Jinja: "You will get rabies, and you will die. Welcome to Africa."

Another long day of orientation. We had language training, a community development workshop, walked around Jinja, and met members of our host families. I exchanged 150 USD for 345,000 Ugandan shillings, which is crazy. The exchange rate is something like 2500 UG shillings to $1. So most of the prices here are at least 1,000. It's weird to see such big numbers on price boards. Like, you would pay 5,000 or 6,000 shillings for a normal-sized lunch.

That reminds me, getting money exchanged in Jinja gave rise to another issue: One thing that bothers me about being here is that people constantly stare at you like you're some kind of exotic fish in a bowl. It's like, yes, I am white and clearly a foreigner. Get over it. It's getting really old really quickly.

We also had a meeting with Dr. Debbie, an Australian doctor who has lived here for 7 years, today about health stuff in Africa. She was running through the malaria thing (we've got this), then the diarrhea/gastro stuff (it's covered), mango worms (disgusting and actually a problem), unprotected sex and the consequences, bilharzia (you can pick it up if you swim in the Nile), and rabies. A lot of the other students apparently didn't know that it was lethal, but she explained it to everybody. "How high is the mortality rate for people who get infected and haven't had the vaccine?" "100 percent. Seriously, it's a fatal disease. There is no cure." So now we're all signed up for rabies vaccines.

My team and I (Becky, Robert, and Billy) brainstormed issues to work on once we get to St. Eliza's, but it's pretty much BS since we have to get there and check out the situation before we can think about the issues to address. But it's a starting point. It's going to be really hard to come up with a project, but that's why we're here. So we'll figure it out, haul ass, and pull off a legitimate community development project.

Jinja: "Guys, we're drinking tea and having bread and jam on the Nile. Now we just need to make a colony."

First day in Uganda! We had an orientation for safety and security and culture shock and had lunch at a local restuarant, where I had matooke and goat meat. The goat meat was in this awesome broth; matooke is mashed plaintains, and apparently a Ugandan staple. It basically tastes like unsalted, unbuttered potatoes. Very bland, but very thick and heavy. It isn't bad, though. I stared at it for a minute before I ate it, because I was scared of it, since it just looks like a giant yellow mush with black seeds in it. Also, I hate bananas, so I was scared that would transfer over, since plaintains and bananas are sort of related. Anyway, I'm glad I like it, since I'll probably eat that 80% of the time I live with my host family.

Then we had language lessons--I will actually be speaking Luganda and not Lusoga, the language I originally thought I was speaking. The two are similar, but still different languages. Then we got our phones and had dinner at a different local place. In Uganda, there are a lot of different local languages. It's about the size of Oregon, but you can go to one part of the country and they will not understand the language from another region. So communication can be pretty difficult. In the capital, Kampala, Luganda is the main language (though Uganda has no official language). Lusoga is spoken in the Basoga region east of Kampala, which is in central Uganda. I'll be halfway between Jinja, which is southeast of Kampala, and Mayuge, the rural area where some of my colleagues are going. Anyway, I'm speaking Luganda. Sorry to digress. (If anyone wants to know anything more about Ugandan history, tell me in a comment and I will say more in my next post!)

I also rode my first boda-boda today. Boda-bodas are bicycles and motorbikes that you can flag down to get around. They told us in our pre-departure stuff never to ride on a motorcycle boda-boda, but we walked out of our safety orientation this morning and took them to lunch. We were a caravan of mzungus, or foreigners/white people (the term can mean either). The good thing about the fact that the 14 of us who came here together (we're all working at different places--the people I mentioned in my first post are living/working with me) is that we will be less of a spectacle in small groups. 14 white kids is a strange sight in Uganda.

Anyway, a boda-boda is everything your mother was ever worried about--getting on a rickety motorbike with a strange man who probably doesn't have a license and driving into Ugandan traffic, where there are basically no road rules and lots of potholes. (To my mother: Don't worry about me, I walk to work every day, so I won't need bodas that often.) It was actually not that scary, but when they start to go fast on the dirt roads it can get pretty bumpy--hitting a pothole could flip you off if you are going fast enough.

But that was mostly my day. And, as my title suggests, I did in fact sit on the Nile River and drink tea this morning with two of my compadres, which was really cool. The Nile is beautiful and majestic and all that jazz. I really want to go sail on Lake Victoria before I leave.

So I have another day of orientation tomorrow and then on Thursday I go to live with my host family, who I'm really excited to meet. Then work begins at St. Eliza's.

Jinja: "The floor keeps moving. That's probably a bad sign... that I'M ON A BOAT!"

I haven't slept in 72 hours, because I flew from Amsterdam to Dubai to Entebbe (two different airlines) in the last three day. I'm finally in Jinja, Uganda, which is good news. The bad news is that my bag is not with me in Jinja, because the damn airlines lost it. (I ended up flying KLM and Emirates airlines). I do not wish this long of a trip on anyone when you can't sleep in a bed or shower during the entirety of it, which was my life for the past three/four days. The floor keeps feeling wobbly to me because I'm so tired and my body doesn't have any sense of time at this point.

But I'm here, and my orientation for my internship at St. Eliza's under the Foundation for Sustainable Development starts tomorrow morning. I do that for two days and then I go live in my homestay starting Thursday. I'm hoping that this country will be less scary to me as an outsider once I've been here for a week or two. In any case, we need to start figuring out what our organization needs and what it already has so we can get this party started.

I've already done some successful greetings since I've been here. "Okoba kyi" is the easiest, since all you have to respond with is "Wazira", then they say "Gyebale" and you finish it with "Kale, wena gyebale". So there's progress there. Hopefully tomorrow I will get more practice, but now it's bedtime. Good night everybody!

The Saga Continues: "We should stay positive and not complain." "Shut up, Robert."

So we're trapped in Amsterdam. First, we got off the plane and we had to wait to park because KLM crashed two of their planes into each other on the tarmac. KLM did manage to find my friend's passport after he lost it in O'Hare yesterday, but that does not make up for the general fail. We ran to the terminal to transfer to our flight to Entebbe, but then they were like, "There aren't enough seats for you! KTHXBYE!" So now we're trying to figure out when and from where we're getting to Uganda. It's 3 am in the States, so it's unlikely that we'll get a hold of the people that do our program until a long time from now.

I watched Black Swan on the plane, so that was interesting. I don't know how I feel about that movie...anyway. We need to get there so we can start working with our NGOs and start working on our projects! Also, we're all tired and irritated at this point, obviously.

Hey, there's a plane outside the window named the Marie Curie. Cute. Anyway, there will be another update someday. Maybe, since I don't have a converter, so my computer will run out of power eventually.

Still Predeparture: Good job breaking your own plane, KLM.

I was on the plane to go to Amsterdam so that I could then go to Entebbe, Uganda. But then the employees of KLM airlines broke the rear cargo door of the plane, so we couldn't fly it and the flight was delayed for 24 hours. I am currently stealing internet from the Hilton O'Hare where we (the other bros going to Uganda with me) are trying to get rooms with vouchers from the airport. I don't currently have a place to sleep, but at least we got meal vouchers, so I can get free food for the next day. I'm supposed to be leaving tomorrow at 6:00 pm for Amsterdam, where I may have a significant layover. So I have no idea when I'm getting to Entebbe.

Oh great..no one is at the ticket counter in the airport. "Oh, let's go home, it doesn't matter that these college kids have no place to sleep." FUCK!

Predeparture: "There are more important things to talk about. Like dysentery."

Mwasuze mutya, banyabo and bassebo. In about 36 hours, I will be on a plane to Amsterdam. I will then hop on another plane that will take me to Kigali, Rwanda, and another that will take me to Entebbe, Uganda. Then I'm going to get in a car and drive until I reach Kakira, Uganda, in Jinja District. Then I will stop listing destinations and start busting a move.

I'm Lynne Fort, Northwestern junior, journalism student, Latin scholar extraordinaire, and victim of chronic foot-in-mouth syndrome. Uganda is my destination for the summer--I'll be working 40 hours a week at St. Eliza's, an HIV/AIDS clinic and community development organization in Kakira, Uganda. By the end of my time there, my fellow interns and I will be responsible for conceiving and implementing a capacity-building project to help the community develop. We will have help from the Foundation for Sustainable Development in this process. For anyone interested in the details, we will be using the Asset-Based Community Development approach (ABCD). What does that mean? In a nutshell, starting with what the community already has and using that to fill the gaps, rather than starting with the community's problems and trying to fix them for said community.

We have no idea what the hell we're doing.

Not that we're not exicited to go into Uganda and live with Ugandan families, try new foods, see beautiful landscapes, and improve our Lugosa. But when we hit the ground and try to map this community, we'll be learning as we go. We've learned how to make decisions, to draw up internal and external project plans, but no one can teach you to live and work in a completely different culture. So we'll be flying by the seat of our collective pants, and if you follow this blog, you can see us develop as we try to help the community develop. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder why the hell anybody thought this was a good idea.

As Robert, Becky, Billy and I make our way into Kakira, I hope that you will hang in with us, comment on our exploits as they're posted, or at least get a good chuckle out of us. I will have limited Internet access, but I'm hoping to post a blog at least once a week (that would make 8 blogs).

If you'll excuse me, I need to go get my learn on. Siiba bulungi!