Wofford College - Study Abroad

Mzungu photos!

A few updates - I have my mosquito net up now; the impending psychological crisis was averted. I haven't eaten maatoke (mashed bananas) in a week and one day, which is an incredible feeling. Most importantly, I was able to make myself a quesadilla. The small joys of being a mzungu .

I was finally able to post some photos - not very many, but a few good ones. I tried to reflect the stories I've told here earlier as best I could. If you click on the thumbnails the pictures will enlarge, although I had to shrink them dramatically to upload them at all. The posting process was quite an ordeal; however, I like being in Ms. Amy Lancaster's good graces. All of you should take a moment and fully appreciate your Wofford high-speed Internet connections.

Myself hiking up the mountain to Sipi Falls. Sipi Falls is in Eastern Uganda and not terribly far from the Kenyan border. This was in no way a safe hike, although it was a great one; luckily this photo was taken before I was covered in mud.

Another pair of waterfalls at Sipi Falls. Although I'm not sure of the exact number of falls in this valley, we were able to see 6 without leaving the cabin we were staying in. This was taken during a hike the day after the picture above was taken.

Sipi Valley.

This photo is of a young boy in a Kampala slum. I was visiting the Single Parents Association of Uganda when I took this. The group, primarily made up of middle-aged HIV+ women, are collaborating to empower themselves economically and better provide for their children. These efforts include growing mushrooms (which is a bizarre process, by the way), raising pigs and chickens, doing craftwork, and other forms of small commerce and agriculture.

This photo was taken at Oruchinga Refugee Settlement. This camp serves several thousand primarily Rwandan refugees in western Uganda; all of these refugees are ethnic Hutus. I wrote about this very emotional and difficult experience earlier on in this blog. The children were the only people in the camp whom I felt comfortable looking in the face; though many of their parents directly participated in the genocide that claimed the lives of nearly a million Tutsis, these children simply wanted to play and have fun with the mzungus.

This sign was outside of a church in rural Rwanda that is now a genocide memorial site. In one attack by the Interahamwe, over 40,000 people were killed on this property; ten thousand in this very modest building and thirty thousand hiding on the grounds surrounding it. If you look closely, you can see the holes in the roof where the Interahamwe threw bombs to scare the Tutsis and moderate Hutus into revealing themselves. The sign is in Kinyarwanda, the local language of the people in the area; it means "If you knew me and you knew yourself, you would not have killed me."

This is a very typical scene in rural Uganda; this photo is somewhere between Mbarara, where I live now, and the Rwandan border. Children are very involved in subsistence agriculture in virtually all parts of Uganda. This causes a great deal of problems with truancy in schools; although Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, has introduced universal primary education (albeit in a mealymouthed sort of way), many children are unable to attend school in harvesting seasons as their families need their help.

This was taken while I was sitting on top of a van in the savannah of Queen Elizabeth National Park. These two lions were, at the absolute most, 30-35 feet from me and have never lived in captivity. I was hoping from the depths of my soul that they would attempt to eat the kob (sort of like an African deer) in the background. They were, disappointingly, not hungry.

My homestay mom, myself, and my homestay brother. My homestay mother wanted me to try on this kanzu; it is the formal dress of the Buganda people, the tribe to which they belong. It is ordinarily worn to weddings and the very elaborate Buganda introduction ceremonies. Introduction ceremonies are highly ritualistic events in which the families of a couple meet to determine whether or not they will be allowed to be married.

This was one of the most beautiful moments I've ever seen; this was at my rural homestay in Busia, Uganda, right after I got back from the market in Kenya. These two children were playing outside when a strong wind blew thousands of blossoms loose from "Christmas Trees," as the local Samia people call them. These blossoms raining down seemed to be a familiar phenomenon to the children and they had a great time trying to catch them.

The world's kindest polygamist, Wasike - my rural homestay father. Also in this photo is one of his 21 children, Were, who is named after a god in the indigenous religion of the Samia people. My friend Katherine is introducing Wasike to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He's a fan.

My friend Matt and a Ugandan with a very good sense of humor - click the thumbnail to find out why. This was taken in a picnic area by the Nile River.

A photo someone took of me chatting with a friend on the banks of the Nile River, although you can't see the friend. I promise that I'm not just being pretentious and looking pensive for a photo-op.

Mosquitoes, internships, and more mzungu commentary

So I've now moved out of Kampala where I've been living for 2 months to a city called Mbarara. Pronunciation guide: MMM-ba-raaar-a. It's in southwestern Uganda not terribly far from the Rwandan border. I love it here - it is extremely clean compared to Kampala, the people are friendlier, and the transportation system is way less hectic. There are a lot of accusations that there is corruption in the central government in regard to development in this part of the country - President Yoweri Museveni went to secondary school 10 minutes away from my apartment. There does seem to be significantly more funding and development work going on this area; employment seems very high and poverty seems, relatively, very low.

During this part of the program, students undertake an independent study project to study a particular development issue. I've gotten an internship with the Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development, or ACORD for short. ACORD is an international non-governmental organization working in 18 African countries. Each branch of ACORD works to serve the needs of the community in which it is based; in the case of ACORD Mbarara, those needs are primarily in the area of HIV/AIDS outreach and water source development and maintenance. During my internship, I am studying the water policies of the central Ugandan government and their implementation at local levels. In the 1999 National Water Policy, the government of Uganda introduced an innovative new strategy of providing clean water access for more of its citizens called the sector-wide approach, or SWAP. Earlier efforts at water source development and maintenance consisted of discrete projects that were not distributed equitably; this sort of piecemeal development was ripe with corruption and with favoritism. The SWAP's guiding idea is that the development of water access is mandated by the 1995 Constitution of Uganda and that this process should be systematic, thorough, and fair for everyone. However, a lot of money - typical of most African countries - is getting lost along the way in implementation. My goal is to study the general efficacy of this policy and the ways in which the government and civil society address corruption in regard to it.

I am absolutely covered in mosquito bites. My roommates (3 other mzungus) and I have, at a minimum, a hundred between us. Mbarara mosquitoes are apparently tougher than the ones in Kampala. I think if I get one or two more, I'm going to have an irreparable psychological break. I woke up this morning curled up around a bottle of bug spray. I'm trying to train myself to spray it in the night while I'm asleep. My entire body itches in a way that I can never explain.

However, we have a kitchen now.. and Sunday night is Mexican night. We're going to fashion burritos out  of African flatbread called chapati. The main difficulty will be finding meat to buy that is not still attached to a living animal. Nobody sells pre-cut meat here because no one has refrigerators in Uganda so it's better just to kill the animal when you are hungry. I look forward to eating processed meat in the US from animals whose deaths I did not witness.

Funniest stereotype I've heard about mzungus in several weeks (and one that is widely, widely believed): we eat African children on a fairly regular basis. We have had several children run away from us in abject terror. I never knew why this was until recently; I must've looked hungry.

I only have about six weeks left here, which is bizarre. I hope to make the most of it, however. I may be going to see tree-climbing lions soon.. how great is that? We're either headed to a crater lake or Bwindi Impenetrable Forest next weekend.

The guy in the Internet cafe next to me is having an extensive conversation with himself in bad French.. so I'm going to go now. Hope everyone's doing well. Although I can't promise anything, a few pictures might be coming on the next blog.. get ready.

St. Michael, spider juice, strikes and Monet...vive la France!

Ok. Sorry I haven’t written in a while, but things have been pretty busy lately. I think that I actually need to catch up on several weeks’ worth of blogging…oh my! So, a short summary of what I have done is necessary. About four weekends ago we (IES group) went on a day trip to Mont St. Michel and then St. Malo. The weekend after that I went with my host family to a family reunion in Bourgueuil. Two weekends ago, the IES group and I went on a tour of five chateaux around Tours. Last weekend I stayed in Nantes, yay! Classes have been going great, and my family life is really good too. Now, I will elaborate a little…

Mont St. Michel is an island on the northern coast of France. It is situated on a large peninsula of beach, and it is literally a mountain that rises up out of the sand. The weekend that we went to the Mont, was the weekend of the “Grande Marinée.” It was the weekend where the tides were the most dramatic as a result of the moon being closer to the Earth. The effect was perfect! The water was coming right up to the Mont’s walls, isolating it, with the exception of the causeway that allowed tourists to enter/exit the island, from the rest of the coast. Mont St. Michel is the highest point for many miles around, which makes it even more breathtaking simply because it shouldn’t be. On the very top of the Mont is an abbey and a cathedral that look as if they were carved right out of the natural stone. The cathedral’s spire forms the crown of the Mont and at the very top of it rests a gold statue of St. Michael, dressed in full armor and wielding a sword with the dragon/devil beneath his feet. The statue is always illuminated by the sun…no need for halos there! There is a legend attached to the Mont that I actually read the first week that I was here in France. I read the version by Guy de Maupassant. In the legend St. Michel outwits Satan and kicks him from the top of Mont St. Michel out of France. I guess it is appropriate for there to be a gold statue crowning St. Michael’s Mountain!

St. Malo was also very beautiful. It is a small city, also on the coast of northern France, that is completely walled in. It was fortified to protect the city’s people from not only the English, but the sea itself. We didn’t get to spend much time in St. Malo, but I was able, at least to visit Chateaubriand’s tomb that was on an island separated from the city. Usually the sea separates it from the land, but the tide was low enough for me to walk across the sand bars to reach it.

The family reunion with my host family has probably been the most interesting experience that I’ve had so far. We went on a Saturday morning to Bourgueuil, near Angers, to the family home of my host mother. Well, I was miserably sick with a fresh cold, and I wasn’t looking too forward to spending the night in a 100 + year old house with a bunch of people that I’d never met. When we arrived, my mood totally changed (despite the cold). We arrived and immediately all of the family members warmly accepted me into their home. My host mother shares the house with her 6 sisters, who were all there with their husbands, children (including in-laws and soon-to-be in-laws), and grandchildren. After lunch, we all divided up into teams and went on a 22km bike ride/scavenger hunt, that lasted several hours, around the village and the surrounding countryside. It was the best family tradition I think I’ve ever experienced! I loved it! That night we all watched the rugby game together (France vs. New Zealand) and I won the bet for predicting the score. I said that France would win 21 to 19, and they did win 20 to 18. Little did I realize that I’d won dish duty for the next day! Before going to bed, each of the seven sisters tried to cure my cold with different remedies, all soothing but ultimately ineffective. I ended up getting a glass of water and headed to bed (I had to share a room with all of the female cousins, which wasn’t bad at all I just hope I didn’t snore!). I didn’t sleep all that well, and several times during the night I got up to sip on my glass of water. One of those times, I kept feeling something prickly on my forehead and nose, thinking it was just some of my hair in my face I brushed the feeling away and went back to sleep. The next morning I woke up feeling a little better, until I reached the kitchen and started cleaning my water glass. Apparently, the prickly feeling wasn’t my hair. It was a very large arachnid trying to escape certain death by drowning in my water!! Well, it did drown, and yes I did drink more water after that incident in the night. I couldn’t help but feel a little disgusted. At the breakfast table I tried to communicate to the family that I was feeling better and that apparently my remedy was spider juice. I mispronounced spider in French, and they all thought I’d said rat juice. They gave me this really disgusted quizzical look until one of them figured out, with the help of a hand gesture from me, that I was trying to say spider. They had a good laugh at my expense. I think that the only differences between an American style family reunion and a French one are that: French family reunions last whole weekends; they drink a lot; instead of playing football in the back yard, they play rugby; and they all smoke each other’s cigarettes (I was the odd man out in this tradition). Overall it was a great weekend!

Two weekends ago, we went on a tour of 5 chateaux. Basically they were all beautiful and big. The first one that we went to had a really remarkable cabinet made entirely of hand-carved ebony! It alone is worth more than the chateau that housed it. We went to the Chateau d’Amboise which is the burial place of Leonardo da Vinci!! Yes, I saw his tomb. It is in a little, beautifully decorated chapel next to the castle. My favorite chateau was Chenonceau. The woods around it were absolutely beautiful! The leaves weren’t completely turned and the colors of the leaves against the sky were incredible, as they always are in the fall. I managed to sprain my ankle. I was being stupid, playing Frisbee in my Danskos...big mistake! I shouldn’t have done that. Poor Geoff had to carry me on his shoulder that Saturday night to dinner. Again, everyone had a good laugh at my expense. Yeah, I laughed at me too…couldn’t help it!

Last weekend wasn’t too thrilling except I did get to go to the local art museum for a little while on Sunday afternoon. I was able to get close enough to a Picasso and two Monets to smell the paint. I realize how strange that sounds, but for me it was heavenly! As far as other things go, school is getting more intense. I’ve had two midterms, an in-class essay, and one homework essay. There was a strike last Thursday, and all of the trains in France that were connected to the SNCF lines stopped running. I was able to get around last Thursday just fine, but it was kind of a big deal. Apparently Sarkozy, the French president for those who don’t know, is trying to change the retirement age for SNCF workers from 50 to 65? (I think that is what I heard, basically the same age when everyone else in the country can retire). The French are really dramatic as a people. There are strikes here all the time. That’s really all for now. I hope everyone is doing great! Elizabeth, Geoff, Brooke and I are all doing fine here.
Jordan W. Rawl

Copenhagen? How about Denmark? Maybe more?

So, it has been quite a long time since I last posted. I must say, I have been quite caught up in Denmark. Right now, I am in Helsinki, Finland for the first week of my study break. We were at Tvarminne Zoological Station for the past few days doing our research projects for the Marine and Environmental Biology Program. My group’s project studied phytoplankton abundance and diversity along a salinity gradient. Sounds pretty boring, and let me tell you if you don’t like seeing cool little phytoplankton, it turns out to be very boring. 

Anyhow, let us back track to my last post. I was telling you about Copenhagen and my short study tour around Denmark. Well I'm back with more!

Here  is a picture of me posing in the sun after taking some samples with the wader. It was really fun to get out in the water and take samples. This is the kind of stuff that gets me excited about biology.
 

One of the more exciting trips I have had was for my Nordic Mythology class. We traveled to a few places nearby, including a Viking ship museum and a preserved Viking village. The Viking ship Museum holds the only preserved Viking ships ever. There are six total ships.

It turns out that some of the cargo ships could have held as much as 20 tons of cargo! It is quite amazing for the technology of their time. At the nearby preserved Viking village, we learned about how the Vikings lived in a real life setting and also saw some re-enactors. That was a treat no one expected, including the professors. I ended up trying some Viking mead, which is a sweet beverage that makes you very warm. Of course, warmth is very important in Scandinavia!

Another exciting trip was Legoland. I recommend it no matter where you are! We visited the one in Denmark, the original home of the Lego. It isn't all Legos like you'd expect, but they do have some interesting constructions!

 

Also, we visited the Zoological Museum in Denmark. It actually has one of the most extensive collections in the entire world, but no one really knows about it. Since our professor knew one of the researchers their, we got a nice tour of the secret research floors where normal tourists are not allowed. We saw some really amazing things, like a blue whale skeleton! It was only 24 meters long; many can be as long as 30 or more!

Here is a picture of a tube of krill, the little guys that these big blue whales feed on. It really is a marvel of nature if you ask me. Unfortunately, these large wonders were hunted down a great deal in the 20^th century and now less than 15,000 exist where more than 300,000 had once lived. They are believed to be the largest animal to have ever lived, weighing in at nearly 200 tons on the large end! Their heart is the size of a VW minibus, and humans could literally swim in their larger blood vessels. Truly a wonder!

I also visited Paris and Amsterdam!

This is taken at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. I visited and didn’t really enjoy it too much. I did find the architecture of the building very interesting, however. One of the more interesting things about Amsterdam is that it is a huge metropolitan city that is right in the middle of the beautiful Holland countryside. I happened to venture into a nearby windmill town where they still used classical windmills to produce cheese, mustard, etc. It was quite clearly a massive tourist trap, but it was wonderful nonetheless. The cheese in the sandwich I ate there was quite delicious, as is most cheese in Europe. Something about fresh cheese is just amazing.

While I was in Paris, I visited the usual Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triumph. Nothing too special and I’m sure you have all seen pictures. I preferred not to take pictures of them because collecting postcards is just much more wonderful. They seem to get the right angles at the right time of day and that is much better than any tourist with a Canon Power Shot can hope to achieve. However, I did also visit the Montmartre quarter. Montmartre is a hill that is 130 meters high in Paris. Atop the hill stands a magnificent church and a small quarter that was once a haven for artists of all kinds, including Picasso and Degas. The reason this was a huge artists haven was become, as the stereotype goes, most of them were poor and starving. In the 19^th Century when Napoleon III and his city planner Haussmann began redeveloping the city to make it the most beautiful city in the world, much of the inner city land was redeveloped and redistributed to Napoleon and those close to him in his administration. The term Haussmannization comes from this inner city restructuring which requires moving all the lower class citizens out of the city center to make it more desirable. These lower class citizens included the artists of the time. The people had to go somewhere, so many of them chose outer city areas which include the hill on Montmarte. Today, it is a massive tourist trap with many street painters. Here is a cool painting I saw which I would definitely have bought if I wasn’t a college student and had enough money to spend on it!

Anyhow, that's Paris. Let's get to Finland!

Finland is quite glorious. It is a very large nation in Scandinavia, sitting in between Sweden and Russia.
Helsinki is the capital city and its larger metropolitan area houses around one million people. The other four million people live throughout the rest of the land in Finland. Finland is popular for having lots of trees, reindeer, bear, and moose. If you can scrape together some cash and happen to not be a vegetarian (I am, but I must let you know nonetheless!), you can enjoy some reindeer, bear, or moose delicacy. The city is very calm compared to other European cities, but that is probably due to its small size. Tonight I will be going to see a hockey game, which promises to be very interesting. However, besides all that I have pictures of the research station and of a monument made for Jean Sibelius, the composer of Finlandia. Many Fins hold Finlandia close to their heart and consider it a second national anthem. Check it out if you have time. You can hear the Russian influences quite clearly. This is probably due to the fact that Finland gained their independence only in 1917 and before that had been a battleground for Sweden and Russia to conquer. Anyhow, the monument is quite interesting.

Tvarminne Zoological Station

Jean Sibelius Monument

Anyhow, that’s all I really have for now. From this point, I will travel back to Paris tomorrow, spend a few days in Geneva and then head out to a long trip to Greece. My study tour ends on November 4^th, and I hope to post again a few weeks after that. Until then, enjoy the Wofford bubble, I’ll keep enjoying the rest of the world!

~Prashant Patel

 

Public health, the Nile, mountain-climbing, polygamy, waterfall crossing.. you know, the usual stuff

Michael Vaughn - SIT Uganda

I've been writing lately on African time. For the unitiated, this means that there are two types of time: mzungu (white person) time and African time. Ugandans have a cultural tendency about this issue; most don't bother with being prompt or timely. For example, if you schedule a meeting, it's in "the morning" or "the afternoon" and you end up waiting all day to actually see this person because that vague information guarantees nothing; this is assuming that the hypothetical meeting happens that day at all, which often isn't the case. I am learning to be less annoyed by this but it is a slow process. TIA = This is Africa, a phrase you hear very often from young people to explain any shortcomings or problems they experience.

The last few weeks have been very intense. After my last blog entry, I began a two week segment of the program focusing on public health issues in Uganda. In the first week, we heard lecturers, many of whom have a great deal of importance in this country, speak about HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, water, sanitation, natural and manmade disasters currently affecting the country, maternal health, childrens' health, healthcare policy, health system structure, and several other topics. The second week consisted of site visits to substantiate many of the things we heard in lectures - health clinics, rural water sources, the Ugandan Ministry of Health, hospitals, outreach centers, non-governmental organizations, etc. This study period led me to determine that the 6-week independent study project I am about to embark upon is going to revolve around governmental policy in the area of water access. President Museveni introduced a bill in 1999 that changed the structure of Ugandan water policy in a remarkable way. Instead of building water sources in one-off, piecemeal ways in random spots throughout the country, the government is now working to systematically build a structure that will cover the entire country. However, the massive increases in funding that this change in policy brought are being wasted in a shocking way due to mismanagement at several levels. My independent study project is going to focus on promoting the appropriate delegation of financial resources, improving accountability among each of the shareholders in this system, and encouraging an urban population in Western Uganda to demand transparency in their government regarding water issues. I will be doing this in Mbarara, a city in southwest Uganda.

The week after this two-week study period ended, our entire group went on the "Eastern Excursion." This turned out to be one of the all-around best experiences I've ever had. We began the week in a city called Mbale, spending the night there and enjoying the great views of local mountains. We visited TASO (The AIDS Support Organization) of Mbale while there and had a phenomenal experience. HIV+ locals are using drama, dance, and music to promote HIV/AIDS awareness in a truly uplifiting and positive way. I am buying the CD soon so you'll all get to hear it when I get back - it's really good.

After leaving Mbale we went to Sipi Falls for two nights and this was absolutely incredible. From our mountaintop cabin we had a view of six waterfalls without trying and were able to see more stars than any of us even realized were there. As soon as we arrived, we were given staffs and taken on a hike up the mountain to one of the falls. The hike was very treacherous but the waterfall was worth the effort. Some of the other guys on the trip (there are only 8 of us compared to 17 girls) were able to stand in the spray of the waterfall, cover ourselves in mud, and walk back down the mountain this way - this made for some awesome photos. The next morning, we woke up very early to begin hiking again. We visited a  huge natural cave carved out by one of the many falls. The next waterfall was arguably the most exciting and surely the most difficult hike. After crossing many rickety wood bridges, navigating through a few small streams, falling in what were always the muddiest possible areas, and facing a few other hardships, we got to the base of a giant waterfall. We had been told we wouldn't be able to swim or go under it because this is potentially a way to get one of Africa's millions of tropical diseases, but they surprised us and let us get underneath it. It was freezing cold and most of us have gotten colds from doing it, but it was absolutely amazing. I have never felt cleaner in my life. After this, our program's "Transport Minister" - also known as our lunatic taxi driver - convinced two friends and I that instead of the trail, we should climb up the essentially vertical rock face using vines like he had. Picture me struggling up a wall with moss and running water coming down it and a very crazy African man swinging from a vine (literally) and telling us to hurry up. Although not at all a good idea, it was a lot of fun. The next fall we visited was even more treacherous because, for the sake of time, we had to cross the river at the spot of the waterfall. If we lost our footing, there was a 300-500 feet fall. Probably the scariest thing I've ever done. Ugandan Independence Day also took place while we were here and we were able to sit around with a group of locals, sing Ugandan traditional songs, and drink local brew (which I will get to later).

After leaving Sipi Falls (which none of us wanted to), we went even further east to an area called Busia. Busia is very rural and very close to the Kenyan border. We then departed for our "rural homestays" in which we were assigned to live with a rural family for 3 days and do research on a local issue of our choice. I and a friend were assigned the family of a man called Wasike. This family turned out to be more than we expected - Wasike had 4 wives, 21 children, and an undetermined number of grandchildren that probably exceeded 100. I would say in the compound that at least 60 people lived here. The compound consisted of 13 mud huts with grass roofs, a lot of agricultural land, and a great deal of livestock although Wasike had no cows. The family was incredibly warm and welcoming. The first day of this, two of Wasike's wives took us over the border (which was a creek with no border patrol whatsoever) into Kenya. We visited a market there and bought some local crafts. Later in the evening, Wasike and another of his wives came into the mud hut my friend and I were sharing with a bucket of "local brew." Local brew is beer made in a 10 day process out of millet; it ends up looking thoroughly disgusting, is served very warm, and has the viscosity of very grainy yogurt. It is drunk from a bucket using very long straws. Although this sounds disgusting, it was actually really cool. I decided at some point while discussing local issues over local brew that I would research the economic relationship between the two border towns in Kenya and Uganda and the impact of political developments in the East African Community have had. The next day we conducted two focus groups with local men and women about these issues. We learned a lot about the dynamic of an unprotected border and the business aspects of that, both positive and negative. That evening, we spent time with many different family members and became very well-acquainted with some.

The main problem with the rural homestay was that they served SO much food. Every time one of Wasike's wives would bring us a mountain of food and we were unable to finish it, they would laugh and remind us that mzungus don't know how to eat. It was also a problem in the towns being white - being white in East Africa is generally like being a celebrity because everyone notices you and yells "mzungu!" while gathering in crowds and nervously chatting. In the rural areas, this problem is even worse and is a big impediment to conducting research.

After leaving the rural homestays with a great deal of promises to visit (which I definitely intend to keep), we went to Buyengo to the home of one of our program's heads. We had a goat roast and a local dance that night which was very relaxing and a lot of fun. On the ride home yesterday, we were all sort of down and homesick because we didn't want to come back to Kampala and we have three papers due this week (which I am currently procrastinating about doing). A big pick-me-up was eating a picnic lunch on the banks of the Nile River yesterday. The location was amazing - we got to sit on huge boulders overlooking what would be some awesome white-water rafting rapids. I also got to talk to my mom and one of my closest friends - on the phone! - last night and that made me feel a lot better. I will have a hectic week this week but next week I am moving to Mbarara to begin work on my independent study project, as I mentioned earlier. This will be, hopefully, with an organization called ACORD which promotes community awareness of water policy issues and promotes sound water policies benefitting the area.

I really, really, really miss Mexican food.

From Food to Photography

Adrienne Hamm--CIEE Language and Culture, Ferrara, Italy

Greetings again from Ferrara!  For those who suffered through my last post, I'm sorry for the horrendous layout.  We've tried to fix it, but nothing has worked.  Hopefully, this entry will look much prettier.

Buon Appetito!

On Monday, I began an Italian cooking class offered through CIEE.  It's an 8-week course, and we meet every Monday evening at a local (and very delicious) restaurant, Balebuste.  There, one of the chefs teaches us how to make an Italian dish.  In the style of a cooking show, he demonstrates the recipe and then we students give it a shot.  The best part comes at the end when we get to eat our lesson.  In fact, we have a full meal after each class, including the recipe plus two other courses (one of which is a dessert).  I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed Monday's class.  We learned how to cook Cappellacci di Zucca, a Ferraran speciality.  Cappellacci are triangle-shaped stuffed pasta, and in this case, the pasta is stuffed with pumpkin.  Delicious!!  We learned how to make the pasta completely from scratch.  I most enjoyed folding the pasta into triangles.  We had to be very careful and seal the triangles completely or the pumpkin would escape during the boil.  I have deemed the night a great success because I actually felt like I could cook (even though I can't...at all...it's quite sad, really), but I didn't burn down the restaurant, and as far as I know, the pumpkin stayed inside all of my triangles.

The Flat Tire Fiasco

I had my very first bike issue this week.  On the way to class on Tuesday, my bike ride seemed a little more bumpy than usual.  "Hmm," I said to myself, "It feels like I have a flat tire. Nah, that can't be case."  So I continued my bike ride.  Somehow, I made it all the way to the CIEE building where I had my class.  I locked up my bike and inspected the tires.  Lo and behold, my front tire was completely flat, so flat in fact that it was falling off.  Well, Tuesdays are quite hectic for me so I knew that I wouldn't get the bike repaired that day so it spent the night in the building's courtyard until I could take it for repairs Wednesday afternoon.  It was a long walk home that Tuesday evening--quite a sad walk.  I've had that bike for about a month now and it saves me tons of travel time.  In fact, I have to walk for 30 minutes to get to my language class from my apartment, but on my bike, it only takes 15!  Fortunately, the nice bike man from whom I rent my bike, repaired the tire for free and even improved the brakes (apparently, I need to work on smoothing my bike-riding skills).  He didn't even have the bike for 24 hours--now that's what I call service!  So, once again, I have my bike and once again, I can sleep in for 15 extra minutes in the morning :)

Thought-Provoking Photography

Over the weekend, Ferrara held an event on journalism.  I don't know all the details because I was traveling the whole time, but from what I heard, there were tons of journalists and a lot of lectures on different aspects of journalism.  Part of the event included a showcase of photography by Francesco Zizola.  The showcase is still in the center of town where wandering pedestrians can pause and take in his art.  This particular portofolio came from Zizola's time in Iraq during 2003.  Wednesday, while I didn't have my bike, I had time to thoroughly peruse his exhibit.  Before even looking at the photos, I assumed that they would be anti-American, but that wasn't necessarily the case.  They were, however, quite thought-provoking.  Though many pictures included American soldiers, I think Zizola focused more on the horror of warfare in general.  It made the war much more real for me, and I appreciated seeing the conflict in Iraq through the eyes of someone living outside the United States.  If you're interested in viewing Zizola's photography, check out his website at www.zizola.com. 

Talking Politics

Before coming to Italy, many people warned me that locals would ask me about the United States and politics.  For the first few weeks, I didn't encounter this issue, but as my Italian improves and I meet more Italians my age, the topic arises more and more.  Most of the people ask me how I feel about Bush and proceed to give me their opinion of him, but none have openly judged my character based upon my nationality.  They're just interested in my perspective.  I've enjoyed discussing politics with them, and I've even gotten to talk Italian politics with some of them.  I came to Italy thinking that Italians would openly state their disgust with me because I'm American but as of yet, no one has accosted me in such a manner.  On the contrary, one Italian from Naples frankly stated, "You're lucky."  I must agree.  I am blessed, not only to be American, but to be an American in Italy, where I have the opportunity to broaden my perspective as locals respectfully challenge my beliefs and I gradually begin to understand theirs.

Cinque Terre

This past weekend, I and 3 other CIEE girls took a trip to Cinque Terre, 5 small towns along the west coast in Italy.  They're connected by a 5 1/2 mile hiking trail.  The trip was absolutely beautiful and though parts of the hike were extremely tough, it was definitely worth all the amazing views.  To give you an idea, I've included some pictures below.

I think that's all for now...Ciao :)

The Swing of It

So I think that I have finally gotten some grasp of how the culture works here in Jordan, and possibly in the Middle East. For you see this past weekend all of the CIEE students were bused out to the Southern Desert where we rode 4x4 trucks over ancient trade routes.
We camped overnight in a bedouin tent situated in a crevice of a vertical rock face, ate too much food, danced around the fire to arabic music and for the most part we all got up to watch the sun rise at five thirty. But where I got the swing of it [arab culture] was while I was on the back of a camel. That’s right, I rode a camel. And I’m not talking about hopping on it and riding it around a circus ring. I rode my camel for the better part of four hours. We had our own little CIEE caravan of camels trekking through the desert. We departed from the campsite and headed towards the highway on the other side of the Wadi Rum preserve. By the way, if you don’t know, Wadi Rum is where Lawrence of Arabia, Mission to Mars, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Return of Sinbad, and so many more movies were filmed. While on the way across the desert I got lost in the front-to-back motion of the camel. I was able to reflect upon my experiences so far this semester. You see, I think that the motion of a camel is much like the overall experience of the Arab culture. The hardest part about riding a camel is the initial mount. When you mount a camel you mount it while it’s sitting on the ground. And then the moment that you make any sort of contact with the saddle the camel, if trained properly, will stand up on it’s real legs and then it’s front legs. Now this motion sounds much more gentle while I’m typing it. But I will testify that this is more jarring than the worst wooden roller coaster you have ever ridden at a local county fair. But if you can make it through this initial mounting then you are set. Because from here on out it is a very smooth and entrapping experience. Once you’re on the camel you don’t want to get off and you don’t want the gentle front to back motion to stop. But occasionally the camel does stop. Whether you believe it or not there is some form of shrubbery in the desert. And just how a taxi driver manages to hit every pot hole the camel manages to make it from bush to bush without missing a moment to grab a snack. So no matter how comforting and relaxing the ride is, there are moments where it all stops and then you start over again. So this has been my experience so far this semester. The initial mount was rough but I survived it. Then I found myself settling into the saddle for the long ride and starting to enjoy it. But all of a sudden it came to a stop due to some small cultural barrier that had to be crossed. And shortly after that little bush in the desert the ride began again. What I have learned is that you have to enjoy the ride while it last. You have to survive the initial mount and you have to settle in. But the most important part is that you have to expect your comfortable ride to be interrupted every now and then by a bush growing in the middle of a barren desert.
And so from the camel ride we packed up in our two tour buses and headed for a campsite just north of Petra. We all tried to hit the sleeping bag early that night due to the fact that we had to leave by 5:30 in the morning to make it to the site to see the sun rise while in Petra. I would just like to say that CIEE can pull some strings if they want to. We were able to enter the park a full hour before it officially opened to the public and to the workers of the restaurants and vendor stalls located within the park. Considering that Petra is now an Ancient Wonder of the World, it’s a big deal to be let into the park before the staff.
We spent the better part of the morning touring some of the more famous sites such as the Treasury, the Siq, the Monastery with it’s 900 step approach and the market place. By lunch most of us were tired enough that we headed back for the buses to catch some sleep before we headed back to Amman. But I decided to take the chance to break away from the group and visit some of the churches located on site at Petra. Considering I’m the only Religion major and the only non-political science major here this semester I was probably the most interested in seeing the mosaic floors and the most well preserved baptistry in the Middle East. But after that I was just as interested in catching some sleep on the way back to Amman.
So I have settled back into the saddle for the next leg of the journey. And I’m expecting there to be a stop here or there due to some obstacle. But I don’t doubt that the journey will continue.