Today was quite fulfilling, though exhausting, to the point of dropping dead; just what we want while we’re here. We filled in two more foundations that we had previously built. One at the True Light Primary School that is in our village only 150 yards from our house, and one up at Betty’s house that we made on Monday. It was a little drizzly this morning and we were afraid we were going to get rained out, luckily the rain never really came down, only a light trickle. We arrived at True Light and they had the extra clay we had told them we needed. It was just Leslie, Heidi and I on this project and it turned out to be a little mistake that we did not have more help. Joshua, the man that was up at Equator P.S. was there ready and willing to help us out. He’s a funny old man. Totally interested in what we’re doing but at the same time full of questions in broken English that we can barely make out. Sometimes it’s frustrated to have him around, but today I learned to appreciate him and realize that he’s exactly what we have been looking for as far as someone to teach and keep the building going once we have left the country. Working just the three of us with the help of Joshua just wasn’t enough. We had to mix the adobe mixture and pack it ourselves. That takes a long time and takes a lot of effort, more difficult that it may sound. We wished we had another 2 people with us to help mix and/or pack. Now we’ll know for next time. We ended up having just about enough adobe for the stove, actually, it was a little less than we would have liked but it did the job. We had to use bricks to help fill up space, it wouldn’t have worked otherwise. It took us around 5 hours to complete and we were beat afterwards. To make it worse, we had another to fill, at least I had another one to fill, Leslie and Heidi had something else to attend in the afternoon.
Amber returned from Mukono after having been at the bakery. I was glad to see her around so that she could go with me to fill in the second stove. I was not excited about it because I was so tired. The rain started to pick up as if it wanted to come down but ended as we walked out the door. Joshua met us up at Betty’s house and again helped us out and learned some things as well. Betty was incredibly helpful which I appreciated very much. She was just as much invested in making the stove as we were. She had supplied all of the materials except the cement, a big accomplishment for a single mother with a few kids. We didn’t end up having enough clay over which I began to panic. We had known this the last time we were there but didn’t remember until we saw the half-filled bag of clay upon arrival. We decided it was ant-hill soil or nothing at all. We had already spent 1000 shillings to get up there and we weren’t about to turn around and head for home. Betty began cutting away at an ant-hill when the termites erupted from beneath. They were the ugliest looking things I think I’ve every seen. Little green bodies with a head and pinchers the same size as the body. The pinchers looked sharp and Betty decided to demonstrate for us. She reached down and allows one of the irrupted “ants” to attach to her finger. The thing was ridiculously strong and I could tell it would kill if that thing pinched you anywhere. Later on in the day when we had found another ant-hill that had been burned out and gotten the soil from, we were back at her house mixing the clay, soil, sand, fiber and water to make the adobe when out comes marching an “ant.” She again went to let the thing grab on to her. Except, this time the ant was a little more aggravated than the last. It grabbed on and sunk it’s teeth into her finger. She even squealed and grabbed the body and pinched it, killing it, to get it off of her. I watched the thing sink it’s teeth in her finger, it was horrible. I didn’t get to close to the mixture after that.
I’ve killed a total of 4 mosquitos through my net while sitting here in my bed typing. With out these nets we would be absolute toast, welted all over with bites, I wouldn’t be able to sleep without one.
The stove turned out good, we were very pleased. We ended up having just enough of our mixture, including bricks stacked in the bottom to take up room. Had we not used bricks, we would not have had enough; thanks heaven for bricks everywhere. It took us a good 2 hours to pack the foundation, a little longer than expected, but reasonable none the less. Betty was very excited and we told her that we had one request after having built her stove. The request was that she would teach her friends and help them build their own stoves in their homes. She will be another great asset to our cause, I can feel it. She got all nice today and said, “I need your phone numbers to I can call you when you have left this place!” We were touched. It was nice to hear that she enjoyed us being there, so much so that she wanted to keep in touch.
It’s been so great to meet so many great people, people I may never see again in my life. At the beginning of my stay here I felt like I would never meet and become good friends with any body in particular, just simple friendships with many people. I was wrong, and I’m glad I was. Well, it’s time to go to bed, I’m beat and I need my strength in the morning. Until then.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Day 39 - Martyr's Day
Today is Martyr’s Day. Back in the late 1800’s there was a group of 23 men that were burned alive after standing up for something they didn’t believe it. There had been a law passed in Uganda that people would have to work on Sundays. Well, the Catholics and Protestants were too thrilled with that whole thing because they knew and believed that Sunday was a day of rest. Appartently these men were standing up against this law according to their beliefs and were killed because of it. It has become a national holiday and, to my knowledge, has been celebrated since then. We went to a place called Namugongo where the event or holiday was celebrated. I’m sure why it’s held there, though I’m assuming it’s because it’s where the tragedy occurred. We decided we would take the day and check it out.
We attended the beginnings of the protestant gathering which recognized the martyrs, it was OK. It was in an amphitheater type of setting with hundreds of people gathering on all sides of the downhill slope. There was a choir, a man praying and giving speech, and many other people who I wasn’t sure of their purpose. We couldn’t here very well and the dude singing had a horrendous voice, we eventually decided to leave.
It turned out to be pretty crazy, more Africans than I’ve ever seen at once in my life, it was incredible. There was a certain street that every body walked up and down. There were street venders of all types littered the length of the street. We didn’t even walk the whole thing, it would have taken 2 hours at least. We were always bumping in to each other, dodging boda bodas, and just trying to stay alive in general.
We came across something that has quite possibly become one the most experiences of my life... as far as food is concerned. There was a huge pile of pineapple, small to large, all varying in price. There was also a man peeling the pineapples right next to him, free of charge if you purchased a pineapple. He would hold the stem and cut the skin off and even give it a cross-hairs cut to make it easier to eat right off the stem!! I couldn’t believe my eye and instantly had to be part of it. We quickly found out that the smaller pineapples, perfect for one person to snarf, were only 300 shillings, a grand total of .18 cents... believe it. The thing was about one and a half times the size of a softball and perfectly ripened. I was with a bunch of the girls from the group, as usual, and we all got a pineapple. I can’t even begin to explain how incredible the pineapple was. It was by far the best I’ve ever had in my life, including that of Hawaii. To eat the pineapple off the stem just amplified the experience. Not only had the guy NOT touched my pineapple with his hands, I would be able to eat it and stay relatively clean. We took pictures and recorded video, which shows us devouring the pineapple like crazy; we were crazy and we couldn’t get enough. This amazing experience however landed me with major intestinal problems 45 minutes later, something I didn’t really expect or even care about at the time. I suppose it was quite a bit of pineapple and I did eat the WHOLE thing, oh well, it was still worth it.
We ended going to Kampala which was only 20 minutes from where we were. We decided it would be nice to have a decent lunch at the food court in Garden City. We started out at the Shop Rite which was like unto a grocery store at home, just not the same things on the shelves, still a bit interesting. We ended up seeing the mission president in there with a new senior couple from Rexburg Idaho that had only been there for 9 days. When we left the store we saw three Elders, I proceeded to go up to them and meet them. One from Idaho, another from Texas, and one from the Congo, right next door to Uganda. I immediately put myself in their position and imagined serving a mission in Uganda, I shuttered. I’m positive the Lord sent me where he did because he knew I would be able to handle it, even though it was a scary, dangerous, and difficult area.
I had pizza, again, a safe food group. It ended up being pretty good. I even got a free glass of passion fruit juice from the lady at the register. She was a rather pretty woman, from somewhere like Lebanon or something of that nature. She was refreshingly sweet and nice to talk to. I’m so used to talking to people that don’t really respond or smile back when I smile, it was a pleasant surprise. The trip back was uneventful, except that I fell asleep on my backpack on one side of my face and woke up with a serious mark on my face, we got a picture.
We attended the beginnings of the protestant gathering which recognized the martyrs, it was OK. It was in an amphitheater type of setting with hundreds of people gathering on all sides of the downhill slope. There was a choir, a man praying and giving speech, and many other people who I wasn’t sure of their purpose. We couldn’t here very well and the dude singing had a horrendous voice, we eventually decided to leave.
It turned out to be pretty crazy, more Africans than I’ve ever seen at once in my life, it was incredible. There was a certain street that every body walked up and down. There were street venders of all types littered the length of the street. We didn’t even walk the whole thing, it would have taken 2 hours at least. We were always bumping in to each other, dodging boda bodas, and just trying to stay alive in general.
We came across something that has quite possibly become one the most experiences of my life... as far as food is concerned. There was a huge pile of pineapple, small to large, all varying in price. There was also a man peeling the pineapples right next to him, free of charge if you purchased a pineapple. He would hold the stem and cut the skin off and even give it a cross-hairs cut to make it easier to eat right off the stem!! I couldn’t believe my eye and instantly had to be part of it. We quickly found out that the smaller pineapples, perfect for one person to snarf, were only 300 shillings, a grand total of .18 cents... believe it. The thing was about one and a half times the size of a softball and perfectly ripened. I was with a bunch of the girls from the group, as usual, and we all got a pineapple. I can’t even begin to explain how incredible the pineapple was. It was by far the best I’ve ever had in my life, including that of Hawaii. To eat the pineapple off the stem just amplified the experience. Not only had the guy NOT touched my pineapple with his hands, I would be able to eat it and stay relatively clean. We took pictures and recorded video, which shows us devouring the pineapple like crazy; we were crazy and we couldn’t get enough. This amazing experience however landed me with major intestinal problems 45 minutes later, something I didn’t really expect or even care about at the time. I suppose it was quite a bit of pineapple and I did eat the WHOLE thing, oh well, it was still worth it.
We ended going to Kampala which was only 20 minutes from where we were. We decided it would be nice to have a decent lunch at the food court in Garden City. We started out at the Shop Rite which was like unto a grocery store at home, just not the same things on the shelves, still a bit interesting. We ended up seeing the mission president in there with a new senior couple from Rexburg Idaho that had only been there for 9 days. When we left the store we saw three Elders, I proceeded to go up to them and meet them. One from Idaho, another from Texas, and one from the Congo, right next door to Uganda. I immediately put myself in their position and imagined serving a mission in Uganda, I shuttered. I’m positive the Lord sent me where he did because he knew I would be able to handle it, even though it was a scary, dangerous, and difficult area.
I had pizza, again, a safe food group. It ended up being pretty good. I even got a free glass of passion fruit juice from the lady at the register. She was a rather pretty woman, from somewhere like Lebanon or something of that nature. She was refreshingly sweet and nice to talk to. I’m so used to talking to people that don’t really respond or smile back when I smile, it was a pleasant surprise. The trip back was uneventful, except that I fell asleep on my backpack on one side of my face and woke up with a serious mark on my face, we got a picture.
Day 38 - Another Foundation
It rained quite a bit last night and it continued on into the morning. As I woke up I knew it was going to be a raining and half dreary day... and that’s exactly how it started. I had a good breakfast; french toast on wheat. It was OK, I can’t complain. It was a little difference but to be expected. I used a little vegetable oil and Blue Band spread to grease the pan and give flavor. I ate 3 pieces of it with french toast, I was pretty satisfied, although I ended up downing 2 bananas after that. We made our way out the door at 11:00 am, I sort of slept in an hour later than I should have, I felt bad about that. Luckily, the rain was too hard to go out into anyway so I didn’t feel as bad, though I could have gotten some reading in.
We went to True Light this morning ready to fill in the foundation we built last week but ran into a problem: they hadn’t gotten enough clay. They had gotten less than half of what we needed. We told him we needed two more large bags of clay. He informed us that the bags were each 5000 shillings. Amber and I talked about it a seconded and decided that we could pay for one of the extra bags. They had already provided the cement which we usually go and decided we could switch the cost of the cement we didn’t use to help paying for the clay. Isaac told us that they could have it by Wednesday, hopefully that’s when we come back and do it.
We made our third Simba Stove foundation today at a lady’s house named Betty. She was present when we made the stove at Equator Primary School and was very interested in having us come to here home and help her install a stove. Amber, Leslie, Emily and I went up there to build it. We are building the stove in her home in the kitchen area. She has been cooking outside for who knows how long and we are very excited to help her move her cooking inside but not have to worry about the smoke. The stove ended up being relatively small compared to all the ones we have built so far. Granted, it’s in the house of a lady who generally cooks for her and a couple of kids, not an entire school. We designed the size of the stove to enable her to cook with larger pans on the weekends when she has guests. We are quite excited about this stove, it’s our first residential stove and comes closest to the design that we were trained to make. Betty is such a nice lady, happy to have us up there at her house and it very fun to be around. There are many kids that come to the house as well when we are there, they can’t stand not to see the freak show when it’s in town... us of course, and our white skin. Betty was very willing to help and was eager to learn our methods. We of course want to train her as much as we can so that she can pass the information on to her friends and community memebers. This is how we are helping the Simba Stove program be sustainable.
Without sustainability, our efforts here in Lugazi are only short-term and will on affect the people we work with directly. Well, our goal as HELP International volunteers is so create sustainable support. Everything we do here needs to be able to be replicated by the people here with not much effort. So, in order to have our training of how to make Simba Stoves go the farthest, we feel the absolute need to teach the people so that they in turn can replicate our work and help more and more people. I think about how good it feels just to help the people here for only a couple of months. But the thoughts and feelings of my work and knowledge being extended infinitely after I leave brings so much more happiness. There is a man named Joshua that I think is going to be of great help in the future. He seems very interested in what we are doing and wants to be involved. It will be nice to have a “representative” for the village of Namengo, one who will be able to assist people like Betty in making stoves in her friend’s houses.
I’m listening to Love Song by 311 right now. It happens to be one of the most soothing songs ever... give it a listen sometime.
With more and more appointments to build Simba Stoves we could very well hit our goal. We are going to have to incorporate a principle my mission president installed when I was in New York. It’s something called Focused Finding. It’s a time when you do nothing but find people to hear the gospel. Whether it was knocking on doors or fearlessing, as we called it, on the streets, we had to do it for 2 hours every day, no exceptions. Appointments did not overrule, it itself was to be considered an appointment. Anyway, we are going to have to dedicate some time such as focused finding to go out and just find tons of schools, women’s groups, or any other community situation that would like a stove. This way we can fill up our appointment book and just be constantly making stoves. This will help us reach our goal of 40 stoves by the end of the summer. I’m so lucky to have been part of the first wave, even a week extra having come with the country directors early to help them out. I have seen everything come together and been a part of all the hard work to make it all happen. This is an exciting work and truly reminds me of the mission field, something you generally don’t get to experience more than once in a lifetime.
Well, my eyes are slipping on me, I better get some shut eye. Until tomorrow.
We went to True Light this morning ready to fill in the foundation we built last week but ran into a problem: they hadn’t gotten enough clay. They had gotten less than half of what we needed. We told him we needed two more large bags of clay. He informed us that the bags were each 5000 shillings. Amber and I talked about it a seconded and decided that we could pay for one of the extra bags. They had already provided the cement which we usually go and decided we could switch the cost of the cement we didn’t use to help paying for the clay. Isaac told us that they could have it by Wednesday, hopefully that’s when we come back and do it.
We made our third Simba Stove foundation today at a lady’s house named Betty. She was present when we made the stove at Equator Primary School and was very interested in having us come to here home and help her install a stove. Amber, Leslie, Emily and I went up there to build it. We are building the stove in her home in the kitchen area. She has been cooking outside for who knows how long and we are very excited to help her move her cooking inside but not have to worry about the smoke. The stove ended up being relatively small compared to all the ones we have built so far. Granted, it’s in the house of a lady who generally cooks for her and a couple of kids, not an entire school. We designed the size of the stove to enable her to cook with larger pans on the weekends when she has guests. We are quite excited about this stove, it’s our first residential stove and comes closest to the design that we were trained to make. Betty is such a nice lady, happy to have us up there at her house and it very fun to be around. There are many kids that come to the house as well when we are there, they can’t stand not to see the freak show when it’s in town... us of course, and our white skin. Betty was very willing to help and was eager to learn our methods. We of course want to train her as much as we can so that she can pass the information on to her friends and community memebers. This is how we are helping the Simba Stove program be sustainable.
Without sustainability, our efforts here in Lugazi are only short-term and will on affect the people we work with directly. Well, our goal as HELP International volunteers is so create sustainable support. Everything we do here needs to be able to be replicated by the people here with not much effort. So, in order to have our training of how to make Simba Stoves go the farthest, we feel the absolute need to teach the people so that they in turn can replicate our work and help more and more people. I think about how good it feels just to help the people here for only a couple of months. But the thoughts and feelings of my work and knowledge being extended infinitely after I leave brings so much more happiness. There is a man named Joshua that I think is going to be of great help in the future. He seems very interested in what we are doing and wants to be involved. It will be nice to have a “representative” for the village of Namengo, one who will be able to assist people like Betty in making stoves in her friend’s houses.
I’m listening to Love Song by 311 right now. It happens to be one of the most soothing songs ever... give it a listen sometime.
With more and more appointments to build Simba Stoves we could very well hit our goal. We are going to have to incorporate a principle my mission president installed when I was in New York. It’s something called Focused Finding. It’s a time when you do nothing but find people to hear the gospel. Whether it was knocking on doors or fearlessing, as we called it, on the streets, we had to do it for 2 hours every day, no exceptions. Appointments did not overrule, it itself was to be considered an appointment. Anyway, we are going to have to dedicate some time such as focused finding to go out and just find tons of schools, women’s groups, or any other community situation that would like a stove. This way we can fill up our appointment book and just be constantly making stoves. This will help us reach our goal of 40 stoves by the end of the summer. I’m so lucky to have been part of the first wave, even a week extra having come with the country directors early to help them out. I have seen everything come together and been a part of all the hard work to make it all happen. This is an exciting work and truly reminds me of the mission field, something you generally don’t get to experience more than once in a lifetime.
Well, my eyes are slipping on me, I better get some shut eye. Until tomorrow.
Day 36 - Uganda vs Niger
One crazy day it was today, oh my gosh, let me just tell you. Jackie decided she HAD to go to this qualifying soccer game at Mandela Stadium near Kampala. She invited us all to go and of course we were all interested, how could we afford to miss a game where two teams would play to see if they go to the World Cup in 2010? I’ve never been to a soccer game, a REAL soccer game, so it was a good experience. I’m still not sold on the sport itself, I doesn’t really catch my interest, but it was still fun to be with everybody and just hang on. The place was absolutely full of people and it was a little crazy, a little scary. There was pick-pocketing like crazy there and at least half of us experienced it. Jeff actually got his wallet stolen out of his side pocket on his pants that was zipped up. There was 25,000 shillings inside, or about $15, so not too bad but it still happened. Jackie got seriously attacked in the same crowd. This crowd was at the top of the stairs that we came down to sit in our seats. I’m assuming their purpose was to create enough ruckus to pickpocket. They got their hands in every single pocket possible of Jackie’s pants, she couldn’t get their hands off of her and she was freaking out. Luckily she didn’t have anything stolen and she got out alright. I was sitting in my seat with my backpack at my feet and my friends all around. I happened to look down at one point and there was a kid in front of me on a chair. His hand was reaching back, had already unzipped and was getting inside a little pocket on the waste belt of my backpack. There were about 3000 shillings in there. I ripped his hand our of there so fast and shoved it away and then proceeded to shoo him away telling him not to do that. He acted like nothing had even happened and slowly, very slowly walked away. I was in awe. I’ve noticed a pattern already with pick-pocketers. When they commit the act and you catch them, they act like nothing every happened and will even continue to stand where they are, it’s unreal. I guess the reason is because they don’t want to create a seen and get slammed by the people around them. It just goes to show what does on here more than in most places.
The game wasn’t too long, luckily, just long enough to experience. We got up when the game ended, I had my backpack on backwards, on my chest in other words. I wasn’t going to let anybody jack my stuff. We made it out OK, got in the Taxi and made our way to Coleen Motel in Mukono. We had dinner there, it wasn’t too bad, I was quite impressed. I had pizza of course, the safest thing on the menu. Others had curry chicken, pasta of sorts, and burgers. I was satisfied. Before my meal came my Mom and others called me on the phone, it was great to talk to them. It’s always a treat to talk to my family, they’re the best and I miss them like crazy.
The game wasn’t too long, luckily, just long enough to experience. We got up when the game ended, I had my backpack on backwards, on my chest in other words. I wasn’t going to let anybody jack my stuff. We made it out OK, got in the Taxi and made our way to Coleen Motel in Mukono. We had dinner there, it wasn’t too bad, I was quite impressed. I had pizza of course, the safest thing on the menu. Others had curry chicken, pasta of sorts, and burgers. I was satisfied. Before my meal came my Mom and others called me on the phone, it was great to talk to them. It’s always a treat to talk to my family, they’re the best and I miss them like crazy.
Day 35 - 2nd Simba Stove
Today ended up being a very productive day, something I like. It’s really hard when days aren’t productive. Yeah, you may love that you are sitting on the couch all day reading, computing, sleeping, etc... But you can’t feel good about what you haven’t done, it just doesn’t work like that. Especially serving in such a vocation as this where you only have a limited amount of time and you must accomplish all you can before you leave.
Today was a good day and I’m proud of what we accomplished. Amber and I made our way up to Seya to check on the stove we built 3 weeks ago tomorrow and to start a fire to see how it heated and if it was going to work. We got a fire started but it was very hard to keep going because the wood was not fully dry the the stove itself was anything but dry. It’s really hard to keep a roaring fire going when you have wet sand you are trying to push the fire and heat through; it just really doesn’t work that well. Nevertheless we had the help of Wilson who started a fire for us. We kept the fire going while we were there until we had to leave. Wilson told us that we would keep the fire going for the rest of the day to help dry it out. We really need to know how one of ours works, it would really give us some confidence as we continue to build other stoves. While we were up there Amber held the little baby, I think her name is Victoria or something similar, I can’t remember. The pour thing has malaria and it very sick all the time. She has a fever around the clock, never has a diaper of any sort, and really just isn’t too happy any of the time; how I can I blame her. But being 2 1/2 years old doesn’t make things any easier, probably worse.
Our boda boda ride out there and back was rather death defying; we seem to run in to a lot of that here. We always seem to praying for our lives at some point during the day whether it’s eating a certain meal, riding the boda boda, or even just crossing the streets.
We went to Equator school and put in the adobe mixture with all of the pipes required. We ended up not having enough clay available and added some ant hill dirt which should be a pretty good substitute. The ladies had brought the clay from SO far away, we were so grateful and amazed at their willingness. There ended up being a short supply of the adobe mixture, just as a I suspected when I saw the pile in the beginning. I came up with an idea however and to use bricks to fill in space in places that didn’t really need the adobe mixture.
Today was a good day and I’m proud of what we accomplished. Amber and I made our way up to Seya to check on the stove we built 3 weeks ago tomorrow and to start a fire to see how it heated and if it was going to work. We got a fire started but it was very hard to keep going because the wood was not fully dry the the stove itself was anything but dry. It’s really hard to keep a roaring fire going when you have wet sand you are trying to push the fire and heat through; it just really doesn’t work that well. Nevertheless we had the help of Wilson who started a fire for us. We kept the fire going while we were there until we had to leave. Wilson told us that we would keep the fire going for the rest of the day to help dry it out. We really need to know how one of ours works, it would really give us some confidence as we continue to build other stoves. While we were up there Amber held the little baby, I think her name is Victoria or something similar, I can’t remember. The pour thing has malaria and it very sick all the time. She has a fever around the clock, never has a diaper of any sort, and really just isn’t too happy any of the time; how I can I blame her. But being 2 1/2 years old doesn’t make things any easier, probably worse.
Our boda boda ride out there and back was rather death defying; we seem to run in to a lot of that here. We always seem to praying for our lives at some point during the day whether it’s eating a certain meal, riding the boda boda, or even just crossing the streets.
We went to Equator school and put in the adobe mixture with all of the pipes required. We ended up not having enough clay available and added some ant hill dirt which should be a pretty good substitute. The ladies had brought the clay from SO far away, we were so grateful and amazed at their willingness. There ended up being a short supply of the adobe mixture, just as a I suspected when I saw the pile in the beginning. I came up with an idea however and to use bricks to fill in space in places that didn’t really need the adobe mixture.
Day 34 - A Day at Home
Today was more of a relaxing day, something that I don’t mind every once in a while. Though our weekend are supposed to be our relaxing down time, it doesn’t hurt to have a less busy day once a month.
I was in the house all day, did set a foot out the door. I’m exactly proud of this, just stating the facts. I woke up around 8:15am this morning and had some breakfast. Toast with PB&J, a banana, and 3 eggs overhard. Everybody was jealous over my eggs and couldn’t believe I had prepared something so amazing; I was rather amused. I ended up sharing a bite with Jackie and Rylee, they couldn’t keep their eyes off of it. I spent lot of time on the computer doing things for HELP as well as personal things including pictures.
I told Jackie I would help her import her video and teach her how to do some simple editing. We sat down for a little over an hour and I taught her some basics, enough for her to do what she needs to accomplish her goal for making a video. She has a an awesome idea/goal of interviewing kids and then showing it somewhere. I don’t know the whole idea, but it’s going to be very cool. It’s a lot of fun to have her camera on this trip, it’s HD and pretty nice. She told me I could use it whenever so I might just have to take her up on that offer.
I uploaded my pictures two nights ago, I’m not sure if I mentioned that. I love my new pictures, they are so great. I have the one of the three boys on my desktop right now, they are so precious. I love my camera, it’s such a blessing to have. It all started with my Mom and Dad giving me my first REAL camera when I got off my mission. It was for my birthday, I was absolutely ecstatic. That opened up such a big door for me and I have improved immensely over the years. As of right now I have 795 pictures taken, that’s about 23 per day, not bad. I’m pretty excited to have so many pictures already, I hope to leave with AT LEAST 2000, but I like more like 3000. That’s not too many for a place you may never visit again.
I got a little sick today, my intestines have been whacked out for about a week now. I’m pretty sure it’s the doxycycline wiping out the probiotics in my large intestine. Luckily, I figured this would happen before I came and came prepared. We bought some probiotic supplements that I should have been taking everyday up to this point while I’ve been on doxy. I hope it will solve the problem, I need it to, it must.
Well, I feel well rested, I’m ready to kick butt tomorrow and the coming weeks. We are going back to Equator Primary School tomorrow at 3pm to fill in the foundation we made for the Simba Stove, we are pretty excited. On Friday we will return to True Light Primary School and fill in that foundation. These stoves are going to benefit these people so much!! I’m so excited to be able to help them and in some way improve their lives.
I was in the house all day, did set a foot out the door. I’m exactly proud of this, just stating the facts. I woke up around 8:15am this morning and had some breakfast. Toast with PB&J, a banana, and 3 eggs overhard. Everybody was jealous over my eggs and couldn’t believe I had prepared something so amazing; I was rather amused. I ended up sharing a bite with Jackie and Rylee, they couldn’t keep their eyes off of it. I spent lot of time on the computer doing things for HELP as well as personal things including pictures.
I told Jackie I would help her import her video and teach her how to do some simple editing. We sat down for a little over an hour and I taught her some basics, enough for her to do what she needs to accomplish her goal for making a video. She has a an awesome idea/goal of interviewing kids and then showing it somewhere. I don’t know the whole idea, but it’s going to be very cool. It’s a lot of fun to have her camera on this trip, it’s HD and pretty nice. She told me I could use it whenever so I might just have to take her up on that offer.
I uploaded my pictures two nights ago, I’m not sure if I mentioned that. I love my new pictures, they are so great. I have the one of the three boys on my desktop right now, they are so precious. I love my camera, it’s such a blessing to have. It all started with my Mom and Dad giving me my first REAL camera when I got off my mission. It was for my birthday, I was absolutely ecstatic. That opened up such a big door for me and I have improved immensely over the years. As of right now I have 795 pictures taken, that’s about 23 per day, not bad. I’m pretty excited to have so many pictures already, I hope to leave with AT LEAST 2000, but I like more like 3000. That’s not too many for a place you may never visit again.
I got a little sick today, my intestines have been whacked out for about a week now. I’m pretty sure it’s the doxycycline wiping out the probiotics in my large intestine. Luckily, I figured this would happen before I came and came prepared. We bought some probiotic supplements that I should have been taking everyday up to this point while I’ve been on doxy. I hope it will solve the problem, I need it to, it must.
Well, I feel well rested, I’m ready to kick butt tomorrow and the coming weeks. We are going back to Equator Primary School tomorrow at 3pm to fill in the foundation we made for the Simba Stove, we are pretty excited. On Friday we will return to True Light Primary School and fill in that foundation. These stoves are going to benefit these people so much!! I’m so excited to be able to help them and in some way improve their lives.
Day 33 - Days Go By
I just can’t get over how fast the time is going by, really. The 2nd wave volunteers will be here in 2 weeks and I can’t even believe it. Days are starting to move faster as we get more and more busy. As of now there are only 51 days left, I’ve already spent 33.
I’m so happy that we are finally beginning to work in the clinics and that we have Simba Stove projects going. We got started on the Simba Stove at True Light secondary school today. Amber, Heidi, and I went and successfully built a foundation for the stove. We decided to do two big holes instead of the generic one big hole and 2 small ones because of the amount of food they will be cooking. We kinda of came up with our own design to accommodate the situation and we feel like it’s going to work well. We made the stove with two fire sources because we wanted to make absolute sure that the stove would provide the help that it’s designed two. Although our goal is to be able to use 1 fire source, we are better safe than sorry, especially when they are providing the materials. Part of our problem is that we have never been able to make and light up a stove. We are still waiting for the one at Seya to dry enough to start a fire, but we think we are just going to go up on Thursday wether it’s ready or not because we NEED to know if it works or not. It’s been almost 3 weeks since we built the stove, it should be dang close. I was very satisfied with the design and our workmanship of the foundation, it was our first time without having Dan there who happens to be very skilled in building and woodworking. It’s really exciting to be really making stoves, finally doing the things that we came here to do. I beginning to feel accomplishment already.
We also visited the Mehta Hospital today and took a tour. Annette, who I think is the Senior Nurse, forgot to make the list that we requested be made last week. She told us that she would have it done tomorrow. As soon as we can get the list the sooner we can get people working there. The hospital itself was the same song second verse of Kawolo Hospital. As far as medical things are concerned everything is super scary over here. It’s not easy to walk into the hospitals, let alone imagine having some sort of operation that could potentially save your life but be the most unpleasant experience of one’s life. The conditions are absolutely horrible.
When Jackie and I were walking through Jinja yesterday we talked about how spoiled we are to have what we have. Spoiled doesn’t even begin to describe what we are and what we have. It blows my mind each day as I walk through the towns how different things are. I’m not sure I’ll ever totally get over that fact, it’s just too much different to ever forget. We are so blessed to have what we have, nobody even realized unless they’ve seen what I’ve seen and/or worse.
Need to use the restroom? Yeah, don’t plan on a public restroom or even latrine unless you can find a place and pay them some amount of shillings. Porcelain? Get real. Need some medical attention? Don’t plan on the place being sterile or full of amazing doctors. Need a garbage can for that water bottle? You’re walking on it. Entertainment? Leave Lugazi. Clean drinking water? Boil it or buy it. Want running water? Don’t bet on it. Warm shower? Negative. Electricity? Neither. Washer and dryer? Dream on. Security? Get an armed guard. Want to go to the grocery store and pick up some food? Good luck with that, whatever you find. These are just a few things to think about when it comes to what we have and take for granted. People just have no idea! I’m going to croak from now on when I hear people complain about what they don’t have or complain about anything when they have everything. If people could spend the time that I’ve spent here in Lugazi, Uganda, they’d realize what they have and what these people are missing.
I had the opportunity to upload a bunch of pictures, 83 to be exact. I also updating my blog with my most recent entries. I hope people are enjoying my run-downs, they are pretty crazy. I hope to continue to get amazing pictures. I felt like the ones I just loaded were some of the best so far. The pictures of the kids are my favorite, they are so cute and the look in their eyes tells so much about them. I downed 2 Pepsis today and it felt so good. I think I’m addicted while I’m here. The problem is that it’s the closest thing to home food that I can get my hands on. Also it’s like a big treat at the end of the day. Well, that’s all for tonight. On my way to bed, but maybe I’ll get some reading in before then. Until tomorrow.
I’m so happy that we are finally beginning to work in the clinics and that we have Simba Stove projects going. We got started on the Simba Stove at True Light secondary school today. Amber, Heidi, and I went and successfully built a foundation for the stove. We decided to do two big holes instead of the generic one big hole and 2 small ones because of the amount of food they will be cooking. We kinda of came up with our own design to accommodate the situation and we feel like it’s going to work well. We made the stove with two fire sources because we wanted to make absolute sure that the stove would provide the help that it’s designed two. Although our goal is to be able to use 1 fire source, we are better safe than sorry, especially when they are providing the materials. Part of our problem is that we have never been able to make and light up a stove. We are still waiting for the one at Seya to dry enough to start a fire, but we think we are just going to go up on Thursday wether it’s ready or not because we NEED to know if it works or not. It’s been almost 3 weeks since we built the stove, it should be dang close. I was very satisfied with the design and our workmanship of the foundation, it was our first time without having Dan there who happens to be very skilled in building and woodworking. It’s really exciting to be really making stoves, finally doing the things that we came here to do. I beginning to feel accomplishment already.
We also visited the Mehta Hospital today and took a tour. Annette, who I think is the Senior Nurse, forgot to make the list that we requested be made last week. She told us that she would have it done tomorrow. As soon as we can get the list the sooner we can get people working there. The hospital itself was the same song second verse of Kawolo Hospital. As far as medical things are concerned everything is super scary over here. It’s not easy to walk into the hospitals, let alone imagine having some sort of operation that could potentially save your life but be the most unpleasant experience of one’s life. The conditions are absolutely horrible.
When Jackie and I were walking through Jinja yesterday we talked about how spoiled we are to have what we have. Spoiled doesn’t even begin to describe what we are and what we have. It blows my mind each day as I walk through the towns how different things are. I’m not sure I’ll ever totally get over that fact, it’s just too much different to ever forget. We are so blessed to have what we have, nobody even realized unless they’ve seen what I’ve seen and/or worse.
Need to use the restroom? Yeah, don’t plan on a public restroom or even latrine unless you can find a place and pay them some amount of shillings. Porcelain? Get real. Need some medical attention? Don’t plan on the place being sterile or full of amazing doctors. Need a garbage can for that water bottle? You’re walking on it. Entertainment? Leave Lugazi. Clean drinking water? Boil it or buy it. Want running water? Don’t bet on it. Warm shower? Negative. Electricity? Neither. Washer and dryer? Dream on. Security? Get an armed guard. Want to go to the grocery store and pick up some food? Good luck with that, whatever you find. These are just a few things to think about when it comes to what we have and take for granted. People just have no idea! I’m going to croak from now on when I hear people complain about what they don’t have or complain about anything when they have everything. If people could spend the time that I’ve spent here in Lugazi, Uganda, they’d realize what they have and what these people are missing.
I had the opportunity to upload a bunch of pictures, 83 to be exact. I also updating my blog with my most recent entries. I hope people are enjoying my run-downs, they are pretty crazy. I hope to continue to get amazing pictures. I felt like the ones I just loaded were some of the best so far. The pictures of the kids are my favorite, they are so cute and the look in their eyes tells so much about them. I downed 2 Pepsis today and it felt so good. I think I’m addicted while I’m here. The problem is that it’s the closest thing to home food that I can get my hands on. Also it’s like a big treat at the end of the day. Well, that’s all for tonight. On my way to bed, but maybe I’ll get some reading in before then. Until tomorrow.
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