Sarah
I am finishing up the last two months of my English Language Fellowship in Mbarara, Uganda. Classes ended in May and I finished giving and grading final exams right before taking off to Michigan to attend two weddings of good friends (Congratulations Jenna and Brian and Arun and Connie!). Also, Sean, his sister and I pooled our money to buy a small house, which has been an exciting new venture. After a quick trip home, I returned to Uganda and have been working on some projects now that things at the university are pretty quiet. One big project was a weekend teacher training workshop with the Ugandan National English Language Teaching Association (UNELTA) which took place last weekend. We're working together on equipping English clubs with entrepreneurial and business skills so students can make a little money, learn how to run a small business and practice English in an authentic way. Another big project was working with Rotary International and the American Refugee Committee to put together some events at Nakivale Refugee Camp for International World Refugee Day. The next big event is in Tanzania which is a collaboration with several other ELFs. We are hosting a two day conference followed by a five-day training for 50 English teachers coming from all over East Africa. After that, I only have a couple of weeks before I fly back to the U.S. on July 29 - can't wait! Besides training in D.C. from August 6-11, I'll have some time at home before returning to Uganda on August 24 for a second year of ELFing.
Sean
Sean left Uganda in early May to get ready for his first summer of being a Trip Leader with Adventure Treks. He will be leading trips in the Pacific Northwest July and August and will return to Holland roughly the same time I get back from D.C. I'm following along with his summer trips on the Adventure Treks blog, which has been a lot of fun. Sean has his annual Labor Day trip with friends along with an additional backpacking trip to Isle Royal before, which he has been looking forward to.
I'm looking forward to some time in Holland to see Sean, friends and family and soak up some Michigan paradise before heading back to Africa at the end of August. I wish it were longer than two weeks, but I'm grateful for the break before starting a new contract at a new university and in a new city. Fingers crossed that I'll have better internet to update this blog in Entebbe compared with access and connectivity in Mbarara. Thanks for reading and enjoy your summer!
Awesome to hear how things are going! Unfortunately, we won't overlap in Michigan; we've already done our trips up there for the summer. We're going to Seattle to visit my brother in August before the school year starts, and once it starts, I won't be traveling much. (I'm grounded in October.) But all this is super exciting!