The Day I Got Locked in the Bathroom

Before I share the story referenced in the title, here's an update on life in Abuja. On Saturday night, Teresa and I went to a friend's party. We met a lot of new people and spent time relaxing by a pool. Sunday was a lazy day, but we did end up going to Trivia Night at another friend's house. We had been invited last week and thought it was fun. This week, my team won again! Different team members, but we still won. Maybe I'm a good luck charm. I'm not very good at trivia, so it can't be my contributions that actually help my team win. We did not have to work on Monday because it was Columbus Day in the US. Since we work for an American goverment agency, we get to celebrate US holidays, even in Nigeria. One of our colleagues took us to find some furniture outside of the city. Furniture is extremely expensive here. I think more so than the US, so it's been challenging to furnish our apartment. We picked out a not-totally-flat dining room table and 4 chairs. At least we have something in our living room now! I found a Bikram yoga class here in Abuja- tried it on Saturday and then went again Monday night. I love it! I hope to keep going while I'm here.

Tuesday was our first day of work. These next few weeks will just be orientation and time to get to know the office. It will be good to become more familiar with how CDC works and what projects/programs are going on in Nigeria. It will be different from working in a small NGO that received PEPFAR (the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) money from an intermediary. This money came from USAID originally through a big umbrella grant. Here at CDC, they work more with implementing partners. It's more of an immediate funneling of funds directly to programs. I have a lot to learn!

Now to my story:
Yesterday, I was at work and needed to go to the bathroom. I proceeded to go, etc. Once I flushed, I tried to leave the bathroom stall and realized I could not get the lock to unlock the door. The bathroom stall is not so much a stall but more like a small closet. There is no opening under the door to crawl under to get out. So I realized I was locked into my tiny bathroom stall. Twisted the lock. Nothing budged. Banged on the door. Nothing budged. Threw my shoulder against the door. Nothing budged. Tried yelling "help" and "hello?". No one heard me. More fidgeting with the lock. Nothing. (It brought back memories of when I was little: in the Pizza Hut in Taiwan for my birthday meal and somehow locked myself in the bathroom there.) So yesterday- for like 5 minutes, I am stuck trying to figure out a way to get out of the bathroom. Finally, I somehow turn the lock the right way and the door came unlocked. FREEDOM! In the end, I was not stuck in the bathroom for too long, but it was not my best experience. I told Teresa that next time she needs to come check on me if I've been gone in the bathroom for more than 10 minutes. Evn though I'm not claustrophobic, the idea of being stuck in a small room with a toilet is not exactly my favorite idea of a good time (although, if you do get stuck in a small room, a toilet is probably one of the better options for a companion). Pretty exciting work day, don't you think?

Last Days...

I only have a few days left in Sembabule... in Uganda in general, and I am incredibly sad. The things I will miss:

• Chapati and Rolexes
• My foam mattress and my pink, hole-ridden bed net
• Finding random amphibians hanging out in my room
• Getting away with not showering for a day (or two) because we don't have any water
• The music blasting from across the street (whether it's Ugandan music or a remix of Shania)
• Frying everything and anything we can get our hands on
• Wearing my head lamp
• Tea breaks at work
• My cell phone with its torch (aka flashlight)
• Pit latrines
• All the staff
• Claire
• And much, much more

Things I probably won't miss as much:

• Public transportation
• Getting woken up at 5am by a random cow, goat, or person yelling outside
• Red dust covering everything
• My hair never being actually clean
• Electricity problems
• Internet problems
• Bats hanging out around the pit latrine doors
• Finding ants in my food
• Getting called mzungu every 2 seconds
• The possibility of getting malaria with every mosquito bite I get
• The roads
• There are probably a few other things I am forgetting right now...

I am finishing up handing over my notes, documents, and just about everything related to the last 5 months to Claire and my supervisor. My supervisor is an amazing seamstress and is making the fabric the staff gave me into a dress for me in these last few days I'm in Uganda. I'm incredibly excited to wear it! I'll be heading into Kampala on Thursday and flying out of Entebbe in the middle of the night. Then over a full day later, I'll be landing in Milwaukee!

This experience has been amazing and I have loved every minute of it (even the unlovable minutes).

I love Uganda!

Pit Latrine, Oh How I Missed You

I am back in Sembabule and I have to admit, after being away for a week and a half, I missed it! There is something incredibly homey about my room, squatting to bathe myself, using a pit latrine, enjoying the random power outages and battling with the internet. After using a flushing toilet, it seems a bit easier to just squat, do my business, and just toss the toilet paper down the hole. It skips the pushing lever to flush part! And plus, isn’t it just more fun to be going to the bathroom and see a gecko running across the wall right by your face? Or marveling at the massive number of malaria-filled mosquitoes swarming around your head at night? Or being surprised by the random toad hanging out in the back corner of the latrine? I’d say so. I love Uganda!!! It's pretty hard to believe but I only have about a month and a half left in Uganda. I'm going to miss it after I leave.

Just A Small Town Girl...

Last night, my roommate and I set up our small home entertainment system (which involves a tiny Netbook screen on a stool and the volume cranked up) and watched several episodes of Glee. LOOOOOVE!!! The title of this blog post is a shout-out to the Glee rendition of the Journey song. Now if people here would just break out into song randomly with a band playing in the background, they would make my trip THAT much more fun… Sadly, I am missing the beginning of the new seasons of all my favorite shows while I’m here… Does someone want to DVR my shows for me??????

I have reached the half-way point of my trip!! It’s so insane that it’s already the end of September. Part of me feels like I just got here yesterday, then the other part feels like I’ve been here way longer than under 100 days. In summary, thus far I’ve:

• Tried sugar cane and jack fruit for the first time
• Eaten more chapati than is probably healthy for any human being
• Learned that I am still rather inadequate at lighting matches
• Ridden my fair share of bodas and have not gotten into an accident yet
• Read about 20 books
• Watched a chicken get slaughter for the first time
• Saw a live praying mantis for the first time, only to turn around and accidentally step on it
• Dreamed about pizza at least twice
• Had one nightmare about falling into a pit latrine
• Ridden in a 5 person vehicle with 8 passengers and a driver
• Spent time in 5 different districts of Uganda
• Managed to keep up with writing in my journal
• Mastered washing my hair in a basin
• Stayed within the budget I made for myself before coming to Uganda
• Made some awesome friends
• Not gotten MALARIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wonder what adventures will be in store for me the second half of my time here in Uganda!

I think my new roommate is good luck because we haven’t had any major electricity issues all week. Pretty impressive since I have never had the electricity be this reliable since I arrived in July. For those readers in the USA, please enjoy the fall farmer’s markets for me (apples, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread, banana bread, apple cider, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, everything autumnal…).

Mubende and Soda

Mubende in the morning

I am spending a few days in Mubende again and the photo is the view as I walked from my hotel room to the office this morning. Morning fog, rolling hills, everyone starting their day... gorgeous, right?

My hotel room comes fully equipped with its own self contained bathroom, HELLO FLUSHING TOILET!!! And a king-size bed. I am now committing myself to someday owning a king-size bed for the sole fact that I can do a complete 180 while sleeping! And since I'm back in Mubende, I get to enjoy my favorite Mubende meal: chips and egg. Yay!

Soda in the Uganda makes my life happier. It tastes better than American soda. I think it has something to do with the fact that they use real sugar and they have fun flavors. There are the standards: Coke, Coke Lite, Fanta, Sprite, Pepsi, and Mountain Dew. The unique ones I never seen in the US include:

Krest Bitter Lemon- it’s like tonic water but with lemon added. A Coca-Cola Product.
Stoney Ginger Beer- Not alcoholic, strong ginger taste. Another Coca-Cola Product.
Mirinda- there are many different flavors to choose from. Here in Uganda it’s mostly grape, lemon, orange, pineapple, and the new apple. A PepsiCo Product.
Novida- A non-alcoholic malt beverage. Available in orange and pineapple in Uganda. A Coca-Cola Product. I’ve only ever tried the pineapple.
Alvaro- Another non-alcoholic malt beverage. Available in pineapple, pear, and passion fruit. I’ve tried all three. They’re all great, but my preferred order goes: passion fruit, pear, and finally pineapple. An East African Breweries Limited Product.

After trying every kind of pineapple soda available (as far as I know), my favorite still has to be Mirinda Pineapple. Absolutely delicious. Now if the US could only carry it… And if Alvaro could be something carried in the States, I'd be all over the passion fruit one.

Electricity and Internet... not for long

(Written on Aug 19) I have spent a little over a week in Mubende now, and I am about one fourth of the way done with my time here in Uganda. But today I’m returning to Sembabule. An interesting tidbit for you, it turns out that the Central Region has a HIV prevalence of 9%, which is known to be the highest in Uganda. The coverage of services to PHA and OVC is low in the districts my organization is working in, thus the organization is working with the community to address these gaps in services.


Staying at the regional office has been nice, since there’s an actual house to live in, running water, toilets, and an inverter, which means even if the power goes, we still have power at the office. If only we had an inverter in Sembabule! The internet connection is also ten times better here in Mubende than Sembabule, since it’s a bigger town. The organization I am working at has been experiencing a high volume of staff turnover, and tomorrow the new program manager for the Central Region will be arriving to start working in Mubende. It’s very exciting for everyone at the office, especially since it will alleviate some of the workload my supervisors (one in Mubende, one in Sembabule) have been experiencing. This week I’ve been training the F/CBOs in Mubende to use M&E tools. It’s not too glamorous but is an important aspect of compliance for the funding the organization receives.

My favorite meal in Mubende is definitely chips and eggs, which is strangely only served at dinnertime. (Chips = French fries, for those of you don’t know) I always go to the same restaurant that is down the hill from the office, and now when I walk in, they know exactly what I’ll be ordering for dinner. I’m pretty sure I’m one of the only people who orders this meal, considering that I’m a mzungu, I think that’s acceptable. After I return to Sembabule, no more chips and eggs for dinner! I’ll have to start cooking for myself again…

Off to Mubende

The Ugandan countryside never ceases to take my breath away. It's amazing and beautiful. It's something I highly recommend that you see for yourself and then you'll know what I mean. AND you just have to learn to ignore the terrible roads that give you fantastic ab and butt workouts and that are for stomachs of steel.

Today I traveled to Mubende (District and town), where our regional office is. I will be here for a few days, training people to do data entry in order to help with the monitoring and evaluation of different programs the organization has going. It's a much bigger town than Sembabule; it was one of the original Ugandan Districts before they created new district lines. I'm staying at the office and I am delighted to announce I have running water, a porcelain toilet that flushes, AND a fridge. It's only for a few days, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

Maganda Uganda

As a tribute to my almost trip to the Philippinnes, "maganda" means beautiful in Tagalog. And it is true. Uganda is beautiful. Yesterday I traveled to the site where I will be living from now on. The drive passed through the Ugandan countryside which is amazing. Green trees and rolling hills make for gorgeous scenery. The drive was typical of Africa, but brought a smile to my face anyway. Most of the way, we traveled on a one lane, dirt road that fits a vehicle comfortable. Now if you see another car coming at you from the other directions, it is quite a squeeze to bypass each other. There are bumps and then there are speed humps. Yes, humps. They are American speedbumps on mega steroids. They are intense to drive over and make sleeping nearly impossible unless you can sleep like the dead. Also there are holes everywhere. Therefore drivers swerve to miss the giant ones and just drive over the small ones. Drives here are always an adventure. I have learned this: drink as little water as possible- bathroom breaks are difficult to come by; try not to eat anything- better to feel hungry than to get carsick and vomit on the side of the road. I finally arrived at Ssembabule last night, a fairly remote town about 4 hours away from Kampala that sits at the top of a hill.

I have my own room in the enclosed office compound, which is rather nice because I got to truly unpack for the first time since I've been here. I finally dug out my sunscreen! And impressively nothing exploded in my bags except for my shampoo. Good thing my mom was smart and wrapped everything in individual plastic bags! Thanks Mom!! We don't have a refridgerator, so I drank an entire quart of juice last night that needed to be refridgerated after opening. Finding out how to live without a refridgerator will be quite interesting. I'll just have to be creative! There is no running water here, but I got a jerry can full of water to bathe with and to use for any other needs. We have pit latrines to use, which make me smile. They are an adventure to use. The ones here are pleasant smelling, which was a fantastic surprise.

Today is Day 1 in Sembabule. I had chapati and fresh passionfruit for breakfast. Chapati is just fantastic. It's essentially dough that is rolled flat. Sort of like Indian naan but thinner. Fresh, hot, and delicious. I sat at the front of the office and ate. I got to watch all the children walking to school and became the main attraction. "Mzungu mzungu mzungu!!" I just waved and smiled. Today at the office, I have been copying Luganda by hand on about 100 sheets of paper. We printed about 700 registration sheets for OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children) to be used for our project, but they didn't print correctly. Thus I am filling in the missing information by hand. I have severe writer's cramp, so I'm taking a break and am able to use the internet.