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Published: August 13th 2006
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Ssebagala
Ssebagala uses his spare time to climb a pole and get on top of the water tank..."sister, take a picture." Week One:
My first week in Uganda was uneventful. I basically just used it to get over my illness and catch up on my lazy time which I had missed in Arusha.
First Weekend:
Louisa showed up on Thursday and quickly introduced me to the foreign aid working community. Kampala, and Uganda as a whole has a huge population of foreigners living here and working for NGOs and other international organizations. Friday night, after meeting two of the volunteers that I would be working with (well just one actually, named Judith), we headed out to teh local Irish Pub to drink with the platoon of marines and 'regulars.' IT was interesting to hear these guys complain about teh various other soldiers in their unit or other units. However, because of all the soldiers' the ratio of teh night was probably 50 to 1 (guys to girls). I felt bad for Louisa and the other girls that I went their with because needless to say they were never left alone. The night came to a horrible end when we realized we had stumbled into what I thought was a whore house (why else would so many girls hit on
Ssebagala and I
Because they have only had sister volunteers up until this point, some still call me sister... me?), and decided to go home some time around 6:30am. Saturday we headed to Jinja where Judith adn I were suppose to go rafting. We did not. The only highlight was a drunken English man falling from the ceiling (after trying to climb it) and snapping his wrist. The sound was awful, but luckily there were a bunch of those foreigners around who could set it back in place.
Week Two:
After my punishing weekend (all self-inflicted), I headed out to the 'village' on Monday to start my job at the orphanage. My first week has pretty much been used to get to know the kids of the orphanage, get to know how things work, find out how they are supposed to work, getting to know the uncles (who are in some ways more childish than the kids), and some of the locals between the orphanage and the school where I teach english and P.E. I really love the place so far, and as of right now I think I will be staying until mid to late october. The kids are simply amazing...and I have to say props out to all the parents out there....I have no idea
The last shot...
taken moments before we hit the g-spot and the other rapids of the Nile... how you do it, or how you did it. My biggest problem right now is the medical side. We are the doctors of the place, and quite frankly I have no idea what I am doing. There is a lovely 100 page manual of medical crap I can look through but other than that it is just guessing. Unfortunately I think I take after my dad because most of the time I just want to say suck it up (especially cause the kids like medicine because it is one of the only 'treats' they ever get). The problem with this mentality is that we are in Africa and even a small fever or stomach ache can actually be something fatal like malaria, or a parasite, or worms, or a million other things. It also does not help that the kids do not get enough nutritional food. Anyway, this is the setup:
The volunteers all pay $100 for food (rice, and cabbage) and accommodation (actually nicer than a lot of places I have stayed in in Africa. Thanks to Mozambique for that!) and then can use $250 for whatever they want (This is awesome compared to what some of the
The aftermath
6 hours nad 30kms later we (Frankie) emerge alive...don't worry Judith (girl in the center of last pic) is alive too. moreons out there have been paying....who pays $6000 for one week of volunteering, and where the hell does that money go?!?!?!?!). It seems like just in the last few months that mosquito nets have been put up, the kids have gotten shoes, toothbrushes, and concrete floors in the boys room (just the kitchen adn dining area need concrete floors now instead of dirt). Kids are also now taking vitamins and drinking sweety water. We have to put some syrup in the bolied water for the kids to drink it because without the syrup it tastes like crap. Future projects include getting the kids to eat vegetables (to supplement their maiz and beans) three times a week, an after school snack (due to our 'cook' we sometimes get dinner very, very late), get immunizations and medical check-ups for everyone, get a concrete floor in the kitchen and dining room, get netting on all the windows, adn generally just get the kids to be healthier. One of my contributions will be a water purifying system so that we don't have to rely on Jaja (the cook) to boil water. I will also look into making the rain water collection system better.
Ah rye....
good job, good rafting, good booze, good people...life is pretty good right now...oh yes, I now own a bright orange pair of sweat pants...so comfy. Highlights so far include flying a kite and playing duck-duck goose (or goosey as the kids pronounce it). Right now I love it and will probably be staying until B$G Thailand.
Second Weekend:
If things could not get any better, on top of finding an awesome volunteering gig, I also went out to Jinja and hit the g-spot on the nile. It was incredible: bodies flying everywhere, difficulty getting air, and just general mayham.
To top it off I received a bottle of limited edition crown royal from a fellow canuck.
It will be difficult for things to get any better at this point.
By the way I have a cell phone now if people want to call me or text me: 256 (uganda country code) 712052416.
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