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I'm back so soon! I was in Mbale today to work on a grant proposal for my organization. It was already written out by my supervisor, but he wanted me to edit and refine it so that it would be presentable to other Americans. I spent about 5 hours working on it yesterday only to have it not save properly and get lost. So today I re-did it and printed it out. The proposal is for 3 main things: 100 female goats and blankets for 100 orphans in the Sub County, funding to construct and operate an HIV/AIDS testing and care center, and funding for a grinding mill to process local grains such as millet, sorghum, maize, and cassava. The big picture is this: The goats will help generate income for the ophans so they can be financially independant and go to school. The clinic, as well as testing and treating current and possible HIV/AIDS patients (amazingly, there is no such services available in the sub county), will provide preventative treatment for the orphans. The grinding mill will be available for the orphans and AIDS patients to use for free. Grinding staple foods by hand takes a lot of energy that children and disease-weakened adults don't have. Basically, this is for a really good cause and I hope we get the grant. We go to the embassy wednesday to turn it in.

So what do I eat? Well, since I've been to town quite a bit lately for work and supply getting, I've been eating out at restaurants. That's expensive (with volunteer money) and takes a long time. When I'm home, it's been pasta and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This is not from lack of food supply in the area, it's because I'm a bachelor and cook like one! I'll get better. There is a ton of fresh veggies and fruit around here. They grow a lot of tomatos and onions as well as cucumbers, potatoes, garlic, herbs...basically everything grows here! Transporting and keeping all these fresh things is another task all together. I have no fridge, so I have to buy according to what i want to make. I have a farmer friend named George who brought me basil and jalapenos last night. I gave him a bunch of seeds I brought from America and he's going to try to grow them. He was so happy that I gave him the seeds, he promised to bring me fresh veggies every time he came over. So that's pretty cool. There are a couple of supermarkets in town that I can get canned goods, but there's not a lot of variety. Like I said in my previous post, as soon as I get effecient systems in place, I will be a lot better off.

Don't remember if I've mentioned it, but I'm about 30-45 minutes by taxi to Mbale. There are small trading centers nearby where I can get some basic items, but I haven't investigated too much. Ok, enough rambling for now...