It's your Uganda

A few weeks ago, a man slashing some grass drank a bottle of water, and once he was finished with it he just tossed it beside him in the yard.
One of my friends looked at him and kindly asked him to give her the bottle he just threw, and then she said, "I't s your Uganda..."
Pretty much what she was trying to say was that it's his Uganda, because we will be leaving after our service in 2 years, so if he doesn't take care of it, then who will?
This is quite a problem... no one facing the facts here... just looking the other way or something... so, I really like the statement made, "It's your Uganda..."
uh huh...

"Where are you going?"
haha, people ask this question hundreds and billions of times, like in your face, "where are you going?" haha, like they really want to know or something, maybe as if their life depends on it. It's really funny.

As I always say, public transportation here is really insane, and somehow out of control. If I were to die in this country, chances are highly that it would be due to some form of public transportation accident.
Perfect example, on the way into town today our taxi broke down and we were stranded on the side of the road for about 30 minutes until finally someone "fixed" the taxi... by "fixed" I mean the vehicle was able to move again. haha.
Actually it's pretty funny at this point, and mostly I just try to laugh.
More examples of recent:
The bus ride home from Kampala to Budaka (about a 5 hour bus ride), the woman sitting in front of me spit a big wad of spit out the window and it managed to land on my arm. I was like gee thanks. A few minutes later she spit again, this time the spit smeared all over the window, so I asked her, "excuse me, can you please NOT do that", ha, she said "sorry".
Then, I saw a miget walking down the street.
Then the woman next to me ordered some greasy street chicken on a stick and had me open her water bottle because her hands were too greasey... as she is eating, I am seated next to the window and she is beside me... so as she finishes parts of the chicken she flings the bones across my body out of the window. haha. Once again, I'm like gee, thanks.

For my Mom:

Happy Birthday Mom!

I LOVE YOU!

Uganda vs. Niger

Uganda beat Niger this weekend 3-1. Woo Uganda!
I went to the football/ soccer game, it was on Saturday...
The crowd was cheering almost the entire time, it was nuts! Really though, I had the time of my life.. it was crazy kind of funny. Just lots and lots of people and happy people...
The stadium was in Kampala and it was 100 % packed fully of screaming fans. Everyone was decked out in Ugandan clothes, face paint, flags, everything.
I had my first beer on tap in Uganda also, and that was quite a highlight.
After the game we left the stadium, and there were lines of cars and peoples for miles you could see up the road. We walked along the railroad tracks, following the leaders on our way out of there. The sun was even setting, people were still cheering, man it was cool.
It was too far to walk all the way, so we took a taxi the rest. Ha ha, some man gave me a maraca as I was leaving the stadium, so the whole taxi ride people were still cheering, and me too with my new maraca. It was just lovely.

We had our bus ride home today from Kampala and it took about 5 hours. There is a road, about an hour section of not goodness. It is bumpy, dirt flying in your face, even when I wipe my face, a layer of dirt comes with it. Woah. We usually sit in the back of the bus, and it's almost like a rollercoaster at Kings Dominion or something. We fly up in the air after speed bumps, which do come about every 2 feet. haha, exaggerating, but it feels like it sometimes.
The thing is though, when I have a window seat and my ipod on, I love to sit back, even if I'm a little squished, it's just really nice.

One funny random thing that happened this week... another volunteer has this ring that has symbols including skulls on it. I realized he has left it on a table, so I picked it up for him. I overheard some men asking where the ring went and someone pointed to me. Their heads turned so fast in my direction...
They thought the ring may have belonged to a devil worshipper...
I told them it wasn't mine, but one of my friends, and then I explained that the volunteer who owned the ring was mearly a pirate, so they shouldn't be worried. hehe.

This past week, we had a language training, and it was really nice. We stayed in a nice hotel, with hot showers and nice beds. We got to refresh our language skills, and I learned how to say, "I will beat you" and "Get a job" in my local language. I think it will be very helpful.

When I do speak the local language the people seem to appreciate it so much, and they laugh, and they really love it. In the market it is especially fun because you can make jokes and get better deals that way. I bought 3 necklaces for 200 Uganda Shillings each this week in the market, which is about, um not very much money (like 10 or 20 cents?), haha, math skills are not there.

Our language training was in a small town, Pallisa, so one of the nights, for our "cultural immersion", we went to the local brew spots to drink "malawa" which is fermented millet that is alcohol... it was good. It is served in a pot, warm, with a really long straw, and you sit around in a circle and drink. You can't drink too much, or you won't be able to walk home, so we just had a few sips. hehe. I felt very immersed.

Today, I had the chance to visit with a women's group, Iki-ki Widows and Orphan Initiative Association. We gathered under a mango tree, and everyone sat on the ground, but first they gathered leaves from the tree to sit on... make-shift seat, ha, good use of local resources. I tried to see what I can do to help, most of the women are HIV positive, and the main concerns are what will happen to their children they leave behind. They have established themselves as an official group recognized by the sub-county, and there are about 70 women and 50 OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children). They have fields to grow crops, few cattle and some goats to get started. The Chairperson led the meeting, and I know only some Lugwere, so most of what I said had to be translated. The woman that sat next to me told me her name was Sarah and that she was HIV positive. I told her that I have a best friend from home named Sarah, so it is a nice name. She looked at me and said, "That's fine, I love her." ha, this was funny for me to hear, so Sarah, you now have at least 2 people that love you in Uganda. For some reason when she said this to me, it hit me weird, just made me be like, "huh, you love my friend Sarah" haha.
Anyways, I think the women and children were really happy I was there to visit with them, I just hope they don't think I am God and will be able to answer all their prayers, maybe only some. We shall see.

Black boogars
Every time I blow my nose in Uganda, what comes out, but lovely black boogars. haha, this is actually true. It is usually worse when I travel, but I was talking with another volunteer that says this is not good. (haha, I will agree, no, it's not good). Now, it's not just me either, so don't think I am this extremely dirty, it happens to everyone. (If you are a person in Uganda reading this, don't write any comments about how this doesn't happen to you) haha, because I'm sure it does, maybe you just don't blow your nose often enough, and that's even grosser. So, my thoughts on this are, let's clean up our world, and get rid of these black boogars, I'm ready for clear or even greenish will be fine. Dad, I hope you like this post, it's mainly for you, so you can think of me. Smile, cheese.

Country music
Ugandans love country music! Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Shania Twain, and many more always on the radio. This is also funny to me, but good, because I love listening to country music very much too.

Kneeling
Girls kneel here, it is something they do as a part of their culture, but then I'm like, well why don't boys? Yesturday I was at a school, and a little girl walked by me, but as she got near to me, she kneeled. Most girls and even women kneel when they greet me. At first, I was not too comfortable only because I want them to know they are equal with me, so they shouldn't have to kneel, but mostly it's just out of respect (according to their culture). I don't kneel because it's not a part of my culture.

Before this,
Lately life had been a little down, just because I haven't really known what in the world I am supposed to be doing here in Uganda, ha, soon though, soon I see some light shining somewhere sometimes, so for now, I guess that's enough. Sometimes I want to do a hundred billion things, but I need to really just focus on a few. I know this anyways.

Coke makes my eyes water

I was coming to Kampala this weekend because an old cavity of mine was messed up. The dentist left a gap between the filling and the tooth, so I couldn't eat on my left side. The dentist had to drill out 2 old fillings completely and then re-fill them, lovely. I don't usually like the dentist anyways, so it really wasn't fun, but it was nice coming to Kampala.

So, I think that I need to stop drinking soda or something. Coke makes my eyes water anyways, which I always think is weird.



Visitor's book:

Lately I have had the opportunity to visit a lot of the schools in my outreach area, and the visitor's book is this book you have to sign as soon as you get to a school. It is kind of a funny thing, because when you sign it, you really have to, and it is really, really important that you do. I know it's important because it is the very first thing I do at every school I reach. This one school I was at, there was a man who arrived late, but had to make a speech. As he is in the middle of his speech a man comes up and places the visitor book in front of him to sign... yes, it's really important as you can see.

Bee's in my pit latrine:
I have these weird blueish/black bees in my pit latrine. It is very scary because now every time I go, I get freaked out a bee will fly up and eww... I don't like the situation. I think I will have to smoke them out or something, but I don't know how to do that, so I guess eventually I will have to ask a neighbor to help me. Wish me luck.

Music Competitions

This week and the next couple weeks there are music competitions for the primary schools, and it is amazing. The kids are so talented. I have taken tons and tons of videos and pictures, I just wish there was an easier way to post them for everyone to see. It's somehow slow though. The sun was setting in these pictures, and it was just beautiful.