it's just another manic monday

Today is Monday and we are hosting a "Book Keeping and Records Management" workshop here at the Kampala KWDT office. 24 women from 12 of the women's groups are here for training on how to do efficient book keeping and we are checking up on all of their records for milk production, member registration, loan payback, meeting minutes and report writing. After lunch, some of the participants will share their experiences and we will examine some case studies and group reports. The final activity is a trust building game that I am putting on.


The leadership meeting last week went well, but we moved my presentation of the bio-sand filters to today so that we could judge the groups book keeping from today's meeting. After the activity, I will announce the best 3 women groups that will be awarded with bio-sand filters. The filters themselves are not here for me to hand over because they are built out in the field, but I will be announcing the recipients here and hopefully get to go out to Katosi later in July to distribute them.


Here's today's schedule!

Registration
Break tea
Welcoming remarks & Recap: Introduction to good records keeping
Group discussion / Review of records

Members data book
Registration book in meetings
Milk records
Cow records
Minutes book
Report writing

Lunch break
Sharing of experiences: 3 case studies
Comments on group reports
Trust Building activity and awarding best groups
Closure

On wednesday, Scarlet and I are planning to go out to Katosi to help Avery with her intern project, building tippy taps at St. John's Bosco school!

"It's my life...mind yo business!"

I've been out of the US for a whole month! It's hard to believe. I'm going to be in shambles when I have to leave all of my babies, but I'm super excited to reach the halfway mark.

Here are some photos :

Matthew: the most stubborn baby in the world. So precious!
Joseph, just woken up from a nap....or about to take one. He and Matthew are getting adopted by a couple in Kansas in a few months. Cute!

Josephine, Junior, Stephanie (Harvard Volunteer), Sumaya, (Blessherheart I forgot her name), Miranda, and Becky outside of Ken (Director of New Hope)'s houseKen's House (aka "The Big House"). Pretty baller for Uganda. Just sayin.

Avery, Regina, RANDOM KID WITH A UNC SHIRT (GO HEELS), Emily, Julia, and Miranda in Jinja!Our typical Lunch: Rice, Potatoes, Matoke (green bananas, basically), and avocado.
Some of the kids in the Resource Center playing with coloring books
That's it for now. Bye-ee!

leetle babies

today was my first day teaching at a school near the resource center and the children were absolutely adorable. I started off observing and helping the teacher of the "baby" class which was basically kids around 5 years old. Although the classroom was chaotic, some of the babies loved to run up to me touch my hand and then giggle as if i was a very strange creature. In the end they all left saying "goodbye madam regina" which broke my heart and i cant wait to go back next week to see them. I never realized how hard it was to try to teach especially children that young and i respect my elementary school teachers even though i thought they were horrible.
After lunch we are going to an outreach immunization clinic which hopefully i can learn to give immunizations myself. ive never gone to this village before so im very excited!
:)

Last Week's Failed Post

This weekend Avery, Jamila, Miranda, Emily, Regina and I went to Jinja to watch the opening rounds of the World Cup together and explore the town that is known as “The Source of the Nile.” It was wonderful. We were let off of work a little bit early on Friday and caught a mutatu so that we could get there by the start of the first game.
We stayed at a little place called “Explorers Backpackers,” a popular hostel for foreigners stopping in Jinja. There were people from all over the world there and it was really interesting to hear about all of the different experiences that other foreigners are having during their stay in Uganda. Watching the World Cup there was unbelievable; even being on the same continent that the tournament is hosted on is truly wonderful.
After watching a couple of games on Friday, we spent our Saturday exploring and relaxing in the sun, which I got a bit too much of. Sunday we went to Bugadali falls with and watched all of the rafts go down the rapids.
The first couple weeks of work were a bit disorganized, but things are starting to fall into place. It’s hard adjusting to working here because there is a lot of downtime and things rarely work out as planned. However, with unreliable internet, power, and transportation, things can’t always work out perfectly and that’s just something that I am having to adjust to. We talked to our boss and let him know what we wanted to work on, so our weeks should start to be a bit busier. We will be doing more home visits and field work for the Orphan Support Programme and HIV counseling and will be making more visits to schools to help teach.
It’s hard to believe that we have already been here for 3 weeks because the time is flying by. This week we have 3 microfinance/OVC visits planned, a couple visits to Health Clubs at schools, and immunizations to do at the clinic. On Friday, some of the interns (hopefully all) are going to Fort Portal, a small, scenic town at the base of the Rwenzori mountains.

Last Week

Jagala Chapatti

After a couple weeks of horrible internet connections, I am finally able to post again! Last week after we got back from a weekend trip to Jinja, we had a great week at work. We re-did posters at the clinic, went to Hillside High for health club, and went on 2 full-day microfinance/OVC home visits with david.
Health club is always very interesting and eye opening. The club discusses a variety of topics, including cross-generational sex, abortion, poverty, and STD prevention. It's hard to participate in many of the discussions because the culture here is so different and the health concerns are very different. For example, in Uganda abortion is considered a sin against god, as one club member put it. When they asked for our opinion on the topic, we had to explain that in America abortion is a very controversial topic and talked about the different views that people have back home. While I love learning about the different views in Uganda, some of the teaching tactics are pretty frustrating. STDs and HIV are a fairly large problem here, so the fact that most schools only teach about abstinence and not safe sex is clearly not the most effective approach.
On Thursday, Regina and I went with David on more home visits. It was so interesting to see how Kyetume's microfinance program has helped so many people, families and businesses obtain the resources they need to get their businesses off the ground. We met several brick makers, a woman who tailors, and several families that mainly focus on farming. It's awesome to see how far small amounts of money can go for these people. For example, the woman who tailors used her grant money from Kyetume to buy her very own sewing machine and plans to use to machine to teach other women how to start their own tailoring businesses. The sewing machine itself is only about $125 USD but will help improve the lives of dozens of people.We're learning more and more Lugandan, so it's fun to try and hold basic conversations with people we meet.
After work on thursday, we headed to Fort Portal, a small town at the base of the Rwenzori mountains, for the weekend with several of the other interns. We watched the world cup (go USA!) and spent all day saturday biking, hiking and sight-seeing. Even though the bikes were pretty pathetic, it was an amazing day. The view that we saw from the top of a huge hill was breathtaking and may have been my favorite moment of my time in Uganda thus far.
This week we've got several school visits planned (yay!) and more health clubs, clinical work, and home visits. This weekend is our SAFARI, which I have been waiting for since the moment I saw Lion King as a 4 year old.

I have a post from last week that I wasn't able to upload, so I'll add that later.

hating on potholes.

So, despite being in a bus on literalllyyyy the bumpiest roads of all time for a 10 hour round trip, hiking/biking through the Rwenzori mountains definitely made breaking my tailbone worth it. This weekend we went to Fort Portal, a town in the mountains, and we went on a tour through caves, a waterfall, and crater lakes. All of us had the most amazing view of the Rwenzoris near the end of the hike, on the top of a huge hill (could have been attacked by a swarm of killer bees living nearby, but hey). My lack of athleticism really showed when I could barely move any of my limbs after the 16 mile trek. Although the bikes were made in approximately 1995 and were slightly ghetto, this mountain trip was one of the the most fun I have ever been on. I was so proud of all the interns for sticking through the whole thing.

Sorry Blue Ridge Mountains, the Rwenzori Mountains definitely pwn you.

Tomorrow, the Kyetume girls are going to our first primary school of the summer to teach kids English, Math, and Health Science. When we went to visit earlier today, all of the kids rushed to the office to greet us. They looked so happy I almost cried. Leave it to me to post another corny blog, but I'm really looking forward to teaching a few days a week for the remainder of the summer. We are also looking into painting a mural on one of the schools and repainting the clinic I work in. Who would have thought a bunch of science nerds could be so crafty?

Safari this weekend; needless to say I am beyond excited. If I don't see an elephant I may punch someone, but rhino tracking should be pretty cool. Until next time, mukwanos (friends)!