Dear Everyone,
Hope everyone had a great Halloween and your Thanksgiving and Christmas plans are well in the works! It was a really good day today. Angel told me today that she bought her tickets to come visit me in Uganda. Christmas Eve she will arrive. YEA I am so excited!
Over the last 2 months, it seems that I have been able to make alot of progress. After the Peace Camp the Lango teens in the Iceme area (about 23 of them) got together and we developed a Peace Club. The sustainability for the Peace Camp was that the teens would go back to there community and form Peace Clubs.
I really am so proud of them...they have really taken off! They selected their club name, “Rainbow Peace Ambassadors,” a vision, goals, set up there meeting schedule for the next year and what each meeting was going to be about. They came up with that name because at Peace Camp they all were given different color t-shirts, so when they got together in Iceme they all had different color shirts. They will alternated between Drama, Community Service, Conflict Resolution, Activities (games and sports) for teamwork building, and Lifeskills. In October they did a Domestic Violence drama (both in the family and at school) for the community. It was a great success and I will post pictures on facebook. Next time they did Community Service and collected rubbage from the Health Center and slashed the grass. You do realize here there is no lawnmowers in Uganda....it takes weeks to slash the grass at the Health Center. Yesterday, they did a drama on conflict resolution and then talked to the community about Alcohol and Drug use. They really are great actors and they Love doing Drama! They are well on there way to being a real asset to the community.
The end of September I had 7, not 5 like I thought, Peace Corps Trainee’s (PCT) and Instructor come to my site for Emersion Week. One of the girls said, “Oh now I appreciate how far you have to travel to come teach us at RACO.” It is a long way to Wakiso from the North! It was hard hosting that many people when you have no hotels, running water or electricity. They were spread thin, but they were great FUN! It took me 2 hours to make breakfast for everyone (one meal at a time). But they got to see the HIV/AIDS support group and the War Victims support group that I have. Also, they attended my Secondary Girl’s School Lifeskills class. We did a game called the “Best Response.” The PCT’s were the judges, so everyone had fun. We also got a chance to go down to the market in Ngai. Ngai is about 9Kms from Iceme, we took a Taxi down and walked along way back before getting a ride. So we were really tired when we got back. They were also fortunate to see the airplane model that Waca Martin made from local materials. I have posted on facebook. He is so talented!
So I want to help him do this as an Income Generating Project...he can make any type of model you want. So if you know anyone out there that wants to help a talented, hard working youth make some money for school...let me know and let me know what model you would like made. I have posted the plane on facebook, it is made of Sorghum stem! So if you want a model of a plane you fly...or of a person you know...or a truck you drive...or a guitar you play....or of anything else you want made, that is homemade from Ugandan just let me know!
While I was in Kampala, I started to market his talent to African Craft shops and I will take a model with me next time I go. The plane that is hugh posted on facebook was to be given to Museveni during Independence Day. But security did not let them though.
We had our Mid-Service Training in October...WOW can you believe 1 year is up???? It was held in Masaka, which is south of Kampala about 2 1/2 hour drive (past the Equator line). It is only 18 kms from Lake Nagabuga. So another PCV and I went down the weekend before and spent a really nice time at the Lake just relaxing. It was very clean and the cottages were new, the customer service was excellent. But, you are really away from everything!
After mid-service I went to Entebbe for training for Camp BUILD (Boy’s of Uganda in Leadership Development). The camp will have 150 boys, ages 12-15 years old. It will be December 4-10, 2011. I will be a counselor and teach Lifeskills on HIV/AIDS and Malaria. It should be fun! However, the focus is on developing leadership rather than on the focus that the Peace Camp had; which was on Forgiveness and Reconciliation.
It was good to get back to Iceme! Remember that my grant for Informatic Technology that was approved? The money is now in the bank! One day the company that I had ordered the copier/printer showed up. I had no idea that he was coming, so I had no money for him. I would have to go to Gulu or Lira and transfer money. However, the job did not get completed because the network cables were not put down...they did not bring enough cables. So that was almost 2 weeks ago and the work still has not gotten done. What did I expect! I am in Uganda! Anyway, the copier works but no printer yet. I did order my computers for Iceme, however they have not been delivered yet either??? Next year when everything is up and running, I will train the Iceme staff in computers.
For Thanksgiving I will meet up with about 30 other PCV’s in Gulu. We are going to cook Thanksgiving dinner at the Ethiopian Restaurant. The manager is going to let us use his kitchen! It should be fun! So I want to wish you all a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for and I realize it more and more every day. I so appreciate every moment, my family and my friends and I hope that you are able to find that appreciation for Life and the things we have this Thanksgiving!
1st of December I will be back down to Kampala for my Mid-Service Medical. We get a dental exam and a workup to make sure we are still okay!!!
I go right from there to BUILD camp. After BUILD I will go to West Uganda for training to train the Village Health Teams (VHT) in Northern Uganda. I am not sure yet, but I think that I will be traveling alot to teach VHT’s in the North.
I will only be back for 3 days before I go back to Entebbe to pick Angel up from the airport. We are going to go on a 9 day trip for my vacation down to Rwanda to see the gorilla’s, then to Queen Elizabeth National Park, and then horseback ride in Mbule National park, up to Murchsion National Park before ending our trip in Iceme. So she will get to see my site and my community! Sometime before she leaves I will take her to Gulu. I am really looking forward to Christmas with her!
So I want to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a Safe New Year filled with much Joy and Happiness. 2012 almost here!!!!
Don’t Stress....Be Happy!
Take care of yourselves, and stay safe.
Love & Light, Mari
