TOT training

This is the third and last week of TOT (training of trainers) training, and today I went to the training for the first time because the topic was nutrition. I helped out, although I didn’t actually lead any of the sessions because my grasp of Luganda is limited to basic greetings and a few random, helpful words. Connie, the program coordinator from Mubende, led the sessions , which covered food groups, food safety, food preparation, etc. The trainees had many good questions and comments, and since the discussion was carried out in a mix of Luganda and English, I could follow pretty much everything that was going on, which was surprising but really great. Since one of the jobs of the CCGs (who are trained by the TOTs) is to conduct cooking demonstrations for the clients (people with HIV/AIDS) they visit, the session today concluded with the TOTs breaking into groups and actually preparing meals. Each group was given a scenario – such as a person living with HIV/AIDS who is breastfeeding, or a person living with HIV/AIDS who needs to gain weight – and then they were to prepare a meal to suit that person. While the training is conducted in a conference room of a hotel in town, the cooking part actually took place here at the office.

After everybody’s meals were finished, they set them out on plates and each group explained why they made what they did. I took a lot of pictures of the groups while they were cooking, and soon everybody wanted to pose with a pineapple or have me take a picture of them washing a watermelon or something. People love seeing their pictures on the camera, which is great for me, since I can just snap away. I’ll post pictures when I can.

Anyway, today was rewarding because I was finally able to see how the TOT training works and I got to meet a lot of the TOTs. Most of them seem to enjoy the training – there’s a lot of laughing all the time.

On an unrelated note, I want to give a shout out to my amazing Aunt Nancy who sent me my first care package! Everything in it was great, but specifically, it included two of my favorite things: candy corn and Vanity Fair!

On another unrelated note, yesterday I ate a grasshopper! Apparently it’s grasshopper season here in Uganda, and people are selling them everywhere. While we were waiting on the bus in the taxi park in Kampala yesterday, Jessica bought two and we each ate one. Crunchy and salty… actually kind of good, if you can ignore its beady black eyes and pretend it’s a pretzel or something.