1st Blog!

Ok, so the idea of a blog didn't appeal to me at all when I was win the states, but after a couple of emails and a ton of questions, I think this will just be easier! (not that I don't love the emails, its just impossible for me to resond individually to everyones email. So here it is...my first blog. Sorry if there is some repeated information from my previous email.



2 1/2 weeks in Africa and so far so good! I am in a training class of 21 other people (was 22) ranging from 21 to 29 with 4 men and a married couple! Everyone is really nice and from all over the United States. Training is in a place called Luweero and we are all staying with host families where we really see the Uganadan culture first hand. Training is monday thru friday from 8-5 and then on saturday half days. It lasts for 10 weeks. The only day we technically have off is sunday, and im not even sure you can call it a day off. I spend the day with my family doing chores around the house includind laundry, cooking, mopping. I have been exhausted and sleeping very well!

My host family is great though and I can't complain at all. The parents are very liberal both teachers, the father works at a school in another district and is only home on the weekend. They have four biological children and 2 other kids live/work there. I actually just found out the that the one 15 year old boy is my mothers brother. Interesting. Anyways, their kids are 14 year old boy, 10 year old girl, 6 year old girl and 7 month old boy. The kids are all hard working and go to school, its nice because everyone is pretty fluent in English, so there is no communication barrier. The house is really nice too and completely surrounded by a big brick wall, very secure! It has electricity (which is only on part of the time b/c of inconsistency with Ugandan electricity) and marble flooring with really nice decorative ceilings. No running water and the 'bathroom' (hole in the ground) is outside. Oh the pit latrine...hopefully ill get used to that at some point within the next two years.

There definitely are culture differences here that im still adjusting to like the gender roles and the women doing all of the house work, being treated as a guest and having my food served to me, and everyone calling me 'Muzungu' - which is a term used to all white people. Its been interesting living in this culture and being immersed so quickly. My host family is very curious about America and all the 'convienences' we have. They asked me about the machines that wash our clothes, dishes and that cook our foods. My 10 year old sister even asked me that if a white person gets, cut do they still bleed? Its really crazy how humbling it make me feel.


So right now I am a PCT (peace corps trainee) and after the ten weeks of training there is a swearing in ceremony where I will become a PCV (peace corps volunteer)...hopefully. Once we are sworn in as PCV's we will all separate into our own villages and communities throughout Uganda to work on our areas of interest/expertise. They haven't told us too much about exactly what we will be doing or where we are going, but I do know that I am going towards the Eastern part of Uganda called Mbale where they speak Lumasaaba...the language I am currently trying to learn (ugh!) This past weekend I actually got to go away for the weekend and visit a current PCV to see how living on my own will really be. It was a really nice break from training and a great experience to see what life after training will be like. I spent the weekend with Gloria, she is an education volunteer in Mityana, about an hour west of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. She was awesome! She is a retired teacher from Washington state and had an awesome outlook on the world/peace corps. I really learned a lot about how it will be like living on my own in Uganda. Gloria's house had a living room, kitchen, storage room, 2 bedrooms, and a washroom. She decorated it so nice and it got me so excited to be able to buy cool African crafts and wall hangings for my house. There was no electricity in her house so when it was dark we used candles and lanterns to see. We played lots of cards and a cool game called Quiddler. I met other PCVs this weekend too and we all meet up in Kampala to have lunch at a Chinese restaurant. I dont even like chinese food, but this was soooo good! Kinda weird to have chinese food in africa, but still really good. Which brings me to the next issue...food. The food here is really boring. It mainly consists of starchy like foods like potatoes, matooke (mashed bananas), beans and vegetables. While I was staying with Gloria, we had some amazing food! We had pasta with homemade sauce from tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic, popcorn, chocolate cake, stir fry vegetables, and no bake cookies!


Yesterday we received some more information about our future site organization and what type of work we will be doing, so that was really exciting! I am placed in the "general health promotion" group...which I am pleased with. The other 3 categories of groups were Orphans and Vunerable children, Home based Healthcare, and Water/Sanitation. Im really glad that Im not focused on anything really specific or a specific population, we will learn who our host organization is in week five and spend that week with them learning about the organization and how we can help.


Right now in training we are working on projects that we have to present to our fellow trainees and the trainers at the end of the 10 weeks. Its still in the preliminary stages, but right now I am looking at focusing on a womens group and preventable disease/how to prevent them. Im not really sure, but its a topic I guess. We also had a medical session this morning with more vaccines, I only had to get one this week...Typhoid, awesome. Many more still to come. My arm hurts and I'm kinda sick of writing. Hope everyone is well and leave me messages to let me know how america is!!