Newspaper Article

http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/20120629/KAMLOOPS0101/120629746/-1/kamloops/student-returns-from-africa-internship-inspired-by-camaraderie-yet

Connecting with Uganda

What did I eat? How do people live off of $1.25 a day? Join my team as we recreate the average week of eating in Uganda. It is called the Global Solidarity Challenge and it is organized by the organizatin that sent me to Uganda as a Health and Women's Empowerment Intern:
http://solidarity.videa.ca/videaday/participantpage.asp?uid=3101&fundid=1731#.T-u3sEchVNc.facebook

Some days being back in Canada feels like Utopia..other days I wonder how many diferent types of bread do Canadians really need?

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Want to donate medical supplies and textbooks to a good cause?

Send them to a new midwifery and nursing school in Kyteume, Uganda and empower countless students to learn and care for their own communities and tackle the millenium development goals.

This new universty has the necessary buildings, teachers and infastrucure but is lacking the necessary books to begin enrolling students. They tried to purchase textbooks from the U.K but each book will cost the 800 pounds to be sent over. Donate supplies and books for their library to:
...
Hope Integrated Academy
35KM Masaka-Mbarara Rd
P.O. Box 1220
Masaka – Uganda

Bea part of sustainable healthcare development!

First thoughts upon Returning to Canada

1. Why do young Canadian men dress like slobs? They have money to dress up and yet they look like a serious haircut and shirt tucking is in order.

2. Who are all these Muzungus and what are their stories?

3. Noone is asking me who I am, they just want to take my order :(

4. Hot baths are amazing.

5. I love my washer and dryer laundry machines.

6. Everyone is in a hurry and they are stressing themselves out.

7. People are not finishing their meals and enough food to feed a child is being thrown away.

8.

DAVID: Kirsten,do you want to go out for a walk?

ME: No, it is almost dark. (PAUSE) Oh...I guess it is safe to go for a walk in the dark here, isn't it?

9.
HOST MOTHER WENDY: Just go into the grocery store and pick a loaf of bread.

ME: *Stares at 40 identical loafs of whole grain brown bread for 10 minutes.*

HOST MOTHER WENDY:  *takes a picture of the confused woman and picks a loaf of bread.*

10. HOST MOTHER WENDY: What would you like for dinner tonight? Fish, chicken, steak?

ME: Ummm...could I just have some porridge please?

Canada

Uganda

Reintegration Culture Shock

Leaving Uganda on June 16th from Entebbe Airport at 12:00 am was a different experience than arriving four months earlier on Feburary 12th. I did not mind waiting in line, did not have any anxiety about finding my gate or having all my important papers in place. Maybe I was still running on 'Ugandan time' or it could have been the fact that the airport only has four gates and my yellow fever vaccination papers were unecessary to re-enter Canada. I think the real reason is that my best friend Caroline had stuffed a letter in to my bag and I was reading it in the lineup.

Leaving the community of Kytegyme had filled me with a great saddness. Fortunetly Caroline hadtold me that I had to go back to Canada because I hadimportant things to do, and once I had finished university then I should come back. So I stood at the airport knowing that although I loved the community, my new friends and family, going back was necessary.

Walking beyond security was a culture shock in itself, just beyong the checkpoint were aisles and stores full of alcohol, make-up and magazines. I stood in front of the display window for cosmetics admiring the new colours and products. As I walked past a wall of fashion magazines I realized four months is a long enough time for me to miss Jessica Simpson having a baby, men to start wearing rolled up pant legs and no socks and for belly shirts to become the new rage.
Almost immediately after sitting down I watched two incredibly blond women, a mother and daughter, stomp towards the door. Their quick gait was enough to catch my attention as people in Uganda tend to saunter while they move. On a number of occassions I have been told I walk like a soldier and have since then tried to slow down my pace. They approached a security guard and without asking how he was, proceeded to  yell about their dogs accomodations, who was being taken on the airplane. It struck me that a dog was being taken on a plane, a privilege few people have and I knew I really was going back to Canada now.

Quick Trips and Long Stays

There are two different types of volunteer experiences I have seen in Uganda; the people that come to be part of the community and those that come to do a quick project and leave. There is a saying in Uganda, “Not all visitors are good and not all who travel to aid others are welcome.”

Many people travel to countries like Uganda and think they have all the knowledge and they will be helping a community. Those people are sorely misinformed and will quickly realize that they will be helped as much as they help others. Helping another community requires understanding the community and their needs which requires living in that community and building connections for a minimum of 4 months. Helping is more about friendship and solidarity than “helping the unfortunates.” The longer you stay in a community the better you will realize this and have a greater chance of a life changing experience.

The other type of volunteer comes with a plan to help the community and works long hours, rushing everyone along to meet their own goals and deadlines. Due to time restraints of volunteering for a week to a month, they do not get involved in the community or make many relationships. Usually just by the time they get over their culture shock and would start to engage with the community or adjust to community standards of living they return to their countries. I have found in my experience that these people usually remain unchanged and go back to their countries thinking the same things and having the same values as when they came

To illustrate my point lets think about water use: I have met people that have walked over 20km to collect clean drinking water. I collect water with a jerry can from a tap for my laundry and bathing needs. Water, to me, now is a precious resource and a privilege. I will never again in my life waste water with a long shower. You can get just as clean with a one minute shower as you can with a 40 minute one. A team of volunteers have recently joined us for the past 3 weeks and when asked about water they commented that they would go home and have the longest shower of their life and enjoy every minute of it because they had lots of water in their country. So what life lesson have they learned?  They may come to do an incredible project like water sanitation or health care but if they treat the local community members as a disadvantaged people and not equals they will not be welcome back.

Four Months is a Long Time

I came out of the house and was greeted by a pair of the whitest male legs I have ever seen. I started to giggle, then laugh then lose my cool completely. In-between my manic giggling I apologized profusely “I am sorry, it has just been a really long time since I have seen a male Muzungus legs.” Reid, the American Engineering without Borders student stood in his bright red short shorts and long white tube socks and shook his head at me. I am sure there are many complex psychological reasons as to why I was laughing and any psychology students reading this would probably agree. Mostly though, no one bares their knees in Uganda and since everyone I see has black skin, his legs seemed to be quite the oddity.

The Life of Britney Spears

Being a Muzungu in Uganda is like being Britney Spears; everyone knows your name, relationship status, eating habits, comments on your clothes and feels drawn to stare at you and might even follow you around like paparazzi.

There is not room to have an “off day” and not smile or say hello to every single person that yells out “Muzungu!” There are not many international foreigners in Uganda, much less Caucasian visitors, so it is important to be on your best behaviour because you are an ambassador for your country, whether you realize it or not. Usually I am fine with the attention but sometimes when I am really tired it feels very overwhelming and I want to hide. Usually this happens when I am talking to my mom on the phone and have three small children following me or when I exercise in the mornings and children forget they are supposed to walk to school and instead sit down to watch me.  Being a minority can be a good or bad experience depending on where you go. Muzungs are thought to have lots of money and  volunteer in Uganda which thankfully is a reputation that makes me feel welcome in the community.

It is an interesting experience being a visible minority. In Uganda I live in a village with only two other aboriginal interns and our skin makes it impossible to blend into any crowd. Repeated cries of “Bye Muzungu, Bye!” from small children remind me that I look different than everyone else. If getting followed by children while I walk, talk on the phone, eat, breathe... does not let me know that I am different there is always the language barrier. The official language of the country may be English but everyone speaks Lugandan and few people can speak English fluently.  I also get charged “Muzungu prices” for items and can be asked to pay many times more than another person would.

I had a funny experience in a taxi coming home from Masaka when the Conductor asked for 4,000 shillings for the ride. I knew the ride only cost 3,000 shillings and so did everyone else in the taxi but they were keeping quiet. “Neda Conductor, Oohle moulaloo? Masaka n Mbarara 3,000 shillings!” (No sir, Are you crazy? The price from Masaka to Mbarara is 3,000 shillings!) I argued. Everyone started laughing and copying what I had said, they were so surprised that I could speak Lugandan and I knew the correct price. Even the Conductor smiled at me and took the correct change.

I went into town one day and a man came up to me and said "Are you here to buy Cassava again? You always buy so much, you must really like it." As he was talking I was staring at his face, trying to remember where I knew him from. Quite often people use my name even when we have never met before and then introduce themselves once our conversation ends.

Another time I spent two days organizing, decorating and working as an usher seating 1,000 guests for a party for John Marie’s Priesthoods Ordination Ceremony. At lunchtime I was exhausted and sat down. Someone took my picture and it ended up on facebook where people I did not know were discussing my facial expression and trying to figure out my emotions. Facebook is like a tabloid magazine! I commented, shocked that this boring picture of me would be posted and cause so much conversation. I suppose that happens when you are Britney Spears a Muzungu.