On Tuesday, February 11, 2009, Lauren Simkulak embarked on a 2 year Peace Corps adventure in Uganda where she will be a Business Advisor in an Economic Development program.

By Lauren Simkulak

April 9, 2009

I've been here for about 4 weeks now, and I absolutely love it. We recently moved into our home stays, where we will spend the next two months. My family consists of a father, mother, two boys (ages: 14 and 16) and two younger kids (ages: 3 and 4). The father and the older boys speak great English, which has been a big help. The mother, who is only 3 years older than me, doesn't speak much English, but I play UNO with her and teach her English words each night.

This week I had the chance to visit a MFI in my town. It was amazing. It seems everyone here knows about Microfinance. My home stay father has even taken out a microcredit loan, and I often hear people talk about them. It's great!

The food in Uganda, overall, isn't that great, to be honest. They eat a lot of starches. But there is also amazing pineapple, avocados, etc here so it balances out.