.Their willingness to learn this skill and
their hope it will bring them and their families a better life weighs on my
mind in a way that gives me vision for what to teach each day.
My students have become a family.They help each other, they love each other,
they support each other.And I love each
woman.I respect their strength, their
openness, their hardships.Every class
meeting starts with shaking one another’s hand around our circle.Most of them follow Ugandan tradition of
kneeling when they shake my hand.I
kneel to them in spirit, because if I knelt to even one of them, I can’t
guarantee that I could get up.I have
told them as much and they laugh with understanding.
Beatrice and Agnes #3 have left their families to come just
to take this course.Beatrice has two
small daughters that she brought with her, Purity and Esther.As a mother, she is experiencing the
heartbreak that Purity (age 5) has sickle cell.In rural Uganda the only treatments available for Purity are folic acid
and pain killers to help her with the pain.Shegets sick easily, but
mercifully she is very resistant to malaria.Her younger sister Esther (age 18 months) is very healthy and a sweet,
sweet child.Beatrice has two other
children that remain at home.Agnes #3
has three children, the youngest is 3 years old.I know that these women are sacrificing so
much to take this class and it is humbling.
Ann Okurut has 4 children, the youngest is about to finish
high school.Christine (Toto #1 – Toto
is Ateso for mother) has 10 children and is expecting her 11th.She is due in September.Irene has one daughter, Mercy, and she is
expecting her second child, due in early October.Teddy #1 is a nurse and the office manager
of the clinic here at PACODET.Teddy #2
is not yet married, but the class jokes about taking her on market day to
Abilla (a village close by) and finding her a boyfriend.Agnes #2 is also unmarried and she is
completing her nursing training here at PACODET.And there is also Benna, Florence (Toto #2),
Phoebe, and Dinnah.
Most of the class has perfect attendance.Phoebe and Dinnah aren’t coming now because
they are newly pregnant and have terrible morning sickness that seems to last
the whole day.They can get caught up
when they are feeling better.
But then there is the Other Ann, Ann Apadet.She is pretty and she is very reserved.I know from my boss Stanley that she has a
very hard life.She has one daughter,
Sharon, and she has said she is expecting again.She said in the last class she attended that
she was one month along.A few weeks ago
I learned that Sharon was born very early, weighing a few ounces at most.Sharon was hospitalized for the first few
weeks of her life and kept in an incubator.Ann’s
attendance in class has been spotty at best and as a result she struggles to
keep up with the class.Her grades are
so low at this point that she will not be able to advance to the Intermediate
class.
This week I found out that Ann had run away from her home
here in Kapuwai.Her husband has been in
Kampala for some time now looking for work.Apparently, her husband called her and his brother answered her
phone.Customs for visiting married
women are different in Uganda.Her husband
asked his brother what he was doing in their home.Words were exchanged.Ann left in fear of what her husband would do
when he came home.If Ann is actually
pregnant, she is in great danger of severe abuse or worse.Ann went to her family home several hours
away. Not many people have considered that Ann may not have had a choice regarding participation in the sex that led to her latest pregnancy.
She is lost to many things now, not the least of which is the
program.If her husband catches up with
her, she will most certainly lose Sharon.In Uganda, children are the possession of the father.I pray her husband will never catch up with
her.
First sentences are always a bitch. No matter how clever I try to be, I usually just sound like an idiot or a jerk. And let's face it, when I'm thinking of what to write in the shower, I always sound more clever than I actually am.
And another thing, writing well is a lot like good taste and a sense of humor. Everyone thinks they have good taste and a good sense of humor, but in truth not many of us actually do. If we are lucky in life, we have many friends who have one or the other, and sometimes we get really lucky and have a friend who has both. Thus, I am not much of a writer; I'm more of a think-out-loud-on-paper type communicator.
So, why Uganda and why now? Many of you may know that for the past four years or so, I have been a volunteer grant writer for the Pallisa Community Development Trust or PACODET. PACODET is located in Kapuwai Village, near Pallisa township, in Pallisa District of Eastern Uganda. PACODET is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that works to improve life for the 60,000+ residents in the area it serves through food security, integrated rural community health services and agricultural/environmental projects and initiatives.
I will spend 7 months on this trip to teach about 12 to 14 women whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS how to crochet. Together we will set up a micro business to sell these items first in the local markets, and later on, hopefully, we will expand upward and outward. I have very high hopes for this project. I want these women to succeed in every possible way and I'm willing to work myself to death to help them achieve that goal.
I leave for Uganda on Sunday, June 8, 2014. Posts to this blog will be made weekly, and some times more often if there is more to share.
