Long after the lift from my daily cup of Caro’s awesome ginger coffee has worn off, after the morning tea has been cleared, lunch has been eaten, and the office has partially emptied for the afternoon, I often find myself fighting tears on the front porch, despite the antics of HAU’s resident chicken. Unfortunately, I can no longer tell if the pit in my stomach can be blamed on my absence from my family—missing my grandparents’ yearly visit, traditional Father’s Day cinnamon buns, and hearing the wail of a half-trained middle-school musician playing the trumpet—or my impending departure from HAU. After what must have been around one-hundred hours spent in the shade of the tent in HAU’s front yard; drinking tea with Nomulinda, trying to get Julius to dance with me, and telling Junior he’s stubborn—totally, completely too stubborn—in Luo (Ayella, I tye layella—matek tutwal!) I can’t say for sure anymore that I wish I was home. I wish I could stay here longer. I wish I had a month left instead of a week. Heck, I like rice and beans now. I wish I could take one of these nice Acholi guys up on their offers of marriage (bridewealth of 15 cows? Not too shabby for a muzungu) and settle down here in Gulu. My family could move. I’m sure my mom would prefer the constant 85 degree weather of Northern Uganda to the thermometer roller-coaster of North Carolina. Were it not for the absence of my mom, dad, brother and sister, this place would be perfect. So I’m left divided: stuck in an uncomfortable double-bind where I must choose something, but both options hurt to think about. The half-joking insistence of my co-workers that I should stay (‘You’re not black yet’ ‘One more month and you would know so much more Luo’) is less than helpful, though now I’m entertaining dreams of the Peace Corps. If only I could be assured I’d end up in Gulu... I’m tearing up already—and despite what appearances would suggest, I’m not a naturally weepy person. I keep reminding myself that the United States is full of great people—people I love, awesome people I have yet to meet—but at the moment, I feel like a pouty child. I don’t want /those/ people. I want /these/ people. My announcement that GlobeMed had allocated funds to heli-lift the HAU compound (and everyone inside) to Chapel Hill drew laughs.  Friday, the team’s last day at HAU, is going to be tough. I have a feeling that many hugs will be exchanged.

But back at home my mother is reportedly counting down the seconds until she can retrieve me from the airport, and is making plans to take me out for metaphorical mountains of frozen yogurt (which, in the steamy, AC-less realm of Gulu sounds like heaven) and I have to determine if my brother is now tall enough for me to rest my chin on his shoulder. I have gifts to distribute to friends and family, a physician to shadow, and a visit to my cousins and grandfather planned. So at least I’ll be busy. But I think it’s impossible not to miss this place once you’ve let the roads tear up the soles of your shoes and the dust ingrain itself permanently in your favorite pair of jeans.

On the business side of things, scholarships are going swimmingly! With a shortlist of 9 lined up to interview on Monday, food and drinks ordered, and the District Education Officer contacted, met (apparently I reminded him of one of last year’s GROW team members—he was pleased), and slotted to sit on the selection committee, things are winding to a close almost as quickly as they sprang to life. By the end of tomorrow, we will have selected the three students to be visited at home and, by the end of the week, awarded vocational scholarships. With my mistrust of motorbikes mostly conquered, fuel costs should be kept at the bare minimum, and even considering a slight underestimation of how much food for the interviews would bite into the budget, things look to be in the all-clear. I’m excited I’m going to get to be out in the field again: after the loss of the Land Cruiser, I’ve been on the front lines less often. If I scrape together enough free time, I hope to help Zach wrap up on goats and seed lending too. If we’re lucky, the team will get to visit the national park sometime this week (though I have a sinking feeling that the plans won’t quite work out). In either case, it’s working up to be a busy week!  I’m excited, and already planning to make use of every spare scrap of free time to take pictures of Gulu and staff members, videoing around the office, and generally speaking have a ball of a time finding things to remind myself of this place long after I leave.

Well, I better go find a mop to sop up all these salty, salty tears I’ve been soaking Caro’s floor with.  Until next time, you stay classy, San Diego. 

Unfortunately, I've found that my desire to write blog posts is seriously undermined by my desire to go on field visits and talk with my co-workers, and the longer I wait to write a new post, the less I want to start! However, with some prodding from my mother (who insists that she wants to know what I'm doing) I guess I should probably try to hop back on the blog bandwagon, and recount what has come to pass in the last week or so. On account of my failing memory, I can't exactly give a blow by blow or even day by day account, but I'll do my best! In disappointing news, the internet has been too slow of late to upload more than one or two photos at a time, even though I've been taking more than ever! So prepare for a picture storm when I get back home in just over two weeks! 

This past week was fairly slow for me as an individual member of the GROW team, because all I had to do in terms of scholarships (for the most part) was just wait for people to turn their applications in! I did make it out to St. Joseph Tech, where Collins--one of last year's scholarship recipients--attends a carpentry program. After taking pictures of him and his previous work, and asking him about his experience in the program and the problems he has faced, I have a better grasp of what really supporting a scholarship recipient entails. Unfortunately, I'm beginning to realize that there is only so much I can do, given the financial limitations of the program and my own status. I can't wave a magic wand and banish HIV stigma among school administrators, and it is not currently possible to continue to support scholarship recipients after the completion of the school program--buying them the materials or space that they need to really start a business. It's a problem I've brought up both with my fellow GROW team members and HAU staff, but thus far we have yet to come up with a solution that is feasible. 

Despite the lull in the scholarship program, there were still places to visit and things to do--tagging along with HAU staff on routine outreaches. I spent a day in Alero with The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) talking with a local public health leader and attended an HIV testing event in lovely, lovely Pece (the sub-county in which Gulu is located). I learned how to ride (read: sit on) a motorcycle and figured out the difference between bodas and bikes (boda is to bike as taxi is to car). Thursday brought another disappointing fourth place loss at BJz quiz night, and on Friday, Julia and I moved out of the Hotel Diamond and into our coworker Caro's house. Saturday, the UNC GROW team met up with Columbia for one of the Columbia team member's twentieth birthday. We headed out to BJz again for dancing, which was an absolute blast! No one even laughed at my dancing, which is more than I can say for my daily dance sessions at the HAU office. All the same, Sunday was the highlight of the week: the long-awaited Sunday youth program, which had not been held since December, was held from 10:00-1:00. Traditional dance, drumming, children's games and educational programming (not to mention lunch, yum!)  kept me running from one age group to the next, taking pictures and videos (which as of yet I haven't been able to upload) and tagging along to the restaurant that was hired to cater the event to pick up more food. So far, we've gotten a really positive response, which is fantastic!

In other news, I've been buckling down to learn some Acholi (which is much like the better-known East African language, Luo) before I leave. So far, I think the only things I've mastered are 'lateen owubi, copa no?' (little boy, how are you?) and 'a maro lafofo' (I like the butterfly), but just give me two weeks and I'll come back trilingual.

Until then, you stay classy, San Diego! 

Today, having traveled to Pagoda for our weekend email checking (it’s an affair: it takes several minutes to even get logged into my email account), the GROW team was greeted by some fantastic news: someone donated 5,000$ to GlobeMed at UNC’s online fundraiser. As this was half of our entire fundraising goal for this past year, we were ecstatic! We had been having to limit our projects due to funding—85 PMTCT Mama kits instead of 100, youth health and awareness programs quarterly rather than every other month, three vocational school scholarships rather than four. But now I'm sure that next year we can expand these programs and more! I am so happy—and we’re all so grateful to the anonymous donor who gave it.  I hope GlobeMed can do all the good they hoped us to with this funding, and exceed their expectations. There is no doubt in my mind that it will change lives!

Most of the remainder of the week was spent planning for the field visits we have going on next week, as well as next Sunday’s youth program! We’re expecting a turn-out of about 250! There’s a lot to organize—programs, meals, activities for the kids—I’m working with the youth over fifteen years with Zach and several staff members. There will be traditional dancing and drumming accompanying the lessons, which focus on health and hygiene, sexual education, living positively (for those who are HIV positive), and drug adherence. It should turn out fantastically, and everyone is excited for it. In other news, scholarship application are coming in, and I am planning to visit Collins--a scholarship recipient I had previously interviewed-- at his school, and close out the goat project with Zach, hopefully this coming week.

Late this week, an HAU client named Opiyo Benson arrived at the office who was deaf and spoke sign language. With some help from Junior (and HAU staff member who had taken a course on sign language) I was able to pick up a little myself! I can say ‘My name is Clara’, ‘I want [whatever]’ and ‘I like [whatever]’ as well as a dozen or so assorted words to stick in the blanks. It was one of the highlights of my week, and Benson tried to teach me sign language for several hours. I'm going to try to keep up with it (and learn more!) by talking to Junior and Stella, who also took the course on sign language.  

The GROW team also attended corporate night on Friday at Dianna’s Gardens—a bar with an expansive lawn. The last time the team had visited Dianna’s Gardens was with Emma during the week to watch a soccer game. The place had seemed a little overly-large at the time—the space was a luxury, rather than an necessity. But going to corporate night showed me that on Fridays every inch of that yard was necessary to pack in the hundreds of people who turned out. It was busy enough that we struggled to find each-other once separated for any reason, and while I talked and danced with two of my coworkers, I missed two others entirely! It was a lot of fun though, and it was interesting to notice some of the cultural differences between the United States and Uganda that became apparent through dance.

At high school proms, in college frats, in many of the hip and happening dance clubs all around America, its fairly rare to see a guy dancing on his own—unaccompanied by a lady (at least in my experience). A woman might dance on her own, but will quickly be picked up to dance by a prowling guy. Among the young folks, one kind of dancing predominates: a rather provocative front-to-back one. However, at Dianna’s gardens, whole groups of men danced all on their own, just for the fun of dancing. Guys did frequently ask girls do dance, but when they accepted, the dancing was mostly of a front-to-front nature, bodies not touching, or touching only at the chest. The music, too, was also different: fast and upbeat, and often lacking the throbbing bass characteristic of American dance music. While I swallowed any insecurity, my tried and true Carolina dance moves (Bernie, anyone? Wobble?) seemed incredibly out of place among the swarms of people with a shoulder-shimmying, upper-body heavy dance style. Oh well! The team will probably go back again next Friday, giving me a chance to ask one of the staff members for some dance lessons.

See you on the dance floor, and keep it classy, San Diego! 

While much of the staff was out in the field on Tuesday, the GROW team remained in the office to lend a hand with cleaning out the storage unit attatched to HAU. With dozens of newly delivered boxes of condoms blocking out the light inside the office for a few weeks, being able to see out the front window again was a relief! I never realized how many motorbikes HAU had. After all of them were taken out of storage, I realized there were 14! I'm looking forward to the creation of an HAU motorcycle gang, mobilized in all of Gulu's streets to deliver both condoms and knowledge!  

The empty storage unit was scrubbed down, then everything was placed right back in again--with the addition of the new condoms. It might be quick and easy to type in a blog post, but in practice, it takes a bit!

Tuesday also marked the day that Zach and Josh moved out of the hotel and into Francis's house for just under two weeks before Julia and I replace them. Francis may not be at home because he's taking tests in Kampala, but his two youngest children and his two house workers are there. By the time I move in, though, he should be back! I'm looking forward to it-- it seems like its a great experience! 

In other news-- today is dress day! This afternoon after work I'm going to go to the dressmakers to pick up my dress. Fingers crossed that it will look as great as I hope it will! Hopefully I'll be back with good news (and pictures). Until then, stay classy San Diego!

After a dip into the budget, HAU's internet service has returned! Which leaves me in the sticky situation of having to update my blog after having been absent for over a week! I don't mind playing catch-up, but I find myself struggling to remember everything that's happened over the course of the last ten days or so. 

On our first Saturday in Gulu, the GROW team successfully completed their first load of hand-washed laundry, which we deemed a minor victory. This past Saturday, we were informed by the staff of the Hotel Diamond that we had, in fact, been doing it entirely wrong. Whoops! Better go buy some more laundry soap and brush up on my scrubbing skills. We also ventured out into the market--a vast complex of stalls selling everything from brooms to shoes and great, blackened, every so fishy-smelling fish. There were whole clear plastic crates of what first appeared to be silver shavings, but which, upon closer examination, were found to be thousands and thousands of tiny dry fish. Here, Zach and Josh ordered their 'party shirts'--custom made, gaudily patterned shirts which I am endlessly amused by. This week they went back to order one more each, while I'm getting two dresses made--one for myself, and one for my sister. 

Sunday has been officially declared our 'chill' day, and for the most part we just hung out at the hotel and napped.

Monday brought with it PMTCT Mama kit evaluations. The whole team visited the homes of seven mothers who had given birth using the Mama kits, and all the children old enough to be tested for HIV were negative! Such exciting news! I had lots of fun playing with the children in the outer Gulu area--they loved to have their pictures taken, and always seemed so surprised to see themselves in the photo. Groups of ten or twelve would run out of houses and follow us, waving and giggling and shouting 'muzungu muzungu muzungu!' (another word for white foreigner). All and all it was a great day--though afterwards I slept like a rock.

The team attended the funeral of Pamela's (an HAU staff member) nephew. The ceremony was held outdoors, and many members of the community had come out to honor his memory and support his family. While differences existed, I was struck by the similarity of the service to the ones held in the United States--there was a eulogy, hymns were sung, the coffin was carried by family members to the grave, and the ceremony was followed by a meal. In essence and structure it was almost identical, though differences could be found in the details. Those who attended the funeral were expected to give some small sum of money to the family of the deceased, which I have not before experienced, close female relatives of the deceased cried very vocally--wailing and beating their legs--and a ceremony was preformed in which flowers were placed on the coffin by different groups of family and friends in turn. It was a touching experience, and an intimate look into local culture. 

Later in the week we went on a field visit to Amuru (a district in Northern Uganda) with almost the entirety of HAU's staff: an hour-long very bumpy drive though grassland. It was market day, and with the speakers blasting Uganda's top forty hits, quite a crowd was gathered. With Julius--another staff member--manning the microphone, informing the public that HIV testing, counseling and free condoms were available, quite a crowd gathered. The children--not quite as used to muzungus as the kids in Gulu--would run away every time a GROW member turned to look at them at first, but over the course of the six or seven hours we were in the field, they slowly lost their fear, and were willing to sit next to us as we worked. All in all, a few more than 180 people were tested, which I thought was a great turn out--though Julius and Stella told me that it was one of the smaller outreach programs. I also got the opportunity to eat chicken liver with my hands! It was... Interesting. And messy! Stella and Julius, who took me out to lunch, did a lot of laughing at me. 

Thursday was trivia night at BJ's--unfortunately Team Julius Maximus (the GROW team plus Julius and Emma) failed to fill the footprints of last year's team, getting 13 out of 30 points, but tying for fourth place anyway. Better luck next time!

The weekend passed much the same as it had last week, with Saturday bringing a trip to Achumi (the largest supermarket in Gulu) and the market, where I ordered my dresses and Josh and Zach ordered more shirts, and another batch of laundry, while Sunday was devoted to relaxing at the hotel and meandering around Gulu. 

On Monday, the team participated in condom distribution to two health clinics in Bobi and Oyam district, where we were able to take a look at the labs in which the doctors worked, read the health information posters in the open-air waiting areas (Forget size-- you mean you're not circumcised? : Circumcision reduces the risk of HIV) and watch two men locked in a battle of wits over a mancala board while we dropped off boxes of condoms.

Which brings us back to today! Now that I'm caught up, I'll leave you with one of my new favorite songs, as heard on radios all over Gulu, to celebrate. You stay classy, San Diego! 

HAU is currently without internet! While the issue is being resolved, we're hopping from restaurant to restaurant, searching for free WiFi so we can do work, but its been tough. So, in the meantime, to my family and anyone else keeping up with me, not to worry! I'm still here, and I'm doing fine, I just haven't been able to find the internet to upload blog posts on a daily basis! Hope to get hooked up again super soon, but for now I've got to jog back to the office! 

All the same, you stay classy, WiFi Nation!  

Early in the week (Tuesday, I think) Zach and I had planned to go to do some community outreach today with several of the HAU staff members--we were really excited, because this sort of activity is part of the core of what HAU does. Therefore, we were equally disappointed when it turned out that the Land-Rover needed maintenance  so a smaller vehicle had to be used, so Zach and I couldn't go. So, we were left in the office for the day, with a good portion of the staff away for community outreach. 

Day three at HAU was dominated by a five hour seminar held in a tent behind Health Alert about enacting successful change in the workplace. It was really relevant considering all of the changes that HAU is trying to bring about right now--there was recent downsizing in which seven staff were dropped, but programs are being expanded to address issues of malaria and water safety as well, which mean an increased workload on fewer people. We discussed how it was necessary to ensure that both the leader of the team, the team itself, and all those affected by the change must all understand the change, feel comfortable that it is for the best, and trust the team working to make the change. It was interesting and helpful, but it took up most of the day! The team didn't have much time to get any more work done. 

I feel like I've been working so hard and its so warm here without AC that all I've been able to do beyond working at HAU is sleep! So for anyone who was hoping to hear me recount my extensive adventures exploring Uganda, I'm afraid you'll have to be disappointed - at least until the weekend.  So far I think the most pulse-pounding experience I've had is when the shower door (which is heavy and metal) got wedged stuck in the concrete door frame, and it took me ten minutes to attract someone's attention by knocking on the door and calling to get me out. That shower has now lost my trust. The other shower will be getting my patronage exclusively. Hmph. My most engaging evening was spent watching the ninth episode of the first season of Game of Thrones with Zach and Josh while they cuddled up with their Nile Specials.  

Everyone here is very friendly, though--it is not unusual for a waitress to sit down at the table with me and the rest of the GROW team when we eat out, ask us where we're from, and tell us how glad they are that we're visiting Uganda. 

So far, everywhere I've eaten the food has been very good though it seems pretty uniform from one restaurant to another-- chips with fish, chicken or beef, rice with fish, chicken, beef or beans, cassava and sweet potatoes (which look and have a texture exactly like that of plain old boring Idaho potatoes but have a faintly sweet flavor) can be found everywhere cheaply. A plate of rice and chicken might run you 6,000 Ugandan shillings, or the equivalent of $2.32. There is an Ethiopian restaurant that serves Ethiopian food, but my soft tongue for spicy food has kept me from ordering anything more interesting there than chips with fried egg! Zach and Josh got stew with injera, which is a crepe-like, spongy sourdough which I stole bites of off their plates. I've had some difficulty obtaining chapati (a kind of flat bread) I was promised would be everywhere! Many places have it listed on the menu, but so far everyone has been out by the time I've rolled around for lunch or dinner! Desserts are also rare here, and I've been unable to sate my vociferous sweet tooth. On the drive up from Kampala, I did purchase some banana sandwich cookies from a gas station, so I have something to nibble on when I retire to the hotel for the night.

After our first day at Health Alert, the team began trying to determine which projects have shown success and should be continued or expanded, and which were not showing the results we had hoped to obtain and should be cut. What follows are specifics, for those who are interested in the projects GlobeMed is involved in at Health Alert. For my college friends (and family) possessed of shorter attention spans, I bid you adieu early, though there's another picture of the office at the end for your perusal. Stay classy, San Diego!  

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GlobeMed sponsored projects currently include goat lending and seed lending, PMTCT Mama kits, and vocational school scholarships. In the past, we've also purchased fuel to allow workers to travel to clients at their homes, and internet connection, Microsoft Office and a projector to help the office run at top efficiency. 

Currently we believe that the goat lending project and the seed lending project will be cut from the budget. Originally these programs were intended to provide nutritional and economic support to the HIV/AIDS affected families and communities to which they were given, however, both were intended to be self-sustaining, and not require any further financial support from GlobeMed or Health Alert. In the case of the goats, it was the intention to give one family a fertile female goat, which would then become pregnant. The family would keep the young goat, and give the mother goat to another family in the community, so that others could continue to benefit. However, in practice, the female goat gave birth at a much slower rate than had been expected, the families were reluctant to give the goats to the next household, the rate of goat loss (though death or misplacement) was high, and the benefits the families received from the goats were minimal. We see this project as a disappointment and should cut our losses during the trip. 

Seed lending was implemented in two HIV affected groups living in the Alero and Olwal sub-counties of Uganda in the hopes that crops would be grown to supplement the diets of the infected youth, enough seeds would be kept to grow a new crop next season, and the remainder would be sold for profit. There was mixed success with this. The group in Olwal failed to save their seeds for two years in a row, despite being reminded and warned that we could not continue to buy seeds for them. However, in Alero, with the exception of the failure of the onion crop, have been successfully maintaining their garden, saving some seeds, and selling the rest as planned. As of yet, the GROW team has not been able to visit the community in Alero, but it is hoped that they have had continued to benefit from the seed lending program and require no further funding. 

As far as the other projects go, though, we're hoping to get a better understanding of what HAU needs before we make any hard and fast decisions. We are planning on continuing the Mama kits without a doubt, and are currently gauging interest for technology seminars around the office.  If you have any questions concerning our current work plan or past or ongoing projects, or just want to say "hi" from whatever pocket of the world you're currently tucked in, feel free to comment! If not, until next time, you stay classy, planet Earth! 

Ben, the driver at HAU, picked us up in Kampala the day before yesterday. There was some struggle to get all of our gigantic bags in one vehicle. After much rearranging and shoving, we finally all squeezed in quite snugly with our luggage. But after that, it was just a six hour drive to Gulu (which seemed short after so many plane rides and eight hour layovers!) We arrived late. Ben and December (second in command at Health Alert, after Francis) took the rest of the team out to dinner, but I was exhausted and broke to boot (cell phones in Kampala aren't cheap!) so I called it a night at our hotel, the Diamond Complex, pretty fast. 

Day 1 at Health Alert opened with a staff meeting--introduction, followed by prayer, then plans for the week and project updates. After that the GROW team jumped in to work! We've updated the application and feed-back forms for PMTCT (which stands for Preventing Mother To Child Transmission) Mama Kits, which provide the supplies needed to expectant mothers to prevent transmitting HIV to their child during childbirth and turned them into GoogleDocs, which, it has been said, are "the way of the future". We've also started gauging interest in technology seminars for HAU's staff. 

In our downtime we've gone out and explored Gulu--it's quieter than Kampala, but I was never one for big cities anyway. Its beautiful here-- so far it has been so sunny during the day, though at night torrential rainfall reminds me that it is indeed the rainy season. I've eaten mangoes knocked from the tree outside of HAU with a bamboo pole. Fresh and sweet and bright. The strings in your teeth and under your fingernails will get you though. I hope all future GROW teams remember to pack floss and a pocket-knife: they're tough to peel with your hands. 

Things are very calm here--the work-flow is much slower that what I'm used to at Chapel Hill, which in a lot of ways is nice after finals. I'm used to trying to get things done in a single, high-speed burst, which is sort of impossible here--its a lot of talking scheduling, rescheduling  and figuring out when the correct people and vehicles are available at the same time as dates and times constantly seem to be shifting. Its something to get used to, but I've been enjoying it! Well, I hope everyone has been enjoying the coming summer. Until next time, stay classy San Diego!