Banana Count: 23

Yes. 23 bananas in the past week. And this excludes any in matooke, a Ugandan staple dish of steamed plantains. I have to admit I haven't even begun to get sick of them though...thankfully.

Now that we're over halfway through training I've been given my site placement--I will be moving to Rukungiri District (in the southwest corner of Uganda) to work with an organization called RUGADA (Rukungiri Gender and Development Association). The organization was founded by Winnie Matsiko, a female Member of Parliment who hails from Rukungiri. The organization works on a number of issues including health, gender, economic empowerment, and environmental protection. I look forward to meeting my supervisor and visiting my site in the next couple weeks before permanently moving there in mid-October. It looks like my position will cover a number of duties mainly related to assisting in the implementation of RUGADA's projects. I'm very excited about my new job and the potential to work on so many issues I'm passionate about!

Other than that exciting news I've just been chugging away at my training. Language training is getting better by the day as my confidence in using it increases. Technical training is becoming more and more helpful as they are giving us some opportunities to practice what we've been learning. Our group is bonding really well and definitly saddened by the fact that in one month we will be scattered all over the country...thank goodness text-messaging is pretty cheap :)

Hope all is well!

Megan