Goodbye 2014 Hello 2015!

Happy New Years Everyone! 

I Hope You Make 2015 Your Best Year Ever!

I wanted to take a moment and thank all of those who have supported me over the last year and made it possible for me to be in Uganda with the Peace Corps and Europe (Italy) for the first time in my life. A lot has changed over the last year and I am so excited to see what next year brings. I also wanted to thank all of you readers for reading my blog and sending me encouraging words. It has been an amazing ride so far and I look forward to making 2015 the best year ever!

Lots of Love And Hugs To All Of You!

Cheers and Ciao From Italy And Uganda!

Lets Give Peace A Chance!

From December 13, 2014

What an amazing experience this past week has been. I said goodbye to Fort Portal and headed five hours to Kampala spent the night and then six hours north to Lira with fellow Peace Corps Volunteers for PEACE CAMP! After a long dusty bus ride which took forever we arrived and started training of the trainers for two days and then campers arrived. There were many different sessions on what is peace, peace building, and how we can use it in our lives. A day was devorted to communication practices  There was also a day on health which talked about HIV/AIDS, sexual health, and other health issues. I taught a class on Conflict Analysis to the 73 participants there at camp. It was a hot and crazy week but a lot of fun. It was a wonderful experience to meet so many young people from around the country all wanting to learn and work toward Peace within themselves and in their communities. I had eight campers that I kept an eye one for the week – four girls and four boys all from different backgrounds and beliefs. We shared some great ideas and also learned a lot from each other. This was my first Peace Corps Camp and am excited to see what camps happen next over the year. Enjoy some photos from the week!  

Peace Camp 2014

The Whole Group

Paper Mache Globes - I Was In Charge Of

Circle Drumming

Teaching Conflict Analysis

Conflict Analysis On Current World Conflicts

A Wonderful Camper

Listening To Discussions On Peace

The Future President Of Uganda

Playing Battle Ship Human Rights

Henri and  I Heading Back To Kampala

Merry Christmas From Uganda!

  MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM UGANDA!

 Here is a video our June 2014 group of PCV's put together for friends and family. Created by Josh Cruz. We also made it onto Nation of Ellen DeGeneres' web page! ENJOY!

Happy Holidays from all of us in Uganda! 

Lots of Love, Hugs and Kisses.

All I Want for Christmas Is You!

Sports Camp 2014

Netball

The Kibale Forest Schools Program held its annual Sports Cup. Seven of the 14 schools in the school district, came together to compete in Football (Soccer for you Americans) and Netball (think basketball mixed with the rules of ultimate Frisbee – minus the Frisbee).

Sporting events are taken every serious here in Uganda and there is a lot of pressure put on the players, schools take the Sports Cup very serious and practice almost all day leading up to game day. There is also a lot of bending of the rules bring older players in to play in football so the team might have a chance at winning. 

Warming Up

The first day of competition started off with a three and half hour rain delay which is normal for rainy season here in Fort Portal. After the rain delay, we got the games going and it was a fun day of competition between the schools with thankfully little arguing. One team Iruhuura complained that a rival team Kasiisi had cheated because Kasiisi players were taller than Iruhuua players and so it was not fair that Kasiisi won. I am 5’6” and I walked past both teams and they were all taller than me so I’m not sure what they were complaining about. The footballers play barefoot and without protection and they go all in for the shots and kicks without any hesitation or fear. They are born playing football here in Uganda. The field was a slip and slide because of the amount of rain that fell earlier in the day so there were some spectacular slides, skids, and falls. I started to help my fellow co-worker Patrick out in the first aid tent which was fun. There were just minor cuts and bruises. In the late afternoon, we had a group of rowdy secondary students show up and start a nice size fight right in front of the first aid tent which provided some good entertainment for the staff and I as we waited for the wounded to arrive which thankfully was one shaken up girl and a guy who had gotten a punch to the face and punched a tooth through his cheek.

Kigarama Boy Happy To Hold The Sports Cup

The second day was a beautiful sunny day and perfect game day weather. The competition was down to the semi-finals and the finals. Nothing to exciting happened during the morning and into the early afternoon. I spent all day in the first aid tent again and really I was just helping put brushes and helping out with sore muscles from the day before. Four schools competed in both football and netball. The tension was high during the semi-finals of football and when finals came around it was a pretty exciting game with a massive bloody nose with only seconds left in the game. Kigarama Primary School won the football game and Kyanyawara Primary School won a down to the wire back and forth game of Netball against Iruhuura Primary School. 

Kigarama Primary School Winners of the 2014 Sports Cup

Hanging Out At The First Aid Tent

Celebrating A Win

Winners Of The Sports Cup in Netball

A Young Fan

And Tip Goes The Tap

A Young Girl Using The Tippy Tap

During the months of October and November, the Girls Peer Education Program focused on personal and environmental hygiene in our health talks that we gave to the five core schools. In November, Eve and I talked with the girls about environmental. We discussed the importance of environmental hygiene in our homes and the communities and we also built Tippy Taps. 

 Tippy taps are hand washing stations that can be built out of wood, a jerry can, rope, and some soap. They are simple and a great way to get people thinking hand washing. The tippy taps were built outside of the girls pit latrines at the schools. They offer a way for the pupils to wash their hands without using a sink or one of the rain barrels. We built them with the girls but by the end of the building process we ended up having some boys come and the girls teach them how to wash their hands. We are going to follow up with the schools in February when first term starts again and see if there is a need to build more at the schools. But here are some photos of the process. 

Girls Teaching A Young Boy To Wash His Hands

 

One Of The Teachers Using It

Kiko Primary School

Hand Washing

How Do We Wash Our Hands Demo

“I was in Kisoro”….“Where’s that?”

Again Post From October! 
So instead of writing a big long boring blog about my trip to Kisoro, I have decided to just put up some photos instead of explaining every little detail of the trip to you. To be honest it is really hard to find the words to explain how beautiful and what a wonderful trip to Kisoro it was. A short intro to the photos is needed however so here goes… I traveled there for the 50^th Anniversary of Peace Corps Uganda! Peace Corps has been in Uganda for 50 years! Happy Anniversary Peace Corps! We have been here since 1964 (of course there were a couple years where Peace Corps left Uganda for security issues – google it if you want more details on what happened). So where is Kisoro you may ask?! Well, Kisoro is pretty much as far South and West as you can go in Uganda, only about 8 Kilometers from the Rwandan border and also right next door is the Democratic Republic of Congo. There is a mountain there when you get to the top you are standing in Rwanda, the Congo, and Uganda or no man’s land as they call it because no government owns it. The countryside was formed many years back by volcanoes which now dot the landscape now they have farmland all over them. People have learned to farm on the sides of very steep mountains/volcanoes. As we arrived into Kisoro we passed the remains of what once was a refugee camp that has been used many times over the years. Kisoro is also known for the Mountain Gorillas. I was only going to be there for three days but ended up staying a week; hiking, eating amazing food, relaxing, and meeting a lot of really awesome people plus I got to hang out with a bunch of wonderful Peace Corps people. We celebrated Uganda Independence Day there as well and experienced our first military parade as the only white people in the crowd but it was a great way to spend the morning while others climbed one of the local volcanoes. Kisoro is probably the most beautiful and interesting place in all of Uganda. I put it above Fort Portal and that is saying something as Fort is extremely beautiful. Here are a few photos to highlight the events and beauty (I took over 300 photos). I hope it will give you an idea of Kisoro and maybe you will come witness its beauty for yourselves one day.

With Ashely and Emily at the Equator!

My First Elephant!

Queen Elizabeth National Park

 Volcano in the clouds

Independence Day Celebrations

Climbing A Hill

Chilling At The Lake

A Fisherman

Independence Celebrations

Hiking

Hiking In The Hills

Views From Above

Chilling

The Girls During The Celebration

Ambassador Scott H. DeLisi - He is From Minnesota!

Hiking

Volcano!

Independence Day Celebration

View Of The Countryside!