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Greetings everyone! I just got back from a fabulous week spent with a current volunteer and I am even more excited to start my life as a Peace Corps Volunteer instead of as a trainee. As I had mentioned in my last post, trainees have little to no independence while volunteers have an abundance of freedom. The volunteer I had stayed with was quite impressive. She lives in a small and very conservative village where she teaches at the local university. She knows a great deal of the local language,Lusoga , and even rewrote the manual for the current volunteers. While I have heard many volunteers say that you really do not need to waste your time learning locallanguage , after seeing my volunteer interact within her community I completely disagree. She gets much better deals and Ugandans get so excited when they see a muzungu speaking local language. She has inspired me to work on my language
much more than I have been. We also had the opportunity to eat more fabulous food in Jinga (yes, Jackie, Lindsay, and Sam...I did say JINGA) and we even cooked some amazing food on the charcoal. I also had the opportunity to meet many more fabulous Peace Corps Volunteers.

For those of you who know me, you know that I always have some ridiculous
ideas so I figured I would share some of my "wish list Uganda" with you.

1.Run a marathon...however, on the first day of training I realized that I have an extreme dislike for running...so this is now off of the list.
2.Julie brace yourself for this one....I want to ride a bicycle from Kampala to Rwanda which is maybe some 300K. The funny partabout this is that Peace Corps gave us all "Hero" bikes which I have yet to ride. However, to my defence these bikes are ridiculous one gear bikes in which people have lost pedals and brakes while riding to training. However, once I get to site I will purchase myself a new bike that is
somewhat suitable for thispurose.
3. Climb the Rwenzori Mountains. I have been told that this is more difficult than Kilimanjaro.
4.I want to buy a motorcycle. While the riding of these, and thus owning,is prohibited by the Peace Corps I can still dream. Dad, you go ahead and get that Harley and you can pick me one up as well. We can get our license together as a sort of a father daughter bonding time.

Again for those of you who know me, you know that I take great pride in the fact that I have a fantastic immune system. However, that has changed. Before leaving for the Peace Corps I got a cold that stayed with me for the entire month ofFebruary. Upon its much awaited departure, I then contracted what may or may not be ghiardia. It's fabulous. Oh, but what is even better is the fact that my malaria medication prevents me from sleeping. I haven't slept in almost five days; it's outrageous.Luckily , medical is coming tomorrow with a different magical pill and hopefully I will be sleeping through all the creepy things that I hear sleeping with me in the night!

Anyway,thank you all again to those who take the time to check in on me and to
those who leave such loving messages! I will try and post pictures next time, but the internet is beyond slow and extremely temperamental so I refuse to make any promises!
As always- Peace and Love, Autumn

p.s. In case I have forgot to mention...I lead a fabulous life.