Tomorrow

72 degrees Fahrenheit. 5:57 PM. 32 degrees longitude. 0 degrees latitude. An 18 hour flight away on the other side of the world physically, culturally, economically. Entebbe, Uganda is where I'm headed tomorrow and this is my last night in the United States until the summer of 2009. After a few days stay to rest and recover from jet lag, we're off to Luweero (could be Luwero) where training will take up the next 10 weeks.

Over the last two days I've met 50 awesome people that are going to Uganda and all mulling over the same challenges looming on our horizon. There's been a lot of workshop stuff--thinking about policy, managing risks, anxieties and aspirations. And there's been quite a bit of just hanging out--playing games, talking over beers, and enjoying more interesting questions than how long the Peace Corps service is. My moods have been excited, a little shy, cooly relaxed, idealistic, bored, and pleasantly buzzed. But, especially when another question posed to the Peace Corps Staging is answered with, "Well, just save that one for the staff in Uganda, in a week you all will know more than me," you can really sense a big undercurrent in the group, an itching to be there already and really dig in. It doesn't seem like you can really prepare much in a windowless conference room, but the staff here has been positive and put together some really good exercises to get us thinking about what it will like even though there are so many question marks surrounding our thoughts of Uganda.

At the end of training I helped make a little artistic project, a picture of which should show up here when I can use a computer without so many locks--it's a nice hotel though, with free internet in the rooms. This is probably many times better than the single computer in Luweero with internet access, which is often out of service - so I may not be in as good of contact as I originally expected. Beyond that, know that I'm doing well and I look forward to hearing from home in the coming adventure.

-Ryan