Friday, February 8, 2008

Happy 08!

I guess that I'm late to that party, no? The last month has been hectic, with a lot of travelling and some small changes at site. We had our 3 month in-service training in Kampala a couple of weeks ago. That meant two weeks in Kampala, which was 11 days too much. It was nice seeing the people from my training group and compare notes.
I finally came back to the village on the 26th of January to see that through the amazing work of an american/canadian woman who lives in my district, a new vocational school openned in my village. I am now working there primarily. So far I am teaching math (addition and subtraction) and health. We had a great talk during my first health class about gender roles and the need to better educate men. The women know already how things should be, but are being held back by men who refuse to change. Hopefully, I can help with that in some way.
I am still trying to work at the health center, but that is proving to be difficult. The administration is so out of whack and the things they need most (supplies, drugs) require a lot of money that I don't want to shell out. Hopefully I can somehow combine the school with the healthcenter and work on creating a ton of community health workers.
A new group of volunteers come in a week. 62 people, that's a ton. Luckily most are going west because I see enough volunteers as it is. Tomorrow, Feb 9, my half birthday, marks 6 months in country!
All for now, more laterish.