Masaka
Masaka is a small town. Bustling, but small. It's pretty safe and generally friendly, with some weirdos. I've received some propositions, including a time when some man tried to offer me a few hundred Ugandan shillings (keep in mind that at the time, it was 2800 shillings = $1 Usd). I don't know what I felt more indignant about: the proposition, or the offered amount! It's all part of the (mis)adventures of being a lone Mzungu female visitor in a small town in a developing country! I get stared at every day, mostly by children, which is not as bad as it sounds -- just not something I'm used to. People get very excited by Mzungus which is both amusing and uncomfortable! Also, just when I feel I might be getting into my groove, I get unsettled by small crowds of children yelling and waving at me excitedly. "BYEEEE, Mzungu!" is the favourite exclamation.
People also get quite confused by the fact that I'm from Canada and not white. Go figure! When I tell people I'm from Canada, the response I often get is: "Oh! ....but you look Asian to me...?" AND in the span of about 2 weeks, 4 different people also said, "Canada!! I know about Canada! The Canadian prairies grow wheat!" Yup. For reals. When studying geography at school, this is part of what they learn! The eldest daughter of my host family told me that you are considered an idiot if you are unable to answer the question of "what grows in the Canadian prairies". Too funny. When someone found out that I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, he exclaimed: "oh! where the lumberjacks live!" Pretty awesome, right?
My host family
My host family is fabulous. I am their 11th intern, so they're pretty used to Westerners. They are very accommodating and welcoming. I get along with the eldest daughter, who is about 20, pretty well. She loves TV and movies. The youngest daughter is also home in the evenings. She's about 8 or 9 and loves Amanda Bynes. I'm pretty sure her favourite movie of all time is 'She's the Man'. How perfectly matched with this family am I?! The other siblings are in boarding school or lives near campus as in the case of the eldest son who's in University.
Who turned the lights off?!?
There is power rationing occurring around the country. It's called load shading (I think). Sometimes we have power, and other times we don't. Usually we don't. It's not that bad, though, surprisingly enough! It doesn't affect the cooking since it's all done over charcoal stoves. Apparently, the shade loading could be due to a number of reasons: high costs, limited output from the one dam, to punish people who tried to vote for the Opposition party in the last election...
Daily Living
Interestingly, I haven't had too much of a problem with settling into how things are done here (bathing -- a story for another time, lack of power, eating, etc.). No GI issues, I'm happy to report! Food here is not bad. What it lacks in variety, people more than make up for in portion size! GINORMOUS.
MY REAL PURPOSE FOR BEING HERE
So, finally, we get to the reason for why I'm even in Masaka. My goal: To volunteer/intern with a local NGO that has a health bent (particularly addressing communicable diseases) to gain experience in community development work, including doing a assets and needs assessment and participating in the formation of a community-driven initiative. Also, with my interest in cross-cultural practices, this is a good opportunity to really stretch that. I'm working with Kitovu Mobile AIDS Organization. The agency is great and very organized but I'm feeling so out of my element and haven't quite gotten a firm grasp of what I'm doing, yet! What has gotten to me at times is going forward with my practicum and not really having anybody around to talk to who is going through what I'm going through. I'm the only intern in my area! As expected, I did succumb to a meltdown a couple of weeks in. Thankfully, it only lasted for a couple of hours and I recovered somewhat well and with some support from home. :) It's all part of the experience and once I got that emotional mess out of the way, things pretty much immediately started getting really good again. So, I'm still feeling optimistic. :)
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| The reception area at Kitovu Mobile |
As for my project, I've been doing a baseline assessment with a village about an hour outside of town to determine what they have and what's missing. From that, the hope is that some community-driven projects can be developed to address the 'what's missing' pieces. So, I'm quite excited as this is pretty much in line with what I wanted to experience. I've had the chance to be in and out of the village a bit while working with someone from the community who has been trained at community mobilization and outreach. I'm learning a bit of Luganda, the local language, in an attempt to connect with the community. It's a pretty language, but I'm not the greatest at learning languages! :)
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