Wednesday, September 17, 2008

New beginnings

It's been a rough few weeks adjusting back to America. Mike and I moved in together in PA where he is attending Penn State and finishing a degree in Biology before applying to Dental School. Our apartment is great and things with us are wonderful. The hard part for me is getting back into America- the pace of life, living in a new part of the country, trying to find a job, trying to make friends, figuring out where I am and where I want to go. The Peace Corps was an incredible experience but now I have to figure out how to translate my experience into what I want to do with the rest of my life. I know graduate school is in the near future and I'm trying to create these great plans but getting there is harder than I thought.

One of the big changes I made when I returned was cutting off my hair. I let it grow out the two years I was gone and decided I would again donate my hair to Locks of Love. You can see the difference between the following pictures. That's a lot of hair- yikes!





I'm still trying to find a job- one that may help me on my career path and not completely change it. Needless to say, there's not much work outside of the restaurant and retail industries in State College but I'm looking. It's weird being in a college town and not actually in college.

June 28, 2008

Today we went on our first outreach to Masaaka. We split into two groups and took people's medical problems, blood pressure, and personal information. I worked with Steven, Jude, Lara, and translator/Dr. Steven. We had a good time hiking in and out of the cornfields getting from house to house. We tried to buy hot peppers (think Cape Verdian piri piri) at one house and they gave us all they had drying in the sun for free. It was really neat for me to see something from Cape Verde all the way in Uganda.






During our outreach we ran into a girl with a high fever, headache and the vomitted in front of us. We all felt really bad for her and the seeming neglect from her family allowing her to lie in the sun in this condition.

Walking up the mountains was absolutely beautiful. It's weird being back. Very surreal.


Sunday, September 07, 2008

June 28, 2008

Yesterday was a pretty incredible day. We spent the morning learning how to use blood pressure cuffs and to take eye exams.








In the afternoon we went to the vocational school that I helped build in 2003. It was really neat seeing the final result and the center being utilized. There was a little session where the director introduced the teachers and students, we gave our speeches and they sang and danced.


June 25, 2008

We're here in Buhkaweka, Uganda. Just getting here was quite an adventure. We spent a night in Dubai, the only time I'll ever be in the Emirates. We saw a large mall with an indoor ski slope, the famous sailboat shaped hotel that costs at minimum $2000 a night, and drove on the island shaped like a palm tree. I felt very uncomfortable being amongst all this money. The flight to Dubai was amazing--good service, good food, and the coolest tvs with hundreds of movies, tv shows and games to keep you entertained during the flight.





When we finally made it to Uganda the Tanzania group's counterpart had not arrived so we waited with them while they figured everything out. We then drove to Kampala to change money and went on to Mbale. We finally reached home around 12:30 am and our house is great. Its across the street from the old Crossroads house which is now being used to house a Peace Corps volunteer. We've got a sitting room, a room for the boys, and 2 1/2 rooms for the girls. Out back are our 2 holes. We woke up this morning and all got on boda-bodas--motorcycle taxis-- to the intersection and then got on a matatu to Mbale. We spent the day buying supplies for our house and now have a stove, dishes and food. We got back to Bukhaweka with electricity and cooked our first meal of rice and vegetables!