Week 8: Half way there

So it is pouring rain outside and I find myself in the village of Kamuli, an hour and a half north of Jinja. We (my coworker Eunice and I) have just finished a training session on savings for 37 grannies who are taking care of HIV/AIDS orphans. We are eager to make it back home, but the path to the main road where we get the public taxi (a matatu) has turned into a river of red mud. So we have to call a bike to take us to the road...and that's where the adventure begins. After 30 minutes, only one bike shows up, so we both hop onto the back of it and are crawling along at a snails pace when, sure enough, one puddle gets the better of our bike and we start to capsize. Luckily, it happens so slowly that we are able to jump off just as the bike falls into the mudpuddle.

And fortunately, that story ended just fine when we got back to Jinja 3 hours later relatively mud-free after riding in a 14-person taxi crammed full with 22 people. A taste of life in Africa:). Work here is actually going really well though. I have begun both the staff and community trainings and the evaluations are coming in really strong. It's exciting to be off and running. The staff training so far has focused on structuring a microfinance program while the community trainings are on basic savings. In the coming weeks, I will be training the staff on starting and administering a microfinance program and training the community on business administration. So wish me luck! It's amazing how fast time is going here and there is so much to do in the remaining 3 and a half weeks.

Speaking of which, this is actually just past the half way point of my time in Uganda. I know this because we had our midterm retreat in an absolutely amazing area on the Uganda-Kenya border called Sipi Falls:
We stayed at a campsite with a view of the lowest falls, which tumble 300 feet over a cave. The higher falls are about 450 feet high and we had a chance to hike to where we could see them. Unfortunately, it was too cloudy to see much of one of the tallest mountains in Africa, Mount Elgon, which was about 50 miles away. But it was a great chance to catch up with the other interns and just relax (aside from the grueling hike:), and we had the added bonus of driving through Mbale, the site of the most recent Bond film, Casino Royale. And we actually got pictures of two kids fighting Bond-style...I thought it seemed appropriate (not to worry, they were just messing around).