YEA! I finally got my site yesterday!!! We have been waiting for this for 7 weeks now. I will be going to Iceme Health Center in Oyam, Northern Uganda. According to the job description (which may change when I get there), I will be advising/assisting the Health Center and the district health team in planning, implementing, health education programs; take part in designing health training programs especially village heath teams and health care providers as well as participant; take part in Health promotion and advising; take part in community outreach in public health programs. From what I understand this is a Catholic run Health Center.
We go on a site visit next Tuesday so I will know more about the center and my living arrangements next week. I understand that they are still building my home away from home. I have been given a grid of what my living arrangements will be and I have not running water; only rain water and no electricity. I will have a chair and table but no bed. So it looks like I will need to purchase some things when I get there. I will be going to an area that no other volunteer has been to...the first! They said that they wanted someone up there that was resilient and independent to start up the PC programs work there. Hope they made the right choice. Another volunteer will be doing the same, however she will be in another Health Center, but she is only about 5-10 kms from me. According to the Country Director, the people in Oyam not only were affected by the LRA but the Ugandan police as well. They were tormented by the Police because they did not want the people to be influenced by the LRA. There are 5 of us going to the North, and because of all the trauma and war torn people, PC will be giving us a separate training before we go. PC and all the African and Washington head people had a conference 2 weeks ago to discuss the problems and issues in the North and they received training...so they are going to pass that training onto us. So I am excited about the site assignment, I know it will be challenging but I Love a challenge.
We have been so busy since we got back from emersion week. We have gone to a couple of community field trips to visit NGO’s and HIV Orphans organizations. One was funded by the Ireland government and there was an Irish student we met that was here for 3 weeks working with the construction project. It was great to be able to talk with him. It rained really hard that day and we were outside...so our lecture was cut short.
We also had a lecture on Corruption and dealing with conflict resolution in the mist of corruption. In week 6 we had what they call the mock LPI, which evaluated us not only on Language but everything that we had covered from week 1. That was a whole day. We also had to prepare a presentation on a Exploration study and present a 20-30 minute presentation. Mine was on Capacity Building for Health Care Providers. I am glad all that is over...okay so I still need to work on Language.
The training now is going to fly by...we travel to our sites on October 6th, and return October 9th to Kampala. Then we will be back for week 9 and in week 10 we leave from Wakiso to Kampala for swearing in, which will be October 21st.
Well, that is all I have for now. I am not sure if I will have internet access when I get to Oyam. I will let you know.
Hope everyone has a Great Day! Take care.
Love & Light,
Mari
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