Site and the US Embassy (OMG ICE!)

What a crazy weeek!

So site visit was interesting! And we went to the US embassy for a 50th anniversary party for peace corps!

Okay, site visit first…

I am working with ACORD (Arua Rural Community Development)--yes, I know it doesn't quite spell ACORD but they pronounce the org as that. There was some problems in the beginning because apparently they are my second site. My first one fell through but no one updated the contact info so I had contact info for other people that were not my supervisor or counterpart. But it all worked out in the end. =)

ACORD is a community based organization that is headquartered in Arua but works in the Arua and Maracha Districts--more specifically, the most rural county of Maracha and Arua, Tara. Including me, there are 7 full time staff (4 men, 3 women) and some other sort of staffs located around the districts. The office is a rented room from the local red cross and the size of a closet =).

I will be mostly working with the women's groups, 27 to be exact in Tara county (which is 1.5 hours ish away by car -_______-- think bumpy/terrible roads, mud and flooding, etc). My job is to help the women's organizations develop sustainable and replicable income generating activities (IGA) based on the activities they are currently doing, which is awesome! What's not so awesome is that most of those women work around subsistence agriculture and uh…I don't know anything about agriculture, but I'm excited to learn and work with others who do) and also, Tara county is so rural I have no idea how I'm going to get there to integrate with the community as I have not seen taxis go there and I'm not allowed on boda bodas (motorbike). We'll see how it goes.

About housing…I have a TINY place but it's definitely better than I was expecting at first. I have 2 rooms total and the bathroom is in the 2nd room making it a even smaller room. I do have a toilet and shower but the drainage system looks like it could be an issue. There's a small little porch(?) area outside as well. It's about 3 feet wide. And then the community latrines are right outside my door. Those are for my neighbors, I do have a couple of them.

So…when I first saw my house, I was excited about it. I was like nice! 1 bedroom and a living room and a toilet and shower! Than…I heard others got 2 bedrooms and a sitting room and I was like poo! But then I realized that it was better than I had been expecting so I'm okay with it. I'll make it work. They even teased me with the possibility of moving me to a bigger house if I shared with Betty (another volunteer) and I was all excited cause it was BIG! and had a stove and a fridge and an oven! Oh wells….

About everyone else in my group? George is at St. Josephs Arua with a nice gig, I forget what. Marcy is working with Arua Hospital as a nurse teacher. Laura is at Kuluva Hospital as a nurse teacher. Brady is now the new director of the St. Josephs Maracha hospital--he was only supposed to assist with the hospital but somehow because of someone quitting somewhere he ended up with no counterpart and is now the new director in charge of the future health program of the largest hospital in Maracha District and responsible for a ton of stuff. And Tom is working with NACOLA, a women's group.

Oh Ho! On the way back from Arua, I saw...elephants, baboons, antelope, etc. And it HAILED....in Uganda. Crazy. And poured, and flooded. It was like a river of mud gushing from the hills. Crazy. Anyhow, for any of you with whom I have considered doing muddy buddy with...there is no way I ever want to see or touch mud after these next 2 years. I will have had enough mud to last a lifetime. Sorry!

Moving on…today we went to the US Embassy! OMG…

Can I say Air Conditioning? and ICE! It was amazing--like I just stepped back home for a minute (which technically I did as the embassy is considered US soil). The buildings, the toilets, everything felt like home. It was soooooooooooo nice! The food was amazing, and we danced and ate and drank and it was great!

And now I'm home…one more day of school then I can do laundry. Can't wait. My family did do some laundry while I was gone (nice of them!) but my 3 articles of clothing now smell like raw meat and had a bug on it. So I'm definitely rewashing! Okay. That's it for now folks.

Cheers,

Tiff