The Chronicles of Nathan

Close of Service

2008-04-26T19:28:00.003+03:00

Well, I finished my Peace Corps service and returned back to Kansas this week. I left Uganda a day earlier than I was scheduled to in order to make it back for my Grandpa's funeral. I had made a trip back to the Kansas in February to see him one last time. That had been the first time I'd been back in the US since leaving for Uganda in March of '06.I know that I haven't kept up with this blog

Opportunity for YOU

2008-02-03T09:01:00.000+03:00

Hello everyone reading my blog. Firstly, I feel that I should apologize for taking long without posting anything on this blog. And that this posting may not be all that informative about what I've been up to over here. (I actually haven't been up to all that much out on the island, so you're not missing out on all that much). I am looking forward to my visit back to america very soon, and then

Another Shift

2007-10-24T11:59:00.000+03:00

So after I was sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer after training last year in May, I was first placed in Kabale district in the far southwest corner of uganda to work with a Catholic health center, then after 2 months of frustration I managed to get switched to another organization, the one I'm currently working with, and I changed locations to a fishing village on Lake Albert (after a

Info About "My" Village

2007-09-12T18:28:00.000+03:00

My "home" is in a fishing village on Lake Albert. Here's some cold, factual information about it, in case you were interested. It is 620 metres(2,030ft) above sea level on the shore of a low sandy plain located between the lake water and the Eastern escarpment of the Albertine Rift Valley. Lake Albert is about 160 km (100 mi) long and 30 km (19 mi) wide, with a

Family visit

2007-09-07T10:26:00.000+03:00

In recent general interest news, my mom, dad and sister came for a visit. You can see pictures on my flickr page.It was very good to spend time with them. It had been about a year and a half since I had last seen them as I was boarding the plane on my journey here. It was also very good for them to be able to see my home here on the shore of Lake Albert, meet people that I work with and are

City Life

2007-06-05T15:10:00.000+03:00

I've been living here in Kampala for the last few weeks working on a project. The organization I'm partnered with is building a ferry-barge to ferry returning Sudanese refugees across the Albert Nile river in Northern Uganda, so I'm helping with that. The picture shows the ferry in progress, minus the seats, engines, control console, loading ramp, canopy, safety rails, etc.It's been a while since

1 Year In

2007-03-03T11:57:00.001+03:00

This week I will have been in Uganda for a year, which means I have about 14 or so months of my Peace Corps service remaining. So what do I think of the experience so far?I'm reminded of the wisdom that my friend Jen passed on one time; There's a difference between having a good time and having a good experience. I've had good times, and bad times, and in-between times, but definitely the

random stuff

2007-01-21T18:44:00.000+03:00

Here are some movies to check out:Last King of Scotland - about the former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Some fact, some fiction.Invisible Children - about the Lord's Resistance Army and child soldiers in UgandaUganda Rising - documentary about UgandaA book you should read is The White Man's Burden. It takes a critical look at the aid industry, why so much money has been pumped into aid and so

Happy Holidays

2006-12-29T15:29:00.000+03:00

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas. Mine was good. I missed my family and home, but it was still good. Over the holidays, I, along with fellow Peace Corps people; attended a Christmas party thrown by a couple who works at the embassy, a brunch thrown by another couple from the Embassy, an evening of making pizza and hanging out at the house of a former PCV, Christmas eve mass, Christmas

'Tis the Season...for Grasshoppers

2006-12-16T17:13:00.000+03:00

What would happen if it was December, approaching Christmas, and there was no Christmas hype? No big flashy advertisements, no Christmas songs on the radio, no bright holiday decorations in the stores or aisles of holiday paraphernalia, no Salvation Army bell ringers, no hustle and bustle of holiday shopping, no Santa Clauses, no lights or decorations on houses or buildings, no Christmas trees

what's this box thing? oh yeah, a computer

2006-11-28T12:35:00.000+03:00

Yes, I'm still here, alive and kicking. It's been awhile since I've had access to the internet. I will quickly update you a bit, then try to look at some of my emails. I love getting email, but I'm sure it's frustrating when I don't respond for months.So my house is finished, and I've been living there (where I can sometimes hear hippos calling at night). It's nice to have a place to call my own-

new skills

2006-10-10T16:45:00.000+03:00

So I'm still working on building my house, and I'm still living in a shipping container. Work has been delayed a bit since I had to go to Kampala with my counterpart so we could talk with the lady who has been the operations manager but is going back to Scotland then to Alaska for a while. They wanted us to go over projects and things in the works before she left. We have a life jacket

Moving Forward

2006-09-03T16:45:00.000+03:00

The plan is for me to move out to my new village this week sometime. I have been in Kampala in the organization's office for about a month and it's time to get out of the office in the city and start tackling the plethora of challenges that await me in the village. I have started contact with an organization who has worked out a good methodology for doing what we want to accomplish in the village

Different Ballgame

2006-08-13T13:12:00.000+03:00

So much has been going on since I last posted. I left my site down in Kabale district, Southwest Uganda, and started working with my new organization. It's a new organization so there is a lot of new things going on to grow what they are doing and involved in. It's purpose is to save lives on the water and save the marine evironment. They are setting up rescue stations around the large lakes in

Winds of Change are a'blowin

2006-07-22T09:59:00.000+03:00

About the time my prospects for people to partner with on projects in my area dried up like the dusty red soil in the dry season sun, the country director for the Peace Corps talked to an organization in need of a water/sanitation engineer and thought of me because she knew things weren't going anywhere at my site and I was invited to Uganda to work with water and sanitation projects anyway. The

Life Continues

2006-07-15T14:25:00.000+03:00

Judith and I continue to visit homes a little bit each week to try and educate people about health related topics such as sanitation, malaria, HIV, and family planning. In the States, I don't think this sort of approach would work, as people generally would not be open to other people coming into thier homes and telling them how to live thier lives. Of course we are respectful and appropriate

Samuel

2006-06-22T12:04:00.000+03:00

The other day I ran into Samuel going up the path as I was coming down. Samuel is one of the first people I met here. He is middle aged with a ready smile and is one of two people who always makes it a point to converse with me. Too bad he's a drunk.The first time I met him he said he was an electrictian, which I thought a little odd but plausible as the power grid stops far from here, but there

links of friends

2006-06-22T10:33:00.000+03:00

I have uploaded some more pics to Flickr, you can see them by clicking on "More of Nathanpics photos" on the right.Check out some friend's links if you want.Group blog of our training group in Uganda:http://www.pearlofafrica.blogspot.com/Rachel's blog, check out her pictures. Unfortunately she had to return home.http://www.racheljenkins.blogspot.com/Pervis' blog, check out his pictures:http://

Call me Mugisha

2006-06-10T14:43:00.000+03:00

I have been christened by the parish council with a local name. Mugisha or Migisha (Mu-JEE-sha, Mee-JEE-sha, both variations are used, but Mugisha is more common) means blessing or one who brings blessings.As odd as it seemed to be eating supper with a Ugandan priest/politician and an elderly priest while they watch American satellite TV in rural Uganda, it is even a bit more odd to find myself

Home Sweet Home

2006-05-28T09:38:00.000+03:00

I've been living for about a week now at what is to be my new home for the next 2 years.Last week we wrapped up training and had our swearing in ceremony at the U.S. Ambassador's residence, after which we split up and shipped off to our respective new homes with all of our luggage, miscellaneous stuff needed to fend for ourselves at site, and accumulated Peace Corps books and equipment. Our group

Soon to be an actual Peace Corps Volunteer

2006-05-16T15:36:00.000+03:00

I am including some pictures here, but I don't know how well they will post. Hopefully you can see them and read the text, too. There is a picture of me swinging from a vine on March 11 in Entebbe Botanical Gardens, fellow peace corps trainee Angela with my homestay monkey (which hated me, but finally let me touch it on the last day I was living with my homestay), a view from my future house at

Life as a Trainee

2006-04-08T15:17:00.000+03:00

Today I am in Kampala! We are visiting the big city to see where things are that we might need and we have a little free time this afternoon. I had a cheeseburger for lunch that was awesome. I am in a mall, which is really nice. It's almost like an American mall. Stuff is expensive, though. There's a lot of other muzungu's (actually bazungu is the plural, and we are foreigners).Every morning a

Hello from Uganda

2006-03-18T16:40:00.000+03:00

I have my first chance at the internet since leaving the States, so I am happy! I am Mbarara in the southwest right now. Another trainee and I have been on a visit to a current volunteer even farther southwest from here to see what life is like for a real volunteer. The public transport here is fun! ;)Training is going well, I think. We stayed in Entebbe near the airport for almost a week, just

Goodbye Boston, See Ya Later America

2006-03-05T07:16:00.000+03:00

I think this might be the last time I get on the internet for a couple months, so I thought I'd go ahead and post something.We have completed staging, and tomorrow (Sunday) morning we head out bright and early for the airport and our ride to Uganda. We'll get there late Monday evening. It's a long way over there. When we get there we will spend about a week in Entebbe, where the airport is, then

And We're Off

2006-03-01T23:42:00.000+03:00

In about 20 minutes, my mom, dad, and I are heading out to KC. I'm in Independence, KS now, where I moved all my junk to and put in storage and in mom and dad's house. We are going back up to KC and will meet my sister there who is coming down from Iowa. We will have dinner, go to the Ash Wednesday service at my church in KC, then tomorrow morning it's off to the airport and a flight to

Caribbean Diversion

2006-02-22T03:05:00.000+03:00

I just got back from a good time in the Caribbean visiting my friend Megan in the Peace Corps. She lives on a beautiful little island there, and has been there over six months now. I flew in last Thursday evening and left yesterday(Mon) at noon. It was a short visit, but a good one. We made the most of the time I had there. I tagged along with her Friday as she did some work with her special

A Prologue

2006-02-09T00:48:00.000+03:00

This post ended up being a little long (you know how wordy I get), so you can skim through it. So I’m heading for two years of service in Uganda with the Peace Corps. Before that, I go to staging in Boston where I’ll meet up with the others in my training group, get vaccinations, attend workshops or whatever else is planned, and attend the 45th anniversary of the Peace Corps event. Staging is

So this is a blog?

2006-01-04T06:20:00.000+03:00

Yup, this is a blog, but it's not just any blog, this is MY blog.This is where I will post messages and pictures for you to read and look at. I hope to use this to share my future experiences as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in Uganda. But I can write about anything I want to, so I might just do that.For those new to blogs, the newest post will always be at the top, and you can see previous posts