Where to begin...?

(This is a picture from one end of the market in my town)
Wow, two posts in one month?! Who knew that I would be able to access technology so often! :) So after the little bat (yes, I just noticed the typo not a bad but a baT got in my house) incident things have been fairly calm. I am working with my organization to find money but I have been holding off on doing too much until I finish the training I am currently in the middle of.

Yes, the group of trainees who met at the end of September is together again (minus one due to some really bad medical problems)! We are staying near Kampala in a place called Mukono. We spent last week brushing up on language and this coming week we will be dealing with technical issues. Hopefully we'll get some good tips on proposal writing because I good certainly use some good information about that. (Shameless hint: if anyone has tips on proposal writing, send them my way!)

It has been a bit strange to have access to TV all week and to not have bathe with a bucket and not have to light a kerosene lantern to see at night. But believe me, I am not complaining!! A hot shower is one of the best things in the world these days!

So what can I say...
Just before my birthday a new group of trainees arrived (5th March) and I had the opportunity to meet them during the first week they spent in Luweero. Your's truly (and another volunteer from my training group) co-taught a session about HIV/AIDS. The trainees seemed to enjoy our 3 hour session and Amanda and I definitely had a lot of fun teaching them the basics of HIV. Needless to say, a lot of them had a lot of questions but the group seemed to be taking things in stride. They are having a completely different experience than us because there are 50 (yes, 50!!) of them and they're definitely not all female!

Between going to training in Luweero and being in Mukono for training the last 2 weeks of this month, I really haven't been at my site very much. Things are going well. My organization continues to take services to people in the villages. We are testing sooooo many people each month. It's really exciting to see so many people who want to know their HIV status. Lucky for us, things seem to be staying around the expected level of 6%. (Other volunteers are trying to help people in places where the prevalence is 25-30%!) My counterpart and I are trying to keep up with the statistics from our testing so that we can update the district on the state of HIV, at least in our county! Beyond that, it's a struggle everyday to keep things in perspective but one that I think I am beginning to master. As I've said before...mpora, mpora (slowly by slowly)!!

PS-finally have some pics! Check out the link to Flickr!