Hello Everyone,
Apologies for not writing anything up here ever and a big "Thanks!"
for all the Birthday messages. I just wanted to quickly write that my
homecoming (to Seattle) is set to be:
9th November at 11:20am
And after a quick week to start settling in, I plan to head home to
Spokane for a couple weeks. Southern Thailand is quite beautiful and
sends it's love, but I am So looking forward to seeing everyone in a
little over a week!
-Ryan
Hey everyone,
First please be advised that my pushing back of my arrival date does not mean I don't want to come home -- quite the contrary. This is officially my last night in Africa, although being at a backpackers with free internet is blowing my mind and really doesn't feel like Africa anyway. We (Kendra and I) are currently in Jo-burg, South Africa and there is no need to worry for our safety in a notoriously crimey city because we've taken every precaution and we are staying in our hostel until the shuttle takes us to the airport tomorrow, and the plane will take us on to Thailand! (by way of Abu Dhabi, UAE)
Anyway, not much time now, here are a few pictures from our last leg in Africa. Thank you to Kendra for being a good photographer (I never takes pictures unless I see a cool bug or a cool cloud):
* The sun sets beautifully off of Chizumulu Island, Malawi. (we got "stuck" there for longer than we expected--hard not to really)
* We spent two nights at the luxurious Nkwichi lodge on the Mozambique side of the Lake Malawi (a.k.a. Niassa). It was expensive for the delicious food, but worth it to pamper ourselves.
* Another picture of the white sand at Nkwichi, which means "It squeaks" in the local language, because that's exactly what the sand does when you walk across it.
* The coolest most disturbingly majestic trees I've ever seen, Baobabs are everywhere. The reason is that their wood is porous so bad for firewood and making things so local peoples haven't chopped them down yet. (Fun cartoon trivia for 10 pts: which movie trapped the villain in a baobab?)
* Me and Kendra enjoying yet another beach.
* A picture of me sneaking around the corner of the fort on Ilha de Mozambique. There was a gorgeous church on the point that you had to climb a bit to get to.
* A cool picture of Tofo/Tofinho in Mozambique. This is where we planned to surf and dive. Unfortunately I got sick so all I could do was a silly Ocean Safari where I went snorkeling with 20 foot Whale Sharks (the biggest fish in the world) and manta rays? I know, big deal right?
Loves and misses you all, will be home before too long.
I'm still alive, no worries. Spent a lot more time than we thought around Lake Malawi (beautiful and amazing). Will write more later. Currently in Cuamba, Mozambique.
Cheers,
Ryan
God Pose on the top of Mount Hanang, Tanzania's 4th highest peak. It was a lot of fun to visit Tara in her village, pick up a few words in Swahili and also have her accompany us on our ascent.
A wide angle view of beautiful snorkeling off of Pemba, Zanzibar Archipelago's northern island.
Nungwi beach on "Zanzibar" island. A little touristy, but an amazing place to relax and spend a few days being a beach bum.
Happily wiling away the hours on the beach with $5 of collective sunglassware.
Tropical sunset from Pemba.
Also check out, Kendra's Blog (link is fixed now, ha ha). She's better at writing stuff than me.
I don't have a lot of time to write now (I'm hoping to write some new posts on the long bus rides we're expecting on our way South), so here's just a few pictures to tide you over until then.
In the last week before leaving my site I had two major parties. One was a bit more formal and put together by the teachers, PTA, and SMC (School Management Committee). With a number of speeches, some music, and a feast afterwards I felt very filled up by all of the wonderful thanks that I had received.
Sorry to have been so quiet on the blog. To tell the truth, not too much is going on. The term has started so I've transitioned from digging in the morning and teaching computer classes in the afternoons/evenings, to doing random work in the mornings and teaching computer classes in the afternoons/evenings. Good ol' same ol'. The extra time to give trainings, add resources to the computers, and lock them down as much as possible has been good and we're transitioning towards a time when I won't be here to manage it.
So, things are going well, and there's definitely a sense of my upcoming departure. The computer lab is functioning well and getting lots of use, which is all we can really ask/hope for. I have yet to organize the Thank You DVD of pictures and videos and what, but I hope to have that finished and sent out sometime early next month. Also, some more serious thoughts of the future and job and transitioning back into normal American life are beginning to grumble up into consciousness a bit too.
The only other news I have is that there's an All Volunteer Conference (AVC) coming up at the end of the month. It's really awesome that we're having one this year as this volunteer-work-sharing-get-together had been indefinitley cancelled due to budget concerns by the previous Uganda director. The new director, Dr. J. Larry Brown, however, agreed with volunteers that if it's taken seriously and we share and network, there's a lot that we can learn from each other and different ways that we can work together. As volunteers who come into country in fairly large groups we tend to network very well within our training class, but inter-class communication isn't as good as it could be, and it's always better to tell someone how to make a wheel instead of them having to reinvent it (which seems to happen all too often in "development").
Below are some long awaited pictures of the computer lab in place and being used:
Madame Quilina (pr. "Kee-lee-nah") reviews parts of a computer with P1 (Kindergarten) students.
This is ideally what a computer lesson looks like.
But it more often than not it looks like this.
(For any teachers out there, we have a number of pretty big classes - how would you like ~150 3rd graders?)
Or this.
(Painted walls = fun physicalish work for me, I also painted the shutters and Mr. Onyango complimented me, saying, "Jones, did you train for that work?" I guess it's just in my blood, right Grandpa Dick?) 
Yeko, teaching some P7s (6th graders) where to put your hands for touch typing. (We hope to have a competition with prizes for the fastest, most-accurate typer in the near future.)
Madame Negesa helps a student who's learning to use the mouse.
This isn't really related to the computer lab at all, it was just unbearably cute to pass the store room and see this kid curled up, deep asleep, in a wheel barrow.
So, as you may be able to see, things are going pretty well. Classes are coming in regularly to use the computers to practice math and other subjects. I'm working to make sure the computers have lots of content for teaching, are working, and are locked down (which is more important than it sounds).
Plans are in the works to have a Computer Lab Opening Day sometime soonish. It should be quite the celebration with the hopeful guest of a Member of Parliament (Congress-person), a band, a choir, and presentations by all the classes. I'm planning to record as much of it as possible to share back at home.
That's all for now, Peace.
This is just a short blog first to say that---
For those of you willing to accept the challenge, here are a couple details you want to keep in mind.
If you happen to visit Uganda1, you might experience a (mis-)conversation like this one:
Ugandan: Do you know how to dig?
YOU: [with slightly narrowed eyes] Yes[?].
Ugandan: Sure? ... What do you dig?
YOU: Usually just holes.
Ugandan: ...
Ugandan: What do you dig with?
YOU: A shovel.
Ugandan: Sure? Not with a hoe?
Most Ugandans can dig, ya dig? "Digging" is Uganglish for gardening or farming, which most people (something like 80% of the population) use as a primary mode of survival. The hoe2 is really central to most people's lives. Now, it's important to understand that digging is hard work; especially consider that people don't plow here. Yes, there are cows, but it is a rare thing to even hear of someone using them to turn up the earth. Every piece of land that is "reclaimed from the bush" had to be fought for: cut down, cleared, and broken up with a hoe in hard hands.
Up until about three weeks ago I was pretty useless with a hoe, but as I was pretty bored while school was out I invited myself to go out and dig with my neighbor Yeko3. Part of this was to match up my current thoughts on exercise4 with an attempt to connect more with Ugandans. Before I go on talking too much, here's some pictures:
A poem to end:
They ask "To dig, do you know?"
sillily I reply "yes,"
and invite myself to join Yeko.
In the garden I do my best,
but somehow manage to hit my toe.
Besides that little mishap,
I enjoy digging, Yeko calls me a pro.
Productive exercise spent with friends,
who knew how far, with digging, I'd go?
Peace Out Bruthas (and Sistas and Muthas, etc.),
Jones
As has been pointed out to me, it's been far too long since I updated this blog. Partly because I haven't been to the internet in almost 2 weeks and partly because my computer time is often being eaten by other, more nerdly pursuits (see Christmas below). I'm planning a couple more interesting blog posts, with pictures (if the internet gods allow) and as a lot and a little has transpired in the last month and a half I'm just gonna hit some big bullet points.
I know I promised I'd write something more substantial, but I instead wrote an article on moral philosophy for my friends' communal blog. Here's a link (it should be posted soon) if you're interested:
Seattlife
It's been a little while since I've updated, so first let me say what's going on with work. I've listed things in order of effort and excitement, so if they start to get boring, well, you passed all the "good" stuff so just scroll down to the picture:
Meeting for the first time a couple rainy days ago, the management committee has already proved itself to be autonomous and dedicated. I prepared a little presentation and then was a bit bummed when it started raining pretty decently at 3:50pm before our 4pm meeting. As I set up the room I began writing this update in my head beginning like this:
Unfortunately, the management committee didn't meet because it was raining. In Uganda pretty much everything stops when it rains and you can expect people to meet up with you hours late (which is also normal for good weather) if they manage to show up at all.
As for a current funds update, please refer to this lovely graph: 
I have a very similar analog version of this graph up in the school's office to track donations. For the last two weeks it's required updating every other day because of the speed that the Kayonza contribution side, which is heartening. Also, we've stalled on the American base donations, so if you know someone that might be interested in giving a few bucks (less likely in the current economic climate, but still) please pass on this link: Uganda Jones - helping to build a computer lab in rural Africa. I've recently updated the text with some alluring sentence structure, although I may have broken parts of the page with my wordiness. Anyway, we hope to complete all our funds by the end of November, place the order at the beginning of December, which should allow the computers to get here by February and leave us with three more months to set up and smooth things out while I'm still around. Much to do, but it's seeming more and more doable.
In other computer news, training of teachers is continuing with Yeko and Wasswa producing some valuable work. They've been creating score-sheets for the P7 (read 6th grade) pupils based on mock exams so we can analyze what their performance is likely to be on the PLE (Primary Leaving Exam)3. Before it used to take four days to compile, score, convert, and find the position numbers of the pupils, now it can be done (with a snazzy printed final document) in a couple hours. Although I'm wary to use this loaded term, here goes... DEVELOPMENT! FTW!
Also, we were very lucky to be visited by the Ambassador's wife, Susan Browning. She not only discussed the book with the students, she and her crew also brought all this fancy equipment (which looked really out of place in the dusty, brick/tin village classroom) and showed a number of little video snippets about the changes in US elections as the internet and youth start having more influence. It was actually really cool for me to see because I've been so removed from the election-ballyhoo over here and hadn't heard of the whole "Macaca" thing or numerous other big pieces of news. But, it's kind of nice to have a little distance from the overzealousness of the US media. But, (I know, two sentences beginning with "But"?!) trying to decide who to vote for was especially difficult without internet.
In related news, a new tutor (teacher trainer and my counterpart) has been placed at my school, Arthur. So far, he's been great. He's a bit younger, he's dedicated, and wonderfully, he communicates with me. Although I'm busy with a lot of other projects, he's a major improvement on my old (now retired?) counterpart and I look forward to working more with him in the future.
And, just to make sure that you don't worry I'm working too much, here's a photo from an annual PCV get together called Goat Stock. It's our Halloween-ish type get together and I'm only going to give you one Clue as to what we're dressed up as.
Really sleepy now5, Loves to all,
Jones6
I've been back from "the future" (a.k.a. the states) for about a week and a half now and thought I'd take this opportunity to point out a few of the wonderous things that I always used to take for granted:
So, I feel a bit silly even doing this, and many of you know that one of the things I really dislike talking about, let alone "asking" for, is money. That most evil of evils, the root, yet makes the world go 'round with all of its greed and dreams and stuff. Anyway, the exciting part of this blog is that my school, especially the headmaster (principal), has become excited about the computer lab project and especially making it a decent size and with good computers. Our vision is to put in a lab of EIGHT Inveneo computers! I've done a good budget on the project and this is going to cost about $4834 dollars.
Now, ideally I should write a grant to get this money, but from looking into grants, I've found that the lowest community contribution1 is 20%. Usually, Peace Corps volunteers shimmy around this a bit by having "in kind" contributions where the community does a bunch of work for free and that's included to cover a large part of the contribution. The problem is, that's difficult to do when nearly all of the costs are monetary for buying the computer equipment. The other option was to get fewer, or lower quality computers that would just crap out in a couple years anyway. So, I've offered to try and raise money informally among family and friends and ask instead for a 10% community contribution2. In addition to this, I've been saving from my own Peace Corps stipend3 for about 5 months and have saved $520 towards the project.
Anyway, the point of all this is that I want to gauge interest in donations from home. To do this I've put an anonymous vote on the right side of this blog. Please note that this is in no way a commitment to contribute, but rather to give me an idea of whether this method would work. I appreciate all truthful responses, and send lots of love to everyone.
Jones out.
Just a quick note here. Not much is new, still doing the same things, but might be expanding the VSLA (savings groups) to some poorer parents. Yesterday I had my first meeting under a tree where the participants were mostly sitting on the ground--I felt very Peace Corps.
My counterpart, Yeko, has expressed interest in having a pen pal in the US. Is anybody interested in that? If so, just send me an email with your address and I'll have him write you a letter. If I get a lot of responses I'll look for other people here that might want to have a pen-pal.
Peace out.
It's been a while. To reward all you diligent checkers of my blog, here's some pictures (there's some cool bugs too):
Loves,
Ryan
Just another small blog post here, mostly due to the fact that I've been receiving a lot of awesome letters and really need to get my butt in gear to reply to all of them.
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