Letting Go...

After living in Uganda for almost a year, you slowly start letting things go, it’s mostly because you would drive yourself crazy if you didn’t, but sometimes it’s because you just figure you’re in Africa, and you shouldn’t be held to the same standards as the rest of the continents.

What are these things that I’ve had to let go you ask?
For your convenience I’ve divided them into three main categories: bugs, myself, and other crap, of course I’ve had to let go of a lot of other things (like how things NEVER go according to plan), but I’m trying to keep things (relatively) brief.

Bugs:

In America I was pretty squeamish when it came to bugs. Which now, looking back is a bit amusing, because bugs in America are so infrequent, and often even cute (ex. Ladybugs). Anyways, when I used to come across a bug inside my house I would usually call my sister Emily to come and dispose of it for me. Which she would, and then look at me in disgust because I couldn't dispose of said bug myself.

My fear of bugs was something I had to let go very quickly, as Uganda seems to be the source and headquarter for most of the world’s insect population. Bugs invade my life so often, it would be impractical to do anything but ignore, squish, or pick them out of my food and throw them away.

I’ve learned that inevitably bugs will get into your food (ex. My friend Lauren ate a maggot on Tuesday while enjoying a mango), but then the question has now become: how much of my food have they invaded? Can a cut out the maggoty bit from this cucumber? Of course! I can just scoop around the white ants that always seem to be in the kimbo (shortening)? Why would you do anything else? No need to throw the entire pea pod away because of that worm, just pick around it, right? Right! I’m pretty sure those mosquito larva will die when you boil the water. They definitely will! I’ve let go of my aversion to dealing with bugs, and realize that while they are disgusting, vile little creatures, they can be easily ignored, or swiftly put to death.

Myself:

I by no means think that I have entirely let myself go, but I have to a certain extent.

I can still remember a time when I dressed nicely and wasn’t always a little bit dirty. That was before moths, hand washing, dirt, and sharp snagging objects took vengeance upon my clothes. I also constantly seem to have an assortment of bites, bruises, and scrapes all over me, enough that a friend’s young son was concerned enough to ask if he could put salve on my “wounds”.  Also, because of the sharp decrease of meat and dairy in my life, all of these “wounds” are scarring up very nicely, which, as you can imagine, is very attractive. I won’t even disgust you with the mangled, filthy state of my feet, I’ll just say that walking everywhere on dirt roads has never suited them less.

However, even though I don’t think I  (or anyone I know here) am living as our most polished selves, I really don’t feel like it matters that much. I like my scar on my arm I got in Mombasa, and the dress that is patched ‘cause it snagged when I was playing with Josiah, I don’t love my disgusting feet, but it’s part of life in Kaihura, and I wouldn’t want to be any other place.

Other crap:

So yeah, I’ve just had to deal with a lot more actual crap than I ever imagined. Aside for the latrine-style toilets, there is just poo everywhere. For months I thought mice were coming into my room, pooping, and disturbing nothing else, nope, that was lizard poo. The sheer amount that geckos must take a dump is baffling! I mean, they have such tiny little bodies, and it’s not as if there are gecko raves going on in my room every night, just the occasional lizard running across the wall, yet every single morning I will have to sweep my room free of little lizard turds.
Cow poop, chicken poop, lizard poop, goat poop, dog poop, people poop, it’s just all over the place. Once, a man whose nationality will remain anonymous (cough, polish, cough) took a dump in the water source for the whole village of Kaihura! What kind of person does that?!?! Later that same week my friend Jodie (not surprisingly) got very ill with giardia, which you get from coming into contact with feces, probably from her shower water (she wanted you to know that she doesn’t drink poop water). Yesterday I am positive Jodie and I walked through sewage water that some guy was scooping out of a drain onto the street. I'm not sure I ever had an aversion to poo, you don't come into contact with it too much in America, but  I'm definitely beyond caring about a little poo.

I think one of the most important lessons Uganda has taught me is to let things go, or more importantly, a lot of things probably aren’t as important as you think they are. It’s easy to get caught up in the small, unimportant details of life and ignore the things that really do matter. Uganda has done a good job of putting things in perspective.

The Big Two Five

I was a little anxious about this birthday, mostly because I'm now a quarter of a century, but also because this was the first birthday that I've ever spent out of the United States.

My little bit of anxiety turned out to be for nothing, this year so many people went out of their way to make my birthday special, and it turned out to be a truly great day.

On Sunday my friend Destiny and her family threw me a very delicious pumpkin themed birthday meal, and surprised me with video messages from my family and friends. 

On Tuesday I awoke to a decorated room (by Jodie the night before), and was whisked off to a crater lake with Jodie, Lauren, Bella, Steph, and Maeve (a new friend). 

We spent a wonderfully relaxing day at the lake, and then headed into town to meet some more friends for some indian food.

Dinner took hours, and was incredibly spicy, but it's not Uganda without a something going at least a little bit wrong. Nevertheless, dinner was a great time to catch up with friends. 

So yeah, birthday well spent. Last year I had absolutely no idea I would be spending my 25th in Uganda, but I am so incredibly thankful that I was able to celebrate here.

Remember That Time...

When you dressed up in pink and took a photo with a giant black hand?

 I came across this photo of me and Steph from my friend Prossy's wedding back in December. This was one of the best, most tacky days of my life. I've never worn more pink or body glitter, or danced as much in front of hundreds of people, but it was such a great day!

I have so many amazing memories of my year in Uganda, and I know when I get back to America I will wish for days full of dancing and enormous amounts of pink.

Adventures in Public Transportation!

My friend Jodie was literally attacked by a baboon a few days ago in a taxi, and while I've never had anything that dramatic happen to me, I thought it might be nice for you all to get a little glimpse at what riding in a Ugandan taxi is like.

A lil background: There are three types of car/bus/van vehicles you can choose from to get around in in Uganda. Busses and taxi vans are used for long trips, and taxi cars are used for shorter trips. In cars as many people as possible will be shoved in (I'm talking like double to seat amount), but for longer trips you usually have a seat to yourself.

Oh the things you will see...

Chickens: There are chickens everywhere! Sadly this also mean that chickens travel in taxis and buses too. On the floor, on the roof, on a lap, they are really just everywhere.

Vomit: I don't know why people vomit in taxis and buses so often, but they do. Usually they are super polite about it and throw up into whatever container they have with them: purse, briefcase, shopping bag etc.

Goats: Not as common as chickens, but they are still there every once in a while.

Street vendors: When taking a long trip you will inevitably stop somewhere, and once you stop the street food vendors will descend upon your vehicle like flies. Selling anything from street meat to yogurt in a bag these people will literally shove food in your face trying to get you to buy it. They might also ask to buy your ipod.

Boobs: Women breastfeed on taxis and buses a lot. They never cover up, and half of the time things are just left hangin out.

Speed bumps: Don't know why, but Uganda decided to put speed bumps on all of their major highways. On the highways people! Can you imagine going down the interstate and all of the sudden there are patches of speed bumps? Yeah, well it's not fun.

Waits: You will wait until your vehicle fills with people, may it be ten minutes, or two hours, a Ugandan taxi will not leave unless it is completely full.

All in all it is probably the least comfortable way to travel. Public transportation in Uganda does have one huge upside though, it is SUPER cheap, ergo the reason myself and almost everyone I know takes it, you can suffer through a whole lot if you only have to pay $9.60 to take a 200 mile trip.

Jinja

This past weekend some friends and I piled into taxi vans and set off for Jinja. Jinja is only 200 miles away, but because this is Uganda our journey took from 8:45 in the morning until 5:30 in the evening. We made it though, with shared headphones, and an unfortunate chicken hanging off the roof of the taxi, and the journey was well worth it. 

Did you know that the source of the Nile is in Uganda? In Jinja to be precise. So our long weekend was spent overlooking the Nile, which would have been beautiful if the Nile had just been a regular river, but because it's the Nile it was just infinitely cooler.

We basically spent the weekend laying around by the pool or in the pool, eating, reading, and exploring a little bit of Jinja. It was the perfect little relaxing getaway. 

This poor chicken kept coming loose from the top of our taxi, and just dangling from the roof carrier. It was pitiful, also something I'm pretty sure only happens in places like Uganda. 

There were so many of these little monkeys running around the camp where we stayed. They are harmless, and because no one seems to know their actual name most people just call them "Blue Ball Monkeys", because well...they have blue balls. 

I could not get over how beautiful sunset over the river was. What a beautiful world God made for us!

Kaihura

As unexceptional and probably trashy as this little village might look to an outsider, it's been a pretty great place to live for the past 11 months. 

A Bit of Randomness

Hey oh! Random update about what's going on here.

Just made some delicious biscuits and gravy for the army of people hanging out here in Kaihura. There are 7 other British volunteers around this week, which has been awesome, and I'm learning to cook for large groups.

By this time next week I will have seen the Nile! I'm going for a weekend in Jinja, where the source of the Nile is located. I'm pretty excited to have some downtime, and swim with the crocs:)

I'm reading through Matthew and I am in love with the sermon on the mount.

So yeah, that feels like about it...tomorrow is Ugandan Labor Day, so I'm planning on celebrating with with Oreo pudding!