'Bout halfway

Monday, April 7^th:
I was playing with a praying mantis on our porch when Teddy got home for lunch just now. “Some people say they bite, and some people don’t,” I said. “What do you think?”

“They bite, and their bite is like a snake. It is very poisonous.” I quit playing with it.

Vacation plans are coming together! I am eight parts excited to see everyone, and two parts excited for the traveling.

Georgia and Katie met Lucy and I for lunch yesterday, and they came to our house afterwards. Kenneth (kid who brings us eggs) came by to chat, and the drunken man who sweeps showed up. Kenneth translated that the man wanted to know why our friends were so dirty. I found that entertaining.

Lucy and I have to go in to the SPW office to register with our embassies on the 18^th. The 19^th is our big AIDS march and event. The 20^th is Lucy’s birthday and a bunch of volunteers are going rafting (I’m waiting until the vacation). The 21^st-23^rd we have to send two people away to be trained on giving Be A Man video presentations. The 22^nd, the Dance4Life tour team will be at three local secondary schools, which Dennis and I are supposed to facilitate. The 25^th is the last day of the term for the school kids, then they break for vacation. It is going to be a crazy few days, followed by a whole lot of nothing to do.

My mom sent spices in a package I got last week, and I flavored our beans with taco seasoning today. I love that taco aftertaste!

Tuesday, April 8^th:
Happy Birthday, Di!

Medi came by for our security meeting with the sub-county today. Per usual, Mr. Kabi was nowhere to be found and hadn’t informed the other community members about our chat, so it was yet another meeting to schedule a meeting. Hopefully the real thing will go ahead on Friday.

I had a really good lesson on the female reproductive system with the P7 kids this morning. That class seems to be understanding me better, and they were being well-behaved and laughing with me. I don’t have high hopes for learning the names of the hundreds of kids that we teach every week, but since we leave so close to the school I do feel like I’m getting to know the Kagoma kids. There are three “cheeky boys,” Collin, Armon, and Paul, that are always around after school preparing for exams with Teddy. They are sassy and very entertaining. Collin has taken to giving me one of those salutes where you kiss two fingers and then throw it out there, boy-band style.

Teddy just came by with millet porridge for Lucy and I to try. Not bad! Unfortunately I just stuffed myself on pasta with sent-from-home pesto that Lucy made, so I doubt I’ll be able to finish the mug.

Wednesday, April 9^th:
I love the kids at Kalebera. We gave a lesson on menstruation today and they were enthralled, especially with my demo of how to make a pad with local materials. They had tons of questions (Godfrey, the teacher, had a couple too) and by the end it had erupted into mass chaos as Dennis tried to explain in Lusoga what the clitoris was for.

(I couldn’t follow the explanation, but he had them chanting “We choose to abstain” at the end, so it must have been pretty enticing.)

As we left, one of the little boys said, “Liz!” and handed me four avocadoes.

Our four-day heat wave came to an end today, which I appreciated.

Things in Kenya appear to be pretty unstable still. A main railway was torn up by rioters recently, which is supposed to drive up food prices in Uganda. The boys went to the market in Buwenge last Saturday and said that most prices had gone up about 150%, which effectively cuts our food budget by a third. We’ve managed to budget better than most placements, but I’m sad that we’re probably going to have to cut out fruit if prices inflate and our food allowance doesn’t. The priests gave us two bunches of bananas yesterday, so we’re doing okay for now.

Dennis and I have been busy this week distributing letters for our AIDS day. We’re going in to the office tomorrow morning to print some more. I write the letters and Dennis Ugandifies them for me – there’s a funky and highly standardized business letter format here that I fail to grasp.

Kagoma Primary received three huge boxes of school supplies from this group called Opportunity Education in the US. Teddy had all of their new stuff out on the porch last weekend, and had me help her with the box of elementary percussion instruments. We had a nice little jam session going with a guiro, claves, tambourines… but we were disturbing a men’s group meeting at the church, so we had to take five.

Our front path is now filled in with jagged red rocks, which is pretty, but highly uncomfortable to step on.

A cow wandered into our kitchen while I was showering today.