I Make Quilts

I’m Back

EASTER
I have just spent my first Easter in Uganda. It was awesome, and here is how it went.

Friday
Traveled to Nkokonjeru in the East and got settled in the convent where about 15 volunteers were gathered. The convent runs a school for disabled kids. We were at Anne's site. Anne is genetically wired to be an awesome cook and welcomed us with a Mexican Fiesta, including homemade tortillas, mole, salsa, guacamole, beans, and chicken. The chicken was prepared by a girl who goes to the school there. She is super sweet. I forget her name.

Saturday
Wake up and have a pancake breakfast. We take it easy and get ready to go hike a waterfall and eat lunch at the waterfall. We (I’m including myself, but had nothing to do with the deliciousness) take the leftover beans, salsa, and a ton of cumin, and make a bean salad for lunch to take with us, along with a few pineapples to cut when we get there, and the ‘fixins for PB and J. The waterfall was super cool, and we got a tour of the surrounding area. The tour consisted of a tea field, meeting a witch doctor, seeing places where people go offer eggs to a snake in a cave for it to grant them good fortune, and the waterfall. We went back to the convent where we broke into 4 teams and had a pizza challenge. The convent has a bakery, so we got to use their industrial ovens. We made pizza dough, added sauce, tomatoes, and toppings, and cooked them up. It was delicious. My team came in 2nd I think.

Sunday
3 other volunteers and I got up to go to 8am mass at the convent. It was so cool! The sisters were singing, and I thought it sounded just like the nuns in the sound of music....until the African drums started beating, and 4 nuns got up on "stage" at the front behind the priest and danced. It was my first time to a catholic mass, so I had no idea what was happening when everyone would just start reciting something in unison, including 2 of my friends. I had so many questions, like "what's that smoke thing?", "huh?", and "how did they make that candle so big?". Breakfast was "make your own omelet". After breakfast, I went to the bakery to help make cakes for the kiddos later. That was fun, getting to use the biggest mixer I've ever seen. I could have fit inside of it. We were on our own for lunch, just eating something we could find in town or something left over. There were 5 of us that went to the school and dyed Easter eggs with the kids and distributed cake. It was fun seeing all of these smiling kids in wheelchairs and roller beds having a good time. After the egg dying, we went back to the convent and began to prepare dinner. Dinner was roasting a pig...that was walked over from down the street. Everyone gathered to watch the pig slaughter. 3 guys held it down, while one cut its throat. The squeal will haunt my dreams for-e-ver. After it was decapitated, a couple Ugandans came to "skin" it for us. They poured boiling water on the skin and scraped it with a machete. This got all the hair off. Then they gutted it and our friend Michael made all the meat cutting decisions since he knows about how to get the good pieces and what not. Then a pit was dug near some banana trees. We needed a grill and didn't have one, so we got an old metal bed frame, took off the mattress, and straddled it over the fire pit. The metal wires going back and forth made a great grill top, so we cooked our dinner on a bed. Rubs, marinades, and sauces were prepared and slathered on all the meat and grilled up to perfection. Dave and I were the "carvers", cutting the cooked meat into cavemen-sized chunks and pieces for people to take. The ribs were delicious, as was the tenderloin. Delicious. It was the best meat I've had in Uganda so far...and is going to be hard to beat. I will totally eat the hogs at the ranch now if it will taste like this. Accompanied with potatoes, coleslaw, and green beans, this was our delicious Easter dinner. We had a book, movie, and music swap amongst the volunteers.

Monday
World Malaria Day
Woke up and headed down to the school where I worked the registration table with Michael. There were sessions going on about malaria awareness, prevention, etc. It started raining really hard, so the registration table was moved to the craft table. Here, I bought some necklaces and bracelets for the nieces. Lucky and I decided to leave early since it was raining and we'd have to pay extra for an extra night. We headed to Jinja for milkshakes and Western food. Jinja: a magical place where dreams come true. We went to the Nile River Casino...on the Nile River! I lost $25 playing Caribbean poker. I'm a big spender, what can I say. I had a couple of free cokes, too, while I was there, so it was all worth it.

Tuesday
Made the 2-hour trip to Kampala where we ate lunch. Then made the 6-hour jaunt back to my site.

The End


Quilting Project: Peace by Piece
I have started a quilting project in my village with a group of tailors. The idea is to take the scrap fabric they would usually throw away, and make a blanket that they can sell. It is coming along, slowly but surely. I feel that this has great potential to do well. Other volunteers have expressed interest in doing the same thing at their site with the tailors in their village. We brainstormed, and came up with the name “Peace by Piece” for the project. I’m currently working on a “how to” manual for people who are interested in doing this in their villages.

I am also learning how to quilt so that I can teach it to the locals. Before this, the only thing I had ever used a needle for was to extract splinters. Who would have ever guessed that I would join the Peace Corps and make quilts?

Marketing is one issue I will face. My village is small and doesn’t get much traffic. These types of blankets will appeal to tourists, and we don’t get much of those in my neck of the woods. I have contacted the local fancy hotel craft shops about selling them. They want to see samples, but seem extremely excited to have some locally made blankets to sell to tourists. It’s exciting that we now have a lead to sell our blankets. Fancy hotels, combined with all the Muzungus I will force to purchase quilts, will result in success.

So, if you would like to order a handmade quilt made by the women of Uganda, let me know. It might be encouraging to the group members to know that they’re in demand.



Peace Corps 50th Anniversary
The 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps is this year. Some all-star volunteers organized a service project for us at a school in Lweza, which is close to Entebbe. Many volunteers met for a day of service and fellowship. There were multiple projects going on at once: life skills, peace garden, wall painting, mural painting, sports and activities, etc. I was a part of the Peace Mural Painting group. There were a ton of kiddos who took part in the activity. After explaining 'peace', the kids were instructed to grab a partner, a brush, and some paint, and paint something that they think of when they think of 'peace'. My job in all of this was to draw the circle in the middle of the wall, as well as patrol around to make sure kids weren't painting themselves, each other, or anything else they shouldn't be. It was a fun day full of great experiences spent with great people.