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.