Things are great!

Right now and for the last three weeks I have been in Luweero training to become a Peace Corps Volunteer. As of yet, I am not officially a volunteer, but a trainee. It’s a distinction that I don’t usually make, but the trainers make sure to constantly note. The big question seems to be what we are training for and how is the training conducted. Well, honestly, I don’t know. That is not a criticism, it just seems like the point of training is to prepare us for an unknown, possibly bad situation. At times, that can be frustrating, but I think that’s just preparation for future frustrations. And isn’t that the point?
Training is six days a week from 8am to 5pm (except Saturday when it’s 8am-1pm). I wake up at 6:45 and get two buckets of water from the tank outside for my bucket bath. Actually, in the morning I just wash my face and wet my hair and leave the second bucket for the next person. I then have breakfast which is coffee and an omelet three days a week and bananas or other fruit the other days. Then I cram a little language for fifteen minutes and leave at 7:30 to meet Megan and Karine for our walk to our training site. Language is from 8-10 then we have a break for tea and usually bananas. We then either have medical or security or some other technical training until lunch at 12:30. The afternoon is more technical training, usually in health, which is good because we are all health volunteers. We have been on a few field trips to some local NGOs and other facilities around the communities. If anyone wants to look to work for a great organization I recommend looking into “The Hunger Project”(www.thp.org) based in New York. We got to see the work that they do in Uganda and it’s pretty incredible.
After training we have been trying to do some activity to unwind on most days. As I mentioned earlier, we have a Journal Club but that’s just an excuse to go to the bar and get something to drink before we go home to our families. It reminds me a lot of the end bit from “Bigger and Blacker”. We head home around 6:45 when it starts getting dark. When I get home I usually take a full bucket bath (when I’m good I only use one bucket) then I study or read until dinner which has been exactly at 8:30. I think that my next entry will be about the food and diet here. It’s something I am very excited to play with once I am at site.
Now I feel like I’ve gotten some of the general information out of the way and I can get into some of the other things we have been doing around Luweero. This past weekend was the best one thus far in Uganda. It started on Friday when I was able to get meat on a stick for lunch during training. I think that meat on the stick is and will remain my favorite thing about this country. For 500 shillings (30 cents) you can get a kebab of goat or beef and it’s delicious. I think that once I am at my site I will live on meat on a stick. Anyways, back to Friday. After training Diana and I decided that we would try to share a bike. That is not as weird as it sounds, it’s common here. Here you can grab a ride on the back of a bike and you can find up to four people on one Hero bike (made in India). The plan was that I would ride and Diana would sit on the back side saddle (because she has to wear a skirt). That didn’t work, it wasn’t even close. So we switched and I was on the back and we rode down the main drag of Luweero to the bar. At the bar the whole group got together to make and eat chips and salsa which Diana had a hankering for since Philadelphia. That worked out wonderfully and everyone was happy until the bar ran of beer. Yup, that happens here and it sucks. Most people went home and a small group of us went out to a bar/hotel out of town a bit. We stayed out until 10 which is unheard of during training. That was the most we have been able to let go since we got here and that what made it such nice Friday.
Quickly, the past week has also been a hoot outside of two scary incidents that I wrote about separately. We had a bbq yesterday with hamburgers and other great american foods. I don't realize I miss them until I get them. Here's hoping everything is well at home!