Marathon Meetings

Attend a meeting in Uganda and after its completion you will feel as if you just completed one of your most enduring adventures, such as a marathon.  Unlike America, where meetings tend to get in and get out and have a start and end time, the ones in Uganda are open for anything.

At my previous site I never attended a meeting.  Fellow Volunteers would constantly tell me how lucky I am but I felt like I was missing out on an experience. 

Boy was I right.

Since moving, I have attended four meetings.  Four very long meetings. 

I acknowledge the cultural difference between America and Uganda and those that contribute to the difference in how meetings are ran.  Let me tell ya though, I am fearing that I am not going to make it through the approximately 74 meetings I have left here.

First off, meetings typically start on African time.  In America there is the saying, “Early is on time, on time is late, and late is never acceptable.”  Hence people show up fifteen minutes early to work, meetings, and events.  You wouldn’t want to be the person who strolls into your work meeting late with a coffee in one hand, rummaging through their bag for a pen and paper.

Well here this is a-okay.

For example todays meeting was to start at 2:00p.  I ended my lunch early to return to the office at 1:50p and I should have known better.  The meeting started at 3:30p.  Refer to Time Is (Not) of The Essence for more on that.  The ironic part of the meeting was that the director talked about being prompt.  I will be astounded the day when anything starts on time.

Every meeting has to be accompanied by an agenda, typically with time allotted for each point.  Now as you have come to probably realize, the times are never followed.  An agenda somehow resembles the following:

1.  Prayer

2.  Roll call

3.  Approval of agenda

4.  Reading of previous week’s minutes

5.  Questions or concerns of previous week’s minutes

6.  Communication from director

7.  Communication from accountant

8.  Communication from secretary

9.  Communication from PCV

10.  Reactions and remarks

11.  Closing prayer

No matter the number of people present, agendas like this are the standard. 

Oh and this doesn’t take into account the time breaks you have to take for snacks and tea, short call, and accommodate the needs of the patients.

And always take the snack because you never know when your next meal will be.

In the office the meetings are spoken in English.  Thank the Lord.  For the sensitizations conducted in the villages, of which I have attended many, they are conducted in Runyankore then translated for me in English.  Many of the village people do not understand English well so they want to accommodate everyone in attendance.  I can pick up the local words here and there but not enough to know exactly what is going on.  Despite my best efforts to look attentive, I tend to lose concentration and instead daydream about America and what to cook for dinner.

Moving on to mobile phones.  Remember in 10^th grade history class when your cell would accidently ring?  Fellow students would snicker and laugh while Mrs. D would shoot you the most disapproving look.  Well here you can hear the vibrations of people’s mobile while the tune of “I’m A Barbie Girl” plays, indicating an incoming call.  Now you may think that this person would just let the call go but instead they pick it up to have a full-fledged conversation or they pretend no one heard it and quietly answer it.  One of the reasons this is widely accepted in Uganda is that you pay for the airtime it takes to call someone but not to receive a call.

Given these differences, there are plenty of times during the meeting where I just want to shake my head.  Instead I have started to identify ways to maintain my mind. 

Examples include writing to do lists, doodling, playing tic-tac-toe by myself to learn new tricks, and planning my next health education talk or life skills lesson.

Note: I only partake in the above when the topic does not pertain to my position.

I am looking forward to the day where I can attend meetings in America but I’ll confess… I may show up hours late, answer a call, daydream about the good ole days of Uganda, and request tea.

Eat Your Greens

We all know that an apple a day keeps the doctor away and that we should drink anywhere from one to three liters of water a day.  With all these tips to keep in mind, some people forget the importance of greens in their diet.

Uganda does offer overcooked leafy greens that somehow have no taste.  Now if you prepare them with a little garlic, onion, and tomato and make sure not to overcook them they are quite delicious.  Plus they are full of fiber, iron, and vitamins.  Unfortunately many Ugandans consider greens a poor people’s food so you will not always find it readily available.

Well lucky for me, I will be eating my greens on a regular basis.  Located about 45 minutes west of me in Rubirizi District is The Cave.  I have yet to go to The Cave but what I do know is that the man who works there, David, has fresh produce ranging from cherry tomatoes, spinach, broccoli, and a wide assortment of herbs. 

Now thanks to the extensive Peace Corps network, I was put in contact with David.  Clair, a fellow PCV who lives close to me, and I put in our order, and boy did he follow through!  He delivered a gigantic box full of fresh herbs and vegetables, some of which I am having to Google to figure out what they are.  

I called David to express my thanks and he was incredibly appreciative and humble.  I told him that I wanted to pay him more as he only charged Clair and I a total of 10,000 Ugandan Shillings, or $3.77 USD.  He insisted that it is his pleasure and that it was no problem. 

I anticipate that this is only the beginning to my regular delivery of greens.

This is only half of the goodies and doesn’t include the cherry tomatoes, which seriously taste like candy.

Apples

You never know what questions children are going to ask or what comments they will say when giving a health talk. 

You have to be prepared for anything.

For example, back in October I gave a health talk at a secondary school with two other Volunteers.  A student asked the following, “Isn’t it true that syphilis started with the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Japan”.  We stood there with the blankest of looks on our faces.

This past week I helped a fellow PCV give a couple health talks at a primary and secondary school, with our main focus being nutrition. 

Side note: The ages of the students range drastically because not everyone can afford the school fees so often you will find a ten year old in P4 sitting next to a fourteen or fifteen year old.  Nonetheless, primary school can be compared to kindergarten to seventh grade and secondary school is from seventh grade to your senior year in high school. 

Back to the story.  We arrive at the primary school and are welcomed by about 160 children, eagerly waiting to listen to the muzungus.  During the talk we addressed the three food groups in Uganda, grow, glow, and go.  Grow foods are your starches and give you energy.  Glow foods are your fruits and vegetables and are full of vitamins and minerals, plus they tend to give your skin a healthy glow.  Go foods are your proteins.  I then focused my part on the importance of consuming a wide variety of food and to eat foods of different colors.  The children were very active, as their participation was rewarded with a pen. 

Towards the end of the lesson we allowed some time for clarification and questions.  Now I want to remind you that some of the students in attendance were about four years in age.  Sitting up in the front was the cutest little boy, who was jumping up and down with something to say.  His turn finally came and all he said was, “apples”.  Over and over and over again.  As a facilitator we responded by saying, “Yes, apples are good for you.  They are full of healthy sugars and vitamins.”  This small child was clearly not satisfied with our answer because he kept raising his hand.  We continued to call on him after addressing other questions and all he said was “apples.”  He is lucky that he is so darn cute and attentive.

As we left the school the children lined the fence and through the wood slats you could see their smiling faces and hear them shouting in unison, “Abazungu bye, abazungu bye, abazungu bye!”

Abazungu is plural for muzungu, which by this point you hopefully know means white person.