And I bought rubbers. Not those- I do have my Catholic girl reputation to uphold, afterall, and anyway, peace corps supplies the other kind in our med kit. It's good for demonstrations on safe sex, Mom. To the point, it's the rainy season, which I think should be changed to the Muddy Season. So now whenever, I head out the door, it's with two pairs of shoes- wearing my rubber golashes, and carrying the other. I'm like the Peace Corps version of Mr. Rogers.
The weeks are flying by, and work is picking up. I spend the week making home visits and Fridays at Ibanda Hospital working in the HIV clinic. I checked out the stats on the testing- and they test 600 people/month, and about 18% are HIV positive, which is much higher than the proclaimed national average of 6%. Regardless, we have a lot of drugs to dispense. I'm becoming familiar with the different antiretroviral treatments, and have even caught some errors in dosages.
On Thursdays I'm going to begin teaching Nutrition to the Nursing students at the college associated with the hospital- which I'm really looking forward to, but have been busy trying to create a curriculum and lesson plans, as they have given me all of 2 weeks to prepare.
And on Wednesdays, I head to the Baby's Orphanage to play with the 34 some children there. Mostly the toddlers, who like to be pushed on the swings. I have no idea what they request of me in their Runyankore-babble, seeing as how I can barely pick the language from a well educated, fully grown Ugandan. But I do know that hugs, swinging kids by their arms, and chasing them around is universal, so I stick to that. I usually come back exhausted and smelling like pee from the diaperless toddlers, but perhaps I'll introduce them as the alternative method of abstinence promotion, as they're probably a better form of birth control than the "rubbers".
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4 comments:
aww cutsies! what language are you going to teach in?
i love the mr. rogers comparison! i sometimes feel like the art teacher version of him. we are in the snowy season as i'm sure you can imagine. i have giant black snow boots and eighty-five layers of outerwear that i change out of each morning followed by tying on of my martha stewart aprons around my waist. yes. a frilly apron collection.
it's nice to read you are doing well.. keep up the entertaining writing!
question: can you receive mail there?
Jill- I CAN receive mail here- it just takes some time. My address is PO Box 317 (not 371- Katie Clark) Ibanda, (not Ibana- Dad) Uganda
Regardless of what you put, the letters and love somehow find me and I am ever grateful for that.
Jo- I'm teaching in English, thank God. Otherwise the only nutrition related word I know is "food" so they'd have a very oversimplified view of food science- Ie- Vitamin C is found in... food. Vitamin A is found in... food.
Diana...just reading your blog brings you closer to us, even if your are half-way around the world. Keep up the great work and your awesome attitude. You are serving as an inspiration to all of us back home. Love Dad
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