Update

Clinic: In an effort to tighten up clinical operations, we've implemented an inventory system and are currently in the process of creating job descriptions and work agreements with the staff

Volunteers: I received my first group of three volunteers in November and they were great. The next group of three is in the village now and I'm in Kampala to receive three more. This will be my biggest group so far, so we'll see how it goes... I've created a volunteer orientation document to get people up and running quickly and I decided to create "missions" for volunteers to attempt. They'll vary from "creating new missions" to "maintaining the new inventory system" to "starting a juice company" to "getting the road from Mbale to Bududa paved". Some are simple... some a little more challenging (like the road thing).

Locals: The locals are warm and welcoming. Now that I've been here a while, I get offered an invitation for tea just by walking by homes. Jennipher and I have bonded. She changed her hair. I've befriended Rashid, a cool modern-type dude in the village. Such a thing is rare. The volunteers love him and he loves hanging out with them. He knows the ropes around Bududa district so he's a good "in". For example, when I called him and asked him if he could get me a hen to give Jennipher for Christmas, he was in the house ten minutes later with a big, beautiful hen that we named Jennipher.

Chicken Farming: What started with buying Jennipher a Christmas hen has turned into a small-scale chicken farm. After Rashid brought the hen, I decided it would be a shame to eat it (and I knew Jennipher would just feed it to us anyhow) so Rashid and I ventured off to find a suitable mate.

The ones behind the trading center were too young and the guy wasn't coming down in price. As we were searching, we came across a guy who had a "laying" hen. At the same time, I saw our local defense unit, Charles Wambi who's known for catch phrases "home is best", "Nothing bad" and "We are together". He has a small bandaid on his pinkey. When I probed, it turned out that he had delivered a baby cow at the school (Arlington) the night before. This is the third baby cow that he's delivered in a month. As a "Watchinyala" ("Well done"), I decided to thank him with the laying hen.

So after the sidebar task of Wambi's hen, Rashid and I set back to find a worthy cock for Jennipher (the hen, not my Ugandan mom). As we were waiting for Wambi's hen to be captured, I found a crazy-feathered cock that I decided I needed to have. Since that one wasn't for sale, we went a trading center over, Rashid sent out four agents or so to find said crazy-feathered cock. After some time hangin' in Bunamubi (the next trading center), we went back home to Kiholo (our trading center). Lo and behold, there was a crazy-feathered cock that we bought right in our own neighborhood for 17,000 shillings ($8)! That was the beginning.

Now the chickens needed a home, so I made them what looks just like a dog house next to Jennipher's kitchen. Now that we had a proper house, we needed another hen. When a local carpenter saw that I was buying a hen and a feeder, he asked me about my house. I proudly said, "go talk to Jennipher" expecting him to be impressed with my handy-work. When I came back, he and Jennipher had decided that we need a new house built further away from the kitchen. So three days later, we had a professionally built hen house fit for a poultry farm. To celebrate, we added another bird to make four. Two nights ago, I was challenged by a dinner host to catch one of their hens. After running full speed through the woods, up and down hills, and over a river of cow manure (biogas?), I finally caught it with some assistance. As a reward, they gave it to me to take home and add to my farm.

Now we have three hens, a crazy-feathered cock, an adolescent white cock and a hen house build for 30.

...but what about the old hen house that looks like a dog house...? Time will tell.