A Day in the Life of Our Kulika Bubble

            For the first two weeks of training we are staying at Kulika Training Center, in the central region of Uganda. After arriving in Entebbe, Uganda, it was about a two-hour or so bus ride to get to Kulika. It was late at night so it was very dark and we couldn’t see much on the way there. Plus I was absolutely exhausted and in and out of sleep the whole way there. We weren’t able to leave Kulika much, besides the one short trip to the supermarket and a couple trips to Kampala or Peace Corps Headquarters. Every day I wake up a little before six, due to the roosters. Usually it was a cold shower, but sometimes there were jerry cans with hot water and I could take a nice, warm bucket bath. Breakfast was at seven, usually I had coffee and bread with peanut butter and honey and sometimes fruit. And then sessions begin at eight. Sessions consisted of learning about any educational, administrative, or medical materials. They were long and filled with lots of information; some genuinely important, some common sense. Tea break at 10:30, back to sessions, and then an hour lunch at one. It’s back to the room around two for more lectures, until our brains are mush and we can’t sit there anymore, usually around five. Another quick tea break and then we try to do something fun and active before dinner, like football, volleyball, or yoga. Dinner at seven and then the rest of the night is ours to relax and have a few beers, play card games, work on stuff for school if necessary, etc. There’s electricity, toilets, nice rooms, and beautiful grounds. It’s just us here with the Kulika staff and we don’t really have to do much for ourselves besides our own laundry, which you can even have one of the staff do if you wanted. So we’ve been in this bubble, this unexpected bubble. I think it’s been good to have a transition into country like this. We’ll be leaving here soon, moving to a different place, and it scares me, but also excites me!