After 36 hours of traveling through Friday and Saturday I finally arrived in Uganda! I was lucky enough to have been greeted by 4 new friends who were so happy to see me! The first night in Uganda, 2 other colleagues and myself stayed in a hotel in Kampala, the capital. Lucky, there was running water so the transition wasn't THAT rough the first night...
The next morning, the 3 of us got up and traveled 2 hours outside the capital city on dust and pothole-filled roads into the jungle, where we are living. We are living in a village called Kankobe, which sits on the beautiful Lake Victoria, which is just a 10 minute walk from my front door. The people in the village are so friendly and happy, even though they are amoung the poorest people I have ever met, many of which are suffering with HIV. Most of the houses in the village are about 7x7ft and are made out of dirt and stone, yet the children living in them are full of life!
I am living in a guest house around the corner from the headquarters of SOVHEN with a girl named Sandra. We are lucky enough to each have a bed, a mosquito net, and a shower (which is really a room with a drain and a bucket of water). The "bathroom" is outisde and up the hill but it is really just a gorified hole in the ground.
The very first time I showered here, there was a red bucket, a blue bucket, and a jug of water in the shower room. Not knowing what I was doing, I decided to poor the water into the blue bucket and then all over my body to wash. I found out after that the blue bucket was actually called and "African toliet" and that it is used for a bathroom at night when you don't want to walk all the way up to the other bathrooms..............
It is safe to say living in Uganda has been qute and adjustment and without Sandra, my sweet and kind roomate, I would have been lost! She has taught me so much about Ugandan culture that I could not have known prior to coming. Some of the most important important tips she taught me is that you have to take off your shoes before entering a house and that women cannot show their thigh at any time.
The organization I am working with, SOVHEN, has proven to be full of the most energetic, caring, compassionate, brillant, and driven people I have ever met. Richard, Jerimiah, and Rogers are truly an inspiration to me. This week, we visited all of the places that SOVHEN has contributed to or built. Firstly, they built a clinic and are in the works of building a maternity clinic up the road from where we live. They also found a way to manufacture sanitary pads from a local plant and have taught various village women how to make them. This creates jobs for the women and a clean sanitary pad for school aged girls, who would have previously dropped out of school when they reached maturity. They are also involved in a school, where I will have the opportunity to teach english for 2 weeks.
I am so thrilled and honored to be working with SOVHEN and to be living in a beautiful country such as Uganda!
More to come soon!
The next morning, the 3 of us got up and traveled 2 hours outside the capital city on dust and pothole-filled roads into the jungle, where we are living. We are living in a village called Kankobe, which sits on the beautiful Lake Victoria, which is just a 10 minute walk from my front door. The people in the village are so friendly and happy, even though they are amoung the poorest people I have ever met, many of which are suffering with HIV. Most of the houses in the village are about 7x7ft and are made out of dirt and stone, yet the children living in them are full of life!
I am living in a guest house around the corner from the headquarters of SOVHEN with a girl named Sandra. We are lucky enough to each have a bed, a mosquito net, and a shower (which is really a room with a drain and a bucket of water). The "bathroom" is outisde and up the hill but it is really just a gorified hole in the ground.
The very first time I showered here, there was a red bucket, a blue bucket, and a jug of water in the shower room. Not knowing what I was doing, I decided to poor the water into the blue bucket and then all over my body to wash. I found out after that the blue bucket was actually called and "African toliet" and that it is used for a bathroom at night when you don't want to walk all the way up to the other bathrooms..............
It is safe to say living in Uganda has been qute and adjustment and without Sandra, my sweet and kind roomate, I would have been lost! She has taught me so much about Ugandan culture that I could not have known prior to coming. Some of the most important important tips she taught me is that you have to take off your shoes before entering a house and that women cannot show their thigh at any time.
The organization I am working with, SOVHEN, has proven to be full of the most energetic, caring, compassionate, brillant, and driven people I have ever met. Richard, Jerimiah, and Rogers are truly an inspiration to me. This week, we visited all of the places that SOVHEN has contributed to or built. Firstly, they built a clinic and are in the works of building a maternity clinic up the road from where we live. They also found a way to manufacture sanitary pads from a local plant and have taught various village women how to make them. This creates jobs for the women and a clean sanitary pad for school aged girls, who would have previously dropped out of school when they reached maturity. They are also involved in a school, where I will have the opportunity to teach english for 2 weeks.
I am so thrilled and honored to be working with SOVHEN and to be living in a beautiful country such as Uganda!
More to come soon!
