Beans and Rice

Yo, Yo!

If I'm honest, the title has nothing to do with this post, other than the fact that, on occasion, I have had the craving for beans and rice. It costs less than $2, and fills you up more than any meal at McDonalds. It's probably healthier, too. 

Sadly, I wasn't able to post anything yesterday because I was focused on other things such as presenting ideas for improved resource mobilization to people, Redditing, Facebooking, and eating. Also, the usual place where we go for wifi after work was having problems with it, so we weren't able to do anything with it. Anyway, here goes. Post #8!

The rest of my Sunday was largely spent reading Game of Thrones. In the last post, I mentioned that I was over 500 pages into the third book. It was too good to stop, though, so I spent the rest of the day reading it in an attempt to finish it all as soon as possible. It was so exciting, although it's been frustrating not having anyone to talk to about it! 

On Monday, we spent the morning fixing our budget to make sure that we can afford to strengthen our programs, especially the Youth Program, while maintaining a positive balance on our account. Julia, fellow team member and Finance chair for GlobeMed, was especially on target as she made calculation after calculation to ensure that everything would be fine. Sadly, however, we need more money to fund the Sports Gala event. We're waiting on an additional $1,000 from UNC, so hopefully that gets to us soon! 

Two Rabbits just Chilling

Later in the day, we went on a field visit to distribute condoms to two communities named Bobi and Oyam. It was a long drive in the back of the Land Cruiser, though it was nice to bond with the staff and meet some new people outside of the office in far off communities. We even met someone who is also from Philadelphia who is here on a Peace Corps mission until the summer of 2015. That's a long time, and I wish him the best, especially because he actually knows where Devon is. I also managed to snap a few pictures that I found interesting! The best part of the day, though, was finishing Game of Thrones at one o'clock in the morning. After I had finished I was almost too excited to sleep!

Fun Fact: Circumcision reduces the chance of contracting HIV/AIDS!

Beautiful Tree on Field Visit

The next day was spent doing close to nothing, which was unfortunate though inevitable seeing how the majority of the staff was away for field visits. Because of limited space and fuel, we weren't able to participate in any, so we spent the day hanging out in the office and talking to Carol and Sam about things going on at the work place. I guess the most exciting part was helping Ben, Namolynda, and some other guys clean out and repack the garage. After it I was a sweaty and dirty wreck, but it was fun while it lasted. Sam and I also attempted to set up a Razoo fundraising site, though it turned out to be much more complicated than we had initially anticipated!

Chicken chilling on Francis's counter

After a long day of doing nothing, Josh and I finally managed to move our gear out of the Hotel Diamond and into Francis's home. It took three boda bodas, tight fits on the bikes, and 9,000 UGX to get us there. At first, we were skeptical because Hotel Diamond was beginning to feel like home and Francis had chickens that would not stop making noise and younger daughters who were spying and probably conspiring to kills us in our sleep. Thankfully that didn't happen! The chickens, however, woke up at 4 o'clock the next morning making all of the stereotypical noises, and Francis's clock made, without fail, the same chime every hour on the hour. Yes, the bed was comfortable and we came out bite free, but those two factors made the experience almost unbearable. Hopefully it doesn't come to us slaughtering every last chicken...

Wednesday we woke up after a comfortable but rough night of sleep. We had no idea how long it'd take us to get to the office from Francis's place, and we were missing our shoes as we just got up to get ready. Admittedly, it was a bad start to an otherwise good day. Once we found our newly cleaned shoes by a man named Moses and had our morning Chapati and tea, we set off to work. Like Tuesday, not many people were there. Though that didn't stop me from attempting to do something. First, I worked on a preliminary budget plan for the Sports Gala. Then I went to Emma to talk about it and read up on HAU's resource mobilization strategy. As I read it, I made little notes, comments, and suggestions on each topic area and presented them to Emma, Sam and Stella to get their opinion. A lot of measures consisted of very small fees and ways to increase HAU's outreach to the local and international community, and each were approved by them. I've sent it to Francis, the program director, to take a look. If he likes it, then hopefully I'll be able to present it on Monday's staff meeting.

I spent most of the day working on that, taking a break for a very inexpensive lunch of beans and rice. Afterwards, we went to speak to Pamela again about GWED-G's success with resource mobilization and how they have managed to be so successful in getting proposals approved for multiple programs. Admittedly, I zoned out a lot as she talked at length about various topics, but the team and I learned a lot from her. Hopefully we'll be able to use this to change the structure of HAU if need be.

Rambo Beer, 10% Alcohol. 

Once we got back to the office, we hung out and eagerly waited to pick up our new shirts at the marketplace. Mine came in looking as fresh as the one before it (yes, I'm aware that you have yet to see any pictures of them). We picked up our shirts, went to Pagoda where we failed to get wifi, then went back to Francis's place to watch an episode of Game of Thrones, read a little bit, shower, eat, then sleep.

This morning we woke up to more Chapati and tea, and set off earlier then expected. It was another night of hard sleep with the clock and the chickens, but hey - what are you going to do? Now we're just chilling out in the office, working on blogs, checking Reddit, and waiting for money and responses so we can continue to get things done. Uganda has been one big waiting game, and it's hard to tell whether we're winning or losing. In the meantime, why not have a Rambo beer?

There are things to look forward to, though! Tonight is trivia night, and we're prepared to win first place and a case of Nile Special beer, which is the best.

Hope you guys enjoyed this blog entry! I'll probably write another one this Sunday to keep you guys updated. As always, I'm open to comments/suggestions/opinions on my blog and its contents. Thanks for reading!

Lala

P.S. As you've probably inferred from everything I've written thus far, you know that I love HAU, GlobeMed, and almost everything about Uganda. We've worked really hard throughout the year and, although works going rather slowly, I know that the results will prove our effectiveness as partners.

This is a small plea: one of the biggest problems facing HAU is providing necessary resources to continue many of its programs after their funding is up. While GlobeMed tries very hard to raise as much as possible, it's not enough to provide extra funds that are sorely needed here. Although HAU works to keep up with proposal writing and maintain partnerships with other organizations, it's still been difficult to maintain its success. Especially as the former Campaigns Coordinator of GlobeMed at UNC, I know the frustration when an organization is unable to do all it can to raise money.

So here's my request: if you could donate any amount possible to help us out, please visit this Razoo site that we set up a while ago. We had a goal of $10,000 to raise throughout the year, but we've had trouble getting the grants necessary to raise the full amount. If you could donate at least $10, that would mean so much to all of us, and it will get us off to a great start in the coming year. Thanks in advance for your generosity! http://www.razoo.com/story/Globemedatunc

GOT Discussion: Finished the third book, nearly 100 pages in to the fourth! Let's just say the next season of Game of Thrones will be the most intense yet. I saw some things coming, others should have been predicted, but most of it was shocking. And I loved every single last word of it! I'm pushing hard through the fourth book to keep up the progress, which is admittedly off to a slow start. But I'm sure it'll continue to be the best series yet. 

20,000 Ugandan Schillings is less than $10

Hey Everyone,

Happy Sunday!

Laundry from Last Saturday

A common question that I've been asked today is whether or not I've gotten the chance to worship. Sadly, my team and I haven't had the opportunity, so I wrote a blog post instead. Hope you guys enjoy it!

Before I start recounting my experiences since Wednesday night, here's a picture of my laundry from last Saturday. Apparently, we all did ours wrong and let out clothes soak in soapy water without properly scrubbing them. Next time, it'll be a longer process. We've become masters of waiting down here, though, so it'll be no problem. 

Last time I updated y'all, it was Wednesday and we were finishing up out budget for Carol, Sam, and Francis to take a look at. After we made it up, we went to Carol a piece of paper with our rough calculations on it. Stuff like this happens when you work with Google Docs and have no internet. Regardless, we sent it out to them later to take a look at it, and they seemed to approve! It'll be exciting to buy all of the materials and put everything into action. Hopefully we'll be doing that this week in addition to field visits. The wifi should be back up in the office tomorrow, too!

Sugar Cane and Me

On Thursday, we went out to a testing event being held by Health Alert Uganda. Although I can't quite recall the name of the community, I can say that it took us a good amount of time to get there on pretty uneven roads. At the event, we tested a total of 180 individuals, 7 of which were HIV+. The event started at around 11 o'clock, and people were pouring in from all over, which was inspiring to see. Before things got into full swing, Josh, Clara, and I helped ourselves to some sugar cane. Turns out neither of us ate it properly. Josh was given bite sized pieces to chew on, while I just went at it and chewing and gnawing off the stringy parts. Clara managed to eat it properly as she took it easy and went one string at a time. By the end of it, my hands, face, and legs were covered in natural sugar. But it was well worth it!

After sitting around for another hour and witnessing person after person being tested, I asked if I could help in any way possible. Carol said I could help with documentation, which required that I sit next to the doctor for six straight hours without food, looking at the results and recording them on their respective forms. It was difficult to sit there on a hot day with an empty stomach, but it was worth it. Admittedly, it was a both exciting and scary to sit there and watch the results come in for everyone. The majority of those tested were negative, but, as I wrote before, a few were positive after being tested twice. As I wrote their results down, I couldn't help but say a little prayer for them. Even though HIV/AIDS can be treated and knowing their status is important, the possibility of their lives being affected negatively is just terrible to think about. Thankfully, HAU offers education and counseling to HIV positive individuals. I only hope for the best for them. 

HAU HIV/AIDS Testing Event 

When everything finished up, we watched a couple of old guys dancing shamelessly in front of everyone to the same music we've been listening to all day, with pouches of gin or vodka in their hands. One song in particular, "African Queen", has become our team's favorite. There's also "You Can Be My Wife". If you're really interested, try Youtube-ing them. Also, an old man stole my wild berry sour patch on the pretense that he'd share it with everyone. I'll never forget that. 

HIV Testing Materials 

Old Guy Dancing at Testing Event

After a long day, we went right back to the hotel to wash up and get ready for trivia night at a local place called BJs. We went with two HAU staffers, Julius and Emma. Our team's name was "Julius Maximus". We were sure we would win at first, answering the first few questions like "What organ in the body produces insulin" and "What does the 'L' stand for in Samuel L. Jackson's name." We really wanted to win a case of Nile Special or Green Mirinda, but sadly we didn't do well enough. It was alright, though, because the musical stylings of Nickelback and Macklemore managed to cheer us up.

On Friday, I finally understood the definition of "Gulu time". Emma and I had to go to a meeting at 9AM at CVAP's headquarters to discuss preliminary planning for the event with each other organization. Being American, I pushed to leave as soon as possible, so we got there around 9:30. Turns out that HAU would be the only other organization there until 11, when we finally started the meeting with 6 out of the 12 partner organizations. In the mean time, I got a chance to chat with one of the volunteers, Natasha, about our lives, work, and experiences with traveling and living in Uganda. Once it started, the meeting lasted over an hour. It was great getting to know the other organizations in the area, like Red Cross, the Gulu Youth Program, the Disabilities Center, though once I got back to the office I was exhausted. The journey back was a little rough. Following a pleasant visit to Gulu University to pick up Emma's transcripts, our motorbike broke down two minutes away from the office. We walked the bike back to HAU, where a couple of mechanics immediately jumped to work on it. Emma gave me leave to go eat with the team at our favorite Ethiopian restaurant. After lunch, we split and went to grab wifi to check emails, Facebook, and complete our personal tasks. 

Later that night, we successfully met up with the GROW Team at Columbia University. They arrived Wednesday night, and we grabbed a pork dinner at a local hotel. It was a pleasant visit and a nice opportunity to get to know them and Franny, another project officer from GWED-G. After dinner, we went back to the hotel to pass out early. 

Yesterday was nice as well. Each of us went out to the marketplace where Josh, Clara and I ordered more custom clothing to be made. Awesome shirts made to our measurements, costing about $10? Who would pass that up? Pictures are still being worked on for those shirts, so be prepared to see them in all their glory. After, we went to grab a quick lunch then headed back to the hotel for a bit, where I waited eagerly to Skype with my NumberOne Ceiling Adornment. We talked about random stuff for a couple of hours, and it was good to see her again. I'm sure she felt the same way :). 

Following the Skype session, I ran back to the hotel to change into pants and my African shirt. The plan was to go to a place called Diana's Gardens, though it started raining and we opted instead to go to Pagoda, where we usually go to abuse their wifi. The match started around 9:30 PM and was between Bayern Munich and Dortmund, with Munich winning in the end. Josh and I also had planned to get hammered, which we had successfully done. I'll spare everyone the details, but let's just say 20,000 schillings is more than enough to do the job. Again, everything ended up being under $10!

That's pretty much been my weekend with a lot of Game of Thrones reading done in between. Today has been relaxed as well: we've just been to breakfast, and I am now about to head back to the Diamond to enjoy some more reading.  Hope you enjoyed this post with all of its pictures! I'll keep you guys posted twice a week as I've said before, so look out for the next entry on Wednesday. 

Thanks for reading!

Zach (Lala)

GoT: 500 pages into the third book! I've finally caught up with the show, and as such I've been pressing myself to read even more because it's become that much more exciting. I really love how George Martin doesn't deal with any romantic Hollywood love crap. It's been no holds bard, and he never lets up on the struggle felt by each character. The book has become particularly exciting because at this point everything is coming together - Bran, Jon, Arya, Brienne above all. Sadly, not much more can be said because if small details are discussed, it may ruin the story!

Lala, the Savior

What's Happening Everyone?

If you're reading this, it's become obvious that I've survived my first weekend in Gulu, and there are two things that I've come to realize thus far. One, I need to take more pictures. Two, I need to be better about posting twice a week. It's harder than you think, though, and I'm very tempted to steal Josh's and Clara's pictures and post them to my blog. Of course they would be given all due credit, but that's the lazy man's way out. I'm not a lazy man, at least most of the time.

We didn't really do much on Friday night because we were all exhausted from work and traveling around the town. My big achievement of the day, following the IIRR and CVAP meetings, was that I finally managed to get my phone "registered" after work. When I got back to the hotel, we grabbed dinner then I proceeded to fall asleep after reading some Game of Thrones.

On Saturday, we all took the opportunity to walk around Gulu a bit more. We explored the marketplaces and some of Gulu's local supermarkets, may favorite of which was Uchumi, a market that had everything a white person needs for survival. The best part was finding a place where Josh and I ordered custom made shirts. Pictures of them will be posted soon, but let me say first that it is really colorful, button down, long-sleeved, and awesome looking. Let's just say I'll be wearing that to any club and bar from now until the shirt gets worn down too much to war it. After we ordered our shirts, we went out for lunch at this place called The Kitchen. For 12,000 UGX, or just over 5 dollars, we got to enjoy an all you can eat buffet full of delicious chicken, beans, and rice. When we finished, traveled back to the Hotel Diamond, where we all spent the rest of our day successfully doing our laundry for the first time. Thankfully, everything was still in place after I had left it unwatched for a few hours. At night, Clara and I went to Francis's house to celebrate his 40th birthday, which was the first time that he has ever celebrated the occasion. Everyone called him "Baby Francis", and he credited me with coming up with the idea of celebrating it before his actual birthday. We met a lot of great people, including the governor of the Gulu district, ate some delicious local foods, drank a little, and ate cake.

Sunday, we took it easy and went to a local coffee hut to abuse their free wireless internet. After checking our emails and getting something to eat, we went back to the hotel. It was a slow day, sure, and I managed to get closer to finishing GoT, but it marked the end to a successful first weekend. We were all alive and well.

Monday, we got to work and were given our Acholi names. Julia was named Abé, or beautiful, Josh was named Otim, or foreigner, Clara was named Lanyero for "always happy". Their names were nothing compared to mine, however. I was given the name Lala, which means "savior" in Acholi. We spent the day hanging out for the most part because working was difficult as we lacked wifi at the office. Without it, we were not able to access many of our planning google docs and budget sheets, so we just sat around for a bit, tanning outside and listening to some hardcore rap. We later had the opportunity to go to a funeral. Pamela, one of the officers at HAU, had just recently lost a nephew, which meant that she had also lost her own son according to tradition. It composed of preaching, viewing the body, and burying the coffin under piles of dirt that was thrown in by each of the guests. It was a very peaceful ceremony, and was quite similar to our own funerals back in the US. Afterwards, we went back to the hot and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Tuesday, we all went out on field visits to interview and follow up with seven HIV positive mothers who were recipients of our Mama Kits. It was one of the most inspiring experiences that I personally have ever witnessed thus far, as each mother thanked us for our support and told us that their very young children are HIV negative. It was also the first time that our team has visibly seen the impact that our fundraising has had in the local communities surrounding Gulu. We spent several hours moving from house to house, interviewing the mothers, and playing with the local kids. When we got back, our team split up. Clara and Julia went to visit Rosemary, one of our scholarship recipients, while Josh and I picked up our custom shirts. We wore them to the coffee shop, and we got a lot of head nods. One guy in particular ran over to us, got us both in a headlock, and expressed his love. Even the HAU staff appreciated their glory! Following this, I  traveled to speak with GWED-G's program director, Pamela. GWED-G is local NGO and partner of GlobeMed at Columbia University. Although she had recently gotten into an accident in Kampala, she was willing to talk to me about the nature of her partnership with Columbia. I learned a lot about their partnership, how strong their relationship has been, and how much of an impact they've had in the community.

After I headed back to the hotel, Josh convinced me to have a couple of drinks with him after a long day of work. It wasn't hard, and next thing we knew we were talking to a guy named Christopher, who made it clear to us that he spoke English really well (multiple times) and worked for the local government. It was a lively conversation about politics and the demographics of the north and south, and we made a good friend in the process

Today we've been spending a lot of time planning out our budget and our work plan to present to  Carol and the rest of the HAU staff. We've budgeted everything for the Youth Development Program, the Mama Kits, and the Scholarship program, with money left over for an internet subscription and other activities like the Sports Gala and fuel for HAU. Hopefully they'll accept it!

Alright, that's it for now. I'll try to keep up with blog posts more often, and I hope you guys continue to read them. Until next time!

Zach

GoT: Finished the second book in the series, and I have to say...It was amazing! So many things were different: the House of the Undying, Harrenhal, the Battle of Blackwater Bay, and Arya's more daring character. I've loved every second of it, though I think I've spent too much time blitzing through the books. Started book three, and I've loved it so far, and I'm also looking forward to the rest of season three!

Week One of Work, Done

What's Up Everyone?

Here's the long awaited blog post on my life and work in Gulu over the first full week we've been here! I'll cut it up by day, so it's simpler to follow and write about. I'll cut out the small details, such as dealing with cold showers, an un-flushable toilet, mosquitoes, flies, tea, and food. Surprisingly, everything has been relatively easy to deal with, and the food has been fantastic to say the least, especially the rice and beans...

Monday: Day one at the office was great. It wasn't hard to fall in love with the friendly staff, especially the program director, Francis, and Project Coordinators Stella and Emma. We began the week with a staff meeting in which we introduced ourselves to everyone in HAU where I expressed what our GROW team means to accomplish over our time here and how we hope to carry our goals out. We spent the rest of the day planning out what how we would evaluate our projects and manage our workload over the next few weeks. After getting permission to leave, we went back to the hotel briefly before Julia managed to haggle me into going to Pece Stadium, a football area dedicated to the fallen soldiers of Uganda in World War II. Admittedly, I am not built for running, but it felt nice to get out and work out. After about an hour of working out and getting strange looks from the locals, we went back to the hotel where Josh and I passed out early. It wasn't really an exciting night, but it was definitely a nice first day in Gulu.

Tuesday: We did more or less the same thing on Tuesday. Got up, showered, went to work, ate, and went to work some more, went to Pece Stadium, ate, then slept. At work we continued to plan and get to know the rest of the staff. I was also put into contact with the Concordia Volunteer Abroad Program, an organization based in Montreal, Canada, in order to set up an HIV/AIDS testing and sporting event. Thankfully, the got back to me with a proposal for a Sports Gala, which will be explained further later.  For lunch, we went to an awesome Ethiopian restaurant, where I was served coffee in the coolest way possible. Here's the picture:

We got back to work and Skyped with GlobeMed at UNC's Co-President, Trini Thach. It was nice talking to her again, but she suggested slowing things down a bit planning wise in favor of getting a better feel for office life and the projects that both HAU and GlobeMed work on. Keeping this in mind, work started to slow down, which was kind of disappointing. If I'm honest, we came down here under the impression that HAU was struggling hard and that we had to work as hard and fast as possible to help them out. We left work at 4:30 as usual, then headed over to Pece Stadium again to do some more running. This time, I had a different partner, a little local kid whose name I can't remember (though I'm sure he doesn't remember mine either). He kept me going, and it was nice getting to know him. After a while, though, I had to sit down for a bit. We met a few locals, then went back to the hotel to wash up for dinner. I had a couple drinks, and Josh, Clara, and I ended up watching some Game of Thrones. Good stuff!

Wednesday, aka my 20th birthday: First off, thank you everyone who wished me a happy birthday! It meant a lot, and, as I mentioned on Facebook, you should be receiving my love in a couple of days. The day was relatively relaxed, though, with us slowing down our progress. There were no real highlights from work, save the long training presentation given to us by the Civil Society Fund. In it, we learned how to implement "change without migraines". It took just under three hours to complete, and we went over topics like resistances to change at three different levels, the stages of change, and other various topics. Following work,  Clara and I took a massive detour on our way back to the hotel following a failed attempt to get my newly bought phone registered, something I had been putting off for a while. Sure it took us out of the way and we missed the chance to get back to the hotel in favor of backtracking, but we got to see so much more of Gulu, which arguably made the trip worth it. After we got back from the detour, my room was locked so I ended up buying a drink at the bar. I was exhausted, but I pressed on. We planned on meeting Emma for something called rollex, which essentially is three fried eggs wrapped in a flat, unleavened bread akin to Tortillas, but thicker. It was so good, and after we went to this awesome bar place to watch Chelsea play in the finals of the UEFA tournament. Sadly, because I had been so exhausted from the day I ended up passing out in my seat with a cold drink in my hand. It sounds like a boring day, but I can't complain. We had work the next day, anyway, and my knees were shattered from running so much1

Thursday: More of the same, just preliminary planning as usual and talking to the staff. It was slow, so I spent a good chunk of the morning responding to all of the Facebook messages and emails that I had received for my birthday. We also casually saw a cow on the road, and, being the typical tourist, I had to snap a picture and document the rarity. Other than that, nothing really of note occurred. It was just a long, really hot day at the office. 

Friday: This was probably the coolest day thus far at HAU. Though it started off normally, Francis invited me to step in and witness a meeting between HAU and the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction in Uganda, an organization which works on projects dealing with nutrition, reproductive health, and rural development especially within Kenya, Ethiopia, and Uganda. The meeting was called to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the two entities, initiating a partnership that would promote the distribution and provision of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services in the form of community engagement and dialogue, and the education of counselors and facilitators in the areas. Though I didn't speak, it was really cool observing how HAU worked in that capacity and realizing a new project that would impact hundreds of lives within several areas in the district. This, however, was not the best part of the day as I had set up a meeting with CVAP to discuss HAU's role in planning out the Sports Gala. The Sports Gala, coupled with a massive Football tournament, is being set up to spread HIV/AIDS awareness, provide HIV/AIDS counseling, take blood donations, and provide free cervical cancer screenings. It's been done before, and this year it will be taking place on June 14th and 15th following weeks of planning by many different organizations in Gulu. Emma and I were HAU's representatives, and we presented what HAU could and was willing to offer in resources, namely peer counselors, condoms, and education materials to hopefully impact over thousands of lives in two days. It'll be really cool to see the end result, and I can't wait to interact with all of these other NGOs in the area. As planning comes along, I'll keep everyone posted.

Now, I sit at the desk reflecting on what has been an awesome first week. Hopefully the weekend will be able to match it! Outlook looks good: going out tonight, heading to the marketplace and a breakdancing competition on Saturday, and hanging out at a coffee shop and exploring Gulu further on Sunday. I'll post a new entry up when it's over!

Until next time,

Zach

GoT: Over a hundred-fifty pages into the second book. The show left out a lot of specific details, and reading them just has enhanced the overall experience, especially when Arya and the Night's Watch were attacked on the Kingsroad. It's all really hard not to like!

More Information on GlobeMed's Projects at HAU

Hey All!

More blog posts will be underway, but for now here is a more detailed look at GlobeMed's projects, courtesy of fellow GROW Intern, Clara Williams. 

GlobeMed sponsored projects currently include goat lending and seed lending, PMTCT Mama kits, and vocational school scholarships. In the past, we've also purchased fuel to allow workers to travel to clients at their homes, and internet connection, Microsoft Office and a projector to help the office run at top efficiency. 

Currently we believe that the goat lending project and the seed lending project will be cut from the budget. Originally these programs were intended to provide nutritional and economic support to the HIV/AIDS affected families and communities to which they were given, however, both were intended to be self-sustaining, and not require any further financial support from GlobeMed or Health Alert. In the case of the goats, it was the intention to give one family a fertile female goat, which would then become pregnant. The family would keep the young goat, and give the mother goat to another family in the community, so that others could continue to benefit. However, in practice, the female goat gave birth at a much slower rate than had been expected. As a result, the families were reluctant to give the goats to the next household, the rate of goat loss (though death or misplacement) was high, and the benefits the families received from the goats were minimal. We see this project as a disappointment and should cut our losses during the trip. 

Seed lending was implemented in two HIV affected groups living in the Alero and Olwal sub-counties of Uganda in the hopes that crops would be grown to supplement the diets of the infected youth, enough seeds would be kept to grow a new crop next season, and the remainder would be sold for profit. There was mixed success with this. The group in Olwal failed to save their seeds for two years in a row, despite being reminded and warned that we could not continue to buy seeds for them. However, in Alero, with the exception of the failure of the onion crop, have been successfully maintaining their garden, saving some seeds, and selling the rest as planned. As of yet, the GROW team has not been able to visit the community in Alero, but it is hoped that they have had continued to benefit from the seed lending program and require no further funding. 

As far as the other projects go, though, we're hoping to get a better understanding of what HAU needs before we make any hard and fast decisions. We are planning on continuing the Mama kits without a doubt, and are currently gauging interest for technology seminars around the office.  If you have any questions concerning our current work plan or past or ongoing projects, feel free to comment!

HAU, Day One

What's up everyone?

This one will be a short post. Basically, today's the first day that we are working at HAU, and I have to say it's been great. I'm in love already - the staff is very friendly and are very receptive to working with us, though such is expected after six years of a partnership with them! We've met the whole team at a staff meeting this morning, in which we introduced ourselves to everyone in HAU. I also managed to speak up and express what our GROW team means to accomplish over our time hear and how we hope to carry our goals out. For the rest of the day, we have been planning out what we're going to do, evaluation wise, for our Goat Lending, Seed Lending, Mama Kit, and Scholarship programs. Hopefully we'll all be able to visit the project sites and meet the people we've had an impact on! I'm also planning on visiting another NGO in the area named GWED-G to discuss fund raising and their success in the area. Everything is being set in motion, and I couldn't be happier. 

Also, my 20th birthday is coming up in two days and Francis's 40th is coming up on Monday. We've already discussed celebrating both of ours on Saturday, so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully I don't end up in Rwanda or something. 

Zach

GoT: Yeah I thought about dropping the books after I found that there was little to no sex, too. Almost done the first book, still enthralled. The build up is immense, but knowing what is to come makes it a bit upsetting.  

Finally in Uganda

Hey Friends and Family!

Alright, so based on how many views this page has already gotten I guess I'll actually have to keep up with writing these posts...so here goes entry #2. Get excited because this is going to be a long one. This also counts as me alerting everyone that I've arrived safely.

First off, I just wanted to thank my siblings Stefanie, Paul, Michael, and Christina as well as my Dad for coming down and surprising me Wednesday night for an amazing Indian dinner. Also, I wanted to thank my Mom and my Aunt Andrea for coming down to help me move out of the room, get me set up and packed to go. These two events meant the world to me, and without all of your support I would probably be still at Morrison passed move out time curled up in the fetal position, refusing to go to Uganda because I couldn't begin to get my head straight. I love you all, and I can't wait to see you guys again!

Last time, I briefly wrote about what I'm doing down here, how much things I had to think about coming up to the trip i.e. finals, moving out, packing, etc. None of that matters now, though, because we have finally made it to Uganda after over a day of traveling! We're finally here after two eight hour layovers in both London and Dubai respectively, two seven hour flights, and, as of today, one final five hour flight to Entebbe International Airport.

It all began in RDU, where I pretty much just barely made my flight. I got there after receiving two calls from American Airlines saying that the flight has been delayed an hour, then a third saying that those first two calls were lies and that the flight had moved back to its original time. Needless to say I got pretty stressed towards the boarding time of 5:30PM, but some how I managed to do the impossible. I got there, downloaded the five Game of Thrones books onto my computer then put them on my iPad, and send out some last minute emails. It was productivity at its finest, and everything went very smoothly from then on.

I spent most of my time on the flights reading the first book in the GoT series and managed to get over halfway through it. So far, so good. It's been pretty much the same storyline as the HBO show, which everyone should watch. Thanks to that the time flew by and I found myself in London Heathrow then Dubai, which was, admittedly, a let down even though the airport was great and McDonalds served well. I was told that the showers would be nice, and I believed it, because, well, Dubai is a mega resort. It wasn't the case. That little detail threw me off. Sadly, we all ended up deciding against going out to each of the cities because it was so early in the morning, or too late at night respectively. Instead I continued to read Game of Thrones and slept in surprisingly comfortable positions.

Over the long flights I also managed to get through the movies, Hobbit and Les Mis, both of which were really long and just terribly decent. I also met a freshman from State who is from and currently lives in Jordan. Initially, sitting with him was a pain in the ass with all of his fidgeting, but once we started talking it got much easier. Each method kept me sane enough until finally arrived in Uganda at 1:45PM Africa time. We breezed through the visa process and got safely to Backpackers where we will be staying the night before we get picked up tomorrow to be taken to Gulu. I, along with the rest of the team, am pretty stoked, despite being extremely exhausted and in need of some sleep.

Now, I sit here using the free wifi accommodation, writing this blog entry, and enjoying some cheap Pilsner lager. It feels like Heaven, though it probably won't continue to be this easy.

Thanks for holding out and reading this long post! I'll write another one next week once I'm settled in Gulu and begin to work with and meet everyone at HAU.

Zach

GoT Book Club (you know who you are): I've loved everything so far, especially the way Martin focuses each chapter on a specific individual. Even though I know exactly what's going on and what's going to happen because of the show, I'm still hooked because he's a brilliant writer and gives so much more depth to each character. There's a lack of sex, though, which is kind of depressing. Hope you are keeping up with it!

Pre-Trip Preparation

Hey Everyone!

Welcome to my first blog post ever. These posts might be riddled with bad grammar errors, so please bear with me as I walk you through my GROW experience over the next couple of months!

On Thursday, I will be traveling to Gulu, Uganda, to work with out partner organization, Health Alert Uganda, for just about seven weeks with my friends and partners Julia Baker, Joshua Bradley, and Clara Williams. For those who don't know already, HAU is an organization that works with kids from ages zero to seventeen that are infected/affected by HIV/AIDS and is based in Gulu, the northern district of Uganda.

Our purpose for this trip is to build up their funding, functioning, and internal capacities. My project will be to make sure that they can fund themselves properly and independently, while cutting back on the costs of implementing other projects that we, along with other organizations like Save the Children, have already established down there. Needless to say, it's going be a lot of hard work. But I'm very excited nonetheless!

I'm most excited about the prospect of meeting the people that we have actually impacted through our fundraising and other efforts at UNC. Based on what past interns have said before, the act of meeting the mothers and their children who have benefitted from our Mama kits, which prevent transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child during birth, is one of the most inspiring experiences that anyone could ever have.

First, though, comes the packing (something that I haven't thought of at all). I'll start after I finish my last final at 8 AM and pack up my room at Morrison Tomorrow. Won't that be a hassle?

I'll try to keep everyone posted at least once every week!

Thanks for reading!

Zach