So I’ve been back from my future site visit and have had a
few days of training at the group training site in Entebbe. The future site
visit or FSV was great. I finally had some down time to do important things
like scrub all the red dust off my feet, organize my stuff, and watch a movie.
I was up every morning early, had breakfast with the convent, toured the
facility, had meetings, more food at the convent, then into bed by 8pm. It was
magical. Now we're back in the giant group which is nice-- I missed everyone!
St. Kizito has a ton going on and I’m so excited. It is
located on Gangama Parish in Mbale district, about a 25 min walk from the city.
In addition to the babies’ home there is a toddler home, an older child home (mostly
elementary aged children), a school, a health center, a garden, a piggery, and
a poultry farm. There are a ton of opportunities here. I’m very excited to work
with the agriculture volunteers to improve the garden so that the children will
have access to fresh vegetables year round. We’re focusing on increasing their
vitamin A and iron intake. I really want to focus on the orphanage at first and
then take the practices that I’ve worked on with the orphanage and branch into
the village. Sack gardening sounds really interesting and it’s a direct overlap
between the health sector and the Ag sector so that’s cool. It’d be really
interesting to have a “Mommy and Me” type group and work on sack gardening/nutrition,
hygiene/pressure sores, and malaria outreaches with them. It’s incredible how
everything really is everyone’s problem. Like I can talk to the caregiviers at
the home or the mothers in the village about proper nutrition until I’m blue
but if they can’t afford it or don’t have access to it then it really doesn’t
matter. I foresee a lot of gardening in my future and that’s totally cool. I feel like I have all these projects that
NEED to get done and I can’t wait to start. I’m overwhelmed, but in a good way,
if that makes any sense.
It’s nuts how short my time seems here. The more people talk
about the future and what’s going on in the coming months I feel like my
service is almost over and it’s barely started. Like by the time I start to
make real progress they’ll be chirping about my COS (close of service). Most of
you probably think I’m crazy but it’s true. It might be because I’ve met a
bunch of PCVs who are getting ready to COS.
I love love love the group I’m stationed with in Mbale. We
all get along really well and all have something completely different to offer.
We’re in a good spot too. Not so close that we’ll be up in each other’s grills
all the time, but not too far away that we can’t sneak into town for a cup of
coffee and a support session. The current PCVs in the area are pretty awesome
too, but we’re losing a bunch of them in December.
So we still don’t know where we will be for our tech week,
but rumor has it that it’s somewhere in the North. Hopefully Arua where the
cool kyetengue is! Obv I should blow as much money on dresses and fabric as I
can. Who needs to eat?
I miss cold milk. And real coffee. And pens that work. And
the dog. But I love it here! Couldn't imagine being anywhere else!
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