12.4.14

Still fighting it.

I'm alive! Limited battery power drives me to write like the wind.

The internet at my site, which was wonderfully beautiful for two months, completely stopped working despite the fact that there is a large tower on our campus. The school's explanation for this is that bees built a nest on the antenna and the phone company hasn't come out to fix it yet. So for now I'm in the nearest town where I can actually get signal, but the restaurant I'm at doesn't have any outlets so laptop is dying quickly.

At the end of March I attended an HIV/AIDs workshop in the middle of the northern region in a town called Gulu. It really reenergized me to see everyone and to know that as a volunteer I'm not just one things. Education is my primary assignment but I can also work on HIV/AIDs and malaria as it relates to informing my school and community about prevention and treatment. I also left my computer charger cord at the hotel there (BOO) so I've been using one of my staff's cord, but he's leaving in a few days (ALSO BOO). The hotel hasn't found it yet, if they ever do. Trying to buy one here is proving challenging but not impossible. It just makes things inconvenient.

April is World Malaria Month and April 25 is World Malaria Day, so in the last full week of this month I'm working with some of my tutors to do activities related to those things, like getting someone from our local health centre to come and speak, and having a quiz show at the end of the week to see what the students have learned.

Malaria is a crazy big killer in Uganda, but only about 13% of the country sleep under nets. It keeps children from school, damages the pregnancies of women, and keeps people from working and supporting their families. Peace Corps Uganda is dedicated to working on building awareness, net distribution, prevention strategies, and treatment options for all Ugandans. Malaria is preventable and we're working to get Uganda rid of it once and for all.

At the end of this month, a few days before term ends I'll be headed to Kampala for our In-Service Training, which is basically where we talk about what we've been doing for the past three months at site and tentatively plan out our two years in country and the projects we want to work on. It'll be the first time our entire training group has been together since our swearing-in in January, and I'm really excited to see everyone.

Gotta hit the supermarket before heading back home, and gotta work on my budget for malaria projects. Everybody, stay well.

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