I am typing this while sitting in an office at TASO so I am sorry if I seem a bit rushed. Today has been a good day as well as yesterday. I will start with yesterday.

Apple and I went with a home-based counseling service where we traveled throughout this area and made house visits to people who are about to start on ARVs (the medication to slow HIV). It was actually a lot of fun. Apple and I got back here around 6:30. So we had a full day. I will show you some pictures as soon as possible, but that might not be tonight (I will explain further down). A lot of the people we met with yesterday were minors who had just received their CD4 results. Most of them were in school so we met with the parents, or grandparents in most cases, and explained how to take the medication and that they need support from the family. We ate nonstop. Every now and then, we would stop along the side of the road, roll the windows down, and buy food from the many street vendors. They would bring roasted plantains, roasted corn, and beef on a stick. It was wonderful. For 1 dollar, I could get three plantains, 1 corn, and a stick of beef. Not to mention we got food at every house we stopped at. One of them actually brought a big basket full of peanuts and dumped them on the floor of the LandCruiser. We then ate all of them. As for the trash we had leftover, it was usually thrown out the windows.
It was all organic stuff, so don’t worry. I literally could eat like that everyday. At the end of the day, we had more fruit in the back then we could handle. We had two huge Jackfruits (google it), several mangoes, apricots, passion fruit. We didn’t have room to put our feet on the ground.

I actually just had a funny thing happen to me. I was sitting here in this office, and the person who works in here came by with two Americans. So I told them what this office does and showed them some files and stuff like that. Then one of them (from Texas) asked me “So how many years have you been here in Uganda?” I started to laugh. They were amazed that I have only been here a few weeks. I didn’t think I had changed that much. I guess it was because I knew so much about what TASO is doing and knew all of the people walking around. I am still laughing actually.

So now I will tell you what exactly I am doing in this office. I have spent the entire day in this office handing out school supplies to children in primary and secondary schools. I know it seems kind of lame, but I am actually enjoying it. I listen in on the counseling sessions as well and talk to some of them. I actually feel like I am making a difference now. Only it took me two weeks to figure this out. Oh well. I can always come back later on. I also sat in on a meeting today that was kind of boring but I learned a lot. It was between the Center Manager here, the Project Manager whom I am under, and the Manager of the hospital’s cancer center. I think TASO is trying to partner up with them in order to bring more cancer testing into the center. They believe that there is a correlation between HIV and cancer. Mainly since HIV can weaken the bodies defense against cancer, but also because both of them are like a death sentence to the patients and many of them refuse to treat it. So they are trying to help the people who are both HIV positive and have cancer. Anyways, I won’t be getting back to the guest house until late tonight. I am going to a lecture tonight about sustainable living.

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.

Kampala

I am in Kampala now and have just gotten settled into what will become my home for the next six weeks. When flew in early yesterday morning and rode for about thirty minutes into Kampala where we stayed at a hotel for the night.

Originally, we were to stay at TASO (the organization we are with), however it was way too expensive so with the help of the United Methodist Conference here, we are now somewhere else. I am not exactly sure where in Kampala we are but we are staying at a nice bed and breakfast that has internet inside and is owned by a group of Catholic nuns. We are within walking distance to a few restaurants as well as a grocery store and the hospital that we will be at for some of the time. We also have a wonderful view of the city and the surrounding mountains.

Even though everything is settling down for now, we had some difficulties getting here. The Nairobi airport is not known for its spaciousness. The entire airport is one long hallway that goes around in a circle with shops on either side. It would be okay if the hallway was wide but it wasn’t. It was only wide enough for three or four people to stand shoulder to shoulder. It wasn’t very crowded for the most part however, people were constantly pouring out of the gates when they were unloading from their flights which caused serious traffic jams. Not to mention my boarding pass had me on the same seat as another person in the group. So we both had to go back to the transfer desk, wait in line, and get new boarding passes within 20 minutes. It all worked out in the end and we were given a brief ride around the tarmac since the plane was on the other side of the airport.

Since it was early in the morning in Nairobi, the temperature was only about 60 degrees. But when we landed here in Kampala, Entebbe to be exact, the temperature was around 80 or 90. The airport was also surrounded by farmland full of cattle with Lake Victoria in the background.

The food here is also very good. One of the main dishes here in Uganda is called “matoke.” It is green bananas, wrapped in banana leaves, and cooked in water. It has the consistency of a baked potato but tastes almost liked boiled peanuts. They put it in everything. In fact I just ate a plate or rice and beef with matoke right in the middle of it.

The transportation here is pretty crazy since there is no standard system. You can either ride in a small bus or on a “boda boda” which is a two-seater motorcycle in which you ride on the back. I have yet to ride one of these but I eventually will since it is the only means of going straight to your destination.

I will post more pictures up as I get them.