well...here we go!

We leave for Uganda in the morning! AHHH! We are both anxious/excited/nervous. Saying goodbye to everyone was definitely harder than we expected, even thought we will be back in June for Samantha’s wedding. We are currently in Philadelphia at “staging”. Basically, they had to collect all of our paperwork, introduce us to Peace Corps, and introduce us to the 46 other volunteers we will be training with for the next 10 weeks.  Of the 46, there are 5 married couples.  Three of them are older, and then there is a younger couple as well as us.  We wake up early tomorrow and depart for NY via bus.  Then we fly to Brussels with a two hour layover, not nearly enough time for Patrick to ride a bike to every brewery like he has always wanted to.  We’ll be sure to visit again after Peace Corps.  We then fly to Rwanda for a brief stop and then on to Uganda.  A total of 22 hours of travel.  It’s hard to believe we will finally be there in two days.  We have definitely been savoring ice, flushable toilets, stable electricity, and American food for the past two weeks but we are so excited to be in a new environment.  We have been devouring cheeseburgers because we doubt we will be quite the meat eaters in Uganda. The first two weeks we will be out of contact with everyone.  So don’t expect to hear from us too soon.  Apparently, letters take three to five weeks to get to us and packages could take months.  Our address for the first 10 weeks with be:

Aubrey Woodson, PCT

P.O. Box 29348

Kampala, Uganda

We will be sure to post our next address soon after training!

Our 80 lbs

Random stuff we packed includes: good kitchen knives, camping French press (crucial), a hammock, solar power chargers, duct tape, floss for hanging pictures, 230948439 pictures of Zig, and tons of underwear because I guess it’s hard to find good ones there! In the taxi ride to the hotel I couldn’t help but laugh thinking how crazy it was that everything we wanted from home for the next two years was all in one small taxi trunk. We got 80 pounds each, which was really not too hard to abide by but we really couldn’t think of what else to bring except games and food.

When we received our invitation, we honestly had no idea where exactly Uganda was…so…. where is Uganda? Well folks…here it is:

the country's flag

It is conveniently located directly ON the equator on the eastern side of Africa. Don’t worry everyone, we get an endless amounts of bug spray and sunscreen. Language: English and Swahili! Patrick and I know one of those prettttty good.  Most of our training is for the local language. Our vague job descriptions include me (Aubrey) as a Community Health Volunteer and Patrick as an Economic Development Volunteer (with a focus in agriculture). There is a huge Malaria problem in Uganda, so I assume I will be working with that somehow. AKA we have absolutely no idea what we will be doing. We have 10 weeks of training to start out before they kick us out of the nest and we are on our own for two full years. Anyway, I can only imagine the dreadful travel/airport stories that will be in the next post. Just wish we could skip the flight and apparate to Uganda! We wont be able to call or have internet for the first 2 weeks so we will try to post again as soon as possible! Thank you to all of our family and friends who have supported us in our crazy ideas. We love you!

Our cake at our going away party

Bye Zig! Love you! Be back in 2 years!