My last weeks in Uganda

These words are almost surreal to write but I have to: My experience here in Uganda is over.

One thing feels for sure: I’m going to come back at some point in time. Even after six months I feel, there is a bunch of things I haven’t seen yet. I have meet some amazing people in this time and made some real friends. It hurts to leave them behind for an unknown time. There is a lot to say about my hole experience, however I think I already have talked about the most important feelings in my last post. Right now I am just sad to leave and would have wished to be able to stay longer.

Lets talk about the things I did in my last weeks. Mainly I organised a First Aid Workshop over a full day with the teachers of Kikooba Primary School. This was a great day for everybody and I am convinced the teachers learned a lot and are now better prepared in case there is an accident at or around the school. After that the school started in their holidays again and knew they would only come back the week I am leaving. So I used my remaining free time to support an organisation called Aitenga. Mainly I started a small vegetable garden, as well a helping with some IT stuff. And to finish all of and really get everything Uganda has to offer I got malaria in my last month. A tough sickness, but I recovered well.

This finishes my blog about my trip to Uganda here. It has been an amazing experience, including the necessary challenges. So would I personally recommend doing such a volunteering? To be honest I don’t really know. It is of course a personal thing, but for me I can only say that some questions that I would have wished to be answered are still open. Mainly moral questions. However I made so experiences that I would have never guessed I would. So the answer will be left open from my side and I wish everybody how decides to do a volunteering the best. (If you can try to stay longer – a full year would be great)

Thanks for reading my blogs

Raphael

Time passes quickly in a slow-moving world

This blog post comes a little later than I had intended. Various factors delayed me, which I will delve into later. However, I first want to share my thoughts on working within a different culture and social system.

I consider myself quite adaptable, and it was relatively easy to adjust to life in Uganda, especially in everyday aspects such as travelling, shopping, and food. The general working mentality here, however, is quite different from what I am accustomed to in Europe. It's slower and more reliant on verbal agreements, with contracts and deadlines being rare. I would be lying if I said this didn’t bother me, even up to now. I have always been conscious of my finite time in Uganda and wanted to use it as effectively as possible. Nonetheless, I knew that imposing my expectations of how things should work based on my Western background wouldn’t be helpful. Judging people for their accustomed ways and learned practices is unfair.

On the other hand, my role here is to share my knowledge and experiences, which are primarily shaped by my Western upbringing. This dilemma has been on my mind for quite some time, and I still don't have a clear answer. I have learned a lot about Ugandan culture, for which I am extremely thankful. And the beauty of this experience for me lies in the cultural challenge it presents. It has made me reflect on the differences and the functionality of my own culture.

Working in this environment has often been different than I anticipated. For a long time, I attributed the slow progress to the pace at which things move here. While there is some truth to that, I also need to reflect on myself and acknowledge that I have been too quick to assign blame. I must accept that I have struggled with the change of pace and that I have, at times, let myself drift too much. (To be honest also one of the reasons why this post comes late.)

Even though I would consider my relationship with the staff of the school of Kikooba (my main project) as really good, I think there is a big difference when looking at the joint experience that we share. For me, six months seemed super long, but now I feel like they passed so quickly that I don't even understand where the time went. For the teachers, these are just six “normal” months in their day-to-day life, with me coming and going. I had to understand a lot about how things work here and how I can integrate into that. I feel this gap in understanding also creates a different view on the expectations from one another. And, of course, there is a process of adapting to each other, but this process is slow, and six months is a short time for that. 

All that said, I think I still accomplished some nice things, and I am convinced the school staff appreciates my work. I am generally very happy about how things are going. I just wanted to share some thoughts about my experience here. I also blame my background in sociology that makes me think about societies and their workings a lot.

Let's dive into some more concrete updates since my last post. Unfortunately, I had a pretty rough experience recently. While heading to Kikooba in a local taxi, we got into a car crash. Our driver collided with another car coming from the side. Thankfully, I was lucky to escape without major injuries, though I did suffer a serious concussion that knocked me out for two weeks. The good news is, I recovered well and was able to resume my activities.

Now, onto my projects at the school. One of the first things I did was revamp the afternoon sports program. I introduced a variety of games aimed at improving team spirit, balance, and other skills. This came naturally to me due to my background in circus arts with children, which involves a lot of movement-based activities. I noticed that the school primarily focused on football and netball, with a very performance-driven approach. To diversify the activities, I created a document full of game ideas for the teachers and involved them in the process, explaining the purpose behind each game.

Another major project involved collaborating with the teachers on alternative teaching methods. Previous volunteers had started this, but the teaching style remained largely traditional, with frontal teaching dominating the classroom. As someone without formal teaching experience, this was challenging for me. I conducted small workshops on theoretical approaches, building on the work of previous volunteers. When I noticed the theoretical approach wasn’t very effective, I began teaching some lessons myself, integrating the discussed methods with at least one teacher participating. I taught about Germany and am now preparing lessons on plastic pollution in Uganda, which is a significant issue here. This not only introduces new teaching methods but also raises awareness about an important topic.

Additionally, I assisted with the school's management tasks, including helping my organisation, Mondo, update their database on the children they support. I also visited local farmers selected to receive new stoves for cooking and conducted small interviews with them.

On some days, I worked with the Kampala Cycling Club, which included a highlight trip to the Ugandan National Championships – a chaotic but very cool experience.

Finally, I had the chance to do some travelling. I went on two different safari trips, one to Kidepo in the north and another to Murchison in the west of Uganda. Both places are stunningly beautiful, with untouched nature and incredible wildlife.

This post is already quite long, so I'll wrap it up here. My next and final post will come at the end of my experience in September. Thanks for reading!

Landing in Uganda: A Volunteer's First Impressions

 Hi everyone, I'm Raphael Piero, currently living and working as an Education Officer in Uganda. I'm supporting a school in a small village called Kikooba, about a two-hour drive north of Kampala. More on that later.

Uganda's beauty is undeniable. Lush greenery stretches as far as the eye can see(ignoring the big city's), nourished by the ideal subtropical climate and the country's characteristic reddish soil. However, a looming challenge exists – as people here told me, the rainy seasons seem to be becoming increasingly erratic, posing difficulties for Ugandan farmers, who make up over half the population.

My initial impressions of Kampala were overwhelming. Motorbikes, called Boda Bodas, weave through traffic in a way I'd never seen before. The initial chaos was disorienting, but I've grown accustomed to it, and now I find navigating the city on a Boda Boda exhilarating. It's the fastest way to get around, especially compared to cars that move slowly to the traffic.

Another new experience for me has been shopping at Ugandan markets. Unlike supermarkets back home, Ugandan markets offer a vibrant atmosphere and the chance to interact with vendors while honing my bargaining skills. It's a fun way to immerse myself in the local culture.

People in general here are really kind and helpful, while being also quit shy sometimes, especially in the countryside.

The first two weeks of my stay I was learning about Ugandan culture and exploring Kampala. Since then, I've settled into a routine of spending weekdays in Kikooba, a small village surrounded by nature, and weekends in Kampala.

These two places offer a fascinating contrast. Kampala is energetic and loud, while Kikooba is a tranquil village with unreliable electricity and spotty phone service but beautiful nature. Initially, integrating into the Kikooba community proved challenging due to the language barrier. (English is barley spoken here) However, I've come to appreciate the "simpler" lifestyle here. It's given me the opportunity to enjoy the clean air and the calmness of the village life and even the possibility to go for runs, something mostly impossible in Kampala. I've also connected with local children, who are curious about meeting someone from a different background. What also helped is that we are now taking Luganden (one of the local languages) classes, which gives me the chance to interact with people more easily.

My current role at the school involves supporting teachers with organizing their office work, particularly showing them how to use their new donated laptop and working on digitalisation. This focus at the moment is manly because the school is currently on vacation. In the future, the plan is also to support the teachers in class.

Finally I also had the chance to visit some other places in Uganda. I went to Sipi, a village on Mount Elgon in the east of Uganda. Because it is one of the famous coffee growing regions in Uganda and as I used to work in coffee in germany and am in general really interested in learning about it, this place was very special for me. Also with the other volunteers we visited the SINA innovation center in Mpigi. A beautiful place where people with difficult social backgrounds, have the chance to work on their entrepreneur skills and develop sustainable products and ideas. 

I'll be sharing more about my Ugandan adventures soon – stay tuned!