I woke up this morning to the sound of the bell falling off the safety gate at the top of the stairs. It was 6am and the boys were excited to see if Santa came. The girls were still sleeping, surprisingly. I was half awake when I first heard them, thinking back on the past year, and all the ups and downs that came with it. Its amazing how seeing the Christmas joy in four children can make you

So, I've been home for 3 months now, and I haven't posted in 7.5 months, but everyday I think back and remember all the good and bad times in Uganda. I think about the friends I left and try to figure out when I will go back.My classrooms were finished as much as they were going to be: with your help Bududa Primary School has four new classrooms for the wonderful, beautiful and extraordinary

so I'm back in Uganda and things are okay. I haven't done anything really, but its been okay. The project has been slow to take off again since we stopped work when I left. We are hoping to get started again, but as with eveything else in uganda, we have hit some bumps in the road. We had a meeting yesterday to try to figure out our way forward, and we have decided to take a new estimate and make

Thank you again to everyone who has supported me and my project in Bududa. I am very happy to say that we have begun our work this past week and we are making amazing progress. Monday we went out and bought supplies. We priced things and decided to buy most of our things in the village because the price was the same and we felt it was better to bring the business to the village rather than spend

so life has been good in this part of the world...i can't really complain about how things have been going... so to start off with, i want to say thank you to all of you that have supported my school infrastructure project. you're support and help has already made a huge impact in bududa. A project update for you all: we have organized the people and on monday we are beginning the construction.

Okay, so I've been a slacker on this posting thing...I do sincerly apologize. Things here are good. I am teaching still, but am getting ready to back up a bit on that. As I mentioned earlier, I am trying to raise funds to do some infrastructure development at my primary school. Thanks to all your continued support, I am doing well with my fund raising and hope to begin that project soon. That

I'm sorry that this has taken so long and that I've been gone from my blog posting for so long, but things have been good and busy. I have been having very many dentist appointments (uugh) which means I have been in Kampala too much lately. I have also been teaching, still, and trying to do the same things as before. The biggest news is the approval of my school infrastructure project. Click

now i have some funny stories to tell you....well at least one ayway....so tonight i was taking a shower (nothing too rare, but it was kinda funny). well as i was wetting my hair, i look across the bathroom and theres a stream of water coming out of the wall. now there were two open pipes in the wall but they never sprouted water before so this was rather puzzling to me. i turned off the shower

So, what have I been up to…it has been school break so there hasn’t been much in the way of teaching going on…but I have been trying to update the books at the vocational school and relax a little bit. Barbara had a crafts course for local women to learn how to weave plastic baskets (think Easter baskets) and make jewelry. I helped with that and learned quite a bit too. We have also formed a

so yea...things have been good. today as i was riding into town i realized how amazing people here are...well i guess i didn't just realize it but it struck me again. i know i can never put it into words so you fully understand it, but i will try... as i was leaving my village, a local man was digging in his garden...now this is the same man that fixes the bicycles for the locals...however this

so life here in uganda, is well very ugandan...and some aspects are quite disturbing to me...mostly on the hand of childrens rights and child abuse. this post might be slightly disturbing and it in no way describes how all or even most ugandans feel about these issues, however they are two instances that have really caused me dismay in recent times. now, i'm not sure if i should write most of

yes, i know, its been 2 months since i've posted. i also know that i'm a slaker, but the problem is that life has become very common. nothing changes...not much becomes exciting. so i'll try to write about something worthwhile. schools have started up again. this has made things busy again. i am still teaching at the college, and working with the primary schools...but i've also started a new

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays for those of you that don't celebrate any of the first ones (I can't leave anyone out now can I?) Things here have been good. I have returned from Cairo and am back in Uganda. I am happy to be back "home". Yes, I now call Uganda home, which I am taking to be a good sign of integration into the culture. I went to Cairo to visit my friend Su for

well its beginning to look a lot like christmas? well africa style, which means nothings changed at all because the weather isn't cold and noone decorates from lack of money, but christmas is 3 days away... its 3 days away, and i'm being a baby about a stupid spider bite that is a week old. well i guess i have a right to be a baby since my whole arm got infected and by the time i made it to my

well of all the things i imagined while i was home that could happen while I was in uganda, the last thing i could have imagined would be an ebola virus outbreak. its nothing too much to worry about, even though it could easily kill me if i happened to contract it...the truth is though, that its not in my area, so i'm not too concerned just yet. other than that things here in uganda are great.

hello all...no i am not dead, and no i have not forgotten about you -- i've just been keeping busy... so what have i done in the past month and a half...well i will try to sum as much of it up as i can. i moved into my new home (pictures are uploaded of my new place!) and i love it. my village is wonderful, the people are wonderful, my home is amazing and its nice to have other volunteers there

Well, its been a month and much has happened. I had technical training in Kampala (aka: a week of long meetings...) I have been teaching math...I gave them a test and they did very well. I am so proud of them. I went to Sipi Falls last weekend. That wasn't the greatest of times, but its okay. I was impaled on a barbed wire fence. Now for the story...I was hiking up the steep, slippery, and

well, right now i have no home. that isn't necessarily a bad thing, and in the future it will be a great thing but right now its frustrating. i am living with a family temporarily until i get a new site. i'm not sure where the new site will be yet, but hopefully i'll know within a week. other than the stresses (and joys?) of trying to find a new site, i have been going to workshops and just

i've realized since living in uganda, how precious time spent with friends is. at home in the states, theres always something to do and somewhere to go and theres no problem with going and doing it by yourself. but here in uganda, travelling alone, especially as a female, is sometimes harder and people don't usually go to eat or shop by themselves. these past few weeks i have been surrounded by

well things here have been rather busy. i had a few days of language training which has been good. it was great to see everyone and get more experience with my language. training was for 5 days and we were in town. we got to go to various markets and events to practice speaking. we also visited a children's hospital that specializes in childrens neurosurgical needs. they took us on a full tour

alright, lets try this again...i tried posting once, but it lost it and didn't post. well sorry all that its been so long since i've last posted...i've been busy but also my life is falling into a routine so there isn't much exciting that i feel i should post. so here goes the short blurbs about what's been going on. the terms at the primary school and the college have both ended which makes me

well, nothing exciting has happened lately.. just the normal...working at the primary school and the college...working on the resource room and teaching math...nothing too exciting. making new friends, and just living life in africa. things are comfortable here, and are getting better everyday. yesterday's sunset was absolutely gorgeous. i have two beautiful pictures from it and as soon as i

well, not exactly those three...but can we say: snakes and rats and termites OH MY! haha. yea well they're all normal, and don't bother me too much anymore... but i'll get to those stories in a bit...First I want to apologize that its been two weeks...but i've been busy (and apparently i'm '...' crazy today so i guess you'll have to deal with bad punctuation!) well, i guess i'll start where i

well, another week down, and more to go! this week was another fabulous one. I have begun teaching at the college which really excites me. the year II students are learning statistics from me and the year I are learning set concepts. I am really enjoying the experience and I think the students are enjoy it too. they appear to be learning and enjoying it at the same time. my biggets challenges

yea, i know, random title but i'm running out of titles...and that song has been stuck in my head for days :) anyhow.. things here have been good and busy, as usual. it is now definate: i am teaching a year 1 and a year 2 topic at the teachers college in addition to doing the classroom supervision I have mentioned in the past. I will be teaching the year 1 students Set Concepts and the year 2

things here are going really well. i have started my classroom supervision, which has been okay. i dont really enjoy it and want to be doing other things instead. but hopefully i'll be able to wean myself off of that and convince my counterpart that i'm more beneficial to him doing other things. we'll see how that goes. maybe i'll end up enjoying classroom supervision the more i do of it.. this

almost everyday when I get into a taxi, i meet my 20+ new best friends for however long the ride is and i've started to not even find it annoying anymore. well, i'm starting to settle in at site, finally. i am bringing my bike home today, and i have actually gone grocery shopping (yay i can eat!). i have spent two of the 3 weeks at site at a workshop and i had to go to kampala for a few days, so

Things lately have been good, but slow. I have now been to site for just over a week and have only been organizing my home. Its hard to do any work since the schools are on holiday. The pupils come back on Monday though, so things will start to pick up. We are in the process of trying to fix everything in my house, and I still need a bathing area, but it will get there. I have been at a 12-day