Thursday the 27th of June

Apwoyo Dugo! (Welcome Back!) I am officially back in Gulu, and it is great. We arrived just before dinner on Wednesday, and when we got here Doreen had this amazing meal ready for us, with chipati (like Indian flat bread) and guacamolê. Doreen is the Acholi woman who cooks all of our food, or at least all the food at the IC volunteer house. She's amazing! We then just hung out for most of the rest of the night.
From the moment I arrived, I wanted to run over to Awere SS and see the teachers and students I worked with last year. Unfortunately we didn’t get here until 6pm, thus school had been over for awhile. So John (the American Giant) and I walked over there for Morning Assembly. It was amazing. It was so great walking up to Awere. Watching students start to assemble around the school, and they raised the Ugandan Flag. It just brought back some good memories. The only down side was that Komakech was not there at school during the assembly.
Last year when I went to school for the first week, Komakech would always say that we would meet at school at 9am. So I started to come to school by 9 am, but Komakech would never show up until 10:30am. When I showed up this morning, I basically knew that I would not see him. I was actually lucky enough to go by the school later today, and I did get to see Komakech. It was so great to be at Awere S.S. again.
Then I went into town, and helped to show some new teachers around Gulu. It was real exciting, and real busy. Gulutown has really exploded in the past year. I cannot believe how many white SUV’s were driving around Gulu…and tons of BodaBoda drivers. It was just so so busy! It’s really exciting to see how there are many new buildings, tons more traffic, and a new Internet Café. Which is where I am right now, and that makes me really happy!
Tomorrow I will be meeting my teacher at a big party we are having at Kope (copay) Café. It’s a restaurant that my friend (and fellow Gulu resident) Jamie has helped to start here in Gulu. Then I will be in Gulu until Monday morning, which is when we will travel out to Pabo (pa-bow) for the week. Pabo on the weekdays and Gulu on the weekends.
I'm excited to travel out to Pabo, especially hearing the nice accommodations we will have out there. Apparently we will each get our own room, and a double bed! I'm not sure what that is really going to be like, other than a large mosquito net. We have a latrine that is only for our use, with a key and all. Who would have thought that you'd have to keep people out of a little shack with a really smelly hole in the ground?
We have more workshops and lectures to sit through during the day before our par-ty tonight. Sometimes it's been pretty boring sitting through those because they are really similar from last year. Anyway, I must be going now! Hope you are all enjoying June!