Observations of a traveling country girl

I’ve lived here for 9 weeks now and all too often I find myself used to the flow of Iganga.  This week when I headed to Kampala for 2 days with Brenda I had to stop and laugh at some of the every day events that I often don’t think twice about…

Matatu rides:  I have taken several this summer but let me explain the process by which I get around.  The legal capacity for these large vans is 14.  The actual number that is often put in them is 20.  This does not include small children that are crying because they think they are sitting next to a tall legitimate blonde haired ghost (me).  This also does not include goats, chickens and dead fish that are shoved under and thrown on top of us.  The company I don’t mind… the smell however that mixes with the fine, distinguished scent of pure body odor makes me stick my head out the window for the majority of the journey while I listen to music.  I actually do some of my best thinking on these rides and spend a whole lot of time thanking God for the beautiful country and people He has put in my life.  To get going out of the taxi park filled with vendors that sell everything from boiled eggs to used socks most matatus must be pushed.  They finally get started and putter their way to a gas station where most conductors (the man behind the driver in charge of getting money and customers) only buy just enough fuel to get to their destination.  I ran out of gas on my way to Jinja Wednesday in a taxi filled with all men and cracked up laughing.  The matatus then are on our their way promising when you load that they will be direct to your destination when truly they stop in most towns, unload, reload, and give the riders an opportunity to buy food on sticks that is shoved through the windows of the sometimes moving vehicle. 

Bodas: motorcycles that are built for 2 comfortably.  I’ve fit 4 of us on them.  I’m convinced boda drivers are adrenaline junkies.  While Iganga is fun to ride around on one (or drive one around), Kampala gets rather sketchy.  In order to keep my mother and father from simultaneously wetting their pants and picking up the phone and demanding I come home early, lets just say if you don’t keep your knees tucked in and your eyes closed during a traffic jam you may not come back to America in the best shape.  Red lights don’t matter and speedometers are almost always broken. 

Power: it’s not on a lot. Anywhere.  I think its awesome.

Dreams I have had on my malaria medicine= waking up Brenda CONVINCED we had bed bugs crawling on us.  Also waking up with my feet straight up pressed against the top bunk.  Why? I have no idea.

Brenda got attacked by our baby cow this week… while this isn’t a normal occurrence I fell on the ground laughing as she went in to pet it and it rammed her while the kids laughed. 

While in Kampala Brenda and I spent a large amount of time feeling like country girls plopped into the big city.  We were dirty, somewhat smelly (ok really smelly) and not looking so cute when we arrived in Kampala to stares at us when we drooled and squealed over our pizza and hamburger combination.  We stayed at a rather popular hostel outside of town with a large group of mzungu high school students from England.  I think we think we are Ugandan. After our shocking outing to the hostel we headed back into the city to visit the famous Owino market.  A market that is absolutely GINOURMOUS.  It feels like it is underground and its pretty hard to even see the entrance to Owino or know you’re in it until you’re in it.  Hundreds and hundreds of people were everywhere grabbing you, yelling at you, and wanting to bargain with you.  I’m pretty positive I could have been married and on my honeymoon by now with all of the proposals I received.  It also has the best customer service ever.  When I went to try on a pair of shoes, my pair I was wearing was removed and my foot put into another shoe before I could look down.  Brenda and I laughed our way around the market trying not to get too overwhelmed with all of the excitement.  We met up with a Ugandan friend that then acted like our personal body guard around Kampala the rest of the day. While I know Brenda and I would have loved the adventure, Micheal was a huge help and so efficient.  We returned to Iganga with a friend who discussed Ugandan relationships with us while we were enjoying my favorite Ugandan meal ever: chicken on a stick, cooked banana and a Fanta. 

These country girls also ventured to Jinja on Wednesday.  To the National Agriculture Show.  We met the kids there to visit the booths, “farm” animals (a lion and an ostrich, this is  Africa), and small fun rides for the kids.  Unfortunately, I made the mistake of putting my cell phone in the wrong pocket.  I’m used to holding hands with the kids everywhere we walk and in the midst of it all, my phone was taken by a pick pocketer.  I then had an allergic reaction to something and my eyes swelled up and tears were streaming down my face.  This resulted in some of the lovely volunteers telling the kids I was distraught about my cell phone and I was crying.  I wasn’t distraught, nor was I crying but this whole week the kids have sure enjoyed making fun of me!  Later in the day, 2 other volunteers lost their phones meaning which is unfortunate but also kind of silly it happened in the same day.

Another not-so-normal occurrence was when I visited the government hospital in Iganga this week.  I was pretty shocked at the conditions of the hospital but even more shocked when I entered the maternity ward.  I saw 20 babies, 4 of them premies with little more than their mother’s chest for support as well as a woman who was in labor.  The staff invited me to witness the birth.  I think that birth is beautiful and amazing but was confirmed fairly quickly in my decision not to go through with med school Freshman year of college.  I started shaking and feeling pretty light headed just seeing her in pain.  Without a lot of detail let’s just say I didn’t see the baby be born and I was a big fat wimp. 

As always, the kids are wonderful.  My random games of football have made my feet bleed but my dance parties in the girl’s dorm erase the pain.    The volunteers have been busy making the café awesome as well as continuing our paint projects to make Musana even more beautiful.  Today we made potted plants with empty half water bottles, string, beads, stickers and some dirt.  The look on their faces as we hung them from the rafters of the outside of the pavilion was fantastic.  My daily notes that I read from my community are often too good to keep to myself.  I feel so blessed by the experiences and everyday happenings around me, no matter how strange they often are. 

My week in numbers:

45= the number of mosquito bites I have on my body. Seriously.  I counted.

35= the number of mosquito bites below my knees.

37= the number of girls that laid out mattresses on the floor of the church at Musana watching Tarzan and sleeping all cuddled up to each other.  It was the greatest sleepover I have ever had.

10= the number of girls that were confused when we told them the aunts were staying overnight.  In Uganda an “overnight” means to stay up all night and pray.   When we tried to explain we were watching a movie the conversation went like this:

Me: Rachel! We are staying over and we are watching a movie tonight in the church!

Rachel: Is it about Jesus?

Me: No, we might watch the Lion King though.

Rachel: Well yes Auntie,  Jesus is King.

Me: Ok, I’ll just see you tonight. 

The girls also told Aunt Brenda she looked like Jesus. And so did baby Tarzan.  As for me, they call me Mary.  I really hope I don’t come home and my souvenir is a surprise baby. Anyways, it was a really amazing Friday night.

1= The place Musana probably took at the choir competition on Friday.  While the results have yet to be released I’m a really proud aunt and optimistic that our kids have voices better than the other kids in Iganga.  There were close to 300 people in a small concert hall sweating and hollering… besides my skin color, I fit in rather nicely because I was both extremely sweaty and extremely loud.  The perk to being a mzungu group of 5 and to be some of the only white people in Iganga? It’s really easy to locate each other in a crowd.

4= The number of people leaving by the end of this week.  One of those being Sally.  Needless to say, I’ll be pouting on my bottom bunk this weekend scratching my bug bites.  That girl is amazing and I feel so blessed to have made such a great friend/mentor figure/top bunk buddy.

1,351= the number of new songs in my itunes.  Perk of living with so many people… file sharing.

6= the number of times our squatty potty was clogged this week.  Gross, I know, but toilet talk is normal around here when so many things offset our American digestive systems. 

60= the average amount of times I feel I need to tell the kids I love them every day.  Seeing them care for each other, tuck each other into bed, share biscuits, and come running every time I walk through the gates at Musana is amazing.

8= In relation to homesickness.  The amount of hours my best friend Kelly is driving across Colorado this week to start a new job.  I’m sad I can’t be there to help paint her first classroom or to settle her into her cute new house but I’m really proud of her and can’t wait to visit!

35= t-shirts I washed today.  While wearing the traditional African Gomez, a dress with pointy shoulders.  I also made the posho for lunch today while counting to 100 in Lusoga.  The girls told me I was a house wife in training today and that any man in Iganga would be lucky to have me.  I told them I would include that in my online dating profile to find a boyfriend…. Kidding.

3= hours of church this morning.  I journaled most of that time while getting drooled on by girls who weren’t into reading 1Samuel with me.  

20= the amount of Ugandans I can’t hear while I’m running because I just got Bruno Mars and Mumford on my iPod and I choose to BLAST it.

504= the number of hours I have left in Uganda.  I’m gonna enjoy every bit of it, even with mosquito bites and clogged potties.  

Linds’ and Sal’s Excellent Adventure to Hairy Lemon

Sally and I adventured this weekend to Hairy Lemon.  A tiny island 200 meters wide about an hour outside of Jinja.  We met a friend from Swaziland that has basically sailed the world and while watching Modern Family on the porch of our banda overlooking the Nile, when our friend heard the word “Chillaxin.”  We had to explain to him it meant chillin’ and relaxin’ and that’s really what we did the entire weekend…. And week.

To celebrate America on the 4^th I tried my best to get in the spirit.  I headed to Jinja, ate a burger, fries and an incredible peanut butter banana milkshake and celebrated later that night with corn on the cob, mashed potatos, guacamole, chapatti, brownies and chicken.  An absurd mixture but delicious none the less.  The power went out and Brian and Zach thought it would be an even better holiday with fireworks.  Naturally, they bought birthday candles from the store, poured out the part that makes them spark and poured it into a vitamin bottle.  There was a HUGE explosion and a brief moment of thinking that Brian had died.  Happy 4^th of July from the frat house! 

A group left the house Tuesday to head back and they brought with them a pretty cool kid named Emma.  He is headed to Colorado and then Montana  for 7 weeks to have a double hip replacement with the help of some incredibly loving people.  I’m so excited for him and praying for him like crazy!

Wednesday to Saturday this week I spent my mornings at a local clinic.  One of the men we met in the village last week had extremely swollen feet and after talking to some of the people of Nakesenne that could speak English we found he has been in pain for some time.  Sally and I have been meeting him at the clinic to have blood work done and some other tests done.  It’s only one person we are helping, but it will make a huge difference in his life if some inexpensive antibiotics prevent large future problems.  

Thursday was the Tjeko Fun Fair.  Tjeko, a new organization, started in Jinja that brings a fair to different cities in Uganda and Iganga was one of their stops!  Hearing about the day I wasn’t sure what to expect but I walked over the hill with most of Musana’s kids and could feel their excitement.  The fair was a small scale American summer carnival and for a US dollar they could enjoy it the whole day.  The kids danced, jumped on their first trampoline, played in a bouncy castle, played mini golf, relaxed in hammocks and even got to drive peddled cars on a track.  One of our kids who normally walks with a cane was pushed in a wheel chair all day and I have never seen him smile the way he did when the staff of the fun fair took time to sit and bounce with him on the trampoline.  I was interviewed for a Dutch news network about the day and about the rarity of the kids getting opportunities to be just that… kids.  It was a really awesome day and getting to hang out with kids was a highlight of the week. 

Saturday Sally and I started our incredible adventure.  We hoped on a taxi to Jinja, walked through the market (because I want to buy 5 dollar converse shoes)  and was swamped by Ugandans yelling at me to buy their shoes in sizes WAY too large for me.  We grabbed a cinnamon roll and a boda and were on our way.  On the bridge over the nile our boda got a flat so we switched bodas… twice.  Then we decided instead of taking a matatu to Nazigo, the town our island is off of, we would boda.  For an hour.  At first it was awesome being in the wind like that.  However, slowly, our butts fell asleep and our 3 bags and 3 people seemed less than spacious.  We arrived at what seemed like the middle of nowhere and rang a bell.  Within 5 minutes a canoe with a strong Ugandan man came around a corner maneuvering the current of the Nile.  We jumped on and were welcomed by an amazing staff, good food, and all that is the island of Hairy Lemon.  We spent our weekend talking and tanning next to a waterfall and watching DVDs of Modern Family.  After dinner Saturday the owner of the island, our new Swaziland friend, told us that a rafting company had left their raft on the shore.  Paul loaded us (and a bottle of wine) onto the raft and we were off to enjoy the river under the light of a half moon and a million fireflies.  We were not aware that Paul was paddling us into “Nile Special,” a class 3 rapid.  We safely made it through without any squealing and spent Saturday relaxing and reading before an epic sunset.  Uganda is truly a beautiful country, much greener than Colorado!

We had plans to head to Kampala today but the plans changed when we learned that taxis were getting charged large amounts of money to enter the city.  One year ago today two bombings occurred in Kampala.  Security purposes kept us out of the city.  A city that one year ago tomorrow, I was leaving for.  I left for Musana Children’s Home almost one year ago.  This past year has been crazy and amazing and I feel so blessed to be where I’m at in my life.  It’s pretty cool to know that through the whole year Musana has remained in my mind and heart in huge ways.

So after our epic adventure I find myself back in Iganga.  Hanging on the mouse couch, watching a 6 year old salsa, hearing screams in the kitchen as our volunteers make…. MEXICAN FOOD!!! There’s no place like home!

Fair and Handsome

Fair and handsome is the name of the face cream Ugandan Emma gave me to use. .. So generous except… It’s for men to lighten their skin color here.  Clearly something I cannot benefit from.  Sally and I sat on our bunk beds with white cream dotted on our face to experiment.  We figured it may help our skin, turn us into glowing beauties or not make us fair NOR handsome… either way, the laughs were worth the gamble.  Fair and handsome also can be used to describe my week. 

Sunday, most of the volunteers and I grabbed a matatu and headed to Jinja.  We did some shopping, hung out at the Nile river and then went to the pool! I have developed some pretty intense tan lines on my feet and shoulders and the fair skin in other places were happy to see the light of day! I’m back in Jinja today to grab some internet and a hamburger to celebrate my American holiday!

The power was out a couple of times this week.  I actually really enjoy it when it happens.  Sally and I ended a volunteer meeting with our headlamps on strobe light mode dancing around the 20 people in our living room.  It was epic.  I’m really enjoying reading and am currently in “Redeeming Love” meaning I jump under my mosquito net and turn on my head lamp to read fairly early in the evening.

This week paint arrived in mass quantities so we have been busy painting away bright green, baby blue, purple, and other shades of greatness on the two large classroom buildings and the administration building.  Ansley, a really amazing volunteer at the beginning of June used her project money to help make Musana more beautiful and while the paint supplies took a while to actually get to Musana, the project is going to look great!  

With the paint this week, we needed brushes and other supplies so Emma (girl –volunteer- Emma) and I went to the market and bargained our way around.  I was pretty excited about my bargaining skills, getting 4,000 shillings knocked off the original price of roller brushes, yay!  Emma and I loaded 14 paint brushes, 6 long wooden poles, 20 kilos of paint, 8 kilos of kerosene, and some pineapple (Uganda has the sweetest in the world) on a boda with 3 people riding on it.  Crazy Mzungus.  

While I have a really great daily routine here and I feel like I have exasperated my explanations about how much I love Uganda, it has actually been a pretty tough week.  I spent my week continually thinking about my youth group girls and how badly I wanted to experience their last summer camp with them.  I was talking with Andrea and she mentioned that when you live here in larger chunks of time you start to realize and become aware of events that you miss at home.  This week I felt a lot of those.  I wouldn’t describe it as homesick because Musana is home this summer for me.   Its just hard knowing that I can’t be a part of 2 very different lives and that God is going to take care of every situation and event that I am missing at home. 

The afternoon storms have continued this week in what the Ugandans are saying is actually the dry season.  There have been over 20 incidents of people getting killed by lightening in these storms which is SCARY!  In preparation, the kids have learned that when they hear thunder they should get close to the ground.  I was walking to watch the kids practice football while holding 2 kids.  LOUD thunder hit and the 2 kids jumped off me and simultaneously hit the ground with every other Musana student.  I busted out laughing and was told that I should remain standing because I am tall and could be used a lightening rod.  Golly gee, thanks kids.

The rain brought on my –not-so-handsome moment this week.  Our boys had their first legit football match on Friday.  I made the trek hand in hand with the kids through town.  I gave one of the girls 600 shillings (about 30 cents) to grab some sugar cane to chew on.  Instead of a small one she came back with a full shaft of sugar cane that could have been shared between all of Iganga.  

The other team never showed and we were in a crazy rain storm for over an hour.  Because of the forfeit our boys wanted to celebrate so they started joking and dancing around the field.  Naturally, I joined.  This turned in to a parade.  We RAN (probably over 2 miles) back to Musana through huge mud puddles and piles of trash screaming and yelling like Musana Children’s Home had just won the World Cup.  It was not a light jog but rather a full blown run, while yelling and shouting.  The kids kept asking if I was tired.  I was carrying a back pack and holding 2 kids but I could not let on that I wanted to pass out and my shirt wasn’t wet because of the rain… it was sweat.  I smiled the whole way.  These kids made me look like a sweaty, dirty, crazy blond girl running through East Africa and I LOVED it.  It was one of those moments where I had to catch my breath because it was so wonderful (ok, ok it was a hard work out too.) 

I was invited to be a part of 2 situations this week that helped me gain perspective into the country I am living in.  I visited one of our kid’s homes as well as a village pretty far down the road from Musana .  The conditions and people astonished me.  I was heartbroken, saddened, and brought to tears when I was asked to pray over a family of 6, 4 of the boys were orphaned in February because of HIV.  I prayed in English fervently to then hear prayers being echoed in Lusoga in what sounded like pure worship.  The village I was in presented a series of songs and traditional Ugandan dance.  The drums and instruments created a heartbeat in the village that was brought alive by the people and not the material things they possessed.  There was obviously a lot of emotion in this week but not surprisingly, once again, I feel humbled. 

The dynamic of our house is changing again!  We have 6 people leaving Tuesday.  I feel so blessed to get to know each of them and I know the kids loved having them here! 

Next weekend I am most likely going to take a little break from Iganga and head to a hotel with Sally in Jinja by the Nile.  Of course, this is after we celebrate good ol’ ‘Merica.  My plans include making the most American food I can with the most un-American ingredients.  Hello corn on the cob and “potato salad.” It’s going to be amazing. And Sally and I will look Fair and Handsome while cooking.  BONUS.  Happy Birthday America!