June 19th

The last few days have been absolutely crazy and busy. We've been traveling to many of villages surrounding Lake Bunyonyi (which, also, I found out means "lake of many tiny birds". I think). These are the villages we've visited (some multiple times):

Burimba

Mugyera

Kyabahinga

Kagunga

Kagarama

Bugandaro

Mutaba

Kifuka

Bufuka

Kabungo

Mukoni

Rutinda

I just think the names are fun and interesting. Let's see...some things that have been going the last few days.. we've been all over the lake, by boat, on foot, by boda (my first boda boda ride!) Tavia and I have taken to calling the hills we've been hiking "African switchbacks" because we've determined that in Africa they don't actually have switchbacks. The path just goes straight up. And here we are huffing and puffing our way up and women are walking next to us carrying giant jugs of water on their heads with babies on their backs. Women do everything with babies on their backs, including all the agricultural labor. To see a woman working the land (land which she herself is probably not able to own) with an infant strapped to her back is truly a sight to see. How strong and powerful they are, but how little power and respect they are given. 

What else can I tell you? The majority of the feedback from locals we've received so far about mental health largely centers around alcohol. It's everywhere and it's cheap. Even walking down the main road in the village you can see the men huddled in a room drinking in the morning, while the women are out working. It's a frustrating thing to see, especially because, as I said before, only Africa can help Africa. People can't come in here and change it. So how do we get the men involved to be the ones to change Africa? We met the director of a vocational school yesterday, a school which he started with the intention of bringing more girls into education, and he said: "When you educate a boy, you educate an individual. When you educate a girl, you educate a nation." 

That was really powerful to hear from him. 

More vocab (as best I can figure out):

Tugende: (tu-gen-day): Let's go! 

Webale: (way-ba-lay): Thank you

Cale: (cah-lay): Bye, okay

Muzungu: (moo-zoon-gu) white person (what gets shouted at us everywhere we go)

Entusi: (did I tell you this one already?) Eucalyptus 

Greeting locals with "agande" and responding with "nije" has been really fun because some of the villagers completely light up when you address them in their own language. Although that's pretty much the only kind of conversation we are able to have, it is still a pretty amazing interaction.

All in all, this week has been a busy one. 

We have conducted and transcribed 20 interviews; visited 12 different villages; seen schools, health centers, churches and homes; met teachers, headmasters, directors, nurses, reverends, priests, children, and families; gone into Kabale town twice; traveled on foot, by boat, canoe and boda; filled out about 20 visitor's books; experienced the sun, the rain, the wind and most of all the mud (only one major tumble down and one splinter, which I dug out just how my father always showed me); visited Punishment Island; drank about 50 cups of coffee (not coffee really, Nescafe); gone through every item of clothing we both own; and been called muzungu more times than I can count. 

As I sit here now, it's about 4:30 in the afternoon on Friday, and we have 2 more interviews to complete and transcribe, and then our interviewing should be concluded! YAY!! All that is left now is to organize and compile the data and write a brief about our research and our recommendations. We will spend the majority of next week doing that, except for Thursday in which we will be visiting a public health nurse at his local clinic. We are then hosting a gathering at Entusi for all the people who were trained in the Mental Health Facilitation on June 29th and are expecting around 20-25 people to attend. At that time, our practicum hours should be completed and we head back up to Kampala on July 1st! 

Tonight, Tavia and I decided to bring a little tradition here from home, so later this evening we will be celebrating the end of our interviewing week with wine, popcorn, chocolate, and a movie. They have a projector system here so we have been able to watch a few movies together with the staff, which has been really awesome. So far we've seen JAWS and Raiders of the Lost Ark- two movies from my childhood (no, JAWS should not be a movie from anyone's childhood, but we're going to go ahead and blame my brother for that one).

It's been such an amazing and exhausting experience, and whenever I'm getting too tired or frustrated I have to stop and remind myself that Tavia and I are actually conducting our own field research in a rural area of East Africa. How incredible and humbling to be able to say that. 

Pictures coming next!