June
So the next morning I and a couple of folks who had been at the goat roast decided to go adventuring. After breakfast we enlisted the help of the only person in my village who has a car to drive us up into the mountains so that we can enjoy the scenery. I offer to pay, but he insists on driving for free if I cover the gas. So we load up, put gas in the car and away we go. The road going up to the mountains was pretty rough, but we were able to make it. Though, once we got up into the mountains it was a different story. We were in an all wheel drive station wagon, but really we should have been in a hummer. The road we absolutely ridiculous and our driver was quickly demonstrating the fact that he had not owned the car for long. We would try to get him to stop so we could get out and push before he entered a bad spot so the car would be less likely to get stuck, but he would just gun the engine and plow right in. Then we would get stuck and have to push him out. This happened at least a dozen times. We even suggested that maybe we turn around and go back, but it seems that his pride was hurt a little at the suggestion that he couldn't get us there, and we really did want to reach the valley down the other side of the mountain pass, so we pushed on. After a lot of grunting, sweating, playing in the mud and pushing, we finally arrived. A beautiful view of an incredibly green valley made all the struggles worth it. Only way off in the distance could you see any sign of people. A small hut was tucked in among the rolling hills some three or four miles away on the other side of the valley. It was so amazing to have this little Shangrala of rolling hills, multiple little streams and waterfalls, giant mahoganies just 30 miles from me. The rest of the landscape in my area is flat and grassy. There are some trees, but because people cut them down for firewood, few of the trees get very big. But here in this valley we were surrounded by a huge thick forest of giant trees, impenetrable stands of bamboo, and mountains rising up on all sides. So we marveled and marveled. Slowly we made our way to the village on the other side of the valley and meet Fr. Richard, a friend of mine. We feasted on some of the largest and sweetest lemons, oranges, and mangoes I have ever had. Even the lemons were as sweet as candy. It was absolutely amazing, but our day light was running out, so we turned around and headed for home.
Again we played in the mud pushing and grunting, heaving and hauling, and finally made it to the apex of our mountain pass. After this it was all down hill, but not in one day. Our prideful driver wouldn't let us get out and guide him in a particularly narrow part of the road and we wound up in a ditch. The car had slid off into a small stream bed that the rain had cut right along the road. For over an hour we fought and struggled to get this car out of the stream. Eventually we had to lift the back end of the car up, slide it onto the road and then get in front and push the car, very carefully mind you, onto the road. If we went a little too far then we would be in the ditch on the other side of the road. Success! We finally got our little wagon out of the ditch and were excited to not be spending the night in the mountains in the middle of nowhere. Or at least we thought. The car wouldn't start. I don't know why or how getting stuck in a ditch would cause the car to not start, but it seemed that it did.
So now what? What could we do? We were in the middle of the mountains, its about an hour from sun down and we have a car that won't start. So we send the fastest of us running back to the village to ask Fr. Richard for some help. Fortunately Fr. Richard was a little better equipped than we were and so he brought his big Land Rover to the rescue. It was getting too late to do any repairs by the time he arrived, so he loaded us up and took us back to the mission with him. After we got back we were offered a hot bath, dinner and clean beds. We came to him begging like a troop of raggedy vagabonds and Fr. Richard treated us likes kings. It was probably the best hospitality I have ever experienced in Africa. The next morning we were treated to freshly baked bread, omelets and hot tea. We got a few more mangoes and lemons and with a mechanic driving we headed for the car.
The car was still there in one piece, and nothing was stolen from it. I was a little surprised but happily impressed never the less. So with the mechanic and three engineers we were finally able to diagnose the problem. It turns out the driver, who is openly cursing me at this point, had failed to get his gas pump repaired properly. It seems that it had been replaced once, but the fuse that protects the gas pump had not been replaced at all, instead it had been jumped. This of course will get you to the nearest town where you can buy a proper fuse, but unfortunately this was not the case. Instead, the 25 cent fuse was not put in and so now the $60 pump will need to be replaced... again. So with no chance of getting all that in the middle of the mountains, Fr. used his Land Rover to pull us to the nearest village on the other side of the mountains. Slowly, and with a lot of jerking and stopping we finally made the 15 mile journey to the next village. Wow, what an ordeal! Fr. Richard couldn't take us any further as he has his own program for the day, so we pool all the money we have on us and give it to Fr. for the food, lodging, and fuel to pull us this far. His hospitality warranted more, but that was all the money we had. Our driver, of course, felt no need to pitch in and went so far as to demand that I pay for another tow to town where he could get the car repaired. I wasn't so agreeable to say the least. So with a temper high and no money, I just started walking. Its 22 km from there to my village and I wasn't about to sit and listen to the driver piss and moan about how this was all my fault. My friends and I walked the whole way to my village. At some point in the trek the driver passed us on a motorcycle and took time to try and argue with me some more. I was getting fed up to the point that I could have just about kicked his face in right there. I wasn't the one driving, I told him to let us get out and push or turn us around and not go any further, I wasn't the one who jerry-rigged the gas pump fuse, and I wasn't the one who's pride took us all the way out to BFE in a vehicle that wasn't up to snuff. I and my friends had already payed twice what it should cost to get his car to town and repaired and he still had all the fuel that I bought in his tank. I couldn't comprehend how this SOB could continue to blame me for his mistakes. But I guess logic doesn't matter, what mattered to him was that I was white and consequently rich and so obviously I should pay. So again, I started walking, without kicking his face in.
Good God! What an adventure! We made it home safe and sound that night and my friends were able to go their separate ways the next morning so I guess all is well that ends well right?
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
First term and goat roasting - from May 2011
If memory serves me correctly, my last writings were on the adventures of Sully and Dave climbing Mt. Elgon. If this isn't the case, then I'll let Sully post an entry on that when he gets a chance. Regardless, I have fallen way behind. So let me start catching up.
After Sully left at the end of January, I went back to my house to find everything in complete disarray. Termites had made short work of big sections of my fence. Neighbor kids broke my clay posts, goats and cattle destroyed what little greenery I might have had and somebody - according to the little boy next door - had come by during the night and tried to pick my locks. Dang! Can't a guy go a way for two months without everything falling apart? So I spent the next month slowly putting things back together.
I've decided that trying to be all natural on the fence issue isn't going to work. I was using bamboo and thorns, but that isn't holding up. So now I'm going to try soaking the ends of the bamboo in either poison or used motor oil. Then I'll see how that goes. Once the bamboo is woven together it is really strong, hence why they make their houses out of it. However, no one told me that before they coat their bamboo walls with cow shit, they also poor several gallons of poison on the bamboo and in the ground around it. I don't know what health risks there might be in this tactic, but it does seem to work really well. Now I just need a few hundred more pieces of bamboo and some poison. I'll let you all know how it turns out.
Aside from the fence, March and most of April have passed without any developments at home. At school on the other hand things went a bit south. First, the term was supposed to begin in early February. Most of the teachers - except me and the Deputy Principal - didn't arrive until mid February. But then again , only a handful of students arrived as well.
Notwithstanding, by the end of February we were in full swing. Then in the middle of March, oh beware the ides of March, we started having problems. The trouble is definitely two fold. First the S2 and S3 (sophomores and juniors) became "very indisciplined." Basically, they weren't coming to class or if the did they were late, out of dress code, lazy , unresponsive, or just rude. Try to understand that there is only one exam at the end of their senior year that determines their fate. When you're a kid, one or two years before the most important exam of your life seems like plenty of time. So there isn't a whole lot of reason to take classes too seriously. Plus, they aren't S1 (freshmen) any more so they are getting a little big for their britches so to say. Combine all of this with a few bold kids who really don't care at all and of course you are going to have problems. The second fold is that the teachers are pretty dang lazy. Most of the teachers didn't really want to be teachers, but if they didn't do well enough to go to university, then going to a teachers college at least buys you some time, gives you possible job options and is usually free or cheap. So of course the teachers aren't going to show any great concern or passion for the school, students, or teaching in general. They will , however, go to great lengths to tell you how lousy, lazy and indisciplined the students are. So now we have poor teachers (who are paid regardless of their performance), students who are only at school as a way to get out of chores at home and parents who know nothing about it because they only made it to the 3rd grade. KABOOM!
The explosion happened when the administration (principal) finally started coming to school and doing a decent job as opposed to doing something somewhere else. He really turned things around on both students and staff. Now all this time I was doing what I could to be a good example. I took roll call, graded homework, gave weekly quizzes and called students by name. You would think this would be good, in fact the other teachers commented that these are "serous teaching tools." Not that any of them tried to emulate though. But no, the students hated it. I was making them do more work and because of my record keeping and knowing their names, I was able to hold them accountable. Their anonymity was gone and they were really in trouble when I brought it to the attention of the principal.
So parents were called, blame was passed around like a hot potato and in the end we made a step forward but potentially two steps back. My physics students (juniors) said I wasn't giving enough notes (they don't have text books so they really do need notes) and said I wasn't covering enough material. What they really meant was that I wasn't giving them notes verbatim on the board for them to copy for 80 minutes and instead required them to participate. "Teaching" means you give students notes and problems to memorize. Anything outside of this isn't welcomed by teachers or students.
Then the students voiced complaints about other teachers not coming to class, or having the students do yard work when they didn't feel like teaching. The parents raised a fuss that we weren't caning (beating with a slender branch) enough and the administration said the parents need to check and make sure their kids are actually studying at school by looking at the report cards.
So the solution: I am now teaching freshmen physics, one teacher was fired as an example, four or five students were expelled as examples, and a whole slew of the others were caned by their parents right there on the spot. One kid, rumor has it, was even arrested for stealing because he took the money his mom gave him for school fees and went drinking instead. That pretty much wraps up term I and the end of April.
I spend Easter in the village just north of my house. It was nice and quiet. People celebrated, sang, danced, and had a good time. The next week I finally got time to go and climb the little mountain near me. Spectacular view of an incredibly flat and vast landscape. Plains full of grass, bush and trees. Green and Gorgeous! That brings me to to my next topic.
Gardening. April had a few showers, just enough to begin swing the hoe and busting sod. I let my hands get pretty raw before I put on the gloves Penny sent me (Thanks again Penny!). I had to make sure I had calluses and blisters to show everyone. Then in May, I just put in my corn and beans Mom and dad sent with Sully (thanks again Mom, Dad and Sully). Now I'm working on my herb garden. I've got lemon grass, ginger and basil. I planted mint, rosemary, and chives, but it seems they didn't come up. I'll have to try one more time. I also gave mustard, collards, swiss chard, carrots, lettuce and beets a shot. But I put them right before 3 days of hellacious rain. So I think they got washed away. Dang. My pumpkins are looking good though. I'll be making bies by August I hope.
Then May 10th rolled around and I had to go for PC training again. It was only two days long, but it ate up a whole week because travel it is 2 days there and 2 days back. Plus, I stayed an extra day to get my mid-service medical exam done so I wouldn't have to make the 4 day travel again. However, as much as I hate going to the capital for training, I do like seeing all of my PC friends. Its like a reunion every time we meet up. On top of that, a bunch of them wanted to come up to the North for a visit. Awesome! So I said we should have a little south of the border party at my place. See, its a joke cause I'm right south of the Sudan border. he he :)
So I hurried home to prepare while everyone else went gallivanting here and there as they made their way north. After a lot of hustle, hassle and harrassle, I finally got 20lbs of fruit, a 40 lbs goat (hanging weight), 35lbs of charcoal, and one case of beer. Thanks to Papa's butcher knives (razor sharp!) I made short work of the goat. My neighbors couldn't believe how fast was going, then I demonstrated how sharp the knife was by shaving the hair off my arm. Then I have the innards and head to a friend in exchange for helping me salt and stretch the hide. The heart, liver, lungs, and kidneys I kept though and ground them up with salt, onion, garlic and chili peppers, made them into patties then breaded and deep fried them. Oh, I made a deep frier and filled it with sunflower seed oil, most useful innovation I've made so far. Damn were they good!
Mean while, I had a pit, a rim off a 2 ton flat bed and a load of charcoal. I put it all together with the charcoal in the rim, and the rim in the ground. Burn baby burn! By the time I had the goat skinned and all the pinaable and mangoes sliced up, the fire was ready. So I stuffed the goat carcass with fruit until he was bursting, wired him closed, wrapped him in palm leaves and threw him in the pit. Then I covered it with more palm leaves and piled on the dirt. That was about noon.
I spent the next six hours making guacamole, fruit salad, tortillas, beans and potatoes and straining my homemade mango wine. A little vinigery, but good enough. Then mop the house and by the time everyone arrived (they had to hire a flatbed truck to take them all to my place and back, some PCV and some ex-pat from Kitgum) the goat was ready to rise again! We went to lift him out by the leg bones, but instead the leg bones just slipped right out. So I grabbed some gloves and pulled the wires. Again, the meat fell away and the wires pulled right out. So we had to get the palm leaves underneath and lift. Surprisingly, the leaves weren't burned. We put him on the table and I ripped off a piece. Glorious! I couldn't believe it turned out so well. Once the moment of truth had passed, the next two hourse was a flash of meat and beer. Not even the bones were left on the table as people sad around gnawing on them. Then someone brought out the guitar as the sun finally disappeared and we all proceeded to relax and have a helluva good time. It would have lasted well into the night, but lightning was on the horizon and a lot of folks had to get the early bus the next day so we loaded them up on and said goodbye. Three of the guests stayed behind for the night so we could go adventuring around the next morning, but that is another story.
Tune in next time for more adventures as I continue to examine life :)
After Sully left at the end of January, I went back to my house to find everything in complete disarray. Termites had made short work of big sections of my fence. Neighbor kids broke my clay posts, goats and cattle destroyed what little greenery I might have had and somebody - according to the little boy next door - had come by during the night and tried to pick my locks. Dang! Can't a guy go a way for two months without everything falling apart? So I spent the next month slowly putting things back together.
I've decided that trying to be all natural on the fence issue isn't going to work. I was using bamboo and thorns, but that isn't holding up. So now I'm going to try soaking the ends of the bamboo in either poison or used motor oil. Then I'll see how that goes. Once the bamboo is woven together it is really strong, hence why they make their houses out of it. However, no one told me that before they coat their bamboo walls with cow shit, they also poor several gallons of poison on the bamboo and in the ground around it. I don't know what health risks there might be in this tactic, but it does seem to work really well. Now I just need a few hundred more pieces of bamboo and some poison. I'll let you all know how it turns out.
Aside from the fence, March and most of April have passed without any developments at home. At school on the other hand things went a bit south. First, the term was supposed to begin in early February. Most of the teachers - except me and the Deputy Principal - didn't arrive until mid February. But then again , only a handful of students arrived as well.
Notwithstanding, by the end of February we were in full swing. Then in the middle of March, oh beware the ides of March, we started having problems. The trouble is definitely two fold. First the S2 and S3 (sophomores and juniors) became "very indisciplined." Basically, they weren't coming to class or if the did they were late, out of dress code, lazy , unresponsive, or just rude. Try to understand that there is only one exam at the end of their senior year that determines their fate. When you're a kid, one or two years before the most important exam of your life seems like plenty of time. So there isn't a whole lot of reason to take classes too seriously. Plus, they aren't S1 (freshmen) any more so they are getting a little big for their britches so to say. Combine all of this with a few bold kids who really don't care at all and of course you are going to have problems. The second fold is that the teachers are pretty dang lazy. Most of the teachers didn't really want to be teachers, but if they didn't do well enough to go to university, then going to a teachers college at least buys you some time, gives you possible job options and is usually free or cheap. So of course the teachers aren't going to show any great concern or passion for the school, students, or teaching in general. They will , however, go to great lengths to tell you how lousy, lazy and indisciplined the students are. So now we have poor teachers (who are paid regardless of their performance), students who are only at school as a way to get out of chores at home and parents who know nothing about it because they only made it to the 3rd grade. KABOOM!
The explosion happened when the administration (principal) finally started coming to school and doing a decent job as opposed to doing something somewhere else. He really turned things around on both students and staff. Now all this time I was doing what I could to be a good example. I took roll call, graded homework, gave weekly quizzes and called students by name. You would think this would be good, in fact the other teachers commented that these are "serous teaching tools." Not that any of them tried to emulate though. But no, the students hated it. I was making them do more work and because of my record keeping and knowing their names, I was able to hold them accountable. Their anonymity was gone and they were really in trouble when I brought it to the attention of the principal.
So parents were called, blame was passed around like a hot potato and in the end we made a step forward but potentially two steps back. My physics students (juniors) said I wasn't giving enough notes (they don't have text books so they really do need notes) and said I wasn't covering enough material. What they really meant was that I wasn't giving them notes verbatim on the board for them to copy for 80 minutes and instead required them to participate. "Teaching" means you give students notes and problems to memorize. Anything outside of this isn't welcomed by teachers or students.
Then the students voiced complaints about other teachers not coming to class, or having the students do yard work when they didn't feel like teaching. The parents raised a fuss that we weren't caning (beating with a slender branch) enough and the administration said the parents need to check and make sure their kids are actually studying at school by looking at the report cards.
So the solution: I am now teaching freshmen physics, one teacher was fired as an example, four or five students were expelled as examples, and a whole slew of the others were caned by their parents right there on the spot. One kid, rumor has it, was even arrested for stealing because he took the money his mom gave him for school fees and went drinking instead. That pretty much wraps up term I and the end of April.
I spend Easter in the village just north of my house. It was nice and quiet. People celebrated, sang, danced, and had a good time. The next week I finally got time to go and climb the little mountain near me. Spectacular view of an incredibly flat and vast landscape. Plains full of grass, bush and trees. Green and Gorgeous! That brings me to to my next topic.
Gardening. April had a few showers, just enough to begin swing the hoe and busting sod. I let my hands get pretty raw before I put on the gloves Penny sent me (Thanks again Penny!). I had to make sure I had calluses and blisters to show everyone. Then in May, I just put in my corn and beans Mom and dad sent with Sully (thanks again Mom, Dad and Sully). Now I'm working on my herb garden. I've got lemon grass, ginger and basil. I planted mint, rosemary, and chives, but it seems they didn't come up. I'll have to try one more time. I also gave mustard, collards, swiss chard, carrots, lettuce and beets a shot. But I put them right before 3 days of hellacious rain. So I think they got washed away. Dang. My pumpkins are looking good though. I'll be making bies by August I hope.
Then May 10th rolled around and I had to go for PC training again. It was only two days long, but it ate up a whole week because travel it is 2 days there and 2 days back. Plus, I stayed an extra day to get my mid-service medical exam done so I wouldn't have to make the 4 day travel again. However, as much as I hate going to the capital for training, I do like seeing all of my PC friends. Its like a reunion every time we meet up. On top of that, a bunch of them wanted to come up to the North for a visit. Awesome! So I said we should have a little south of the border party at my place. See, its a joke cause I'm right south of the Sudan border. he he :)
So I hurried home to prepare while everyone else went gallivanting here and there as they made their way north. After a lot of hustle, hassle and harrassle, I finally got 20lbs of fruit, a 40 lbs goat (hanging weight), 35lbs of charcoal, and one case of beer. Thanks to Papa's butcher knives (razor sharp!) I made short work of the goat. My neighbors couldn't believe how fast was going, then I demonstrated how sharp the knife was by shaving the hair off my arm. Then I have the innards and head to a friend in exchange for helping me salt and stretch the hide. The heart, liver, lungs, and kidneys I kept though and ground them up with salt, onion, garlic and chili peppers, made them into patties then breaded and deep fried them. Oh, I made a deep frier and filled it with sunflower seed oil, most useful innovation I've made so far. Damn were they good!
Mean while, I had a pit, a rim off a 2 ton flat bed and a load of charcoal. I put it all together with the charcoal in the rim, and the rim in the ground. Burn baby burn! By the time I had the goat skinned and all the pinaable and mangoes sliced up, the fire was ready. So I stuffed the goat carcass with fruit until he was bursting, wired him closed, wrapped him in palm leaves and threw him in the pit. Then I covered it with more palm leaves and piled on the dirt. That was about noon.
I spent the next six hours making guacamole, fruit salad, tortillas, beans and potatoes and straining my homemade mango wine. A little vinigery, but good enough. Then mop the house and by the time everyone arrived (they had to hire a flatbed truck to take them all to my place and back, some PCV and some ex-pat from Kitgum) the goat was ready to rise again! We went to lift him out by the leg bones, but instead the leg bones just slipped right out. So I grabbed some gloves and pulled the wires. Again, the meat fell away and the wires pulled right out. So we had to get the palm leaves underneath and lift. Surprisingly, the leaves weren't burned. We put him on the table and I ripped off a piece. Glorious! I couldn't believe it turned out so well. Once the moment of truth had passed, the next two hourse was a flash of meat and beer. Not even the bones were left on the table as people sad around gnawing on them. Then someone brought out the guitar as the sun finally disappeared and we all proceeded to relax and have a helluva good time. It would have lasted well into the night, but lightning was on the horizon and a lot of folks had to get the early bus the next day so we loaded them up on and said goodbye. Three of the guests stayed behind for the night so we could go adventuring around the next morning, but that is another story.
Tune in next time for more adventures as I continue to examine life :)
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