A Peace Corps Volunteer!

38 Health and Agriculture Trainees and 13 Global Health Services Partnership Trainees swore in at United States Ambassador DeLisi home in Kampala on Wednesday 6, 2014.

If you cannot spot me... I am third row down far left second/third in. 

Tech Training

Date Written: August 2, 2014

Now the Fun Part

This past week, we had what is called Tech Immersion. Four volunteers and myself traveled about an hour east of Kampala to a town called Mukono where we spent the week with two fellow health volunteers. The volunteers house we stayed at had a beautiful view of the countryside and town. Only down side of it was it was right next to a bar which played music until three in the morning and a couple really annoying guard dogs that would go crazy whenever people or other animals walked by their compound. Let us just say we did not get a lot of sleep and by the time we left for Jinja on Friday, we were very happy to have some peace and quiet in Jinja. Sadly we lost one of our volunteers back to Kampala for some serious medical issues at the start of the week which throw everything off a little but he/she is okay! We spent the rest of the week traveling around Mukono presenting information to actual Ugandans and using translators. I presented a WASH demonstration on hand washing and other volunteers presented on HIV, Malaria, and Mother Child Health Nutrition.
On Sunday, we thankfully didn’t have to get up at 5AM to travel to Arua like other volunteers did because we were only about an hour away by taxi we went to Kampala and spent a couple hours wondering around eating, and being lazy. We ran into Sam Childers also known as the Machine Gun Preacher (they made a movie about his life with Gerard Butler) we chatted with him about his life, organizations, and his new documentary about his life is coming out. Pretty cool guy and some awesome tattoos on his arms. We arrived in Mukono around dinner and we officially had street food – Rolex and chips… Rolex’s are the best thing under the sun. Chapatti a thick tortilla and a Spanish omelet rolled together. Monday, we thankfully did not have to do anything so we sat around all day in our pajamas being lazy and started planning for the week. We took a walk into town and got another yummy rolex.  The main reason we didn’t do anything was because it was the end of Ramadan and it was national holiday for the Muslims so of course every other Ugandan took advantage of it and closed up shop and schools - which happens a lot with holidays. So we had a much needed day off. Tuesday, we had an awesome day traveling to a fishing landing site on Lake Victoria where the fishermen who fish the waters of Lake Victoria live with their families. We did HIV testing and outreach there. They tested 40 people only four had HIV which was a good number for a fishing village. We spent most of the afternoon playing games with the children and one of our volunteers gave a presentation on HIV.

My Favorite Moment Thus Far Has Been Making Her Smile

My Little Buddy

The Fishing Village On Lake Victoria

On Wednesday we did the classic Ugandan thing and sat around. We arrived at 8:30AM for a morning presentation we sat around until 11AM. I will be getting lots of reading done – I read through The Color Of Water by James McBride in two days (good book check it out) and I am reading War Child by Emmanuel Jal. Finally, the group arrived and a volunteer presented on mother child health nutrition to a group of teen moms after we finished the group taught us how to make paper beads. Later in the afternoon, another volunteer talked about malaria and did grass roots soccer with some staff members (the group we were supposed to be at was cancelled so we presented to our hosts co-workers). The staff members got really into freeze tag which was hilarious.

The Group Answering Questions About WASH

Thursday, I presented my WASH presentation on basic hand washing to a group of children they rounded up on the street as the school I was going to present at had been canceled (this is pretty normal so we just rolled with it). We had about 35 children showed up and it was a blast to show them how to wash their hands. Many did not know the proper way to wash their hands.  It was amazing how dirty hands can become.

Washing Their Hands

Friday rolled around and we made our way to Jinja early since our fifth person was just being discharged from the hospital, We arrived just outside Jinja and did a presentation on Goal setting and self esteem to a group of hip-hop dancers in their late teens. It was a lot of fun and the kids are great dancers. We spent the night along the Nile in Jinja at a rafting camp site which was pretty cool to be around people from across the world. Jinja itself is okay. It’s extremely expensive and everything is so so. Lots of white people live there and none of them were friendly. Also always ask for half the amount because if you are white they will charge you extra. The East side of the country is pretty cool but I am very excited to get back to my site. One thing cool about coming to this side is I have gotten to experience what it is like to live in a hostel which it is kind of cool. So tomorrow, we head back to Kampala for a final couple days of training and we swear in on Wednesday! I cannot wait! It is odd as it finally becoming real to officially become a Peace Corps Volunteer.

News Update

After much consideration Peace Corps Kenya has closed due to fighting and security concerns with its volunteers. Peace Corps Uganda thought we would get a few of the volunteers who wanted to continue their service but sadly we did not. I know Peace Corps and many other people hope to be able to return to Kenya but it might be a while before they do. It is kind of a bummer as I had always wanted to travel to Kenya and there is a travel ban on PCV’s to go there. I will get there one of these days. We also just found out they evacuated all PCV’s in Western Africa because of the Ebola there. It is a bummer but safety first and I am glad they finally removed them. I hope they can get back there soon. As for now there is no concern of Ebola here in East Africa.

A Group Of Goofy Boys