my new home

the main purpose of this session is to share some pictures that i was finally able to "develop". it's been pretty difficult to get access to proper technological resources (not surprising), but i'm excited to finally be able to share a bit with you all!


the basketball hoop was actually constructed from scratch by another volunteer and mounted on a "found" bamboo tripod. it's awesome! note: a soccer ball serves as a better basketball than the volleyball pictured...


here i am with tim (left, with mad shillings) and joe (center) on my birthday. our beards are still young in this photo, and would last another 6 weeks before being scaled back.


anything is funny after a few nile specials.


torso in the north, legs in the south.


this is my amazing homestay family, having a phenomenal mid-day meal to celebrate easter and my brother lawrence's birthday. from left to right, we have: josephine (mama wange, who was an excellent stand-in for my real mom and kept me very well-fed), rita, sam, joseph (crushing some chicken), and the birthday boy, lawrence.


here i am at the source of the nile, in the town of jinja.

ok, those are my pictures. stay tuned for more!

i am now in tororo, the cement capital of uganda. it is the nearest city to my home for the next 2 years (kisoko, 7 miles away). the surrounding area is quite beautiful and is dominated by a "volcanic plug" which rises inexplicably hundreds of feet from the base of the town, covered in thick vegetation and most annoyingly by a cell phone tower at the top. it's climbable and offers a pretty excellent view, i'm sure. i hope to hike up there soon after i move to my new home...

my school in kisoko seems great...it is quite peaceful there and my first impression of my colleagues has been good. this morning i caught a glimpse of mount elgon in the distance...ah, mountains. there is a farming project at the school, which means that cows are free to walk and crap on my grass...so far it is quirky and charming, but only until i step into a steaming pile in the middle of the night on my way to the latrine. haha. my school is only 5 miles from the teachers college, which is GREAT. that's where i can teach workshops to teachers-in-training and is probably where i will want to focus my efforts. they have a pretty well-stocked computer lab with internet and "always-on" power, which is pretty rare in uganda. i'm still not so sure i believe that claim!

two weeks from now, i will officially be a resident of kisoko. that's pretty hard to believe. we have one week of training left and then we swear in and move off to site. i'll be excited once i get a few of my housing issues ironed out. it seems like the school is a little less prepared for me than they should be. but i'll just have to trust that things will work out...and i expect that they will :)

ok, i should probably go. thanks for all of your email, snail mail, text messages, and phone calls. i remain amazed at how available communication has been, even if it is just a small fraction of what i'm used to...

take care, everyone!