Day 19 - Meetings Galore

I woke up today at 7:45 am, 15 minutes after my alarm clock went off, I was very proud of myself. I had a bad experience on Saturday when I decided to sleep until 11:30 am, definitely not a good idea. I was rested this morning when I finally woke up, even though I could have laid back down and shut my eyes for another hour or two. The benefits of getting up at 7:45 am this morning were extremely beneficial. Not only did I feel good in the morning, I had energy all day long with no sleepy spell. It’s only 11:17 pm now, so I should be able to get some good sleep again. We are waiting for Ashley and the 3 newest volunteers to arrive: Amber, Seren, and Heidi. We are so excited to get them here, it’s going to be a blast. We are already jammed in here so it’s going to be interesting having another 3 people, but we’ll make it work... somehow.

Today started out with a meeting at 10 am with Peggy and the advisers and medical superintendent at the hospital. We were there to get our point across that we were there to help and offer our services as needed. It was very hard to communicate with them, their English isn’t all that complete or easy to understand. We think they understood what our purpose was and we hope that they follow through. We asked that they provide us with a complete list of volunteer opportunities available in their facilities. They said that we could get a hold of the list on Thursday and in turn show it to out volunteers to get some things going. We waited to meet with the superintendent longer that we had the meeting... a little worrisome. After that meeting we headed back to town council and met with the mayor. It was Jeff’s first time meeting the mayor and I hadn’t seen him in about a week. He was as jolly as ever and eager to introduce us to his counselors and others. The purpose of the meeting was to talk about business and how we would like to train people to better their business if they have one, and if they don’t have one how to start one and be successful. The plan seemed well received. They asked Jeff to have the plan ready for Thursday so that he could present it to them and they could look over it.

While Jackie, Ashley and I were here for the first week, we really kicked butt and got a lot of things done. We set the way for the volunteers to be able to come in and get to work. We now have project leaders figured out and we are going to work to organize all of these areas and get projects off the ground. Our projects at home have been sort of a pre-runner to everything that we'll be doing this summer. It was an opportunity for everybody to see what it was going to be like to be building and working with the people. When we are done at Hope, we will be more divided and working in many many different areas in the community.

I'm feeling a lot better today than I was yesterday. I really can't even explain how I'm feeling. All I can say is that right in the pit of my stomach I feel cramps, pulling, jabbing, knifing, twisting like never before. It was enough to kill me. At this point, the pain comes and goes much less regularly, with the regular part being pain free. I'm not sure what caused it, but I'm glad it didn't last too long.

Today is a very unhappy day for me. I have been so careful with my things so as to not loose them or have them stolen... today ended that streak. When I got home from Hope yesterday, I removed my super muddy shoes at the step near the door like I always do so I wouldn't track any mud into the house. I went straight to my bed and was there for the next 6-7 hours. When I was organizing and picking up the front room, I looked outside and my Keens were gone. I couldn't believe my eyes. I figured the girls had taken them around back to wash up like they've done in the past. They said they saw them last night on the north side of the house and even this morning. Not only mine, but another guy's Keens and another guy's Adidas got taken as well. What we couldn't figure out is WHY they would take those three shoes only and not just clear out the whole lot of them!!! Anyway, I'm VERY upset and almost can't even handle it. They were $100 toward which Mom contributed half. Money is so sacred to me and now I feel so distraught and upset that I can barely think straight. I could just scream!!! I don't know what to do except be angry and hope for a miracle which don't really coincide. If they don't turn up soon, I'm going to have to go to town and see if i can pick something else up to replace them with, or have you guys get me another pair and send them with second wave. The shoes were perfect and I was LOVING them, I'm seriously SO sick about it.... ugh.

It was nice to go to the internet and update my blog as well as upload some new pictures. I’ve been a bit lazy with my picture taking lately, I guess just realized that I have 9 more weeks here and PLENTY of time to take pictures. I do need to get the camera out a little more often though, and remember to take it places that I go. I talked to my mom tonight, always good to talk to her. She’s one person that ALWAYS brings me happiness and joy just by the sound of her voice. My mom is incredible, irreplaceable, and my best friend. I miss her a lot, but know that she is rooting me on, praying for my safety, and most importantly wants me to have a fantastic time.

We had a slideshow of pictures from everybody tonight. They got their pics out of their families and explained who they were. I of course had to put a slideshow together and project it on the wall... I’m such a nerd. It was fun to see pictures, but I missed most of them because I was on the phone with my mom. After pictures we put on “Boy Meets World”, I couldn’t believe we were sitting in Lugazi, Uganda, Africa, in a home in Nakazadde, it’s just weird. It ended up being pretty funny and it was fun to remember watching it back in the day. We ended up staying up pretty late again, we even did some Yoga with Ashley, that was fun and HARD! I never knew how hard it was, wow. It really requires a lot of strength and you’d be in great shape if you did it often.