1 month!
Alright! It's been 1 month already. Cannot believe that the time has gone this fast already! Training this month with the other volunteers has been an experience. I've learned so much about organic agriculture, banana plantations and income generation projects as well as basic development needs. It really has been incredible. Every day (except sunday) we gather from 9-4 for lessons. Afterwards it's Nile Beer (brewed at the source of the Nile) and chillin.
We just moved again. When we arrived we were staying in Jinja for about a week. Aftwards we headed about an hour outside of Jinja to a small trading post town called Mbalala. Loved it there and made so many friends. It was difficult to leave there. Now I am living more North in a town called Kamuli. It is soooo hot here. It's only about an hour and a half outside of Jinja but we are in a completely different climate zone. Jinja and Mbalala were quite fertile with banana and pineapple plantations everywhere. Here it is dry like a desert. There is virtually no agriculture and it is hot and flat. Cattle seems to be their main economy.
I found out my placement details yesterday! I will be living in a town called Namasagali which is about 30 minutes from Kamuli. Here I will have my own house with 3 other volunteers. 2 ugandans, Robert and David and John who is from the UK. We leave on Sunday to start our placement. I'm really looking forward to it but am a little nervous. Poverty in this part of the country is in large part due to the environmental conditions. Temperatures here are at 40 degrees, the soil is infertile and dry and there is not a lot of rain. Water is also a really big problem here because it is generated by hydro dams. This poses major problems because electricity is not a constant here. On average it seems that we have a couple of hours each day when the electricity for the town is working. That means that without the electricity the dams do not work which means there is no water. Watering holes are also regulated so that you have to register and pay if you want to fill a Jerry can. Errrrgh. Things like this frustrate me. How do they expect the average person to do this. I think that on my placement, water harvesting, agriculture and income generation projects will be our focus.
Wow! so much written. So much more to say. Better go. I'll write soon.
We just moved again. When we arrived we were staying in Jinja for about a week. Aftwards we headed about an hour outside of Jinja to a small trading post town called Mbalala. Loved it there and made so many friends. It was difficult to leave there. Now I am living more North in a town called Kamuli. It is soooo hot here. It's only about an hour and a half outside of Jinja but we are in a completely different climate zone. Jinja and Mbalala were quite fertile with banana and pineapple plantations everywhere. Here it is dry like a desert. There is virtually no agriculture and it is hot and flat. Cattle seems to be their main economy.
I found out my placement details yesterday! I will be living in a town called Namasagali which is about 30 minutes from Kamuli. Here I will have my own house with 3 other volunteers. 2 ugandans, Robert and David and John who is from the UK. We leave on Sunday to start our placement. I'm really looking forward to it but am a little nervous. Poverty in this part of the country is in large part due to the environmental conditions. Temperatures here are at 40 degrees, the soil is infertile and dry and there is not a lot of rain. Water is also a really big problem here because it is generated by hydro dams. This poses major problems because electricity is not a constant here. On average it seems that we have a couple of hours each day when the electricity for the town is working. That means that without the electricity the dams do not work which means there is no water. Watering holes are also regulated so that you have to register and pay if you want to fill a Jerry can. Errrrgh. Things like this frustrate me. How do they expect the average person to do this. I think that on my placement, water harvesting, agriculture and income generation projects will be our focus.
Wow! so much written. So much more to say. Better go. I'll write soon.
