This is the year.

So happy to say that I bought a memory card reader so I can now upload my pictures more regularly! Anyways, I will write an update soon but we just spent a wonderful weekend with my dad in Kenya. We had the opportunity to see the work he has been doing, training medical students and residents in ultrasound at a hospital in Eldoret, and we also went to visit Lake Nakuru National Park. Pictures speak better than words so I hope you enjoy the few I was able to put up!

Hello from Lira! We returned from Atiak exhausted. But we knew we had to continue with our research so we spent the next day walking around Gulu and interviewing staff from different NGOs while planning our return to Lira. In Gulu, we met a wonderful lawyer at a women's legal clinic, who told us about how she attempts to use the law, and cultural norms when necessary, to improve the lives of women and children in Uganda. It was nice to see how ingenious some institutions and individuals are and we could tell that she was truly helping many people. The next morning, we ran to the bus park at 7 and caught the earliest bus. In Lira, we spent an exhausting day trying to talk to as many organizations as possible so we could find ways to the field. Getting to the field can be a complicated process and you can’t just take a car and drive to a village. Normally we try to get in contact with a local elder from the village, parish or sub-county councils and be invited to come for our res

Dear friends and family, There are many times when people want to help a cause but simply don’t know how to, or don’t know if there money will get to the people they want to help most. Having worked with many aid organizations, I know that money often goes to pay salaries instead of helping the victims. So one of my goals for this trip to Uganda was to figure out what organizations are doing good work, and therefore give people who are interested in helping a good outlet for their aid. I have personally witnessed amazing work of this organization and spoken to the founders, otherwise I would not refer people. Having spent over a month now in the North, I’ve seen an incredible number of NGOs, but a disappointing lack of development in the region. Considering how hard it is to know from the West which of these hundreds of groups actually exist on the ground and do the most work for your money, I thought I’d describe one that I will support myself and think others may be interested in

I hear its really hot in Toronto today … it is SO hot like that every day here . Except no air conditioning also. Then when it rains, it comes so fast and so hard. Hope everyone’s surviving back home though! Sal is pretty sick today. He thinks he ate bad chicken. So we just did some data entry. We did learn a bit about the healthcare system though. Before my mom left she made us promise to call her friend if we felt sick, so we called him and he told us to go to his clinic so Sal could get some prescription medication. Uganda has a free public health care system (known as the village health centers and town referral hospitals) as well as a parallel private health care system. The problem with the public health care system is that it is no where near the quality as the private system and many procedures and drugs do not end up being free. Anyways, we figured we’d see how much the private system cost. Sal went in for 2 minutes to talk to a doctor - no examination, just talking. He was

Hello! Long time since I last updated this. We’ve been doing lots of traveling in the Acholi region of Uganda, but I think we’ll soon leave to spend some more time in the Lango and Teso sub regions of Uganda. We’ve been getting some good data and insights for our research here in the villages and towns near Gulu, especially when we went to Awach last week. Awach is a trading centre that used to be host to one of the largest IDP camps in Acholiland. Most of the IDPs have now returned home, but some chose to stay in the homes they’d constructed and just commute to fields they harvest kilometres away. On Friday, we traveled back to Awach to meet up with the Village Health Team who would help us administer surveys. We spent all day talking to many people and collect 80 responses! Although it was generally a good experience, we also learned a very valuable lesson about field research - never leave those administering your surveys unattended. Unfortunately as we reviewed results back at