World Aids Day Celebration 2014 was a Success!

Let’s first say, this event took a lot of work to put it together. In Uganda, there is a certain protocol for everything you do or want to do…. You must use a strict chain of command and involve everyone; literally everyone along the chain and outside is brought in. This can cause delays and frustrations, but in the end once everyone has come together and you see who actually wants to be involved and is willing support the project, you can finally get to work. Now, the concept of volunteering is a really foreign concept. For this event, we needed volunteers to provide health information, to test people and to entertain the guests. Well, there were a few minor/major hick-ups along the. Communicating “you will volunteer?”, for example. For us we would say “yes I can” or “no I can’t”. For them, they said “Yes” then they expected money…. ? Honestly, we had to reiterate that they were not getting paid over and over, just to have them still asking “so how much do we get paid?” Thankfully in the end, thanks to great staff at the health center the receiver was able to decode the message without any noise.....yeah.

This was the 1st ever World AIDS Day Event in our town. So, it was a pretty big deal to the people involved. We kicked off with a week of HIV/AIDS outreach.  Matt and his Counterparts did an awesome job providing HIV/AIDS awareness, demonstrating correct condom use, distributing lots of condoms and encouraging people to go get tested. Overall, around 300 people were reached.

The main event was held on Saturday, and we must say it was a huge success. We ended up having more than 500 participants, which was far more than we expected. During the event, we had volunteers giving out health information in a sort of health exhibition. There was information from malaria and prevention to family planning, hand washing to tippy tap construction, HIV prevention, nutrition and breastfeeding.We were lucky to find an amazing local drama group that entertained everyone all day with songs, local dances and skits. One scene even involved a witch doctor and a live goat on stage… the audience loved it. There was a well done debate on HIV and stigma and even an audience game show that Ashley hosted. We spent a few weeks working with a group of children from a local primary school and they performed a poem, skit, rhyme and song that went over really well with the audience with its theme of “parents please get tested!” Overall the goal of the day was to have people tested so they could know their status. 

Our goal was 200 and we are happy to say the goal was reached with a total of 228 people tested!

Overall the week was a great success!

This event taught us so many lessons in planning events while in Uganda, and although we had a few struggles here and there we are excited to have the opportunity to plan more in the future with our great partner organizations.

Outreach to the local boda men

Boda Man demonstrating correct condom usage

Outreach to Mothers at a local clinic

Come and Join Us!

Matt was a "celebrity" at the event and got tested to encourage others

Volunteer teaching hand washing

Malaria Game

Volunteer giving nutrition infomration

Drama group....yes that is a goat 

They really wanted us to dance

Matt and our co-planners

Some volunteers after the event

Ashley is YouTube Famous?

Do you want to know how to kill a chicken? 

Check out this video of Ashley teaching the group during our PST. We didn’t even know this video was on YouTube until recently and apparently it is a popular search since it has had over 4,000 views. Please note this does NOT involve a real chicken, just a cute paper one Ashley made....

This is something the 3 people who didn't like the video must of not have realized! 

Anyways Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkESzzBr-SE

6 Month Update

We have officially been in country for 6 months! 

It honestly feels like way longer and way shorter at the same time; it really just depends on the day. Either way, time is going so fast but anyways… what has happened over the past 6 months?

-We are starting to get into the swing of our roles within our organization. Matt is working with his counterpart to promote HIV awareness and testing, promote hygiene and has started to work on a customer care project. Ashley is working with her counterparts to train farmers on financial literacy, forming and strengthen VSLA (Village Saving and Loans) groups and promoting nutrition.

-Matt has found that he loves matooke and will never pass it up if it is being served. Matooke= mashed and steamed plantains.

-Ashley has increased. So many people back home believed coming here would mean not eating as much and getting even skinner. Well that has not been the case, in fact Ashley is now 64.6 kilos, that is about 142.4 pounds. Compare that to the 131 she was when she arrived and that is nearly 12 pounds. At this rate we are looking at around another 42 pounds by the time we return home. Imagine.

-Most of the children in the village know our names. We have made a real effort in integrating into the community and getting to know the people around. When we walk down the streets we rarely hear “abajungu bye-eee” instead we hear “Hello Asholee/Machew”.

-For the first time in our lives we officially became millionaires….or rather shillionaires. Yes that’s right…. bank statements with 7 digit amounts…. Never thought we would see the day. (Conversion $1=roughly 2700 shillings at the current rate)

So....What have we learned??

The biggest thing.....Pineapples do not grow on trees....what?

6 months down, 21 months left to enjoy Uganda!

Randoms from the Past 6 Months 

Making a Chocolate Chip Cookie on a Sigiri

Awesome Flip Phone that Lights Up 

Ash painting nails with the kids next door

Our New Best Friends

Out of the Loop

When you think of Peace Corps you think of living out in the bush, no water, electricity or contact with the outside world. We have been very fortunate to have things we did not expect. One of which being communication. Our town has amazing cell and internet coverage to be in the middle of nowhere and this has made staying in contact with friends and family back home very easy. It has come to the point where they expect to hear from us every so often, so when they don't......they being to worry.

This past weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving in Fort Portal and headed back home Sunday morning. We noticed as we moved closer to home that our network was going in and out more than normal. By the time we reached home, one line was completely down. Let's take a moment to explain phone service in Uganda. There are three main service providers: Orange, MTN and Airtel/Warid. Unlike what commonly happens with most providers in the U.S., you do not need to sign a contract. Instead, you simply go to one of the stores or authorized dealers, buy a sim card, register it and bam..you have service . Most phones are dual sim phones so you can have two different providers on one phone. Anyways, you buy airtime (they come on little strips of paper with scratch off codes) and you load it onto your phone or have an agent apply it directly to your line. Easy enough. Getting service in Uganda is very simple. Well back to Sunday, when we arrived home our Orange (which is our line for internet and international calls) was not working. This happens occasionally but usually will be up and working within a few hours. Well, come Tuesday it was still not working, so we decided to by a new MTN line for Internet since the line had been somewhat stable to make calls every so often. No joke, as soon as we bought the sim card, MTN went down as well. Wednesday afternoon our co-workers informed us Airtel/Warid was going in and out. 

So, here we are, no contact, this is what everyone expects Peace Corps to be like. No way to get a hold of anyone, and better yet the rains came through and made the roads almost impassable. Hope we don;t need to go anywhere in a hurry. Well, magically as Ashley was joking about being isolated from the rest of the world with her co-workers.....all the services have returned. So a few days with almost no contact, only little bits of calls going through, we have experienced life with no internet and calls. For those volunteers who have/or are spending their entire service this way, props to you. So what happens when people are use to hearing from you and all of a sudden don't?

They send out a search party.....a joke......

We survived, WE ARE OK MOMS!

......you can call in the search parties now.