And another month flies by!

Ok, so another month goes by. Some of it exciting, most of it involved a lot of reading! After my last update Carrie and I had an exciting time getting back to our site. See, the roads around us are all made of marram (dirt) and they have been adding marram to make the roads a little less treacherous. The problem with doing this during the wet season is that when it rains (and it rains heavily) the roads become almost impossible to pass on unless you have a 4-wheel drive vehicle. Well, sadly, our taxi was rear-wheel drive and had a problem climbing some of the hills on the way home. So, we got stuck and Carrie and I got out to push...which is a huge deal because most of the people around our town were shocked that we could walk and ride bicycles (they have only seen white people riding through in vehicles). It was great to give my toes a mud bath! It's been a long, long time since I last stuck my feet in the mud and there was a lot of mud to play with! It was a crazy long evening, it took us about 2 hours to push the taxi about 1 km (needless to say we weren't going very fast)! Every time it seemed we were about to get it unstuck the vehicle would slide to the other side of the road and get stuck again...very sad. By the time we reached the 1 km mark, we had blown and tire and the road seemed to b getting worse. Lucky for us, Carrie's organization has 4-wheel drive vehicles so someone came to pick us up...after we walked another km (or so) to meet it on a part of the road that wasn't so bad!

The next week we had an emergency visit to Kampala because Carrie was sick with what seemed to be malaria. Not good! So, I went with her to Kampala for a brief stay and on my way home had my phone stolen! Not exactly a good time because I was looking forward to talking to family and I hate to miss their calls. So, I had to buy a new phone. But the new phone I bought came with a bad battery which was a constant reminder, for one week, that I had been careless and got my phone stolen in Kampala. On the plus-side, at least that's the only thing the guy got because my wallet was just under my phone, phew!

Life at site has exciting moments. Right now we are planning to work with the guys who drive the motorcycles/mopeds and taxis because they want education about HIV/AIDS. I think it will be a lot of fun. Plus we continue to look for ways that our groups can make some money and start to get some good projects going. Right now, we are doing a lot of planning and I hope that in the future we can really build the Resource Centre!

Life in the village

So, life in the village is nothing like life in the Serena Hotel but at least I'm comfortable. Things at the organization have been a little quiet but that's mostly because we can't test people for HIV right now because we don't have any test kits (the entire district is without). January to March we tested a village testing outreach project that was overwhelmingly successful in the villages. My organization has submitted some proposals in an effort to raise money for transport and for allowances for people who provide the services. I hope that we have a chance to implement the project because we tested so many people just by going to them. I assume most people are like me and you know a service is good and you should use it but it's just that much sweeter when that service is delivered to you (it's like on-line shopping)!!
When I returned from the Serena I had to readjust to life with a lantern and a pit latrine but it didn't take long to get used to village life again. April flew by with the drama group coming to practice and the board of directors being redesigned. In May, the drama group performed for local officials at the Labour Day celebration. I hope to have pictures of that on flickr in about a month. And Carrie and I started a collaboration. She goes to villages to train Community Resource Persons (CRPs) about HIV and how to help encourage their community members to go for HIV testing without freaking them out and my organization's drama group goes to present a play, songs, and traditional dances for the CRPs. So far, they have performed at 3 of her trainings and have done a great job!
I continue to present with Stephen on the radio program that we have once a month. And help with the health talk we give to the Post Test Club.
As always, I miss the food from home but I'm beginning to get used to cooking the local food. Mpora mpora (slowly by slowly), I am making my way to preparing things on the local charcoal stove. Haven't quite given up my gas cooker, though!
Evenings are still uneventful. Most of the time I am in my home by 730 pm (that's when it gets dark) and I stay there until the morning! Which means I have a lot of time to read books. I think this is the most I have ever read in my life! But I must be learning a lot...somehow.

Lost in Uganda...

but not really! If I have not seen a friend in my town in a long time they say, "Kobuzire!" and I respond "Ndiyo!" Basically they translate to: "You are lost!" (them) "I am there" (me). So, I have been lost and now I am found! 2 months have passed and I haven't updated this blog; you must be thinking there is a lot happening but somehow, there isn't that much going on!
Ok, the end of March and beginning of April found me very busy. The last time I updated this I was in Mukono for a Peace Corps training. When that was finished I returned to my site for just a few days and then returned to Kampala for the Close of Service party that was held for the group who has just completed their 2 years of service. It was such a nice weekend! They held the party at a place called the Kabira Club (a place couldn't even afford back home!) and it didn't cost too much for us to hang out around the pool all day and then have an awesome Indian buffet for dinner. It was so nice to relax and escape from the real world for a few hours! I had a chance to meet a lot of volunteers I hadn't met before and got to say good-bye to the couple (Eric and Ranji) I went to visit during training. They made such incredible food! I have hope, yet, that I'll stop missing the food from home when I can finally start preparing somewhat American meals. So, it was a great weekend.
The following weekend I made another trip back to Kampala because of Alexis' (she was in my training group) birthday. She planned a whitewater rafting trip on the Nile! The event got off to an interesting start because that Thursday (12th April) there was a peaceful demonstration downtown that turned into a riot. I was planning to stay with Amanda, who lives about 30 minutes outside of Kampala, but Peace Corps didn't want me to travel through the riots so Carrie and I spent the evening a the Red Chilli. Which was cool because the organization that plans the rafting trips picked us up at the hostel so we didn't have to wake up early and get to one of the pick up locations!
Whitewater rafting was INCREDIBLE!! even though I thought I was going to die at least 3 times! Out of the 7 or 8 rapids that we went over I managed to fall out on at least 4! And our whole boat flipped over 3 times (obviously we weren't a boat of experienced rafters). For those who know rafting, the rapids didn't go above a class 5 and a majority were class 4. There are more dangerous rapids along the Nile but at least we didn't go on those parts of the river!
After we drank half the Nile they had beer waiting for us at the end to calm our nerves and then took us back to the hostel/campsite for a big dinner. The dinner was called a barbecue but it was typical Ugandan food--which was cool but a little disappointing because the word barbecue got me thinking about brats and burgers :-( We spent the night at the hostel and had a blast dancing with new friends and watching the insanity of the day on a DVD produced by the people who run the rafting.
The next day we left for Kampala and an incredible 2 nights in the Serena Hotel, a luxury hotel in the city. Thanks to Alexis' mom and boyfriend for paying for 2 rooms so that she could enjoy her birthday in style with her friends. I can't even begin to describe what a wonderful and relaxing experience the weekend was. When you don't have access to electricity and running water you really appreciate those things even when you only have an evening or 2 to enjoy them. Oh, I also really enjoyed hanging out in air conditioning for a few days, too! The pool was out of commission while we were there but at least we could enjoy the steam room, sauna, and cold plunge in the most incredible locker room or the most incredible gym I have ever seen! The smells in that locker room were just the most amazing (whoever thought a locker room could smell good!), like walking through the most incredible flower gardens, and the place was wicked clean and the robes were nice and soft. I will remember that weekend forever!
In the next blog I'll update you on life in the village...