Worth A Thousand Words.

So I don't really know what order these pictures are going to show up in... but here it goes.

This is my favorite picture i have taken. African sunset, and this kid was kinda just staring at me.

My feet on a typical night

At the equator (SWEET)

Cutting Kevin's hair

Cutting Kellie's hair

Me and Kellie going to see HARRY POTTER!!!!

Our friend Luta from the Youth Outreach Mission

Some kids at the Happy Child International

Cute little girl at Happy Child International

Another cute little girl came and sat buy us at church on Sunday

Eating bananas with Wilson

And... me just sittin' outside the Youth Outreach Management... waiting once again for Wilson... who is always late. haha

Waka Waka (Do it! Do it!)

So about our projects... I had this idea. At the last school that we went to, the girls had a TON of questions, and they wrote them all down and sent them up to the front to us. But there was no way to be able to reply to all of them... So I had an idea- what if we created an email address that girls could send their questions to, email them back, and then also make a blog with relevant questions and answers that all the girls could look at? I thought about it for awhile, just kinda going back and forth, should i, should i not... But then I just brought it up at a team meeting, and everyone thought it was a way good idea. Huh. I don't want to sound prideful or anything, but this was like... an idea that I'm really proud of! It has the potential to help a lot of girls that we aren't able to get access to, and to start to change some things. There are so many myths and hardships that the girls have to deal with that are COMPLETELY unecessary. Like genital mutilation (yes... we have run into that a lot. really sad.), not being able to take painkillers during menstration, not being able to say "no" to older adults who want sex, all these things that the girls think they're not allowed to do... and they are! And we want them to know that! So the blog site is ptbag-uganda.blogspot.com. (ptbag=proud to be a girl, unfortunately, "proudtobeagirl.blogspot.com" was already taken. dumb). Yesterday we met with a contact who is a woman with a journalism background who was interested in starting a blog about local issues... She is one of the most intelligent and positive people... I have probably ever met. Her name is Elizabeth, and I love her! She's going to help us with the blog while we're out of country. We still plan on working on the blog while we're gone, but its good to have someone with a local perspective and access to the Youth Outreach Management. I'm really excited for where this is going to go! Me and Wilson went to schools today to try and schedule more of them for the PTBAG program... but almost all of them are doing exams this week, and can't schedule us until school starts back up in September... :( so we only have one more proud to be a girl meeting on Friday, and then we're done. :( I'm really bummed, that we were only able to go to 4 schools. Hopefully we can get the word out on the blog, so that we will have some work to do with the project. Also, today we met with Francis from Happy Child International, and we just talked logistics about the program... We are going to try and get him a fundly website, because he wants to construct a recreation center to hold the meetings for the kids. He has BIG dreams, and really low funds, but he is one of the most genuinely caring men i have met. He really cares about these kids, and is putting everything he has into this organization, which is really rare in Uganda. A sad thing, is that the "non-profit" industry is one of the biggest in Uganda, because everyone knows how many problems are here, and they really just set up these programs to make profit. So there aren't a lot of programs that you can really count on to put the time and resources into the projects rather than to just stick the money in their pocket... which is really sad. So I'm really exicted about this project also. We have a TON of fundraising to do, and there's no way that we are going to get it all done by the time we leave, but we want to be able to get as far as we can.

On Stranger Tides...

In other news... While we were gone, we kept getting called from the team at home with some kind of sketchy stories... A preface, we have a TON of thefts here. We wash our clothes outside (obviously), hanging them up to dry, and they get stolen like there's no tomorrow. One boy came here with 6 shirts, and left here with... only one. I haven't had anything stolen yet, (luckily), but we are getting a guard, so that should hopefully stop it from going on. Anyway, there was a physical encounter a couple weeks ago between a boy on the team and a local kid who stole his shirt... And while we were in Lugazi, the boy who was involved in the fight, and all the other boys who have been stealing stuff off the line came to the front of the gate of our compound, and were just kind of standing around. When Mike went out in the morning, all the boys just kind of surrounded him, yelling and harassing him, which was kind of freaky, so he called us and asked what he should do, and the country directors said to go to the police, and just let them know what was going on. Another preface... the police here are corrupt. But little did they know, they are REALLY corrupt. The police officers went to the home of where they thought the boys lived (but it was the wrong home), beat the kids, and threw them in jail. These are like... teenage boys. We were apalled. Not only did they beat kids, but they beat innocent kids. It was completely ridiculous. A few other ridiculous laws they have here... Homosexuality is punishable by death, and common punishment for theft is burning alive. Luckily, the kids weren't burned alive... But still, we were really angry. Now we know to just... not enlist the police. Other weird stuff that's happened... A lot of men are just kind of jerks. There are these random stands on the highway that taxis stop at, and all the workers just swarm your car with food and drinks, pushing it in your face, trying to get you to buy it. I've had one person like... tap a water bottle on my head repeatedly... its just really obnoxious. We stopped at one of these stand on the way home from Western Uganda because some of us had to go to the bathroom, me and Haley just kind of stood by the car, and a bunch of guys just come up to us and start talking to us and asking us questions, and just staring, and being... yeah creepy. Not the funnest 5 minutes of my life, one of the guys on our team came back and got rid of them, so that was good. And today, I took a taxi to mukono, and we were at another one of these stops, and one of the guys (mom- if you are reading this, i'm not trying to scare you, haha. i'm fine, life is good, and i am always safe!) stuck his arm in and just started like caressing my arm... yeah creepy? so i shut the window on his hand. sucker.

Life on the South Side

This weekend we went to Western Uganda. We left Friday morning at 6, and took a taxi to Kampala, where we met a member of Parliament, the Honorable Raphael Magezi. We drove in a car with him approximately 5 hours, crossing the equator into Western Uganda, to a village called Igara west. We also drove through Queen Elizabeth National Forest on the way, where we saw a few baboons, gazelles, waterbucks, and one zebra. We are told that there are also elephants and hippos there, but we didn't see any of those on the way. We stayed at a government guest house for the next 3 nights. It was SO nice. Not only did they have a toilet and the shower in separate rooms, but also the SINK! And we all got our own beds (not bunk beds) that had these tall wooden posts to drape the mosquito nets over. We had a real kitchen table, and were served by cooks, it was the bomb. Oh yeah WE HAD A TV!! And we watched this super cool mexican soap oprah called Marie Chui... pretty sweet. Anyway, so the next day Saturday, we were toured around the village to be shown the different projects that the government was involved with, including a pineapple farm, a goat house, a poultry house, and a few other things. The really weird thing is that they all seemed to be under the impression that we were here to supply them with funds... which is not the case. And in a few places, the government officials even sounded like they were showing that we were there because of them, and that the government was bringing them this help (us)... it was a very awkward situation to be in... i felt a little used. And we were just paraded around all the villages all day, both Saturday and Sunday. It was probably the most exhausting part of this trip to date. My feet were throbbing by the end of the day, and I had a bunch of cuts on my feet... kinda gross. But on the good side, the western part of Uganda is BEAUTIFUL. I wish I had pictures of it, but my camera died right after the equator. Its nothing like the stereotypical Africa you think of- grass plains, exotic animals, dry heat, watering hole... It was lush and green, pine trees, rolling hills. It was phenomenal. So Beautiful. And the weather was perfect- It wasn't so hot during the day, and it got really cool at night. One of the villages we went into, we were about to enter a field of pineapple plants, and there were just a TON of kids, all of them with malnourishment features, and just ratty clothes. I put my fingers in circles, and put them to my eyes, as if i were looking at them through binoculars. And they. cracked. up. It was so funny! And then I just started doing random little games with them. I would start marching, and go "march, march, march" or i would start running with my hands waving around in the air, or act like a chicken, flap my wings... whatever I did, they would copy me. I was click my tongue, wiggle my tongue, make my eyes really big, clap my hands, dance, do the conga line... those kids were loving it. It was so cute. Anyway, so we're just running through this pineapple field, and a group of about 20 kids are just following me around. It was the fun part of the trip. We also visited a banana tree plantation, a fish farm, and a piggery. Then on Sunday, we went to a christian church with all the government officials. It was kind of cool! They had drums, and singing, and clapping, it was actually pretty fun. Except for they invited all the government officals to speak during it... where they were like... trying to get political support... in a church.... for 2 hours. A little disappointing. That day, we spoke at 2 different primary schools. SO FUN. The first primary school we went to, the kids came up and did a little dance for us, and after that the Hon. Magezi asked all the kids who had costumes on to go and find someone sitting at the front (The HELP team and other government officials) and give them their costumes, and that we were going to dance for them. HA! So these kids came up to us and gave us their grass skirts and head bands and such, and we just made a fool out of ourselves dancing! Pretty funny. Then we taught them a quick lesson. Haley taught sanitation, I taught nutrition, and Kellie taught about HIV Aids. All i really did was teach about the 5 food groups, which was hard, because the kids didn't speak english so we did it through a translator. The second school that we did was better, because they did speak english, so i threw in some fun things. We talked about exercise, and I asked them to show me the different kinds of exercise that they could do... which of course they didn't respond because they were shy, so i asked them to run in place with me, and do jumping jacks, and dance, and stretch with me, and they got a kick out of that. Afterwards, we ate dinner at Honorable Magezi's home. Ok this is kind of weird... but he has 2 wives. We met one of them in Kampala, we were dropping off one of their kids's shoes at their house, but then we got to Igara, and he introduces his wife... And I'm like... ok this is not the same one we met the other day... So polygamy lives in Uganda! Super... (not) Apparently only the rich and powerful (politicians) do it, so yeah. Weirdest moment ever. So he just goes back and forth between his two homes, which are like 5 hours apart. Sounds exhausting. I think I might choose to have only one husband... Just to make life a little more convenient, you know? The really fun part about the trip was I really got to bond with Haley and Kellie, Haley especially, because I had bonded with kellie a little bit more in the previous 2 weeks. They are both super cool girls! Kellie and I are like... always together, because we are working on the same projects, and Haley is like... the best, because she gets my random jokes. haha.

Sometimes... Your life is amazing.

So... today I saw Harry Potter 7.2. In uganda. Yeah. I know I'm cool.

We took a 2 hour bus to Kampala, the capitol of Uganda. Stopped at a couple big shopping malls (where between the two of them... I was only able to find one bottle of conditioner...) and ate at a little cafe. Grilled cheese and ham, but it was the nastiest thing I've ever eaten. Somethin about the cheese here... barf. Then we walked over to the craft market. COOLEST THING EVER. There's so many little trinkets, bracelets, bags, african masks, shirts, carvings, weavings, wooden bowls and practically every other kitchen utensil you could think of. All this random stuff... and everything costs like practically nothing. Because 2,000 shillings in Uganda = 1 US dollar. So approximate costs for things in Uganda...

-40 minute taxi ride: 75 cents

-2 hour taxi ride: $1.50

-16 oz water bottle: 80 cents

-chippatti (like a thick tortilla): 15 cents

-banana: 5 cents

The only things that cost more are like US made products, like nutella, peanut butter, shampoo, conditioner... I went to a store today, and they were selling Aussie shampoo for 60K. Which is like 30 bucks. They cost like 7 bucks at target, haha. I thought it was kinda funny.

Anyway, after the craft market, harry potter! The theatre sound like had a pulse, which sucked, but other than that, great movie!

On the bus ride home, I was talking to this guy who works at a hotel in Kampala, and we were just kind of chatting about differences between the US and Uganda. He said 30% of Ugandans are below the poverty line. As for Americans, he said, none of them are below the poverty line... they are just at the poverty line. I had never heard anyone say "at the poverty line" before. But in a way, I think it probably is kind of true. As I've learned with a lot of these projects, there are just some things that have no solution. Either that, or they do, but there are so many complex layers that its almost impossible. He also talked about how people in the US have white collar jobs... But here, people actually own land, farm for themselves, and sell what they don't need to eat. He noted that the country was finally understanding the importance of education (he was a college graduate), and that maybe someday, this might change things. He talked about how one time he went to South Africa, and he could hardly believe that it was actually apart of Africa... because they had everything. Nothing like Uganda. I said to him, "Well, they can't have always been like that? So things can change?" Hoping that this might give him hope in his own country. He replied with, "Yes, but they were also under complete control by whites until 1994." Obviously haven't studied a ton on South Africa. So how does a country change? Is there a good example of a complete change in a country's poverty levels without the control of another country? How does this happen? As I have been working on this project, the more I have come to realize how pointless it is to buy starving people food, or give them clothes. What happens when they're done eating the food? What happens when their clothes are worn? They are right back where they started. That's why its so important to provide the people with skills to be able to get these things for themselves. Our projects have mainly been teaching, building classrooms, setting up programs, and other things that will last. Invisible children is doing a program right now where you can pay for a year of student's tuition. Which is really great; this is something that will actually stay with them for the rest of their lives. Right now we're working on a fundraiser for a school that we recently built a classroom for. The woman who started this school never turns children away, has 8 orphans that live with her, her four children, and her husband, a local pastor, and tries to feed all the ones who don't have enough food! This woman is incredible. And what we're trying to do for her now, is provide her with money to buy land so that they can grow food to feed all the children that are hungry at the school. Here's the link: http://fundly.com/helpinternationalchildfeedingprogram

Anyway, life is good. be happy, because there's so much to be grateful for! (Like cold water)...(and american conditioner) (oh, and normal tasting cheese) (showers every day?) (and underwear that you dont have to hang outside and let flies lay eggs in them...........) ttfn

Pictures

Pictures with the girls at Lugazi High School. They LOVE taking pictures, and then they love to look at the pictures you took, and they laugh so hard. Then they wanted me to bring them copies of all the pictures... So we'll see if that's possible. The little girl was just walking home from school eating a sugar cane, way cute. And then LOOK AT ALL THOSE FREAKIN' BIRDS?! They are HUGE!!

I'm Proud to Be A Girl

Today we went to Lugazi High School, and did the "Proud to Be a Girl" campaign. We met with Wilson & Allen first at the Youth Outreach Program Center, and then walked together to the school. At first it was a little discouraging, going into the Principal's office, and telling him about the program, because he seemed very unoptimistic. Almost like a, "Well... good Luck with that" attitude. But then we went into the classroom. There were probably about 50 students total (this was the entire school), and we just started talking to them all together. I didn't understand a bunch about what was said, because Wilson (founder of Youth Outreach Program) and Allen (Financial director of Youth Outreach Program) have a bit of an accent. One of the things that they did was this object lesson with a glass cup. Wilson and Allen said, "this cup is like your life." And they went around to some students and said to them, "if this cup is your life, what do you do with it?" And some of the answers were "protect it" or "love it" or "keep it safe" And then they started to toss the glass cup between themselves saying different things that they might be doing with their life like having sex, doing drugs, dropping out of school, getting pregnant, etc. And during one of the tosses, allen just simply didnt catch it. and it shattered on the ground. And then they said, "what can we do to put this cup back together? What can we do after these things have happened to put our lives back together?" And they picked up all the pieces, and started "trying" to tape the pieces back together and all the kids were laughing, because obviously... none of the pieces were going to go back together. The point was... Your life is never going to be the same after you get pregnant, or you get HIV/AIDS... And we have to protect the lives that we have from having them fall apart.

The really cool part was when we actually started talking to the girls. And when I say we... I really mean the three girls (Abby, Kellie, and Mikaylee), because I'm still sick and since English is their second language, clarity is important. And I haven't been here to prepare lessons with them the whole time.

So they started talking to these girls about sex, and menstration, and relationships and all these different things. It was really cool! Because the kids were actually like... interested in these things. They had so many questions about menstration, like how long it lasted, and how often they came, and all these different things that are like common knowledge to the rest of us. The insane thing, is that these girls have literally never gotten the birds & bee's talk from their parents. Their parents have never prepared them for relationships, never explained what a period is... etc We opened it up for questions about menstration, and it just kept going on and on and on. Like even common sense things, (you'd think) like "how long are they supposed to last?" "What if i haven't started yet?" "What if i have two in one month?" These poor girls are just being deprived necessary life information! It's ridiculous! Anyway, the coolest moment that I had at Lugazi High School was at the end, when 2 girls came up to us and told us, "We are proud to be girls... Before we weren't... But now we are." It was incredible, the impact that 2 hours had on their lives.

There was a conference that they had with the "head girls" of all of the local high schools with the HELP team. They asked them what kind of questions they had about personal hygiene, woman issues, etc. When the head girl from Lugazi high school went back to school, she told all the girls about the campaign that was going to come to the school, called "Proud to be a Girl", and they responded to her... That they were not proud to be girls. In fact, they listed all the reasons that they were not proud to be girls. The head girl showed it to us when we visited, and I copied it down. It was one of the most heartbreaking things that I have ever read. (Some of the spelling is a little weird, but it must be cultural). It's entitled "Why I am not proud to be a girl"

1. Suffering

2. Broked by the boys from succeeding

3. Sex objects

4. Pain while producing (giving birth)

5. Menstration periods

6. Body parts- big breasts

7. Pulling by the Buganda (A cultural practice that involves... genital disfigurement)

8. Minimized in the society, mostly by nales.

9 Being cornered by the boys & men

10. Isolated by boys

11. Under men & boys control

12. Teasing by boys, ie calling girls figure-less

13. Girls are never comfortable, ie she can't spend two days minus bathing & body changes like breasts

14. Eve was a woman and she is the one who tempted Adam to sin (We are claimed to have been the cause of sin in the world

15. Being corrupted (raped)

16. Being taken as slaves, eg house girls

Most of the girls we talked to were not virgins. And most of the girls were pressured or forced into it or raped by boyfriends/male relatives. These girls were ages 14-18. And these girls didn't know that they were allowed to say "No".

Lugazi Tidbits

A couple things about Lugazi... or Uganda in general.

Taxis are pretty insane. They are 14-seater vans that sit in a car lot, waiting for passengers. Until the taxi is PACKED, (sometimes 20-21 people), the taxi won't leave for its destination. So you could have to wait up to an hour for a taxi. My longest is 45 minutes. Taxi's cost set amounts, depending on where you're going. To Mukono, the place we go the most often, its 40 minutes, and costs 1500 shillings (about 75 cents). To Kampala, its 2,000 shillings ($1), and to Jinja, its 2,000 ($1). Boda Boda's are little motorcycles that will take you where you want to go... I don't know how much for, I have never ridden one yet. But they are EVERYWHERE. In church yesterday, we were talking about Work and Personal Responsibility, and we were on the topic of idleness, when one brother from the ward commented that he once talked to a boda boda, and the driver told him that they only work until they have the bare minimum to feed their family, and then they stop working. Kind of interesting... that the driver's are just ok with their families living in poverty like that. Go figure. Electricity and Water are one of those things that are never ever for certain. If someone on the block isn't paying their water/electricity bill, the owners can't figure out which exact switch to pull to shut it off for that one home, so they just shut off the whole block. We lose power probably every other day. And we haven't had water for about 48 hours. Se have 2 toilets, one inside, and a squatter one outside, so everyone has just been using the outside toilet for the past 2 days, unable to flush it. It's disgusting. And we haven't been able to shower or wash dishes, so the dishes are just piling up... We have a bunch of bottled water containers, but we don't want to waste it on dishes, so... we just have a bunch of dirty dishes. We can't brush our teeth with the water anyway, so we all can just use our water bottles. For breakfast, everyone has been eating this stuff called weetabix. It's like shredded wheat... In a little oval-shaped disc kinda thing. And we don't have a fridge, so we can't eat it with milk, so everyone has been buying mango juice to pour on it and eat. Not a huge fan of mango juice, so I got some orange juice & fruit punch kind of stuff. For lunch, most people eat chippattis. Its basically flour, salt, and water flattened and put in a frying pan with oil. So its kind of like a thick, fried burrito. Kind of. And then people put whatever they want in it- I like bananas, nutella, and peanut butter. SO good. They sell them just off the side of the road, which is kind of sketchy, because people aren't super clean while making the food... So its often germy. Another thing they make here are rolex's. I've never had one of these... but I'm told its like a breakfast burrito; has eggs in it. I don't really like eggs so we'll see i actually try this one. For dinner, we have a couple women from the village come and cook for us, which is really nice. I'm still trying to get used to the food, its a little strange. They usually consist of a lot of starchy foods. Rice, squash, potatoes, beans, pumpkin, plantains, avacado, etc. They usually make a little bit of meat, but both times I've eaten it, I've been chewing on bones, so I'll probably not eat that anymore. Also, the chickens around here are just roaming around free... They are literally walking around with their little chicks eating garbage. So chickens... are not super healthy to eat, judging by what they've been eating themselves. Goats kind of wander around too. The cows are leashed to stakes in the ground. Last night, though, I was walking home, and there were like 50 cows just walking down the road. Kind of random. The way cell phones work here, is you buy a phone, and you buy minutes as you go. You just go up to a stand and ask for how many minutes you want, and pay for it, enter it in on your phone. When your minutes are up, the phone automatically just shuts off. 40 minutes is like 10,000 shillings ($5). Everyone here uses small bills. If you go up to a stand for a chippatti or for some fruit, you have to use the small coins, because they really don't have enough money to give you change. When I went to the bank and exchanged currency, I got all 10,000 bills, which is almost like the equivalent with paying with a $100 here. They have 10,000, 5,000 ($2.50), 2,000 ($1), and 1,000 ($.50) bills. The coins are 500 ($.25), 200 ($.10) and 100 ($.05). They might even have a 50 coin, but I haven't ever had one, because usually prices are in denominations of 100.

Day 14

July 14, 2011

Day 9

Lugazi!!!

Last night I flew from London to Paris to Nairobi to Entebbe. I got to the Entebbe airport and got my picture taken for my visa, then was approached by several people wondering what I was doing there and asking to see my passport and everything else. One woman even asked me if I was carrying any drugs in my bag, and went on this schpiel about how someone brought in 3 bags full of expired drugs into the country, and how angry she was about how this is ruining africa... and i was kinda freaked out, but she stopped eventually... after a few minutes. I went outside, and Ari and Jesse were right there waiting for me! Such a happy sight to see. I found out that I was the only one coming in 3rd wave... there are like 8 or so people leaving in the next week, and then theres like 11 more staying. Plus me. I felt kind of stupid... I thought there were going to be more volunteers coming in the 3rd wave, but apparently they all bailed. Luckily there are some people staying from the 2nd wave, otherwise I'd be completely alone. We hopped in a big van/taxi, with _________ who the team has often hired because of his reliability. The driving was still pretty crazy. Not as crazy as london, but that's probably just because it was at night and there weren't any other cars around. About halfway into the 2-hour drive, we got a flat tire. So the boys hopped out of the car, and the taxi driver's friend started running towards the street, and it kinda freaked me out, cause i thought maybe he was running away? or something from the car fell of? He needed to pee. So he did it, right on the side of the road. We put on a new tire, and then headed back to Lugazi and to the team house. We live in a little 2-bedroom duplex. There are 3 triple bunk beds in each room, and 2 more in the living room. The bathroom is comprised of a toilet a sink and a shower, but the shower isnt divided from the rest of the bathroom, so when you take a shower it gets in the toilet. Theres also one more little room with a sink... I guess its "the kitchen", cause theres pots and pans in it. But no counterspace or oven or stove or anything... I got the bottom bunk. Ha. There's probably about 18 inches between my bed and the bed above me. I can't sit up at all. When the 2nd waver's leave i'll definietly schnike one of the others' beds. At around 6 this morning, there was someone at our window saying, "hello? hello?" Kinda freaky. I went back to bed, somehow, and eventually woke up and everyone was already up, most of them had left, and there were 5 girls in the living room just kinda chilling. I met them all, and one of the girls' projects is doing seminars with teenage girls, teaching them about sex education, peer pressure, and relationships. So we had a meeting with a youth outreach coordinator named Wilson. He was an hour late, haha. But so friendly. We are teaching this curriculum to girls in a bunch of different high schools almost every day this next week. Another project that's going on is called "Happy Children International" This guy named Francis, who is a local ugandan started this organization to help local kids in Lugazi. A lot of families are comprised of a mom and like 8 kids with no dad. So the kids are having to just be raised on the streets by other kids, because the mothers just don't have time to teach them or raise them with all the work that they have to do. So Happy Children International gets all the kids together once a week, teaches them a lesson (like about germs, or goal-setting) and then they just do group activities. The team leader for this one is leaving with the 2nd wave, so I really want to get involved with this- working with kids is my favorite. So I walked out the door this morning, and it was just unlike anything I had ever imagined. The roads are dirt, and they are all red. There are green plants everywhere, very jungley. We walked down to the office to meet with Wilson and kids were just running around everywhere, yelling "Muzungu! Muzungu!" (white people!) Some of them would come up to us and go "bonga!" (pound it- hahaha) So we bonga-ed and just kept going. If they didnt run up to bonga, they all would wave, and say bye. They never say "hi" its always "bye!" After the meeting with Wilson, we went down to Musana, which is a organization of women that makes jewelry, One of the girls here (Abby) is like their American representative and helps them with their business skills. I have a sinus infection, so Abby told me to keep a little bit of a distance with the women, because some of them have AIDS. It was so sad; the first AIDS victim I've ever seen. Her name was Harriet, and her skin on her face was peeling and her limbs and fingers were all very frail. It was heartbreaking to know that a year from now, she might not even be here. Abby had one of the women in town sew a "gomez" for her; which is a traditional african dress, its really fancy, made of silk. So she put it on and showed it to all the women, and they started singing the wedding march song, and she paraded down the street in it, all the people just pointed and laughed saying, "muzungu gomez!" many people came up and said, "you look so smart!" (pretty), some also said, "You are Ugandan now!" and then some just came up and touched the fabric.

On the way home, a group of young boys started following us, pointing and saying "muzungu" whispering to each other. A lot of times, the people just kind of talk behind your back because they know you dont understand Lugandan. So I turned around to them and said, "WANJI??" (WHAT???) And the immedietly stopped with shocked little looks on their faces, because they thought I knew lugandan, and thus had heard all their little comments about us, so they were like, "pardon! pardon!" haha. I got them :) Then they were like, 'we will be your escorts!' so they followed us back into town, and ran away somewhere along the road. On the way home we got a chippatti. Chippatti is like a burrito, just a flat piece of bread made from just flour, salt, and water. They're not very good alone, but we also bought some bananas, and ate bananas, peanut butter, nutella, and chippatti. SO GOOD. The two girls I was with (Abby & Kellie) told me that the ones we were eating weren't very good, not fresh, but I really liked them anyway. And wonder of wonders, we are going to Harry Potter tomorrow!!! I thought I was going to have to wait 6 weeks to see it!

Also, I got to go in a taxi today to Mukono... The taxi's are kind of crazy... They are 14-seater vans, and you go to this big lot where all the taxis wait, and hop in a van, but you have to wait until the van is PACKED before they will leave. packed as in like... 20 people. So we had to wait 40 minutes for the taxi to leave, because no one wanted to go to Mukono... Taxis cost like 1500 shillings (like 75 cents). when we finally got there, we met with Francis, who is SUCH a nice old man, who is the founder of Happy Children International, and we just talked about some of the plans for the program, and I am getting so excited to get started here! The other thing about taxis... There are like a TON of people that just have motorcycles and will take people around for cheap. They are called boda boda's and they are insane drivers.

Well that is about all for my first day. I still kind of feel like I am watching a movie... This doesn't quite seem real to me yet. Maybe when I havent showered or shaved for a week, and get malaria it'll sink in... (4 people on the team have gotten malaria already. yikes!)

Anywho bye!

Day 3

lon-don-don-DON!

I'm in London!! Crazy right??

Anyway, its insane like... being in a different country? haha. I sound so inexperienced, but this is my first time out of the country (besides canada and nassau). And its a different experience. Not only am I completely zonked all the time (I'm supposed to be eating lunch right now in Dallas, and I am going to bed in like 5 minutes), but everything is so different here. Driving on the other side of the road, SO many international people here (even though i'm in an english speaking country, more than half the people I pass aren't speaking english), and the drivers are crazy. I saw a taxi run into a double decker bus today... kinda scary. I literally feel like I"m on the Knight bus in harry potter, people are weaving in and out of lanes really fast. Today's sights were Hyde park (BEAUTIFUL and so many different birds!!), westminster abbey, big ben, london bridge, london tower, st paul cathedral- we went to the evensong, where the choir came in and sang some hymns- that was INCREDIBLE- , the parliament building, kings cross station, rode the subway for the first time, paddington station, hampton court green, buckingham palace... etc. it was a pretty good day :)

A couple of different things I've noticed... Whenever I've come to a crosswalk that doesnt have traffic lights or a little pedestrian button, all the cars immediately stop. I don't like... have to wait for them all to go. Not something I've ever seen in the US. And when the light is red, it flashes yellow at the same time right before it goes green. I think they should do that in the US. Everyone seems so hurried. No one seems to be strolling along or stopping to smell the roses. The milk tastes really bad, and they don't have like any unhealthy breakfast items at the continental breakfast. Maybe this is why Americans are so fat haha. They dont have fingernail polish remover liquid... They have pads that make your hands greasy when you wipe your nailpolish off. just saying. And the last interesting thing I found was when I was in St. Paul's cathedral. During the evensong, we were read some scriptures, and at the end everyone prayed. (This is a catholic cathedral, btw) And during the prayer, they started out with "Father in Heaven, etc...) But then they went on to "bless this, bless that, bless him, bless her" After the "blessings, they did the thankings. (thanks for this, thanks for that). I thought this was interesting, having grown up in the church all my life, that we are specifically taught an order for our prayers. First is "Dear heavenly father" followed by the "thankings' and THEN the "blessings" Thank first, ask later. I just thought this was kind of interesting, the different focus we place in our prayers. anyway dad needs his computer kaythanksbye

Day 1

Today begins the adventure of a lifetime! I am so grateful for family & friends who have helped me through donations and moral support, to get me to Uganda! Its going to be a blast, so thank you for supporting me!

Here's how my trip goes:

Today I fly from Dallas to London Heathrow. I'll get in at about 10:45 am, and then take a bus to Hampton Court, and then meet up with my dad at the airport later. Me and dad will just galavant across Great Britain for a few days, and then early on the 13th, I fly to Paris. I stay in Paris for a couple of hours, and then fly to Nairobi, Kenya. A couple hours later, I fly to Entebbe, Uganda. I arrive in Uganda at about midnight. And then the Help-International Crew picks me up at about noon on the 14th. It's going to be great! And finally, I fly from Entebbe to Nairobi to London to Dallas on the 22nd of August. I'll be out of country for about 6 1/2 weeks.

Well I'm off! Keep me in your prayers that I don't come back with elephantitis or malaria. That would be nice.

Tunaalabagana!