The
past two weeks at Kuluva have been exams weeks. Students have to do written exams for lecture courses and
practical (hands-on) exams for the medical portion. All of the (nursing school) teachers in Uganda switch
schools/hospitals to administer the practical exams and grade other
students. So the entire teaching
staff, including Sister Anne, has been gone for a while.
And
since ‘the boss’ was gone, the rest of the office staff just kind of lounged
around all day. People arrived late
and left early. Teatime was
at 10:30am, then everyone sat in the break room and waited for lunch to be
served at 1:00pm. I might get used
to this lazy work ethic, if only I didn’t care so much about completing my
projects.
With
my Social Psychology teaching career over (I finished grading my students’
exams last week), my time is now almost entirely for office administration and
databases. (I will continue to
teach Computing to the students, since I’m one of the few people who knows
how.) I started looking at the
school’s computer programs for databases and have many questions for the office
staff about the functionality that they want. But with it being exams week, nobody has really been
working. So, I spent most of the
week at home on the internet researching database programs and equipment. And I started writing a grant proposal
(which is offered through the Peace Corps) that could help fund the purchase of
this equipment. Keep your fingers
crossed that it gets approved.
Feeling
pretty productive during this non-work week, I decided to take Friday off and
went to town to do my market shopping.
At some point during the day, I ate something that gave me food
poisoning. My entire Saturday was
spent on the toilet or on the couch cradling a vomit bucket. The scary part is that every piece of
food here is potentially contaminated, so I’ll never know what made me
sick. (Were the eggs not cooked
enough? Did I use enough bleach on
my tomatoes? Was it the salad I
ordered at the restaurant?) Today
I’m recovering – and snacking on some of my brown rice. :) (Thanks for the care packages! I’ll be dining on my packaged American
food for a while.)
Next
weekend I’ll be going to Kampala to work on the grant proposal some more. Since there are no computer stores in
Arua, I have to look for software and get price quotes from places in
Kampala.
And maybe I’ll take
advantage of the trip and have a little weekend getaway! ;)
Getting a grant for computer hardware/software for the school sounds like yet another very worthwhile effort and contribution you are making, Laura! I know you don't have it yet, but I also know that with your writing skills, attention to detail, articulation and determination...if anyone can get it for them, YOU can! I'll keep my fingers crossed and will be anxious to hear the outcome. Sorry to hear about your food poisoning incident...I would have a hard time eating anything if I had to worry every time I put something in my mouth that it might be contaminated. I don't know how you do it. For me, it would be a good weight loss program...for you, not so much. I'm glad you had some brown rice and things on hand that you could turn to when you felt better. And, I hope you can get a nice weekend away for yourself when you head to Kampala. You certainly deserve it! Love, Aunt Lynn
ReplyDeleteHi Laura,
ReplyDeleteThanks for calling me on Mother's Day! It was great hearing from you. I had already heard about everything you wrote in your blog, but I'm still impressed by all you're doing there. We're so proud of you and your Peace Corps service. Can't wait to hear the results of your grant proposal. I hope you can acquire the needed software and equipment to give the school the databases they need -- what a wonderful gift! Have a great weekend and we'll talk again soon. Love, Mom
Hi kiddo~sorry u were sick! Happy u are getting into the computer/data base area more as u enjoy that! Whatever u put your hand to, you will do great! So happy for u and proud of all u do! Stay safe and enjoy your weekend in Kampala~I hope time is flying by for you! Soon we will see your beautiful smile!
ReplyDeleteLaura - It's hard to believe you have been gone so long from CIIS! Sorry I have been remiss in writing you but we still talk about you now and again and wish you were still here. :) Your blog absolutely amazes me and all of the experiences you have been writing about are really exciting. Even the day-to-day posts about going to the market, etc. are still interesting because it's such a different experience than what we encounter on a daily basis. I am glad you are doing so well (minus the recent food poisoning). Are you planning to stay longer? Sounds like it if you are pursuing a grant. Things are great here... I have a daughter now! She is 6 months old and just a little peach. CIIS is doing well; the new registry is so different from the old system in good and bad ways. Lots more functionality but also lots of things that can break and greater expectations from providers. :) Take care of yourself and look forward to your next post. Diana
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