Halfway point

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Our week was short but good. Last weekend we went to Jinja for a "hike" (aka short mosey through the woods) but it was really pretty and we saw some monkeys and some really cool trees. On Sunday, we had a birthday party at our house, since 4 of my teammates have June or July birthdays. We invited the other teams over, and Hannah made pineapple upside down cake over a coal stove -- very impressive. It was a lot of fun, and now that she figured out the cake, I'm hoping we're going to do some more experimental cooking in the future.
Workwise, Monday we had a drama group come do a show about HIV which people seemed to really enjoy. Then we had HIV and syphilis testing on Tuesday which a lot of people showed up for. We mobilized for both, moving house to house repeating a phrase in Lusoga that we wrote down, inviting people to come. The men are reluctant to come, but we did have a few so that was good. Wednesday and Thursday we had our first malaria sensitizations in Nabukone and Namungawe. Not very many people showed up (~20 in Nabukone and less than 10 in Namungalwe) because of poor mobilization by us and by the VHTs and because there were burials going on both days. It was a good learning experience for us though and hopefully the people that came got something out of it.
Today we had our midterm debrief in Iganga, and got to hear what all the other groups are doing. Its exciting to hear about whats been going well for them, and also is nice to see how what my team does fits into the bigger picture of sustainable development that UVP is working on. Tomorrow we are heading to Sipi falls to do some real (I hope) hiking. Its supposed to be spectacular so I'm pretty excited. I'm charging up my camera battery so I'll take lots of pictures.
The weather has been kind of weird the whole time we've been here. The rain is supposed to end around the beginning of June, but its been raining almost every day, although less in my village than some of the others. I guess climate change has been really abrupt and noticeable here. I don't know enough about it to understand why. The first week we were here, we got caught in a hail storm which was really unexpected and I think pretty damaging for the crops which is really unfortunate. The major thing in the last week has been lightening. Several people have died, including a bunch of children apparently (one of the burials going on during our sensitization was for a child who'd been struck by lightening). We haven't been able to figure out if the lightening is a rare or strange occurrence, or if its just one more thing these people have to deal with on a regular basis. Every person we ask says something difference. I'm safe though, and haven't been caught in any major weather since the hail storm.
I can't believe this trip is 1/2 over. The last month has gone really quickly. At the same time, I feel like I've been gone for a very long time so its hard to think that I'll still be gone for another month. Things are really good though and I'm very happy here. I like my team a lot, and I'm looking forward to some of the activities we have coming up, especially nutrition sensitizations. I'm hoping to take more of an active, leadership role in those. I'm also hoping that we're going to do some more work with the schools, so I'm excited about that.

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