I can't believe it's been another week in Uganda. Time flies here. Everything is going really well. Projects proposals are near completion and a regular schedule is forming...kind of. Ugandans don't really have a concept of time, and not very many people have cell phones, so appointments and meetings are sometimes impossible to set. However, this past week I had great success in setting up appointments to begin some adobe stoves. This week we are building one at a school in a village called Namengo. It's going to be a pretty big one, because the cook uses three large pots to prepare food for all of the students, so I hope it goes well. We are setting the form on Monday and we are filling in the stove on Thursday. We are also starting a stove at school called True Light in the village where we live, Nakkazade. The weather is so humid here, so it takes about three weeks for the stoves to dry, but once they do, they rock. They use way less firewood and they have a chimney that diverts the smoke out of the house or away from the cooking area, which will seriously improve respiratory health of women who are cooking all day and the children who are strapped to their backs. These stoves are great. I'll be sure to upload some pictures of some of the completed ones.

Yesterday, our group hiked through the Mabira Forest in Jinja. It was actually more of a walk through the forest, then on a paved road (some of us got a little off track), but it was really beautiful. We saw some sweet bugs, like this caterpillar that had a perfectly round bright red head, and then log white furry stuff on it's body. We also got to see some cool birds and really pretty butterflies. There were also some monkeys at the end. We went to Jinja afterward and ate at this American Restaurant. It was heavenly. I swear that almost everything they eat here is mashed, so I was grateful for some solid food.

Also, this week I have been jump roping with Heidi and some other volunteers. I think I'm much less likely to sprain my ankles while jump roping than running, so my new hobby proceeds and we can all breathe a little easier. But who knows, even I could turn something as harmless as hopping over a plastic rope into something extremely dangerous and detrimental to my health.
Hoping that I won't,
Amber

Hobbling Along

After thirty hours of travel, I'm here! Africa is amazing! But, the roads are not paved and yesterday while I was running I sprained my ankle. How convenient. Today everyone is rafting the nile, but sadly, I am not.

The projects are not wuite yet underway, so I'll fill you in on the living conditions and a little bit about what we have been doing.
THE HOUSE: The other fifteen volunteers and I live a house in Lugazi. The house has two showers (one actually gets warm water occasionally), one toilet, the tiniest kitchen you could imagine, is gated and guarded at night, and welcomes insects of various sorts. I thought the cold showers and bugs would get to me, but I'm already used to it.
THE FOOD: We have two great cooks who prepare a delicious dinner every weeknight. The meal usually consists of a few of the following: matoke (boiled plantains), cooked cabbage, rice, beans, eggplant, pumpkin squash, chipote (tortillas) and my personal favorite, freshly-squeezed passion fruit juice.
THE DAY: We are all in the process of writing our project proposals. I will be over women's groups. We have attended a town council meeting regarding children's rights. It was almost four hours long. We have also been working at an orphanage called Hope, doing construction and playing with the children. Yesterday I traveled to Mukono to the Broadway Bakery to see what I can do to help with some accounting catch-up. We don't really have a set schedule yet, so each day is different. I'm hoping the projects will be underway soon. I can't wait to help. Africa is great. more to come...