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.
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