Malaria Day

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Almost everyone here is taking an antimalarial that they have to take once a week. Thursday is my day. We jokingly say that today is Malaria Day when we have to take the pill just to remind ourselves and others. Then we try to put good images in our heads just incase we have weird dreams (one of the side effects of the pills). I think I had one strange one but that was when I was back in North America. So far I've been fine in Africa though.

Today I had to finish up planning my session. I also showed Susie (my teammate on the project) so that she would know what was going on with the session. It was her first time going and my second time. We had planned to meet with everyone at 4pm (on hour before the session). Eventually we would have a find our way to MUK. This was my first time going all the way to the other side of town without someone who had previously been there. I hoped that by now I could find my way around. We eventually got to the other university campus after 40 mins in a collective Taxi.

We walked up the hill to the university. It's a large campus and I had already forgotten how to get to the building. It was my first day on my own and since I had planned the session I did not want to be late. I called Mark who is supposed to be the project leader. He told me the new building on the 4th floor but he would be late. I didn't quite remember what the other people in the project looked like but luckily I had their numbers. I figured people would be late though. I waited outside of the computer and technology building and around 4:15 I started calling people. I called May another one of the Ugandan group leaders to see where she was. She told me that she wasn't coming to the university today but that I should call Roy. I then called Roy who was on his way. I couldn't get ahold of Eric. Everything ran so smoothly my first time that I didn't know what to tell Susie since it was her first time. It was around 4:40pm, no one else had arrived and the session was supposed to start at 5pm so I was getting a bit nervous. Around 4:45pm Roy came into the lab and told me that May had called him and told him that the session was cancelled. I was a bit upset that she hadn't called me or told me since I talked to her about 30 mins earlier. They cancelled the session because the parents were complaining that the students would get home too late. May then said that there would be a possible session Friday in the morning around 11 or in the evening. I was still frustrated because I wanted to know whether or not I would have to work in the morning since a session at 11 means that we meet at 10am and I have to leave my place around 9am and wake up at 8:30am. I was not in the mood to wake up at 8:30am and be told at 9:30am that the session isn't happening.

Since we had some spare time we went to Susie's old hostel to get some of her things. She was moving into the one I was staying in but hadn't quite moved everything. Since her old place was at MUK we decided now would be a good time to gather some of her things. She packed up a suitcase and I was wondering how we were going to fit it in a collective taxi. The taxi's are always packed and it was too big to hold while riding on the back of a boda boda (motorcycle). As I carried the bag for her up the dirt road a car came up to us and asked if we needed a ride. There was a 3rd option that I didn't know about, a private taxi. I told Susie it was up to her if she wanted to go. Personally I didn't want to get in because in South America you never get into unlicensed cabs because you're sure to get mugged. We agreed on a price of 13,000 shillings and got in. He first stopped at the gas station to fill up the tank a bit. I guess it's customary to pay for gas. It was 5,000 shillings but that just meant that we would then owe him 8,000 shillings at the end of the trip. Halfway through the drive he stopped to pick something up at a store. I was very confused as to what was going on and did not feel comfortable with it. He left the key in the car and ran into one of the shops. He was gone for about 5-10 mins and during that time I was extremely nervous wondering what was going on and what was going to happen. Susie was a bit more complacent. Eventually he came back which made me extremely happy but I was still not sure if he was going to take us to our place. We went down some roads I had never seen before but in the end we arrived at our destination. Susie was comfortable because she had taken these types of taxis before. Now I'll know in the future but unmarked cabs still make me nervous.

We got back to the hostel and then started to get ready to go out. Thursday night is the night that all of the people from AIESEC go out. We went out to a bar called Mateo's. It was nice to talk to the people working in other parts of the city and afterwards we all went out to a club. I was nervous about staying out late though because as far as I was concerned I still had to wake up early for a session.

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