Into Africa: Tell Me Something Good

20 February 2017

Le sigh. It has come to be that time. That in between time of “What am I even still doing here?” mixed with “I can’t believe this is almost over.” Yes, readers, it’s the time of Senioritis, and it’s spread quickly around the village. With less than 5 months left, the end is in sight which means it’s time to kick it into gear with finishing clubs, projects, ambitions, you know. That stuff.

And while it’s hard not to get bogged down with the daunting tasks of work, things going on back home that are spinning out of control, and still being called “muzungu” in your own village, it’s also time to remember the good stuff. Sometimes I’ll call a friend here with just the statement, “Tell me something good.” Because when you’re down, and I mean down on the concrete (the only cool part of my house), something good is all you want to hear. It’s easy to spiral as a grassroots level volunteer. The counterpart on your library project moves schools, the carpenter for your project doesn’t complete his work, it doesn’t rain for months which cripples your community, things back home seem all but hopeless (yet still spin on without you), street harassment is an all-time high, and your coworkers who have known you for nearly 2 years keep asking questions like, “So, what work are you doing here?” Bogged down.

Neil Pasricha has a blog called “1000 Awesome Things.” Every day, another awesome thing was posted 1000 days in a row. Things like pulling warm clothes out of the dryer and immediately putting them on, getting free refills without even asking, or being first in the checkout line. Most of these awesome things don’t apply to my life here. So I think it’s important to think of the awesome things that are relevant to my day to day life. Maybe not 1000 things, but at least a chunk. Because when you forget them, you get bogged down. And when you’re bogged down, it’s hard to get back up.

To my fellow #cohortbest: you can do it. Focus on the awesome in your lives and in yourselves.

#1. Meeting Sylivia’s new baby: I have a namesake in the world. Theo Kelly Blessing (Baganda name to come later). My closest friend Sylivia delivered a beautiful baby boy, and he and I will always be a part of each other’s lives.

Look at this little nugget

#2. Rain at night: Just recently – within the past week – it has started raining. The last time it rained like this was before I can remember. Maybe before August. It’s the kind of rain that wakes me up and makes me realize that I have a fluffy cat curled up next to me. That’s something I don’t mind waking up to at all.

#3. Katende Steven: Easily the best person I know in Uganda. Steven will always go out of his way for me. I trust him with my life. He’s always around to run errands for me or just sit around to share a watermelon he got for free at the market. And in turn, I’m there for him, usually if he’s sick. Since I’m staff, I get free medicine at the health center which was helpful when Steven had malaria. If he’s working on a cold day, he’ll come over, say, “I’m dying,” and we’ll have tea until he warms back up. Once I was teaching at Kasaali Health Center II when it started pouring rain. He drove over with a sweatshirt for me because he figured I would be cold and didn’t bring a jacket. He’s my best friend, and it breaks my heart to have to leave him come July.

Tea on a cold day

#4. Small victories: Mom brought me down from my “I’m going to save the world,” mentality by saying, “The change you make will be one person at a time.” I’ve said it before, and she’s right. Moms usually are. A small victory can be getting a part of a project done, like getting a new coat of paint in the library. It can be having a successful club meeting where the girls’ post-test scores improved over the health topic we discussed that day. Sometimes a victory is just sitting outside talking with your neighbors about a joke or upcoming work or plans. My favorite little victory is when Brenda and Benja come over to read. We’ll sit together and pour over cardboard books that I’m putting in the library. They like the pictures. I like that they like books.

Fresh coat of white paint. Coming along

Maria, Brenda, and Benja walking home after an afternoon of reading

#5. Plot 99: Our Saturday hangout. Saturdays usually consist of a trip into Masaka anyway, but knowing I have some awesome friends to meet up with for quiet chats and a glass of wine around 4:30 each week is something awesome to look forward to. Plus, their tomato soup and peanut butter pies are pretty bomb. Oh, and now there’s yoga, too, which kicks my butt but keeps me fit.

#6. Linda: Linda coming to visit was like coming up for air. To think my best friend in the world was able to come here, meet my friends, hang out with her extended family, and really see the work I’m doing in Biikira was, well, awesome. I’m so thankful to have friends and family who are willing to make the seemingly overwhelming trip out to see me even for a week. The best part was when we were at my site; it was like we were at one of our houses back home. Nothing had changed. We would drink wine, binge a TV show, gossip about old high school stories, but we could finally do those things in the same place. She got me out of my extended funk of coming back after being home for holiday, and I’m getting her kitenge pillow cases. You’re welcome.

I've got her back in any country (super cheesy?)

#7. Local food: This one’s weird because I don’t always want it, and it’s not always awesome. But somedays there’s just a craving for matooke and cow peas. Not often, but it’s there. Or rice and beef with avocado on top. It’s cheap, it’s readily available, and it hits the spot.

#8. Cohort best/the job: Last weekend was a girls’ weekend for Mackenzie and Janet’s birthdays. A bunch of girls came in from out of town to celebrate. We got to have a heart-to-heart circle over some wine and cheese when one girl stated how hard this job is. Some days it’s a job just to leave the house and be exposed and vulnerable in a culture that’s not our own. This job is also amazing. We get to do things that many people only dream about. We get to share our culture with Ugandans, and later, share Ugandan culture with Americans. Those are goals 2 and 3. We get so stuck on Goal 1 sometimes (being ambassadors from America who bring sustainable change to our communities) that we forget that Goals 2 and 3 are actually more important. The thing is, we can’t really put Goals 2 and 3 in our reporting forms, so the pressure is on Goal 1. But she’s right. Sharing culture, getting to experience it on the grassroots level, and bringing it back home is a dream only some of us get to live out. That’s easy to forget, too. But we are an amazing cohort who have faced a lot of challenges during our time here. The support we get from one another keeps us going, and we should be proud of ourselves.

COS is coming up in April and I DON'T KNOW IF I'M READY.

#9. Bilbo: Who doesn’t love my cat? Really, I want to know. This little ball of white fluff and I have bonded in a way that when I lovingly pull him into my lap, he will sometimes lick my forehead and then claw his way out of my arms. On rainy nights, he sleeps in my bed, and he always likes to wake me up exactly 2 minutes before my alarm goes off to tell me his food bowl isn’t completely full. He keeps me company, and I’m happy to have him here throughout my service.

Majestic

#10. My CUG (closed user group): Peace Corps gives us an almost indestructible Nokia phone at pre-service training with a closed user group SIM card inside. Everyone in PC has a CUG number. Everyone on the CUG network is a free phone call away. Free. No airtime is purchased (unless you want to text or something). I use this phone every day, seldom for work. It makes serving alone in my community less lonely. Usually every night I’m on my front step with a cup of tea on my phone calling a fellow PCV about their day or venting about mine. It has helped with the emotional roller coaster everyone is stuck on for 27 months. It helps keep me sane.

OK all, so there you have 10 awesome things about my life here. Now that I started thinking about them, I could go on with more. Binge watching a new TV show that a volunteer gave me from their hard drive, cooking in the evenings, learning a new song on the ukulele, really cleaning my water bottle instead of just wiping off the mouth piece, buying eggs from my shop lady whose son is always happy to see me, etc etc etc. Five months left is really nothing. I’ll be home soon in a pretty yellow dress for Dan and Alyssa’s wedding and bowling with Mom on Tuesdays before I know it.

Thanks for following along on this crazy marathon thing I’ve been doing for 20ish months now. Mr. Toad would be proud of what a wild ride it’s been. I know I am.

All is well,

Kelly

P.S. Have some random pictures: