Biking

A housemate from Holland (of course) found a place that rents bikes and we took a bike ride. The business sent someone with us apparently to make sure we wouldn’t steal the bikes (though there were 4 of us and one of him). Riding the dirt roads around Mbarara felt completely different than driving in a car. The day was gorgeous and the scenery spectacular. There was the predictable flat tire- these bikes and tires have been fixed and patched many times- but it turned out there was a man who repaired bikes 10 feet away. Bikes are used for transportation and to carry heavy things- multiple huge matoke bunches, chairs, other bikes. People don’t bike for pleasure here so a string of mostly muzungo bikers was enough to bring villagers out and empty classrooms of children who ran to the road to shout, “Muzungo, how are you?’ to which I answered a minimum of 100 times, “I’m fine, how are you?” We rode through small villages and down obscure dirt tracks through matoke plantations. The downside was that at about the half-way point, the ride became a bit of a struggle for me. I’m not sure what contributed most- the 30 extra years I had on anyone else, simply being out of shape, the substantial hills, the upper 80 degree weather, or the washboard dirt roads. But I made it and my bike-mates kindly waited for me at intervals (and my Ugandan house-mate likened our situation to ‘no child left behind’- humiliating but funny).

Birds

I’ve never been a bird watcher. But then, I’ve never been in East Africa before. I ordered a pair of binoculars after my first trip to a national park. And once I had them, I realized I did want to know the names of the birds I was seeing. So I ordered Birds of East Africa from Amazon on November 16. It arrived January 31 but was worth the wait! (We just got a package addressed to a prior project intern that had been mailed in 2009. The letter is going back to the states with someone who’s leaving; we’re eating the beef jerky but I’m not sure anyone is interested in the jelly beans.) I used to think that the way to see birds was to walk around and find them. I’m realizing that here the better strategy is to sit in my backyard and wait till they fly through. My only photo is of the Ugandan national bird, the crested crane, which I took in a national park. But, if interested, you can ‘google image’ the Ross’s Turaco, Eastern Gray Plantain-Eater, Speckled Mousebird, Double-Toothed Barbet, Gray-Headed Kingfisher, African Cuckoo, and Western-Violet Backed Sunbird - the prettiest of the 32 species that have flown through my backyard.

Children's Songs and Children

My Runyankole progress is not good. I have not been a disciplined student and aside from greetings and simple shop transactions my conversational skills remained challenged. Last week I asked my Runyankole tutor to teach me songs. It turns out that all the Ugandan popular songs on the radio are in Luganda- so not a go. He has come up with two varieties- children’s songs and religious songs (or a combination of the two). So I will share my progress:


Itwe abaana abaato
Kuritulikura
Tudyabo bohango
Kandi balingwa

(When we small children/ grow up/ we will become big/ and strong!- You can march to this one.) And:

Yesu nakund’ abaato, abaato, abaato,
Yesu nakund’ abaato, abaato n’kitwe!

(This is sung to the tune of “Merrily We Roll Along” and means Jesus loves small children…..like us!)

The photos are of the lovely babies of two coworkers.

Helping Babies Breathe

I’ve spent much of this week going to the health centers with Innocent, a nurse who does emergency medical dispatching at the upper level health center and who is retraining staff in a protocol for newborn resuscitation called Helping Babies Breathe (HBB). My task is to support and coach Innocent. HBB was developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, WHO, and others for use in low-resource areas. The goal of the protocol is to help those babies, whether they are misclassified as stillbirths or are recognized as having a heartbeat, who do not breathe spontaneously immediately after birth. Innocent and I have been making sure each of our six health centers has the appropriate, functional equipment (clock, suction bulb, newborn ventilation bag and mask)- which has been a formidable and not quite completed task- and are now making sure that all staff (most especially midwifes) are trained in the protocol and pass the written test, skills check, and simulation. The photos are of the very cool NeoNatalie doll, Innocent, one of the midwives practicing, and one of our health center groups.

The Market

Buying food in Mbarara is a different experience than in Brookline. There is the central market, ‘supermarkets’ (which sell coffee, bread, cookies, oil, rice, pasta,etc.), the dairy (I think it was started by a Dutch man and it sells edam, mozzarella, parmesan-just available after they ran out in October and had to age a new batch-, and feta; it is worth the long, dusty walk), the pork butchers’ (Muslim butchers sell only beef and goat in the central market and the non-Muslim pork butchers are in a separate market; chickens are only sold live), and the wood or charcoal sellers.

The central market is joyful. The fruits (banana, papaya, mango, watermelon, jackfruit, pineapple) are abundant and inexpensive. The vegetables are all sold in groupings that cost 1000 shillings (45 cents)- so that’s usually 5 fresh, delicious tomatoes, a cluster of 5 onions, 4 green peppers, a large bowl of beans, a bunch of dodo (a plentiful green that sometimes grows as a weed), or a bowl of entula (a round vegetable related to eggplant). If you add it up, I could buy all of the above for $2.70. The longer I’m here, the more variety I find in the market; there’s a guy, for example, that gets a shipment of Chinese vegetables on Friday mornings. One of the tricks is getting it home. The huge papayas, pumpkins, bananas, and melons are heavy, the km walk from the central market to home is all uphill, and it is hot, which means a visit to the market most days I’m in Mbarara and a few trips on others. The photos are of my favorite vegetable seller (her display reminds me of the shrine to produce at Whole Foods) and the recently free-range chickens.

Health Day (and Tommy Hilfiger)

The Tommy Hilfiger marketing department was in the village this week. Their foundation donates a substantial amount of money to the project for education and health and representatives from their marketing department plus guests from Elle and Marie Claire magazines came to get photos, stories, and film. We are told they’re putting out a ‘Millennium Villages’ inspired line of clothing with a percentage going to the project. Completely odd but good for both the project and for selling clothes apparently. So watch for slick ads from Ruhiira, Uganda.

I went with them (lots of land rovers) to go to Health Day. Health Day takes place in different locations in the project periodically and is an emporium of health services. The project area is about 200 square kilometers and since villagers live up to 10km from a health center, the Health Days take place in in-between spots. There was a long line of people waiting to see a doctor or nurse and get medications. Next door were counselors to do pre- and post-test HIV counseling with the next door down being the HIV test site. Up the hill there was a room for antenatal care and another with one of the midwives implanting long-acting contraception. There was nutrition training, a room for adolescents to get care, a baby-weighing station, a feeding area for young children, immunizations, and agricultural displays. It was crowded and festive- lots of people getting services they wanted.

Election Follow Up

The election results came out Sunday- 68% for Musevani, 25% for the closest opponent. People seemed to take a long exhale- some with relief that violence was minimal and some with resignation. Stores that had been locked up for days opened- some of the grocery stores had almost empty shelves, presumably in preparation for looting. If Musevani had lost, people speculated that the military would have taken over (and Musevani is the military commander). If it had been close, it is likely that the opposition would have reacted more strongly. International observers gave a pass on the fairness of the elections though cited a heavy military presence as a source of intimidation, use of state funds for the ruling party, and some irregularities. Ruling party supporters felt convinced that the elections were fair. The leading opposition candidate called the observers 'election tourists' and he cited bribery, ballot stuffing, and wiping out voter names. I think that all of the opposition candidates have rejected the election results. They have called for peaceful protests, which people think may not be peaceful. At any rate, if they take place it will most likely be in Kampala, a long ways away from me.

Elections for local leaders took place on Wednesday. In Kampala, there were outbreaks of fighting after opposition supporters found stuffed ballot boxes in transit to the polls the night before the election. There was enough chaos that the elections in Kampala were called off about noon. So, no pictures this week as I've stayed away from fights and armed personnel carriers!