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.