6 Month Blog A Month Late

6 Months in a Place Where the Toilet Struggles to Decide Which Way to Swirl

Actually, we're well past that point. I've spent the last few days feverishly preparing the clinic for a team of 20 or so American medical volunteers that will see hundreds of patients in the next couple weeks (it is February 1). Kids all over are returning to school tomorrow and it was exciting to see off the Engeye Scholars today as they packed up all their school stuff and headed to Kinoni where they will be boarding. It amazed me how little fanfare there was from their parents who were not present as the kids left the village for what will at least be several weeks if not months. Becky stuck a picture of Peter, Mercy, and Nabuuma in Nabuuma's trunk - a nice keepsake from an anonymous donor.

The Engheeneer

I have been doing a lot of electrical work the last two days. I connected a laboratory and rewired the whole system so that some safety switches would be in place and so that I would be the sole person with the knowledge and ability to decide who will have light. Actually, it is to break it up so that we don't destroy the inverter. It was a huge puzzle as I haven't ever wired something by myself before and almost every wire I picked up had a different color scheme. Blue/Black/Red, Purple/Blue/Green, Blue/Red/Green and more. I did all the wiring without testing anything and then, after three hours of darkness (I started at dusk) we flipped on the brand new master switch and all the new nooks and crannies had light. I was astonished that nothing was on fire. During the day someone was burning plastic (I know, I know, it's bad - it wasn't me) and I kept thinking that somewhere a wire that was a little too thin was getting a little too hot. Francis kept coming up to tell me to tell me that I am "an en-gee-near." I wish.

Anyways, I plugged in the microscopes and the centrifuge to make sure everything would work and blew a fuse in the microscope (tested with a circuit set sent from Union Physics in lieu of a voltmeter) and the light bulbs in the scope. I had wired everything with the English inverter (220 V) instead of 110 V. I spent the next afternoon turning one 3 meter wire into one 9 meter wire and installing a smaller 110 V inverter. The whole reasoning as to which wire should connect to which color wire reminds me of Bilal's approach to physics. "Wow, Bilal, how did you get that answer?! No one else got it right."

I knew I was off by an order of magnitude so I divided by 10 and then the units with the formula I used were inverted so I raised it by the negative one power, negative first power [as he scratches his head trying to figure out if he raised or lowered the power by one or the first], and then the answer in the back of the book is quadruple that so I divided by lambda squared because lambda was one-half.

Dave would have walked away long before Bilal finished and I would have stuck around to scream at Bilal to tell him that I knew I was off by a factor of X, but there needed to be a physical reasoning behind his math. Anyways, I wired Engeye Health following a similar logic so hopefully the cement and mud brick construction will protect it from fire.

Stephan

Most of the kids cannot pronounce Stephanie, the name of the clinic's founder, so I often hear "Steph-an azay!" chanted (Stephanie has arrived). Stephanie's arrival has been pretty great for the clinic. Things are getting organized and finished, ideas are being exchanged and plotted out, and everyone is getting important feedback and advice. Stephanie is incredibly easy to work with because she is so down to earth. You would pick her out as an everyday volunteer the way she's willing to throw herself into any activity and there is absolutely no command and control leadership - she listens to the nurse and his ideas about how to do things (she is a fourth year med student), talks to the clinic manager about his ideas and her ideas, asks Becky and I for our opinions, and is willing to work with anyone on anything. It is that kind of flexibility and commitment that get health clinics in rural African built.

Becky and I have been looking forward to this day as a sort of milestone - the day the medical mission comes. Every month we've been here we've talked about how when the medical team comes we will almost be done; that time has come and we find ourselves with less than three months with Nabuuma, Mercy, Peter, Waswa, Alfa, Aksom, Faisal, and all the others that punctuate our days. The goodbye process is starting as we explain over and over that in April we will be going home, waka, but not home at the clinic, home in America. Sometimes our comment is met with silence, sometimes they tell us they want to come to America; both responses are tough. I want to come to America sort of means that they don't understand that we are likely gone forever or for a number of years and silence with a glance to the dirt usually means that they do understand and don't like that scenario. Just seeing the kids faces when the doctors left, I could tell that there might be some tough goodbyes.

Teaching

Teaching physics at St. Bernard's has kind of been crazy and stressful. It has rained every day the last 10 days and when I tell Richard that Ugandans have lied to me about when the rainy season starts he replies, "Even I do not understand this rain. This never happens." So my first week on the job I walked (when I biked I was covered in mud), which is about 9 - 10 miles roundtrip. "Good for the gluts" a French-Canadian might say, but it makes for long days. I have one class so far - Advanced Level Second Year Physics. The first year advanced kids come February 16. When I looked through the book it started with vectors through circular motion onto fluid dynamics and electromagnetism and an array of progressively harder material. I figured I would be teaching the vectors and projectile motion stuff, but was asked (12 hours ahead of time, after I told them I could not teach with 20 minutes notice) to teach 1.5 hours of fluid dynamics. I reviewed Stoke's Law, Bernoulli's Equation and derivation, etc. and I felt there was a good level of understanding (they could answer my questions and do problems). After class, they asked me to cover friction. They had made it all the way to fluid dynamics, but between their two part time teachers they had never formally covered friction. What a mess - talented kids with a tough curriculum, just no support. That was my introduction to secondary school. I am finding an array of other sort of fundamental holes - I cover momentum only to find that they hadn't covered work-energy (also - the book I have by a British guy says work can be negative - I thought work can't be negative? I can see how you can make both arguments...)

When I brought in other materials to illustrate surface tension and capillary action they told me they had never done lab practicals and no one had ever done any kind of demonstration. Reports made it back to me by a variety of staff and via Francis (an alumnus of St. Benard's) that the first day they had trouble with my accent, but after getting used to it they felt I was a "skilled" teacher. I stress a lot that I will miss something or that I will not remember my physics (I hadn't covered Bernoulli since high school) or I will not get through all the material in the next few months, or that I am wasting too much time (an hour biking or three hours walking roundtrip), but overall I am pleased that I can help. These teachers are stretched to the limit and I feel like I take some of the pressure off them. In the next week I will likely be given more classes and will probably teach 2-3 hours per day. That, with the morning program and a variety of other projects I wanted to complete will keep me very busy the next few months.

Five Yellow Cards

The last few weeks I have been playing "football" with the older guys again. Sometimes I referee sometimes I play - mostly refereeing, which has been a pretty incredible experience. I had my first official match - Bunyere Village versus some other village that came riding in on bicycles from the north. By most accounts the game was well officiated (one person is too few to get all the offsides perfect), but I doled out five yellow cards and I am the type of person that lets teams play. Ddegeya, which must have heard or seen a bicycle kick by a Man Utd. player, kicked three people in the head trying to mimic the action. Another person mimicked an Italian National, getting kicked in the leg and grabbing at his eye. Yellow card. And one last person complained about a call and then stood in front of a free kick obnoxiously. Things that the star players like Ronaldo do, unfortunately. Kids these days have no good role models. I think the match ended in a tie, but more to come.

Letter stealer

I sent a letter to a friend and it never made it (five months)...probably has happened a couple of times now. She posited that there is a lonely postal employee sapping the energy, time, and life out of letters stealing the good sentiment for him or herself. It sounded like something from a Neil Gaiman story but made me wonder about one of the last types of "slow" communication in an accelerating world, which is why I tried to send a bunch (I've burned out and had trouble writing them the last few months)...

Medical Mission

I started writing a full blog about the medical mission, but realized that it would be tough to keep to a manageable size. The medical team (and other key Team Engeye members) made a huge impact in such a short time and really left a big impression on the community and me. It was so (unexpectedly) strange to have so many mzungus wandering around and hanging out with us. It was really nice, but really tough to see everyone leave. Becky and I had been excited for the team for sometime, but this was a group with a lot of character (Mike they call you a muyaye, Dr. Joe staying up later than us younger folk and then making sure to see patients even on off days or after hours, Brian catching a inexplicable rainbow on film, Dave and Mark leading walks and then jamming with the guitar far too late for anyone's good, Anny and Misty making the three hour hike to Kiswera to sit in a bat infested classroom through an hour of boring physics lecture - I have something to write about everyone in the group, but I don't know how much everyone wants to be written about and, again, it would go on for pages. The basic story line is that everyone went out of their way to do a lot of good and they were successful.

Where did February Go?

Wow. This is the longest drought in posting so far. It's been crazy at Engeye with a medical mission coming through (more on that in a couple weeks), a new teaching position teaching advanced physics akin to first year college physics, the morning program re-starting, the Engeye board giving us some fun, new tasks for us to think about and work on, a second attempt at gardening (did I tell you the outcome of the peanut crop? I hope not), refereeing inter-village soccer matches, etc. Anyways, there is a lot going on and unfortunately the last blog I wrote (April 1) is stuck on a computer with no wireless internet or thumb drive in sight.

Just wanted to let all of you back home know that I am thinking about you and will probably be back in the United States around April 26.

Maybe a Top Ten Thoughts of the Moment, too:

Leaving will be harder than anticipated

Choosing future path will be harder than I thought

Little kids are sponges for adult energy and attention

There was a false-rainy season and no one knows what the hell is happening with climate here, but I know I am carrying a lot of water, again

Medical volunteers were too much fun and thoroughly distracting from daily grind in rural Africa. Also, they left us with hot showers and food and floss (too kind)

The clinic is steadily improving. It is night and day since we got here (not because of us, just good decisions by management)

Teaching is damn fun (as one of my former physics professors would say) and I think it will have to be a part of my future career

I have a 10 mile commute 3 - 4 days per week, via bike, unless the bike tire pops, which happens way more than it should

We are almost seven months into this adventure (my 6th month blog will be posted next week...) and will be home in what seems like no time

I think the absolute best team will be here to replace Becky and I next year (is this public information? My former roommate, one of the people I respect most on this planet, will be here. That is hint enough.). Two people from 1294 Lenox, Schenectady, NY to Ddegeya Africa in two years - what are the odds?