Uganda- Volunteering in Ntenjeru- Week 1

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I was transferred to Ntenjeru (pronounced "en-tan-jare-rue") on Wednesday. It's about 3 hours from the airport and 2 hours from Kampala. As you drive from Mukono Town to the village, the scenery changes dramatically from the city to a quiet, green place with bright red roads. The houses are few and far between. Most of the homes are small, around the size of a one car garage. In many cases families of 5-10 people will all sleep inside. There are all kinds of crazy dinosaur-like birds flying around. You can actually hear their wings flapping as they pass overhead because they're so big. The village is very safe and we don't need guards at night (unlike my previous placement in Tanzania).

The pace of work here is difficult to get used to after months of craziness at home. Here, I wake up at 8am, have a leisurely breakfast, and wander to the office at around 9 o'clock. People don't seem to wear watches, I don't think there's such a thing as "being late."

Right now, we're doing some prep work for a health conference (I'm going to be giving a presentation on "mental health"). I'm also going to be completing some questionnaires with household heads around the community to get a sense of what vaccinations people have and what sorts of diseases/ illnesses people are living with as a benchmark for future work. It will be interesting to see the inside of people's houses! School will be back in on February 1st and I'll be teaching some classes. We'll also be doing some HIV testing and counseling on the nearby islands.

The volunteer house (nicknamed the "White House") is really nice. I have my own room with a single bed and bug net and some shelves for my things. There's a girl's dorm beside the volunteer house and they are the sweetest girls on earth. I love them already. They all speak English perfectly and are such hard workers. They're constantly smiling and laughing.

The latrine is 50 feet behind the house - it's a brick sized hole in the ground with two bricks on either side. I try not to drink anything after 5pm because it really sucks to have to walk out there in the dark. There are lots of flies and mosquitoes that just LOVE to form a cloud around my headlamp at night so I have to hold my breath. I miss my Canadian toilet! The bathing area is pretty basic too, a brick room with some buckets of water. You splash yourself, suds up and splash yourself again. I brought amazing smelling products from home which makes the experience a lot better.

For food, generally we have rice, beans, greens (like spinach), peanut sauce, bread, eggs and once a week we have fish. Once a week we are also going to have meat but I haven't had any yet. There is a freak of a rooster that looks like it's about 4 feet tall and 100 pounds that wanders around the grounds... I hope we eat him at some point because he's really really really annoying from 5am- 7am!

Similar to my experience in Tanzania, I feel like a major celebrity here. The children follow me around and everywhere I go people yell MUZUNGU which means white person. They aren't being malicious, apparently Ugandans just like to point out the differences between each other. Apparently if someone calls me MUZUNGU I should call them the Ugandan word for black person and that usually gets a big laugh. I haven't gotten up the courage to do that yet!

It's been a bit of a shock this week, more so than my time in Tanzania. I think my life has gotten even more comfortable since my last placement and this time things are a bit more basic. It's a good
wake up call though, and there are so many good things- nice people, beautiful location, interesting work. I'm looking forward to week 2!

* Note- the photos are courtesy of another volunteer- I will update them as soon as I can next week.

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Photos

The "White House"- Back
Back of the "White House" where I'm living.

Ntenjeru Countryside
View of Ntenjeru from the road.

Ntenjeru Main Road
The main road in Ntenjeru.

The Latrine
My least favourite place... the wooden "stopper" keeps the flies under control. :)

Bathing area
Where we take our nightly "bird baths"...

Bedroom
Bedroom at the White House

Comments

[Leeda]

Hi Jen: It looks like you are having an amazing experience. I appreciate how you are noting the important things like the friendliness of the young people and finding humor in the amenities. I look forward to your updates. Take care of yourself. Love Leeda

[Sanjiv]

First Look
the country side looks beautiful. I agree about your least favourite spot.