Thursday, April 26, 2007

my new home

the main purpose of this session is to share some pictures that i was finally able to "develop". it's been pretty difficult to get access to proper technological resources (not surprising), but i'm excited to finally be able to share a bit with you all!


the basketball hoop was actually constructed from scratch by another volunteer and mounted on a "found" bamboo tripod. it's awesome! note: a soccer ball serves as a better basketball than the volleyball pictured...


here i am with tim (left, with mad shillings) and joe (center) on my birthday. our beards are still young in this photo, and would last another 6 weeks before being scaled back.


anything is funny after a few nile specials.


torso in the north, legs in the south.


this is my amazing homestay family, having a phenomenal mid-day meal to celebrate easter and my brother lawrence's birthday. from left to right, we have: josephine (mama wange, who was an excellent stand-in for my real mom and kept me very well-fed), rita, sam, joseph (crushing some chicken), and the birthday boy, lawrence.


here i am at the source of the nile, in the town of jinja.

ok, those are my pictures. stay tuned for more!

i am now in tororo, the cement capital of uganda. it is the nearest city to my home for the next 2 years (kisoko, 7 miles away). the surrounding area is quite beautiful and is dominated by a "volcanic plug" which rises inexplicably hundreds of feet from the base of the town, covered in thick vegetation and most annoyingly by a cell phone tower at the top. it's climbable and offers a pretty excellent view, i'm sure. i hope to hike up there soon after i move to my new home...

my school in kisoko seems great...it is quite peaceful there and my first impression of my colleagues has been good. this morning i caught a glimpse of mount elgon in the distance...ah, mountains. there is a farming project at the school, which means that cows are free to walk and crap on my grass...so far it is quirky and charming, but only until i step into a steaming pile in the middle of the night on my way to the latrine. haha. my school is only 5 miles from the teachers college, which is GREAT. that's where i can teach workshops to teachers-in-training and is probably where i will want to focus my efforts. they have a pretty well-stocked computer lab with internet and "always-on" power, which is pretty rare in uganda. i'm still not so sure i believe that claim!

two weeks from now, i will officially be a resident of kisoko. that's pretty hard to believe. we have one week of training left and then we swear in and move off to site. i'll be excited once i get a few of my housing issues ironed out. it seems like the school is a little less prepared for me than they should be. but i'll just have to trust that things will work out...and i expect that they will :)

ok, i should probably go. thanks for all of your email, snail mail, text messages, and phone calls. i remain amazed at how available communication has been, even if it is just a small fraction of what i'm used to...

take care, everyone!

Thursday, April 5, 2007

springtime in uganda...

...is pretty much like all time in uganda. HOT.

that is not complaining, by the way. i asked for hot weather and i got it...it's fantastic. if i ever feel that it is too much to take, i'll just think back to the 20 degree wind chill in philly on the day i left. haha.

that said, i kinda miss being around for spring. enjoy that for me, okay?

things here are really great...we are wrapping up week 5 of training (i can hardly believe that) and i just finished a language practice test. it's pretty funny that i am currently learning a couple obscure local african languages...and very challenging. i need to study a bit more but it's hard to find the time. i'm always busy with training sessions, scrambling to socialize and play music with the other volunteers before we get scattered after the next few weeks, hanging out with my host family, chasing chickens, hand-washing all of my cothes (ugh). this morning is great, b/c i was the first to have my language test and now i got some free time to get online for the first time in a couple weeks.

tomorrow our group is going to jinja to see a waterfall and the source of the nile. i'm really exciteed to get out and see some of the eastern part of the country, which is where we'll be living for the next 2 years. i'll find out for sure where i'll be at the end of next week, when we get our site assignments. it will be nice to actually be able to point to a specific spot on the map...

and two weeks from monday, we will all go out to visit our new homes...

i should probably go soon. there's someone waiting. know that things here are great and i'm feeling well. i even started my makeshift african workout program this week, consisting of yoga and pushups on a straw mat, along with using my backpack as a dumbell for shoulder and arm exercises (sometimes by the light of a kerosene lantern). it's pretty hilarious...

that's it for now!