The Big Reveal

Today was the big day.  The day we've all desperately been waiting for.  The day when the unknown would finally become known.  Today was site announcement day!  What does that mean, you might ask?  It's the day we are finally told exactly where we are going and exactly what we are going to do.  Yes, we had to wait 8 weeks to find out, and believe me, it was driving us crazy to not know.

Of course, site announcements weren't the first thing we did this morning.  We had to sit through two hours of language, take break tea, then get the run down of how they even find out sites, etc.  Finally, around 11 am, our program manager took the floor.  In her hand were 44 brown manalia envelopes that had all the answers.  We all drum rolled on the tables as we waited for her to announce the names.  Once someone's name was called, people cheered, clapped and hollered.  When we received our envelope, we read off the name of our school or assignment, which honestly didn't mean much until you actually opened the envelope and could read the information provided.

Well, I guess I have tortured you enough, and I can tell you all now what my site placement is.  Drum roll please.....

For the next two years, I will be living in Butaleja!  Yes, I know I have already told you that I'll be living in Butaleja district, so that's not new news or anything.  But, now I know I will be living in Butaleja town.  When I say town, we should keep that term pretty relative.  It probably doesn't have more than two blocks, but it will definitely have market days, a town butcher, a small shop to buy soap and other ammenities.  I won't be exactly in the middle of town, but my house will be a short walk away, maybe 500 meters.  Speaking of my house, I really don't know anything about that yet except that I have a bedroom and a sitting room.  Pretty vague, I know.  Butaleja actually can be found on Wikipedia, although there isn't too much information to be found there.  I am 24 miles from the largest city, which is Mbale, and the town is at an elevation of 3,600 ft.  The 2011 estimated population is 5,700 people.  I will only be maybe 8 kilometers from another volunteer, so don't worry, I'm not alone by any means.

Map of Butaleja- it's not the best map, but you can zoom in and at least see where in Uganda this Butaleja place is.

As for my official assignment, I will be working with Butaleja Integrated Coordinating Center.  The Coordinating Centers (aka CCs, and those that work at them are CCTs) work with the surrounding primary schools to improve the level of education provided.  Usually there is a model primary school near the CC, which I will probably be working with and be able to do after school clubs/secondary projects with.  The CCs report to a Primary Teacher's College (PTC), and the PTC my CC reports to is in Tororo, a town further east on the border of Kenya and Uganda.  According to my offical site announcement, my work at the CC will be:

1. Support the CCT in running outreach activities in outreach schools.
2. Provide professional support to teachers in the outreach schools by way of making instructional materials using locally available materials.
3. Assist in computer science since the college has a computer lab.
4. Support the CCT in resource room development for outreach schools to learn from.
5. Support the CCT in developing positive relationship between the coordinating center and immediate community.

Honestly, I'm pretty excited about all of this, although it's only sparked further questions: what's the town like, what's my house like, what's my counterpart like, what's the school like, etc.  I'm especially excited about developing a resource room from local materials because it will be physical project that I can definitely see results to and know that it will be used as motivation and inspiration for teachers.  I'm not too sure how teaching computer science will work out because the PTC is in Tororo, which is at least an hour and half taxi ride away, but if they're really interested in it, I'll totally be willing to go once a week to teach.  I'll just have to feel out their expectations of me and my duties as the PCV at the CC.  Sorry if this post seems like a bowl of alphabet soup, the acronyms are just so much easier to use sometimes.

On Wednesday, we will be traveling to our future sites to get a feel for the place and hopefully have many of our questions answered.  We'll be able to see the CC and the model primary school, meet teachers and students, meet our counterpart, see our future house (and check if we have running water or electricity!), know how far we are from other towns and other PCVs.  Even if my house doesn't have running water or electricity, I'm definitely not super rural.  Because I am so close to a small town, I'll be able to find almost everything I need, transportation will be fairly regular to other towns and I'll always be able to find someone with a generator to charge my phone if worst comes to worst.  Since we were recently in the region, I know I'll be able to run and bike because the surrounding area is relatively flat.  Overall, I can't tell you how happy I am with my placement, and now how excited I am to finally swear in as a volunteer and get to work.