Before I left I spent a good amount of time downloading music for my Ipod. Somehow I stumbled upon Abba's Greatest Hits and decided to download it because, hey, although it's never happened to me you never know when you might be in the mood to listen to Abba. This actually worked out really well because Uganda LOVES Abba ! Dancing Queen is everywhere...on the radio, in the clubs..you really can't get away from it. So one day I was hanging out with my buddy Jonah, who is ten and lives at the hospital where I've been staying. After one of our little Luganda/English exchange lessons I lent him my Ipod for the afternoon. He took it to the next room and shut the door. Within a few minutes I heard him belting out Dancing Queen at the top of his lungs( and not in tune, mind you). So now every night Jonah knocks on my door and says in his polite way of speaking Ugandan English "You give me that one that plays Dancing Queen", and then goes and rocks out in the next room. It makes me laugh every time.

The kids here are really great. I'm still amazed by the amount of responsibility they have. Sometimes I think a 5 year old has the same amount of responsibility as an 18 year old back at home. It's not uncommon to see a 4 or 5 year old carry their baby sibling through the village all day, or walking around with a sharp knife cooking dinner over a charcoal stove. And the 4 year old that helped me wash my clothes today definitely put my laundry skills to shame.

Just an update on the housing situation...I have a house ! But its not finished yet...hopefully next week though ! Its all about the patience...

Just a quick update on my house situation ! After having moved in to my amazing Ugandan mansion, and getting all unpacked and settled in...it turns out my pit latrine was full and I have to move out :( Granted the pit latrine is really discusting I really wish I could have stayed in this house. But I guess the other issue was that the man who used to live in the house passed away a few months ago, and it is tradition here in Uganda that the funeral is held at the house where the person used to live. I guess this whole process takes a few months, so there would be meetings in the house every Sunday. And in August the week long funeral would also be held at the house. It was really nice of the community to offer me the house though. They are such nice people and hopefully my new house will still be within this community ! So for now I'm homeless again. I'll keep you updated though !

May 17th, 2008

This last week has led me to believe that I'm really not such a toughie after all. I finally moved into my house, which is a different one than I had mentioned before. It's huge and rodent infested. The other day I was cleaning my house when I saw a cockroach about the size of my hand walk across my room. I was kind of hoping he would just turn around and walk out on his own, but of course that didn't happen. What did happen is that he crawled right into my suitcase. So I slammed open my windows, screaming like a little girl (and in dutch of course, because for some reason that's what I do when I'm scared) and threw the entire suitcase out the window. I turned around only to find it still crawling across my bedroom floor ! A few minutes later I repeated this whole process but then with a box. I didn't realize that a bunch of women from my community had been watching me this whole time until I went outside to collect my suitcase and box. So I just smiled and waved. Sometimes that's really all you can do when there is such a language barrier.

The next incident that happened was a little more scary. I was working at the clinic when my supervisor asked me to give nutrition counseling to a patient who had just had surgery for a peptic ulcer. I entered the room expecting to see a woman in her late twenties or so, since that's what most of our patients are. But instead it was a 15 year old boy who was so thin and malnourished that you could see every bone in his body and his heart beating through his chest. A few minutes into our conversation the doctor came to redress the boys wound. Normally this would make me really excited, but the more I looked at the boy I realized that I wasn't feeling all that great. You could tell he was in so much pain, and he had flies that kept landing on his face, which he wasn't swatting away. The whole situation reminded me of a commercial for starving children in Africa. When the doctor asked me to hand him a cotton ball I realized that everything around me was starting to go black, and I was seeing little stars. I knew I was going to pass out, so within about 3 seconds I decided to go over my options. I could either a)stay there and pass out or b) excuse myself and bolt over to the bathroom. I decided to go with option B since I realized option A would just be flat out inappropriate. Luckily I felt better after splashing some water in my face, and didn't pass out. After that I excused myself again and stuck to weighing babies for the rest of the day.

These past few weeks have been a little crazy. I took an unexpected trip back to Holland because my grandma, or Oma as I always called her, passed away. I really did not see this coming at all, especially since when I went to visit her in January she was doing great. So I flew back last week to go to her funeral. It was a beautiful ceremony and I'm sure she would have thought so too. Even though I stayed in her house last week without her there, it's really hard to imagine that I'll never see her again. She was probably the strongest woman I'll ever know, and she had a great sense of humor although I always wonder if she knew that herself. There are so many little things and memories that remind me of Oma, and I'm really going to miss her. But even though the reason I went to Holland last week was really sad, it was still really nice to see everyone again !

So now I'm back in Uganda and I'm not sure I have that many new stories to tell since I think I saw the majority of my blog readers last week :) It's nice to be back here though. As soon as I got back the two year old where I'm staying, who's name also happens to be Claudia, jumped into my arms yelling "no no no !". That's the only English she knows since that's what I always say to her when she goes through all my luggage.

Other than that I've been keeping pretty busy around here. I've also been working more in the clinic and I really enjoy it so far. I've been giving lectures to new moms about breastfeeding and nutrition (yay!). It's difficult sometimes though because a lot of times the mothers don't have access to proper nutrition and simply can't afford to eat more than one meal a day. So it's a lot different than how things are back at home. But the best part about this job is that when it's not busy I get to sit around and hold preemies ! There was this one little boy who weighs 1.6 kg that keeps coming back into the hospital because he keeps having all sorts of health problems. He's so tiny and his diaper comes up to his neck ! But anyway, during my free time I usually just sit around and hold him but it always bugged me that he didn't have a name. So before I left for Holland his mom asked me to name him. Of course my mind went blank, because I didn't want to give him just any name... The funny part is when I saw him yesterday he still didn't have a name because his mom had been waiting to name him after my brother ! So there you go Seb, there's now officially a baby named Sebastien in Uganda !

I'm officially a Peace Corps Volunteer now ! I'm still not living on my own yet though since my house isn't ready...but hopefully by next week they should have put in the ceiling and floor, and then I should be good to go ! Leaving homestay was a little more sad than I thought it would be. My host sister and I had a rather teary goodbye...maybe because she just figured out the night before that my name is Claudia, and not Quoria. The whole family had a good laugh about that one...and I was a little relieved that I wouldn't have to officially change my name to Quoria because no one could pronounce my real name. Really it was just another misunderstanding between me and my homestay family :)

So for the time being I'm staying with another family who lives near my village. Yesterday I decided to go explore a little bit, and when I couldn't find any store that sold toilet paper I was getting a little sad thinking this could make for a very long 2 years. I also wished I would have payed a little more attention during language class. But then all of a sudden I looked up and saw my friend JP waving at the other side of the road ! It was just so funny because I had no idea we were both staying in the same village !

In other exciting news I had a mango fly last week ! Mango flies are little flies that lay their eggs in your laundry when you hang it up to dry, and then hatch inside your skin after you put your clothes on. This can be avoided by ironing, but who are we kidding...we all know I never iron. So ofcourse, a mango fly came along and layed an egg in my underwear, and then the egg hatched on my rear end. So the nurse had to come and pop this little worm out of my buttcheek ! But hey, atleast now I can say I've had mango flies. Alrighty, my time is running up, but hopefully I'll be able to update again soon !

Sorry its been so long since I've last updated...but I haven't had reliable internet for about a month now...and when I typed this up a few weeks ago it wouldn't post...so I guess its better late than never !

March 29th, 2008

I'm in Kampala right now and I figured this would be a good chance to update my blog ! I just got done with my future site visit, and while it was rather uneventful everything is still looking pretty good. First off, I thought I would mention that the taxi ride here was not uneventful and usual did not fail to disappoint ! A group of us left the training site around 9 am, and everything was the same as always until we hit a traffic jam which was caused by a burning truck in the middle of the road. Our taxi decided not to wait in line for the traffic jam, or for the truck to stop burning, but instead drove right up to the truck to see what was going on ! There may have been a second or two that I feared for my life a little, since the truck was pretty much about to explode any second but then our driver happily put the petal to the metal and we were back on our way. So then a few minutes later the road was closed and we went off roading ( although is it still off roading if you were on a dirt road to begin with?) and it brought back fond memories of offroading through the state forest in my little Hyundai ( sorry mom) although this was a little more scenic. It actually reminded me a lot of a happy roller coaster ride, except minus the waterfall and massive drop at the end... So 2.5 hours later and only 35 kilometers down the road, I finally made it into Kampala with a massive bruise/bump on my forehead !

So what I found out these past few days is that I'm going to help develop a telecenter. It's going to be an internet cafe, library, ATM, post office, and lecture center all wrapped into one. That's my main project. Quite frankly I have no idea where to begin, but we'll see. Then on the side I'll be teaching new mothers about nutrition and basically just helping out at a birthing center. So all in all, even though everything seems a bit vague I'm still pretty enthusiastic about everything ! I also got to see my house for the first time on Wednesday. Although I'm not allowed to write about where exactly it is, it's definitely not in the middle of nowhere and I'm pretty close to a bunch of other volunteers ! But yeah, the house has two rooms and a washroom, electricity and running water ( yay!!) but no toilet or shower ( boo...). The running water still has to be installed in a few months, but its basically just a pipe in my yard so I don't have to walk a mile to go fetch my own water...This worked out pretty well considering my lack of upper body strength!

Just to change the subject a bit, a few of you have emailed and asked about the food situation, and I have to say it's pretty good ! Before I left I was pretty nervous I was going to have to eat meat here at some point, but luckily that has not been the case. It's really easy to be a vegetarian here, so I don't see it ever being a problem. I've been eating the same exact thing everyday, and am a little excited to be able cook for myself when I'm on my own. For dinner we always have matooke ( plaintains), casava, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, white rice, plain spaghetti, pineapple ( my favorite!!) sometimes beans, and sometimes G-nut sauce. I'm a huge fan of g-nut sauce. G-nuts may or may not be the same things as Peanuts. They taste the same, but for some reason turn purple when made into sauce. When I asked my language teacher if they were the same thing, she went on a half hour G-nut rant while at the same time explaining absolutely nothing. So is a G-nut the same as a Peanut ? I left language class that day more confused about the matter than I was going in...Also, between the MASSIVE amounts of matooke that I've been consuming and all the bananas on the side I eat about four bananas a day. This averages about 28 bananas per week, which is about the same amount of bananas I eat per year ( maybe 2) back in the states. I'll leave it up to your imagination what kind of an effect this has had on my digestive system :)

Believe it or not this is our last week of training ! Even though there were times that I thought training was never going to end, I'm a little sad that it's over ! I've made a lot of really good friends, and its going to be really weird being at site by myself and not having everything right around the corner 24/7 ! I really miss everyone at home so much, and I just wanted to thank everyone for all the letters and packages !! It really has made my day every time I got a letter, and once I get to site I'm going to start writing back...I promise !

So I've been in Uganda for a little over 3 weeks now (!?) and have to say I'm pretty much having the time of my life. So much has happened since I left I dont even know where to start ! So I guess I'll just start from the beginning...Before arrving in Uganda our plane was delayed in New York leaving all 60 of us in Belgium for 2 days ! It was pretty much like a little vacation, and ofcourse we managed to create complete chaos :)

Uganda is absolutely beautiful. So far I think I'm beginning to get used to things, but I definatley have a lot of moments that I'm like "wow I'm in Africa". Everytime I walk back to my homestay I'm greeted by like 20 little kids that come running out of their house yelling " bye muzungu !" I hear this pretty much everywyhere I go. Last weekend I went to go visit a volunteer a few hours away and had to take a taxi. Its so funny to see how many people you can cram into these. I think it can comfortably fit like 16 people or so, but so far my highest count has been 23...not counting the two crates of chickens in the back :)

Living with my host family is good and has definatley made for some interesting moments ! The family consists of a mom and a dad, a bunch of kids who are older and away at boarding school, and my 14 year old host sister Grace who likes to boss me around all day. I've gotten pretty good at peeling all sorts of vegetables ! But yeah, we live in a house that has no running water, but most of the time there is electricity. There are also alot of humorous misunderstandings that for some reason never seem funny at the time, but then leave me laughing histerically afterwards. Like the time my host sister asked me to clean my room. Basically I just stuffed all my trash in a plastic bag, thinking there would be like a dumpster or something to throw it out. So when my host sister took the bag of trash outside I really didnt think anything of it. Ten minutes later I went out into the compound only to find like 15 kids playing with all my trash ! I defineatley dont recommend doing this if you dont want little kids walking off with all your unmentionables :)

I'm also proud to announce that I've completely mastered bucket bathing and the pit latrine ! I've come a long way since my first day at homestay when my host mom gave me a bucket and a jerry can full of cold water...She laughed histerically when I asked her what to do, so I just tried to figure it out on my own. I then proceeded to stand IN the bucket, and pretty much walked around covered in a layer of soap for a few days. *sigh*

Also I have yet to encounter any huge insects ! I've seen a few cockroaches here and there, but nothing too bad. Although I'm pretty sure there is a rat that comes out at night and chews all the wood directly above my bed. All night I hear nothing but chewing and squeaking and then I wake up the next day with an insane amount of woodchips on top of my mosquito net :)

Training is also going pretty well...I'm learning the language Luganda, which is pretty tricky. I think because I've never heard anything that sounds even remotely like it before. We play a lot of games during language class to pass the time like enkoko enkoko embuzzi ! ( duck duck goose...but for some reason it got literally translated into chicken chicken goat.) Not gonna lie, this has helped me work chickens and goats into the majority of my sentences :) Other than that I've gotten pretty decent at greeting people and making small talk, which makes my walks to training in the morning all the more entertaining. We also have a lot of cultural, health and HIV/AIDS classes. So far I've been to visit 2 health clinics . Both were very eye opening and it was tough to see patients that were so sick from something that could be easily operated on at home, but theyre unable to do so here due to lack of resources. A few days ago I had to interview some people at the local Red Cross, and the next day they invited us back to watch some dance and drama performances. This was probably my favorite thing I've done so far ! The dances they put on were so good, it seriously brought tears to my eyes ! These kids here def know how to shake it :)

So on Wednesday we get out site assignments, so then I'll finally know what job I'll be doing and where I'll be living ! I miss everyone like nuts, and hopefully I'll be able to update again soon, the internet was down here for a while...Til next time !

I only have 12 days left until I leave for UGANDA !! I know it will be here in no time, so I just wanted to create some sort of website to keep my family and friends updated on my adventures. Hopefully I'll be able to update this from time to time and upload some pictures, but I'm not too sure what kind of internet access I'll have. * keeping fingers crossed*

Anyway, on Sunday February 10th, I leave for Philadelphia for staging. This is where I'll meet the other 61 volunteers, get some more Peace Corps info, and receive the rest of my shots. Then on the 12th we fly from New York to Belgium, then to Burundi, then to Uganda. For some reason this makes me really excited :) During training, which lasts between two or three months I'll be living with a host family. After that I'll hopefully be sworn in as a volunteer and then I'm off to live on my own !

So what will I be doing, you ask ? I'll be working as a community health volunteer... Although I'm still not sure what I will be doing specifically, I was told over the phone that since I was a nutrition major I'll be doing nutrition education for people living with AIDS and also for mothers and babies. The Peace Corps pamphlet also says that I'll be training trainers from government and community based organizations to improve their skills to plan and implement participatory educational programs for community health workers. These trainings may emphasize newer and more accurate information and improved methods of teaching nutrition, life skills, preventative health care, behavioral modification, management of HIV/AIDS, basic sanitation and reproductive health.So we'll just have to wait and see....

Oh, and for those of you who would like to become my pen-pal for the next 2 years here is my address (we all know how much I love snail mail!) Its only for the time that I'm in training, so I'll have to update it when I get my new address.

Claudia Quintas, PCT

U.S. Peace Corps

P.O. Box 29348

Kampala, Uganda.

I also just wanted to thank everyone for coming to my going away party this weekend ! It was so nice to be able to see everyone before I leave !