Hello Dear Blog Readers,
Well as my mother reminded me, it’s my turn
to let everyone know how things are going with our Global Vets project. Not
that this is a hard chore, because we are enjoying Uganda very much and we met
with our first parish on Sunday, which made us feel like we are part of something
very special.
After arriving in Mbarara, we stayed for a
few days at a guest house close to the office of the Foundation for Aids orphan
children (FAOC). During our first morning we spent a lot of time reading
project documents and conversing with the administrator and programs director,
Vivian Namale. Vivian is a wonderful and helpful lady and we are very much looking
forward to working with her as she will help us get in touch with the parishes
and will often act as our translator. We did feel a bit overwhelmed with the
task of turning our many goals for the summer into specific tasks and coming up
with a schedule; however, after a day of much reading and asking questions, and
a good night’s sleep, things quickly became clearer.
We currently have a schedule of the parish
meetings we hope to attend in June where we will try to get an understanding of
their economic and social needs. While in the community we will also visit the
homes of many potential beneficiaries to decide who is ready to receive goats
or pigs, and give support to those who still have a bit more work to do. We had
our first Parish meeting on Monday with Kyenyangi (“Chen-yan-gee”), a group
which has been very successful in previous years. The women were very welcoming
of us, and we were able to talk about many goat health and production problems.
Most of the women sat in the grass shucking eggplant to sell in the market
while they related their struggles. I think the meeting gave us more of an
understanding of the role we play in the project, and opened our eyes a bit
more to the beneficiaries’ way of life.
Today we had a staff meeting which lasted
all morning at the FAOC office, and we discussed our goals, as well as many
other projects they run. We hope to help out with the “Day of the African Child”
activities which will take place on June 16, as well as prepare some
nutritional demonstrations later in the summer. We spent the rest of the day
working on these tasks and looking into the record keeping process for the goat
project.
Aside from the project, we have also
started to get to know Mbarara a bit and have moved to our permanent place at
the Mbarara University for Science and Technology (MUST) student
accommodations. We are staying in a lovely apartment with a big living area and
a kitchen and we have really enjoyed being able to “nest”. Shopping in the
markets and riding around town on the “bodas” – motorcycles which many people
here use for transportation- is starting to feel quite normal. On a personal
note, as I am writing this blog, I am feeling very grateful for my little
family here - Katie and Elad are having a rousing game of Backgammon and Ilse
and Tara are teaching us how to count in ryankore, the local language.
Cheers from Uganda!!
Devon
Escaped piggies at one of our beneficiaries!
Meeting with the Kyenyangi group
Learning from a very knowledgeable FAOC worker called Joseph
One of many "Awkard Family Photos" I hope to share this summer
Very cool Dev! I look forward to reading about your adventures, and about how the goat/pig project goes this summer :) Hugs from Berlin!
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