Their Eyes Were Watching God

I’ve spent the past few days in the capitol city of Kampala visiting the Peace Corps medical office (don’t worry, I’m in good health, I have just noticed my eyes have felt strained and wanted to check them out, of course as soon as I got here I decided to eat gluttonously and my digestive system wasn’t too pleased). I realized how much I spend here. In addition to everything being ridiculously expensive out here, it seems that I binge on everything from food to crafts because everything is available here. It’s pretty insane. Once in a few months coming to Kampala would be nice, to get away from site and just be able to relax, but I can see how it can cause a volunteer to really use ALL of their monthly allowance (which isn’t much to begin with so using it all in one go really stinks). At the end of my medical adventure I came out pretty even monetarily and with a new pair of glasses! Lucky for me, my prescription hasn’t changed too much, but hopefully this new pair of glasses will relieve the strain that I’ve felt.

Anyhow, on to more important things…I have a new project idea I’m hoping to implement at my nursing school and possible at a secondary school in my town.

It all started when a PCV in Jordan emailed me (which is ironic because I’m going to Jordan in a few months) asking me if I would be willing to participate in his World Cultures Project at the school he is teaching at. The whole premise of the project is to get people from different countries to write letters to this class in Jordan, describing the culture, the work the individual is doing, and any experiences they have to share in whichever country they are in. After thinking about it I realized how valuable this kind of project could be to any school, whether it’s a primary, secondary, or even a nursing school. The students at my nursing school often ask what it is like to live abroad, what it is like in America, and what it is like to travel around the world (everyone that knows me knows I have an itch to travel and I love experiencing new cultures, sights, sounds, foods and everything that goes along with traveling). I think this project will really open the students’ eyes and show them how much there is to see and do in the world (not that I assume they are ignorant of this, but having a real example of things going on outside of Uganda can make the picture a bit clearer). I wrote my first letter to the PCV in Jordan and look forward to our correspondence. I hope he is able to also write me letters about Jordan. I also hope to be able to visit his students when I visit Jordan in a few months, I think that would only add to the project’s appeal. I also thought of painting a world map in the library at my nursing school and attached the letters and possibly pictures corresponding to the countries we get letters from. I guess we’ll see how it goes, at the moment I have only just thought of implementing the project in my school and have yet to discuss it with my supervisor. I think he will go for the idea, seeing as how I don’t do much in terms of working at the school.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!