Day 39 - Valentine's Day

“Jessica, have you ever been tested for HIV?”

I probably had the most awkward conversation of my life today.  Aleda & I were working with Compassion at our practicum site when this pastor asked if they could screen us for HIV.  “HIV does not discriminate between black & white ladies!”  Um, basically he assumed that we were at risk because why wouldn’t we be sleeping around?  It was so awkward.  I’m really glad that Aleda was there with me.  Culturally, there is a huge difference in this area… Ugandans get the idea that all American women are easy from the media & they really don’t seem to view cheating or other sexual immorality as wrong.  At least they’re not condemned like they would be in the states.  I think it’s safe to say that most men & women cheat here, especially men. Ehhhhhhhhh.

When we returned to campus we found the interns coming to deliver us cupcakes & sodas!  Seriously guys!  It was so great, like SO great.  We have soda often enough, but we hardly ever get sweets… I just couldn’t help but thinking that the simple things have become so beautiful.  The little things that people do & say mean that much more when they’re so sparse.  Oh the staff is so good to us.  Aleda & I took this opportunity to share our HIV positive/negative brochures with everybody.  The least we could do for the man is spread the word.

So I’m kind of sick today.  Yesterday my throat was so sore… & last night I woke up with a stuffy nose & such.  Blah.  Kelsea says that she has some awesome Vitamin C pills though, so hopefully that’ll help.

Love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love YOU.

<3

Day 36 - Home Sweet Home

Tonight Maama looked over at me & said,

“Sister Jess, escort me to the road.”

So we walked in the dark down to the road & across the street to the little home-owned grocery store.  My Maama told me that she had meant to go to the store earlier but she just didn’t have the time.  So there we were, standing in this little candle-lit store [the power was out].  Mamma asks for two cokes & then tells me to pick out my favorite snack!  I said, “What should I pick?”  & she told me to get whatever I wanted.  Then she bought the girls& I lollipops.  It was so wonderful.  It was definitely something my wonderful momma back home would do.

Over our yummy snacks Maama & I bonded a little bit more while she told me all of the horrible things that I’ll have to eat in the village this coming week. 

Maama:

“They cut the heads off of their chickens & then eat the rest! They even leave the feet on! When I learned that I told them that I don’t take chicken, but you know what they did??  They punished me by making me eat a whole fish the size of your plate!  The eyeball & gills & everything!”

I go into the village this FRIDAY, the 17^th.  Ay, ay.  I heard from other people that it’s the best part of the whole experience actually.  Apparently we might be in for a good deal of physical labor (PLEASE!).  This girl is seriously into fitness these days, so I’m all about the labor.  But really, when I come home I’m working on my 6-pack :)

Day 35 - The Tooth Fairy

Maama:

“In Uganda we have a trick for getting the children to pull out their loose teeth.  When they lose their first tooth we tell them to put the tooth where the rats run around on the ground.  Rats are dirty & they are said to have a lot of money.  After the child puts the tooth on the ground we watch to see where they have put it, or we ask, “Did you put the tooth in the right place?”  When they are not around we take the tooth & leave some money in its place.  The next time the child checks for the tooth they will find the money instead.  Instead of complaining about the pain of loose teeth in the future they’ll simply pull them right out on their own because they want the rats’ money!”

Me:

“Oh wow.  Yeah, we have something like that too… we call it the tooth fairy.  It’s um, a little person that flies around with wings in the middle of the night collecting teeth & leaving money under the pillow.”

Maama:

“Ah! Really?!”

[You don’t realize how ludicrous the tooth fairy sounds until you to try to explain it to someone who’s never heard of the fat little man who flies into our children’s bedrooms at night…]

Day 34 - Thursday

“It was a day just like any other.”

I don’t know what to blog about these days! School is getting pretty hectic, but nobody wants to read an African blog to hear about schoolwork.  So Africa… the group here is planning a weekend Safari sometime soon.  I don’t think I’m going to go though.  It’s a few hundred dollars & I don’t know if it would be really worth it.  I also wouldn’t want to be away from my family and job for that long.  Time is flying by… it seems like almost every weekend we have some trip or event, & that makes the weeks pass like nothing.  This weekend I’ll be working at the Child Development Center. 

On the 17^th our whole group will be going on our rural homestay trip… I think the whole thing is about 10 days long.  It’s like our spring break, except we’ll be living in REALLY rural areas & working really hard.  Our families probably won’t speak any English, there probably won’t be any clean water, and there definitely won’t be electricity.  I’ve heard that the food will be bad too, but I hope not!  Mama has been teaching me even more Luganda now that our rural trip is coming up… she doesn’t want me to be uncomfortable & not know how to ask things like, “Can I have water?” “Where is the latrine?” & “May I sleep?”

I’m glad to be speaking more Luganda at home because I recently found out that I have a 30-minute ORAL exam on Wednesday.  Goodness gracious, they think I’m that fluent!

Today I did a pretty good job though, if I do say so myself.  This older woman came around our house & sat down on the ledge outside the backdoor, so I greeted her in Luganda.  By that I mean I got down on my knees, offered her my hand & said, “Olyotya nnyabo?” Other things were said, but I think I really surprised her & I didn’t mess it up at all.  I was so proud of myself that I told Mama when she came home.

Tonight my sister Patience was chewing on the inner part of a pen (the ink part) before dinner.  Kids put the craziest things in their mouths here & its totally okay… lead pencils, knives, rocks... Anyway, I told Patience that the ink pen had turned her teeth all blue.  She said she didn’t believe me, but I think I had her going for a while.  Right after I was teasing her the thing exploded in her hand (and mine) & we had to take a good 5 minutes scrubing the ink off.  I learned from Mama that it’s not good to wash your hands in the same water as someone else here…  she said that if a person has “problems” and they wash their hands all of the problems go into the water.  If someone else washes their hands in the same water it’s as though they’re taking up the “problems” of the other person.  Interesting.

It’s impossible to pull a late night of homework here.  First of all, I don’t have my usual dirty chai to keep me awake.  Second, I’m so tired all the time! I don’t know if it’s the heat or what, but all of the Mzungus are always tired.  So I’m going to go to bed & I'll post this in the morning.  Goodnight everybody.  I hope home is peaceful.  Sula Bulungi.

Day 31 - Rafting & Bungee Weekend

This weekend was awesome.

Around 30 of our USP students took a bus down to the source of the Nile in Jinja, Uganda for an incredible white water rafting and bungee jumping experience.  I didn’t go bungee jumping, but I was allowed to take pictures from the top of the jumping platform, which was just as good (for me anyways!).  Rafting was incredible.  Some parts were awful- the moments when we were thrown from the raft & trapped under high-grade rapids, and some parts were exhilarating- conquering the final grade 4 rapid after the boat was completely vertical.  Somehow, each time I fell out I ended up close to my friend Aleda floating along the river.  Somehow floating doesn’t describe it… it was more like:

“Paddle. Paddle hard. GET DOWN! This water is…! Underwater. Dark. Need air. AIR. Air... Break the surface. Air. Where’s the boat? We’re still in the rapids. Underwater. Break the surface. ALEDA. Reach out with my paddle.  There’s SO MUCH WATER.”

And then the rescue Kayak came over to recover us.  I think every boat flipped on that turn.  It was the outer rim of a grade 6 rapid… It was pretty awful in the moment, but we didn’t flip the boat again after that.  And I was able to order pizza at the bar back at the resort! So goood.

Our team of USP is wonderful.  We’re forming great relationships, & for the most part everyone is getting along.  This weekend was a good bonding experience for those of us that went.  A couple of people are planning a Safari trip sometime in the next couple of weeks, but I’m not sure that I’m going to go.  It would be good to go for the community aspect, but I don’t know if looking at animals is worth 3 to 4 hundred dollars.  I’ll keep you posted.

I’ll try & blog more often as well, it’s just been a busy week.

Thank you to everyone who is sending me letters! They’re super encouraging & really fun to receive.  I’ve had 4 so far (more than anyone else? J )! I love you all.