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Published: June 13th 2011
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I have now been in Iganga for a little over a week and I think I am finally starting to realize how much different and harder everything is here. Almost everything I do in America can not be done here. When I go to work I have to wait for the boda boda (the motorcycle driver) to pick me up and I wait for him to drive me home. I cannot just get in my air conditioned car and drive myself. Speaking of air conditioning....there is none. So when you are hot you cannot just go into a building or the house and cool off with some nice cool ac. That has definitely taken some getting used to. The power at the house goes off at least once every other day and there is no telling when it will come back on. If it is at night you would not believe how dark it gets. I'm not sure I have ever been anywhere where it gets that dark. Thank god for mothers who insist you get a flashlight before you leave for a third world country!! Cooking takes much longer when you do not have a stove or over in which you can just turn a switch and have it heat up electrically. It takes time for the coals to heat up and still the cooking is longer because it does not get as hot as an oven can. And now for what is one of the hardest tasks....laundry. I never knew how much I took for granted a washer and dryer! Washing each individual piece of clothing by hand...not the easiest thing in the world. It is hard and it takes a long time!
The orphanage that I am working at is lacking in all the basic necessities that an American would assume everyone has. So many of the kids there do not even have shoes to wear. They also only have one or two outfits to wear and those who live there have a tiny room the size of my bedroom where around 25 kids sleep. In class many of them do not have more than a plastic bag to carry there notebooks in and none of the kids have their own text book to study. The other day I saw the kids mowing the lawn...at least Uganda's version of mowing the lawn. They have what looks like a machete (though not as sharp) that is bent at a 90 degree angle at the end and they swing it back and forth across the grass. It is very hard work and takes a long time. They call it slashing. Even with everything they lack, the kids there seem to be for the most part unaware that they have so little. They do not know what they could have if they lived in a developed country. I guess in a way that is good.
Overall things are going pretty well here. I have another intern who is living with me and we get along really well and my host family is really cool. The kids are hilarious and they are so cute! Hope all is well with everyone back home!
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