Lovely pictures

Just before I came out here I decided to treat myself to a nice compact system camera. I got a Panasonic Lumix and the pictures that I am taking are schweeet! I have taken a few of my fave ones and added them on here. They to me sum up my first two weeks in Uganda. Once I am settled into my placement (Wednesday) I should have more access to the internet and write a bit more detail of the things I am doing. But anyway pictures:

Writing this from Mukunu, Uganda...

Wow wow wow. That's the first thing. Uganda is amazing. I need to share what I have been doing for the last week and a half and what the future holds. This is gonna be a long one seeing as this is the first time I have been able to blog since I got here (I will add pictures soon I forgot to bring the memory card with me. All in good time.):

• So we arrived on Monday 9th January in Entebbe. From Entebbe airport we drove towards Kampala. I have never seen a society/country/environment like this before. What I had in my head was so different to what I am seeing with my eyes. There are barely any roads apart from the main connecting city roads, apart from that it is dirt roads compacted down to a path for vehicles. There also seems to be no law on the roads. It is pretty much a dog eat dog world. Whether you are on a motorbike (buna buna) or in a taxi/car/coach or even on bicycle other vehicles are coming at you at all angles. The heat is another thing. Its so humid. Out here it is summer and the rainy season has just finished. It is just pure unadulted heat coming at ya and it took a while to get used to (also makes the days very lazy as it hard to be productive all day in this heat). 

• Anyway from Kampala (where I picked up a local sim and changed some money up) we moved on to where we would be based until the 25th January. It is a secondary school called Forest Hill and it is where we are doing all our training before we go onto placements. It is a enclosed school so we are free to roam about its grounds and stuff. The training that we have been doing here is about teamwork and how to build the capacities of the various Civil Service Organizations that we will be placed with. Currently we are learning about monitoring and evaluating and how to enhance the performance of local communities to become more productive. Most volunteers are in a specific CSO working on a specific area of community work. Each volunteer is placed with a national volunteer (Who are sound and all support Manchester United, so easy to get along with (I will post pictures in due time)) and they will work for 10 weeks with the CSO in a variety of projects. My CSO is perfect for me. It is a lobbying CSO that works above the grass roots CSOs and helps them to build capacity but also to gain funding and favours from local governments and NGOS. I am really excited to start work on this.  

•  The food! Most lunches and dinners consist of kidney beans in a delicious sauce with two chunks of meat and lots and lots of cabbage. Then we either have rice or posham (which is maize and water). I'm eating well and feeling healthy so no worries there. 

Got to go now but will be back on soon to upload pictures and then to talk about visiting the source of the Nile River. More stories and pictures to come but for now all  I can say is Webele.

Aram x

Bye!

Today is the day I fly out to Uganda. 8:30pm flight to Doha and then on to Entebbe. As of midnight my mobile number will be terminated for 3 months. When I get the chance to get a sim out there I will post my new number. For the moment though all I can say is thank you United for a wonderful leaving present! I'm writing this at half time so who knows what the score will be....

2 days!

It is unbelievable how quick this trip has come around. Christmas and New Year have zoomed along and now it's this Sunday that I am jetting off to Uganda. Last couple of weeks have been getting myself prepared for the trip. This is the state of my packing atm:

I'ts the first time I have packed for a trip before the day I fly. It feels good as I'm feeling actually prepared and can make sure that I don't leave anything behind. I went charity book shopping yesterday to get some nice reads while I am out there. I picked up some classics that I will challenge myself to read out there. One of them being: 

I need to read this! Anyways, I'm doing some last minute shopping now to make sure I got everything. Last night out tonight. Will be good to see the gang before I leave. Laters.

Aram x