Final Reflections

It seems like just yesterday I was first preparing for my trip to Uganda. I remember having so many different ideas about what this year would be like, most of which ended up being completely off the mark. As much as you can try to prepare yourself for an experience such as this, eventually you just have to make the jump and see where it takes you. So now, one year later, I'm back home in America, trying to reflect on how these past ten months have impacted me, what I learned from living in Uganda, how my experience has shaped me and changed my outlook on many different issues facing our world today.

Living in a foreign country, in a small community, with none of the comforts I have grown up accustomed to being surrounded by in the U.S., proved to be a very difficult experience. I tend to think of myself as someone who is capable of "roughing it," but it was still tough. That being said, the hardest part about my experience in Uganda was being constantly labeled and identified as an outsider. Growing up on Bainbridge Island, and then attending the University of Illinois, I had never really encountered issues of race before. I have always been very sheltered from racial tensions, and this was the first time that I not only experienced race playing a huge role in my day to day living, but I also experienced being the minority, something I probably never would have experienced had I continued to live solely in the U.S. While the people whom I encountered never had malicious intentions concerning racial issus, the racial divide in Africa does carry very strong stereotypes. Disproving those stereotypes, or even trying to have a simple conversation about them was nearly impossible, as people simply couldn't believe that just because someone is white does not mean that they have a lot of money, or that the job market in the U.S. isn't easy to break into, or that the economy is struggling and the price of commodity goods worldwide is increasing. It was hard to try and convince people that there are problems all over the world, not just in Africa.

So that was the toughest part, trying to break these misconceptions that Africans have about the world, and about me as a white person. But the more time I spent in Uganda, the more I realized that I was learning just as much about their culture and the plight of Africans as I thought I was teaching them. I wish that I could say that I walked away from this year feeling good about the direction that the world is headed, that all of these aid organizations are really making a difference. But I can't say that. The world is messed up. People are running away from their homes because of civil wars that have been dragging on for years, seeking asylum in countries that don't really want them there and aren't shy about admitting that. Families with ten kids can get relocated to the U.S. by UNHCR and receive monthly stipends for up to six months upon arrival, at which point the parents are expected to have found jobs. Americans are having tough times finding jobs within six months, how can we expect these refugees who speak limited English and are dropped into a culture that is so radically different than what they have ever experienced to find jobs in six months? Sure, they'll take the jobs that no one wants, hotel maids, taxi drivers, etc. But then how do you support ten kids on the small salaries gleaned from those kinds of jobs? In the long run, is the UN really helping these people, or just making life more difficult for them? The only benefit to this whole process that I can identify is that the kids of those families will be exposed to a better education in the U.S. than they ever could have hoped to receive at home in Africa.

And really, that's the only way out, the only way to break the cycle of poverty that grips an entire continent. Education. The education system in Uganda is so inadequate. However, the small minority of children who push themselves, and read books outside of class, and truly do have a hunger for knowledge, they are the only ones who will have the chance to change their circumstances. Unfortunately it is hard to find kids like that in a culture that doesn't encourage intellectual curiosity, in a culture where it is totally acceptable for a kid to drop out of school for good in sixth grade simply because the family either doesn't have the money, or doesn't think it's important enough, to continue paying school fees.

As I look back on my experience in Uganda though, while I am confident that I learned a lot, the best part of this past year has been the relationships that were formed. True, it was tough living in Africa for ten months. However, had I not been there for as long as I was, then I wouldn't have gotten to see Eddy break out of his shell. When we arrived in August, he was a quiet kid with a stutter who was scared to even catch us looking at him. Upon our departure in June, he had become a leader, was at our house daily, and was constantly chatting with us and his friends.

If I hadn't roughed it for ten months, I wouldn't have seen Nalule write out her dream of becoming a professional footballer and the steps she would have to take to get there. She grew from being one of the slackers, always trying to cut corners at practice, avoiding fitness at all costs, to being a captain. To setting the bar for her teammates and talking excitedly about how she was going to achieve her goal. The last two months I was there, I didn't have to remind her once not to slack off, because she was now setting the tone. She was asked to join an elite girls team in the area, and she might be eligible for a scholarship to secondary school next year to play for the girl's football team.

And if I had only been there a short time, I wouldn't have seen the transformation that Charles experienced. When I first met him, he was a gangly, socially awkward kid at Lubugumu Primary School. He didn't have any friends, and was often picked on because he is a Sudanese refugee, but he loved playing football. We helped transfer him to HOPE Primary School so that he could be in classes with other refugee students and wouldn't be viewed as such an outcast. He never missed a training session, and since his house was near the Youth Center, he was always hanging around, participating in every activity that we had. Soon, he had made many new friends, and could always be seen with a huge smile plastered to his face.

These are just three stories that I will carry with me and cherish for the rest of my life. I learned so much about the world this past year, but what I value the most was taking the time to actually learn the stories these kids have to tell. To really invest in someone else, to give of myself and to figure out how to help and inspire these kids to be confident and chase after their dreams. I do believe that I am more empathetic and compassionate towards people who are struggling than I was a year ago. I have always believed in the quintessential American dream, that if you work hard, you'll earn what you deserve. I still believe in that, but I've also realized that the world and its problems fit mostly in the gray area, and not as much in the black or white.

So, to wrap up, I want to say thank you to everyone who has read this blog over the past ten months. Thank you so much to my family and friends who have supported me financially, and especially emotionally, this past year. I have been so blessed by family and mentors and friends at home who have cared enough about me to invest in my life, and I really tried to do the same for the kids that I worked with in Uganda. As I close the door on this chapter of my life, I look forward to what comes next, and I know that everything I went through, observed, learned, and felt while living in Uganda and working with, playing with, and loving the kids there will forever impact the person who I am becoming.

The Top Ten Lists

As my time here has started to really wind down, I've been reflecting on the past ten months and everything that I have experienced. While I'm not quite ready to post the serious, sentimental blog that highlights what I've learned, I will post my top ten lists of things that I will miss about Uganda, and things that I definitely will NOT miss.

Top 10 Things I Will Miss:
1. The KIDS!!! Saying goodbye to them will be the hardest part about leaving. They are incredible kids and it is so tough leaving, not knowing if I will ever get to see some of them again.
2. Boda boda (motorcycle taxi) rides-simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating, but awesome nonetheless.
3. Kikomando-beans and chapat, my go-to meal here.
4. Super cheap taxi rides
5. Mangoes!! Best fruit ever!
6. The cost of living-everything is so cheap, and now I am returning to crazy high gas prices, great.
7. The stars at night, not having electricity consistently makes for some great star-gazing.
8. Watching English Premier League games every weekend! Especially since Man. U won the league this year.
9. The scenery on my daily morning runs. Truly beautiful.
10. The outdoor markets. They are crazy and chaotic, but also vibrant and entertaining!

And now...

Top Ten Things I Will NOT Miss:
1. Washing my laundry by hand. Never again will I complain about doing laundry in the states again, even if I have to go to a laundromat.
2. Taxi rides-getting jammed into a van with fourteen other adults, most of whom do not wear deodorant, is not all its cracked up to be.
3. Power outages. The headlamp Adam gave me for my birthday was clutch.
4. Building a fire out of charcoal and plastic bags. I will also never complain about cooking in the U.S. again.
5. Red dust-I am clean for about five minutes each day until I step outside. Thus my intense hatred for washing my clothes.
6. Being called "mzungu," especially by the people whom I see every day. Yes, I am still white, just like I was when you saw me yesterday.
7. Cold showers-although I must admit, my bathing speed increased dramatically over the past ten months. I am in and out.
8. Lack of a fridge. I miss left-overs.
9. Internet cafes-not a fan of skyping and having everyone in the room privy to my personal conversation.
10. Jerks who like to make crude comments towards me or run alongside me when I'm running.

Uganda has been full of ups and downs, I just wanted to briefly share a few of the highlights and downfalls of life here.

And Just Like That, the Holidays are Over

When we were first staring down the five-week holiday break the kids got from school, it was rather daunting. Five weeks meant A LOT of kid time every day, which is great, but definitely overwhelming. Now that the holidays are over, I can't believe how quickly it passed by. While there were indeed a lot of long, chaotic, and stressful days, overall our program during those five weeks was a huge success. We saw a lot of new faces at the youth center, averaging about 50 kids each day, and about 100 different kids showing up over the course of those five weeks.

Originally, we grouped everyone together for football training each day. However, we quickly realized that it was way too many kids for four of us to handle at once, and the effectiveness of the trainings really dropped. We decided to separate the older boys from the rest of the kids who attended and offer them an earlier training session each day. I chose to run this session and train the team of older boys, and it ended up being my favorite part of the holiday program.

While the younger boys and the girls who attend football love to play and have a fun time doing so, they can't really grasp any drills that are a bit more complicated or serve a purpose other than scoring a goal. With the group of older boys that I worked with though, they were able to understand more complicated drills, and participate in them at a much higher speed and with greater proficiency. Working with them marked the first time I felt like I was actually training a real team, and our training sessions each day really energized me and reinforced the reason I love coaching.

Not only was the football aspect of working with the older guys great, but I really enjoyed getting to know them as well. Some of them are a bit rough around the edges at first, and I think they were very skeptical of having a female coach, but as the break wore on we gained each others trust and respect. A few of the kids whom I had been wary about and thought might try to steal gear from us ended up being great kids. A few of them actually took it upon themselves to track down thieves who had stolen from us before and were able to return some of the gear. Others still chose to help us coach the later sessions with the younger kids and girls. It was so satisfying watching these guys grow and develop not only as players, but also as participants in SWB over the course of the five weeks that we worked with them. I really hope that many of them continue to attend our programs as the second school term kicks into gear.

So, now I am facing only two weeks left in Uganda, which I can barely believe. I am definitely ready to come home to the states, but I'm glad that we had such a positive experience with our holiday program prior to my heading home. While those five weeks were somewhat of a whirlwind of activity, these last two weeks here will pass by a bit slower and I'll have more time to reflect on everything that's happened over these past ten months. Only a few more blogs to go!

Samuel's Story

After having lived in Ndejje for almost nine months now, we have gotten to know many families on a personal level and have learned their stories over time. Since the community in which we work is made of largely of refugee families, many of their stories are touching, inspiring, rather unbelievable. I've been impressed time and again of the resiliency of the kids with whom we work, but today I am going to write about a young man who is the older brother of four kids who attend Hope School and with whom we share a close relationship.

Samuel is twenty-one years old and is the oldest sibling of five. His four younger siblings are Jaelle, Asheal, Jeledi, and Abigail, whose ages ranges from about 6-13 years old. The family hails from Burundi, and they have been living in Uganda for over a year now, after having spent time in Tanzania and Rwanda. When Samuel was sixteen years old, his mother was slaughtered in front of him and his four siblings with a machete. His father was thrown in prison, whether it was before or after his mother's murder we are not sure of. Both his mother's death and his father's prison sentence were a result of racial tensions in Burundi that had spilled over from the conflict in Rwanda. Since these events took place, Samuel has been the sole guardian of his siblings.

At the ripe young age of sixteen, Samuel accepted the responsibility of caring for his family, and quickly sought to get them out of Burundi, seeking refugee status in other countries. He succeeded in doing so, and his family has been on the move ever since, accepting asylum wherever it has been offered. After having given up any sort of normal teenage life, Samuel has been the only breadwinner for himself and his siblings. He has managed to provide them with a small one bedroom house which he pays rent for each month and daily necessities such as food, which is more than many other two-parent households are able to provide for their own children, regardless of whether or not they are refugees. As of right now, Samuel holds a night-shift at a local hotel, diligently showing up for work every evening at ten and working until about six or seven the next morning. He then comes home and sleeps for a while, before waking up to help with chores around the house and to spend time with his younger siblings.

The reason that I wanted to write about Samuel is because I am so impressed by his maturity at such a young age. So many people here ask for handouts from us all the time. Samuel has never asked us for anything, despite probably needing it the most. He is an incredible, incredible person who doesn't appear to begrudge his lot in life, and continues to work hard for a better future for his siblings. And not only does he put food on the table and provide a roof for his family's heads, but he also focuses on spending quality time with his younger siblings and takes an interest in what is happening in their lives.

He is currently working on finding a way to move his family to Australia, Canada, the U.S., or the U.K. through a refugee relocation program. While he has run into roadblocks thus far, he remains undeterred and is so committed to bettering his families opportunities. It seems as though the kids might actually have a better chance at being relocated or even adopted if he is not in the picture, so he is now willing to remove himself from the equation if it means that his siblings get to leave Africa. I have never met anyone who demonstrates that level of selflessness.

The other interns and myself are going to try and help Samuel with the relocation process through the Refugee Law Project and possibly UNHCR. Samuel has raised some incredible kids who are bright, polite, and happy children, despite everything they have witnessed and been through. He may well be the most amazing person I have encountered in Uganda, and I hope that some of you who read about him are as inspired as I am by his story.

Unity...And Other Craziness

So much has happened over the past week, and all of the craziness just confirmed my belief that you can never be surprised by anything that happens in Africa. I will start first with the good stuff.

Our program at the Youth Center has been taking off since the holiday break began. We have had upwards of 50-60 kids attending our football training sessions each day, and many of them come for the regular programming at the Youth Center prior to trainings each day as well. Our theme over break is "Unity" and we are modeling our teaching points off of a camp that SWB has run at its site in Nicaragua. We have split all of the kids up into about seven teams, with one team captain per group. Over the next few weeks we will have different competition amongst the teams for which they can win points. The competitions will range from games on the soccer field to spelling bees to scavenger hunts and the kids can earn points for their teams by winning at different tasks or by gaining attendance points each time they come to a program. The kids are really excited and will get to choose team names and decorate their poster this Monday.

The other interns and I are also excited for the Unity competitions, as it will be a nice change of pace from the programming which we have done in their classrooms. The organization of the kids into different teams reminds me of the TAG teams I had for summer training in college and the different tasks we faced as a team during pre-season. While we won't be implementing any early morning breakfast clubs or karaoke sing-alongs, the concept is essentially the same, and I've really enjoyed brainstorming different ways to get the kids excited about the concepts of unity, cooperation, spirit, and confidence.

In other news, I barely escaped being deported by the Ugandan Immigration Authorities, and the post-election riots that we were expecting in February finally occurred in Kampala, two months later...so right on African time essentially. First allow me to explain the deportation debacle.

Last fall, Adam and I didn't bother to renew our tourist visas which expire after three months. As we were catching our flights home for Christmas, we got scolded rather sternly at the airport for having stayed in Uganda on expired visas, so this time around I figured I should go to the trouble of getting mine renewed. So, two weeks ago Adam and I went to the immigration office and submitted our forms and our passports, requesting that our visas be extended. SWB is not officially registered as an NGO in Uganda, so we have been here on tourist visas this entire time. Well, Adam returned to pick up his visa on Tuesday, to find out that he had to go in for questioning and was ultimately denied an extension because the immigration officer didn't believe that he was truly a tourist. He was told that he had two days to leave the country or pay a $30 fine for every additional day he was here. The immigration officer also refused to return his passport to him. Nervously, I went to the immigration office on Wednesday, prepared with an elaborate story about my tourist activities in Uganda, should I be taken into questioning. Amazingly, the immigration officer returned my passport to me, with an extension, for free, and told me to have a nice day. I couldn't believe my luck! So now we are working with a lawyer to try and get Adam's passport returned and the fine per day reduced. So, hopefully, everything will be worked out within the next week or so.

Now, as for the riots. The politician who lost to Museveni in the presidential election, Besigye, has been causing mayhem since February. It finally came to a head last Friday, as some police officers roughed up his car a bit and sprayed him with tear gas during a demonstration. Lots of misinformation made its way down the line and many of Besigye's supporters flocked to cities all over Uganda and began rioting. There were large riots in Kampala, as people tried to burn down the main police station and set fires in other areas of the city as well. We have stayed in Ndejje for the past few days, but have managed to get reports from different friends concerning the ebb and flow of the riots. Things have calmed down now, but there are still rumors of more riots taking place at some point. It has been so interesting having lived in Africa this year, watching one dictatorship after another be toppled, or at least challenged. It really has been a ripple effect, and it looks as though Uganda could be next in line...

The Holiday Program

The first term for primary schools in Ndejje has finally drawn to a close and the kids have all officially started their five-week break. The holiday breaks are much more enjoyable for us because we have so much more access to the kids than we normally do during their school year. As such, we now have programming at the Youth Center, as well as football training almost daily.

While I enjoy the different activities that we do at the Youth Center itself, the thing I look forward to the most each day are the football trainings. I love coaching the kids, and even though we have a hodge podge of ages and talent levels in attendance, the kids who come consistently form a really great group of players to work with. They are accustomed to Ugandan coaches simply tossing a ball out onto the field and then just having them play a match, so when we introduce new games and drills to them to break up the monotony, they really get into them and enjoy them. I love watching the kids compete, and it has been very satisfying to have witnessed strong player development in some the kids we have coached over the past eight months.

We also have a new addition to our SWB staffing. Alison, an American, has been travelling throughout Egypt, Jordan, and Namibia over the past year doing a research project on sports and development. She has joined us for the next two months in Ndejje to help as needed and observe the different sports programs available to youth in Uganda. It has been so interesting hearing about her experiences in other countries and how it compares to what we have been dealing with here in Uganda. It has been very helpful to have another person around as well, especially now that break has begun and we have a large influx of kids at the center every day and running around at football trainings. Poor Adam is constantly surrounded by female companions, but he has managed to put up with us all very well!

My time here is drawing to a close as I approach the six week mark until my return trip home! I can't believe that time is flying by so quickly, but I have definitely been enjoying myself here over the past couple of weeks. Well, that's all for now, I will try to post again soon!

English Lessons

As I've mentioned before, we have two SWB sites in Uganda. The site where we live is Ndejje, but the other site is in Kabalaga, which is on the outskirts of Kampala, and is run by a local staffer, Raphael, and a few of his friends, all of whom are Congolese refugees. Raphael has been living in Uganda for a few years now, and has managed to pick up a lot of English. For Congolese refugees to survive here it is imperative that they learn English as quickly as possible, because the primary languages spoken in the DR Congo are French and Swahili, neither of which are spoken in Uganda.

Acknowledging the importance of learning English and the fact that many refugees can't afford to take a class that charges fees, Rapha suggested that SWB start and English school. He took the initiative and started to offer classes from 8-10 each morning, Monday through Friday. There are two classes available, a beginner's class and an intermediate level. While the makeup of the classes consist mostly of adult students, there are also some kids who attend because they need to learn English before they can start attending primary school here in Uganda.

A few weeks ago, I sat in on one of the classes because I was considering getting involved. It was so inspirational to watch these adults work so hard to learn English. I knew instantly that this was something that I wanted to help out with, so now I head to Kabalagala at 6:30 am every Monday and Friday morning to help teach the intermediate level class. Already I have started to see improvement in the students' pronunciations and they are starting to understand different concepts that are introduced each week. I really enjoy talking to them after class as well, and they are so grateful for the opportunity to learn English.

The intermediate class has many women in it, a few of whom are my age, and we've really hit it off. After class we walk together for a while since we are all headed in the same direction, and have conversations to get to know one another and also so that they can practice their English. Two of the women have invited me over this Friday to meet their family and to teach me how to make traditional Congolese food. I can't wait!

I am so inspired by these people who have had to pick up their entire lives and shift from a conflict-torn country to one in which they don't understand they language, yet they are determined to succeed. As we converse, they are constantly asking me to correct their mistakes because they are so eager to learn and they want to be sure that they are pronouncing things and forming sentences correctly. These last few weeks spent in class with them have been really fulfilling and enjoyable. It has made me realize though, that it is difficult to teach a language that you grew up speaking because structural rules that are inherent to you are easy to breeze over. Sometimes I feel like I am back in elementary school having to think about how I was formally taught English! Despite the difficulties though, I am really enjoying working with and getting to know all of the students in the class.