quick

I am in the human rights focus office where I have paid a membership
to use the computers for NGO business when there is no power in the
clinic- I have yet to see power there! i just printed documents for
the program and used almost all my credit- ahh oh well. things are
good, had a very productive meeting with a woman called Judy from
Kenya who has an MPH and lots of training on lifeskills. she is going
to be really instrumental in facilitating a few of the workshops in
the kickball program and gave me lots of good ideas. We also looked at
the programs the clinic runs and she supported me in some of my brief
evaluations, first and foremost the mission statement, vision, and
goals all say pretty much the exact same thing. So those need to be
updated.
things are coming together with the program, i will meet the parents
tomorrow, and the children saturday morning and the coaches training
and meeting is saturday afternoon. I have been invited to lunch with
Judy and Wissit, an english woman who i think will be good people to
know socially, on sunday and so the weekend will be good. I went to
see the pigs from the new Heifer International project. They are all
pregnant and should have their piglets in the next week or so! Also
the farmer let me take TONS of mangoes home with me! they were fresh
off the tree, he knocked them with a big stick while i ran around
collecting them all the while squealing like a child with excitment!
they were everywhere and are SO yummy! I had a nice snack when i got
home last night.
Went to aerobics again last night with Martha, still really makes me
giggle. But its a nice group of people and they are all very friendly
and welcoming to me. also caught the tail end of marimar- yes my awful
soap at the acholi inn on our way out! lol. lame!
all in all, things are very good! just ready to meet some kids.
yesterday on my 45 min walk home children followed me for a while.
very funny.
alright hope is ringing from kampala, have to go!

--
I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.
Nelson Mandela

Bye for a bit?

Hope is away to Kampala tomorrow, laptop in tow.
The clinic (my 'office') has yet to have power when I am there so I am
not sure when I will have internet again. Working on getting martha to
share hers or stopping by the community resource centre for NGO
workers.
have a meeting tomorow morning with a woman called Judy whom we met
this morning. she has lots of training in life skills and reproductive
health and will hopefully be a big asset to the kickball program and
helping with the workshops. and she is kenyan, so i will get to mack
out some swahili and feel confident again in my language abilities!
although, i must say, my acholi is coming together nicely!
I also made a new friend tday, a former volunteer with hope is back in
town. she is away in three weeks, but we talked a lot today and will
be good to know someone in town. I also met wisset, an english woman
who has worked in gulu a lot. she is soon to be my running buddy!
seems like a very cool lady, so im excited to get to know her.
so, know that i am program planning and will meet with my future
coaches on saturday afternoon! cross your fingers it goes well, a lot
of the program hinges on them! Rose seems to be confident about
getting coaches and even encouraged us to have 3 coaches per team to
include more young adults.
will get on internet when I can but am anxiously awaiting the new
minilaptop that will soon be in the mail to me! ill use it while im
here then Hope will buy it off me for easier traveling on her part! I
have a very good boyfriend for dealing with that end of the purchase
and shipping : )
take luck friends!

this is a test post from my email to see if i can post. i will have
limited internet from here on out and will have to email my posts if
this works!

--
I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.
Nelson Mandela

office day 1

today was a busy day! woke up early to take advantage of having Hopes laptop to Skype with mark. starting the morning off well, i knew it would be a good day. Martha and I had omlettes for breakfast and then she dropped me off at Hopes, saving me the 10 min walk. I waited there for Hope who had gone to talk to the contractor who is building the new health clinic. eventually we headed out to Agonga, where Ill be running the program to see the site and the new health centre. Luckily the contractor drove us bc that beast is far! took like 13 minutes driving. meaning er 40 walking? hoping they get that bike, though the conversation is back to the boda- ugh! maybe i can be hardcore and drive a motorcycle... just dont want to pay for gas! and the excercise from biking would be awesome- though i did go to aerobics tonight (more on that later).

after seeing the site we came back to the current health centre and i met hellen who will realy be the one helping me run this program. I also met Rose, an older community member who is really the backbone it seems of the who NGO. She is the community key informant. she is the mobilizer and she gets people to come. As we arrived there was a line of children waiting to get de-worming pills and vitamin A. Mothers were there to get tetnus injections. i asked Hope a bit about that process and apparently the kids are supposed to get the de-worming tablets every 6 months but they are chewable orange goodies and they often come every month. fundingwise this isnt sustainable, but until better records can be kept, i suppose it is to happen. they do at least record each child they give a tablet to.

anyway, back to Rose. she listened to the program idea and said she would get kids for saturday! wow, this is really going to happen. we went over the plan in depth today and talked through with hellen what I will need and how she can also work to make this sustainable. basically the kickball league will be comprised of 4 teams, each will be coached by 3 youth (think 18-24) from the youth club. They will play games every weekend and on wednesday as well when they are out of school. they will practice together and coaches will also help teach kids about sportsmanship and manners. Each saturday before the games the kids will attend a workshop which will rotate health, education, community partners, and fun. The health will be nurses teaching them about HIV/AIDS, sexual and reprodutive health, hygeiene (hand washing and teeth brushing). The education will be a mix of life skills and tutoring/lessons. We will talk about leadership and pick team captains for each team, etc. community partner workshops will really be role model/career days. each workshop two members of the communiyt wll come talk about their career and how they got to where they are. the influence will be on staying in school, trying and caring about your education, and aspriring to be something. most kids in Agonga have given up on doing anything and dont try at school. hopefully these community partners can help encourage this kids and they can set some goals. the fun days will include group games and individual games like jump rope, bubbles, silly string. basically just to give them some unstructured time to play together.

The program calander is set through December, so they should be able to run this without me. The coaches will be instrumental in leading some of the workshops and i hope to prepare them for these before i leave. i will be here through the first 7 games! So this was what i spent my day finalizing.There are tons of statistics ad the likes that go with the formal progrm plan but none of you would be interested in those- i can hear the Sowos now! NO MORE! bahaha.
its been really fun to use the skills ive learned in program development for something i will actually run! makes last semester seem sooo much more useful and worth the crazy stress!
Got home today with samosas in hand for dinner! ahh such a treat! gotta lay off these or ill come back sluggish and all. actually, i saved my samosas for after aerobics at the acholi inn wth my housemate. Now. think billy blanks- tight spandex and all, with blaring african techno and a ugandan accent. THAT is what I went to tonight! glorious! then at the end we stretched to this slow, dreadful country song from the US. the change was so drastic i couldnt help but giggle. they have this m-tr and martha will go as often as she can. the people at hte hotel know her and didnt make me pay, which is nice. it was hot as helllllll and the stank was pretty vibrant! i felt like the uncoordinated musungu in a room of ugandans, but it was fun. and might even get me in shape- although it was only moderately hard. better than nothing i say!

came home and took my first gulu shower... yes, i got here saturday, dont judge, im in africa ok? i cleaned the important bits. took about 30 minutes to bucket shower my insanely long hair. dont think i really realized how long it is. luckily it will not get washed all that often. africa people!
and now i should be wrking on my program plan but im blogging to all of you. took some pictures at the health clinic today, will try to post them soon and im sure anne is dying to know what my house here looks like and all. Anne you can stalk my housemate like mom did, lol. shes my friend on facebook. music is blaring tonight- will be interesting to sleep. but im sure ill manage.

all in all, a great day! hope leaves wednesday morning, so im anxious about and feeling program ready. hellen wil be a huge help and martha of course is great for home things. she is leaving super early tomorow so i will cook my own omlette! eeek! just hope i can get the jiko to light! (caling it a jiko because I have yet to learn the acholi word). speakin of acholi, an a tye kafwonyo leb acholi motmot... ah! i do remember it! that means i am learning acholi slowly! Rose laughed hard when i told her that. Think she will be AWESOME to teach me.

afoyo my loves,
happy summer!

pictures

Hopes adorable 2 year old sweeping!

preparing greens... yum!!

Hope and Julius, my fabulous Hosts!

power is back. now to restart the pictures... blah!

anyway, think i posted all i meant to post

ah no, gulu centre is about the size of downtown carboro- armadillo to the farmers market.

think thats about all, lol. lil factoid.

ah and Hope will take me to a wedding in one months time. pretty fun! never been to an african wedding! have to get something to wear! think ill have a dress made... will find a fundi this week.

pictures- power out

More blog time! yesss.
The above pictures are in Kampala. The big house is where Hope and Julius live. The others are around the area I stayed and my swanky bathroom at the guest house! Havent taken any in Gulu yet, but will try to soon to appease my sister. AND power just went out, wnt load pictures tonight.
Gulu town centre is a grid of 3 long roads and 5 short ones- think three rows, 5 columns. seems very easy. I already know where the supermarkets, a cute bakery, and the posti are. Tomorrow il go to the clinic with hope.

was a lazy sunday- tends to be the case. I hung out with Hope and Martha a bit (think I called her Nancy before- dont know whyyy i kept calling her that!) my housemate. Apparently, the two hours a day of power is not the case- at least so far. we have had power all day yesterday and again today. nice little surprise, i was prepared for nada. also, i have only heard rain twice in my whole time here, not ever seen it during the day. thats a nice surprise too. but im sure it will make up for it later!

Mom is sending a package soon with some things for the kiddos, and my big floppy straw hat! YESS! shoulda brought it in the first place anyway. and we've already got money for a handful of balls! Thanks guys!!
no power, trying to post before laptop dies!
take luck

quick

hi all,
dont have much time... but i am in Gulu! the bus was long but not miserable. i sat next to a man who also places volunteers so we had a decent conversation. he works with refugees and human rights, which is cool. gulu is small- about what i expected. im in the flat now and met martha, my 26 year old housemate this morning. she seems very nice and outgoing and excited to have me here. should be fun. she sells beer in the district and so she is out a lot and knows a lot of people. she also said she might run with me! thinking im not too keen on running alone yet, at least not where the flat is, too busy. I rode a boda (motorcycle) yesterday- made me a lil nervous, the driver laughed at me when i told him to be careful, he had precious cargo.
seem to have reliable power so far in Gulu, might just be the weekend though. not sure how internet will work out, should have good access when hope is in town and at least check emails in the office. looks like ill be eating a lot of omlettes, which is good- especially since i like mine plain, makes it easy since thats what we get over here. Hope is cooking stew for me now because she knows i like it : )
all in all, things are good. havent seen the office yet, not sure ill have a bike, but think i have my bearings of town and where the flat is. not as hot as i expected. its quite comfortable inside, so thats good and at night. we shall see! kickball will be hot, im sure. but nice to know ill have some break. Nancy is already set to find me an MSW so i can come back here for my field work, rather than go to Kenya. lol.
alright. more later and hopefully some pictures!
ah and some acholi words Ive learned!
take luck