Day 53 - A Full Day

Today was one of the more fulfilling days in the last little bit. It’s hard to keep busy every second of the day, but today just worked out really well as far as filing every moment with something to do. We left in the morning at 9:30am for Mukono, 30 minutes late. Sister Mugimu, the wife of the Mukono Branch President, runs a bakery in Mukono and makes some very beautiful cakes. They are sold in town and I think they are well known around town. We went there today to do some clean up, some SERIOUS clean up. The Mugimu’s lived in Provo for about 8 years. When they came back to Uganda they brought with them a whole load of donations, some of which came from HELP International. Unfortunately, the donations weren’t properly handled and a lot of what was stored was consumed and overridden by rats. It was probably one of the most disgusting clean up jobs I have ever participated in. Although, I was very happy to be there because organization is my middle name, well, second after cleanliness.

We began our little adventure into this trash pile of cardboard, possessions brought from the US, and donations. We weren’t exactly sure where to start, nobody knew quite what to do. Then there’s me who comes from a family with an ultra clean freak attitude about life, which I happen to love and appreciate. I immediately got to work and said to the rest, “Just think that everything is trash and when you come across something that might be a keeper, put it aside.” EVERYTHING was covered in rodent droppings and I wasn’t sure how to keep everybody safe from airborne. I told everybody that if they were going to sweep that they needed to put a bandana over their mouth and nose. Amber stepped up to the plate, pulled off her head rap, tied it on and got to work. She’s pretty awesome. We had to sort through so many things it was horrible. They are pretty busy there at the bakery and so it’s understandable that they might not have all the time in the world to clean out certain areas of the place. They REALLY needed our help and I’m glad to be there.

As we were working along, I KNEW for a fact that we would find living rodents in the stuff that we were to be sifting through. Sure enough, as I was getting into a box or things, out jump four rats, FOUR of them!! Of course I jumped up like Yao Ming to the hoop and as quick as Michael Johnson off the mark. I won’t divulge what I said however, for that remains private...secret... yeah. I came across another box which was housing two toddler rats. I hate to announce that I had to do away with them... you get the picture. Rats just don’t belong in the bakery and I had to do what had to be done. We didn’t finish there though, there is still so much to do and we are thinking about going over there tomorrow after we get done filling in the foundation at Little Angels.

Jackie and I checked our e-mail quickly in Mukono before we left town. The internet is supposed to be quicker there, but today it was lagging big-time, not so cool. We proceeded to the taxi yard and found our taxi driver friend Abdule, yeah, kinda like Paula. He happened to be there and loading a taxi to go to Lugazi, we hopped on. When we got back to Lugazi I headed straight to our Simba Stove project at Faith Orphanage. When I got there there were about 8 of the volunteers there, I was happy to see them there! Amber and I are in the process of training people how to successfully and neatly build Simba Stoves. Laying bricks isn’t rocket science, but certainly requires a knack for the arts or at least the ability to think in such a way. It was funny trying to teach some of the girls today. One just couldn’t really grasp the idea of what we were trying to accomplish. I did my best to explain each of the steps, hopefully it helped. Luckily, having grown up around construction (brick laying) though never really participating, I feel like I have a pretty good idea. The stoves that we have built thus far have been excellent in my eyes and in those of the people we are providing the stove to. Dan, the construction project lead here, helped us out with our second stove at the Equator Primary School in Namengo. It was there that I really caught on to the idea of laying bricks. He is artsy and has the knack, so I learned a lot from him and now we are off building them ourselves, Amber and I.

We were working hard and we got the foundation done in about 3 hours from start to finish. There are so many parts to building a foundation, everything has to be drawn up, measured out, leveled out, cement mixed, bricks present, etc. It’s not an easy or quick process. But we are getting better and better as the time goes on. I was happy with the final product, though, I’m sure what I’m going to find at Little Angels Primary School tomorrow when we go to fill the foundation we built on Monday. I’m worried that because Amber and I weren’t there the whole time that it’s not going to be up to par (without conceit). That’s what happens when you get sick.

I just got off the phone with Mom, Chase, and Grandma. I was sitting here typing in my journal and Jackie’s phone rang. It was a pleasant surprise to hear from them. They are in Morro Bay, California right now... only one of my most favorite places to be in the world. It seems they are having a good time and I’m so glad. I do miss not being there with them, but soon enough we’ll all be in Cali again for a small family trip before school starts.

Only 1 month left from today, I can’t REALLY believe it. How could it be? I’ve only been here for a week or so!! Or has it been more like a year or so... ha, I’m not quite sure which. Regardless, the time is going to fly and we are going to be doing some major work. I made a decision today not to go with some friends here to Tanzania and South Africa like we had previously talked about. I was set up until a night or two ago when I thought about how fun it would be to go with the group that’s going to Tanzania at the end of this week. I was torn for sure, because I really wanted the best of both worlds which would have been to go to SA and to have the other friends come to Tanzania with the group this weekend. But, I had to make a decision and that was it, and I feel good about my decision so I’m happy. Only 4 days until we leave for Tanzania and I’m just a little bit excited. I’ll end up taking 1000 pictures I’m sure... let’s hope so. This is basically a once in a lifetime opportunity. Until next time.