Some final thoughts

Things I won’t miss about Uganda:

getting ripped off on the matatu
garbage everywhere
being asked for money/scholarships/sponsors
frequent guilt-trips
cooked vegetables + starch = every meal
boda drivers yelling at me
flies all day, mosquitoes all night
always dirty feet
sketchy transportation
thin foam mattress
no flush toilet or shower
ants in the bread
our night prowler
being constantly on display
getting told I’m fat, or getting fat
painfully slow internet
the stink of latrines and rotting food
strange men wanting to “be my friend”
SPW training

Things I will miss:

delicious fruit
neighbors bringing gifts
growing vegetables in the back garden
goats everywhere
people’s excitement over my handful of Lusoga phrases
beautiful scenery
the weather
Teddy
the singing from church on Sundays
little kids dancing
the questions we get passed during lessons
Sandra’s visits and baby animals
working out with Kenneth after sunset (“Like this.” “What?”)
lots of stars
giant avocados
street food, esp. rolexes and samosas
weekends with the other volunteers
the excitement of care packages
monkeys
Dennis demonstrating the “jabber”
Father Francis’s laugh
Lucy, Lucy, Lucy

Debriefing

Tuesday, July 29^th:
So much has happened in the last few days. It’s a little too much to think about at the moment, but I’d like to try to get some of it down.

On Saturday Lucy and I went in to the Agricultural Show at the trade grounds in Jinja. It was pretty much like a big street festival at home, except much muddier, less organized, and absolutely packed. I didn’t take any pictures because it seemed like a pretty likely place to get your camera stolen. There were a lot of booths with crafts and Lucy and I had fun souvenir shopping. There were some music stages set up too, a lot of street food, and a lot of tents of agricultural supplies and organic products. We couldn’t stay long because Wilber was frantically calling to tell us to meet up with Dennis and come to where he had hired the car to take us to their old school.

We finally did catch up with Dennis and his friend Stella, then fellow volunteer Ian, and took a matatu outside of town to meet up with Wilber. The six of us piled in to a little car and the driver took us up the bumpy dirt road to Busoga College Mwiri, the boys’ alma mater. It was a really beautiful school. There were sweeping views of Lake Victoria and the surrounding hills and lots of monkeys. It had the feel of a nice summer camp or a rustic university. Dennis, Ian, and Wilber appeared to have been BMOC’s and there were a lot of people to greet during our campus tour. It was a really fun trip, and really thoughtful of the boys to show us their school.

We left around dark, had dinner in Jinja at the Highway Restaurant, and made our last Jinja-Buwenge matatu ride.

Sunday was a day of nonstop calorific farewells. Lucy and I went to the Catholic church in the morning, and Father Charles had us stand and told the congregation that we were leaving the next day, and said thank you. A bunch of people shook our hands and said goodbye after the service, which was really nice. As usual, a bunch of little kids came by after church and we had a near riot using up my Polaroid film and giving out the last of our balloons. Everyone wanted a photo with the mzungus.

Then is was time for lunch at Sandra’s, and no expense was spared: chicken, rice, matoke, spaghetti, potatoes, dodo, and sodas. After the meal a group of little girls laid out a mat in the living room and performed a series of skits and songs for us. It was pretty adorable, and pretty comical at some points. There was a lot of mumbling in the song they sang in English.

Godfrey, the teacher from St. Gonzaga, had arranged to “pick us” at home for a visit to his house at 3, and at 2:45 Sandra was insistent that we go and visit the new house her family is building. “Where is it?” I asked. “Just there!” she said, pointing. “Can we walk there and back in 15 minutes?” “Yes.”

So, after walking ten or so minutes…. “Sandra, where is this house?” “Somehow near.” The house ended up being about a half hour away, but the girls were excited to show it off so it was worth it really.

Godfrey was late, so no problem there… we took a matatu to Bukyonda, his village, then walked to the compound where he lives with his extended family. We had an delicious and identical meal (substitute cabbage for dodo), and looked at his pictures of the AVs that had come to the primary school he teaches at part-time. After the meal he awkwardly asked me if I “could take that… booze, that….brew.” I was like, “You mean beer?” Which he did luckily, as opposed to waragi or some other locally distilled poison.

He ran off and came back with Eagle brand beer, which is brewed with sorghum and is a meal in itself. We were all pretty stuffed by the time we set off back home.

Then it was time to pack! It’s amazing how quickly those bags get filled up. Lucy and I both set aside a lot of things to give away.

On Monday we took care of last-minute details and said our last goodbyes. I handed out a bunch of broken and useless crap to three little kids that were hanging around while we cleaned out and they went nuts. The one-lens sunglasses and broken-zipper purse were both coveted items. Lucy and I decided that a group that took the junk from garage sale “free” tables and shipped it to African villages would be hugely successful.

Saying goodbye to Teddy was hard. She took a break from an all-day meeting to hug Lucy and I and there were tears all around. Leaving Sandra was sad too. I have her a big hug and she said, “Don’t forget about us,” which broke my heart a little bit.

A bunch of the primary kids came by to say goodbye and check to see if there was anything we were leaving goodbye, and Father Francis drove us to the SPW office in the priests’ car. It was the nicest ride I’ve had in Uganda. Driving away was a strange feeling.

Lucy and I dropped off our mattresses and extra bags, then had a celebratory lunch (with cake!) at Ozzie’s and tried to digest the fact that we were actually finished. It hasn’t sunk in yet.

Most of the international volunteers spent that night at the campsite at Bujagali. We had a nice last meal together and had a really weird night at the bar – lots of vomiting, crying, dogs, etc. Anyway.

The morning truck seemed to come much too soon, and it was back in to Jinja for breakfast at Backpacker’s and a slow migration over to Rubaga for debrief. I called Dennis and he was going to be late with our M&E forms, so I went in to town for a pedicure while people were showing up. Nice.

Jen, Carson, and Rich fly out tomorrow morning, so we had an emotional goodbye to those three after lunch. They changed their flights after I did and I wish I could have flown with them, but it’ll be okay. It seems unreal that people are actually leaving.

More on debrief later…

Wednesday, July 30^th:
Debrief, day two. It’s actually going really well; we’re not wasting too much time and the sessions have been relevant and reflective. Plus, they are bringing in really good food. Rubaga is still Rubaga, but it’s less painful than I thought it would be.

I cannot believe that I only have two more nights in Uganda. I’ll make my last trip into Jinja town this afternoon, say goodbye to Lucy tomorrow, and be on a plane in less than 48 hours. I get little waves of really wanting to stay but I am ready to go home too. I’m a little nervous about what it will be like to be in the US again. It might feel like I never left and it might seem totally horrible and bizarre, and I don’t want to experience either of those things really.

The cutest thing just happened! Dennis walked over during the session and told me that two of the little girls from our village, Bridget and Sharon, and been brought over by their mother because they hadn’t gotten to say goodbye to us and wouldn’t stop crying. So we had a little goodbye out in front of the building and exchanged contacts. How funny.

It’s lunch time now, then a quick trip to town and a lot of SPW activities… I might not post again until I’ve left. It’ll be nice to put up some videos and more pictures when I get home. Home. Man.

Last lessons, tree planting, HIV testing

Sunday, July 20^th:
Here are Dennis and I with our P6/P7 class at Buweera Primary. Can you pick me out of the crowd? I bet you can!

After many days of ardent preparation, the Holy Missionary Childhood event reached its culmination yesterday. The morning began with a parade up to Buwenge and back, which featured a marching band and several hundred school kids. Dennis and I joined the march. There was a group of nursery school kids in lime green being led by a teacher who was taking his marching steps very seriously, and the children were following suit. It was pretty adorable. As we walked, more schools joined us from alongside the road and by the end it was quite a stretch. Whenever the band started playing a song the kids knew they would all start singing along in high little voices, and it was a happy time.

The theme of the day was “Jesus Is Our Freind.” Yes, freind. One of the schools had made t-shirts.

After the parade returned, everyone gathered on benches set up outside the church for the service. The bishop was in attendance, and lots of visiting priests and children. The student choir, which had been in nonstop rehearsals since last Thursday, gave some excellent performances, but it was kind of ruined by shoddy keyboard accompaniment. The day’s premise was “children helping children,” since it was a fundraiser for children in the north who are in refugee camps. There were a bunch of speeches and skits that the kids had prepared, and the mzungu bishop gave a sermon in Lusoga. Each school came forward with their donations of food, money, and school supplies. It’s pretty impressive that kids that have so little still manage to pull together contributions for the kids that have even less than them.

The rain held off until lunchtime, when Dennis and I retreated home and a few dozen kids took cover on our porch. There were more festivities in the afternoon, but I was out putting up posters for our VCT day so I missed the evening entertainment. I was bummed about that but I did see them practicing all week, so I bet I didn’t miss too much.

The girls in the choir had been having full-day rehearsals, and they spent a couple nights in the empty hall next to our house. It was a full-on slumber party. I think they only slept about two hours on Thursday night, since they were making noise well past midnight and were up shouting long before it was light outside. It was a little crazy but pretty fun, since it was mostly kids we knew who are pretty funny. Like Sandra. Teddy was around all weekend doing massive event preparation and a lot of the Kagoma teachers and older students were around to help too. It was really fun having everyone around and getting excited for the event.

Dennis and I were up late Thursday anyway, typing up letters and designing certificates for the stakeholders’ meeting we’re holding next Friday. We printed them out in town on Friday (the power was out at the SPW office) which was a huge fiasco, but they look really nice and we’ll be able to recognize each of the schools and NGOs we’ve been working with in Buwenge. Certificates are a big deal here.

Paul (priest-in-training) was back around this weekend for the event, and it was nice to see him.

I went to church this morning with Samali, the girl who stays with Teddy during the week. A nice woman with two little kids I like named Fiona and Anton came and sat with us, and I got to hold baby Anton for most of the service. They are really pretty kids. Anton peed on me at one point but it wasn’t too bad really. I was probably bouncing him too much.

This is from a few weeks ago, but Fiona and Anton are always this cute:

Father Charles left on his motorcycle in the morning to do outreach, so Father Francis and a visiting priest did the service today. I like Catholic services.

Dennis and I had lunch with Reet and Jack in Buwenge before I went in to town today. It was a really nice time. Lucy spent most of the weekend looking for Georgia’s lost camera in Kampala. Most of the international volunteers had planned to go to Sipi Falls but ended up staying in Jinja, so I saw a few of them today. It sounds like people are mostly done with lessons but still have an event or two this week.

Tomorrow is our last lesson with the P6 class at Kagoma, and we meet P7 for the final time on Tuesday. I really like those kids, and it will be sad being in class with them for the last time.

Tuesday, July 22^nd:
The last couple days have been really busy. Yesterday I showered, walked to Igombe to put up a VCT poster and talk to people about testing, cooked lunch, gave a last lesson for the P6 kids at Kagoma, confirmed with AIC, walked to Muguluka to deliver letters at the primary school and Pilkington and put up a VCT poster, ordered more talking boards, cooked dinner, and washed all our of plates.

This morning Dennis and I had our last lesson with the P7 kids at Kagoma, which is my favorite class. When we arrive at the school Teddy had called an assembly so the whole school could say goodbye to us.

The last lesson with review prizes went over well and we got some class pictures. Then I walked over to the sub-county to deliver more letters about our wrap-up stakeholders’ meeting on Friday and make sure AIC had arrived to do HIV testing. They were supposed to show up at 10:00am. At 10:15 I called and the said they had stopped at the trade show in Jinja but were “on their way” and would be there in 30 minutes. I called again at 11:40. Same story. They finally arrived at 12:20, leisurely hung around while Dennis and I set up a table and chairs for them, then the sole technician and driver promptly left to have lunch while one of the counselors answered questions from the 100 or so kids from St. Gonzaga that were waiting to test.

This is SO FRUSTRATING to me. I came home before the technician reappeared, but they delayed starting by at least three hours with no explanation. That’s a lot of people who could have been tested and now aren’t going to. I had to turn people away who showed up at the time I had advertised this morning, and everyone was expecting me to explain what the holdup was. I’ve gotten more patient with “African time,” and I expected they would be about an hour late, but wasting the entire morning is totally unacceptable to me. People are testing now and hopefully they’ll get through a lot before they split, but I hate that I can’t depend on people to uphold their agreements here and it makes me (and SPW) look bad when I have absolutely no control over it.

Two of the Kagoma teachers didn’t show up today, so Teddy has the kids over watching a movie about the apostle John on our porch so that the one teacher who did come to school can have a break. It’s an American movie and the narration is horrendous. They just went through the water-into-wine story, and now it’s on the money changers in the temple. I bet Jesus is blond.

When I was delivering a letter to the Sub-County Chief I got called in to the office to chat with some official dudes that had turned up. They were having a discussion about people they’d heard of that could be summarized as “innocent people that got killed by mob justice.” Someone who had stopped to help after a vehicle hit and killed a kid, someone who was shot while chasing a thief because they were mistaken for the thief, someone who had gotten a ride and then was killed after the driver hit someone and fled, etc. People always laugh about these stories here but I find them pretty unsettling. One of the guys kept calling me his sweetheart and wanted to take me to his village but I told him he had to get an HIV test first.

I’m about to go check on the VCT progress. It’s threatening to rain, but we have access to the hall in the sub-county so hopefully testing will continue as long as people keep coming. I’m tempted not to pay the AIC workers, but I’ll get over it.

We found out last Friday that our SPW debrief is being held at Rubaga Students Center. Everyone is so disappointed. We had our first three days of training and our mid-placement workshop there, and it’s scratty and has no good communal place to hang out. It’s in Jinja, which means people will probably go into town at night and it’ll be nationals and internationals splitting up and the community volunteers stuck at the dorms because they won’t be able to afford nights out. In past years debrief has been held at the Adrift rafting campsite, which would have been a nice send-off. It’s been a long time since that first morning in Uganda crying in my bunk before anyone else was awake, but being at Rubaga still dregs up feelings of anxiety and loneliness. I really don’t like being there.

Hopefully I’ll be able to report that the VCT day was a big success, despite the late start. We’ll see how it wraps up…

Wednesday, July 23^rd:
I am tired. We had a long last visit to Kalebera, which included a very rainy last lesson, a very muddy tree-planting session, and a soda-infused farewell from the teachers. Each teacher wanted their picture planting a tree with Dennis and I, and we had to write down all of our contacts for quite a few people. It took quite a while, but it was a nice time and I’ve really enjoyed working at that school. The kids didn’t understand me very well but the students and staff were always really friendly, especially the headmaster, Aron.

Dennis and I had a big high-five afterwards: our last lesson, complete!

Tomorrow we have lunch with the headmistress at Nkondo Primary, and Dennis should be picking up our talking boards for Kagoma. Friday is our stakeholders’ meeting at the sub-county and we have farewells planned at St. Gonzaga and Kagoma.

The VCT day wasn’t a complete loss, but I was disappointed in it. We had about 70 people tested, and we could have had at least twice that many if AIC had shown up on time. They told me that one of their service trucks had broken down, and they’d had to drop off another outreach group before coming out. A lot of people who were waiting to test were turned away at the end. One person tested positive, and the technician said it was one of the adults from the community, not one of the school kids. Most of the people who tested were from St. Gonzaga. Weirdly, a bunch of the secondary school kids today were saying that they doubted the results, because some people thought they were positive. I trust the blood tests but that seemed really strange to me.

People waiting to get tested:

I didn’t sleep much last night and have been feeling pretty exhausted. It feels good to be finishing up and we’re getting a lot of positive feedback from the community. Everyone seems to want some kind of send-off in the next few days. I’m missing a few people already but it’s fun to think about getting home and sending people pictures and letters. Only nine more days now!

Thursday, July 24^th:
Lucy and I made a kitchen garden for the priests with Father Charles this morning. I think this is our best one yet. Shoveling manure:

While collecting bricks for the walkway I uncovered a bunch of toads!

I went over to the priests’ place last night to transfer some pictures from my USB drive to their computer. I managed to load a virus that prevented their desktop icons and start menu from showing up. I was really anxious that I had ruined their computer but after an hour of Tom talking me through things on the phone I was able to restore it to normal function – thank God! They didn’t have their Windows disk for a reload and you can’t exactly call in the IT in rural Uganda, so it was pretty tense there for a while.

We were going to have lunch in Nkondo today, but our host has been called to an emergency headteachers’ meeting in Muguluka. It’s the first day in a while I haven’t been running around all day and it’s nice to relax at home for a bit.

I can’t believe placement is almost over. I’m not sure if I’ll head in to Jinja on Monday or Tuesday, but either way it’s nothing but packing and filling in forms once tomorrow is over. Dennis and Wilber are going to take us to visit their school in Jinja on Saturday, which should be fun.

Friday, July 25^th:
What a long day! We had our stakeholders’ meeting this morning, which started a couple hours late but went really well. We all shared our volunteering experiences, had a nice round of thank yous from our head teachers and NGO directors, and ate some tasty snacks. Nat came from the SPW office and handed out some data sheets which were very well received. The certificates were a hit too. It was a nice way to wrap things up and say goodbye to most of our key contacts.

Handing over a certificate to key teacher Godfrey from St. Gonzaga:

After the meeting we had a quick goodbye with the students and teachers at St. Gonzaga, then joined a parents’ meeting at Kagoma. We were supposed to just stop in, say goodbye, and go, but the teachers wanted us to stay until lunch was served at the end so we ended up sitting through a few hours of discussion in Lusoga. I kind of wanted to kill myself but didn’t want to cause offense at our final showing, so we waited it out and then had a nice meal of matoke, rice, chicken, and cabbage around 6 or so.

Teddy said some students had prepared songs for us, but one of the teachers sent them home on accident. So we’ll get to see the performance on Monday morning.

Our lunch with Nkondo teacher Molly has been rescheduled for tomorrow, which messes up our plans of going to the agricultural show in Jinja and seeing Dennis and Wilber’s old school. Sunday’s kind of busy already so I hope we can fit everything in.

Dennis brought home the first set of our talking boards for Kagoma Primary last night. They all look good, except for one that reads, “Be Panctual.” I think the teacher that made them will redo that one. They’re painted blue, with the messages carved into the wood and painted black.

Saturday, July 26^th:
Sadly, Molly’s brother has been in a bus accident so our lunch with her is off today. It’s back to the original plan to go to Jinja to the agricultural show and Dennis’s school. I’m almost packed! Two more nights on placement.

Beginning of the end

Friday, July 11^th:
I changed my flight! Well, Tom changed my flight really. I now depart Uganda the morning of August 1^st, connect in London, and spend the night in NY. With EMILY!!! I have a flight booked from LaGuardia to Raleigh the next morning, but Emily and I might meet Tom partway south (probably DC) and make a little road trip out of it.

I am really excited. I would like to see Rwanda, and it’ll be hard to say goodbye to Lucy and the rest of the volunteers. Still, the thought of arranging the trip and storing my stuff and doing the traveling is a little much for me right now, and this gives me a week to get over jetlag and readjust to the US before starting grad school. It also eliminates a costly night in London on the way back. I looked at pictures of Kigali online today and I have a feeling it would be really cool but also quite a bit like Uganda. And as much as I love everyone here, the thought of more of the same just isn’t that appealing to me at the moment.

I’ll get in late, but I kind of want to go out that first night and spend my first night out of Africa on the town in New York City. If that doesn’t shock me back into life at home, nothing will.

This also makes is suddenly very real that I’m about to head home. Shaving off that extra week really puts things in almost-time-to-go perspective. I have mixed emotions about leaving. It always seems like you have to pack up and leave right when you get comfortable and things start running smoothly. My tolerance for certain things has been whittled away, but the last few weeks of work have been really great too. It’s hard to know how I’ll feel when I step onto that plane.

Monday, July 14^th:
By the calendar, it’s supposed to be the dry season again, but we’ve been getting more rain lately than we have for the last six months. I was just putting out my bucket to collect rain water and slipped and fell in the mud – luckily there were no kids around.

The weekend flew by and was a lot of fun. A group of us spent Saturday night up in Buyende at Rich, Orlando, and Rachel’s placement. Orlando officially “quit SPW” on Saturday to go traveling, and we got to see him briefly on his way out. Theirs is the most remote placement, and the landscape looks a little different than it does near Jinja. It seems flatter, bushier, and the buildings are much more spread out. They’ve had to deal with quite a bit a resistance from their community but they have a huge house and it was a really relaxed, if a little lonely, setting.

Behind their house is a run-down two-room concrete building where the headmaster (or somebody) keeps their goats. One goat struck me as particularly personable.

I’m feeling really happy about the next few weeks. I can’t wait to go home – I’m really excited about seeing Tom, playing bass again, training for a tri, Mom and Dave’s visit, starting grad school. It makes me want to put a lot of effort into the remaining work and really make the most of my last days in Buwenge. Dennis and I are going to do something fun for our last lessons in our schools and I’m looking forward to the VCT day on the 22^nd. I want to do something nice for the people that have really made this experience for us. It will be hard to say goodbye.

Tuesday, July 15^th:
I love the P7 class at Kagoma. Dennis and I did a lesson on Communication this morning, and it was pretty hilarious. We had the kids draw a house and a dog in pairs, with both partners holding the pen, and some pretty ludicrous animals were produced. Dennis held them up at the end and one girl actually fell out of her desk she was laughing so hard. A row of boys came up to the front of the class and had to arrange themselves in order of their birthdays without talking, which included some classic miming, and we did a little game of Telephone where the phrase started out in English and ended up in Lusoga. There was some brainstorming on the board in the lesson too, but the kids got really into the activities. We told them that next week we are going to have review questions with prizes and the kids got pretty excited.

Lucy and I had planned to go to the district music competition after lunch, but it turns out it’s happening tomorrow. We walked up to Buwenge to check out the new supermarket and then caught a taxi into Jinja on a whim, where we had a nice dinner, used the internet, and I got an awesome package of treats from Tom! There were so many perfect snacks in there: instant oatmeal, nice tea, chocolate, protein bars… my mouth wouldn’t stop watering when I opened it. I only have to wait a couple more weeks for “home food” but any kind of quick, tasty food on placement is enough to make my afternoon.

Dennis and I got stuck in a rain storm down at Muguluka yesterday; we had to wait inside a shop in their trading center for an hour while the ground flooded and everything shut down. It was a muddy walk back. My clothes were out on the line but they just got wet instead of falling down into the mud, so no harm done.

I got another email from UNC and I have pretty full days of orientation from the 11^th-14^th. I’m glad I’m no longer getting home on the 9^th! One day of readjustment wouldn’t have been quite enough, I think. I also have a Physical Chemistry placement test the week after I get back. Hope those notes from Thermo are lying around somewhere at home…

Thursday, July 17^th:
The music competition at Muguluka was pretty cute yesterday. One of the long classrooms had been converted to a performance hall by stringing a couple of curtains across one side. A guy with a rolled up paper megaphone did the announcing, and the panel of judges sipped their sodas.

We saw Mutai, Kalebera, Kagoma, Muguluka, and bunch of schools we didn’t know perform. It was a random assortment of Western and traditional songs, poems, and skits. Kagoma was pretty rough on their harmonized Western piece but did an awesome traditional piece with drumming and some cool stop-time. Mutai pulled off the Western song nicely and we found out today that they won and will be performing at the district competition on Saturday.

Dennis has something going on in Jinja today, so Lucy accompanied me to the final lesson with the Mutai Primary kids. I wrote up a long list questions reviewing what we’ve covered in the last six months, and kids that answered correctly got sweets, balloons, markers, and stickers as prizes. It was a hit. I really tried to call on different kids but the same ten or so managed to answer most of the questions. The head girl delivered a really sweet thank you address and we left our contact info for the teachers.

I had my second health center visit today, so I confirmed with the nurse when we got back, then played toss with the primary kids on the field for a half hour or so. Toss is one of my favorite games.

It was a special lunch at St. Gonzaga today – rice instead of posho! I even got some avocado. After lunch, key teacher Godfrey and I took 24 kids over to Magamaga Health Centre, where they had a talk about STIs, family planning, and testing services. The nurse told the kids about a couple who had seen a condom demonstration using banana, then gotten upset when the wife became pregnant even though they had been putting a condom-coated banana at their bedside each time they had sex. The kids had tons of questions about contraception, and Godfrey was delighted with how much the nurses’ knowledge and the resources available. They’re planning to have more visits or maybe bring the nurses to address the school in an assembly. The kids fought over the biscuits I brought at the end, but other than that it seemed really successful.

I made some posters for our VCT day last night and brought one to St. Gonzaga with me. The teachers seemed really excited about it and had lots of questions. The answers to their questions were clearly outlined on the poster, but at least they were interested.

I went over to Sandra’s after the health center visit to see the little pussycats. They are full-on kittens now. They’re cute, but pretty fearful so they’re not that fun to play with. I love hanging around with Sandra; it really makes me sad that there’s no good way for us to keep in touch after I leave. I can call her, but our verbal communication is always a little rocky, and her family doesn’t have a post office box.

Dennis is still in town, and Lucy’s accompanying Georgia to Kampala. I just caused a mini-riot making balloon animals on our porch, but it’s getting dark so the kids have started dissipating.

Instant oatmeal is the greatest thing ever! Two weeks from now, I’ll be spending the night in Entebbe, waiting to catch my early-morning flight. As the leaving date draws nearer, I feel more attached to placement and less attached to Uganda as a whole.

The rats in the ceiling tonight sound like they are about dog-sized.

There’s a big event in the parish on Saturday – something to do with children and missions. The whole Jinja diocese will be here. The kids are practicing the entertainment portion over in the church right now and it sounds awesome. I’m looking forward to it.

More events

Monday, July 7^th:
Wilber appears to be the proactive one of the group today. He’s running around buying things for a youth resource corner and trying to get events underway. Good for him. The rest of us are decidedly lacking in ambition at the moment.

I went by the health center this morning, and we are going to have some of the primary school kids come by for a visit this Thursday. The goal is for the kids to find out what services are provided (STD testing, contraception, etc.) and feel comfortable with the staff and the clinic. If it goes well, we’ll have the secondary school kids do a visit next week. Thursday the Dance4Life tour team is coming by again as well.

Last weekend was a lot of fun. A few of us stayed up at Nawanyago placement on Friday night for a mini 4^th of July celebration. We ate a lot of fried food from the trading center and roasted marshmallows over the sigiri. Not quite like the 4^th at home, but still a nice time.

On Saturday, ten of went to the Hairy Lemon for the night. It’s a hostel/budget resort place on an island in the Nile an hour outside of Jinja. You have to bang on a breakdrum when you get there, and they come to pick you up in one of those long fishing boats (you could probably just wade across, but it’s a nice touch). It was pretty basic, without electricity or running water, but they had pretty nice cabins and bandas, places to swim and sunbathe, and tasty buffet-style meals. Getting into a bikini was discouraging for most of us I think, but it was nice to lay in the sun, read magazines, and enjoy a break from placement. You can’t beat an island without cell phone reception for getting away from it all.

On Sunday morning I woke up and walked out of the dorm onto the misty lawn on my way to breakfast, and it felt exactly like a morning at Burton. This is the first July in six years that I won’t spend teaching at music camp, and it felt a little sad.

I am pretty tired of teaching lessons. Most of the time, they go just fine. Still, it feels like work, and it’s tough teaching at seven different schools and still not knowing the kids at all. We’re mostly doing lessons that we deemed unimportant at the beginning, and it seems a little pointless. Having some extra events this month will break things up a little bit, but we’re so close to going home that part of me just wants to blow it all off and spend the month in bed.

Wednesday, July 9^th:
Today is one month until I arrive in NC. That’s 85.7% complete!

This is a music term for our local schools, and we’ve had a couple lessons cancelled since kids are in choir practice most of the day. We stayed to watch the kids rehearsing at Kalebera today, and it was really fun to see. For most songs the group stands in a semicircle and does a call-and-response thing with the soloist. Sometimes there’s a little play being acted out. The district choir competition is on Tuesday at Muguluka, and if I don’t have to go into town for something I’m going to attend.

There’s a sight-singing component too so the kids were practicing their solfage. I was pretty impressed. No hand motions though. I have several cute videos of kids singing and dancing but I think I’ll have to post them when I get home. Being able to check email is a triumph with the connections here.

Dennis and I did a lesson on Love and Infatuation with the secondary kids today and that was pretty interesting. Infatuation seemed to be a new concept. They are pretty excited about Dance4Life coming tomorrow.

The three of us went in to Jinja yesterday. My goal was schedule the AIDS Information Center’s mobile HIV testing unit and check for mail, but the person we needed to talk to at AIC was gone for the day and the SPW staff is out of the office this week. So that was a bust. I had a nice meal at Ozzie’s with Lucy though. There were a couple American church groups sponsoring orphanages at the restaurant, and one table sat a bunch of big dudes from Texas in head-to-toe denim and handlebar mustaches. They were pretty awesome. One guy kept asking people what their meals were and drawling that he was from “United States, Texas.” It was a little reminder of what I’m in for when I get home. (Southerners. Not Texans.)

If anyone wants me to bring something special back for them, send me an email and let me know. There are lots of paper necklaces, earrings, carved wooden things, bags, etc.

Thursday, July 10^th:
When I say Dance For you say Life! Dance For…

D4L came to St. Gonzaga today, and it ran quite a bit smoother than last time. The St. Gonzaga kids can be bratty but they love dancing, so it went over okay. A few kids from the primary school showed up too and I think their enthusiasm helped get things going. We started out on the school compound but moved over to the church hall when the drizzle picked up so there was a long equipment-moving lapse in the middle, but the Q&A and dancing went just fine. Dennis and I were up on stage helping the tour team demonstrate the moves.

After the dancing wrapped up I took a group of twenty P6 girls on a health center visit. It went really well; one of the nurses talked to them about their services and pregnancy and HIV and abstinence and took them on a tour of the facilities, and another talked to them about menstruation briefly (I think – it was in Lusoga). It seemed friendly and beneficial and the girls were excited to get the biscuits I brought for them.

Tomorrow we go to Buweera Primary and maybe in to Jinja again if I can meet with someone at AIC. This weekend Lucy and I are going to visit Rich, Orlando, and Rachel’s placement I think. Lucy’s feeling ill today but I have a feeling she’ll pull through.

Friday, July 11th:
In Jinja. I got AIC booked for the 22nd, and Lucy got the all-clear from Dr. Debbie. There's a possibility I might fly home right after debrief. It'd give me a week to settle in before grad school starts, and mean missing Rwanda. I'm torn at the moment. I am a lot more excited about home than Rwanda, but don't want to skip the opportunity either. It should be sorted out today.

Welcome to July

Sunday, June 29^th:
I got an email about orientation at UNC while in Jinja yesterday. The registration and paperwork begins two days after I get home. It might be a little bewildering.

I had a pretty normal day today: washed my sheets in my bucket, tried to remove ants from our breakfast, read on the porch. Lucy and I went over to Sandra’s to check on the kittens. They’ve opened their eyes now and having some kitty playtime made me happy. Sandra picks up the cats by the ears and legs and it kind of makes me cringe, but I realize that “pets” are quite a different thing here.

Four weeks left on placement!

Tuesday, July 1^st:
July! We got to flip our NOGAMU calendar to its final page for our Uganda stay, July/August. In the seven-month week, we’ve finally reached Sunday. Feels good.

Dennis and I usually have a lesson first thing on Tuesdays, but we’ve having a placement visit from the office today so we’ve postponed it by a few hours so the SPW staff person can come. We’ve gotten through all of the health-themed lessons with the Kagoma kids so we’re doing life skills classes now. The plan for today is to teach about Friendship. It’s really tough trying to pick lessons at this point. You’d think it would be easier for the kids to grasp the relationship/life skills material than the SRH stuff, but they really struggle with it. I was really surprised when I got here and the secondary school kids couldn’t wrap their heads around what “emotional changes” were. And “values” is always a tough one. All of the self-esteem, assertiveness, and feelings-talk that we throw around with kids at home is totally absent from people’s upbringing here, and trying to get the kids to speculate how people would feel in certain situations is like pulling teeth.

My stomach has been upset for a couple days. The bugs that seemed to attack everyone else right away may have finally caught up to me.

Paul finishes his stay at the parish on Thursday, and the three of us took him out for dinner at Green Valley last night. We had a nice chat. GV always has something ridiculous on their television set, and last night it was a Mexican soap opera called “Until We Say Goodbye” or something. Surprisingly, Paul was really into it and gave us the back history on all of the characters. He said it wasn’t a very good show for entertainment because it was very complicated but that it was good for learning about “relationships and business.” Lucy and I found that funny. The acting looked pretty horrendous, but being dubbed into English probably didn’t help.

There was another sports day yesterday, where schools picked their best players to make local teams. It’s usually annoying when kids from other schools are on our field; they’re not used to seeing Lucy and I, and don’t allow us the relative privacy the Kagoma kids do. There was a massive crowd on our front porch, and one girl from Muguluka kept running into our room and picking up things. We spent much of the morning in our room with the door shut.

Thursday, July 3^rd:
Last night was probably the most fun I’ve had on placement! The priests had their going-away dinner for Paul at their place, and it was everything we could have wanted and more. The whole crew was there: the Fathers, the Sisters, Teddy, Jen (teacher at Kagoma), Samali (cute girl who stays with Teddy), and a few other characters. With the exception of a couple school kids, everyone I like in Magamaga was present. The priests kept the beers and sodas flowing and we had the best Ugandan dinner I’ve had since I got here. Everyone was being highly sociable and having a really good time.

After the meal we took turns saying nice things about Paul and giving him gifts – most people presented envelopes of what I assume was cash, but we wrapped up a nice shirt for him that Dennis had picked up while in Jinja that day. Then the music was cranked up and we spent the rest of the night dancing. Father Francis had some pretty choice moves. Drunkenly dancing the night away to ridiculously cheesy music with a bunch of priests and nuns was definitely a highlight of my trip thus far.

Dennis had been at the SPW office and brought home letters from Grandma, Emily, and Jeff (all the way from Kazakhstan!), which was a perk to the evening as well.

Paul left this morning for a month off around then Kampala before he starts his philosophy training for the priesthood up north in Gulu. I’ll miss seeing him around.

Today was kind of crappy; we had to wait forever for matatus to Mutai and back for our lessons, missed lunch at St. Gonzaga because we were late, got rained out of our lesson (metal roofs make it impossible to teach when it’s pouring) and then had to sit around in the cold for a long time waiting for the rain to let up enough for us to run home. By that point it was around 4pm and I was starving. I got some chapattis though and I kind of enjoy the rain as long as we don’t have to go anywhere. And it’s almost the weekend. A group of us are going to this vacation spot called the Hairy Lemon on Saturday, and that should be really fun. I keep remembering how little time there is left and the daily struggles suddenly seem much more manageable.

Tomorrow will be busy. And it’s the 4^th! I still don’t know if I’ll manage to do anything to celebrate, but I hope that everyone at home will eat a little extra BBQ and light off an extra firework for me. Marching in the Enumclaw parade last year seems like so long ago.