Last Week, Let's Make It Count!

What's up y'all?

As the title implies, I have one last full week in Gulu to get stuff done, then it's off to Kampala for a few days and then off to England to hang out with my family for over a week. 

Honestly, I'm not upset about leaving. Even though I've had a fantastic time down here meeting tons of awesome people and traveling to places that I've never been, the fact is that I haven't been back in Philadelphia since Spring Break in March. It's been a long, long time and when I get back I expect to have a line of  cheesesteaks set up so I can eat them. Also, I've missed my family like crazy, especially my Godfather, Uncle Mark, who will not be joining us across the ocean. Thankfully, though, my parents, sister, and brother will be in England so it'll be great to see them again! 

So where did I leave off last? Ah yeah, the end of Tuesday. 

Last week was kind of slow. Tabu and I went to Awach on Wednesday where we surveyed four families over there who were participants in our Goat Lending program. It was a long day and my ass hurt like crazy afterward from the motorcycle, but it was great nonetheless. The program over there is relatively new, so a couple of families haven't seen much progress so far. Others, however, have been able to get multiple goats from a single mother, which has been fantastic to say the least. Maybe I'll add some pictures later - they're on Josh's camera. However, the Awach site, while somewhat successful, is nothing compared to the progress made at Pece, though. Apparently the program has been working really well there and families are actually lending out the goats, though we haven't been able to see it. Hopefully we can get that done this week, though. Also, I managed to finish A Song of Ice and Fire. My God, the final couple of books need to come out ASAP. 

Thursday and Friday were both equally frustrating. We were supposed to go to Kochgoma on Thursday for Goat Lending, but we needed two driver instead of one, and neither was available to go with Tabu and I. The same was Friday when were hoping to go to Pece. It was cloudy and raining, and no one would take us out there. I also wasn't able to speak to anyone about the Mobilization plan because they were all out. But meh, we've come to expect disappointment and lack of motivation down here. Best part of the day was nearly walking through a riot on the way back to Francis's place. Hopefully this week will be different.

We didn't really do anything Thursday and Friday night either. Thursday, Josh and I especially were unmotivated to travel all the way to BJ's for Trivia Night, and Friday I was way to wrapped up in Breaking Bad to move out at all. I'm not afraid to admit that I blew through the first season in just a few hours - It's a really good show! 

Saturday, Josh, Clara and I went out to the marketplace to get some shopping done. Normally I'm terrible at buying stuff for people, but with Clara's help especially I managed to buy tons of souvenirs. After, I Skyped with my NumberOne CeilingAdornment for a few hours, which put me in a really, really good mood. As a result, I decided to go out to BJ's with GROW Columbia to drink and dance the night away. And we all did just that. It was such a good night, and a good way to end a decent week and start the new week off. 

Most of Sunday was spent watching Breaking Bad Season Two. Yes, I managed to get through the whole season in one day. It was too good to stop, and Josh could attest to how obsessed I had become with it. We also enjoyed a can of Rambo beer, which was the most vile beverage that I've ever had, to say the least. After a while, we took a break form Breaking Bad and reading Game of Thrones to go out to grab some Ethiopian food and a couple of drinks. Like the previous night, it ended up being a relaxing day and another good beginning to our final week. 

Today, we got to the office a bit late and managed to miss half of the weekly meeting. It wasn't a bad thing, but Clara was giving Josh and I the evil eye as we walked in. Turns out this week will be much busier than we had initially anticipated. Today we had interviews for the scholarship program. I was an interviewer with Clara, Francis, Collins, and the District Education Officer, Ceaser. We interviewed nine candidates and will be giving out three. When we have the results, I'll let you guys know!

For the rest of the week, we hope to actually be able to visit our Goat Lending and Seed Lending sites and visit the Safari Reserve. I've got one final Sports Gala meeting on Thursday, and that will take up all of Friday and Saturday. For visiting the sites, I'm keeping my expectations low!

Until next time! Hopefully I'll have more to write about. 

Sincerely,

Olara

The Family Words of House Adams: Time is Running Out

Hey Everyone!

Sorry that it's been a while since my last proper post. A lot of things have been going on, and I've been too distraught and distracted to write anything productive.

Well, where did I leave off last?

I posted a few promised pictures, including the shirts which I'm assuming you all loved. The post was very short, though, as much of my week was relatively uneventful. The real party happened Saturday night, but we'll get to that eventually. We'll go all the way back to last Wednesday.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to visit Kochgoma last week on Wednesday because we didn't have the fuel to go. HAU's fuel supply is meager to say the least, and we had failed to take that into account when formulating our budget. Since this was the case, most of the day was spent doing nothing if I recall other than formulating a strategy plan for resource mobilization at HAU. It was pretty interesting, though it didn't really speed the day along enough. After work, I went back to Francis's place, kicked back, and read some more Game of Thrones. If it seems like I've become obsessed with it, it's because I have. Please refer to the title of this blog to confirm what I have said.

Thursday was kind of fun. We went to the office pretty early in the morning, where I started to work on the plan some more while I eagerly waited to go to a CVAP meeting for the Sports Gala at 10 with Emma. However, Emma had gone out with Clara to visit one of our vocational scholarship recipients, Collins, at school. By the time we had gotten to the meeting, it was 11 and wasn't running on Gulu time. This meeting was different, though. Every organization showed up, and we each had a tangible form of what we would be providing at the event. We all sat there discussing the form, what we expected, and laughing at some jokes, some of which I didn't really understand. Maybe it was inter-partner stuff?

Emma and I grabbed a quick lunch afterwards and rode back to the office for a minute before proceeding to a testing event in the Pece district. Admittedly, I didn't stay long. Apparently the crowd was supposed to come at 3PM, and I had no patience to wait that long. Instead I went back to the office for a couple of hours, and continued to work on the plan a bit more. The rest of the day was spent the same way, though I went out for a nice Ethiopian dinner with a friend of mine. To see what it looked like, refer back to my last blog post. It was a plate of pretty much everything on the menu! That night we went to Trivia night again, though we didn't win anything this time around. We got close, but Clara, our scribe, couldn't spell Catalyst. Fourth place doesn't win you a case of Nile Specials!

Friday, we went out on a field visit with TASO, the AIDS Support Organization, to the Nyowa District in Gulu. The journey was a few hours long and extremely bumpy and the visit was actually really short, but we all shared laughs and met some great people. On the car ride, we talked about such topics as rape, specifically whether or not a man can be raped by a woman, sex, and marriage among others. It was hilarious to say the least and shocking at times. By the end, we never really reached any agreement. Once we got back to the office I finally finished my first draft of the plan and sent it to Francis for him to take a look at over the weekend.

After work I met up with a CVAP friend to grab a drink and celebrate another week down. We played a few games of pool too, and I won best out of three after three games. I lost the second one on a technicality when the black ball found its way into the hole with another one of my balls. Pool down here was different. We played with smaller balls that had two colors as opposed to stripes and solids. The table also curved a lot, which worked to my advantage in most cases. Following this, we grabbed some rolex and headed to an event at the TAKS Center that included dancing, singing, short films, and poetry. There I met a lot of people, had a blast, and somehow found my way back to Francis's place after a boda ride.

Saturday got off to a rough start, but it ended up being an interesting day nonetheless. I hung out with some random guys off the street, one of which bought me a Pepsi. After, I met up with the rest of the GROW team at Pamela's place to celebrate Meneka's birthday. We ate a ton of food, drank a little bit, and planned for the evening. The plan was to head to a place called Acholi Social, then proceed on to BJ's for the rest of the night. Clara, Julia, Junior, Josh and I all met up at Pagoda for a quick beer, then headed over. There we drank a bit more then went to BJ's. To sum it up, we drank a lot more, I was hit on by a rather big black man, told to be more humble by a random 29 year old girl, and fed some amazing pork. Also, I was told that one of my new friends is a con artist. Yeah, it was strange, but all of us had a good time in the end.

The next morning was spent getting ready for the Youth Program. It was the first one that Health Alert has had in a year, and it was a part of out goal to reinvigorate it. There ended up being over 150 kids there, and nearly 50 caretakers. It was a blast. There were four different age groups, each of which had their own topic to discuss. I sat with the caretakers, and tried to understand what they were saying about stigma, HIV/AIDS counseling tactics, family planning, and any other thoughts that they wanted to share. It was cool to see, but hard to understand. After everyone packed up to go, I went back to Francis's for a bit to hang out before I had to meet my con friend for dinner, which wasn't all that bad. I had to pay for dinner, though...

Monday was completely uneventful. I was really upset over something that had happened and I wasn't really productive during the day. It wasn't until near closing time that I actually began to move around, speak to people, and get some stuff done.

Today, though, I was back on my game. I did some budgeting for fuel and other logistical information, filled out money request forms for fuel, the Sports Gala, and transportation request forms to visit the Awach and Kochgoma Goat Lending sites tomorrow and Thursday respectively. I also met with a couple of Medical School volunteers who are going to help us with HIV/AIDS Counseling and Testing at the Gala. It was quick, though they had also stated that they were interested in partnering with HAU. Sadly, no one is at the office at the moment so I can't really discuss it with anyone today. But tomorrow, definitely!

Alright that's it for now. Hope this served as a solid update on my life! The rest of the week will be spent going on field visits to close down the Goat Lending project, talking to the staff about the resource mobilization plan, and talking to them about a potential partnership. I'll keep you guys posted!

Thanks for reading,

Olara

GoT Discussion: About finished with the fifth book! Still haven't been able to stream the final episodes of the season, though. Thankfully I already know what happens, so all is good. Otherwise, shit's going crazy and it's getting really good.

The Shirts Are In! Among Other Pictures

Hey All!

Hope you're enjoying your weekends. So far mine's been great! Works been good, I've met a lot of cool people, especially last night at a TAKS Center Cultural Event that included locally made films by the United Youth Entertainment program, spoken word poetry, music performances, dance, and excerpts from intense books based during the civil war. I'll be seeing a lot of the same people tonight, as well as celebrating Menaka's birthday and learning how to cook. 

For now, here's a quick posts with a couple of pictures, including two I've owed you guys for a long, long time. Hope you enjoy them!

Sincerely yours,

Olara Adams

Green short-sleeve

Crazy, long-sleeve club shirt

Locally grown, hot chili peppers

Ethiopian feast

Two baby goats at testing event

Calvin, a Performer at TAKS Center Event singing Country and Christian Music

Olara, not Lala

Hey Friends, Family, Strangers,

As a few people have already told me, it has been a while since my last entry. For that, I am sorry. Admittedly, I was too distracted on Sunday, and, when I was about to write an entry on Monday, the Wifi at Pagoda crashed. Tough luck, but that just means that this blog post will be a lot more meaningful. 

First, I need to clarify something. I was mistaken with my Acholi name. Apparently it isn't Lala. It's Olara. It still means "the savior", but it sounds a little less odd. Which is a good thing, though I wish I had learned that I was wrong a while ago! 

Next, I want to make some shout outs.

1. A big CONGRATS to my sister, Stefanie Adams, for graduating from her high school. I'm really sorry that I wasn't there, and I'm not sure if you read my blog, but from what I've heard it was a beautiful ceremony. I just wanted to say that I'm very proud of you and that I love you so much. You looked wonderful in each of your pictures, too. You're going to be great at GWU, and I can't wait to see you in London. We're going to celebrate. Hard. Get ready. 

2. SOMEONE DONATED $5,000 TO OUR GlobeMed at UNC Razoo page! I cannot stress how much that donation meant to me and to everyone else at GlobeMed at UNC. When I messaged Alecia about it and told Trini, they both went crazy. We were actually in danger of not meeting our fundraising target, and with one press of a button we made up the difference ten fold. It was extremely generous, and, while we will not get to use it this summer, it will give us a massive start for fundraising this coming year. Of course, any other contribution is very much appreciated no matter how large or how small. You'll get a lot of love from all of us! http://www.razoo.com/story/Globemedatunc 

That's it for shout outs. Seriously, though, I can't stress how much the donation means to all of us, and I can't put into words how happy and proud I am for my sister. Alright, back to recounting my experiences over the past few days. 

Casual Chicken on the couch

On Thursday after work, I went to grab a drink with Natasha from CVAP to get a better feel for the Sports Gala and learn a bit more about her. After splitting up, I met with the team for dinner before going to BJ's for trivia night. Sadly, neglected to stay because it had been a long day, and, by the time we got there, I was already falling asleep. Instead of waiting any longer past ten, I elected to take Clara home and head back to Francis's place for another sleepless night full of weird clock noises every hour on the hour, loud roosters at four in the morning, and hot rooms. Josh and Julia stayed, though they didn't have the luck required to win the case of Nile Special. Thankfully, we have three more Thursdays to give it a shot.

Work on Friday was very slow, but that is how it usually is in Gulu, for better or for worse. The most productive thing that I managed to do was take my Resource Mobilization document and add so much more detail to it including drawbacks, benefits, suggestions, implementation procedures, and requirements for each measure. It was a long and boring process, but, once I sent it out to HAU's staff, I felt pretty awesome having finished it. Afterwards, our team met up at this amazing Ethiopian place named Abyssina. It was so good that we went there twice in a row. The best part of the two times was walking in and seeing a crowd of white people. The whole meal, I couldn't help but stare at them as they stared at us. You'd think that we were the only white people in town, but this was not the case.

A good amount of Friday was spent by our team and the staff getting pumped up for Corporate Night at Diana's Garden. The place is one massive pavilion, bar, and lounge, and each Friday night it gets packed with locals and becomes one massive dance party. It was actually refreshing to see that the dancing in Uganda is much less raunchy than it is in the United States.  There we drank a bit, met up with GROW Columbia and CVAP, and generally had a good time. 

Pece Stadium Entrance

Having started the weekend on a good note, the next day was spent recovering and walking around the outskirts of town, taking pictures of baby goats and local NGOs, and high-fiving excited children. Following this, we decided to hang out at Pagoda to Skype our president, Trini Thach, and our GROW Coordinator, Susan Violet. We caught them up on our progress, and got an update on their lives. It was casual and short, but nice to see them again. After we Skyped with them, I managed to get a couple of hours to talk to Catherine, my NumberOne CeilingAdornment. As usual, it was good to see her again and it made my day :). 

We planned on going out that night, but that did not happen in the end. We went to the Ethiopian restaurant again, but we were too tired after to go to BJ's. Instead, Josh and I went back to Francis's place to read some Game of Thrones. Yes, I've managed to get him to start reading as well. How could he refuse to? It's so good. 

Goat Mother and Baby Goat

Josh and I elected not to go to Church on Sunday, though we weren't really asked or forced to go anyway. Instead, I went out to hang with some CVAP people for the whole day, and met lot of new people. We exchanged numbers, and I was able to see some areas of Gulu that I had yet to explore. It was a lot of fun, and that night we met up again with GROW Columbia to satiate our hunger for pizza. We went to a place called Sankofa Cafe, where all the white people go, apparently. The pizza was fantastic, and hanging out with Columbia afterwards at Pagoda was nice, too. I also won 20,000 UGX from Josh for managing to be quiet for ten minutes. Like many readers, I didn't even think it was possible. But it happened, and now he has provided me with enough money to drink adequately for a single night. 

Thankfully, we had off yesterday because it was Martyrs' Day, a Ugandan national holiday that celebrates the memory of twenty-two Catholics who were murdered by King Mwanga II of Buganda. For it, many people make a pilgrimage to Kampala, the capital, to commemorate their memories and celebrate mass with many of the local religious leaders in the area. Josh and I decided to celebrate our day off reading Game of Thrones, sleeping, and not being able to work on our blogs. Yes, it was slow but I finally managed to finish Book Four of the series! The ending was phenomenal, though Book Five is showing much more promise than I had expected to see. At this rate, I'll definitely be finished the series by the end of this journey. 

Three Hour Meeting Under the Tent

Finally, today has been pretty awesome, aside from the three hour meeting that we had to sit through. I was responsible for an hour of that, though, because I was finally able to present my Resource Mobilization outline to the staff of HAU. Initially, it was a bit slow, though the staff started to jump in, adding their own comments, ideas, and suggestions on not only the measures that I presented, but on other issues as well. The presentation was received well, and I will be sitting with the HAU staff over the coming weeks to work on an Implementation Strategy over the next year until the next GROW team comes and evaluates it. I hope that it will succeed in making a difference at HAU and that the board will accept measures such as charging affordable Client and Registration fees, holding massive fundraising events like Marathons and Cultural Galas, pushing for Online Fundraising and and a greater presence in social media, and new documentation strategies. I'll keep you guys posted on its progress!

The rest of my week seems like it's going to be awesome. Clara and I are doing a final evaluation of our Goat Lending Project in Kochgoma tomorrow, and on Thursday Emma and I are heading over to CVAP to (hopefully) meet with all of the health partners and finalize plans for the Sports Gala, which now is being held on June 21st. Of course, there is another Trivia Night and Corporate Night, and one of Columbia's GROW members is celebrating her birthday this weekend. Finally, we're having our first Youth Program taking place Sunday morning. Basically, look forward to an exciting post to tentatively come out later that day!

As always, thank you all for reading!

Olara (not Lala)

GoT Discussion: Finished Book Four and progress is underway in the Fifth. The fourth book wasn't as good as the others, though its ending was one of the best by far. It wasn't so much epic as it was shocking and disturbing to read. Let's just say some characters finally get the justice they deserve, and others are being set up to be in very high positions of power. Also, I haven't been able to catch up with the latest episode of the show, though I know what will happen. Looking forward to watching it!

Here's some more, random pictures that I have taken:

Gulu Disabled Persons Union Headquarters

HAU's Motorcycles. I want to ride one

GWED-G Headquarters

Better picture of HAU's Headquarters 

They're Taking Our "Save the Children" Truck!