Lucky Number Three

This past weekend, the Volunteers in the Southwest got a wonderful visit from our Health Program Specialist (essentially my Peace Corps Supervisor), Cotious.

In addition to vetting sites for the incoming group that will arrive in April, she was here to help me with my site.

As some people know, my experience regarding site placement has been a bit of a roller coaster.  My first site was not exactly health related.  My second and current site has been experiencing some difficulty in regard to funding, productivity, and staff turnover.  This is not to say that I have not been doing anything for the past three months.  I have been involved in village health talks, networking with local schools, collaborating with Volunteers to create community outreach programs, and working on the grant for National Camp GLOW 2013.  The time has come though where I will be relocating to a new organization. 

Over the past couple of weeks, Cotious has been encouraging me to do some of my own site development in the area.  With the recommendation of some Returned Volunteers and current Volunteers, I was able to begin developing some that are conveniently located down the road from my current site.  Cotious being the incredibly well connected woman she is, knew of these organizations and coincidently had previously worked at one of them. 

We met on Thursday at Ishaka Adventist Hospital and talked with a gentleman named Kakunta who directs the health cooperative.  I had previously met with him about his interest in hosting a Volunteer, his aspirations and ideas for what the Volunteer could be involved with.  Well, it looks like I will be that someone who will hopefully fulfill his expectations.  Ideally he wants to create equal access to health to all Ugandans in the area, initiate health education programs in the community and the surrounding schools, increase bed net distribution to orphaned children, and work to get solar lamps and chargers into the rural villages so that these individuals are not spending money traveling on transport to town and then additional money to use charging stations for their phones.  Kakunta has thus far been very supportive of my interest in working not only in the co-op but also within the hospital to assist with the different programs that have been established.

When we were in Ishaka, we visited what will be my housing.  Needless to say, it is an upgrade… 3G+ Internet connection (hello Skype!), a full size refrigerator, running water, and electricity.  Rumor has it that the house also has hot water.  The town I will be living in has supermarkets, sometimes with cheese, a gym, and Queen Elizabeth National Park is just under an hour away, which means elephants and resorts with good food and swimming pools.  The hospital also has frequent, short-term American volunteers.  I am going through culture shock just writing this.  It was brought to Cotious’ attention that the housing may have to relocate but both she and Kakunta are pretty adamant on me staying in this location being that it sits on the hospital compound and is incredibly safe.  Did I also mention that to get to the house, which sits on the top of a hill, you walk on a brick path lined by trees.  Okay and sometimes chickens and goats.  Pictures will come. 

Kakunta is a very passionate man and his desire to help others and commitment to volunteerism is contagious.  I am looking forward to working alongside him and the others who are involved with this community based organization. 

The weekend ended with Cotious telling me that my relocation was on track to happen this week, possibly as early as Tuesday.  We celebrated by preparing a traditional American meal of salad, hamburgers, chips, and deep-fried pannier. 

I have a good feeling that everything will be great but keep all your extremities crossed for me.   Come on lucky number three!