Olyatya (OH-li-o-tee-ah) friends and family! (MAY 11—Happy mothers day, URS!)
So it is the beginning of DAY 4 and that is absolutely ridiculous because it feels like we have been here for months already. I will try and remember all the amazing events of the past few days. Man, I really need to write everyday because I am beginning to forget things. I definitely won’t be able to keep up a journal and a blog soooo the blog/mass email will have to be every detail of my day that I can remember so I can use it as a journal. I knew this experience would be amazing, but it is beyond the amazing expectations I had set back in America. Okay, so DAY 1 night we were all so exhausted. Rylee, Corbin, Natalie, and I went into the village to get tons of nails and chicken wire for our project on Friday. Corbin and I carried the nails all the way home and they were poking through the bag and gashing my leg. The little children were following us and laughing at the silly Muzungu. Later in the evening we were all falling asleep during the important meeting our Country Directors (CDs) had explaining even more things to us. Then we woke up when they kept saying, “Prepare for initiation!” So they gave us all candles and we got in a line and walked outside and they lit the candle. Edith our amazing friend who lives down the road was also there initiating the muzungu. They had a little phrase we had to say, “ My name is Victoria Ruth and I am from Chicago, IL , USA. I am part of the Muzungi Tribe. And now I have spoken.” After we did that our country directors said, “And now Muzungi Tribe you will kill a nncocoa, cook, and eat it.” WHAT??????????! WE ALL starting freaking out. What is an nncocoa? Cockroach? Chicken? Well, the family that lives behind us brought out two chickens for us to KILL, and pluck, and clean, and cook, and eat!!!! When I say we freaked out that is not an exaggeration. Les started crying, I started gagging, people were yelling, and it was total mass chaos. The two Canadians in our group took the machete (it wasn’t very sharp by the way and took a while) and cut the two heads off the chickens. . .(GROSS) I will spare you all the details, but the chickens did in fact keep walking around after their heads were cut off. When they were completely dead people started plucking out all the feathers ( I HELPED! –pictures to prove!!) and then we cleaned out all the intestines and took lots of gross pictures and then cooked it and ate it! It was chewier than normal and not great, but some people really liked it. It was hilarious because we all couldn’t believe it and refused to do it, but then we just got over it and did it. The family who lives with us (behind us) couldn’t believe that we had never killed a chicken.
We went to bed and again, I had a marvelous night sleep. Good thing I can sleep anywhere because it is working out great for me, but others are having a hard time. So Friday we woke up again to the roosters (no need for an alarm clock!) around 6:30, and got ready to go to the orphanage. Fred our amazing driving took us in a crazy motorcycle w/ a cart thing attached to it. It was so much fun! The orphanage was about a half hour -45min away and literally in the middle of the jungle/sugar cane. Africa is the most beautiful place on earth. Literally. I need to get pictures up so you can see, but I’m sure they will not do it justice. We got to the orphanage and the children ran up to us and kept saying, “tank you muzungu for coming. Welcome muzungu. Tank you. Tank you.” The children are mostly 6-12 with a few little, little kids. Wow, sometimes I can’t believe my life. We all became fast friends. We had to get the bricks for the chicken coop from one side of the yard to the other so we created a very efficient assembly line of volunteers and little kids. We started singing and dancing in the line. We taught them Old McDonald, the Hokie Pokie, If you’re happy and you know it, Broom-chica broom. The kids got a kick out of it. It was incredible. Then we had to go down the road ( A REALLY LONG WAY) and went down the hill to the clay hole. We got buckets and wheel barrels of clay and the children and us carried it all the way back. I’m going to be so buff when I come home. It was really, really strenuous, but also fun because the kids are so cute and so helpful and way stronger than me! (On the way down the hill Isaac was running and looked back and didn’t see me in front of him and totally collided into me. He was so embarrassed, but because of it we are best friends. He was so helpful and at dinner washed my hands and he also cut a jackfruit from a tree and brought it to me to eat. AMAZING.) I was exhausted and dehydrated so I had to sit for a bit, well all the muzungus did.. ( sidenote: someone just used our microwave for the first time and it sounds like a space ship.) Anyways, we got back to the orphanage and laid in the glass for a bit. We had a few projects going on: a chicken coop and an adobe stove. The clay was for the adobe stove. We got to play games with the kids and taught them red light/green light, duck duck goose, the Macarena. It was so cute and fun. Then we got to work on the Adobe Stove which was a huge project because we had to mix the mud, clay, fiber, and water together to a specific consistency. We shoveled and then we took our shoes off and mixed it all for a long, long while. Christine ( the mother at the orphanage) cooked us a dinner of beans, rice, cabbage, and posha (flour and water). It was MUCH better than the nasty stuff we ate at the restaurant. Rylee and I decided we could probably handle this food if it tasted like this though it is nothing like a Café Rio Salad or icecream from Cold Stone that is for sure.. After dinner we worked more on the stove and played with the children. Our day of work was from 8:30am to 6pm of hard labor. It was awesome. We rode back on the motorcycle/cart thing and had to push it up the hill for a bit. We got back into town and if we thought we were exhausted the day before, we were not in comparison because we could barely walk now. We all showered (which was quite the experience and cold!) and then we realized that unfortunately we had told the local club that we would probably come Friday night so “Big Daddy” ( the manager) was expecting us to come so we all got ready to go out to “African Paradise” for some dancing and fun. Jeff, Trent, Corbin, Me, Leslie, Ash, Jackie, and Emily went. Big Daddy escorted us in and it is a pretty sweet set up. It has an open ceiling, a stage, area for pool and darts, and food area. The music was older American stuff and some Africa stuff. A Justin timberlake song was played as well as a Shania twain song that sounded like the chipmunks singing. The club got pretty full and well, there were sooo many drunk Africans. Let me just say I am thankful for jeff, corbin, and trent. It was really fun though and I’m glad I went. We stayed for a couple hours and then came home and chilled and talked. Saturday we got to sleep in—I woke up around 10ish. We went to the market and then got a sweet deal on a taxi and all of us got to ride together to Bujagali Falls right on the Nile. Beautiful and breathtaking. There was a little restaurant place too so we all drank our sodas and took naps next to the Nile—no big deal. Then we went on a boat ride (in a little boat) and traveled to different islands and hiked around. It was cool because there was a witch doctor in his little hut on one and Ashley started talking to him…kinda creepy as well because we have heard serious stories from the natives about witch doctors…um, yes, they kill people and take their organs. Anyways, it was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen or imagined. Sadly, they are building a dam in four years on the Nile so all the white water will be gone and there will be little to no white water rafting ever again on the Nile so good thing we are going next Saturday! We then told our drive to take us to a swimming place and he misunderstood and took us to this super posh resort with a swimming pool. I wouldn’t mind coming back on a honeymoon or something at this place—Kiera you would love it there! We then went to the forest and walked around until we found four random people; two Americans, two Englishmen. They are living in Uganda indefinitely working in an orphanage with HIV positive children. Uganda is full of incredible people. We then came home to an amazing dinner because we finally got our cook hired for dinner!!! Irene is incredibleeeeeeeeeeee. We were starving and literally were shoving food in our mouths and no one was talking just eating, eating, eating. We had beans, squash—my favorite!, pineapple, chipati—my absolute fav! (like a tortilla), cabbage (also delicious!), potatoes!!!! It was heaven.
After dinner we all watched a movie w/ the big projector I was in charge of bringing over. Thank goodness it didn’t break. We are planning on using the projector at the hospital and in the schools as well. We were all so tired though that we could barely stay awake and most of us passed out watching A Beautiful Mind. Sunday we got to sleep in til about 10 and we decided to go to Bills church. Bill is an American pastor who has dedicated his life to service here. He has been a ridiculously amazing contact and through him we found other contacts and orphanages, etc. He is going back to America for a few months so we decided to go to his last Sunday service. It was crazy and fun. It was about half an hour of standing up, yelling, dancing, whooping, hollering, clapping, laughing, and then they talked and then bill had a really long message (but good) and then the people talked more. It was very hot and very fun. The people were so gracious and called us angels. They said look we pray everyday and these muzungus have come to help us and our community. It was very kind, but a little uncomfortable. (Sidenote: the little kids who live by our house and climb the wall and gate are yelling our names to come out side and play. It is so cute when I walk down the street and they yell “Victoria. Heloooo. Victoria come play.” I was the first name they knew. Haha, they are so cute, and sassy!) Then we had our own Sacrament service with permission from the branch president in Mukono. It was a great service. Afterwards we all chilled and I tried to get on the internet but it was down. Monday we got up early again to go to the children’s orphanage. We got there and it just poured and poured and poured so we ended up staying inside with the kids teaching them more games and songs and playing with them. After four hours of rain we finally got out in the mud and hauled bricks and worked on the pig pen. We then had to head back for our meeting with the town council. We all dressed up and looked “Smart” and took ‘boda-bodas’ (they are like motorcycles/mopeds) there. They are kinda intense and scary, but overall super fun. The meeting started 45 minutes late because that is just how it is here. We had a pretty good meeting but intense as we discussed projects and presented our ideas and discussed needs of the community. We all got our contacts and numbers and were very productive. After the meeting we went to the internet café, came home and ate a dinner of rice, beans, and chipati. We then had an amazingly fun FHE and a project planning meeting. We all went to bed pretty early. Tuesday we got to sleep in and basically went around town all day to our different meetings with our contacts with the town council. We are pretty freaking excited about the projects. We met with the headmaster of the secondary school called St. Edward. The teachers need training and ideas, and we are going to start up clubs for kids to learn about AIDS/Health, work with the choir, do career day and have clubs for the kids to learn about doctors/lawyers/engineers. It is an awesome program we are going to start. The orphanage project is going to be amazing as well because the plan is to go to the different wards and villages and round up the orphanages and basically evaluate their situation. Then we will start a school for them, and we will be able to create our own curriculum and program for them as well which means not only will we be doing school subjects like math and science but also art and a choir. It’s going to be hard and awesome all in one. This week we will be creating curriculum and planning projects. I also will be planning some things to do with social work as this is very essential in the area as well. Oh, and it definitely poured on us as we were walking home from our meetings so we were running home in the rain with everyone laughing at us. It was great. OH, and I showered (which is quite the cold experience) and I realized that I smell even though I showered. The smell is in the air, in the people, and in the water. Isn’t that awesssoome? I think so. We got the rest of the volunteers tonight too-heidi, seren, and amber.
No comments:
Post a Comment