Let there be light!

I finally have electricity! (hence, the title of this blog entry). It was just finally installed this past weekend, and I love it! It's so nice not having to use a lantern every night and be in bed w/no light by 7. I can now also watch movies on my computer! I've never been a huge movie fan, but here, I am! There's a DVD place in Kampala that sells great-quality DVDs of any movie, tv show, whatever you request, for only $1.25. On Friday night, my friend, Amy and I, stayed up late, watching season 1 of Gossip Girl, and we are officially addicted to it. Electricity is great! In fact, right now, I am sitting in bed (it's 9:30 pm here) posting this w/ the wireless flash-drive modem that my counterpart has and lent to me for the day/night while she's away. It's amazing! I think I will stay up all night, catching up on e-mails, posting pics (check to the right for the website link!). Anyways, I can't believe I lived for 3 months without electricity. Not something I really ever expected myself to do before joining the PC.

My house is really becoming a home now. I got flooring for my house to cover the cement floors. Now, this is not great flooring that we have in the U.S. It comes in a 2 meter roll and you just cut it and lay it down on the cement (no adhesive). You usually need about 3 sheets puzzled together to fit the room, but it looks decent, albeit they do come in the worst colors/designs ever - much like most things in Africa. The fabric store and tailor can never figure out why I want solid, pretty periwinkle-blue curtains or teal and pink bed sheets made instead of the odd design and colored curtain fabric and sheets. Also, furniture for my house is being completed. Next month, I hope to get a sofa and a fan - for my insanely hot house! But all in all, my house is great. I love it.

Work is also going well. I go to the office a few days each week. We're a new NGO so work is just really getting started, but tomorrow I will be going around with my colleague, Harriet (who is about my age), to visit all the other NGOs in our town, introduce ourselves, find out about their work and where we can collaborate our efforts. I'm excited for it. We have some great NGOs in our town such as Built Africa, ActionAid, Care International and Red Cross.

But overall, I've been keeping very busy. The first two weeks, I had visitors everyday - either Adam and/or Amy, or LaVera, the PCV who helped start my NGO and who lives in the town an hour north of me, or other PCVs in the surrounding districts. Then last week, I was in Kampala for a couple days with Amy and Adam. Unfortunately, Adam decided to go back home to the U.S. So we helped him take his stuff to Kampala and deal w/ PC Headquarters-related things. It was sad to see him leave, especially since he lived so close to me. We also lost another guy from our group who left earlier in the week. It was a tough week to see two good friends leave, but they will do great things back at home, too.

Other than that, nothing much else is new. I still love Uganda, and I still haven't been sick at all. In 5 weeks, we have an all-volunteer conference in Kampala for 3 days, and then in July, my NGO is having 13 Dutch teachers come to do a "world teacher exchange" program w/ the Ugandan schools, and we are in charge of that so it should be fun!

'Til next time! . . . keep me updated on your life! Thanks for the e-mails, packages and calls. Oh, and I did post my new address to the right. Packages should come a lot quicker, now that they don't have to go through PC hands. Thanks again!

First Week at Site!

I have officially been at my site for one week. And I love it. I don't have too much to say in this post other than I'm doing very well. My house is great - brand new, really nice; there's still work to be done on it that they're currently doing, but it's definitely liveable. I don't have electricity or running water yet (hopefully soon, especially the electricity), but it's a clean, nice, safe and rather large house. I have 3 rooms, all about the same size - 2 bedrooms and one living room. Oh, and there's a kitchen room attached to the porch. I'm starting to get it all set up. Furniture is in the process of being made - will have most of it by next week. Thus far, I have a bed, dresser to hang all my clothes, dining table, 2 chairs and carpet that I bought. I am still waiting on a nighstand, real dresser, sofa, coffee table, bed for the spare bedroom and two tables for my cooking area. The problem with having a large house is there's a lot to furnish, but it's okay. I really just want to get my house set up sooner rather than later. In the last week, I've been shopping in town, getting all the cookware, dishes, etc that I need to live. About every other day, I see my friend, Amy, who lives 11 miles from me out in the village. We also hung out with our other friend, Adam, who is the next town on the main road. My supervisor has also been taking me around town to meet everyone - police chief, LC (Local chairperson), church, schools, etc. He's really been great in helping me to acclimate to my town. My counterpart has also been great. She lives just diagonally from me so she brings me water, cooked me breakfast on my first day (since I didn't have any dishes or food or gas for my stove) and just helps me get my house set up.

I've had some really good discussions with my supervisor (the Executive Director of the NGO) and my counterpart about what they see me doing with the organization, what they want me to get done in the next couple months, and it all sounds amazing. The organization is still very, very new, but it seems to have good funding, lots of interest from others, great goals. I'm still waiting for the catch...I feel this is just too good to be true, at times. We also have a lot of people from abroad coming in the next few months to work with us - 13 from the Netherlands in July, a consultant from Boston in June and some other Americans, I think, in August. It should be a fun summer! I really have no complaints. Ask me in a few more weeks.

What else?? I am about a 10 minute walk from town - the perfect distance - away from the commotion, but close enough to walk and be able to carry things I buy home. I am in a double house, but my neighbors who were living in the other half moved out to the village this past weekend so someone from my NGO will be moving in there soon. I will appreciate having the company; it is a bit lonely at times since I have to be in my dark (7pm). To everyone reading this, my life probably sounds pathetic at this point...I am in my house with doors locked by 7, asleep by 8 (I have no electricity or furniture so what else can I do!?), and awake by 6:30 to go for a run. I wash dishes, clothes, go to town, eat one meal a day, visit with friends/people in town. Yeah, that's my life for now. Next week, I will be at the office more so I'm looking forward to getting started.

Oh, and it is much hotter here than in the central region where we were for training. I knew it would be, but woah. The sun is so much stronger; I am getting a good tan - of course, only on my face and lower arms, but still. It is hot. It's hard finding a time during the day to even go running. I go early in the morning as soon as the sun rises, but it is still brutal.

Tonight, I am cooking dinner for a couple from State College, PA, who are here in Uganda for a few weeks to work with local farmers. They are retired farmers themselves and travel around the world, helping others. Amy and I met them randomly at a restaurant last weekend and since, have seen them about every day. They are leaving on Sunday so I decided to have them over for spaghetti (the only thing I can cook right now). And this weekend, I am going to Mbale with some others from my group. Mbale is about an hour south of me - very fun town - clubs, bars, pool and a lot more stores to get things I can't get here in my town.

I keep forgetting to get my new address from my boss. I will be using the post office box for my NGO so I will post that next time - I promise! Thanks for all the e-mails and calls this past week - they've been great! Miss you all - come visit!

I made it through training!!

I am officially a PCV now, no longer a PCT. Today was our swear-in ceremony. I have some pictures from it but don't have time to upload them now. We only lost 2 people along the way during training - and that was after the first weekend at homestay - one older couple. So we are a group of 30 and hopefully, it will stay like that for the next 2 years. It was quite a sad morning, saying goodbye to everyone. There are 10 of us (all going to the north and northeast) who are staying until tomorrow so we can leave early in the morning, first thing, since it will take us longer to get to our sites than most people. So we said bye to all our friends, helped them pack up and do some last minute shopping and then we are spending the rest of the day in Kampala, using internet, eating good food and doing getting some essentials for our new home.

Now, what everyone is really waiting for....I found out on Wednesday lats week, finally, where I'll be living for the next two years. I'll be living in Kumi District. It's in the east on the way to Lira, Gulu (the farther north). My town is not very big, but it's big enough that it has some supermarkets (not like the ones at home, but bigger than the one where I'm living now - which means it'll have pretty much everything I want, I hope) and a hotel, etc so it sounds good. My organization is very new, but it was started by a Catholic priest who was the counterpart (mentor/supervisor) for another PCV last year. He was moved to another town and then started this organization, which the other PCV has been working with as her secondary project. Now, I will be there official PCV. Normally, PC has a rule that organizations must be in existence for at least 1 year in order to receive a PCV, but they really felt good about this organization and its people. Basically I will be working with VSLAs (Village Savings & Loan Associations aka a form of microfinance!), small enterprise development, agribusiness and some other things as I'm sure the job description will change...but all in all, it's exactly what I wanted.

I met my counterpart for the first time yesterday during our PCV/host organization workshop, and she's great! Very intelligent, very hardworking, meticulous, a leader - I think we will work really well together. She has over 10 years of experience working with similar NGOs, and her position now w/ this NGO is "Program Manager," and I will be working with her on most projects so I'm sure I will learn a lot from her. I haven't met the Executive Director, the priest, yet, but I will meet him tomorrow when I arrive at my site.

Since the organization is so new, I came at a really good time. They are currently doing training for their volunteers for the VSLA groups and the field officers so I will be able to participate in these trainings, as well. Also, in June, a French man is coming to the organization to help us write our strategic plan so I will be a part of that, as well. I am really excited to start working (which will be on Monday). Although I technically don't have to work for the first three months at site, I want to. I'm a workaholic, and I can't wait to start working with them.

As for my house...it is brand new, just built. In fact, it's still in the process of being built. The info I received last Wednesday about my house included electricity, running water, toilet, 2 bedrooms, a living room, bathroom, shower, a fence. I'm not going to lie - I was quite excited. However, when I talked to my counterpart yesterday at the workshop, I found out a little different information. It doesn't have electricity, toilet or shower now, but it will. Maybe electricity in 1-2 weeks (that's on the hopeful side), and the tile for the bathroom is currently being laid down as well as the hole being dug for the toilet in the bathroom - which is all fine, I have no problem with it. It's just funny how things change. I think almost all of us found out some differences between what was written on paper about our houses last week and then what we actually heard from our supervisors yesterday. Some houses aren't ready, and my friends have to live in rented houses until they are completed; others found out they have to share a latrine and bathing area with their neighbors. Oh, it was interesting! But still, I'm keeping a positive outlook on the housing situation. The house will be great once it's all completed, and until then, I will be living just as I have been for the last 2 months - bucket baths and no electricity - I can do it, no problem!

So all in all - I'm in a good-size (small, but big enough) town, great organization/job and great house when it's all done. Oh, and two of my good friends will be living near me. One of them, Amy, will be in a village just 11 miles outside of my town - she will have to come to the town for any shopping, etc. And my other friend will be about 30 mins or so far from me in another town. And then there are 3 more people in another, larger, town about an hour north of us. This is just PCVs from our group - there are a few others in the region. Most of my other friends from my group are in the central region, around Kampala, and some a bit further east.

I think that's about it...I want to go buy some new books now, meet my friends for lunch and do some shopping at a Target-like store! Tomorrow morning at 7, 6 of us have rented a matatu (taxi van that fits 14 people) to take us and all our luggage to our houses. It will be about 5 hours for me, I think. And it's only costing us each $18! Now, let's just hope our taxi driver shows up tomorrow!

People have been asking me for my new address - please just wait a few more days. I forgot to ask my counterpart about it yesterday so I will find out tomorrow and try to get back on internet. I'm not sure if I will just use the organization's address or get a mailbox to share with my friend in town.

Hope you are all doing well! E-mail me with updates! I am sure I will have internet in my town.

One more week of training!

So it's been awhile since I last posted. I am entering my last week of training. On Tuesday, we will give a final "Qualifying Presentation" and then on Friday is our language exam. If we don't pass, we only become a "provisional volunteer" and then have to re-take the exam after 3 months at site and pass then. Hopefully, I'll pass it the first time. I feel as if I'm doing okay - just need to get some vocab memorization done before the test. On Wednesday, we finally find out our site placements. Usually, this is done about half-way through training or a little after, but this is the first time they're waiting until 1 week before we swear-in to let us know where will be living for the next 2 years so needless to say, we are all very anxious to find out our sites. I will post on the 20th or 21st where my site will be, since that will be the next time I'll have internet.

As for how the last few weeks have been - they've been good. Nothing too exciting to report. We went to the U.S. Ambassador's house two weekends ago for the day to go swimming in his pool and to meet him, which was great. Yesterday, we went to Jinja, the source of the Nile. The town is so nice - very western, lots of foreigners (everyone goes white water rafting there - can't wait to try it out!). Other than that, I've just been in training, spending time with my homestay family and hanging out with my friends. No big sickness/diseases to report - thank goodness! There have been days where I was not feeling well, especially in the last couple weeks, but nothing major at all - no throwing up or diarrhea.

I am definitely getting tired of training; we all are, but that's to be expected. To help us get through it, us girls have been having sleep overs at each other's houses - it definitely helps to just get together, cook good food, watch movies, etc. It only hit me a couple weeks ago that I really want to move to site, live on my own, have a bit more freedom and start working instead of sitting in "class" all day. But it's finally almost here. We leave our homestays on the morning of the 20th, go to Kampala for a few days and swear-in on the 22nd! It will be sad to leave all my fellow trainees, but we will be able to visit each every so often in the first three months. We don't have any vacation time during the first 3 months, but we still have our usual 2 weekends off/month so we'll be able to visit each other then. I will also miss my homestay family, especially the 2 little kids. I really enjoy them - they're so well-behaved. I think they're taught to not "annoy" visitors so they would always leave me alone, say hi when I came home, but not much else. But when I initiated always playing with them and making time for them, that's when they really warmed up to me. It's the little boy's birthday on Monday so I got him a piece of cake and a present, a number "5" candle and a party hat - they don't really celebrate birthdays here, but I wanted to do something special/American for him. They're just so adorable!

I don't have much else to write, I think. I heard there was a stabbing/killing at my college a couple days ago, which is sad to hear. As for Easter, I won't be doing much of anything except studying for my language exam and preparing for my presentation. My host family isn't very religious, I think, so they're not going to church or doing anything major for the holiday, which is okay with me, since I really haven't celebrated Easter in years. But Happy Easter and Passover to everyone! And Happy Birthday to my sister, Wendy! Hope everyone is doing well!

Nothing too new to update....

Just a quick update - not too much new going on. I'm in Kampala again with some friends for the weekend. We got permission to stay overnight on Saturday so we could have some more time exploring the city. Homestay is fine, training is good. we have 4 more weeks of training. We find out our sites in week 9 (we're entering week 6 right now). We just had our first language practice exam to see how we're doing. At the end of training, we take a final exam and we have to score "intermediate low" on it to pass. I just received "novice high" on the practice one yesterday so I feel I'm doing pretty well - most of us got novice high, I think. But only one more step to go to get that intermediate low - although it's a very large step up to that next level. I love the business/ngo training. We visited an NGO this week, and it was really awesome to see a very well-run organization doing amazing work for kids affected by HIV/AIDS.

Oh, and last Sunday, my friend, Lizzie and I, went to visit my friend Mark (a family friend) at his house in Kampala. It was great meeting him finally and seeing his little baby boy. The house is really nice, and it was fun to get out of our village for a day to see another part of Kampala and to visit another expat. My friends and I definitely plan to go back and visit him again soon. I think that's about all. Hope everyone back home is doing well!

Back from PCV visit

Today, I'm in Kampala again, just stopping on the way back from our PCV visits. I went to visit a volunteer in the Makono District. Her village is right on Lake Victoria - it was beautiful; I really felt like I was at the ocean...except for the fact that we can't swim in it b/c of a really awful disease called schistomastis (something like that). But it was really nice to see an actual PCV's site, her house, how they live, what the cook, their job, activities, etc. I arrived on Monday afternoon; she showed me around her village, and I met some of her colleagues. On Tuesday, we spent some time relaxing and then attended the women's group meeting. It was really interesting to see how they collect and track loan payments of the women. These women run a fishery, own cows, small stands, make and sell soap, make water purifiers. And then on Wednesday, we visited a couple of the schools where the volunteer is running a sanitation competition with their latrines, drinking water, trash, etc. We then met up with some of the other trainees and volunteers, made dinner and slept at a Catholic convent. The volunteers took really good care of us - making us great food and telling us all about the next 2 years. We're in Kampala today for a little while and then back to training for Friday and Saturday. Only about 5 more weeks of training before we finally get sworn in as PCVs!

Other than that, I'm still doing great - no sickness except a minor cold I had earlier this week, but I am already all better from it. I'm still enjoying it and loving Uganda and am excited to move to site in late April. I honestly don't really miss home/the U.S. yet; I just really miss the news and hearing about Obama daily. The BBC still doesn't do it justice. Hopefully, I will be receiving the Economist soon. Anyways, hope all is well with everyone back home! May be awhile until I post again although I hope to make it to Kampala on Sunday to visit a friend. Give me a call!

Pineapples, Matooke and Bucket Baths!

So I've been here for about 4 weeks now, and I absolutely love it. I really do. Sometimes, it's much harder than I thought it would be, and other times, it's much easier. But either way, I am handling Africa much better than I ever thought I would in the first few weeks. Case in point - the other day, I had a cockroach crawl up my pajama pant as I got out of bed, and I didn't completely freak out and get disgusted as I probably would have 2 or 3 years ago. Bucket baths, using the latrine and living without electricity is really okay.

I apologize in advance for this blog - I'm trying to type it as quickly as possible so I'm sure there will be many errors.

When we first arrived to country, PC staff picked us up at the airport, and then we stayed at this nice compound-type place for the first 5, 6 days to get adjusted to the country. We slept, ate and had our initial meetings there. It was a really great bonding time for our group.

We then moved to our homestays, which we will stay at for two months. My family consists of a father, mother, 2 boys-14 and 16 and then 2 younger kids-3 and 4. It's the ideal family I would've wanted. The 14 and 16 year olds and the father speak great English and are a lot of help, while the younger kids are fun to play with and the mother, who is only 3 years older than me, is so nice. She doesn't speak much English, but I play UNO w/ her and teach her about 20 English words each night to form some type of connection w/ her. The food in Uganda, overall, isn't that great, to be honest. Lots of matooke and posha - look them up to find out what they are. They eat a lot of starches. But there is also amazing pineapple, avocados, etc here so it balances out, I guess. I don't have electricity currently at my homestay, but I think we are getting it soon. It's a really nice house, and they keep it very clean, which I am thankful for. The worst I have so far is cockroaches.

Training is going well. I am learning the Ateso language, along with 5 other volunteers. Most likely, I will be sent to the Soroti region, which is NE Uganda. At first I was a little disappointed because I was hoping to be closer to Kampala, the capital, and most of my friends are learning Luganda, which is the language of the central region. But now I'm really okay with it, and actually excited to move to site and begin working - although that may be a slow process. There are 6 other Economic Development volunteers in my group - the rest are all secondary teachers or primary teacher trainers. I like the training for the business group; we have small business partners in our community who we meet w/ once/week to discuss things, learn from them, etc, and I really enjoy that part. I also had the chance to visit an MFI in my town this week. It was amazing. I learned so much from the manager, loan officer and the founder of the bank. In fact, they told me they want me to come work for them as their PC volunteer...only problem is that they're not actually signed up to get a PC volunteer so it won't likely happen, but it was great to talk to them and actually visit a real, live MFI in Africa. Oh, and everyone here knows about MF. My homestay father even took out a micro-credit loan before, and people often talk about them. It's great!

So today I'm in Kampala. PC took us all so that we could get a brief tour of the city and use public transportation, i.e. taxi buses. There is internet in my village, but it doesn't really ever work, and if it does, it's extremely, extremely slow so I'm too impatient to even try. We're getting good food here in the city and doing some shopping. Kampala is so nice, much better than I expected, although I had heard it was great. I hope to get back here soon. On Monday, we will be heading off for our "PCV visits" for 4 days, which is where we all go visit a current PCV out in the field somewhere to see their house, job and just learn about what it really be like at site. I'm going to a village, near Kampala so it's not too far, which I'm excited about. I didn't want to travel too far, and maybe I will be able to come back to Kampala this week at some point w/ my PCV.

Anyways, I think that's about all. I really do love it here; it's so beautiful, the people are great, PC staff is great as well - and overall, it's just been wonderful so far! I did have one bad day last weekend when I did wash for the first time (and probably the last time for the next month as long as I'm at homestay). Some of my clothes got ruined in the process, and washing clothes 3 times and only rinsing once and not being able to communicate very well with the mother teaching you made it all very difficult, but it was okay. We all had a rough time w/ it. My friends and I then went out for the afternoon to just relax, and it was all better then!

I will try to update again soon. Call me - 011-256-75-2726219. I would love to hear from you,a nd I can explain much more on the phone! Use pinzoo.com. It's only 12cents/minute to call to a Ugandan cell phone. Thanks for all the e-mails and calls thus far; I look forward to hearing from you!