Some pictures (hopefully)

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I have been going to a bunch of villages outside of Uganda (and in a week when a friend is visiting will go to Shabbat services at the Jewish village) and finally took some pictures so I thought I'd try to post them. For some reason, I have been seeing a large number of unwanted "animals" in the past couple of days. Last night I went into my bedroom and a huge toad was jumping around. So I screamed (gut reaction, not like a big toad is going to hurt me, and not so much of a living-in-Africa-and-I-can-deal-with-bugs reaction 😊 ) and Takako, the Japanese volunteer who is also living here went in and chased it out (hmmm....then it went into her room 15 minutes later). Wells called this morning and got to hear all the roosters who wake me up. This evening as I was leaving the bathroom, the biggest cockroach I have ever seen (and I've seen flying cockroaches in Israel and big ones elsewhere) was on the edge of the bathroom. So I screeched again and the 15 (or so) year old girl who works here came and smooshed it with a flip flop. Also, they have been having problems with rats here so last night I saw these big planks of wood with something on them on the floor and was told they are to catch rats...there was glue and a bit of food. Today I walked into the "kitchen" (basically a sink and pantry, they cook on little stoves that use charcoal out on the ground outside the house) and a little mouse was rigling around, stuck on one. Most of the time, though, other than the hige spiders, things haven't been too buggy! 😊

Today I met with the Director of Sustainability and Entrepreneurship and discussed the kind of spreadsheets and information he should be gathering to figure out how much money they are making, what the pricing should be, and what items to sell. I also met with the people in charge of the community health and other community programs to talk about the metrics and evaluation criteria they should use and to encourage them to find some and get more concrete data. So I'm trying to find some standard measures to use to find out what effect the programs are having (for example they have a program to help orphans but need to follow up to see whether it's really having an effect).

This weekend, there is some kind of concert outside of a hotel here--it's Ugandan music, probably in the Lugisu language or some other language I won't understand, but I think I will go with a few volunteers and a Ugandan or two (at least one guy I work with). Saturday, some kids are having a soccer match I might watch. There is one hotel here with a pool and sauna and stuff and apparently a bunch of the foreigners go there on the weekends to hang out (and I could have a hot shower) so I might do that one day. I have a little over 3 weeks left!

Okay, I'm going to try to add some pictures now, hopefully it will work!

PS Oy, I just saw one more...a rat just ran across the floor in the computer room. Yuck, that's the only one that has really grossed me out. I just told them (and the 15 year old asked if I was scared 😊 ) and they put the traps out again. But don't worry, it's fine here, I'm in a house, it's just a tropical place and it has been raining a lot so I think that's why the various things are coming inside. I sleep in a little single bed with a mosquito net tucked into the sides so hopefully I'm safe from things in there! 😊

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Photos

More kids
Turns out they love having their picture taken. This is the village that the FDNC vocational school is in.

Mbale
This is the street the house I'm staying at is on (house is on the left behind the pole)

Dancers
Here is a performance of traditional Ugandan dancing in front of the FDNC vocational school