Module Time plus a pic of Lake Victoria

Our Public Health Module group with a traditional healer.
Kids at a primary school that we visited!
An unprotected water source
A protected water source ( :) )
Picture of Lake Victoria taken from the zoo!

More Zoo Pics!!

Grey Crowned Crane- national bird of Uganda
Cute little monkey hiding in a trash can!
These monkeys are the Uganda equivalent to a squirrel in a zoo!
Me and a monkey! BUDDIES! <3

Zoo and Preston

Matoke, Posha, and my Bathroom

The first picture is of posho. It's just this flour and water. School children and prisoners eat a LOT of it! The second picture is of our bathroom. I think there are probably 4 toilet seats in all of Uganda. hehe! The third picture is of our staple food MATOKE!!!! Think mashed potatoes, made with plantains. We eat this EVERY DAY, so it's a good thing I like it! :)

Dishes

Preston decided to wash the dishes! ehhehe! tooo cute!! Then Paula joined for the pics! :)

Truck Full of Nurses

Hehe....this picture was taken at one of the local hospitals. Yep...that would be a truck full of nurses in these crazy-awesome pink uniforms!! :)

Preston, Paula and Precious

Hi All,

So here are pics of my Host Brother and Sister, Preston and Paula. And also the little neighbor girl, Precious. Preston is 3, he's my host-mom's grandson. Paula is 5 and she's also a granddaughter! Precious is 2 and lives in the 'in-law apartment' type house behind our house. They are CRAZY kids with SOOOOO much energy, it's unbelievable!! Preston loves Spiderman! And Paula likes to comment on my "prickly legs". hehe- it IS Africa!!! ;)

Hope all is well!

Pic from my Balcony

After a rather sad post with sad pictures...here is a BEAUTIFUL one!! My room has a balcony out of it (think simple, cement-- but WONDERFUL) and the other morning, this was the view from my balcony! How BEAUTIFUL!!!!! <3cm

Genocide Memorial Pictures

These pictures are from the Nyamata Genocide Memorial. They have decided to preserve the clothes (2nd pic). The 3rd pic is a view of the church from where the mass graves are. The 4th pic is where the young woman was buried. The last picture is of the mass graves in the backyard.

Genocide Memorials

Hello All! Back again to finish up my account of our Western Excursion. This post will include our trips to the genocide memorials as well as accounts of what happened. I had a fairly short mental debate about whether to write some of this stuff because it can be so graphic and is majorly disturbing, but I keep thinking about what everyone told us at the different memorials: that we were now ambassadors to our

So Wednesday was genocide day. We started off at Gisozi Genocide Memorial in Kigali. This memorial is part cemetery and part museum. We started off with a tour of the grounds. Almost 250,000 genocide victims are buried here. They have fourteen large cement plots that they are in. There are beautiful “reconciliation” gardens around the memorials where people can come and spend some quiet time. It was amazing because as we were walking through the birds kept on singing and signing.

Next we walked in to the museum. There are three exhibits. The first one details the Rwandan Genocide. It gives a historical background and discusess the 100 days of killing, as well as the aftermath. This was pretty intense, but for the most part it was a historical review for me. The second exhibit highlighted genocides throughout history, specifically: Cambodia, Nazi Germany, Chechnya, Namibia, and the Balkans. The third exhibit was the hardest as it highlighted the children who were caught in the genocide. It was a very simple exhibit. When you walked in there were about ten huge pictures of kids. Underneath was a very simple plaque. Written in Kinyarwanda, French, and then English were facts about the children. For example: favorite food, favorite drink, personality characteristic, best friend, last words, and way in which they were killed. The juxtaposition of the innocence of a child’s life with the manner in which they spent their last days was horrible. One kid’s final words were “UNAMIR will come for us.” One of the babies was killed by a machete while in his mother’s arms. Another baby was smashed against the wall. This exhibit was very simple and really allowed you to realize that even children were victimized in such a cruel manner.

Needless to say, after this memorial we were all very silent. We had a quick lunch and then set out for Namata Genocide Memorial. This was a church that people went to for protection thinking that no one would kill people on sacred grounds. But that did not stop the genocideres. There was a large massacre here. They have chosen to preserve all of the clothes that the victims were wearing, as well as anything they had with them. For example, there was a chest with kids’ books in it that were on display. Also, they had little things that people had on them: like pens, glasses, shoes, etc. Looking at those little things really hits you in the gut because you realized these were normal people like you and me. They also have chosen to put a large display shelf with all of the skulls and bones. Woah. There are very few words to describe how you feel when you walk into this church and the first thing you see are all these bones. Next, we walked behind to these two out-buildings where they would hold Sunday school class for kids. Many kids were killed in these buildings as well- some were smashed against the walls. (It’s weird writing those words because they’re so simple but hold so much violence, negativity, and hatred in them. It’s hard to imagine standing next to a simple wall and realizing that it was used to kill a child- to shatter innocence in the most absolute manner. Words just can’t come close.)

Next we went to Nyamata Genocide Memorial. This is another church that people went to for safety but were massacred again. The man told us about 10,800 people died here. Only two children survived as they were buried under all the bodies. This memorial also preserved the clothes of all the victims. Also, they had a little memorial downstairs that had a bunch of skulls and then underneath was one coffin with a beautiful white cloth laid over it. They explained to us that there was this woman who had a baby wrapped around her back. When the interhamwe arrived, they raped her countless times. He really stressed this as rape was (and still is) used as a way to degrade women and assert power over them. After they were done, they impaled her with a spear through her body in a vertical manner. Then they threw her into an unused pit latrine. Since it was unused, it was still cold and after the genocide, when people came to clean up the site, they found her perfectly preserved. Hearing this story was unimaginable to think of the pain and humiliation associated with this poor woman’s death. So they decided to bury her in a special location to allow her to have the peace that she was denied in her death. After walking around the church, we went outside. They have massive burial grounds there. You can walk down into them and see the lines of coffins. They have whole families buried in each coffin and knowing that was incredibly eery. There was a special memorial for approximately 65 people (they only had the names of 25). These people had been machete-d and then thrown into a pit latrine to eventually die. After hearing and seeing all of this, there are few words that you can muster to say to one another. We were silent for a long time.

So I’m sorry that that was probably the biggest buzz-kill for your day! But I really wanted to share a snippet of what happened in Rwanda. It is really hard to think about such violence- but it occurred in 1994 (and even before and since then). Everyone that we met just kept on asking us to bring this story back home with us to share. We can’t put our heads in the sand, as so many nations (including the U.S.) did in 1994. We have to face these horrible stories and learn from them.

So I hope, after all that, that you have a wonderful day! Know that someone in Uganda is thinking of you! And I hope that after these horrible stories you savor that cup of coffee even more and enjoy the funny shapes that clouds can make! I hope that you hug your friends, kids, and spouses a wee bit longer and harder.

Love,CM

Both Memorials and Some BEAUTY

These first two pictures are of the Nyamata Genocide Memorial. It was again a church and again, there was a huge massacre here. The first picture is of the church inside. Again, they chose to show the enormity of the situation by preserving the clothes the victims were wearing. The man who told us the story said that around 10,800 people died here. The second picture is of the Church from the outside. The banner spoke about never allowing the genocide to happen again and to never forget the people who lost their lives here.

These pictures are back to the first memorial. I had some issues posting them in order...so bear with me. The 4th picture is of the church. After touring through, life seems pretty bleak. You wonder how man can carry out such horrible violence against his next-door neighbor, friend, colleague, even family member...and then I noticed this beautiful flower (pic 3). It looked fake, it was so beautiful. And then I looked up to the sky and just thought about how the world continues to spin and how everyday is a blessing and we must appreciate the beautiful things in life while never forgetting to honor those who died from such violence.

Ntarama Genocide Memorial Pics

The first three pics are of the Ntarama Genocide Memorial. This was a church where people went for safety. But they were attacked. When you walk in there is a rack of skulls and bones (3rd pic). That hits you hard. Then you walk in more and see the rest of the church. They have preserved the clothes that people were wearing when they died. They are laid out all around the church (2nd pic). The hardest part of this memorial is knowing that not only did a massacre occur here, but it occurred in a CHURCH. This place was supposed to be sacred and respected by all- but it wasn't.

Note: I have a lot more pictures from these memorials that I would love to share, but do not have the internet or time capacity. When I get home I'll make sure to update these because I really think that these are important things to share!

This picture is from our drive. Rwanda is beautiful!!!

Some pics of Millennium Village

Here are some pics. The first are of Cait and Crevi as we were driving to the refugee settlement. CUTE!!! Second is of Cait jumping over the water source at the Millennium Village. The third is of the nursery at the Millennium Village. Fourth- school at the Millennium Village.

Riots and the West

Hi All!! It’s been a pretty crazy week and a half here in Uganda. I’m gonna try and doing a quick recap.

On Thursday, September 10^th, riots broke out in Kampala. The Kabaka (king of Buganda, one of the kingdoms in Uganda) was planning on going to see one of his areas. The government had come out and said it would be not be a good idea because the people there did not want the kabaka to come and there might be violence. So when the Buganda Prime Minister set out to the area on Thursday to prepare for the Kabaka’s Saturday visit, the police stopped him and would not let him continue on his journey.

At that point, we were in lectures at Makerere University. Charlotte, our Academic Director, announced that the Buganda Prime Minister had been kidnapped and riots were starting in the Old Taxi Park. We later learned that he was not actually detained- but that was just a rumor.

On Sunday, we left for our Western Excursion. We saw zebras on the way there!! Super exciting!! Monday, we had a site visit to the Millennium Village Project in Ruhiira. The drive there was on these small dirt roads through tiny, super isolated villages. Our first stop was the school. They had four computers that were solar powered. One of their main challenges before was absenteeism due to kids having to fetch water and food from long distances. So now they collect and filter rain water. They also have a lunch program and grow their own food there. Next stop: the health clinic. It was very pretty and had a lovely yard. There were lots of people waiting there for different tests, etc. Our last stop was the agricultural center. They have a nursery and teach people how to farm different crops. It was very interesting to finally see a Millennium Village. There are some in the development community who feel that a ‘big push’ will help bring people out of extreme poverty. The 10 Millennium Villages are meant to be guinea pigs for this methodology. The hard issue is project sustainability once UNDP and the other international organizations leave. We also did not get the opportunity to talk to villagers while there, so we were all left wanting a different perspective on the project.

Next up: Nakivale Refugee Settlement. It’s hard to describe this place. It holds 50,000 refugees from many different countries. When we got there, we were divided into five groups to talk to different ethnic groups. My group went to meet the Sudanese refugees. We spent about a little over an hour with them. We talked about the difficulties they face, which are numerous. Each family is given a plot of land 100 X 100 meters, a jerry can for water, some cooking utensils and a plastic tarp to put over their roof. THIS is what they are supposed to build their lives upon. The land that we were on was basically rock-hard desert. They got their first rains the day before and you could tell that their “garden” hadn’t seen rain for a long time. The water they collect is very far away and when they get it, it is green. They are given a small amount of food from the World Food Programme for each month. Unfortunately, the food delivery is notoriously late. For example, we were there September 14^th and they had just received their September food delivery THE DAY BEFORE!!!! Amazing. There are 12 families of Sudanese and around 130 people. They said that even though there was peace in their country they would not be able to go back. Many of them were ex-soldiers while others were political refugees. They were originally in refugee settlements up north, but had to leave because of insecurity issues. Our whole discussion was very sad. They did not have any hope. Many had been there for over 7 years and there is literally NOTHING to do in this settlement. They said they faced discrimination because of being Sudanese. They have language difficulties which prevent them from doing well in primary school and gaining medical access. We left there with very heavy hearts and lots of different thoughts swirling around our heads. So much to think about.

On Tuesday, we left for Kigali, Rwanda. The drive was long, but beautiful. Once we crossed the border, we started to drive on the right side of the road!! It felt like being back home!! The streets in Rwanda are BEAUTIFUL! No pot holes. There are lines on the road. There are traffic lights and pedestrian signals. People stop for pedestrians. It was AMAZING! Kigali is beautiful! It looks like a western city! It’s smaller than Kampala but super, super nice and so clean!!

Tuesday night we arrived pretty late, but had to go to two lectures. Our first one was on the gacaca courts. They are the traditional courts that have been reinstated and are used to try genocideres. There are 169,442 judges. These judges work on a volunteer basis, although they are given health insurance and when the courts are closed, they will be given $20, a medal and certificate of merit at a banquet and also a radio receiver. Pretty sweet. Some of the challenges the courts face are :

-Insecurity for the witnesses and survivors, judges, and even the files.

-Genocide Ideology: people are worried that speeches and acts will lead extremists to attempt another genocide.

-Trauma Cases: people are traumatized after the testimonies. These hearings are not simple traffic cases, but rather cases where your whole family has been murdered and tortured by your next-door neighbor. Intense. When they have trauma cases, they delay the cases and provide mental help and then restart the cases.

-Corruption: there is bribery and favoritism. The appeals courts work to correct these injustices.

-Transportation of prisoners to courts: the courts are held in the villages wehre the crime was committed. Many of these prisoners are housed in prisons far away and so they are having transportation issues.

After our next lecture on the Unity and Reconciliation Commission we headed off to bed.

Wednesday was a difficult day. I'll write more in the next post.

<3cm