Happy 1 Year in Uganda!

Uganda, it seems like just yesterday we found out you would be our home for the next 27 months. This past year has been one great adventure after another. From your beautiful green hillsides covered with matooke trees in the west that is now our home, to the dry, flat north, eastward following the source of the mighty Nile, down to the beautiful mountains of the south, you are one magnificent country. You have shared your love of pit latrines over western toilets; the village ones with squares so small a certificate in aim should be awarded first.  You have shown that allergies come in all shapes and sizes from mangoes to plants or all of you as a whole. Diarrhea is not a general term, oh no, you have taught us to know better than that. You have shown us showers are not a necessity, nor is being able to bath in your home or in a sheltered room for that matter. The variety of foods you offer is in bounty, but you have shown you only need loads of carbohydrates to survive. Your ways of cooking are simple yet require patience and much needed attention; a sagiri can be your friend or your worst enemy.  You have made us appreciate the value of water and how scarce it really is.  You have introduced us to amazing people; our neighbors, our co-worker, our friends. This past year has been amazing, and we look forward to this next year with you our friend. 

Love, Ashley & Matt

Youth Club!

After being in country for nearly one year, things are finally starting to come together for us. In the Peace Corps world, they say it takes that first year to integrate and find your place and the second year is when the magic begins to start. After Ashley attended a regional youth technical training with a local youth, Matt's counterpart's son, they started developing the idea to start a youth club at his secondary school. The result, after being granted permission by the head teacher and selecting leaders, a training of leaders was held for two weekends. The three youth selected, are comprised of two males and one female aged 15-17. They were trained in facilitation, communication, various health topics and life skills. At the end of the two weeks the club/program was born, The Youth Health and Life Skills Program. 

And on Friday the 29th of May, the group held its first official introductory meeting for the 30 secondary students selected to participate. The leaders who have 100% control over the meetings, Ashley is only there as a resource and support, decided to structure it as a program, allowing students to participate for 2 terms, after which they will graduate and choose 3-4 members among them to lead the next terms program. 

1st-Information Meeting

This by far, has been a one of the most inspiring things I have seen, as the youth have just blown me away with their leadership skills and their knowledge and confidence on the subjects. 

Looking forward to seeing them grow even more!

Sabinyo, Rwanda & Gorillas! - Part II

RWANDA

Kigali-Nyanza-Gisenyi

Without giving our bodies, which were extremely sore the next morning, a chance to rest, we hired a car and headed 15 minutes out towards the Rwandan  border. After doing all the border paperwork, and getting our interstate passes for free entry into the country, we boarded a taxi and headed to the capital, Kigali. 

What to say about Rwanda.. , better yet, not what to say. All in all, it is very well organized, with buses with actual routes that run, the people are very nice, and the towns are very, very clean. We spent the next few days exploring the capital.


Highlights:

The genocide museum, hands down the best either of us has been to and is a must see. 

We took a day trip to Nyanza, south of Kigali, and visited the National Art Museum and Cultural Museum. The Cultural Museum is at the home of the last king of Rwanda and houses lots of artifacts as well as recreations of traditional royal huts.

After a few days we headed west to the tip of Lake Kivu to the Congo/Rwanda border town of Gisenyi. 

Guesthouse in Gisenyi - Discovery Guest House

Lake Kivu

BWINDI-UGANDA

Closing out our trip, we headed back to Kisoro for our last adventure. The guys were so beat from our action packed vacation and decided not to join our final trek. 

So the next morning at 5 am sharp, we headed out to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park to go gorilla trekking. The usual price for trekking in Uganda is around $500 during high season. Since it was rainy season (low season), the treks were discounted to $350 and with our residence permits $300. 

At the base camp, we received a debriefing and were sorted into our groups. We were considered a medium trek group, they have short, medium and long treks that you have the option to request but they normally gauge by looking at your group. Our group was made up of another Peace Corps Volunteer and her mother and a group of older Italian men.

The trek is what it says, a literal trek. You start off on a path and as you get closer to the family the guide will start slashing away and lead you down and up the hillsides.  They recommend wearing long pants, which of course we did not have on, to avoid the stinging plants that can burn your skin for up to 30 minutes. A trek wouldn't be a trek without safari ants spanning an entire section of the trail. This is the section were we literally almost pushed past the guides as we tried to keep our legs from remaining idle too long. For those of you unfamiliar to safari ants, they are mean suckers. They attach on to you and bite, you literally have to pull each on off. The last stretch required us to literally climb up the forested hillsides grabbing on to vines and tree trunks to pull ourselves up.

Bwindi National Park

Trekking for Gorillas

Finally, we caught up with the gorillas! We trailed behind the back up of the group.  His size was nothing like I expected; he towered over us when we walked on his back two feet. At one point, giving us a fair warning we were following too long/close, he let out a roar and stood on his back two feet. Of course, I was at the front of the group and felt my heart skip a few beats as I grabbed leaves and pretended to eat them, something the guides had prepped us on. I had never imagined to be  as close as were were as he led us into a clearing where the family of 16 sat in the trees searching for berries. In total, we trekked a little over 9 miles and it was well worth it to see this amazing creatures in their natural habitat. 

The next morning our adventure ended as we headed to the bus at 4:45 only to wait for the 5 am bus to depart at 6 am. Finally around  9 pm we were greeted with our amazing neighbors and back at home.

More Pictures Coming Soon!

Sabinyo, Rwanda & Gorillas! - Part I

These past few weeks have been hectic, challenging and somehow relaxing.  Ashley attended a week training of trainers to prepare for the new volunteers arriving early June and has been busy getting lesson plans ready. Matt has been busy planning for the next quarterly HIV testing event. All of this while we have been trying to prepare everything for our first visitors from the U.S.! , and in the middle of all this we decided to take our first vacation since arriving almost 1 year ago. 

KISORO, UGANDA 

We traveled with another volunteer and her boyfriend who is visiting from the U.S. Our first stop was Kisoro in southwestern Uganda. Being a vacation, aka, not a time for resting, we decided to get the most out of the trip. We took the boys up a trail we did last October that overlooks Lake Mutanda and headed to the lake to do some canoeing. Somehow everyone but Ashley, who was lucky enough to be handed a paddle, was able to relax as they were guided across the lake. 

Lake Mutanda

On Lake Mutanda-Center most mountain-Mt. Sabinyo

The next day we decided to try our luck at hiking/climbing/crawling, basically any way we could to get up Mt. Sabinyo. 

Mt Sabinyo is one of the three distinct volcanoes that can be seen in Kisoro, and unlike its neighbors, it has multiple peaks, the second being shared with Rwanda, and the third at 3,645m (11,959ft) shared by Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

Mt Sabinyo-Starting our Journey 

We started our journey around 6am packed lunches in tow and made our way to the park entrance. Being rainy season, we really did not know what to expect. The sky was overcast and there was a chill in the air, but we decided we would take our chances. Once we arrived we were introduced to our guides, one armed just in case we ran into any forest elephants (to scare them away) and the other to serve as a guide. We were given the option to hire a local porter, who carries your bags for a small fee, which we decided to do and are very happy we did. Once we all had our walking sticks in hand we set out a little before 8am. 

The beginning of the trek takes you through old farm land that has been reclaimed by forest. As you trek deeper the forest turns into a bamboo forest that thickens and the ground becomes your enemy. The trail turns from a solid dirt path to a mushy boggy mud that has the potential of swallowing your legs whole. This is where the sticks and the ability to balance on small logs and stones comes in handy. Somehow regardless of how careful we were, we still ended up with soaking wet shoes and mud to our ankles. Further up the trail, the landscape changes drastically into what looks like something out of a story book. 

Bamboo Forest

Trying not to fall in the mud

Enchanted Forest

After the enchanted forest, we started our ascent up the first peak and were introduced to our friends, the lovely ladders. They really aren't that bad. In fact, Ashley discovered that literally climbing/crawling up them made it faster and not tiring.

Once we arrived at the first peak, we took a few minutes to look around. The clouds from the early morning had cleared up giving us great views. 

Once we caught our breaths, it was time to head down the first peak and start our journey up the second. We were challenged with more ladders and for those of us afraid of heights (Ashley and Matt), were challenged by our nerves and weak legs. The path itself is not too narrow, but peaking over the side makes it appear to shrink to the size made for one extremely skinny person. At the top of the second peak the views were even more incredible. To the left, the mountain slopped down with thick forest and rolling hills into Rwanda. To the right, the thick forested mountain led down into a beautiful valley surrounded by tiny mountains that were at one time volcanoes themselves. 

Our Friends-The Ladders

At Peak #2

Then it happened. We looked ahead and saw ladders. Ladders that looked completely vertical the entire way up. We were done, plain and simple. Our friend, determined to make it to the top, headed up the last peak with the guide as the rest of us sat and enjoyed our lunch. Do wish we had did the last peak? Yes, it would have been nice, but seeing the straight up ladders was a deal breaker....clouds would have helped at this point.

Our friend headed to the 3rd peak

Usually it takes an average of five hours to go up the trail and three hours to make it back down. We were able to make decent time and made it back at the car around 6pm with not a single drop of rain. Not bad for just a couple of average explorers.