Hello together,

some of you waited already for a while that I translate my report about my experiences in Uganda, the waiting has an end!

For everyone who doesn’t know what I did in Uganda, here a short description:
I was in a foster home in Ugnada for 3,5 months, I stayed and worked there as a volunteer.

Here I created an interview out of all the questions which I got from other people. I hope I can answer all your questions with this report, otherwise you still can ask questions.

~ Why did you wanted to do voluntarily work? ~
I decided to do this work because I always wanted to do something with children. In my job, as IT projectmanager, I can’t live my social type. And I wanted to make children happy which live in a poorer relation then people in Germany.

~ Why did you go to Ugnada and not to another country in Africa? ~
First of all I was always fascinated by Africa, that’s why it should be an African coutnry. I decided for Uganda because I have sponsored children there, which I wanted to visit and which made myself open for their country. Then I was fascinted by a country which is not yet crowded by tourists.

~ What was your goal, your motivation for your trip? ~
My goal was it to make people happy and to transfer a positive attitude towards life. My motivation was, that I was sure to make people in Uganda happy with simple things.

~ Which wishes and expectations did you have before your trip? ~
My greatest wish was to be welcomed of the natives and the people in the foster home. I didn’t have any expectations because I’ve never been to Africa before except of Egypt, I didn’t want to make myself a picture out of the media, that’s why I flew to Uganda without any real expectations. So I couldn’t get disappointed, in any case I had to except what was coming, no expectations could have helped me.

~ Did your expectations come true? ~
Yes, they got fulfilled. The natives welcomed and integrated me especially the El Shadai Family, the children and the homeleader, where I stayed. My help bears fruits, if you can help in just 3,5 months. And could make a lot of people happy.

~ And now about the home where you stayed. How many children are living there and how old are they? ~
At the El Shadai Foster Home, which was grounded by the native Stephen, there live about 35 children. During my stay the youngest, Gloria, was 3 years old, she is going to kindergarden. The oldest one, Issac, is 23 years old and goes already to university. There is one other girl, Agnes, which goes to university, all the others are going to school, about 10 children are at boarding school.

~ Are there as well disabled children at the home? ~
Really disabled children are not at the home, but every single child had a sad and bad childhood, some still have to fight their traumas.

~ Are there only real orphans staying in the home or where do the children come from? ~
A part of the children are real orphans, but as well there are social orphans, where the parents can’t support their children. And then there are children which came out of other reasons, e.g. some of the girls should get married to an odler man.

~ How many children got supported by one adult? ~
Real home care helpers weren’t there caused through lack of money. When I arrived, beginning of May 2008, there were only the home leader and the volunteers to take care of the children. Since beginning of July 2008 there were two additional employees, which normally support other community projects and do work at the office. One of the woman, Jane, stays in the foster home and acts there as a home care helper when she is around.

~ Did the people (employees and children) come directly to you or did this take some time? ~
I had already a heartly welcome at the airport, even when I had to wait almost 1,5 hours caused through a traffic jam in Kampala. Some of the children welcomed me with open arms at the home when I arrived at around 0:40 am. Even on my first day almost all the children and the home leader came to me. Threre were some shy children as well which needed to get warm with me.

~ How was it with the communication, did you speak English with everybody or did you learn a few phrases in another language? ~
Basically English is the offical language in Uganda, because uganda was a british colony. Even so that English is the offical language not every native does speak English. In Ugnada there are a lot of differnet tribes combined, so that somebody from the North doesn’t have to understand somebody from the South or East.
All of the children at El Shadai speak English because they had already volunteers for more then 2 years. When they speak to each other then they speak their local languages, Lusoga and Luganda. Because I am not talented in languages, I could only remember a few phrases in Lusoga.

~ As we just spoke about the language, please tell us something about Uganda as a country. ~
Uganda is in East Africa, in the North there is the Sudan, in the East is Kenya, in the south Tanzania, in the Southwest Ruanda and in the West Congo. The boarders to Kenya and Tanzania are partly in Lake Victoria.
There is no big time difference to Germany. During my stay in Uganda, when it was summertime in Germany, we had one hour time differnece, when it was 6 pm in Germany, it was 7 pm in Uganda. During our winter time in Germany there is a tiem differnece of two hours.
The climate of Uganda is different, in the region where I was, it was during my stay 25-35 °C, in January / February it should reach up to 40 °C, in the night it can cool down to 15 °C.
Uganda has about 31 Mil. Inhabitants, which live on about 240.000 squaremeters. The form of the government is semi- presidential republic with the president Museveni.
Export goods are coffee, bananas, cacao, gold, tea, fish and tobaco.
Uganda is affected by seas, the white Nile, virgin forests and savannahs. The Equator goes through the South of Uganda.

~ In Africa it is quite warm, Uganda is close to the Equator, so there is a totally different climate to Germany, how did you get used to it? Was it a problem or not? ~
For sure I had to get used to it, that’s why I was so tired on the first days. When I arrived it was about 30-35 °C. From June on we had heavy showers once in a while. From July on we had temperatures between 25-32 °C, the nights and mornings were quite cool. I got used to the climate quite well.

~ What was the biggest difference to Germany in your opinion? ~
That is hard to tell, because you can’t really compare those countries.
There is an undescribable poverty and even so the people never complain, they even seem to be satisfied. That seems to be a big difference to Germany, because here everybody is complaining.
Then there is the sense of time, in Uganda everything is slower. Most of the people don’t have watches or if you want to use public transportation, you can’t tell when you will arrive, only if you leave really early. A bus for example doesn’t leave until it is full, so that at least every seat is used, and that’s how long you have to wait.

~ I think, the population exists out of many different ethical groups, did you recognize this a lot? Did you see as an outsider differences or was it like on country, like we have the states in Germany which are combined one coutry? ~
At the foster home there stay children from many differnet tribes. Now they stay together very well, which was great work of the home leader. The biggest differences which I recognized are language differences. I am quite sure that there are even more differneces then I recognized. It is already alone from the language barrier that it can’t work like in Germyn, to be “one coutnry”.

~ How do you see the future of this country? ~
That is hard to say how the future of Uganda looks like. There are to many un-securities like the rebells in Northern Uganda and the refugees from neighbour countries.
I really hope, that the people in Uganda will have a better life in the future.

~ How is the culture? What would you say is typical for people in Uganda? ~
Here I only can speak from the regions, where I was. One part of the culture is the “African time”, which is really extandable. Either you do the same and reach the destination later or you take something with you to bridge the waiting time, e.g. a book. The girls and as well the women kneel infront of respect persons, that is part of the good behaviour, like here to greet.
Then there are some small things:
- Lifting the eye brows means “Yes”
- Yarning means „I am hungry.“
- Holding your belly means “ I feel sick.”

~ How were the people? ~
Most of the people were really nice. For sure there are as well people, which ask you indirectly for money. Then there were men, which wanted to have a Mzung-Woman, people with light coloured skin were called Mzungu. They ask for the mobile numbers and when you could meet again, then they want to know if you are already married, because to have a boyfirend doesn’t count.
Children at the streets or in villages often say “Mzungu”, “Bye, bye Mzungu” or “Mzungu how are you?”, because they don’t see light skinned people that often. Somehow I miss the Mzungu-calling.

~ How were the living circumstances in the village, where you stayed? ~
There are only a few exceptions usually most of the families / people live in 1-2 rooms, the cooking is mostly done outside. You can see trash everywhere, because there is no trash system in place. At the foster home we put the trash into two big holes, once in a while they set fire in the holes. The roads in the village has a lot of pot holes and during and after they have rain those are extremely slobbery.
In Bugembe there are a lot of small shops, tailors, shoemakers, barbers, copy shops and so on, a market, a small supermarket and even a small internet cafe.

~ How did you prepare yourself for those circumstances? ~
I came to Uganda without expectations and just excepted the circumstances I got confronted with. That’s how I could live a happy life there, I was more balanced then I am in Germany.

~ How do you arrange yourself with little water, if you are used to wash and bath yourself permanently? ~
Normally we had enough water at the foster gome, the problem was the very low water pressure, so sometimes e.g. it took for a long time until my hair was wet and rinse of the shampoo. There are even times when there is no water because the pumping system wasn’t running proparly. Then you couldn’t wash yourself because you needed to safe the water for cooking.
To be without water was an exception at the home, you had to arrange yourself with the situation even if it wasn’t comfortable. During my stay we had this situation only once and the water came back after 1,5 days.
I arranged myself with the low water pressure. Like we only flushed the toilette when we had to shit.

~ How are the sanitations? ~
The home leader, the employess and the volunteers used a bathroom. We had a flushing toilette and a bathing room with a small washbasin, a separate tab and a shower head.
The chidlren had two pit latrines and a shower partition, all those are outside, the toilettes have roofs. The children filled buckets with water to shower themselves either in the shower partition or the smaller ones showered in the meadow.

~ How is the food? ~
the volunteers pay extra for food, so that they get better food then the children, because the Ugandan think that the volunteers get sick if they don’t have a balanced diet.
The children always have porrigde for breakfast. For lunch and dinner they eat Posho, mush with read beans.
The volunteers eat together with the home leader. Our breakfast varied from white bread, chapati (kind of flat bread), cookies, fruits, omelettes, roasted peanuts to mandazi (sweat biscuits). For lunch and dinner we had additional to posho and beans rice, matoke (plantains), potatoes, baked noodles, seldom we had chicken, fish or beef. Additional to those meals we had tea time, where we had tea and something small to eat, similar to the food at breakast.
Times for the meals of the volunteers:
9-11 am – breakfast
1-4 pm – lunch
6-8 pm – tea time
9-11 pm – dinner
The volunteers, the home leader and the older chidlren (which got o university already) eat either ouside at the table on the porch or in the sitting room.
The children eat either on seats like chairs, stools, armchairs in the garage (entrance and reading room) or outside on the porch or in the sitting room, when we are not eating at the same time. If they don’t find seats then they will sit on the ground e.g. on the porch.

~ And probably the children there are more hardened then in Germany, right?
~
Yes they are more hardened, because they grew up in very insanitary conditions and as a result of this they have stronger power of resistance than the children in Europe. But that doesn’t keep them from diseases.
If the children drink unpurified water, and the water in the foster home which comes from a tab is unpruified, they can get Typhoid. Unfortunately this problem can’t be solved at the moment, because there is no cheap possibility to purify the water for all the children, e.g. to boil the water for all children the charcoal is to expensive.
Then they get once in a while Malaria, because they get bitten by mosquitos as well, what they contest. For the nights we bought them mosquito nets, which are not used probably.

~ How does a spoilt person from West Europe gets along with this? ~
I only can speak for myself. I got used to the food quite fast and even like to eat posho and beans yet. I only drank water which I purified with a filter or which I bought in a supermarket.
And as well you pay more attention to sanitary, e.g. to wash hands more often. Against the mosquitos I used insect repellent after sunset, which only helped partly for me. And I always kept my mosquito net around my bed closed even during day and additional I took malaria prophylaxis.

~ Did you have moments where you wanted to break up your stay and to go back home earlier or when you didn’t feel safe? ~
Really breaking up wasn’t a thought at all, even when I had difficult times as well, but I grew on those times. And you have hard times in every family like in our big El shadai Family inclusive the volunteers.
And except of one or two incidents I always felt safe.
There was one moment, when Heidi (one of the other volunteers in the home from USA) got harassed at Jinja market. There we took the next best opportunity to flee on boda bodas (motorbike taxis).

~ What did you do on a normal working day? ~
Usually I got up at around 7 am and took first a shower. For everything else seldom was one day the same than another one.
Those things did I do with the children:
- Playing
- Drawing
- Helping with homework
- Taking care of sick children
- Taking chidlren to the doctor

Work at the office:
- Typing of documents
- Writing the newsletter for former and future volunteers
- Creating of the finance overviewErstellen der Finanzübersicht
- Meetings with the home leader

Leading of women empowerment groups:
We taught the three women groups the following
- Health topics (like children development, AIDS)
- Business topics (like book keeping, savings)
- Life skills (like setting goals, self esteem)

Then we had two english courses for women, one advanced and one beginners.

~ What did you do in your free time? ~
In my free time i read books or also played with the children, what didn’t feel like working time. Sometimes I tried to wash my clothes, most of the times I got replaced by the children, because washing with my hands with the laundry soap wasn’t good for my hands, or I helped to make the dishes.
Then I spent time with the other volunteers or with friends from Jinja. Jinja is about 8 kilometers away from Bugembe and is well reachable by bus.
The following could be done in Jinja:
- Using the internet at an internetcafe
- Relax in a bistro
- Stroll through the market or tourist shops
- Visit friends at a radio station
- Going to the post office
- Withdraw money at a bank
Then we used to visit a home for small children (0-6 years) once per week to play with the children. The home is called “Welcome Home” the children and babies in good hands there, they have really nice carers. We cuddled and carried the babies. Or you could play with the toddlers outside.
Beginning of July we went rafting the first time, it was Rayechel’s birthday. Rayechel and Heidi were the two other volunteers at El Shadai from USA, they arrived mid of June. We had a lot of fun, even that we had a moment of shock when we flipped. But at the end of the day we confident with our guide Paulo.
After this time we stayed regularly, about one night per week, at the hostel “Backpackers” of the rafting organisation. There we could get a break of the children and treat ourselves with a hot shower. That’s where we met Joe, he is now a good friend of mine – Joe, I miss you!
End of July we took a safari to Murchison Falls Nationalpark for 4 days. That was fantastic and recommend it a lot. We saw a lot of animals, elephants, giraffes, water buffalos, antelopes, a lion and a leopard, crocodiles, hippos, baboons and a lot more.
Then on my birthday ( a couple of days after the safari) we went rafting again with Paulo as our guide. We had a fantastic day on the Nile and I had a wonderful birthday party. Thank you Joe to pick up my cake and for the candles!! And thank you Paulo, that you took care of me the whole evening!!

~ How did a normal day of the children look like? ~
For this I will describe a typical school day.
The chidlren get up between 5-6 am, just like the first one wakes up or I woke them up, if I wake up earlier. Then they clean the floor, because the dust is really penetrant. The school start at around 7 am and some of the children have a longer way to school, they get breakfast at school (at least mostly).
The youngest ones come back at around 1 pm, first they get lunch and then they should take a nap, and when I was around I foced them to sleep.
The other chidlren come back between 4-6 pm (they have lunch at school), then they wash their school uniforms if necessary. Afterwards everyone should bath, before it gets dark at around 7 pm. Then the children which turn it was to cook started to cook and the rest should do their homework or use the time for reading. Then it was time for evening prayers, everyone is dancing and singing and at the end they are praying. Between 9-11 pm it was time for dinner finally and afterwards it was time to go to bed.

~ Did you have doubts during your stay if you do the right thing or were you sure the whole time to do the right thing? ~
I had doubts really seldom, if so it was with single difficult children.
The rest of the time I was sure to do my best and with this even to do the right thing, I did doubt this very seldom.

~ What did you like, what did you liek less? ~
I liked to get a deeper view into the life of the children and the attitude towards life of the natives. I didn’t like the partly really depressing poverty and the handling of some people with the street children.

~ What was the most touching moment? ~
That was definitely my funday, which was equivalent with my farewell party.
We played a lot of games and the children showed a lot of studied acts. We had a lot of food for everybody, which I paid for. My Mum even donated some chickens.
Then we had a lot of speeches, which touched me a lot. They told me how much they will miss me and what I mean to them or how I changed their life for good. One girl and one boy spoke for the younger and older ones. Then Issac, the oldest one, hold a speech, Jane, an employee, Heidi (another volunteer of El Shadai), Hilary (a good friend), Stephen (the home leader) and at the end it was my turn. The whole evening I had a lump in my throat and a burdensome feeling in my stomach. ( I have those feelings again now while writing.)

~ Why did you have problems with the food in Germany? You even had pizza in Uganda, what I made me wonder, is this right? ~
I had problems with the food her for the first couple of days. Probably that resulted out of the fact that I was no longer used to the conservatives and flavor enhancers, because in Uganda everything got prepared fresh.
And yes, I had pizza in Uganda, sometimes even a fresh prepared hamburger. That was nothing we had at the foster home, we had to go to Jinja to have those, at the Backpackers or in a restaurant close to Backpackers.

~ Is it hard for you to be back in Germany and go back to work, to have a totally different daily routine again? ~
Yes it is hard to be back in Germamy, even if I missed my family, my boyfriend and my friends. My longing for Uganda got better already but I still miss “my second family” (El Shadai Family) every day, I took them to my heart and as well all my new friends in Uganda and Heidi.
To get used to work was really hard. I even had problems to work on the computer after a couple of weeks. My neck was paining and I got heavy headaches, that’s why I had to stay home in between for 1,5 weeks.

~ Did you wanted to stay longer and / or do you want to travel to Uganda again? ~
Yes to both!!!!!
The farewell was really hard, the children even threatened me with tie me to my bed or to lock me up. They even wrote me really touching letters for my farewell. George 813 years) wrote thank you for the money I gave to him for a light bulb. I would have loved to stay longer, but I knew that my boyfriend and my family waited for me longingly.
I will travel again to Uganda for sure and not only for one time. With my boyfriend I plan to go to Uganda for vacaiton for about 3 weeks in 2009.
I even could imagine a life in Uganda.

~ And now about the future of the El Shadai Home. Did they start already to construct the house on the new compound? ~
Unfortunately the start of the construction needed to be post poned, caused through the wedding of the homeleader (beginning of September 08) the time wasn’t there to start with the construction. The start of the construction is planned for 2009, then natives will do the construction. So I can’t tell you anything about how the house will look like and what equipment they will have.
There is already a kindergarden on the compound, which will stay there. And on my last day I planted a mango tree on the new compound and hope that it will have fruits in a couple of years so that they will still remember me.
Unfortuantely they don’t get any support from the government.

I hope I could answer all your questions, if not please ask me. Sorry that it is such a long report but you just can’t describe 3,5 months in only two pages, so now I have written 8 pages.
It was a time I never want to miss and which enriched my life a lot. There is a suitable song of the Wise Guys, a German band, “Wir hatten eine gute Zeit” (“We had a good time”), which describes exactly my feelings, which I had at my farewell.
Here is the refrain:
"Das war vielleicht die beste Zeit,
die Zeit meines Lebens,
doch jetzt ist es für mich so weit.
Wir hatten eine gute Zeit."

Translation:
"Perhabs that was the best time,
The time of my life,
But it is the time for me now.
We had a good time.”

Best regards
Meike

Here you can see some of my pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/meike3107/Uganda20081#
http://picasaweb.google.com/meike3107/Uganda20082#