VACATION!

Before my vacation started, I was super busy finishing up the year. Tori and I were working on one of the projects, the 12 month long curriculum. We decided to do it in quarters. Despite the fact that I have never written a curriculum/lesson plan, and we waited until the week before it needed to be done to do it, it turned out well. The first three topics for January, February, and March are Water/Hygiene/Sanitation, HIV/AIDS, and Family Planning. I have so much more respect for teachers now that I have actually written a lesson plan…I had no idea how much work it was. Tori and I were both up til 2am three nights before the week ended. Hopefully that taught us a lesson to start a little earlier for the next quarter of the project.

I’ve been having a wonderful time ever since my vacation actually started! There was a work holiday party at Justin’s house (the executive director). Most of the employees of FDNC were there to celebrate the end of the year. It was a nice time to spend with everyone before the holiday break. For Christmas, a bunch of other volunteers and I went to Rachel’s village outside of Mbale Town. Rachel was my language teacher during training and has four boys, Keith, Kennedy (“like the president”…her words!), Kelvin, and Kris. They are so freaking adorable! The ages are 6, 5, 3, 2. Quite a handful and despite how cute they were, I was definitely ready to come back to my quiet hut after the third day. It was really nice to see how Ugandans spend Christmas and the differences in cultures. There was lots of family time…with lots of family. I bet there were 30 people in and out of the house at a time; I couldn’t keep everyone straight! We were listening to Christmas carols and cooking all day. The food takes a really, really long time to cook using only three charcoal stoves! The dinner menu included turkey, chicken, beef, rice, pasta, matooke, potatoes, fruit salad, and banana bread. We all helped cook in the 90-degree weather outside…definitely not what we were used to, but we got down and dirty!! Good food, good company, and good times. Being away for Christmas wasn’t as bad as I thought. Although, I was recently reminded about the fact that if I was home, I would probably be working…haha, this was much better than work!! =)

The day after Christmas, we spent the day with Rachel and her family at Sisiyi Falls. It’s a beautiful waterfall off the side of Mt. Elgon. We walked up part of the mountain to get a gorgeous view of the falls. Lisandro, Josh, and Liz decided to be adventurous and get down in the water. I was playing it safe and just decided to take pictures of them!

As I returned from the 4 day/3 night Christmas fun, I have been being completely lazy and loving every minute of it. I have been making use of Tori’s house mostly for the purpose of her refrigerator, but also because it’s a nice change of scenery from my one room house (hers has 4). Anyways, we have kind of known she had rats…but never actually saw one alive. She killed one a couple weeks ago with this stuff called ‘rat glue’. So I was relaxing there the other night just reading when I see something out of the corner of my eye…two moving things. The first is a lizard, small little creatures that are perfectly harmless and way more afraid of us, but they still scare me really bad. Then the second moving thing…a black rat!!! Oh. My. God. It took me back to the buffalo days when I tried to kill a rat with Mike with Brent’s hockey stick!! Haha…this time I was alone, and didn’t have a hockey stick. My options were limited, but luckily it ran out (I think), or I ran out before I could think! Another good reason for my one room, thatched roof hut, I always know what’s in it, or what isn’t!

In my down time, I have been doing a lot of reading, writing, puzzle(ing?), and napping…its been really nice and relaxing! My other Peace Corps friends and I are planning on spending new years in Jinja then rafting!

I uploaded pictures from Christmas so check them out! Hope everyone had a great Christmas also!…and Happy New Year too!!

BOOYAH TURKEY! =)

On December first we celebrated Thanksgiving at Karine's house with about 13 other PCVs! We ate the most unbelievably delicious turkey possible in Uganda! As you can see, Lisandro and myself were both thoroughly enjoying it!! =) I arrived late because of meetings with work (yes, work on a saturday!) and all of the prep work to the turkey was finished. I have to say that I was happy...I'm not sure it would have tasted as good if I knew it alive!

It was great to see people from my training group and meet other people who live in the area. The whole dinner included turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed sweet potatoes, mac and cheese (velvetta!), pumpkin pie, carrot cake, and fruit salad. It was a real thanksgiving, in Uganda!


We all even went around the table and said what we were thankful for....cute, huh? Luckily, this trip to Bududa I did not walk back to Mbale! I smartened up and took a taxi...although, I cant say that I wont do it again. =) Hopefully over the holiday when the office is closed, I can be prepared and hike up another mountain! Its so beautiful here! The weather though, nothing like that in New York! Soooooo hotttttt, seriously, what did I expect, I guess...I'm in Africa! This is the time when I am extremely happy for my thatched roof hut!! It stays so much cooler than tin roofed houses. And apparently the hottest/driest time is still to come, January! I'll just be thinking of all my family and friends in CNY/WNY freezing their butts off!! =) Its strange to think about life with no snow for two years...I think I'll manage! =)

This month marks 4 months in Uganda! Whoa! Happy Holiday Season, All!!