Last Post

Hey eveyone, so this is the last post that I will be writing before I head back to the States. I have a little less than a week left in Uganda and will spending my remaining time in Kampala, the capital city.

Just a few updates: We have elected our village health team and it consists of five of the most dedicated villagers, they have so much motivation. My only hope is that they can keep that motivation in the upcoming year. I really believe that we made an impact in the village. We have made many connections within the county and sub-county districts.

We have officially moved out of Bugabula, it was sad to go, but it is our time to leave and put give the power to the people to improve their health by implamenting the things we have taught them.

I not going to lie and say that it is going to be easy to come home. Don't get me wrong I am very excited to see everyone but I feel like two months is just scratching the surface of we could be doing. It will be very difficult to leave, I have fallen in love with this country and it's people. The work we have been doing has become very close to my heart and I desire to continue on with it in the future.

Ghandi said, "We must be the change we wish to see in the world"

I believe it is my goal in life to be that change, hopefully one day I will be able to accomplish this task.

Thank you everyone again

Love you and see you soon

Wrapping Up

Hello hello!!!

Okay so the countdown is officially beginning: only five more days left in our village and only 8 more days until I leave the country. It makes me sad to think that my time is almost up, this experience has been absolutely amazing and I wish I could stay longer but all good things must come to an end I suppose. Yesterday was a very big day for us because we have finally established a Village Health Team. We have a group of five villagers that will be trained by our Sub-District Health assistant so that they may continue to look after the health of the Village.

So things are coming to a close. This weekend we plan to go to Jinja to see an Agricultural show and support our fellow UVP volunteers that have stand there showing off traditional African clay pots.

Anyway, really not that much more to update, just keeping busy and getting ready to come home.

I do want to thank everyone again who has taken time our to keep up with my blog. All of the comments are greatly appreciated. Thank you to everyone who has supported me, both spiritually and financially. Words can not describe how blessed I feel. A thousand times thank you, my only hope is that I have made a difference, no matter how small.

Love you all and see you soon!!

New Updates

Hello Everyone!!

I know it has been a while since I have updated, but we have been very busy lately and with only two weeks left we have a lot to get done in order to leave our village in a sustainable position.

So here is what we've been doing:

We had one more adventure the weekend of the 4th at Sipi Falls. It is a tourist destination that consists of three absolutely beautiful waterfalls set inside a deep valley. It was gorgeous and a lot of fun. We went hiking and ab sailing. Ab sailing is basically repeling down the side of a water fall. It was about 100 meter drop and amazing, I have a ton of pictures.

After that weekend it was back to work, we had a busy week of moblizing for our first HIV testing day which occured last Friday. We had an amazing turnout. We got over 100 people tested and are having another testing day this Friday so we can test people who were unable to attend the first one. We are all very excited that people have gotten the message of how important it is to know your status so you can protect yourself and your family.

Since we only have about two weeks left in the village we are working very hard with the district to train a Village Health team: a group of people we can leave behind to continue to teach about preventative health. We are drafting letters and holding a lot of meetings. We already have a few very willing volunteers in our village which gives us great hope that our message will continue to be taught to the future generations.

Thank you again to everyone who has kept my group in your prayers, we really appreciate it and are working hard to make you all proud.

I can't believe that the time is almost up, I feel like I've been here forever but at the same time like it has been too short. It will be very hard to leave but I am excited to see you all and show you all my pictures.

Love you all

Hey

I first want to say thank you for everyone who has been reading and responding to my posts I really appreciate it. It definitely helps keep me going knowing that I have all these wonderful people behind me.

So now for an update. This week has gone really well, we had a HIV/AIDS sensitization on Thursday and it went really well, people were very interested and wanted to learn how to protect themselves. We are currently working with a nearby secondary school to establish an Anti-AIDS club for students so that they can sensitize others. We have full schedules everyday but we still manage to have some down time to play with the children in our village. They are absolutely adorable (dont' worry mom I won't bring any home although I am tempted haha) We have a safe pregnancy workshop this upcoming week and then next friday we are having a HIV testing day in the village. This event is huge, we are trying to fight the stigma of HIV and get people to know their status so that they won't pass the disease on to others.

We are going to have an exciting weekend though. We are headed to Sipi Falls for a camping weekend and rock climbing. It will be good to get to relax and get to see a bit more of this beautiful country. I wish I could put into words what the landscape is like, so amazing, hopefully all my pictures will do it justice.

Anyway I got to go now but I love you all and see you soon.

p.s. dre and kriselle read your facebook messages

pps. mom read your email and i will try to call tomorrow around 12pm

More updates

So this week has been very busy for us. We had our shallow watewr well meeting and a safe water outreach yesterday and it went very well. We have sold five bottles of water guard which will help destroy any bacteria or viruses found in the water.

We are trying to do as much as we can in the short time that we have here and make it sustainable at the same time. I'm not going to lie that sometimes it is very frustrating because we have soo much we want to accomplish but if we don't do it right everything we try to build will fall apart. Sometimes our team has it's downs when we feel like we can't do everything that we wish we could. So I ask for your prayers that we can have strength to even make a little change sustainable. We do not want to have to bury more children. We need to stay strong.

Seeing the people here is so humbling and you don't realize what we really have back in the states. These children are the happiest children I have ever seen and they have no toys what so ever. They are lucky if they have two shirts to wear. They love soccer and to play they roll up plastic bags and tie string around it to make it into a round ball. But they are always smiling. It makes me think of all the people back home that have everything in the world but are still miserable. I ask myself, what makes these people so strong, so happy? But the answer is simple, they hold onto their faith and their families. They take nothing for granted. They rejoice in the little things in life. In a place where we buried three children in one weekend. WOW is all I can say. I am amazed by them. At one of the burials the preacher said, "Don't be sad, because death is just a part of life and the Lord in heaven must have his reasons." There must be a reason for all of this, for me being here. I have been touched by so many lives and I only hope to change a few myself.

Okay enough of me ranting for now

love you all!!!

ps. mom don't forget to call me tomorrow at 1:30pm est and press+256, drop the first zero and then the rest of the number

pps. Andrea I bumped my toe harder the other day!! ahaha

ppps. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON I LOVE YOU!!!!!

Adventure weekend

Hello again!!





So this weekend was our adventure weekend which involved white water rafting and bungee jumping. I participated in both and it was absolutley AMAZING!!! I was so scared to jump but I did it anyway and screamed the entire way down. It was the best rush ever!!! To just let go and fly out over the nile is the most liberating feeling.



Jason and Eric, you guys would have loved rafting. It was so awesome, I flipped out of the raft a total of four times and floated down the rapids in my life jacket. We went down grade five which is the highest you can go. Luckily our raft didn't flip ever but everyone was pushed out by waves at one point or another. It was so much fun and an amazing experience.


So down to business. We had our first Malaria outreach this past week and it was a success. We sold a misquito net and spoke to over 100 people and ways to prevent themselves from getting Malaria. They seemed attentive, hopefully we will be able to help stop the spread of this disease. This coming week we are going to be very busy. We have a meeting to plan the start of our shallow well so hopefully we will be breaking ground within the next two weeks. Then we also have a safe water outreach to educate about the importance of properly cleaning the water so that people won't get water born diseases. We also have to plan a HIV/AIDS testing day in our village with our local health center. So lots of meetings and teaching sessions, we are going to be very busy.

So that's all the updates for now. love you all ttyl

ps. Andrea: I have bumped my toe, not stubbed it completely but bumped it. I can't divulge any other information at this time but I just wanted to let you know.

pps. Thank you to all of you for your support when we had the deaths in the village it was very difficult to witness and I appreciate all the comments, you guys rock.

ppps. I am learning more of the language everyday, but I still get laughed at for my accent.

Okay signing off!! BYES

A moment of silence for those we have lost

Hey everyone!!

It would be a lie if I said that this past weekend was not difficult. We had three children die in our village of Bugabula from what is suspected to me Malaria. They were eight, three and one and a half. We went to two of the burials and it was the saddest thing I have ever seen. The only thing you could hear was the wailing of the grieving mother. These events have just made our group want to work harder to prevent anymore children from getting sick. We can only hope and pray that we can help save the children of this village.

So, enough of sad news, this past week as been very busy with more interviews. Our outreaches begin on Tuesday with a Malaria education session. We did visit a health center level 2. Which was basically a house that gave out medictions. Granted they did not have any medications to give out. They were suppose to receive a new supply in March but it never came and the malaria season is already approaching. We also found out that they offer birth control and condoms but it is taboo to use them. The only way a women can protect herself from pregnancy is by getting the shot depo provera in secret so their husbands don't know about it. And a woman can have anywhere from 8 to 10 kids, that they can not take care of.

We also went to the maternity ward at the health center 4 which doesn't have much. Not even feeding tubes or oxygen. If a baby is in distress they have to send them to the hospital in Iganga. There are always women lined up to get antenatal checkups. The lack of supplies blows my mind.

Oh, I also found out that my name in Lusoga means charcoal so now all the children call me that instead. But I do have a Lusoga name which is Jubulingi, apparently it means loved or something like that.

Okay that is all the time I have now, next weekend I will be white water rafting on the nile so I don't know when I will update.

Miss you guys, hope everyone is well.

ps. mom if you need to call me (which you should cause I miss you) make sure you dial + first or it won't go through

pps. sergio, justin and kriselle, make sure my picture doesn't get too dirty, although if you rolled in the dirt it would resemble more of what I look like right now; dirty. I can't wait to take a real shower.

ppps. I have finally mastered the pit latrine!!! yay, I'm not sure if I should be too excited about that but I wanted to share.

Kaale (okay in lusoga) see you later!!

Greetings from Uganda!!!

Hey everyone!!! So it's been a week so far and I'm still alive yea!!!! There is so much to say and so little time to say it in so I will try to type as much as I can because we can only use the internet for so long. Anyway, it is absolutely amazing here, I don't know what other words to use to describe everything that I have seen so far. Even flying into Entebbe was an adventure. Normallly when you fly into an airport you see the city illuminated below you, but here it was pitched black and the airport was the smallest one I have ever seen in my whole life. The scenery is beautiful, as long as you look past the barefooted children roaming the streets.

All the volunteers are cool too, it seems like we have know each other forever and we get along really well. My group members, Matt and Katie, are really nice and we have a lot in common.

Iganga town is so different, there is only one paved road everything else is dirt. And there are so many people!! They are everywhere, we learned that 50% of the population is under 14!! That's insane. The food here is good, but all we eat is beans and rice and fruit. But the fruit is delicious mmmmm the best pinapple and mango ever!!

We've been in our village for a couple days now and the people are soo welcoming we always have children in our yard that want to play with us, which makes it difficult to get any work done but they are too cute to ignore. We play soccer with them and sing songs. They like to teach of lusoga words and laugh at us when we misprounounce them. The language is hard to learn but we are doing okay, we have the basic greetings down. Good thing we have a translator.

We have already begun our work, we have traveled to the health center and looked at the records to see the most common diseases. I was astonished by what I saw. Page after page after page of malaria diagnosis. A worker at the clinic said that 80% of the population was infected and of that 50% have complicated malaria that doesn't respond to first line drugs and the clinic has no stock of second lines drugs to treat that form of malaria. We have a lot of work ahead of us. We have started interviewing the village and they all say that we are very welcome in there village and they are happy to see us.

Oh guess what!!! I had my first marriage proposal!! It was so weird!! He said he wanted to court me and asked if I was married. Then he told me he loved me and wanted to get married. I had to say no of course but he didn't understand why. It was interesting and hopefully it won't happen again. :) don't worry andrea no one stubbed their big toe ;)

So that's all the time I have right now to update and I dont' know when I will be able to again but I love you all and ttyl!!

ps. congrats kriselle on getting cleared.

pss. I don't think I will be able to send post cards:( sorry guys it's too expensive and I don't have the money I hope you can forgive me!!

okay that's all love you

Leaving tomorrow

Okay everyone so this is it. I will be on my way to Uganda tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited. I will try to update once a week but it really depends on how often I travel into the village because where I'm living has no electricity or internet. Thank you all for your support for the cause and for this trip. If you want more information about the program I'm traveling with go to http://www.ugandavillageproject.org

TTYL for now

<3

17 days

Time has flown by, I was not expecting for this last month to go so fast, but it has. I can not even put into words how I'm feeling right now. I'm nervous out of my mind about the actual traveling part. Not about being in Africa, but about the flight. 34 hours of travel, that's how long it is going to take for me to get to Entebbe, Uganda. And I have never traveled by myself on a plane. But it will be okay, everything will be fine. I just have to think about what I will be doing when I get to Africa.

I really cannot wait to be in Africa; I will be in the village of Bugabula. I'm not exactly sure what my responsibilties are going to be but I am ready to work as hard as I can at whatever it is I am assigned too. I know that I can only do so much, but I want to do that to the best of my ability. I just want to be inspiring to others, and make a difference in someone's life, no matter how small that difference is. It is my dream, my ambition, my calling in life, this is what I am meant to do.

17 days 16 hours and 45 minutes until I leave......but who's counting?

I should be studying

So I really should be studying for finals right now, but I need a break and I haven't updated in a while so here we go. One month from today I will be in-route (is that a word) to Africa. I don't think I've actually quite grasped the fact that I will be on the other side of the world living in a rural village without electricity or running water. I don't think that it will actually hit me until I'm there. To say that I'm excited and nervous would be an understatement. I think I'm more nervous about flying by myself, since this will be the first time, then I am about actually being in another country.

Everything is pretty much set now, all the shots are done, the plane tickets taken care of just some last minute shopping and then I'm off. Crazy. I hope my suitcase doesn't weigh too much haha.

I did some fundraising last weekend and the response I got was overwhelming I was not expecting so many donations and my thanks go out to all the people of St. Mary's church in Baldwinsville NY for your generosity. I raised over $1000 that will go to the people of Uganda. So thank you everyone for your undying support and encouragement I wish I could take you all with me so you can see first hand what your support is doing.

Okay that's enough procrastinating for now, I have three finals to study for and it's 11:02pm it's time to get crackin'. Okay signing off for now, stay tuned for I might have some freaking out posts as the date gets closer I'm sure you all will find them amusing. Byes~

47 days and counting

So I've started the countdown until I leave: only 47 days

I went shopping for all my supplies yesterday and I keep getting more and more excited. I had the best people helping me with my clothing choices (you know who you are :)) We have to wear long skirts in the villages because of the conservative culture we don't want to be disrespectful to the people. The more we live like them the more they will listen to what we have to say and the easier it will be to help them prevent illness. We do get to bring some "Western" outfits for when we are in the the big cites like Kampala because they are more westerinzed, almost like a city in the US. We also need sport like outfit because guess what I get to do..................... BUNGEE JUMP OVER THE NILE!!! I can't believe it, I am soooo excited!!!

I've also received two out of the four vaccines I need. I got yellow fever and a polio booster. My arm went numb for about 3 hours after but it was okay. Now all I need is Typhoid and Hep A which I will be getting next Tuesday. I also got a prescription for my anti-malarial and another antibiotic for dysentery (just in case).

Everything is coming together and I know the time will go by fast. Right now I just have to finish up this semester. Wish me luck



love you all!!!!

Preparation

Oh my!! There is so much to prepare I don't even know where to start. It's in two months.....TWO MONTHS!!! On this day in two months I will be in Uganda, I can hardly believe it. I'm so excited but incredibly nervous at the same time. I have my plane tickets, bought and paid for. I leave May 30th and get back late on August 4th.

I still have to get my vaccinations for yellow and thyphoid fever and Hep A along with my anti-malarials. And medical evacuation insurance.........just in case lol.

Anyway, the prep work is going along nicely I suppose, I have my orientation tomorrow so I can get all my questions answered and then all I have to do is wait.



This is an amazing opportunity and I thank God that I am able to go to Africa to help the people. I am truly blest. Please keep me in your prayers along with all the other volunteers and the people of Uganda.

Bye for now!!!