last week in Mbale : (

I leave Mbale tomorrow for Kampala. Then I'll have the last week of my program, a free week (where I'll probably be traveling to Kenya to see a friend from UD- Matt Maroon, for any Flyers reading this), then I have two weeks with my parents in Uganda and then I'm back to America- YIKES!

This past week has been a whirlwind. I was at work all week this past week doing interviews mostly with the staff which were really helpful and informative. On Thursday night, I went on the monthly night survey with about five social workers and the Norwegians and that was really interesting. First, it was a beautiful night- cool in tempature, but completely clear sky, so it was nice to have an hour long walk around Mbale. Second, it was really interesting to learn more about this aspect of the children's lives and to hear how the police do round-ups of the children. Third, it was great to walk around with my co-workers. We had a lot of fun goofing around and being silly, and then also having serious conversations as well. It was a really fun thing to do on the night before my last day of work.

Now I am frantically trying to get my paper done since it is due tomorrow when I get back to Kampala. I haven't had power at my house for the past two weeks because a transformer in our area broke. This has meant that I haven't been able to use my laptop as much. Also with having malaria last week and not feeling good these past two days, I have not been able to do nearly as much work as I would have liked. My malaria is completely gone- please reassure grandma that I'm fine. :)

It was really hard to leave work yesterday. I've learned so much from CRO and have really loved being a part of that community. The staff have been wonderful and supportive to me as well as just really great people who I'm glad I had the opportunity to meet. The kids are indescribable and I am really sad to be leaving them. Their reactions to my leaving didn't make it any easier- some of them just hung on me all day yesterday, others tried to avoid talking to me because they were mad that I was leaving and others were just kind of quietly sad. Then there are the kids that still didn't really understand that I was going and I hope taht they don't get really mad at me next week when I'm not there. Ok, my internet time is about to be up, so that's all from here.