May

The past few weeks have been kind of crazy. I’ve been working on preparing for multiple computer trainings with the FCBO staff (from both SACS and SEDAWOD) here in Sembabule. At a meeting a while ago, the staff told us that they were desperately lacking in computer skills, which made it difficult for them to do their work. Some of the staff members are very proficient, while others severely lack even basic skills. We had them give us a list of each staff member and their specific needs, and from that I compiled a basic computer skills training to do with each organization. The training included very basic skills (turning on a computer, using a flash drive, making an email address), file saving/file organization (saving a file, moving a file, renaming, etc), Microsoft Word, and Microsoft PowerPoint.

I held these trainings with each FCBO last week in preparation for this week’s Excel training. The FCBOs mainly use Excel to record data regarding their clients, and as I’ve mentioned before, it’s extremely important for them to keep their databases current and thorough. In my opinion, the Excel training probably should have been done a year ago, but nevertheless, I’m glad I was able to do it before I leave. It was a two-day training, and it went surprisingly well. The first day covered basic Excel skills, and the second day covered more advanced things like making charts, sorting/grouping, etc. On the first day I led the training using a projector hooked up to my computer, so I went through each topic and demonstrated each skill. Other WellShare staff sat with the FCBO staff to help them practice, and this worked really well. By the second day Suzanne had arrived in Sembabule from Mubende, so she led the training and I sat with the staff. The staff were all eager to learn and grateful to be taught. We also provided them with a hard copy and soft copy of the Excel training manual that we used, so they can use that in the future when they need to be reminded of how to do something. I was kind of nervous about the trainings because I’m no computer expert myself and I was unsure of how good of a teacher I’d be, but the whole experience was a good one. I actually learned a lot from the Excel training, as I hadn’t really used Excel that much since probably middle school or whenever I first learned how to use it.

Another fun thing that happened this week was that the power cord for my laptop was fried in a power surge. It’s actually amazing that this didn’t happen earlier, as it’s a common occurrence here when electricity is unstable – okay, I don’t actually understand how this works but I imagine it’s sort of like the electricity goes rogue and runs towards the outlet yelling a battle cry and my power cord can’t handle it so it melts and smells horrible like burning plastic and liquid oozes out of it. Because that’s what happened. If it had to happen, it’s good timing, because I’m going home soon and I can buy a new cord there. For now I’m just borrowing one of the office laptops when it’s not in use, which is no big deal. At the same time that that happened to my laptop, though, the operations officer’s computer monitor also blew out, so we are suspecting that there is a problem with either the generator (we were running on our generator when this happened), the inverter (we run the generator through the inverter to charge it), or the wiring in the office. The problem is that we don’t know which it is – mystery. Also, on Wednesday I just happened to walk into my room to find my power strip smoking and a hole melted in the side of it, so I kind of freaked. Luckily I caught it in time or it probably would have started a fire – it was sitting on the other bed in my room and the sheets underneath it have burn marks on them. Constant excitement!

Yesterday was a public holiday because of President Museveni’s swearing in, so the office was closed. Suzanne and I went to Beatrice’s house for a little while so she could measure us and design dresses for us with the fabric we brought to her (yay!). For the rest of the day I just read (I’m on to The Grapes of Wrath), did yoga, and watched Entourage. This weekend will be my LAST in Uganda! Wow. I am finally going to start packing, and sorting through what I’m going to leave here and what I’ll take with me. The biggest/heaviest things I have to bring home are all of my books, so we’ll see how that goes. Otherwise, I plan on leaving behind as much as possible – much of it will be more appreciated here than it would be at home, anyway (such as clothes, shoes, soap, batteries, rope, etc). Next Monday and Tuesday we have a regional meeting here in Sembabule, so I’ll get to see all the Mubende staff one last time. I believe I’m heading to Kampala on Thursday. My flight leaves next Saturday night. I left the US for Uganda eight months ago today! I’ll try to write another entry before I leave!