10A • January 15, 2016 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
‘Immersion experience’ gives woman new outlook
Uganda from Page 1A
somewhere else,” she said
in an interview in her Can-
non Beach home. “I want-
ed to recalibrate,” she said.
“I’d tried that three or four
times in my life, but you
always tend to get pulled
back. And I chose the Peace
Corps.”
Seeking the “immersion
experience,” she surfed the
Peace Corps website in the
middle of the night and said,
“Let’s see what comes my
way.”
That began an 18-month
process that landed her in the
land-locked east African na-
tion of Uganda.
“I’m not sure if I would
have chosen that,” she said.
“I knew Idi Amin. I knew En-
tebbe. ‘Rescue at Entebbe.’”
After packing her allotted
80 pounds — including a
good set of knives and leg-
gings so your legs wouldn’t
be seen — Wesson arrived at
Entebbe at midnight.
After two weeks of train-
ing, she made her way to the
northern city of Gulu, where
the primary language was
Acholi. “It’s a tonal language,
the language of the north,”
she said. “There’s a lot of em-
phasis of vowel strength and
length. The mispronunciation
of a vowel can get you into a
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es.”
The region had been rav-
aged by 20 years of war, she
said, leaving a legacy of tribal
hatred, orphaned children and
thousands more ill or dying
from AIDS and malaria.
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housing quarters in Gulu,
located over a dump where
they burned tires and plastics
throughout the day, Wesson
found a “reasonably safe”
home, furnished with two ta-
bles and a chair.
For safety, she never went
out at night.
“That’s when all the weird
stuff happens to volunteers,”
Wesson said. “It’s kind of
OK to go out in a group, but
you’re cautioned not to. The
SUBMITTED PHOTO/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Nancy Wesson with children in northern Uganda.
SUBMITTED PHOTO/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
A writing slate is used to teach literacy skills.
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ing, roads hideous, potholes
the size of Volkswagen bugs,
drop-offs on either side ...
They drive lickety-split, ani-
mals, potholes — it’s scary.”
An emotional shift
Three Peace Corps groups
operated from Gulu: educa-
tion, economic development
and health. Wesson worked
with the education group in
literacy and basic education.
“When I got there they
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I did,” she said. “Looking at
systems and processes to see
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they could get better use of
their tiny resources. Dealing
with the primitive environ-
ment led to a “huge emotional
shift around time and produc-
tivity,” Wesson said.
For a woman who used
to help high-powered Aus-
tin businesswomen compete
in the marketplace, Wesson
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going to happen on time or
quickly. Delivery of services
is so fraught: there’s weath-
er, nobody has any commu-
nications. There’s no money
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anything is happening with a
family, everything else stops.”
Trainings took place in
the deep bush, aided by inter-
preters who could speak the
local language, Acholi, and
English.
“It’s a very successful
program, but success is deter-
mined differently,” Wesson
said. “ Some of the success
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know how to write my name,
I don’t have to wait for my
husband to make all of the
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know how to count money, I
can take go to the market and
sell my tomatoes without be-
ing cheated.’ These are huge
success stories.”
In a society ruled by su-
perstitions came unexpected
challenges.
“Witchcraft still exists
there,” she said. “We were
called ‘muzungus,’ which
means foreigners. One of
the beliefs that surrounds
muzungus is that blue eyes
are the devil. One day, I was
sitting in the truck, and hun-
dreds of kids were surround-
ing the truck. I always took
a jar of bubbles to blow, and
they’re motioning me for me
to remove my sunglasses.
When I did, the whole group
jumped back in horror at my
blue eyes. I smilled and blew
bubbles, and they learned to
accept that.”
“I’m really glad I did it,”
Wesson said. “People ask,
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fun, but I did good work,
made good friends and think
I made a lasting difference. I
have this incredible sense of
gratitude, every single day,”
Wesson added. “Every wak-
ing moment in Uganda was
a constant act of gratitude. I
was thanked by people I’d
never seen before on a daily
basis. They knew if you were
a foreigner you were there to
help, if you were waiting for
a light, they’d take my hand
and say, ‘Thank you for your
service.’
“To say that this country
should close its door to im-
migrants — we were those
immigrants originally,” she
added. “Every time you help
someone, whether in this
country or another, if you help
lift them up, then you change
the community in which that
person functions. That’s what
the Peace Corps does.”
Ocean bound
After a little more than two
years, Wesson returned to the
United States. In selecting a
climate, she sought the op-
posite of Uganda’s clouds of
dust.
“All I could think of was
getting to the shore,”she said.
“I’ve dreamed of the ocean in
all my life.”
With a son working as a
ski instructor at Mount Hood,
she was drawn to Cannon
Beach. She found a rental and
unloaded the U-Haul. In her
time here, she’s made herself
known around town, working
with the Visitor Center part
time and working with the
Haystack Rock Awareness
program.
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time with the Peace Corps.
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