That's what friends are for

Well, it's official, my friends are awesome. They came, they saw, they told bad jokes, and they conquered. Plus they brought me all sorts of goodies and told me how great I am...always a plus! Highlights included visiting Lake Mburo National Park in the SW of Uganda and doing a walking safari (saw impalas, zebras, cape buffalo, ton of birds), Murchison Falls NP which was awesome (i'm sure Ian's photos will be online in no time), two trips to the "Pork Joint" in Kampala, and 4 days in the village.

My friends concluded that Village time was their favorite and I don't blame them. Village life is so interesting, horrible and amazing all at the same time. They learned to cook, fetch water from the borehole, and do their business in a dark hole. All feats worthy of street cred! I was amazed how relaxed and comfortable they were walking around the village and interacting with the locals. Having people living in abject poverty staring at you and occasionally asking you to save them isn't something that the average American has to deal with and can be rather overwhelming. The three of them handled it all style, grace, and very few stupid questions...expect for Alex's during a rain storm: "Why are those buckets outside?" "I'm collecting water Alex" "Why?" :) Activities included going to the rocks by my house, a prayer session for my supervisor who almost died in a bus accident (Hannah read from the bible, it was awesome), visiting the orphan school and fish pond guys that i work with and distributing donated soccer balls to 2 primary schools. Fyi for everyone out there, they brought home 300 bead necklaces made by women's groups that 2 of my PC friends work with. They are trying to sell them to give support to these groups. Christmas Presents anyone?? Also, my sister will be coming back with some handmade baskets in early Jan.

Thanksgiving is coming up and unfortunately I won't be able to celebrate it. My wonderful girlfriend has promised to share her pumpkin pie mix and cranberry sauce with me when i visit her in December, but for now, no Turkey day :( There are two volunteer Thanksgiving dinners I could go to on Saturday but I'm going to be working. Through my village networking skills, I'm hooking up 3 different groups to work together and test everyone who wants it in the most remote Parish for HIV. I'm really excited because if it is successful, then my last really big project will be to plan to test, counsel, and refer everyone in my sub county for HIV. I've pretty much given up on trying start a bee-keeping project. Kinda disappointing, but oh well. Can't save the world. However, leaving with helping to reduce the rates malaria and HIV isn't a bad rap sheet for a PCV. After the testing then I'll help my organization launch our Savings and Credit society. We're getting a lot of capital from a Kuwaiti donor, but the loans have to be interest free, ie, no profits to pay staff and running costs. Luckily, the staff is really smart and together we'll come up with some income generating activities on the side to support the SACCO. Should be interesting anyways.

In other news, the Wes is a hypocrite meter has dropped significantly after I put up my mosquito net over my bed for the first time. I thought that it was funny and ironic that I helped hand out 13,100 nets to the community but didn't use one myself. The nurse working for Peace Corps didn't find it that funny, but I did convince her that it was ironic :) My excuse was that my house is at a higher elevation than surrounding areas, there's no standing water around, I had screens on the window, and I haven't missed more than a day in taking my anti-malarial medicine. But hey, no malaria for me so far (knock on wood!).

Ok, I think I'm going to watch some movies from the external drive that my friends brought me...did I say that they're awesome??