Picture Post

Elementary School Reunion Dinner

Camping trip to French Creek State Park

Random sign in Spanish on the trail to Hopewell Furnace

Playing games

Christmas

Ari & Cristian's wedding

Ari & I
Sarah & I
Gary & I
Our table

Grades

I got my grades today. I did really well. 4 As, an A-, and a B+. My GPA is now a 3.7, which is up a bit from last year. I'm pretty happy about that.

I head home tomorrow, for a busy break. Somewhere in between everything I have planned I have stuff to do for work, and I want to start looking for jobs.

I'm sure I'll see most of you while I'm home, so I'm not going to ramble on here. If I don't see you, have a great holiday!

I survived...

This semester is finally over! I've written 4 papers, done 3 presentations, and taken 1 final in the past week. I slept in 2-4 hour shifts whenever I couldn't function anymore. Thursday night I got home and crashed for about 13 hours. Everyone I know says this is the hardest semester they've ever hard, which is a bit odd since we all took some different classes. I'm just glad it's finally over. Last night I hung out with some of our neighbors. We went out and played pool for a while, then started to watch Mystery Science Theater 3000, but we were all falling asleep so I came home and went to bed. I feel much better after catching up on sleep and finally not being stressed or having school work hanging over my head.
I plan on just relaxing the next couple days and cleaning a bit. Mike has finals tilThursday, so I'm going to pick him up after his final on Thursday and head home. Break is going to be pretty busy. Next weekend, a bunch of us are going camping (we're getting a cabin, not tents), the following weekend, I'm going away for the weekend for a wedding. I may head back to Pittsburgh after that. I haven't decided what I'm doing for new years yet.
Here's a few pictures from the past couple weeks. Not too much exciting happened since I was doing work the whole time. We did have a bachelorette party for my friend whose wedding I'm going to. We just hung out here at our house and had a Sex and the City theme - stilettos, crazy flowers, & martinis.
Sandra headed back to Zimbabwe at the beginning of the week to see her family.


Gary visiting

Ari's Bachelorette Party
Sandra & I

Ari & I

last post of the semester

I think I have my schedule all set for next semester. I'm taking the following:

EMT training
Global Information Systems (GIS)
Micropolitics: NGOs and Development in Civil Society
NGOs & Humanitarian Disasters
Consulting for NGOs

That should keep me busy. The EMT training is 9 hours a week.

Anyways, 2 more weeks til the end of the semester. I have 5 papers, 3 presentations, and 1 final I think, so if I disappear til mid December, that's why.

Thanksgiving was nice. Michelle & Renato came over, and had dinner with Sandra and I. Sandra and I did a lot of shopping Friday and today. I think I'm done with my Christmas shopping =) Last weekend, we had our potluck Thanksgiving dinner with our friends from school. I think there were about 16 of us for that. Gary (a friend I met in Uganda, who's living in Delaware at the moment) also came out to visit for a couple days. It was really nice to see him.

God's Promise

This song is so beautiful. If this link doesn't work, look it up on youtube. [hint hint - someone can buy me this cd (the speed of trees) for Christmas]

Ellis Paul - God's Promise

God's Promise

(lyrics by Woody Guthrie, sung by Ellis Paul)

I didn't promise you skies painted blue
Not all colored flowers all your days through
I didn't promise you, sun with no rain
Joys without sorrows, peace without pain.

All that I promise is strength for this day,
Rest for my worker, and light on your way.
I give you truth when you need it, my help from above,
Undying friendship, my unfailing love.

I never did promise you crowns without trials,
Food with no hard sweat, your tears without smiles,
Hot sunny days without cold wintry snows,
No vict'ry without fightin', no laughs without woes.

All that I promise is strength for this day,
Rest for my, worker, my light on your way,
I give you truth when you need it, my help from above,
Undying friendship, my unfailing love.

I sure didn't say I'd give you heaven on earth,
A life with no labor no struggles no deaths,
No earthquakes no dryspells, no fire flames no droughts,
No slaving no hungers, no blizzards no blights.

All that I promise is strength for this day,
Rest for my worker, my light on your way,
I give you truth when you need it, my help from above,
Undying friendship, my unfailing love.

I promise you power, this minute this hour,
The power you need when you fall down to bleed,
I give you my peace, and my strength to pull home
My love for all races all creeds and all kinds.

My flavors my saviors my creeds of all kinds,
My love for my saviors, all colors all kinds,
My love for my races all creeders all kinds,
My saviors my flavors my dancers all kinds,
My dancers my prancers my singers all kinds,
My flavors my saviors my dancers all kinds.

Schedule Changes & Pictures

I've decided to take another capstone course next semester in addition to the other courses I signed up for. My boss is teaching a course on consulting for nonprofits, and we're actually going to do consulting work for some local organizations. So much for an easy semester. haha.

Here are some pictures.

Group picture from the Nigerian Leadership Conference we ran a couple weeks ago.
A picture of the cathedral of learning during light up pittsburgh month
Liz, Lisa, and I at the PA Renaissance Faire
All of us, except for James (he took the picture) at the Ren Faire
Halloween Happy Hour
The awesome pumpkin I carved for Halloween.

A Song for You

we'll go with salsa...Marc Anthony - Preciosa

I registered for classes for next semester today. I'm only going to take 3 1/2 unless something amazing comes up.
Global Information Systems
Micropolitics: NGOs and Development in Civil Society (my last required course)
Women, International Developments, and Global Health
NGOs & Humanitarian Disasters (a half semester course)

I may continue working on my capstone paper to get that published if that goes well this semester.
I may sit in on a French class to brush up on that.
I also want to look into getting EMT certified...it can't hurt to have some medical skills, and I've heard Pitt has a course that's fairly easy.

Anyways, the light courseload is so that I have some time to work on job applications, interviews, etc.


Work:
I'm working on a proposal for the dean for starting up a leadership portfolio/certification program.
We're going through candidates for our new Exemplary Leadership Award. We're looking for this person to come do a lecture or something in the spring, so that'll be cool. I'll get to meet another someone important =)


School:
School's going well. Lots of work as usual. Nothing too exciting.


Fun & Fitness:
I go salsa dancing at least once a week, sometimes twice. It gets expensive if you go too often =( I also swim about twice a week. I'm up to 25 laps (I did 12 the first time) (ok, I take some breaks in there but still...). My goal is to be able to 25 with no laps by Christmas, and 50 by the end of the school year. Now that we turned on the heat and the house isn't a freezer anymore, I'm going to try to start doing pilates again. I'll have to use my laptop though b/c Sydney chewed up the remote so now we can't switch the tv to dvd.

Some Pictures

Here are some pictures from the past month or so.

Courtney's gallery opening in Harrisburg


checking out some of the other gallieries during Harrisburgh's gallery walk

Ari's (2nd from left) bridal shower

roomie picture at the bridal shower
' I cut my hair stuck in traffic after the gala (next pic)

hard at work volunteering at a charity gala/silent auction to benefit this orgnaization that works with stroke survivors

Uganda pics

these are some pics I stole from Gary of the every day stuff I never put up pics of.


road into Gulu



this is kinda what my house looked like, except we had a wall around it




a road outside of town




a bunch of boda drivers

New Job!

I got a new job at the Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership. (http://www.johnsoninstitute-gspia.org/) It seems like it's going to be a good job. It's a full-time position (20 hrs a week is full-time for students). I'll be doing research for various projects and helping to organize programs/lecture series/etc. My boss is also brainstorming for a leadership certification program, so that will be cool to work on.
I'm excited =) Sure beats selling slushies!

Other than that, nothing too exciting. 2 weekends ago, I met up with Amanda in Harrisburg for Courtney's gallery opening. It was a beautiful day. About 30 galleries in Harrisburg were doing an art walk, so Amanda and I walked around while Courtney was with her stuff then we met up afterward. She sold 2 of her 5 pieces that day, and the show is going on for a month, so that's a good sign.

For anyone who doesn't know, Lisa & Dave are getting married in May so I'm doing a lot of planning with them for that, which I love doing =) (I designed the save the date cards)

I've been really getting into working out. I do pilates a couple times a week. I just got a new bathing suit that's suitable for swimming laps, so I started that today. Muscles I didn't know I had are sore!

Well, that's about it for me. Hope everyone is doing well.

Besos!

back in the swing of things

well, I've survived the first 2 weeks of classes. After switching some classes and some classes getting canceled then reinstated, I think I'm finally set for the semester. I'm taking;
Tools for Working in International Development
Advocacy for NGOs
Economics of Development
Accounting for NGOs
Ethnic Conflict & Civil Wars
capstone seminar: Topics in International Political Economy (you can either take a capstone or do a thesis)
*NGOs = non-governmental orgs, aka non-profits

I'm working about 7 hours a week at the place I worked last year at the moment b/c the times they have for shifts are terrible. They're 4 hour shifts that cut across 3/4 of my class periods. I'm looking for another job or a replacement job. I've applied to a bunch of places, so we'll see what happens.

That's about all that's going on right now. I've realized I really enjoy doing Pilates & Yoga, so I do that a lot. I'm going to start swimming laps with a friend of mine, but we both need a bathing suit, so hopefully that will start soon.

Courtney has a gallery opening in Harrisburg tomorrow (Sun) with some women's artist group she's a part of, so Amanda and I are going to go to that.

last update before i head home

Change of plans for the past few days. Nive, me, and another friend of ours from Gulu came to Kampala Friday. We went to see Wyclef Friday night, which was a ton of tun. Saturday night, we went to an Irish pub and made a lot more friends which was nice b/c they were staying at the place where you get picked up for rafting so I got to hang out with them there after everyone else went back to Gulu. We didn't get much sleep Friday or Saturday so Sunday and Monday I rested a bit. I also went to the craft market. Yesterday was white water rafting which was sooo much fun. We flipped on the first grade 5, but survived the rest. There's one where you go down a small waterfall, but we got stuck on a rock and ended up going down a different way and missing the waterfall which was disappointing. Tonight I fly home.
I'm really sad to be leaving. I've been talking to a bunch of people and hopefully, will be able to get a job in Gulu when I graduate. We'll see what happens over the next year though.
Talk to you all when I get home.

quick update

having a good time. just wanted to say i'm still alive. will update when I get home.

quick update

Our party Saturday was lots of fun, then we went to another party at an NGO near our house for a guy there who's leaving this week.
Anyways, I probably won't be online much and may not update til I get home...just wanted to give you all a head's up.

Last week in Gulu...

Tomorrow, Nive and I are having a going away/birthday party at our house. (Her birthday is Monday.) Friday, we're going to head to Kampala to see Wyclef, then Saturday, we're planning on going to a Rugby World Cup qualifying game, or something like that. Uganda is playing Madagascar. Sunday, I'm going to head to Jinja and do a day of white water rafting and then Monday take a day long course on white water kayaking. I'll then head back to Kampala and spend Tuesday and Wednesday in Entebbe. I fly out Wednesay night and get home Thursday =)

We had more cockroaches last night. I woke up at around 5am to hear one scurrying around my room. They're so loud! I called Nive to get the Raid and come save me, and as as soon as she got out of bed, she saw another one in her room. She killed one and the other one disappeared. I hope it left the house! Rainy season has finally begun. It was supposed to end in May I think, but the seasons/rains here are all messed up b/c of the changing climate. This is the 2nd day in a row with no power here in Gulu, so I'm spending the day at the internet cafe to get some work done so I can go out with Nive a couple days next week.

tentative plans for the next 2 weeks

For the next day or 2, I'm just putting my data into excel and writing up a report on that. Then next week, I'm going to work with Nive.
Aug. 1, we're going to Kampala to see a Wyclef Jean concert. Then the next day, we're going to head to Jinja for some white water rafting at the source of the Nile. I'm probably going to stay there for a couple days and take a kayaking class or some other adventury kind of thing. Then I'll head to Entebbe Aug 5 or 6 and check out the wildlife preserve and maybe hit up the beach, then I fly out really late on the 6th and get home the 7th.

frustration

I started doing my research today. It's pretty frustrating. I was looking over some of the surveys. There are people checking off the box that they are sexually active then saying later in the survey that they have had no partners and are abstaining. Then I have people who say they've never heard of HIV/AIDS yet say they've been tested. I'm not really sure how to handle such situations when putting together the data.
Saturday was our mobile "clinic." That also frustrated me. It was set up on Thursday. There was no meeting or anything to organize how the day would go. So Saturday morning, I'm told to be at the office by 8am. We don't leave til 10. It's a bunch of volunteer med students. We go to a market in a camp about 45 min from here. They give a 3 hour lecture on HIV/AIDS, Hepetitis E, and hygience/saniation. It should've been no longer than an hour, and organized ahead of time. I felt so bad for all those people who were sitting there for 3 hours just because they happened to be in the market when we came.
I feel like nothing here is ever properly organized. It drives me nuts! (and I'm not exactly the most organized person to begine with)
I think the end of this week/part of next week, I'm going to go around with Niamh so I can do some consulting work for GRG (the org she works for - Grassroots Reconciliation Group) from home.

cockroaches and other creepy, crawly, jumpy things

There was one in my room last night. I heard it running around, then it started climbing up my mosquito net...I am SO glad we got those put up. I had grabbed my bug spray and through the lid at it which knocked it to my curtain, so I took a deep breath and ran out of my room to go turn on the generator. Once the lights were on, it didn't like that and scurried out of my room a dark room. (All the doors end about 2 inches above the ground). I called Nive who was staying at her boss' since it was too late to come home and asked her why she had to be gone the night the scary things came out. haha. We had made an agreement that I'd chase out any mice or rats if she would take care of the bugs. I ended up just putting some plastic that my mattress had been wrapped in under the door of the other room to trap it in there, then blocked under my door too. Thankfully, I was tired enough that I fell asleep despite worrying about the cockroach. I also didn't wake up to pee in the middle of the night, which was my other worry b/c I didn't want to go out in the dark! Are cockroaches even good for anything? Them and mosquitos...

Funny story...the other night, Nive and I were coming home and she went to open the gate, but saw something moving on the other side. She screamed and tried to hide behind me and I tried to hide behind her, then we saw that it was just a toad, but still, neither of us wanted to walk past it. Our neighbors must be so entertained by us mazungus freaking out over every little creature. We live in a house surrounded by a bunch of huts, but our house is walled in with a gate.

Anyways, I've been working on the website. Getting information from my boss is like pulling teeth, so it's still pretty sparse content wise, but it's getting there. (www.uyapgulu.org). Saturday is our mobile clinic. I'm looking forward to that.

I can't believe I'll be home 3 weeks from today!

Why you always need male friends...

We had a couple guys we're friends with come over lst night to play cards...aka put up our mosquito nets for us. haha. It was pretty funny watching put nails up using a rock as a hammer and debating over the best positioning. Then, they taught us an African card game. It was a fun night. Best of all, Niamh and I finally got a good, peaceful night's sleep!

life without electric

While we do have a generator, it goes through fuel ridiculously fast, so we also got a kerosene lantern. We pretty much play cards and go to bed early at night. The worst thing about the house is the mosquitos. It's hard to sleep at night b/c they're always buzzing around. Hopefully we'll get up our nets today and it'll be better. I've just been throwing mine over my head in the mean time.
This week I think we're having our mobile health clinic. That should be interesting. We get some doctors and volunteers from the local university and clinics. Then next week, I will hopefully be able to do the research I wanted to do.
I can't believe I only have 3 weeks left! It's flying by.