Last 2 weeks

 Well it's less than a week until we leave.  I can't believe it!  It seems like we just got here in some ways.  I do however miss Steve so part of me wants to go back strongly.  If he could just come here I'd be one happy camper.  At least for a few more months.  At some point I think I'd miss home.  Living in another culture is just so interesting.  I know, I know it's also confusing, frustrating, stressful etc etc.  I could look back in this blog and know it's not always easy.  I'm am truly appreciating the experience in a totally positive way becasue it's almost over.  I know though I'll always appreciate the experience as positive just maybe not 100% fun.  some of it has been hard work.  It fact I got tired enough that I got a nice cold.  Not anything serious but it seriously slowed me down for a few days.  I'm been off from work for Friday, Monday and Tuesday.  Tomorrow I head back.  I'm glad because I want to hang out with those people I put pictures up of last week.  They are amazingly nice people and I am going to miss hanging out with them and feeling part of the staff.  When I went to a program at an orphanage last week and the Medical Coordinator asked the staff to stand.  Then she introduced me as a volunteer from the States and I squawked.  In front of everyone I said loudly and indignantly, "No, I'm staff now,"
We went to an orphanage because the caretakers wanted the entire orphanage to be tested.  I spoke about this trip in my last blog but it was so memorable I will put up a few more pictures

 I also took some video of the kids and have other videos of the same "teen show" the drama group did here and at another place Plus some other videos of kids and gorillas.  Liz, another intern with a great deal more expertise in computer editing edited them for me and our joint product can be viewed at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/edaube1?feature=mhsn
Be sure on the right hand side of the screen to click on "see all" as there are 9 videos and I took most of them.  A couple are Liz's from her digital camera but even for those I was present so it's all stuff that I've experienced.  Pretty cool.  I'm glad Liz could do that.  I can point and shoot a camera but after that...........well it just sat on the camera till Liz did something with it.

Another interesting thing I've done recently is home based HIV Counseling and Testing.  I've never done it before becasue the counselor ususally goes out on a motor bike and with all the stuff needed there is no room for me on the back.  This time it was a big enough HBHCT that we took a car. We went to 2 homes and they were quite different.  They were both rural but 1 was a tiny falling down house which 8 people lived in.  I don’t know how they all slept inside.  Maybe some of them slept on the porch.  Very, very poor folks, very dirty, as was the home the grounds etc.  One of the counselors tried to tell me that it was a hard life but that they were happy because they didn’t know anything else.  I didn’t buy it for a minute.  I told him that they had eyes and could see their neighbors who had a lot more and TVs in the village and it was human nature to desire more when you didn’t even have the basics.  He had to agree, though he might be right that this particular family was not actively unhappy.  Neither he or I had a right to judge that.  They had food and shelter of a sort.  Anyhow, with kids and brothers and cousins we did 8 tests all which were negative. 

Here are a few pics.  This family strongly desired their pictures taken.  I had to take pictures of absolutely everyone which was great cause then I could take pictures of the lifestyle without making them feel exposed

            Then we went to another area which was a large compound with several families.  Still rural, still poor, but much cleaner and it felt much less squalid.  We did 32 tests among several families and 2 the middle aged men were positive.  People here are so quiet.  I have never knowingly seen someone get a positive result though it happened 2 times that afternoon.  I don’t see clients here react in the way I have seen people react to bad news in the States, and this is very bad news.  Some of the reason is the language barrier as noted before but I think the counselors are very good at creating a private confidential space without being obvious.  We must have had about 50 people around us watching with the 32 standing in line to get tested and all of them hanging around until we left.  I’m not sure how they create the space in the middle of circus atmosphere that happens in a village when TASO shows up, especially TASO with a Muzungo (me).  I am definitely a big draw in rural areas.  Here are some pictures at the start of the event.  It just got bigger but by then I was working.  Take care  Love  Anita

So here are some of the people I work with at TASO

 The first picture is Patience who is my day to day boss and the Assistant Counseling Coordinator, and standing next to her his David who is HR.  Next is Robert who is my next level boss (the Counseling Coordinator) talking politics to Charles from the Drama Group.

This is Godfrey a counselor talking to a client.

 This is Harriet. She is a patient advocate and runs the HIV+ Widows Craft Cooperative.

The first picture is Sarah and Nora both counselors and the next is Paul who is a counselor and also runs the Sustainable Livelihood Program.

This is Dr Christian in black who is the Medical Coordinator and Rebecca, another counselor.

Last in Essau, another counselor, conducting an educational session with adolescent boys

And last a very crowded van with 15 of us coming home from an outreach clinic.  Just behind me is Dr Ali the Field Supervisor and a very big- hearted, caring man.

I'm trying to get pictures of everyone I work with and putting them up here makes me realize how many more I have to go.  I believe there are 16 counselors!
One of the things we did this week was to go to an orphanage.  We tested all the children and some of the staff, about 80 people.  Because of transportation issues we had to use one van to take a large number of people so the van made 2 trips.  I was in the fist run and while we were waiting the children performed for us!  I'm going to put up a few pictures which may give you some idea how fun it was to watch.  The kids were all ages from just walking to 19 and they sang many songs which you can't tell from the pictures and performed many different types of dances from very traditional Buganda tribal dances to break dancing.  It was great.