Living with Raja, a male volunteer

Source of the Rwenzori bottled water

A volunteer is always welcome to visit placement locations of co-vols.  One can select from the database, contact the vol and make arrangements for a visit - meaning get free lodging.  For the Easter holidays, Joyce and I traveled to Kasese, western Uganda, where Raja is posted.   Raja met us at the Post bus station and insisted that the only way we can reach his house was to ride the boda-boda.

The scientist from India

OMG.  Joyce and I have never taken a bod (that's the slang) but we were just too tired from the 6-hour trip that we did not want to argue with him.  I got on the bod first to encourage Joyce as she was really pale and very reluctant.  She told me later that she closed her eyes while on saddle, and in my case I held on to the belt of the driver.  On hindsight, it was not safe

House in Kasese

as the belt could snap from my very tight grip.  Raja's house has two-bedrooms and two toilets and baths.  He showed us our toilet (Brit., loo) which he says is the Indian style (you squat).  What an irony.  He was the Indian, but he was using the western style (you sit).

Proud to finish his project

His main door and windows have the VSO trademark curtains (elephant prints) and they are always drawn to keep his privacy.  He does not want a mazungu like him to be the object of curiosity in his neighborhood.  Windows and doors are

Weather station in Raja's office

closed all the time to keep mosquitoes away.  He has no furniture in his living room since he does not invite guests, except co-vols.  But he has a satellite dish and a television set (his own expense) because he does not want to miss news from home and some tv series that he is following.  His kitchen

Ingredients for chipati

is something else.  He has lots and lots of spices (cummins, mustard, pepper) and he has a canny way of storing them.  He lives by chipatis everyday, especially made for him by a local store and he pairs them with masala-spiced dishes.  I have learned to love eating chipati. 

Spices in recycled bottle

It was nice listening to him and Joyce exchange cooking tips in the kitchen.  Joyce cooked dried fish and we had to blow the electric fan full blast to keep the aroma away.  Raja is very religious but he does not attend any Hindu temple actitivies.  He says he performs his

Vols take a pose

religious rites daily in his bedroom, and he brought from home all his relics.  He usually wears dhoti at home, perhaps to be more comfortable in a lotus position.  It was very kind of him to give up his electric fan in our favor.  He bought bread and noodles, which he does not

In the middle of the Earth

particularly like just for us because he thinks Filipinos enjoy them.  He does not like sweets but he also bought orange marmalade for us to neutralize the spicy food that we had to eat with him.  It was indeed a cultural exchange.  When we left at dawn, he walked with us to the bus station.  That was when he realized that he did not have to ride the boda-boda after all because walking there was a breeze, and quite pleasant.

What a wonderful time we had.

No chipatis this time..... only canned beans.

Heard in Africa - Talk and greetings

Watch out..... elephants crossing

I have been in Gulu and some parts of Uganda long enough to be able to notice some peculiarities.  The pictures here, are to me,  unique as well. 

A flock of maribou storck

Conversations usually do not dwell on the past.  It is about today.  If you talk about tomorrow, you can be sure it is uncertain.

Notice the hump

Whether oral or written communication, the buzzwords are challenges, mainstreaming, cross-cutting, vulnerabilities, sensitized.

Greetings and handshakes are not to be overlooked. Greetings do not just come as a curt How are you.  It is long winded - how is home, how is everyone in your family.  A mazungu was greeted once with the question - how did you sleep last night, and she answered... Oh with my eyes closed.

Patiently waiting for a bus?

This land is for you and me

This photo is a reflection on glass

Back home, there were countless times when I was often asked if I still know the color of the sky.  Those were the days when I leave very early for and very late from work.  Having left that state and being now in the heart of the vast and unspoiled continent of Africa,

Equator line in Kasese, Uganda

I can see very clearly and with profound admiration not only the sky but all of God's creations.
On the first day, He created Night and Day.

On the second day, the Sky and the Sea.

 See the reflection of the sky on Lake Katwe

The fragrant vanilla plant

On the third day, Land and Vegetation.

The mysterious Rwenzori or Mountains of the Moon

Full moon in Kasese; 720 kms. from Gulu

Day break aboard a Post Bus for a 350 kms. trip

On the fourth day, the Stars, Sun and Moon.







On the fifth day, Sea creatures, Fish and Birds.

Partridge and weaver bird waiting for feeding time

On the sixth day, Animals and Mankind.

Deers foraging at the Queen Elizabeth National Park

Orange  colobus monkey at Lake Nkuruba

Around this time last year, our family had hamburgers at a diner, to jointly celebrate the birthdays of Charlie and Mia. 

The descendants of Adam and Eve

For now, I will happily celebrate their birthdays in solitude.  I offer them a toast of my new found drink - Amarula.

Marula fruit cream taken before bedtime
causes elephant-sized dreams

Amarula is a cream liqueur manufactured in South Africa.  It comes from the fruit of the African marula tree.  Elephants enjoy eating the fruit and having too much of it makes them tipsy - some people say.

Happy birthday

E.T. phone home

The world is a click away

Many many years ago, I often wondered how OCWs (Overseas Contract Workers - that's how Overseas Filipino Workers were known then) could overcome the long separation from their families. Letters and cards could be posted but it makes a lot of difference to hear the sound of voices long missed.  I know there was a time when they would record messages on casette tapes and have them carried by leaving or returning compatriots.  Then came the prepaid phone cards which allowed them to call from any public phone.... and one could see the used cards littering near phone booths in Hong Kong.  But that was a one-way convenience as it was usually a call to home.  The mobile phone revolution in the early 90's eased the hardships of separation.  I am quite fortunate that my being overseas for a length of time happened in this day and age.  I have my old phone with the postpaid Philippine SIM card so I don't run out of airtime, and a new phone which has a local prepaid SIM.  These are not smartphones but the camera and radio features are good enough for me.  Equally important is my MacBook Pro.  I bought a local modem and a monthly data services subscription.  Almost all VSO vols here in Gulu have their own laptops and modems.  It is wonderful to be able to talk face-to-face in Skype, converse at the cheapest means through chat (one-on-one or conference), pay household bills via online banking, and get news from newspaper websites.  I am certain that most of the 8

Don't leave home without them

million Filipinos overseas do the same thing now, whether on their private computers or in internet cafes.  I once showed my African colleagues how Skype works.  My children were waving and greeting them on the screen, and my colleagues were just mesmerized.  They said that I would not miss my family at all.  With my total dependence on my mobile phone and computer, I have to journalize

Screen shot of a Skype session

when power is out and back; this disruption is a daily thing but there has really been no pattern to it.  Email is my first and last orders of the day since I am 5 hours behind Manila time.  If I don't hear from anyone for awhile, I just go to Facebook and surely I would know what's happening to their day. 

    A send-off gift from my colleagues at work.
It makes me feel at home.

In 1982, when I saw the movie E.T. where it was trying to phone home via satellite, I thought then that that scene was just for aliens.  Today, anyone with no mobile phone maybe is the alien (either by choice or circumstance). No offense meant, as I am an alien too.