Well, life’s a bit slow. The kids are out on break, so there are no SRH lessons to teach. I’d like to get going on setting up a youth resource center tomorrow, but it’s not really the same as having class time on the schedule.
The power at our house has been out for the last three nights, but Teddy got the electrician (a big fan of the “red to red, and black to black” principle) over here tonight and he got it working again. Success! I can see my food, and use my laptop!
Dennis is in Jinja for a few days, and Peter never came back from the Be A Man conference that ended last Wednesday. He’s sent me a couple text messages saying he’s sick. So Lucy and I have had the house to ourselves for a while, and it’s been pretty fun despite a little loneliness. We’ve enjoyed planning our meals, and it’s easier to cook and clean up after two, even if there are less people to help.
Today for lunch we had a “turkey egg vs. chicken egg” omelet competition. I’d say the turkey eggs won out. Lucy’s aunt and uncle had sent cheese and crackers for her birthday (awesome), and having a little emmental in there was simply delicious.
Yesterday we were startled to discover baby rats crawling out from under the door of the locked storage room. They were pretty gross – still with their eyes closed and no fur. I got them to creep back under the door and blocked up the crack with sticks. We got Paul to come around with the key this morning so we could clean out the nest, but the peeping mound of rat babies appeared to have disappeared during the night. Where have they gone? We’ll probably hear them chewing under our beds at night in a few weeks. Lucy and I had quite the struggle shooing a rat out of our room last night in the dark.
We spent last Friday night up in the Kamuli district at Hannah and Jen’s placement. They live in Nawansaso, which seems like a really great community that had a lot of SPW success last year. They have a big house – four rooms! – with electricity, and a trading center that has lots of cheap food available in the evenings. It was really fun to see them and catch up. Since I skipped out on rafting last weekend, I feel like I haven’t seen the other volunteers in a long time. Jen and Hannah's place:
Our room has smelled funny for the last couple of days, and yesterday I discovered a decaying lizard in the nonfunctioning sink at the foot of my bed. Gross. Another lizard replaced it in a matter of hours, but I got that one out of there before it croaked.
Thursday, May 1st:
Today is Labor Day in
Dennis and Peter both got back yesterday. Peter has been kicking around quitting for a good month or so and seems closer to making a decision. He said he’s going to talk to the office on Friday. I hope he stays, but I’m ready to have some resolution either way.
We had a couple guys from the SPW office here yesterday to complete a survey for NOGAMU (National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda) seeing if our farmers would be able to provide produce for an organic store NOGAMU wants to open in Jinja. The survey was about ten questions long, mostly yes/no, and it took about five hours to complete it with the Kalebera Farmer’s Group and then Sister Claire, who runs the women’s groups that make crafts. So that kept us busy yesterday. The SPW guys also brought a letter saying that all event proposals for June had to be in this Friday (tomorrow), so that should give us something to do today.
I knew this to some extent already, but the last few days have taught me that I am much happier when I have something productive to do. Waking up with a completely blank calendar looking me in the face is not something I like, especially when I’m in
We have M&E (monitoring and evaluation) forms due on Friday, and I’ll probably be the one to head in to the office in Jinja. Getting off placement for the day should be pretty nice. It’s also less then two weeks until Tom and Grace get here! And then Jason and Jen! This is keeping me pretty excited despite my many hours of downtime. I think the time after the holiday is going to be good, too. There’s a lot I want to do in the last couple months, and the kids are back in school at the end of May. It should go pretty quick. Then it’s back home, and ten days later, grad school starts!
Wednesday, May 7th:
In Jinja once again. Despite being equally uneventful, the last few days have been less boring than last week. Highlights included playing with piglets, spending a night at Bujagali Falls for Darcy's birthday, spending some time with Sister Claire, and getting awesome packages from my mom and grandma. I now have a french press and Starbuck's coffee. Ahhh.
I'm at the internet cafe so I'll keep it brief. I still want to go in to the office today and possibly to a clinic since I've had a string of strange and annoying symptoms this last week. Today's new thing is feeling like there is something stuck in my throat.TOM AND GRACE GET HERE ON MONDAY!!! That's pretty much all I'm thinking about at the moment.
Here's a little "too cool for school" moment from Dance4Life a couple weeks ago:
No comments:
Post a Comment