For the past three weeks I’ve been living in Ibulanku, a small village in Eastern Uganda. The Uganda Village Project Obstetric Fistula Team (5 of us total) live in a guesthouse adjacent to the Ibulanku Community Health Clinic and across from PADI, an Australian-funded locally-run NGO that sponsors it.

Even though I spent three months in Uganda last year, my experiences here have been far, far different. Kampala is a giant metropolis compared to village life, and this time I’m not sheltered by the private SUVs and hotel accommodations EngenderHealth (international NGO) provided when I did go up-country last year.

Instead, I walk 25 minutes and ride a mini-bus for another 20 to use the internet in the nearest town, avoid liquids after 7 pm to avoid the 50 trek to the pit latrine (aka hole in the ground) in the dark, and pump water for bathing and drinking from a bore-hole across the road. Regardless, we are still living at standards FAR above those around us and those we work with.

Our research is community-based, meaning community health workers from the clinic (also serve as interpreters) take us into deep into the village to find women with fistula and sisters. We ride bikes and motorcycle for hours on narrow dirt paths cars would not fit on, and interview them with as much guarantee of privacy as we can in their straw-thatched mud huts.

The people here are very friendly and receive us mzungus (white people) warmly. Little faces appear in our windows and doorways frequently, as children in the village are curious to see what the mzungus are doing. And news travels fast – everyone knows what’s going on and know that we’re here.

The Uganda Village Project term is half over – in three weeks the volunteers leave, and I’ll be around for another week and a half to wrap things up…This weekend I’m in Kampala for some business and also for some fun – visiting friends here who are leaving soon and celebrating Daphne’s 24^th birthday party (daughter of host family). Being here is quite a culture shock! And as I catch up on emails, learning of my friends back in the U.S. beginning new jobs and new lives and my cousin getting married, and hear the occasional hip-hop/R&B song, pangs of nostalgia hit. But at the same time, I am excited to return today to Ibulanku, with the soft, high-pitched, sing-songy greetings exchanged at the start each conversation, the cows and chickens and turkeys and kids in our yard, and the calmness and slower pace of village life.

Lastly, to follow up from the last post, I have also heard theories (well, from one person) about the fluctuating dollar in relation to Southern Sudan’s government (or attempt to form its own government) using the US dollar as its currency and subsequently purchasing goods from Uganda. Other news in Uganda – Miss Uganda 2007 was recently chosen to compete in Beijing for the Miss Universe title, but controversy holds that she is ugly and undeserving and it’s all a conspiracy.