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!