A Day in the Life...

Well, I don’t know if it’s THE life, but it’s mine and I’m happy with it!!
I am sure many of you are wondering about what I do in a typical day. While every day presents unique challenges and moments of pleasant surprises there are some parts of my day that remain the same. Usually, I am awake by 7 am—I don’t have to set an alarm clock because the roosters wake me up! I begin my day by heating a kettle of water so that I can take a warm bucket bath and have some tea or coffee for breakfast. While I wait for that to boil (at least 1 minute to be sure the water is safe) I sweep the four rooms of my house because there always seems to be a lot of dirt and dust! Now, you might be asking “why does she have to make sure the water is safe?” Well, I do not have running water in my home so it has to be collected from a bore hole but you can’t be sure that it is safe because it’s not treated like water back home! Now you’re thinking, “does she collect her own water?!” Always looking for an easy way out I pay someone to collect water for me. Ok, I’m not that lazy but my house is at the top of a very, very steep hill and I would have to carry the jerry can (20 litres) which kills my hands! The people who collect water for my neighbors and me use a bike to push up the cans up the hill-much better than carrying!

Breakfast is usually fairly simple: fruit (usually papaya from one of the trees behind my house) and bread with jam or pancakes or French toast. Breakfast has turned out to be one of the easiest meals for me to make! Once I finish that I leave for “work”…

I take my bike (which doesn’t have a rack to carry water!) or walk to the Resource Centre I have been placed with. It’s about 1 mile from my home but it’s uphill, both ways! Lucky me I don’t have to worry about snow. During this period of adjustment I spend most days practicing the local language with my counterpart. Sometimes people stop in for counseling and testing; other people come in to meet me. Those people usually begin to ask us questions bout HIV/AIDS and malaria and what the Resource Centre is all about. For many, it is their first time visiting us. I am proud to say that our Centre is the first of its kind in the whole of Kibaale District! We offer free voluntary counseling and testing, access to educational materials tat people can borrow free of charge, a club for people who test positive and free condoms. We plan to begin taking information to the villages in the district and testing people from there.

Once the day is over I go home and do some more cleaning—mop the floor, cleaning the pit latrine or check out my garden that my neighbor has helped me plant—or I relax by reading or writing in my journal.

The sun is up for 12 hours so around 7 pm it begins to get dark. I try to begin preparing supper before that time because it’s not that easy to cook by the light of a kerosene lantern or candle! While eating and cleaning up I either listen to the BBC, the Voice of America or the voices in my head! When I go to bed (usually before 1030!) I fall asleep to the sound of a million crickets!

The end of training!

So how is this for incredible? All 12 of us who left Philadelphia managed to stay in Uganda for the 2 months of training! Rarely does an entire training group make it through training without losing any trainees. We have definitely had our ups and downs but we are definitely a strong group of women! So today I can finally call myself true volunteer. We were sworn in at the Ambassador's residence and then released to the care of our Supervisors and our communities around Uganda. I am looking forward to settling in my community in the Western part of the country and beginning work with the clinic and resource centre I have been assigned to.

My first blog from Uganda!

Ok, continuing my slow transition into the 21st Century I have created a blog. This way I don't have to overwhelm everyone with my infrequent mass emails. I promise to update as often as possible but it definitely depends on how much I have to spend to stay on the internet! I just wanted to post this picture of the group of 12 trainees I came to Uganda with. When I have some more time I will write a little about my site visit and post a picture of my new home! As of the posting of this blog all of the trainees are still here in Uganda and we are having (overall) a great time! Training is of course difficult but we are all looking forward to getting to our sites and starting to work in our communities!