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.

Moved in

I moved in last night. It's nice, except we have no electric yet. We do have a generator for at night, thankfully, since it's completely dark here by 7:30. I think me getting a hot shower was only a temporary thing b/c there was no hot water at the guest house for the past week, and we have no hot water at the house until the electric starts working.

interviews

Yesterday, I went with Niamh to interview some female former child soldiers in one of the camps. It's the first time I've really had to fight back tears. Many have children from being raped or forced to be "wives" of the commanders. One of them told us how they were forced to chop another who tried to escape with a bayonet until they killed her. Many don't have more than a 4th or 5th grade education because they now have to support their children. It's so heartbreaking.

Moving In

I went to check out Nive's house yesterday, and it's pretty nice. She moved in last night, and I'm hopefully moving in tonight if I can get a mattress and some sheets after work. It should be nice. Other than that, not too much exciting going on. I'm redoing the website for the organization because it's about a year old. I finally got the access info today, so hopefully I'll get it online by the end of the week.

Pictures

I didn't do anything exciting this weekend. Nive has a cold, so we didn't go to the pool yesterday. I'm glad we didn't because it ended up raining part of the afternoon. We laid around and read. We'll hopefully be all moved in to her house by the end of the week.
Anyways, I put up pictures from the mato oput ceremony today. Most of them are in my main Uganda album here. The really graphic/bloody/gross ones are here.

Mato Oput

(I'm feeling all better now)

Yesterday was really interesting. I have this 3 page document explaining mato oput that i'll have to type up sometime. I have a ton of pictures. I'm going to put them in a separate album though. I wouldn't recomment looking if you have a week stomach. Or maybe I'll just put the really graphic ones in a separate album. (for those of you who really want to see a sheep and goat being chopped in half and blood and guts spilling out of them)
Here's a brief run through of what happens.
First, the chief addresses everyone and explains the ceremony. Then 2 elders get a stick and a couple guys from each of the clans get on each side and hit the stick in a mock fight. Then, a sheep and goat are brought and laid with a head facing each side. They're then cut in half and sliced open. A little of their blood is mixed with root from an oput plant and some local brew. Guys from each side kneed on either side of the bowl and stick their heads in it to sip. (It tastes really bad so that they tell their clan never to kill again b/c it's so bad.) Then the meat is cooked, and they line up again and each take a couple bites from the head. Once that is done, they can have contact with each other once again, and everyone eats together.
In this case, 2 women had been fighting, and the unborn baby of one had been killed. It's still men from the tribe who go through the cleansing ceremony. There were a couple of us mazunga observing, and the one guy said there are some benefits of being a female in Acholi culture. haha.

Anyways, I hope you all had a nice 4th of July. I'm not sure when I'll put the pictures up. I hate slow computers! I just don't feel like being that patient today.

blah

Well, I managed to make it over a month without getting sick at all. I guess I can't complain. Since last night, I haven't been able to keep any food in me, it all comes out the other side. I'm taking some meds for it, so hopefully I'll be fine today or tomorrow.

Tomorrow should be very interesting. I've been told I get to witness a Mato Oput ceremony...although I'm not looking forward to witnessing animals getting slaughtered. I should get some great pictures though.

Mato Oput is a traditional justice mechanism when murder has occured. The two families or clans aren't allowed to interact at all until a blood feud has been paid and the ceremony is performed. The blood feud is a reparation payment. The ceremony involves the family of the victim and the family of the culprit getting a goat and a sheep (one gets the goat, one gets the sheep). Then, roots from an oput plant are ground up in a big bowl and blood from the slaughtered animals is added, then the 2 elders kneel down with their hands behind their back and dip their heads into the big bowl and take 3 or 4 sips depending on if the victim is male or female. They then eat roasted meat from the slaughtered animals and advise the 2 clans to live in peace. They can then interact again.

pics from an IDP camp

are here

back from Kampala

I had a great weekend. (the internet was down yesterday so I couldn't update) Anyways, Friday night we went out with some friends to the rugby club, which is a bar right next to a rugby field, and then to a dance club, which was fun. It's funny watching people dance here b/c the guys mostly dance with each other, not with girls or else people dance in a circle. Saturday we went to a market. It was crazy! People everywhere! I got a small basket that I really like.
Yesterday, I went to a workshop on Mato oput, the traditional Acholi justice process. It was mostly in Luo, so I didn't understand much, but they did some interviews for a documentary in English. I'm really interested in traditional peace mechanisms and wrote a paper about mato oput last semester, so that was cool.
Today, we went to Karuma Falls (which is actually just some rapids) near the source of the Nile. It's very pretty, but we had to get permission from a soldier to take photos and film, and we were only allowed about 10-15 minutes. We then went to an IDP camp and I got a lot of pictures while they were filming some clips for the documentary.
Nive is working here for a year and is getting a house. I'm going to move in with her as soon as she gets that all worked out and furnished. That should be nice =)

Kampala

Nive and I are going to Kampala for the weekend so if you don't here from me until early next week, that's why. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Sunny Days...

Yesterday was absolutely beautiful. We were at the pool for a good 6-7 hours. (Don't worry, I have SPF 55 sunscreen.) While we were there, a church group had a baptism service in the baby pool. That was pretty cool.

Dad will find this funny. He always says when food takes a while that maybe they're out catching and slaughtering the animal. Well, at lunch yesterday I was told it was going to be a while til my chicken was ready because they had just slaughtered it. That was pretty funny.

It's very humbling being here. You meet people and the first thing they say to you is thank you so much for coming here and helping me country or the US has given so much to help our country, thank you.

Hi

blah...I just typed up a whole entry and it got lost. I've been at a workshop that was pretty much brainstorming for formulating a district strategic plan on HIV/AIDS. I'm going to do some research on sexual behavior of students. We spent most of the time doing SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) about different aspects related to HIV/AIDS. I was talking to some people in the education sector, and they were saying that religious education promoting abstinence was a strength, so I asked what % of students is sexually active, and they gave me a funny look, but no one knew. I was like how can you list this as a strength if you don't even know if it's effective. So I talked to Emma about doing some research and he said he'd talk to some schools and get me in if I come up with a survey.
In other news, Nive and I have been hanging out a lot, which is nice. We're going to go swimming tomorrow. It's kinda funny. No one here knows how to swim, but one of the hotels has a pool you can go to. We're both looking forward to it.

more pics

here

Slainte

This weekend I met the girl that lives next door to me. Her name is Naemh (Nive), and she's from Ireland. We've been hanging out a bit together, and she told me where I can get 'mazungu' (white people) food and where there is a pool. I think I may go do that this weekend or maybe go get something to eat one night this weekend. Last night, we went to watch a movie with some people working with Invisible Children. We watched Everything Is Illuminated, which is one of my favorite movies, so I was quite happy.
Yesterday I went around to a bunch of the gardens (that's what they call their fields for farming) to check on some crops to see if they're ready to be transplanted. I never thought I'd be learning about farming. haha. I haven't really learned much, but it's interesting going around and seeing them. Yesterday and today are a big district wide track & field competition for all the secondary schools, so we spent the afternoon at that.

Pictures

It takes forever to upload pictures, so I'm only going to post a few then I'll put them all up at the end of the summer.
http://community.webshots.com/album/563786339ArkMAy

ko pango

that's luo for how are you. to say i'm fine, you say kope. that and thank you (afoyo) are about all i know how to say. i have such a bad memory!
anyways, nothing too exciting going on here. i drove through an IDP camp yesterday. I didn't take any pictures though b/c we were only there for a few minutes. A huge area of a ton of huts and all dust. This one hut had all these purple flowers around it, which was kind of neat. There's dust and mud everywhere, then this patch of purple and green. The little kids playing outside are naked or their clothes are barely hanging on their body b/c they're so torn up. The very young ones have big distended *not sure if that is the right word) tummies. It's very sad.
i wrote a letter of recommendation today for the lead contact farmer from one of our farming groups. I thought it was kind of funny since I didn't even know the guy. Emma just signed it when I was done. Thankfully I read a couple such letters this morning going through applications for the vocational school so knew how they're written here.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Hallelujah!

I have hot water! The hotel manager told me the other day that they were trying to get running water by the end of the summer, and the bathroom has a shower and sink and stuff, but the water didn't work. So yesterday I get home and the water containers are gone from the bathroom. I figured he was just refilling them or forgot to bring them back or something. Then, there's a knock on the door and the manager tells me the running water now works. So I go to take a shower, figuring that at least now I can use the shower instead of trying to splash water over myself (I was asked the other day if I needed a cup to help since my hands are so tiny and I wouldn't be able to splash much water). I turn on the shower and was so surprised when hot water came out! I was soooo happy!
I didn't do much over the weekend, and Monday was a holiday so I spent most of the day at Jackie's. I watched/tried not to watch my lunch get plucked and bled and hacked to pieces. I apologized to the chicken while eating.
Yesterday, I went to the vocational school where they are training students to be tailors. There were only a few students there because they are waiting to get materials so they can do their exams. The one girl had her 3 month old baby on her back. She had to stop every so often to feed the baby or change it. I can't imagine having to go to school with a baby. That would be so distracting!

I give up on trying to call people. It's expensive, and I keep getting cut off. Email me if you want to talk. It's free and easy and no getting cut off. Sorry!

easy like Sunday morning...

coming up with titles for these things every other day is kinda hard. lol.
anyways, the hotel is great. i can now sleep through the night without fearing giant insects or hearing them running around. plus, i have a toilet & toilet paper! my shower is still a bucket of water, but i can live with that. the first thing i'm doing when i get home is taking about 10 hot showers though...and eating something that doesn't involve rice.
anways, nothing too exciting to report. i watched the opening game of euro 2008 last night with one of the guys from work. i love getting to watch all the soccer games here!
i'm not going to keep rambling since i really don't have anything to say. i hope everyone is doing well. i'll try to post some pictures soon, although i haven't really taken many.

Faith

I am continually amazed at how much faith people here have. In Kampala, I met a woman who is very poor and is raising her kids on her own. Her, Jackie, and I were talking one afternoon, and Jackie was telling me that her daughter got the top marks in school. I said she must be very proud of her daughter, and she said no, I just praise God. Restaurants play praise & worship music. Almost every meeting I attend is opened in prayer, and this morning, the chair didn't open with prayer and someone stood and asked that a prayer be said and the meeting uplifted to God before we continued. That would never happen at a public meeting in the US.

The meeting I attended today was about challenges and opportunities facing people returning to their homes after living in IDP (internally displaced persons) camps for the past several years as well as discussing the Juba peace talks and what is going to happen next. They also distributed a report on DDR (disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration). (There are about a million acronyms used in development talk). I find these meetings so interesting, and am learning a lot.

I moved to my hotel this morning. I just dropped my bags in the room on my way to the office, but it looks nice. Most importantly, I have a bathroom! I am very happy about that. I am also looking forward to being able to be alone. I haven't really been by myself at all since I've gotten here, and I think most of you know how much I like having some time alone every day.

Greetings from a mazunga

...not sure if i spelled that right, but it means white lady. Whenever kids see me they go "mazunga! hi!" it's really cute. they get so excited and then laugh if I say hi back.

Yesterday I want to a training session sponsored by ACDI/VOCA and USAID on forming community farming groups. It was really interesting, and I feel like I learned a lot. It was exciting finally getting to be a part of something that was talked about in some of my courses. Today I went to a working group meeting on Peace Building & Reconciliation (PB&R) at the UNDP (United Nations Development Program) headquarters. It's basically a group of representatives from NGOs in the area who are doing something related to PB&R. Today's meeting was rather confusing, but hopefully next time it will be better.

Being outside on a clear night is incredible. You can see about a million more stars here than anywhere else I've ever been, and they are so bright. It's beautiful.

The main mode of transportation around here are boda bodas (motorcycles). They're a bit like taxis: you find one, hop on the back, and off you go. They kinda scare me a lot. The roads aren't that great so it's kind of like off-roading on a motorcycle at 30 or 40 mph, dodging potholes and puddles and people and bicycles and other bodas and cars and trucks. It's pretty crazy.

I will try to update every other day or so now that I have regular access to the internet.

Gulu

I arrived in Gulu yesterday, and for now am staying with Emma, his wife Jackie, and their daughter Hope. Hope is almost 2 and is adorable!
There are a lot more bugs here than in Kampala. I almost decided to give up and come home last night when I woke up to a giant cockroach crawling across my neck at 3am. I couldn't fall back asleep. Mosquito nets don't keep out bugs that can crawl under them! After my first "shower" in almost a week, I felt a lot better. Of course, by shower, I mean washing in a bucket of water. Sarah was right about cutting off my hair to make things easier, but I can't do it. I love my hair too much! I can survive 2 months with it being dirty most of the time. (Michelle, you would never survive here...haha). I think the thing I miss most is toilets & toilet paper. Here, it's a hole in the ground and you just kinda shake it off.
Anyways, I'm very happy I'm here despite the challenges. I'm looking forward to a great summer.
Oh yeah, I wasn't on tv this time b/c they wanted a student who was attending the university in Kampala sponsored by UYAP, but they're going to do another program about the Lost Children's Day in July that I may be on since Emma wants me to help coordinate that.
The soccer game was so much fun. Even better b/c we won!

Here I am...

I safely arrived in Uganda last night. I'll be staying in Kampala through Sunday and heading to Gulu on Monday. I think Saturday I"m going with Emma (the program director) to the Uganda vs. Niger soccer game, then Sunday I'm going to be on a talk show with him, and the lady who helped connect us is the interviewer. Today I'm doing a bit of sight-seeing around Kampala. I met someone else who works with UYAP, and went to the University here. I should have phone access by the end of the day. Email me for the #.

Uganda

Hey everyone,
One last post before I head out. My flight leaves the US Tuesday night, and I'll get to Entebbe Wednesday night. Thursday, I'll hop on a bus to Gulu, where I'll be staying for the summer. Someone from UYAP is meeting me at the airport.



Gulu is about 2.7 degrees north of the equator, so it's going to be a hot summer for me. It has a population of about 120,000 people. There are about 8 different languages spoken, although English & Swahili are the official languages of Uganda. I do know how to say "hi" and "i don't understand" in Swahili, so hopefully that will suffice. haha.

There are going to be 2 other Americans working with this organization, a girl and her father. I was told she's working on her PhD doing something studying gender. I think they are from Chicago. A couple friends of mine are in or are going to Uganda also this summer, at least one in Gulu, not sure where the others are going to be. Hopefully I'll get to see them.

Also, I've been talking to the head of the organization in Washington DC I was going to intern with (Africa Faith and Justice Network), and he's been really great about everything. He's given me names of people he knows in Gulu, offered me the opportunity to intern another time during the year if I'd like. He's also said I can write articles for their newsletter or website if I'd like. Some of you know I have a little side interest in photojournalism, so this is a really awesome opportunity for me to do a little of that.

Anyways, I just want to say how grateful I am and how much it means to me all the things people have been saying to me over the past couple weeks. To be completely honest, I am quite nervous traveling to another continent by myself, and I have been so encouraged by how supportive and enthusiastic and proud all of you say you are of me. I have the most amazing group of people in my life, and I am so thankful for each of you.

I know you all want lots of updates and pictures and stories. I promise I will do my best to keep this updated. I love you all, and again, thank you so much for all the support.

<3

Grades

My final grades were posted today. I did pretty well this semester. Better than expected, actually =) I ended up with a 3.6 for the semester, and I think I have a 3.67 overall right now.

I'm enjoying no school, but am still busy getting everything worked out and cleaning my room/house, which have been sadly neglected in the past month or 2 b/c all 3 of us have been crazy busy. I'll probably head back to Phoenixville for a week or so before leaving the country, so hopefully I'll see some of you then.

Wave goodbye...

I bought my tickets today. I'll be gone from May 27 - Aug 7.

United Youth Action for Progress

UYAP

UYAP works in partnership with UNICEF. They do a lot of psychosocial support, as well as various youth programs and educational programs. They also do research

For everyone who's worrying, this is where God wants me to go. I've known that since February, just wasn't sure how it was going to work out, but everything comes together, just when it's supposed to. In his book God.com, James Langteaux talks about how sometimes God calls you to do things the seem crazy. He compares trusting God to jumping off a cliff, saying you just have to let yourself fall off the cliff trusting that he will catch you. This is me falling and trusting.

a story...

This is the story of one of the girls in one of my classes:
Kakenya


She just won a Global Leadership Award
Vital Voices

tentative fall classes

*research seminar/capstone on topics in international political economy
*economics of development
*approaches to conflict resolution
*accounting for ngos
*advocacy for ngos

Internship update

I am probably going to be going to Uganda for the summer. A friend of a friend came to stay with us last week for a new student day or something b/c she's coming to GSPIA next fall, and her former principal is from Uganda, so she gave her my information, and I've been talking to her. She knows someone (Emmanuel Lutokumoi)who was or is director of United Youth Action for Progress. He is currently working with Rise International and Safe Passage Foundation on a Lost Children Memorial (check out the Rise page for some info). He also runs Teokono Vocational School in cooperation with Gulu University working on child protection, education, and food security.
This is pretty much what I've been wanting to do for the past 2 years, so I'm really excited about this opportunity. I emailed him today for more information about the program, so I'll update when I find out more.

1 month to go...

Things have been pretty crazy lately. I have a ton of school work to do. Taking 5 classes may not have been the greatest idea ever.
Friday, Chris, Jess, and I went to an Obama rally. That was pretty awesome. We went to get tickets Wednesday and they ran out within half an hour, so we got on the waiting list and got tickets. Friday morning we got there 3 hours early and there was already a really long line, but we ended up getting really good seats, about 8 rows back from the stage.





Saturday was GSPIA Gala, our semi-formal. I haven't uploaded pictures from that yet though.

I'm still waiting to here back about several internships. I've been accepted at the Africa Faith & Justice Network (www.afjn.org) to do research. I'm looking into housing options in DC. It's crazy expensive there!

Anyways, if you don't here much from me it's because I have an insane amount of work to do.
Hope everyone's doing well!

Etown & DC

Well, something worth writing about finally happened.
Saturday I stopped by Etown to see Amanda, Sara, Courtney, and Jills. That was so good seeing them! (I'll put up a picture when I upload them)
Then Sunday I headed off to DC for the Northern Uganda Lobby Days symposium. (http://www.ugandalobbyday.com/) I went to the last one about a year and a half ago. It was another really good experience. I stayed with my friend Val from Etown. It was really good catching up with her =)
I'm now really interested in either starting my own organization or partnering with another organization to integrate art and music into educational programs in post-conflict areas where a lot of children were involved in the conflict as therapy. It's going to take a lot of work, so we'll see what happens. I'm really excited because it will bring together my enjoyment of art and music with my psychology degree and my current studies in international development. (check out War Dance, it was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary, and Voices of Uganda, which should be out towards the end of the year/beginning of next)
I also have a job interview tomorrow for doing transcription work at the place I applied to a month or 2 ago. Wish me luck!

Doggy!

Sarah got a dog. His name is Sydney. He's an Australian cattle dog, between 1 and 2.
Isn't he adorable...

Happy New Year

Wow, I haven't updated this since Thanksgiving. Oops. Sorry.
The semester ended well. Nothing too exciting since we were all hard at work on final papers/projects and studying. I did well on all my end of semester things to wind up with a GPA of 3.75 for the semester, which I'm pretty happy about.
Christmas break was nice. I went home for about a week and a half. Nothing overly exciting.
This semester is going to be pretty crazy. I've decided to minor in Environmental Sustainability...for everyone who's really confused as to what I'm studying, which I think is all of you, my degree is a Masters of International Development; I'm majoring in Non-governmental Organizations and Civil Society, and minoring in Environmental Sustainability. What exactly that means, I have no idea, but it sounds good.
Here's my schedule for the semester:
Mon: 3-7:30 work
Tues: 9-12 Management of Non-Profit Organizations
3-7:30 work
Wed: 9-12 Environmental Economics & Management
3-6 Regional Seminar on African Development
6-9 Policy Analysis
Thurs: 11:30-3:30 work
6-9 Macroeconomics

I'm thinking about looking for some volunteer stuff to do on Fridays and Intervarsity has a grad group that meets Fridays at 6 that I may check out. Soccer starts soon. I think we're doing a recreational league this semester instead of the competitive league, since we did pretty badly. That will be Tuesday nights around 9.
Hopefully, things won't be too overwhelming, and I have a lot of free time at work to get things done.
I hope everyone is doing well!

Joe, Albert, and other randomness from the last month...

I don't really remember what order everything occurred in, but here's what's been going on.
I got the rest of my midterms back, and did very well on all of them. An A- and the rest As.
Work is the same as usual.
A couple weeks ago, we went out to Ligonier, which is beautiful in the fall. A friend's great aunt lives out there in this big gorgeous house from about 1900, on a farm in the mountains kind of. It was a very nice relaxing day. We went hiking, tried to fly a kite, there was a tree swing, and had some fresh picked apples. yum. Afterwards we stopped at some crazy bar in town that someone had told us about. Some really old guy named Joe owns it, and he used to go on all these safaris. There were I think 4 rooms of animals he had collected and stuffed from just about every continent...an elephant, giraffe, lion, crocodile, polar bear, kangaroo, and tons of other creatures, some that I've never heard of. It was pretty wild.
This past weekend was a lot of fun. Friday, I went downtown for light-up night, which is Pittsburgh's holiday season. It was really nice. There was live music, and Santa, and fireworks. Macy's does a holiday window display, so we also saw that unveiled. It was really pretty...scenes from Cinderella. Then my friend had game night, so we played board games all night.
Last weekend, Amanda and Courtney came to visit. That was so wonderful =) We went to the Greek store to get motion, and I showed them campus, and we went out both nights. It was such a great weekend =)
Yesterday, we had a Thanksgiving potluck dinner at our house. That was really nice, and the food was delicious. We had a 22lb. turkey, and there's very little left. (His name was Albert). Sandra video taped me preparing it, so if I can figure out how to put that on here sometime, I will. haha.

Pictures:
At Pamela's for breakfast before heading out to the country


At the top of the hill (we're wearing orange so we don't get mistaken for deer)


Jamey trying to fly a kite


Swinging


Sandra & Joe's elephant


Courtney, Amanda, & I (& some random guy)


Courtney & I


Amanda & I


The morning after


I haven't uploaded turkey dinner pics yet, but they're coming

Look at these photographs...

Quick overview of the past couple weeks:
A friend of ours' family friend organizes a Walk for Racial Harmony every year in Pittsburgh. This year it was at the zoo. Sandra, Julia, Jacky, Clayton, and I participated in that on the 13th. It was a lot of fun. We got to see a polar bear play fight.
Work is good. I sell slushies and sodas and candy bars at the snack bar in the new rec center in the student union, but I'm pretty much getting paid to do homework b/c it's not very busy. Best of all, I work the Wednesday shift during Artful Wednesdays (they bring in local performers), so I also get paid to be entertained.
I had midterms last week and this week. I did really well on my economics midterm, and haven't gotten anything else back yet, but I think I did ok.
Last weekend, I went home for Robin's wedding. It was so nice!

Ok, here are the pictures:
a bunch of the girls I'm friends with


at the zoo


hi-fiving the polar bear statue


Robin's Wedding









My kitty (aka the stray kitten that comes to see me when she wants a hug that I've semi-adopted)

no title

I got a job working at the new rec room in the student center in the snack bar or something. It opens next week. Sandra's working there too.

In other news, my roommates and I went to Phipps last week to see the Chihuly exhibit, which was quite awesome. Pictures are here

I think that was the highlight of last week. This coming weekend, a couple of us may go camping. I really want to do some hiking. Also white water rafting, but that will have to wait until summer as temperatures are supposed to drop quite a bit after tomorrow.

While we're young and beautiful

Classes are still good and interesting (except for stats, but that's to be expected). Honestly, even stats isn't too bad. The prof is really good.
I didn't get the research position, so I'm looking for something else. I'm going to check out some daycares around here.
I'm now on a soccer team, which makes me very happy. =) GSPIA (graduate school of public & international affairs) has an intramural team that plays Sunday nights. It's an indoor turf field, which is pretty cool. Sandra is playing too.
I'm considering joining Mediators Without Borders which is an international conflict resolution organization.
We had a big birthday party here last weekend for all our friends who have September birthdays. There were probably 30+ people here. It was a lot of fun. We grilled out, and of course had lots of dancing =)
There were salsa lessons Wednesday nights during September that I went to after class. That was a lot of fun. There was a petition going around this past week to continue the classes since it was the last one, so we'll see how that turns out.
For the most part, I'm pretty busy with school work. I have an insane amount of reading and studying to do, but so far it's going well =)

Job Interview

I have an interview on Tuesday for a research specialist position at the University's Department of Health and Community Systems.

Here's the job description:
Research Specialist: Collaborate with the Principal Investigator (PI) in the research responsibilities of this foundation funded project. Will coordinate and perform subject recruitment, screening and enrollment at data collection site. Will lead efforts to prepare the procedural manuals and Institutional Review Board materials. Will assume primary responsibility for data collection, data entry and data management. Will participate in preparing annual and final reports to the funding agency.

Wish me luck!

traveling dreams forming in time

Well, I survived 2 weeks in Pittsburgh. I guess that's a good sign =P
I found a 3rd roommate. Her name is Sandra. She's from Zimbabwe, and she's a grad student at Pitt, in my program. She's really sweet. The house is still in progress, but it's getting there. The upstairs is mostly done and clean. I think we're going to pain the bedrooms at least though. Cleaning the downstairs is the project for the weekend b/c we're having a labor day fiesta here. The basement is starting to look much better. It was filled with stuff left by the people that lived here 2 tenants ago. We threw that all away this week. Now we need to vacuum out all the cobwebs and other creepy crawlies and grossness, and I think with a fresh coat of paint, it'll look pretty decent. I really will get some pictures soon.
This week was my first week of classes. So far, they are all pretty interesting. The professors all seem very nice, though tough. They're interesting and explain things well. There was some scheduling confusion. Apparently my section of statistics was closed, but I never got the email, so I missed that class. Fortunately, I know someone in the class I should have gone to, and was able to copy the notes, and I've had enough stats in the past that I didn't miss anything I didn't already know or needed to review.
I'm also thinking about getting my certification in African studies. The university offers certifications in different area studies, and they just added Africa. I was leaning towards Latin America for a while, b/c I love the culture, but there are going to be a lot more job opportunities working in/with Africa because the focus in the development world is shifting away from Latin America. It would be cool if I could do both. The biggest concern with that is language requirements. I have to have 4 semesters of a language, and French is better for Africa, although I am trying (maybe a little too ambitiously) to become fluent in both. A friend of mine from Venezuela is giving me Spanish lessons, so maybe I can just take a language proficiency test if I get good enough. We'll see.
For fun, I've found the salsa dancing contingent in our program. A group of us have been going out about once a week. My roommates all love to dance, so we're going to turn our dining room into a dance studio. We decided that none of us will ever eat together, so there is no need for a kitchen table. Once we have a couch, we can just eat there and use a coffee table. The entire house has pretty nice wood floors - perfect for dancing =)

MOTION

so i was taking a stroll through my very Jewish neighborhood yesterday when I stumbled upon a little Greek store. I went in to look for cheese pies and lo and behold, I saw Motion! This amazing fruit juice, also known as "the elixer of life" to my other Greek roomies and I, is the best juice I have ever had in my life (it's apple, peach, orange, grape, pineapple, grapefruit, kiwi, passion fruit, and mango juice). Until yesterday, I had not seen it anywhere in any other country. I went in, bought some, and told the lady she just made Pittsburgh a better place for me. Unfortunately, she was not the Greek woman, and told me to come in another time to meet the owner. Also, they only had juice box sizes, granted a grown-up size juice box and not a kiddie size, but hey, I'll take what I can get. I'll have a little chat with the owner sometime to see if it's possible to get regular size cartons. Anyways, if you ever come visit me, I will take you to get some of the most wonderful juice on earth.

Pictures

Here are some ridiculously out of order pictures from the past several months.
I think they're of:
Michelle's graduation
Jaime's party at Whiskey Tango
camping at Rickett's Glen for my birthday
offroading
picnics
party boat in Philly
80s party
Longwood Gardens
etc.

it's been a while...

Quick recap of the past 2 months:
*I actually ended up enjoying my new job. I met a lot of really great people, most of them around my age. They were a lot of fun to work with. I also have pretty much gotten over my fear of talking to random people on the phone, although I still hate answering machines. I can probably order myself a pizza now though =P
*Fun...had lots. Highlights were probably going to the Family Values Tour (my boss is also part owner of a clothing company that does a lot of music festivals and stuff for bands and he had free tickets). The other highlight was that this past weekend I finally got to the beach. My old friend Melissa and her bf and some of their friends had a place for the week so Liz and I went for the weekend. It was the perfect weather for the beach =) Other than that, just been going out locally with people a lot.

In other news, Michelle and I head off to Pittsburgh on Friday. Here's a really rough floor plan of my place:

I have one roommate right now, named Sarah. She's an ER nurse at the children's hospital. She likes to go salsa dancing, so that should be fun. We've been talking to a couple people, so should have a 3rd person soon.
I'll take some pictures of the place after we move in and get them up here.

Orientation is next week and then classes start soon after that.
I'll send my new address out in an email or email me to get it. As always, presents are more than welcome...especially IKEA gift cards =P haha