I am going to add some pictures in the next few days but I'm back in DC. Considering the fact that I grew up overseas and have never noticed culture shock or needing much of an adjustment, I have been shocked at how hard it is for me to get back to reality. All of a sudden things are back to being clean, convenient, and costly. It feels like I'm getting home from a mission all over again. As my friend Will said, "Kristen, you seem like you are always high lately." I don't really feel like myself and am trying to find a comfortable balance of living comfortably while the memories of the simplicity of a rugged existence are constantly in the back of my mind.

I just moved into a new place with two of my best friends Wendy and Laura in Alexandria. It's going to be a busy and fun semester. I'm taking a financial accounting class, a NGO management class, and a tools for a development worker class. They will be rigorous but I'm excited to dive in because I really want to learn all of the subjects.

I got a fellowship this year for half tuition so that makes this program much more affordable, but still sometimes overwhelming to think about the investment. I just have to remind myself that I will be that much more marketable and knowledgeable when I am done and that it is worth it. I'm planning to continue working for help international while I am also taking classes and starting a non profit. I would love any advice and if anyone is interested, I'll send you the business plan. it's called Nyirira (nee-ri-da) which means beauty in Luganda (a major language spoken in uganda). I'm trying to find balances in my life and know that if I just keep my priorities straight and do the simple important things first, that everything will work out.

anyway I'm debating on the whole blog situation. I'm thinking I will add pictures to this one and call it good. Maybe make a book out of it or something. I might go back to my blog with graham and be the single writer, start another, or just take a hiatus from blogging until I'm a newly married person, like most other bloggers.

it's been a while

it's tuesday night and I leave friday. who would have thought I'd be getting even less sleep? Melissa and I are really trying to do a good job on our projects that we have started. Some highlights as of late are:

1. we moved to the veranda and now sleep outside, with a mosquito net as our covering
2. there are only four of us in the house
3. we put our day guard in prison for a few days because he stole from us, the police wanted 20,000 to do the paper work that had to do with his case so he got off.
4. I got mugged with one of our other volunteers. We are fine.
5. I'm starting a non-profit I'm really really excited about. email me and I'll forward you the business plan.
6. I interviewed the dean of the public health school for makarere university. he is a really big deal and was on the hill during the first PEPFAR with President Bush and has written books and is in a bunch of newspaper articles etc.
7. We are trying to go through our house which has a ridiculous amount of stuff.
8. I miss it here already...but I need a vacation.
9. we made a fruit dryer

that's it for now.

I miss you all and only sometimes miss "real" life.

About 20 of our volunteers left last week. I am going to miss them all but am excited to keep in touch in the future to see what they all do with their lives. We have some great people that have come through the program this summer.
To add to the eternal list of sicknesses, I guess that most people who went home got sick upon arrival and eating American food again. One of our volunteers who, lets be honest, is cursed to have everything go wrong when it comes to health emailed and said that she may have malaria, she is getting de-wormed, has a respiratory infection, and is being tested for giardia.

The day the last group of volunteers left, wendy seth and jeff came in town. They slept at our house wed night and then we spent half day on Thursday and Friday back at sipi falls. It’s so beautiful there and it’s been fun to have them here. The plan was to raft on Saturday but, surprise surprise, wendy got sick and didn’t feel up to going. So I stayed and hung out with her. She, seth and jeff slept at some friends place in kampala Sunday night and last night and should be sleeping here again tonight and tomorrow before they leave to the airport Wednesday.
I want to give another project update. So, we finished the eye camp with 1700 people screened and 102 surgeries. There was a man who was blind for ten years due to a bilateral cataract who was so enthusiastic about being able to see that he yelled to the crowds and pointed to say “I can see that you are a boy, and you are a girl!” On my mission in Taiwan, I tried to do that a few times and failed calling girls boys and vice versa, but this man was good and from what I heard, didn’t offend anyone.

Another big project we are doing is starting a social business of soap making with the persons with disabilities. That is our biggest project to pursue in this last week and we are probably going to need some business advice. The two leaders now have the training and we are going to work out an initial business model today and see how it goes. So if anyone wants a copy to look over, let me know. We are trying to work it out with the hospital that the persons with disabilities will be their soap provider. If that works out, then it would really be great and a constant buyer for them.

Our mushroom farms are something that we are trying to finish and make sure are sustainable. I’m workingout a contract with one of our partners to pay him in chickens to make sure that this is structured and he gives us updates on the farm etc. we have another one with the HIV group and need to finish that. The HIV positive group is more straight forward because the proceeds go to their transportation to come to meetings and medications for those who can’t afford them.
We are building two pit latrines, one for a school and one for a fishing village who uses lake Victoria for all their water needs, washing, drinking, and latrines included.

We finished a lot of different teacher trainings and business trainings. We also have given multiple womens groups mini cabbage farms. We have done outreaches with disabled persons and with the public health nurse, some other vulnerable groups that can’t afford to come to the hospital.

We also designed a peer teaching structure for a sex-ed curriculum to be implemented beginning in three schools and will hopefully expand. About ¼ of pregnant women that come into the health centers in our areas are under aged women. They then must have c-sections and drop out of school etc when they have children so young. The initiatives have really pushed abstinence but haven’t addressed the people who are still going to have sex.

We have two chicken coops, both for underfunded schools, one is for a school that is mostly orphaned children.

We have built a lot of stoves, probably around 50 of them, which help with respiratory disease and fuel costs (cuts it by about ½). We are working on some stoves at the hospital this week.

We are also doing a family planning public health group who is using fertility beads and charging the women after training to pay 5 cents for these beads. When used correctly, the beads are a really effective method of birth control.

We had the aids extravaganza, where over 100 people were given free hiv testing, including one 15 year old girl fatuma. It turns out that she is positive and doesn’t know. So, we are befriending her (the public health nurse wants us to and for some reason it wouldn’t be suspicious in her mind) but she is a sweet 3rd generation ugandan born Indian. I really like her and am not sure how this relationship is going to go considering she said to her grandma she would kill herself if she was positive.

On a lighter note, I am also trying to branch out the products in Lugazi, we are helping the youth outreach mission (a group of about 30 college students who want to give back to the community) start a snack shop. They are selling the exact same product as everyone else. So Melissa and I recreated some of our favorite chapatti (they are a little thicker than Mexican tortillas) including honey butter and powdered sugar, cinnamon and sugar, pb and j, jelly, etc…so that maybe they would spice things up a little bit. I’m not sure if they will.

Wednesday I’m also teaching a local bakery how to make cookies to sell. They said that the ones I made last time were “too soft.” So this is going to be a struggle, but I’m determined.

We are also starting some savings and loans groups which are really exciting. It’s what has been keeping me up late and waking me up early the past few days. I’m really excited about it. It’s microcredit with savings in womens groups that don’t need an institution. That being said, it’s fairly complicated and takes training.

anyway, life is good. I'm really happy here.

gulu pt 2

We just got back from gulu last night after a looong journey. To be honest, one of the things I've learned to expect from this summer is that nothing can ever go smoothly. Our bus broke down for three hours on the way to gulu so we didn't arrive to the nasty run down hotel until 4am. Following our first encounter at the "multi-choice" hotel where I only really got two choices from, sickness, or sickness. Literally. Brian started throwing up right after we shared our beds (they didn't save all our rooms for us so we doubled up on singles) and around two hours later I hear a knock at the door with a worried brian telling me that he threw up blood.

for those of you who know me well, I don't really do the whole doctor role very well. I told him that everything would be fine and that we would take him into the hospital in a couple hours. Inside I'm freaking out. When I went to throw away his throw up in the squatty potty that reaked of urine, I gagged myself and when there were mice in the room I decided we were upgrading the next night.

We took brian to the hospital and of course they gave him malaria treatment, but he also had a bacterial infection because his white blood cell count was really high so I had him take that antibiotic and hold off of the malaria medicine that they give us EVERY time.

We went to church which was great and then had a little fireside with the ward members after.

Monday and tuesday we went to work to finish 11 stoves that the last group started. We were in the round huts with thatched roofs and for some reason my depth perception was off because I ran into the roof about every time I left or entered the hut.

The reason why we build these adobe stoves or "energy saving" stoves is because people inhale smoke as they cook in their homes which is a huge problem for respiratory health and eye health. They also save a lot of money by using firewood in these stoves and can spend up to 1/2 to 1/4 of what they spent before on charcoal to cook. it also cooks their food more quickly so cuts the time women are cooking by a few hours a day.

When we build them we try to train people around how to do it so that others can do it as well. we put a cement finish on them and a chimney but you can do it without so that it is virtually free.

We did that and then one afternoon went to an IDP camp. One of dennis's best friends amos had been helping us all week and as we walked through a still very populated IDP camp, I ran into Amos on his bike. People seriously just show up places all the time here. He told me he lives with 9 other family members, mostly extended family, but it was really a harsh reality when I realized he was living with them in these tiny mud huts. He doesn't have a sponsor for school so is kind of at a standstill in his life as well.

We also met with invisible children who is doing a lot of really great work from uganda. I'm really impressed with their organization. One thing that makes me really excited is a micro savings and loan group to do with women. I'm going to meet with the mayor again here and propose that we institute more of these groups for the women here and see if he will provide in the business counselors job description to follow up on these small savings groups. The women start by saving anywhere from 1-5,000 shillings a week and each gets a stamp in their book for how much they put into the pot. then there is a loan system set up where they take turns being able to use the money in the pot but have 1 month to pay it back with 10% interest. As the money is constantly loaned out and people pay back as a group, by the end of a 6 month cycle, everyone gets back the money they put into it and a portion of the 10% interest. They make more money by lending. It's really great. there are systems set up for accountability with a president, secretary, and treasurer in the group who have keys to the 3 key lock box. all three have to be present to open the box and ideally money is not left inside. They have done it with some womens groups and by the third or fourth cycle of six months, there are women who are saving up to 20,000 a week as a group. (or about 10 dollars). I love that idea.

we went on safari yesterday and saw giraffes, elephants, warthogs, rhino's, alligators, birds, deer who morphed african style, and some other animals. it was a ton of fun. We did a boat safari to murchison falls on the victorian nile. you should google image it and hopefully in the next few days I'll actually have a camera!!!

Last night as expected, our driver had issues and we ended up traveling for 12 hours when we could have been home in 5.

such is life.

I calculated that I probably only got about 21 hours of sleep in the past 6 days. I don't know how I'm not sick.

lex left two days ago which makes me sad. most of our volunteers leave early next week and then it's down to 8 volunteers for a week and then 6. it's going to be crazy. but I'm excited to do some of my own projects an to have a cleaner house, and maybe sleep?? That being said, I'll miss them all a ton.

Dennis and Gulu pt 1

alright, I should probably do better with keeping my life updated. I have never been in such a whirlwind. There are a few things I want to write about and then I'll put on another update on our projects.

Last week on thursday night we invited our friend dennis to come and eat with us and tell us his story. He is a 26 year old from Gulu in northern Uganda who is now a freshman in high school because he was abducted as a child. This is a sad story so if you want something happy, I wouldn't read this right now.

When Dennis was eight years old the LRA came into his village and stormed his house. They took his father and two mothers out infront of their children and told dennis that since his dad worked for the government, he needed to be killed. And dennis needed to do it. Dennis refused and there was some arguing as they tied his parents naked to a tree. When he had a second, out of fear, Dennis took off running and the LRA took their guns and shot after him, they hit him in the arm but he ran into the bush and hid for a little bit of time and then made the decision that he should go and die with his parents so went back to witness his father and mothers massacred. They were cut down the middle, their throats cut and insides pulled out of their bodies. He had a drawing of what had happened that he showed to everyone. After that, the LRA took dennis (he was the oldest) to be a soldier and left his siblings orphaned, in their village.

Dennis spent EIGHT years in the bush. He tried to escape once but got caught and was caned until he couldn't walk. He finally escaped the second time and was successful. During his time in the bush he was forced to kill a man. it was either he die or the man die and so he shot a man as a young child. The LRA used to play games to with the people they would capture and force them to fight 1x1 and the survivor would move on to the next round like a sick sporting tournament. they would then wait until their were 2 people left out of 60, leave a note with them and tell them to inform the government that they were in that location with 50+ dead bodies waiting to fight. He also talked about how brainwashed the child soldiers get, where some thirst to kill and how joseph koni is possessed by the devil and has powers to predict the future.

He talked really matter of factly about the experience and said there were many things that happened that were too much to explain. He talked about the problems in gulu today with HIV, girls that were raped and then drop their babies in bushes or pit latrines, and starvation associated with people forced to leave the IDP camps.

when he came back after 8 years in the bush he found two of his little brothers and had a little place for them to stay as he went to school and tried to provide for them. he would lock them inside while he was gone and then come back with food from the school to feed them. One day while he was at school his siblings were playing with fire in their hut and accidentally set the hut on fire and both ended up dying.

He then lost all of his fathers property and luckily found someone to sponsor him for school. He since has moved to jinja (about 30 minutes from us) and is trying to support another orphan girl who was his neighbors child and who he promised to look after. She is 2 and living in gulu with someone that he put her with.

I am amazed by Dennis. He wants to build an orphanage and is working on raising funds for that. I am so impressed with his outlook on life. He says that sometimes he doesn't feel like he should be alive and wishes he were dead, but then he reminds himself that God chose him to stay alive and he needs to help as many people as he can.

He joined the LDS church and found a sponsor for his schooling through a contact their but that is a population that is a lot of times left to the waste side, the returning abductees who are in their teens. There is a ton of funding for elementary school kids, but not enough attention is paid to those who are older and escape.

I'm still digesting that reality mixed with the fact that I just came back from gulu at 5am this morning. I'll write another entry about that. I'm sorry about the grammar errors but I don't have time to really re-read over this right now.

happy july!

Well, it’s been a while. Sorry about the delay in writing I’ve had a crazy past couple of weeks. I know that’s surprising considering all that has happened in the past. Two weeks ago I was going to the hospital and waking up twice a night with one of our volunteers Jake who had Bill Harsy (sp?), a parasite that is found in lake Victoria. I was really worried about him because the parasite caused his heart to slow down and then he would pass out. To top it off, jake is the type of guy that whenever I ask how he is doing, he responds “good.” I’ve never studied someone as much as I had to study that kid. We also had a member of the HELP board come and visit for about 10 days so we were running around trying to coordinate that. Mindy was really fun to have (I’m not just saying that because I’m nervous about her reading this). We have had our fair share of visitors so far this summer. Anyway, while mindy was here and jake was starting to get better, mindy took Melissa and I out to dinner. We were enjoying the night and relaxing when I got a call from a random Ugandan number. It was will, and he said, “hey I did something impulsive, I’m in Kampala.” I had to sit down when he said that. He had two tickets on Tuesday, one to Pakistan if his visa went through and another to Uganda. When the visa didn’t go through, Will came to UGANDA to visit and left two days ago in time to catch another plane to Pakistan. It was so much fun to spend time with him as well and to show him a piece of life here. All of the volunteers were loving it as well. We ate some good traditional food, went to some projects, went four wheeling right by the nile through villages and sugarcane fields, went to a graduation party, church, played some chess, went on a hike through the rainforest, and on an all day outreach to a village and sadly then our time was up and he had to go back.

I want to talk a little bit about the outreach. We went to this village named barara, it’s a fishing village on the coast of lake Victoria for community teaching day with a partner organization called CCWA. We went and they took us out on a leaky boat, originally to catch fish for lunch, but as the water covered our feet and they discovered that we were going to probably end up swimming with the fish, we rowed back into the shore. We then had an opening ceremony with speeches and singing of both of our national anthems. they served us ‘breakfast’ at noon and then ‘lunch’ at 2pm, both were big portions of food, breakfast is porridge and corn-nut esk corn on the cob, lunch was fried fish, matoke (plantains), rice, cassava (tapioca root), and pineapple. We went to tour a neighboring school which was very simple, breezy, and cheaply built but the kids are adorable. On our way back to eat and listen to speeches, we caught word that there was a child suffering from malaria who was waiting for transport to the hospital. When we were sitting there, word spread that the two year old had died. We went to pay respects and walked to a mud hut where the mother was wailing inside. They wanted us to go inside and I was really conflicted on if that was what I should do culturally or if they were just saying that, I also wasn’t sure at the time what the child died from. I went in and sat down, since there was not much room, I was almost touching the child, the mother uncovered the dead childs face, we said a prayer, and I left to make way for everyone else. It was pretty surreal and also made me angry. This should not happen. Malaria is cureable and that child should not have died. We paid for the childs transport back to the place where they wanted to bury him and after a moment of silence we had to move on with the plan to teach the village.

Teaching was funny at this village because they were honest and asked some tough questions. During the HIV training: “what if my husband is positive and I’m not, but we want to have children?”

When she talked about nutrition and taking care of yourself including not drinking or smoking, when you do have HIV, a woman said, “But I love alcohol, it’s so sweet.”

During the business training about saving: “my husband takes the money I put aside for my child’s education and buys alcohol, what should I do?”

During the sanitation training it came up that they really need a latrine because everyone just goes in the lake, does washing, and drinks from the same source.

It was fun.

Anyway, it was another emotional rollercoaster day with the highs of the adorable school children dancing and singing about wanting a better life, and the low of another child dying from malaria. It was obvious that their reality has a much more harsh light than I can understand.

We are going to build them a pit latrine and help their school.

projects

I haven't been talking much about the actual projects we have been working on as a group. here is a summary of our weekly report from last week

Hand washing stations

We found a new design to build hand washing stations because we couldn’t find all of the materials necessary to build the old model. After discussing the new design with Wilson, from Youth Outreach Mission, we decided to build hand washing stations that are a little more durable and therefore more sustainable. Today we will order one for the market and will install it as well as teach hand washing early next week. After seeing the finished product and its durability we will decide if we want to build them elsewhere.

Women’s Group

We met with the local women’s group on Thursday and discussed the possibility of building a mushroom house which they feel would be the greatest benefit to the group. I will discuss this with Jake, the project lead for mushroom houses, and run it past the group when they get home from Gulu. Also, Tifanee and I have been learning how to do the paper bead jewelry so we can teach the women’s groups this craft. We have made great progress but still have things we need to learn. In order to do this we will be meeting with a friend of Wilson’s in Kampala who makes these beads as her profession. She will help us to perfect the craft and purchase all the necessary supplies that we cannot buy here in Lugazi.

Aids Awareness Extravaganza

The extravaganza is growing at a rapid rate. We now not only are going to be showcasing performances and our work here in the villages but we also will be offering free HIV/AIDs blood testing and giving out free mosquito nets. We have been working a great deal with Wilson and Robert from the Youth Outreach Mission. This week we sent out letters to the Embassy asking for funding and asking for their attendance. We will meet with the Youth Outreach Mission again this coming week to go over the extravaganza to complete the details and begin renting all the equipment and starting all the details.

Gulu

16 members of our group left last Wednesday to travel to Gulu. They arrived safely and had a great time there besides a few logistical problems, but that’s expected. The group then safari’d and will be back tonight. Kellyn and Jake came back early so this is a brief update of what they did while they were there.

The Gulu trip was very successful and we completed 11 stoves. We built the stoves in 3 areas; Paichu, an HIV group around Gulu University, and a very rural village an hour outside the city center. The first day of building, we broke into three groups and each tried to complete the foundation for three stoves. One group completed all three, but because the other two groups did not have the materials ready for us, one group did one and the other two stoves. All in all it was a very productive work day even with the numerous complications. The following day, we split into five groups so we could accomplish more. Two groups filled the stoves, and the other three groups built 5 more stove foundations and taught the groups how to fill them themselves. We used ant hill clay instead of mud which made the stoves stronger. Also we discovered you can use the clay as a substitute for cement so that everyone has the opportunity and financial means to build his/her own stove. Overall everyone was very receptive and excited about teaching neighbors and friends how to make their own stoves. Personally, I felt like these two work days were the most productive and beneficial of all the work days this first wave.

They also went to meet with the invisible children headquarters and had a long discussion with the president of the organization there.

Kawolo Hospital Eye Camp

The eye camp is being spearheaded by ryan and jake. they are planning a week long camp to perform surgeries on rural people for cataracts and glaucoma. it's going to be big and we are really excited about it. The Eye Camp work has been very productive this week. We are going to separate the Doctor shadowing and the Eye Camp into two different projects. This week we haven’t done anything with Doctor Shadowing. We met with SightSavers in Kampala on Monday and they agreed to help us with the project and donate about 6 million shillings towards the project. We will try and provide for everything else through HELP and private donations. We met with the Superintendent of Kawolo Hospital and he approved our idea and clapped for us, it was cool. On Tuesday we met with Annette and Betty who are the Ophthalmologic Assistants in charge of the project and we created a budget with them and sent an application letter into SightSavers. The following day we met with the District “Healthy” Minister and he told us that he is very willing to help us with this project. We made flyers to pass out to all of the rural health clinics where we will be having the screenings and were going to go to radio stations so they will announce the Eye Camp but we were waiting for the final confirmation from SightSavers which didn’t come until Friday evening. While we were waiting we went to the church in Mukono where the teacher training was and I pulled a worm out of my arm. That was pretty crazy. We did however receive confirmation from SightSavers and so we will be meeting with Betty and Annette on Monday to go to the radio stations so they can announce the Eye Camp. This will get as many people to go to the Eye Camp as possible. Dis is gonna be da best project eva. Peace out Mike.

Music Dance Drama/HIV group

The MDD group started out slow the last couple of weeks and then kicked it into high gear this week when we found out that the performance for the town council members and Embassy members was moved to this past Thursday. We hurriedly camp up with some monologues and poems about Hope and not being afraid. The group performed some songs about getting rid of the stigma that accompanies having Aids. It ended up being a powerful performance and I think the audience really enjoyed it. We will continue working with group through out the summer so they can get ready for other up coming performances.

Business Training

Promising progress has been made in business training this past week. With the arrival of Taylor Mackay, our group numbers have increased dramatically (from 1 to 2, to be precise, which doesn’t include the intermittent members), which makes the workload less overwhelming (and less lonely) to manage, the vision more possible to fulfill. On Thursday, we visited Stanbic Bank to learn the process of opening bank accounts for home and for business, as well as Pride Microfinance Ltd. to better understand its methods of loaning, credit, outreach, and training. With all introductory meetings behind us, we are fully set to commence business classes with five separate groups (two of which actually had their first classes last week). In order to better facilitate discussions with class members, we have contacted Professor Joan Dixon at BYU and requested Pro-literacy materials that specifically address business concepts. From here, we will run classes and continue to research what else can be done to benefit people through business.

Mushroom house

the mushroom house has been constructed for a women's group. they each have been given one small bag to start and are being followed up with business classes so that they can learn how to expand. they are also committing to save 10% of profit for their children's education funds.

Adobe stoves

Andrew Harrison has been heading up adobe stoves and has built over 15 in lugazi. He is doing a great job and people are really excited about their stoves. the stoves help with respiratory disease, cut costs of firewood and are time savers.

Sanyu school

there is a rural school that we have done teacher training, a square foot garden for math teaching and to add more nutrition, and a chicken coop for income generation for students who are unable to pay tuition.

Youth outreach

we have partnered with some college aged ugandan students who are really impressive. we go with them to different schools or help gather street children and orphans for one hour of soccer (andrew lovel donated the jerseys) and then one hour lesson on AIDS awareness and on basic sanitation and health.

public health outreach

we meet once a week with a woman from the mukono branch named margaret who plans outreaches, this week we are going to have a soccer match with a secondary school and then do some trainings. we have done business, health, and teacher trainings in the past. we are also expected to give speeches and the village performs for us. it's great.

there are other things that I'm sure I'm forgetting but we have a great group of volunteers and we are really excited about what we have going on. I'm trying to encourage more partnerships with other ngo's. we have a list of over 300 working ngo's in uganda.

five of our volunteers are leaving and it makes me sad. I'm going to miss lezlie, matt, kellyn, kat, and drew. I'm excited for our new ones that are here though. they are also going to be great!

rwanda

Our team’s missions statement is to create sustainable differences on the road to self discovery. After interviewing a lot of our volunteers, I’ve found that the end statement, to “discover” more about yourself is a lot of our group’s goal. Many are redefining themselves out here.

I didn’t really put myself into that category with everyone else that I interviewed. I have felt that I’ve had a lot of life changing events or moments in my quarter century life and that a lot of those previous experiences have shaped and molded me. Reflecting back on this past month and a half I’ve realized that I was wrong. I’ve realized that I have been constantly re-defined things I thought I had already figured out. Here are a few examples of what I mean.

Trust. I feel like we have been forced to discern people’s motives a lot lately. I’m much more skeptical of some people after a friend of ours stole from us but then other people here I trust whole heartedly, without reservation, even with my life.
Loyalty. After interviewing five HIV positive women who were all infected by their husbands but felt no anger, I re-evaluated loyalty and what that means. I am not sure how I feel about it. It’s great that they aren’t angry and can let go and focus on living life to the fullest, but at the same time it is not okay if this is a cultural acceptance thing.

How to live my life. I feel like more than anything I’ve been slapped in the face with raw life and what it is like to live with problems that are much more survival based than anything I’ve experienced in my pampered life. Looking at a person with AIDS or someone struggling with malaria, someone who has suffered from deaths in their family and others who don’t know what they are going to eat that day, I have realized that most of my problems are self inflicted or things I’ve conjured up in my head from boredom. Spending a lot of time with people who are in extreme poverty makes me feel like I’m living more richly and it doesn’t have to do with money. I see things in a more vibrant and yet a harsher light.

That’s how I felt in Rwanda this last weekend. On the 13 hour cramped and bumpy bus ride from Kigali to Kampala, I sat reflecting on human nature and trying to decide if and how that definition has changed in my mind. The images of skulls and femur bones piled up on shelves, the room in the back of one of the churches where everyone was set on fire, the blood still left on a wall in the neighboring room, the priests changing room with a bible on a table next to a pile of bones and a huge grenade like hole where the window was, piles and piles of dirty rag clothes taken from the bodies of the victims and stacked on the church benches, thousands and thousands of pieces of clothing. In the piles of clothes, a snoopy childs t-shirt caught my eye.

The first church tour our guide Latifa explained after asking her that when she was 10 she came to this church to hide from the hutu extremists. Her family hoped to find sanctuary from the extremists in the church along with 5,000 others. When she saw the hutus coming for them in a mob like fashion, she ran and was able to escape with some others to a swamp and stayed in hiding for a month. When she came out of hiding she had to face the enormity of the slaughter of many who she cared about and loved. She said that coming to work can be difficult to have to relive the experience day after day. I was completely over-whelmed and with my voice strained said, “I’m sorry you went through that” as I left. I don’t know if I’ve ever understated anything more in my life.

The second church was a perceived sanctuary for 14,000 people. As I descended down the stairs in a mass grave behind the church I saw thousands of broken skulls and my emotions shut down. It was too much to deal with and I just had to sit for a while and try to understand what was in front of me. These uniform skulls and bones were once brothers, sisters, moms and dads and now are just bones. They were murdered in the most barbaric and brutal methods that I don’t need to go into. I factually know that numbers,1 million murdered and 2 million people were displaced, but seeing the clothes, the childrens bones, and talking to another guy my age who was about 12 when it happened and was there to visit his diseased relatives made me question the inherent nature of humans. I used to think we are inherently good.

I was taken back in my trip to Rwanda to when I went to Hiroshima in 7th grade and was speechless again at atrocities that humans can do to each other. The ways that we can desensitize ourselves. Books I read about how the Japanese treated Koreans in China and Nanking during ww2, the holocaust, the genocides in bosnia, turkey, and the native Americans, I was disgusted that 1. we don’t learn from the past and in conjunction with that 2. that it is HAPPENING NOW in Darfur.

I think that sometimes we convolute and make excuses for things that should be black and white. In a situation like Rwanda where the Germans, Belgians, priests, hutu extremists and the international community were all at fault. The international community just sat back when they only needed 5,000 troops to stop the genocide and 5,000 UN troops were in Rwanda at the time but were not allowed to stop anything unless they were directly shot at. It’s ridiculous that we have to sit back again and allow innocent people to die again in Darfur until political will changes. People are dying NOW and I’m just frustrated and feel helpless. At the same time, the helplessness is exactly what de-sensitizes us on the outside. Our cook Mary just went back to sudan last weekend and just knowing that she is waiting for peace to be reunited with her husband is more motivation for me to get involved so it’s stopped.
Anyway, Rwanda as a place is gorgeous, it is so much more developed than Uganda and I felt much more safe there. The streets are manicured, tree-lined, and there is not garbage around. I love it there. Getting there was typical African fashion of definitely struggling. The first bus that Lezlie found was going to take about 16 hours to get to the Rwanda Congo border. We decided that was not the right match for us so frantically at about 6pm found another company and went to buy tickets for that night. We got to the bus ticket office, I clarified the tickets and we bought six tickets for Lezlie, Alexis, me, Kat, Kellyn, and Drew. We got there at 12 for our 1 am bus to find that they booked us for the next day. We sat there frustrated and tired at 1am as we watched our bus drive away in the middle of a dark parking lot and were not wanting to try to find a way home to Lugazi again. The manager figured out a way to squeeze us into a 3am bus and we happily accepted. Sadly, the tranquil bus ride sleeping was not on the agenda. We felt like we were on the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland. I’m not being overdramatic. The third or fourth time we were all air-born about 3 hours into it, I blurted “ARE YOU SERIOUS?” and then Lezlie followed up with “THIS IS RIDICULOUS” and Alexis “I’m going to talk to the driver.” And we all erupted in laughter at the pitiful state we were in, heads bumping all over the place as we pretended to sleep as we rode at about 80mph through fog in pot-holed roads.

Besides almost missing the one bank to get our money out and finding that French, Rwandan Kenyan (I think) and English are spoken pretty equally, one third of the time we were able to effectively communicate. I did NOT communicate effectively with our hotel man when we were talking about prices and ended up paying four times what we had thought, which turned out to be about $18/person/night but when we were expecting $4 it was annoying.

That aside, I once again wish I had more time there. We ate great food and I was soo impressed with the beauty of the country. I could live there. I also had great company so it was a great trip.

Oh lastly guess what? Mzungu is Swahili, so we didn’t escape that phrase.

June 1

“Ugandans are very friendly” is a phrase many Ugandans say about themselves. I’ve found this statement to be true. They are also helpful, and generally give you good advice or directions, but the sociology major in me has made me question why. I do think that some people help us because they are sincerely good people and just want to help. If they are men, I think that the motives vary. They may still confidently help you no matter what you need, but deep down may want money, an address, phone number, girlfriend, or any means to a green card. Either way, many Ugandans have helped me and despite some leading us WAY out of our way or giving us a bad deal, generally they really are eager to help. Fred was one of those guys.

We decided Saturday night at midnight that we were going to attempt to register and run a half marathon Sunday morning in Jinja (a town about 40 minutes away). I spent Saturday in Kampala eating heavy Indian curry, ice cream, and watching a movie. I definitely did not carbload and I also most definitely have only ran about 3 times in the past month. Anyway, we got up at 5am and after an adventure of finding the registration point, they allowed us to register at 7:15 am. The race didn’t start until 9am so we had a few hours to kill and to try not to fall asleep. In true Ugandan fashion, the gun shot went off at 9:45 am and hundreds of us took off running. The front of the line included Olympians from Uganda and a traveling Olympic team from Kenya. They looked straight out of a nike commercial and even their warm up jog would have worn me out. Despite trash talking in my head, I didn’t see them once during the race. I’m fast,but that is an idea of how fast they are. We took off running through Jinja with many people lining the streets cheering for us. We got to the first water station, which were water filled sponges which I drank from and then when we got to the real water station I wanted to kick myself for once again drinking unsafe water, but didn’t have time to think too much about it. After the first water station the five of us help intl runners spread out into our respective comfortable paces. I was feeling good running behind Kat and felt like I was keeping up a good pace. We ran into a more rural area right by the nile and lake Victoria. It was beautiful. We could see people washing clothes in the river and there were kids running along with me after I would give them five or “bonga” (fist pound) while I ran along. The problem was that the sun came out strong and I realized that I like to drink a lot of water in those humid situations. I kept telling myself that just around the bend there would be water and was feeling exhausted. After running for literally twenty minutes feeling like I might pass out, I stopped to walk for a second and my legs almost gave out under me so I just picked up and kept running. I passed a prison where a guy in his jumpsuit was cleaning a railroad track and stopped to cheer for me. By the time I finally got to water about 30 minutes of miserable dehydration had set in so I walked to try to get re-hydrated. As I was walking a Ugandan guy came up to me and was completely encouraging. His name is Fred. We started running together and he became my favorite running partner. I found out he has a family with two little kids and as we jogged along, we were passing time just chatting among beautiful landscapes. After a little lul in conversation and I was kind of wondering if he was one of the purely nice people or if there were any ulterior motive for befriending me, he turned to me and asked “do you know Jesus Christ?” I smiled to myself as I told him yes. I realized I probably needed some missionary work done on me considering that I was missing church at that very moment. I really was hoping that this conversation would NOT evolve to something that I couldn’t physically run away from for the next 6 miles, but it worked out okay in the end after I told him that I also am “saved.” He’s great and I’m soo glad that I was able to run with him. Every water station from fred to the end, I grabbed two bottles of water to run with as a death-prevention measure.

The last hour or so of the race fred and I ran and walked and ran and walked to the finish line. It was great because at the end the tables had turned and I was encouraging him to run. This may come as a shock but he was LESS prepared than I was for the race. He didn’t eat breakfast that morning and was cramping up.

Nonetheless, after about two hours and fifteen minutes, we crossed the finish line. Me in 31st place for the women and fred in 298th place for the men J. I’m sure there were just as many women as men running and that I’m just that fast.

As we stiffly grandma-walked home, we knocked on our gate and...knocked and knocked. Shaun one of our volunteers poked his head out and yelled at us. We looked over and about 30 feet of our impenetrable fortress of a wall surrounding our compound had crumbled because of what we hypothesize as erosion. I initially thought a small bomb had exploded. They are fixing it even now as I’m typing so we will hopefully be once again less exposed in the near future. When I went out to shower in my bathing suit to the well, I turned around to see about 20 teenage boys just staring at me. I pumped water into a basin and carried it to the back of the house for relative privacy but, lets be honest, the fun never stops here in Lugazi.

Yesterday I tried talking to our day guard sam. He is in his early twenties and doesn’t have much education so his English is not the best but he takes care of the compound as well as lets us in during the day. I feel guilty because we are technically paying him about a dollar a day, thus perpetuating extreme poverty…but he does have an apartment in the back so I’m hoping that it is okay. Anyway, yesterday morning I showed him another huge ant trail. The ants are merciless here. They maneuver and smash themselves inside your shoes and out of nowhere a searing pain (mostly because of the shock value)causes a mini freak out when they bite.

Last time we had an ant incident he took care of it quickly. He got gasoline and watered it down, then splashed the ants and killed them really effectively. So we had another broken conversation about killing the ants which included me promising to give him the equivalent of a quarter to buy a little bit of gasoline. I totally spaced it until we came back in the evening. I brought it up with him again and apologized for not giving him money. The conversation went something like this.

“sam, I’m sorry for not giving you money, can I now give you money?”

The respondant look of confusion caused me to make the universal money sign by rubbing my fingers together.

“you know, money for the gasoline? Petroleum? To kill the ants?”

Still confusion.

Melissa and I made little motions as if we were ants crawling

“Can I give you money for the insects?”

Sam responded

“Sex?”

sorry it's been a while, I'll do better

This week was insane. Part of the delay in my blog update is explained below. I would have updated in the past three days but we had a huge storm one day, power outage the next, and then internet was down another.

Last week on Monday we had 9 sick volunteers who had been throwing up through the night and 3 who had diahhrea. Tuesday I took Stacy to the doctor who had a throat infection. Wednesday I took Andrew to the hospital who is now being treated for malaria. Thursday we took Becca to the hospital in Kampala because her back is hurting her a lot and she previously needed surgery on it. Brook was in bed for three days with heat flashes and the chills. People had things stolen this week, more people got sick in waves, elections happened and were really intense, and a group went to kampala on Friday for domino's,lost two wallets and didn’t get home until 2am. It was a rough week. But give us a week and we will hopefully be able to laugh it all off.

When we went to Kampala on Thursday, Becca, Ivan, Mellissa, and I bargained for a while and waited for a taxi until we finally started our trek into the city. We arrived in kampala about 90 minutes later and hopped on two boda’s who were to take us to the international hospital. Sadly, Ivan told them the wrong hospital and so after swerving in-between cars and busses and even hopping a medium and turning into oncoming traffic (a policeman drove up next to the motorcycle after that maneuver and yelled at him and then yelled at us for not yelling at him) we ended up across town at the wrong hospital. When we finally reached the international hospital, the boda drivers charged three times as much. We argued and eventually had to give them a little over twice as much as we initially bargained. Instead of $1.50 each motorcycle, we paid $3.50. We entered the westernized hospital and Becca saw a phillipino doctor around 2:30 pm who referred her to a specialist at 5. So we went to the embassy on more boda’s. The consulate was closed so we went to a grocery store self titled “the embassy grocery store” and were really excited about buying oatmeal.

At this point Melissa and ivan had other errands to run and needed to make it back home, so went their separate way. Becca and I saw the doctor, got xrays, a prescription, and the name of a hotel that had a store underneath it where we may be able to buy a back brace. It was basically a scavenger hunt, racing against the sun. We hopped on yet another boda and went across town, ironically close to the first wrong hospital of the day and were dropped off, got a brace and went back outside with vague directions to where to pick up a cab back to Lugazi. Ironically we had to motorcycle to get becca a back brace, but just pretend that is logical. I was getting nervous as the day came to an end because we had a long trip home and Uganda at night is a completely different place than Uganda during the daylight. We started walking in the direction of a man’s waving hand and then asked someone else who sent us walking perpendicular to our trajectory. Finally I asked a girl who was about our age to take us. She was a saint and walked through alleys and through a night market to get us to a hectic taxi park. There were hundreds of taxi’s (aka minivans that have four seats of three but somehow manage to frequently squeeze in well over twenty people). She helped us ask and found that we can’t get directly to Lugazi. So, we went halfway home, waited again in the dark, and then got on another very crowded bus to town. It was election night and there was a lot of partying going on so we jumped on boda number…I don’t even know, and booked it home. Besides being stopped by a group of drunk twenty something year olds who were up to no good (yes I'm embracing that I sound like a grandma with that statement), had our boda driver not taken off with a jolt, we arrived home safe and sound. I am grateful for our no traveling after dark rule and plan to obey that.

Friday night before we saw a bunch of kids perform traditional African dance which once again made me in awe at the African gene to dance. It’s got to be genetic. They had rattles on their ankles, some half hula skirt and a fur around their waist and would put shakira to shame if she were to see how they shake it. There were a few boys playing the drums who were equally as talented. The dance troop performs, most are orphans, and the money they make from performances fund their school fees.

On Saturday we went rafting on the Nile. It was amazing. Probably one of the top ten things I’ve done while on vacation in my life. Yes, I realize I made another sweeping absolute statement, I just can’t help myself. Some went bungee jumping before but around 10 am we all separated into boats of 8 people and my group included our Ugandan guide Sadun who is hilarious and awkwardly gave me a hug at the end and asked for my number infront of all of his other rafting buddies. We rafted through three class 5 rapids, two class 4, and about five class 3. We flipped during one where I got hit by drew and then by the boat. I thought I might die.
That being said, It was so fun and I’m going to go again with the mindset of what sacrifice I’m going to put my body through. I once again had to face the reality that 1. My arms are really weak. 2. Doxycyclene + 8 hours in the sun without any shade = major sunburns. 3. Inhaling Nile water causes my body to naturally cleanse itself. I have been daydreaming of the good old days when I was a little more comfortable. Days when I took for granted things like, being able to choose when I go to the bathroom instead if it choosing me. I’m also thinking back to this time last year when I actually PAID for a cleanse. I’m ridiculous.

We ended up going down about 17 miles of the Nile which was breathtaking. (if you are curious, which I was, it takes 3 months to raft to Egypt). And I always assumed that rivers should run north to south because of a gravititational pull. It’s just logical. But the Nile obviously missed that physics lesson.

During our trek we paddled past lush Ugandan countryside with hills and mountains on both sides. We also passed villages with people washing their clothes (pronounced clothe-ez here). There were places we were able to get out and swim and tried to overtake another boat pirate style.

We were able to stop for sandwiches, potato salad, pineapple, and watermelon at lunch time and we all felt like we were in heaven.

The weekend was great. We officially have a day guard who I need to keep reminding of his responsibilities considering I spent ten minutes banging on our fence in a really heavy rainstorm to eventually get let in by a sick volunteer. We should have a refrigerator tonight, and we are taking legal action against the guy that we think stole from us. Such are the adventures here in the pearl of africa.

bugs

Yesterday we all were having a good time together. We celebrated Aly's birthday and went to church, ate etc. but in the middle of the night something got us.

Basically a virus is wiping everyone out. We have 9 volunteers at home, 6 throwing up, 2 with diarrhea, and one with a sinus infection. Not only that, but our computer is also infected with something funky because it wont work.

awesome.

Luckily we have good contacts and talked to the mission president who said it's totally normal and should expect about 24 hours of sickness to get whatever the bug is out of everyones systems. for now we left out the BRAT diet snacks and are hoping for the best.

After cleaning out a bucket of throw up and bleaching the bathrooms again, melissa and I walked, disheveled, out of our house. When we closed the gate, we looked at each other and just started laughing. We remembered the fact that last night we were discussing the potential of this week being smoother than last week. :)

The sick people are in high spirits despite their un-comfort and we are taking the sinus infection volunteer to our landlord the doctor this afternoon (he practiced in australia for many years). We also can get good antibiotics over the counter here so we will get these guys better.

p.s. Andrew Harrison is not sick.

May 15, 2009

Our group is here! All 28 of us. It’s kind of out of control but also pretty fun. We now have running water which is a great improvement and Melissa and I anticipate the day our mattresses that we washed about 10 days ago will dry completely. Everyone seems to be getting a long great so far. It could definitely be the honeymoon phase but we are all having a really good time together and will hopefully have some good projects coming up in the near future. Some of the things Melissa and I set up for this week included meeting with the Sanyu school.

Prosper grew up an orphan but was sponsored by a school for school and board and really loved by her teachers. When she married Pastor Francis she wanted to give back through education. So, they started Sanyu (that is her Ugandan name) school from a seven room house. They lived in three of the rooms and started with 6 students. Each year they expand a classroom to fit the senior class and have one more year to expand to make it seven years with seven classes. They are struggling to find the finances for this last building. In Uganda you have to take a standardized test to get into middle school and need a “hole” or a hall for both the seventh grade and to administer the standardized test at your school to be considered legitimate and eventually be sponsored by the government. The problem is, they need $3000 USD to do it. Micro credit loans will only give up to $300 with almost a 30% interest rate. The bill for complete funding is currently over half of all of our project funds for the summer so we can’t do it alone. They would also want to use it as a meeting place for women’s groups and a community center. So, I’m going to try to find other NGO’s around Uganda that specialize in schools and see if we can partner with them.

When Melissa and I arrived and were struggling to find housing for 28 people in a poor community, Pastor and Prosper took us around for 7 hours one day, completely dropping what they were doing to help us find housing. Prosper stayed with us for almost three days straight helping us get the best prices on all the house supplies and teaching us how to clean the house here. They have four kids of their own and have adopted three orphans. I am amazed with this couple and know that they sincerely just want what is best for their community. We are going to do some teacher training, fix their adobe stove, build square foot gardens for each grade (so they can learn math and incorporate some more nutrition with applicable life skills) and teach business classes to the 53 moms whose children go to Sanyu school but who can’t afford the small tuition fee. Sanyu and Pastor Francis can’t turn them away and in turn, can not make enough money to expand. Although their school is humble, they have been getting recognition from the community because they try to instill in the children a love of learning and also really grow attached to the kids.

To get the community involved we were thinking of having those families who cannot afford tuition donate labor to building to pay for tuition. We were also thinking of having the kids work on the school for about an hour a day so they also have ownership. We haven’t promised anything, but I am also hoping for a miracle so we can help them with their school.

Kizza


Kizza is a man whose love of life radiates from his countenance. We built something like 15 adobe stoves with him last year and in the year since HELP Intl has been gone, his community built about 35 more. Adobe stoves are important because they save on fuel costs and time, but most importantly, women traditionally cook over open fire in their homes and get respiratory disease and very irritated eyes. Children would suffer as well. We are helping him now build a mushroom house for his womens group which after about $200 of investment, it would help support up to 16 families. I want to include in the contract that a percentage of the money earned must be saved for their children’s schooling. Kizza is so excited about life and one day said, “I may not be rich, but I am happy.” When I heard that statement, I was really impressed by its simplicity. For some reason it is such a puzzle for most of the world. He has found happiness through his family and giving back to his community.

The whole time I’ve been here I’ve wondered if it is our place to get involved in these peoples lives. I’ve been trying to partner as much as possible with the community and figure out feasible ways for more of a loan system instead of hand outs to help foster self sustainability instead of dependency. There is a woman from Kampala that Melissa met who goes around to schools and communities and gives speeches to Ugandans about the need for them to step-up and give back to their communities. She says that they need to stop waiting for Muzungu’s to come in and if they see a problem, figure out a way to fix it themselves. Melissa’s friend Clint was in Uganda for a conference and said something similar to us, he said, “stop thinking that you can’t do something. We put way too many limits on ourselves and when we say we can’t, our brain shuts down. Instead turn it into a question and ask, HOW can I do this. This forces your mind to work through the problem and you continuously ask how, you will attain much more in your life.” I like this organization because we can incorporate that by ideally “helping them help themselves”. We try to ask them how they want to solve their problems and then see if we can offer any assistance. All of our projects need to have a lasting impact to foster self sustainability and if we can help speed up the development process, even just a little bit to help small businesses, or increase health, it’s worth it. I think I will always question our involvement in the development process. There is a very delicate balance of how much we should give vs. how much we should expect from the people we are helping. One project I’m excited about is an HIV/AIDS youth outreach group that has 100% volunteers who go to schools and talk about protection, abstinence, and the importance of getting tested. We are partnering with them to build a HUGE adobe stove in the local, very under-funded, hospital. I think the more there are partnerships, the better. We are planning to run with their ideas and to mostly just support them in their mission.

I love it here. Being over the logistics of the group cuts my ability to pursue my own projects, but I love where I am. I'm excited to learn from our volunteers and continue to learn from the people we are working with.

5/10

Our volunteers are here!! Well, all but 5 who are coming in tonight. 18 of them arrived, a little frazzled, after over 24 hours of travel. We had to rent 3 mini busses to get everyone back and naturally, in my car, there was a spontaneous combustion of about 10 minutes of lion king songs. I am sure it was all the condensed oxygen in the airplane.

Everyone is excited to be here and Melissa and I have laughed at ourselves wondering if we are going to chill out at all this summer. Probably not. We are quite a conspicuous group walking around Lugazi. Before our group arrived, Melissa and I were the only muzungu’s around. Now we move in an overwhelming pack that looks like a colorfully dressed ghost parade to all those we pass. We are naturally quite entertaining to the cute little kids around town who pause to get up enough courage to yell, “muzungu!” at us.

Speaking of people yelling muzungu (white person) at us, I was talking to our compadre Ivan who was laughing about the inverse and was sure that if he were to go to America how everyone would yell “BLACK PERSON!” at him. I tried to explain that most likely, that would never happen in America.

The 18 volunteers got in Friday night to no running water (they might turn it back on Tuesday or Wednesday) and we’ve been using a lot of well water to do everything. Saturday we woke up and the newbies went on a scavenger hunt throughout the town to the bank, buy fruit from the market, buy water from the grocery store, and email home. We then met for lunch and went back to the house to get ready to ride to jinja, the source of the nile. We road a boat across lake Victoria to where the nile river begins. It has a 400ft deep spring that mixes with the lake water to start the river. I never really thought about how rivers begin so it was really interesting. Some of the group went back to swim in a swimming pool at a hotel and the rest of us stayed out and swam in the lake. There are some areas of the lake with alligators, but luckily considering how huge lake Victoria is, there are plenty of swimmable areas as well. I wouldn’t have gone swimming if there was any chance of an alligator sighting.

We got back, ate dinner, and then went to African Paradise, which lived up to its name in rhythm and groove. Just kidding. It’s a small-town dance club that was a lot of fun. Auntie Peggy’s daughter Barbara came with us and we spent the night jumping around and laughing. We have one volunteer in particular who dances like no one I have ever seen. It’s pretty amazing and I’ll keep trying to learn moves from him to bring home. He’s able to move but somehow stay really stiff at the same time. When we walked in, they played this regae song about obama, and then continued to replay it about 8 times. The lyrics include “hero,hero, hero, obama is our hero. Hero, hero hero, an African warrior…”

Our group is already bonding a lot. It’s a pretty eclectic group of people but no one with a sand paper type personality. Everyone is leaning on people they knew before but also willing to have fun together and get to know other group members. It’s going to be fun. Melissa and I scheduled a lot of activities for this week and hopefully people can use them as a spring board for next week.

I was talking to our cook Mary last night for a while. She’s from southern sudan and saw a lot of fighting in the war before she left with her three children. She left her husband in Sudan to work and sees him about every three months. We were talking about Al Bashir and how evil he has become and I asked what she thinks needs to be done. She said simply, “he needs to be stopped.” I continued to ask if she thinks that there should be international help and she said yes. She’s just waiting for him to die or imprisoned so she can go home. It is so ironic that I went to a couple of darfur rallies, a convention, and read a book last year in DC but I will never really understand what the conflict has been to people on the ground.

Well, I have five minutes to get ready for the day. Happy mothers day to all you mothers that read!

5/6

5/6/09

Yesterday:
1. We moved all of the HELP gear from storage in Mukono, a town 30 minutes away. The highlight of the adventure was almost having my hand bitten off by a mouse when I reached into a garbage bag to pull out our kitchen stuff. Its whole family had been nesting all over our stuff and the mom darted out so fast that I only caught a glimpse of something grey. The baby that tried to bolt fell out of the bag and hit the floor in all the commotion to scurried away after the mom. There may have been more family members but I was too busy trying not to freak out to notice. The mouse family really made themselves at home in our stuff aka, mouse poo on everything. We are now cleaning everything: 12 bed frames, 10 mattresses, a lot of cords which were eaten through, chairs, kitchen things, games, books, etc.
2. We then got our stuff from the mayor’s house and hauled it out to our new place.
3. The following 6 hours were kept us busy killing spiders, cleaning spider webs, nests, and insect wings off the bed frames and washing the floors African style, by using rags on the floor. I also tried to carry a big tub of soapy water on my head and lasted about 10 seconds before spilling down the front of me and our friend Prosper (awesome name I know) coming to my rescue.
4. We then went in to town. We got food, got frustrated with dail-up internet, and signed our housing contract with the mayor.
5. Upon returning home, we sat down for a few minutes to eat and then tried to move our beds upstairs and failed…miserably. It was exactly like the friends episode where Rachel and Ross are trying to move the couch.
6. I then went into the upstairs bathroom. There was a leak in the sink and we had 3 inches of water that gathered in a puddle in the corner. So I got even more dirty (hard to believe at this point) and used the towel mopping method to squeeze the water into the tub.
7. I then tried to shower. The water ran for about 30 seconds and then drizzled to nothing. While standing in my towel over the tub with dirt lines that resembled tan lines, I just stared. Waiting. Hoping for a drip of water to fall out of the faucet. After our day of insanity this experience almost put me over the edge. Luckily, Melissa is even tempered and suggested that we shower outside. It ended up being the best thing that has probably ever happened to me (I find myself speaking in absolutes a lot lately). So, we went outside and showered in the rain-water stores. My bad mood of standing in my towel complaining to a patient Melissa turned into a refreshing fun experience as we bathed in our bathing suits under an almost full moon.
8. We came back in and caught a glimpse of a huge cockroach living in our bathroom. In the US of A I tend to talk to insects that I see and cut them a deal with the, I won’t bother you if you don’t bother me mentality or I’ll put them outside more frequently than I kill them. Here, I’ve digressed to Lord of the Flies tactics, every man for himself. These little guys are the African breed. So instead of getting some funky incurable disease, I hunt them down and destroy them. He, the roach, was elusive last night but Andrew Harrison just arrived today with Jake and killed him tonight. I still talk to insects but it’s more trash talking than deal striking now a days.
9. The final hurrah of last night was the beautiful moment my mosquito net fell down on me and then the ensuing debate of malaria vs. suffocation enter my delirium. Suffocation won and I woke up in a sweat at 5:45 to start another day!

One other experience. There are a crowd of kids throughout Namengo, the area of Lugazi that we are living in, who are adorable. I don’t know what they do day to day but they seem to always be outside and always drop whatever it is that they were doing, which could have very well been minimal, and yell either “How are yoou?” “Muzungu! Muzungu!” or “Bye Muzungu!” when they see us. There was a group of three little guys, all under five years old, who were in a pasture area by our house yesterday. We walked out of the house and when they saw us they waved fervently and yelled “BYE MUZUNGU!” We laughed, waved and said “bye!” We then passed a tree and blocked their vision of us for about 2 seconds, they then, upon seeing us again yelled “BYE MUZUNGU!!!” We smiled, waved and said “bye!” Then we passed a cow and guess what happened? Well, you can probably guess. Yup, for the third time we got an equally enthusiastic, waving as high in the air as their little arms could reach, “BYE MUZUNGU!” by this point we were laughing out loud. The kids here are so adorable.

The men on the other hand usually have some marriage comment or proposal associated with the Muzungu comments. I could be the ticket to a lot of green cards. Maybe I’ll have my own side business. I’m trying to beat Melissa in proposals and so far, am dominating. She is winning in other events of the overall competition. She is dominating at little children crying or running away when she makes eye contact with them (3) and drunk men wanting to dance with her (2) there are others who have proposed to her as well.

Andrew and Jake arrived today. I’m excited for them to be here.

I can't believe how much we pack in.

Happy May Day! I want to write about two experiences we’ve had in the past 2 days. Yesterday the mayor, Deo took us on a tour to the sugar plantation in Lugazi. We drove up behind the plantation to a village (called Kowolo or Kowoto) on the top of a mountain. It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. We could see a panoramic view of valleys of sugarcane, tea, and some scattered housing. The clouds were vibrant as the sun was starting to set. There were a group of men playing soccer on a field with three pieces of wood pieced together as a goal. The people who lived in the village are of the Acholi tribe, or northern Ugandans. They look different than southern Ugandans. Very dark, thin, and tall. The women are very beautiful. This was the first place where I saw kwashiorkor, or children with protruding stomachs. The workers in that village earn less than a dollar a day and are migrant. They move every couple years to different plantations. They also don't seem to see very many white people or "muzungu's." When Melissa looked at a baby, probably about 6 months old, the baby screamed and started crying. I think she thought Melissa was a ghost.

As we sat and Deo talked to the women who were making brooms from wheat(?) or some similar looking weed, he talked to us about the government not providing any resources for these people. He asked and found that if we were to build a chicken coop or something to get the children more protein that their employers (the sugar company) would not allow it. As we talked about business and asked them what type of businesses they would like to start, more women came out to show us their skills; beautiful crochet and knitted table settings, chair pads, and hot pads, intricately woven mats, and then a woman told me that she knows how to sew and wants to teach other women those skills. After Deo prompted us, we gave a speech and it was humbling to see how much hope the women had just from us being there. It’s overwhelming to think about them connecting US to their attainment of their dreams. We want to work up there and set up some business, ideally through loans, but I’m not sure how to do it in four months.

Today we went on some errands, ate our first rolex…which was amazing. It’s chippati (a thicker tortilla thing that is pretty greasy) with fried egg and tomato all rolled up. We also had avocado sandwiches with probably the biggest and best avocado I’ve ever eaten.

Today we went to Deo’s rally to support him and once again got better treatment than we deserve. I don’t know why it is in people’s minds here, but without this coming across weird, they think that westerners are inherently superior than they are in some way. At least they treat us that way. It makes me feel bad. Then again, we are here to “teach them” how to help themselves. So, we do take on that role to a degree. I wish that we could emphasize more that this is a mutually beneficial exchange. We are getting just as much if not more from our interactions with them as they are from us.

Anyway, enough on that tangent. We went to the rally. They said it started at two but it turns out, it really started at 3. Within that hour of waiting, we found ourselves all decked out in Deo gear and fully entertained by a couple of mentally well, unstable people dancing. It was VERY entertaining and the MC on this truck with huge speakers also kept giving us shout outs. He made some comments like “Deo is uniting the world” or “welcome to all races and colors” “we don’t care about if you are black or white…” it was awesome. When the crowds really started to gather, they escorted us up to the “important people” section and we ended up sitting with the town council members and right next to Deo. We were feeling a little uncomfortable considering by that point we had yellow bandanas and flags representing him and I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that we shouldn’t get involved politically. Anyway, the rally was exciting with some professional singers who preformed and a lot of speeches, all in Luganda. When the mayor got up he invited Melissa and I to come to the little stand/stage. We stood up there and were in awe at the number of people all gathered. There were probably around 2,000 people. He then told them all that we are here from America to help them. He had us introduce ourselves (both our English and Ugandan names) and everyone cheered. It was all a little odd and yet hilarious at the same time. We got down and experienced Lugazi’s version of paparazzi with one guy taking pictures of us from a cannon digital camera. After Deo’s speech, there was some more dancing and we got up and tried to not embarrass ourselves. I don’t think my body can move even the way that their 3 year olds can here. It’s amazing. We were hoping to be done with our festivities at that point but Deo told us to go with “madam” who looked stunning in a beautiful orange dress with gold embroidered throughout. Anyway, we got in the car with her and continued for the next half hour to parade…literally, around the town. We waved and I had to stop myself from giving his thumbs up sign to everyone we saw. I guess with all our waves and smiles going out the window we also threw out our impartiality in Lugazi politics.