The very next morning training started and since then our days have been filled from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. with Peace Corps acronyms, medical and safety lectures, cross-cultural sessions, volunteer panels, and hard wooden chairs. It has all been fascinating and exciting, although exhausting. We have learned how best to prevent malaria, speak Uganglish, and support our fellow volunteers. We were even instructed by some helpful and bemused Ugandans on how to light a chaco stove, use a pit latrine, wash our laundry by hand, and take a bucket bath. The upcoming week is full of more training sessions, a church visit, a site visit, and our bid submissions.
Bid submissions are what everyone is talking about right now. Peace Corps Uganda has instituted a new system of placing volunteers throughout the country called Advertize and Bid. We are the second group of volunteers to go through this system. Normally, volunteers have no say in where they are placed. However, Peace Corps Uganda is trying to give us more “ownership” over our sites. We are given a list of 50+ sites which includes information about the schools, the skills they are requesting, the area, and the living situation. We then get to pick our top 3 and bottom 3 sites. That pick is due November 20th, and we are all anxiously trying to figure out where we want to go. The current volunteers are patiently answering all of our questions about the sites, even questions about where the nearest game park is and how many drunk elephants are around. The volunteers have rightfully pointed out, however, that our experience here doesn’t necessarily depend on our site but rather on us and our attitudes – we make our service what it is.
“It will change you tremendously and beautifully, but you have to let it.” - Loucine Hayes, Peace Corps Uganda Country Director
Update: This is the first time that I have been able to access the Internet, so this blog is a little old and unfortunately sans pictures. Since I first wrote this, we have gotten our placements! Kris and I have been placed in the Southwest, which we are very excited about. We are currently celebrating Thanksgiving with our training group and some staff and other PCVs. Next week we leave our training site to head to a Primary Teacher's College and Demonstration Primary School to practice our teaching skills on some real live Ugandan students. We've been working literally night and day to prepare materials and lessons - it should be exciting! I will hopefully be able to update again soon with something a little more in-depth. Until then!
