Images of Atiak

                                                   

 

            

     

  

 

 

February 5^th 2012

One month!

A quick hello from Hannah:

This morning we had chocolate mandazi (instead of regular mandazi) and so it felt like a celebration. Our breakfast here is usually some sort of fried bread. Doughnuts galore, who knew! We were thinking this would make Katy and Arnie pretty happy. Otherwise, it’s primarily rice and beans around here. Sometimes cabbage or “bor”’ will make it into the mix. We are drinking up our green drink and vitamin C powder, and savoring the occasional papaya.

We have named our chicken “chocolate chip gelato”. She is black and white and very lady like. I went on a search for ice cream while in Gulu, but alas the spotty electricity makes it near impossible to sell ice cream and  so I went unsatisfied. We are hoping when we eat our chicken on our birthday (we will celebrate February 20^th) it will be as satisfying as a big chicken dinner and cake and ice cream.

February 9^th, 2011

This is Lila:

Yesterday was a great day! We got our first piece of mail: a Valentines Day package from our moms and…Last night we had some unexpected and much loved visitors. Traveling by bike, English Stewart started from the Cape of Good Hope and French Claire and Jeremy have been riding a loop around the continent all the way from their home in Leon, France.

They set up their tents on the lawn at the school that sits adjacent to the birth center. Hannah and I giddily brought cups of passion fruit wine, that we have been saving for a special occasion, smiling cow cheese and a plate of cut up papaya to woo the adventurers.

Stewart is riding a tandem bike and friends and family have been joining him for stretches here and there. As a teacher, he is raising money for a school in Zambia that his own school outside of London partners with. The fundraising is through beyondthebike.org.

Claire and Jeremy have been traveling for eighteen months. We heard amazing stories about them crossing the Sahara in Namibia, which took three weeks, sleeping with lions and getting lost in Ghana and having to smuggle themselves out of the country via river travel. Claire is a music teacher and Jeremy gives talks in America about magic realism to animators and comics. He informed us Yankees bluntly that Americans need this mystical knowledge about medieval times and ancient traditions and castles to make movies like the Chronicles on Narnia and Lord of the Rings from Europeans like him. He was not a specialist or a professor. Was he joking? I am still unsure. They were very happy for the cheese and wine and said it was cheese and their mothers that they missed the most…but I am sure that was a joke. They were certainly a urethral pair.

The night ended with hot chocolate that Stewart generously shared with us and an accordion duo by the lovely French couple (Yes, they were carrying the weight of two full size, wooden accordions, along with a clarinet, on their bikes!) Stewart convinced Hannah to accompany him on the back of his tandem, the two-hour ride to the border the next morning.

They were certainly an inspirational bunch. We were very thankful for a little social spice in our provincial Atiak life. If anyone wants to join me, I think that a ride like that is going to have to be my next trip to Africa!

Work in the birthing center has been going well. I feel like I am adjusting to my new scope of practice. I am glad that it is not quite as busy I thought (knock on wood). I have more time to absorb each of the birth experiences by writing and studying and  I am able to give each individual case more attention. There is time to plan classes for the midwives and for the women of Atiak. Next week I will train the midwives in how to give injections of Pitocin to stop a hemorrhage and suction a baby who is having difficulty breathing. I would have taught a nutrition class to one of the womens’ groups Hannah has been working with today, but just had a women now show up in labor. There were ten births in the second half of January and there have been 3 so far this February. Today, I was asked to name the two new baby girls that came in the night. They are Katy Sofi (the women weren’t satisfied with one name, they wanted two) and Christa Emily. Katy Sofi’s father was so happy with his new baby that he said he is bringing me a chicken tomorrow!

Visits out into the villages for prenatal appointments have been a lot of fun.  We drive the vehicle out to the more distant ‘Parishes’ with a bag packed with all the essential tools and a clipboard full of new prenatal forms. The local midwives mobilize the pregnant women and they line up outside of the empty health units that we have operated out of so far. The first small concrete building was build by CARE, of the Bill and Malinda Gates foundation. Because of the lack of funds and rural location, with few social services, it is difficult to get doctors and nurses to staff these operations. I am glad to bring a flourish of life and promotion of good health to these good intentioned projects. Women seem to wear their best clothes and look forward to the occasions.

February 10th, 2012

Hannah Again:

Yesterday’s class went really well. Lila and I had planned it together and so luckily even though she could not make it, I had a nice outline to work off of.  It ran about 2 hours (I only expected to teach for an hour) and we did overall health, nutrition, and stress reduction. I had the women up playing games, acting, laughing, and it seemed they were really absorbing the information. They had questions at the end and asked me to come back. We have another group class scheduled for this Wednesday and I am really hoping Lila will be able to make it for this one and we are going to plan a follow up class together on parenting.

Also, last Sunday there were 105 kids for the HIV/AIDS program and they loved the first day! I am looking forward to this Sunday very much.

Tomorrow we are training 8 teachers so that they can continue the program in schools here after we have left next term.

In brief,  projects are going well!

The bike ride on tandem to the boarder of Sudan was dusty and delightful yesterday. I was thinking of Kate the whole time. It was a great way to spice up our social life here, tales of adventure and European accents.

Almost A Month

Jan 31 2012

 

This is Hannah – Afoyo! Hello!

 

Different. My first week I kept feeling like I was trying to gain experiences and information so that I would be ready to run. Instead I uncovered the wisdom that one must walk under the hot Ugandan sun. Things are happening. So much is happening. But it is not a buzz (I said in my first entry that my mind was buzzing with ideas); it is a wandering stream. It seems here in Uganda as you meander towards your desired outcomes you must enjoy the papaya and mango trees on the banks and the deepness of the orange as the sun rises and sets. There is no “efficient” path that denies daily life. We are truly mastering chilling. Yup, we are becoming black belts in chilling and yet getting so much done.

 

I took an over crowded bus, bumping and bouncing my way to the city of Gulu to meet Robyn Nietert, President of Women’s Microfinance Initiative (www.wmionline.org), and see a local training on small business development and loan management given to a group of 20 rural women outside of the city. It was incredible! More later…

 

While in Gulu I also went with our co-worker and friend Tura to look at high schools. Tura is 20. He never got to finish high school because of the war and poverty. He has been working at Earth Birth for a year and a half to try and save money for school, but he also has to help pay for things at home. Simple things like soap and sorghum use up most of his earnings. We have decided to use some of the additional fundraiser money to sponsor him to go back to school. If he graduates high school all the way through Senior 6, he will be the first in his family. While in Gulu we choose a school and Tura went into the bank and paid his school fees and came out with a stamped admissions letter and a big grin.

 

I have befriended or been befriended by (not sure which) a man who is a community leader in social change and local projects here. Komakech is soft spoken with petit features. He is a husband, a father, a teacher. He has been influential in starting a primary school here, women’s saving groups, and a program to help orphans and children with only one parent with school fees and school supplies. This program is through Tree of Wisdom (they are online).

 

I have gone to two women’s savings groups and am going to another one tomorrow. The first group I saw was survivors of the 1995 Atiak Massacre and the second was a widows group. They save 500 -5,000 Ugandan Shillings a week (.25 -2.00 $US). The money is put in the middle for all to see and the amount is called out and written down. They can use the money they save for school fees etc. and can take out tiny loans (5,000 – 15,000 Ugandan Shillings/ 2.00 – 7.00 $US) when need be (mostly for emergencies). I am now trying to bring Women’s Microfinance Initiative to Atiak. We would use the bulk of the “projects on the ground” fundraised money to give loans of 100,000 – 300,000 Ugandan Shillings (50.00 – 150.00 $US) to a group of 20 rural women who are serious about starting or expanding a small business. They would get training from WMI. The training I got to see was very fun and interactive. Ugandans always run the training. Most of them are women who have been through the program themselves. Plus Lila and I will be starting nutrition and stress relief workshops with the current women’s groups this week!

 

I also start the HIV/AIDS youth program this Sunday!

 

Tura left for school and his family gave us a chicken as a gift.

 

There is so much more… but our internet access is very limited so I think I should post this while I can.