Vanessa was a volunteer in Uganda, East Africa from 1996-1999
I was a volunteer in Uganda, East Africa from 1996-1999. Uganda is a former British colony, which makes English the official language, although over 30 tribal languages are spoken. Uganda
is a small country, about the size of Oregon, and lies just north of Lake Victoria and west of Kenya. This small country has amazing diversity in environments - everything from hot, dry savanahh to tropical rainforest to permanently snow-capped mountains. The people are extremely friendly, which is a good thing since there are over 20 million of them!
This high population is quickly depleting their natural resources, and much of my job, as an Environment Peace Corps Volunteer, was to help Ugandans to use their resources more sustainably. I did two main projects as a volunteer. The first was to help promote improved agriculture techniques that would improve the productivity of their soil (and hopefully avoid the tendency to enter into the nearby national park to clear new land or collect wood). The second was to write an environmental education teacher's guide with local primary school teachers. Although I can point to these concrete tasks that I did as a volunteer, I think the most important aspect of my service was becoming part of the families of my closest Ugandan friends. Not only did I come home with a whole new concept of what Africa is like and my place in the world, but also I hope that the people I got to know developed a new, and probably more accurate picture of what America is all about.
