erin.

In March of 2007, I met 49 strangers in a hotel in Philadelphia. Nervous and excited, we played name games, went out for our last Mexican food, unpacked and repacked our bags, and attempted to prepare ourselves for what we could not possibly prepare for.

Twenty-seven months later, the members of the group that arrived with me are beginning to close their service, leaving Uganda one by one. Moving on to other places, new ventures. We have achieved both the big and the small. Building schools, planting gardens, challenging unquestioned attitudes, learning obscure languages, teaching children and adults, coping with harassment, caring for the sick, making friends, enduring stares and unwanted attention, disproving stereotypes. For most of us, perhaps the biggest achievement is that we have stayed.

In this time, I have learned that my fellow Peace Corps volunteers are extraordinary human beings. Fun, supportive, hard-working, funny, unique, tolerant, inspiring, exemplary. They continually amaze me with their talents, their perspective, and their commitment. They have made this experience, my life here, phenomenal. I think that all of us have been changed, not least by one another.

It has been a privilege to serve with this exceptional group of Americans, and I will miss them very much in the coming months.

To any members of my Peace Corps friend-family who may read this, safe journeys and nice time. I hope we meet again– probably when I crash on your couch in six months!

Thank you for the work and much love.

Helmeted Peace Corps volunteers are expected to use bicycles as their primary mode of transport at site. Due to the amount of time we will spend pedaling in these two years, many of us passed up a chance at owning a “quirky” local Hero, pictured here:

Instead I and others opted to buy a used mountain bike. I’m not sure why, but in Uganda, mountain bikes are called “sports bikes.”  They also usually come labeled with absurd names:

These trusty steeds get us from point A to B in style.

This is a photo of me standing with a marabou stork. These birds are really huge, with a wingspan of about 3 meters, and gross.

I have been told that marabout storks first became common in Uganda during the days of Idi Amin, when they would eat dead bodies. I am not sure if this is true, but I am certain the birds’ population has increased as Uganda’s population (and its ability to generate trash) has increased.

Marabou storks scavenge from trash heaps in Kampala. There are periodic debates about what to do with them. They make a mess of sidewalks and occasionally surprise the unsuspecting person walking beneath their nest. But perhaps the real question is what to do with Kampala’s trash– the city generates about 1,500 tons of garbage daily, and only 40 percent of it is removed. Yuck.