This is almost the end of our second week here in Uganda. We were in an orientation program just outside of Kampala Monday through Wednesday of this week and are back at the TASO center here in Kampala. There were about 40 others in the orientation program and they came from countries all across Africa. Most of them were managers of their own organizations and are simply here to learn about TASOs programs and how it does things. Actually TASO is the largest HIV/AIDS organization in Africa and they thought I would be pleased to know that George W. Bush once visited TASO and gave a very memorable and well put together speech.

I am having difficulty putting pictures up due to the slow internet services we have here but I am able to send Erin a few of my pictures every now and then who then puts them on here. She is also responsible for the Facebook ones too.
As for the picture of a plate with some strange looking stuff mixed with the rice and beef, that is Matoke. I recently learned that Andrew Zimmerman of the Travel Channel came to Uganda and actually ate this as a bizarre food.
Actually it is quite tasty. You just have to think of it a form of mashed potatoes. Each TASO center in Uganda also has a drama team composed of their clients. They perform songs and dances to people around the area to fight the stigma of HIV/AIDS that they all live with as well as raising awareness. The birds that you see in some of the pictures are everywhere. They are called Maribou Storks. They are similar to vultures and eat dead animals but they are not scared of humans. I once walked around a corner in downtown Kampala and found myself face to face with one. It came up to my waist. They say that not even the maggots will eat them once they die because their bodies are so toxic.
The people here seem to ignore them but I get kind of worried sometimes whenever we are outside and I see one of them sitting in the shade watching me.
We also went to a local rugby match with our supervisor from the United Methodist church. Her boyfriend is the manager of the team, however this was not the A team that was playing. They were scheduled to play, but a majority of them were in Tunisia playing for the World Cup qualifying. So the team you see there is the B team however they still won. Also, if you look in the background, behind the field, you will see a collection of blue-roofed buildings. That is Mulago Hospital and is where our TASO center is. Our hotel is around the other side of the mountain.

We are hopefully going to go to one of the outreach programs tomorrow morning.
It will be about an hour drive from the center and I don’t know the name of the community yet. These outreaches go to the surrounding communities and deliver medications and food rations to the clients there. They perform blood tests and counseling services as well. We will see how this goes.

I am running out of time now and I will try to post another message soon.