Thank you!

Finals are over and I have some free time to regain my sanity and post a few blogs.

I have three very important notes...

First, My official travel dates are June 1st-August30th.

Second, at the moment the total amount of funds we (EWB and I) have received through funding is over $1,500.00. That is great news. On top of that EWB is currently over funded and will be able to provide the additional funding necessary to purchase anywhere between 1000-3000 LLINs!

Therefore this blog post is a shout out to everyone who sent donations, especially everyone who donated from Advent Lutheran Church in Cedarburg! Again, thank you!

Third, as I am a Master of Public Health Student at the University of Minnesota, I was asked to blog through the School of Public Health website. I am very excited about because I will be able to post photos and videos during my travels.

Consequently I will not be updating this blog anymore as it can be difficult enough while traveling to keep up with on blog. Please share this information with anyone who you know is planning on keeping up with me during the summer. However the link below is for my new blog!!!!

NEW BLOG LINK...

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/enge/notes09/

Look for blogs by me, Tyler Weber, and feel free to leave comments! In addition, there will be blogs from other adventurous public health students that you can read. I encourage you to read Amber Koskey's blog as she posts because we will be working together for a period of about 6 weeks. Anna Bartel's and Sarah Brunsberg also be in Uganda but working through a different organization. It will be interesting comparing experiences from different parts of the country.

Thank you for reading and be sure to share my new blog address with people!

Again, my new blog address is...

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/enge/notes09/

Project Introduction

Thanks for veiwing my blog. In this post you will find project links and other such things to give you more background information on what is going on.

Again, I'll be in Mulobere, Uganda which is close to Masaka. If you google Masaka then i'm sure you can find it on a map. Give it a try!

I should be arriving there at the end of May and I plan on flying home in the middle of August. Two and a half months is honestly only a heart beat in terms of working intricately with another culture. Maybe someday I can go for a few years!

While in mulobere I will be working with the University of Minnesota's Engineers Without Borders (UMEWB) as I am also traveling with EWB. I'm personally excited about this because I have never traveled to a developing country before in a group, I have always gone solo which is fun in a confusing "Where am I" sort of way.

Working with UMEWB has been wonderful. They are a group of extremely dedicated and benevolent young people, and I encourage you to read more about them...

EWB: http://www.ewb-usa.org/

UMEWB: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~ewb/

Once in Uganda we (EWB and I) will be staying at Hope Integrated Academy (HIA) which is run and funded by the Uganda Rural Fund (URF). Check out the websites...

HIA: http://www.hopeacademyuganda.org/

URF: http://www.ugandaruralfund.org/

I'll be working with another public health student, Amber Koske, to conduct a community health assessment to measure the impact of UMEWB's water project and to distribute a large quantity of long lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets (LLINs). I'll elaborate more on the LLIN subject in the next post.

Until then, I would like to recommend a beautiful documentary that I recently watched that takes place in Uganda...

War Dance: http://www.wardancethemovie.com/

Do watch it!

New Blog

I just opened the blog moments ago!