Monday 3/9/09 Gulu, Uganda
I’ve made it to Gulu! I just had my first day at the office today. Everyone at Invisible Children has been so welcoming and kind. I’m staying in a staff house here with two other Invisible Children staffers. Everything has been going really well so far–there is a lot of information I need to absorb in the coming weeks, but luckily folks here are eager to answer my questions and offer up help when I need it. I’m sorry I haven’t been posting content to the site in the past few weeks. I’ve been writing, I just haven’t been able to put aside time to work on the internet. Hopefully, now that I’m settling in here, I’ll have time in the next few days to start putting some posts up on the site. It’s been hectic the past few weeks!
I hope everyone is doing well,
A
Congrats Andrew on your arrival and settling in!
How does it feel to be in an office environment after such a long while on the road? Are you afraid at all that after a few weeks you’ll go crazy to get on the bike again?
And if i may be so “cheeky” how’s your bum adjusting to an office chair?
(I had to ask since so many of us have been distracting ourselves with your adventures from our own office chairs.)
BEST of LUCK for Your New Project!!
S
By: Shannon Anastasia Copeland on March 9, 2009
at 8:41 pm
Thanks Bill and Shannon!
I just had my second day here at IC and….wow! I have so much to learn. My brain is spinning at the moment. Filled with program facts and figures. I haven’t spent much time in the office so far, Shannon, so I don’t know how my bum will adjust to the office chair! I’m not itching to get back on the bike just yet, although a four day weekend is coming up around Easter and I think I’ll take the bike out for a mini-trip—I’ll ride two days in one direction and then turn around and head back. Or I’ll try to work out some sort of loop that takes me out into the countryside.
So far, I’ve spent my days running around like crazy trying to visit different project sites so I can learn exactly what IC is doing on the ground. I went to a handbag site yesterday where women sew bags that they use to generate profit that gets put into a micro-finance fund. They can borrow from the fund to start Income Generating Activities (IGAs—-lots of acronyms to memorize!). Today I went to two different homes and a school to visit with students who are being mentored by IC mentors. In the afternoon I visited two school building sites where IC is building new structures (classroom blocks, toilets, water pumps). Seeing how far and wide the different IC programs reach has been amazing. Lots of running around, though.
hope all is well,
A
By: andrewedwardmorgan on March 10, 2009
at 3:06 pm
Glad you made it okay! I can only imagine the pile of material building up. When I look thru just the photostream I get so many questions, wonder “what happened” next like it’s a Reality TV show!
B
By: Billy Gray on March 10, 2009
at 2:19 am
Hi Andrew! I’m glad you safely made it to Uganda. I am a peace corps volunteer you met in Swaziland at the Sunset Backpackers. I talked to you about my interest in Invisible Children and we exchanged information. Hope you remember…haha. Well, people found two SanDisk cards on the road near the hostile. They think they are yours. Do you want us to send them to you or send them home? I’m assuming you want them, but let us no what we should do.
It looks like someone ran them over, BUT hakuna matata because they must work still if people could put them in their cameras to see who it belonged to.
Good luck with everything in Uganda! You can email me at the address included with my name. Cheers!
By: Jaclyn Schaap on March 15, 2009
at 11:30 am
So glad you made it ok! Keep us posted!
By: Marisa on March 17, 2009
at 11:18 pm