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Back in Kampala and hopefully staying put for while...
Update on my adventure through countless districts to come when I have power b/c it'll take too long to write on laptop battery.

Base Camping

Alright this is gonna be long and I dont' have a lot of time so bullet points it is. Got back from a week in Loro yesterday where the whole team was there for monitoring and evaluation training.

• Evelyn's birthday party was huge and tons of fun. (can't remember if I already mentioned it)
• Loro is practically a village. Was the only mouno (rememer I'm a mouno in the north not a muzungo) living in town though there was another girl working at another NGO but she didn't live in town.
• Our base camp is where the national program started and the largest camp we have though no one lives there at the moment.
• Got to stay in a hut with Naomi, Betselot (Betty) and Grace.
• No electricity unless the generator was on
• No running water, had to pump water from borehole into basin for bathing.... oh yes and I can't forget our lovely latrines - I have to give the construction guys (Eddie and Alex) credit they definitely know how to make a nice latrine but still it's essentially a hole in the ground......
• Learned a ton about participatory monitoring and evaluation which is a very useful career skill apparently
• Watched a ridiculous number of movies and episodes of sex and the city and prison break as there wasn't a ton to do at night in Loro
• Everyone else here is super fun - got to meet people from some of the other field offices who I hadn't met before so that was great
• Taught a few people how to throw a frisbee except the kitchen ladies kept trying to take it back to the kitchen b/c they thought it was a plate
• Man I can't eat any more starchy mashed food..... seriously there is no way I can handle another week of rice, matooke, posho, beans and meat for every meal. I want a salad so badly it's not even funny.
• the peacebuilding team i was working with (mine action is part of the peacebuilding program) needed a peacemaker - we were the team that kept yelling at each other. There are some strong personalities there and I tried to stay out of it but as the fastest typer I was stuck trying to type what they were yelling at each other....
• Went to the biggest market in the north on friday with betty, naomi and robinah. It was intense. Betty and I were the only non-Ugandans there and everything imaginable was there. We actually got lost in the market
• women aren't supposed to wear pants so we all got stared at a lot.
• We had a dance party on Saturday night - crazy fun...
• the rest of the staff is really fun and we laughed all the time usually at each other...
• Christa arrived and is currently meeting with evelyn, we took her out in kampala yesterday
• Went to the really good indian restuarant (oh my god so good after a week of traditional food), went craft shopping then out to the kisube tombs where a bunch of buganda kings are buried and then to the ndere centre for a night of african song and dance. super fun day but really really tiring as I left Loro at 730 am and got to bed at 1230....
• now we're getting ready to head up north to show christa the projects before heading out to the area near the conglese border so probably won't hear much from me til Saturday or Sunday.... carrying up a bag full of chocolate for the teams up north.

I have the most amazing friends

I was so confused at lunch when Julius handed me two slips saying I had a package at the post office. I have ordered some books from Lonely Planet.com but I couldn't figure out what the other package was. When Henry got back from town with the packages I was amazed to find both were care packages from my friends. They sent me all sorts of things I would never have thought to ask for but I do miss, eg. more bits of cosmo (funny how alike my friends and my sister think), globe style, jiffy pop, zoolander, tons of candies, wild sweet orange tea and A GINGER MOLASSES COOKIE (the kind I love from Starbucks - it's not even that stale thanks to ziplock). I already ate the fruit salad candies (I shared them with everyone here) they taste very different when we're not drinking a bottle of wine in the cafeteria ha ha ha. My friends are amazing - I love you girls!!!

I don't get it

so i'm sitting here at my desk just after lunch hanging out with some of the newly hired health and food security people. Jeff is telling what is apparently a hilarious story about how he survived an ambush while on a bus going back to boarding school. He and his friend had to jump out of the bus and run into the bush. The woman who was sitting with them was in such shock that she couldn't run so they had to carry her - the theory is that she froze from the shock of watching the people seated in front and behind them be shot to death. A large number of the people on the bus were killed and their bodies burnt along with the bus while the ones who escaped had to run through the bush for kilometres. The other guys find parts of this story really amusing but i don't get it.

I got a package!!!

So on Monday I got a package from home. So excited - now have four dvds to watch, bits of a cosmo magazine to read, a new shirt, earrings, and some candies. mmmm gummi bears - I never thought it would be so difficult to get gummi candies here but man it's been difficult. Ate one little bag that night but I'm hording the other package. Yesterday was ridiculous as I finished everything on the to-do list by about 10am so I spent my afternoon helping Evelyn shop at mec.ca for a bag and a laptop backpack which my dad will bring down. pretty funny actually - no one here had ever shopped online because no one really has credit cards so it was sort of a novelty. it's been a rough week for the city - uchumi a grocery store in Garden City the big mall had a fire that burnt for like 12 hours so I've lost one of my three favourite feels like home grocery stores and it was the second closest one. I dont' know what other stores were damaged but I kinda liked garden city felt very homey. Same day the taxis went on strike to protest a new law about having speed governers (not really a bad idea some of these drivers are a little on the scary side). Oh my poor adopted city.....

Long Day

The rest of the week went quite well. The training was fine almost fun though I definitely noticed the lack of computer training in some of the other participants. It took me a second to realize that I had computer class or school work involving computers since the Oregon Trail days back at Monterey and that is definitely not normal here. I attended my first national monthly mine action coordination meeting - NGO politics and government relations are really interesting and kinda annoying. Luckily we tend to take a neutral stance so I don't have to be involved.
Yesterday was a long day. I was up for 24 hours straight actually. Got up at 515 am to be ready for the nature walk at Katereke Prison Ditch. This is where the Kabaka (the Bugandan king) imprisioned and killed almost all the princes and princesses in order to consolidate his hold on power in the 1880s. It was cool to see the history and get out in the countryside. However I should mention that it appears that the nature walking group is seriously focused on birdwatching. All morning people would come up to Jessica and I to ask how many birds we'd seen so far. I think a number of them think we're crazy as are mzungus who joined a local birdwatching club but have absolutely no interest in birds. We have both discussed how if we were to get into birdwatching now is the perfect time as we are in the world bird watching capital but I just can't seem to find any way to get it to interest me.
After that I went home for an hour or so then back out to Game this sort of Canadian Tire/WalMart type store to buy a toaster oven. Turns out they cost 220 000 shillings so I bought a plain toaster instead for 30 000 so that means that I can have toast every other day now (only works on days I have power of course). Since Game is right by Jess' I took a boda up the hill to hang out. Ended up staying there for dinner and then watching romancing the stone (don't ask - we watch what we can find) before going out to meet her friend's cousin who lives here. There was a huge group of Pamela's (the cousin of Jess' friend) friends and they party hard. Started out a place called FatBoyz which was just like any other pub/bar anywhere. Then went to Katch the Sun which was a sort of cool restaurant bar type place which is all outside with a big campfire etc. Finally ended up at Rouge which appears to be the local answer to RJ at home. There we ran into about 80% of the national mine action programme, well ok - me and Jess, three of the guys from MAT (though we only knew 2 of them), and the IMSMA IT guy from UNDP. It was really nice to be out somewhere with a big group and run into other people you knew - made me feel like I actually live here and know people. Not quite as alone here. Plus the boys from MAT were able to give me a ride home b/c their compound is up just past me and they have access to their vehicle 24/7 - Free Ride Amazing!!!!(ok sure we did get lost and had to drop off some midly bitchy girls who knew a friend of one of the guys but still better than a 10 000 shilling taxi ride by myself). Ended up getting home at 515 am. So if you scroll back up you will notice that that is exactly 24 hours after I got up......
Could be why I kinda feel like hell right now. But honestly how often does one get to go out here with 20 locals, dance the night away to everything from North American top 40, to local music, to Congolese dance music, to Indian bangra music, to salsa and a frightening array of enrique, ricky martin, shakira and other 'latin invasion' music from about 5 years ago?

Canadian Dinner

I made dinner for the office last night. It was shake and bake chicken, 'ceasar' salad (the closest dressing I could find), garlic bread and pasta with tomato sauce. It went over really really well - everyone loved it. They are all impressed with my cooking and how little time it took to make even though I thought it took a long time. Apparently cooking a meal here should take at least an hour.... Definitely have better things to do with my time than spend over an hour cooking dinner every night - occasionally sure but not every night. I hopefully will have photos added to the album by the time you read this.
This week I had a pleasantish surprise I've been allowed to go the national IMSMA training. It's a big data system for mine action which is being implemented here and used in a ton of countries around the world. We're only supposed to send one person but b/c I smiled big and spoke french to the guy from geneva who is doing the training I get to go along with Susan. The system is actually not that hard and it is a really good career skill if I want to continue in mine action. Funnily enough today the guy one of the other NGOs pretty much told me that if I wanted to stay here and I was IMSMA trained I could get a job with them. I don't know about that but nice to know I have options. Anyways it's almost the whole week of training so it'll keep me busy then Susan and I will have to train everyone on the system.
Just chatting with my friend Chris over MSN and we're discussing why I can't really look to some countries for funding since they haven't signed the Mine Ban Treaty and the conversation has reminded me how unbelievably stupid these weapons are and why I'm here.....

I got lost!!!

Well I felt so much better after ranting in that last post plus I talked to my friend Ben who is another mine action intern (he’s in India) and he was feeling the same way. It’s really good that we have each other all over the world who are all going through similar things b/c we can be each other’s support network. Technology is crazy – I can call my sister for free over yahoo messenger, text message Heath in Tblisi Georgia and Meg is middle of nowhere Mozambique, and chat on line with friends all over the world. It helps so much.
Last night was another expat night at Bubble’s (the Irish pub) with Jess and her roomies. We did a much better job of mingling and chatting with other ppl – I am working on this whole need to make friends thing. It was a fun night but I’m not too sure how happy Julius was about having to let me in at like 240 in the morning. Ah well what can you do?

I got lost for the first time today. Seriously lost. I got in the wrong taxi and ended up pretty much in a slum. Ok the paved road above the slum. It was ridiculous I went to the right spot in the taxi park, asked one of the girls already in the taxi if it was going to kamwokja and she said yes. Next thing I know I’m going the wrong way and I ended up at the far end of Bombo road…. Which apparently isn’t exactly the best part of town. So I waited until another woman got off and got off too. I asked her for directions and she must have been either Congolese or Rwandan b/c she only spoke French. I just crossed the road and got in a taxi going back into town – back to the taxi park to try again…..
I got in the right taxi this time and got to the wildlife authority to ask about gorilla visit permits. I have to bring like 750 buck US on Monday so my dad and I can go trekking in the hills to see the mountain gorillas. Excited for that.
Spent much of today shopping, I finally got some survenir-y type thing for my place. A really nice hand woven shawl (kinda like a pashmina) to wear when it’s cold in the office etc that doubles as a blanket on my couch, a basket to put my cutlery in and a mask. Now I’m so tired that I opted to not go to the house/techno/trance party on the beach in Entebbe I was invited to well tired plus can’t say that house/techno and trance music would motivate me to go all the way to Entebbe…..
Ah well I guess that’s all for now. Have a great weekend.
PS may be developing a bit of an addiction to prison break as the entire first season is on the server so i have like 20 episodes to watch....