lessons i have learned while living in uganda!

lessons i have learned while living in uganda!

• it can be dusty and raining at the same time, really don't understand this one...
• people here just don't sleep much at night...how do they do it?
• bananas are not just a fruit, they are a way of life....eaten as is, grilled, cooked in a red sauce, matooke, kabalagalas....
• electricity works sometimes, sometimes not
• ditto for internet
• ditto for phone service
• ditto for my van
• no one ever knows the temperature. if you ask how hot it is, the answer will be hot or too hot, cold or too cold
• questions often get answered by someone raising his/her eyebrows. you are supposed to understand that automatically. i still think sometimes it means yes and sometimes it means no
• it is always fun to wave at children in villages, but you must not be surprised if they look at you as if you are an alien
• potholes are as big and as deep as small ponds
• if someone says he is having irish for dinner, he means potatoes, not people
• good luck finding a jar of salsa, a tortilla, frozen yogurt, blueberries, paul mitchell shampoo, fitted sheets and goo goos
• i have an accent (oh really?)
• i talk too fast ( oh really?)
• i do not speak 'british' english, therefore i speak incorrectly.....that one makes my hackles stand up
• african/americans are 'yellow'.......hahaha, that one makes me chuckle
• no one understands the word 'rooster'
• and my favorite........President Obama is from kenya
• seriously, i have learned more, but that's enough for tonight...someone in this country needs to sleep!

happy birthday to me!

i'm pretty lucky... i get to spend another birthday on this planet and i get to spend my birthday in uganda. when i was a child, i hated having a january birthday because it was too cold in connecticut to do anything much other than shovel snow or be home sick with a nasty winter cold. NOT the case this year, it is hot and i have celebrated by eating an entire bag of gummy savers....not a half a bag, because that would not be different than usual, but an entire bag for which i will pay later. thanks george and thanks kathi for the birthday box. it arrived on time and without any hitches or dirty looks from the postal employees! yay! tomorrow i will go to RUHU to have a birthday party. soldier, robbie and umar will come along to sing and dance and peter will take pics and we all will eat cake, candy and crisps and drink fanta. a kid's party is not a party unless teeming with junk food and empty calories. the kids are all leaving for boarding school on the 3rd so this will double as a farewell celebration! oh, i must not forget napkins.....haha, that is a joke!! peter's mom is supposed to come over in the evening and teach me to make chapatis....NO, i do not know how to make them!! she sent directions but she said to use 5 pounds of flour! i said NO, i want to make like 5 or 6...not 30! ok, seriously i do not know how many chapatis you can make with 5 pounds of flour but it has to be more than a half dozen! i did make kabalagalas last week and they were quite good. i think next time i will put a tiny bit of cinnamon in the dough..should be good. peter dunked his in ketchup which was disgusting. my dear american friends, kabalagalas are banana pancakes....yeww! but then again i have seen him dunk french fries in peanut butter, so........hahaha

we went to fort portal yesterday...what a long day as i think it is 290km one way if you do not get lost looking for a remote village! we sure spent a lot of time in the van. we stopped in mubende along the way and visited with the district chairman for a few moments...will go back and see him again in a month or so when we visit the project there where we donate sewing machines so teenage girls can learn sewing as a life skill. the purpose of our journey was to find bruce's mother so she could sign the necessary papers so he can go to boarding school. bruce is somewhere between 12 and 14, when we asked we were told 12, 13 or 14. he is an adorable child.....polite and happy and eager to learn. he's just as cute and cuddly as a young man can be, and he wants to be a pilot. his eyes twinkle when he says that! i love all the kids, but he is the one who holds my heart. bruce came to kampala on his own 4 years ago. he hid under the seats in a bus, away from an abusive father, looking for something better. he had had no contact with his family in that time. we finally found the woman who had sometimes raised his mother. she smiled when she saw him but did not grab hold of him or cover him with kisses. i cried because he deserved that. well...he has deserved so much, but.....you know, this is uganda where children are disposable. she took us to his mother's house which was a 30 minute drive. when the mother saw him there was no look of recognition even though he looks just like her. she looked at us as if to say "why are you bringing this child here?' peter and allan explained that bruce was her son as he stood quietly back. she did nothing. i couldn't stand it. i grabbed her and wrapped her arms around him and screamed uncontrollably in english "HUG HIM HE'S YOUR SON! YOU HAVEN'T SEEN HIM IN 4 YEARS. WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?" peter told me not to cry again because he knows me well enough to know that is my reaction when i see a child so disappointed by not receiving something he had so much expected and awaited. no one asked how he was or if he was healthy or happy or anything. he met his 3 year old sister and gave his 8 year old sister (whom he knew) his coke. no one showered him with love or affection. they thanked us for telling them he would be receiving an education and they signed the necessary papers. we were only there 45 minutes or so. allan and peter said the mother has some 'mental problems'. i said she should not be allowed to bring more children into the world. but you know, 'i calls em as i sees em'!!!! we went into the city and had a horrible meal and found what might be the nastiest restroom in the country. i told the owner he needed to cleanthe toilets but she just lectured me for being impolite....yep, i needed that...just another ugandan woman making me want to open another can of whoop a$$!

it's been a really difficult month...so many problems......trying to get my work permit because of course you have to pay to volunteer for free and you have to jump through hoops and pay under the table to 'expedite' the process.....plus trying to get the accountant to complete our 2012 report so we can file a 2012 work report and prepare a 2013 work plan and renew our ngo status. all costing mountains of money which i do not have. yesterday was the first time i had to turn down a request for food at naguru children's prison....they had no food and desana had no money....yes, my friends, it has been a difficult month. i talked to patrick at raising up hope and he said he knows victory is on the horizon because i have stayed with this through so much. he says i am still being tested and i know he is correct. i have a difficult time surrendering control to God. i have an even more difficult time paying to 'expedite' processes when children are hungry....the word 'volunteer' must not be in the uganda dictionary and doing your job without a little extra money is also not common. pray for me and pray for the children.....i know the others will be judged when and how He sees fit and it is not my concern (this is the stuff i have a hard time with)! blessings to you all...i miss you!

In The Midst

well, here i am back in uganda. my time in the USA went by so quickly and was so much fun. there is nothing quite like visiting and traveling and eating and laughing with family and friends......those memories often get me through the difficult days, the days that i must remind myself 'why i am here'. i've had a rough start....arrived here at 11pm on the 3rd of january and came down with the worse flu i have ever had on the morning of the 5th. dragged my fevered, collapsing, dizzy, coughing self to the ER where i received a 5 minute exam, a blood test for malaria, a bottle of what i think is tylenol and the world's foulest tasting cough medicine...all for 88,000 shillings...$35. plus, of course the $15 cab fare. seriously, i would have started taking cold pills and cough medicine on my own, but my housekeeper insisted she had packed them and they were at the new house. think so? nope, apparently she had gone through all my medications while i was gone and helped herself to all my over the counter meds like tylenol, nyquil, benedryl, etc! i've discovered a few other things missing, but that's a whole other story!

by noon on the 5th, i'm feeling just about as bad as a person can feel, but it's moving day! i only have 3 days to move and clean and paint the old house. when it comes to timing, mine is impeccable...haha. thankfully my great friends freddie, elver, peter, robbie, yubu and soldier loaded and unloaded the moving truck. mostly i just sat there looking pathetic as they would load whatever piece of furniture i was sitting/lying on. i told them i didn't care where they put the furniture in the new place, and to please just put my bed together so i could lie down and nap. i treated everyone to a local meal...elver and freddie ate that nasty dried smoked fish with the groundnut sauce and peter ate goat, so to me it wasn't much of a treat but they had all worked so hard and were so hungry i think they would have eaten anything.

peter and i went went to miracle center cathedral on sunday morning. i sure had missed pastor kayanje...he is an absolutely awesome man of God. peter kept falling asleep and i couldn't stop coughing. i felt sorry for the people around us, so we left a bit early. i came home and napped (again) while peter cleaned every piece of furniture and washed all the floors! i really have been blessed in the 'friend department'....in the housekeeper department, not so much..haha!

in the midst of me being totally immersed in myself and my problems, i didn't know little musifaru was lying in a clinic bed dying. i got the news on monday that he had passed away from malaria.....totally curable malaria...a 6 year old, sweet, loving child is gone....i tell everyone that 20,000 children die every day in africa from preventable and curable diseases and starvation...but this is different because this child has a name and a face i loved. this one held my hand and walked with me and ate from my plate. this one was not a statistic but a happy little boy who was another victim of extreme poverty. this one hurts.