january update.

so i realize that i am supposed to be in an airport now, or on a plane flying home. I have been enjoying my time here enough, as you may have guessed from previous blog entries, to extend my ticket and stay here in UG longer than originally anticipated. My new return date is for the 4th of april. Ive realized taht 2.5 months, even three months is a ridiculously short amount of time in which to try and "accomplish" anything. i dont know what exactly i plan or hope to accomplish, but it is now that i fully feel integrated into a community here, and with in the organization with which i am working to start making some changes, and doing things on my own agenda as well. I am starting a new project with SPH, making malaria education coloring books in both english and lusoga for kids here in UG. I dont know how it will go, but it will be a cool thing to get up and running, and maybe spread to other countries where malaria is a problem.
as im learning day by day, working for an ngo in africa can be insanely frusterating. nothing gets done when you want it to, you have be flexible and open in ways i never anticipated. Motivation is different here. As with any NGO, soft power has its own host of problems, especially on the organizational front. I have to remind my self often how young soft power is as an organization, and how much we are still figuring everything out. the very youngness of SPH is exaclty what makes it so exiciting to work for however, because we are intimatley involved with the forming and creating of the organization in so many aspects- working at the clinic, relations between the town and the clinic, the role of the clinic, the malaria and FP education sessions, changing and altering the content of these sessions, as well as creating new projects such as nutrition seminars and the coloring book project. i have spent so much time entering data, but in doing that i have been able to see paterns int he data, and really see how our nets are affecting people in a way completely different way than the follow-ups. With karl, (a business major) we also re did the way we do excel, so im learning about excel as well, and all the different ways to use it. always a good time- though frequent power outages and other setbacks make technology unpredicatble here.
In other news, Karl and Tara kicked of the start of th Ugandan Kayak Club with a goat roast and sign up, gaining the first 22 members of what i hope, and think should be a successful addition to bugajali. The club was met with an overwhelmingly positive response, a president (bob) was elected by the locals, and the general vibe is exicited. Karl started things off with a bang, teaching rolling sessions today, and plans for more kayak lessons, swim lessons and other fun are already in the works. seeing everyones amazement at the sheer amount of gear now available to them was awesome as well.. look for an article to come out in padddles magazine by jamie, and other news and photos to follow.
wish me luck in my decision to stay longer.. ill miss home and the ski season for sure..
oh! forgot to mention that i managed to set up a flickr photo account, though its been hard to say if i can upload regularly. check it out..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22559978@N03/