Goodbye Africa :(

I'm leaving my second home on wednesday and its going to be even harder than i thought! I am so sad to leave Africa and all of my amazing friends. Its been an incredible experience that has changed my life so much! Wow. I don't have a lot of time, so i'm just going to end by saying that I'll never forget my friends here. I need Africa a lot more than Africa needs me. Goodbye!
Njagela Uganda!!
-Nampijja

Terrorist attacks and lock down

It has been a very sad and scary week since i last blogged. Maybe some of you are not aware, but Kampala, Uganda was bombed sunday night. 74 people were killed, including one American. It was so sad. I copied some of an article below about it online so i didn't have to explain the news part of it.

Monday we spent under lock down at the house. They expected more bombs to go off, and it was a pretty scary situation since foreigners had been targeted watching the world cup at a restaurant. we didn't know if we were going to get flown out a week early, or if the us embassy was going to do anything. i've never felt so trapped and vulnerable, wow. before i go on, know that everything is okay here. we are out working again and just being very cautious. it makes me so sad to think about all the conflict and hate that targets innocent people. before i came to africa, i would have read about the uganda bombings as a headline on the internet and just thought it was really sad and forgotten about it in an hour or two. but now, the conflict directly affects my friends. i know the people here, and i love them. it makes my heart ache to think that if things got worse i would be taken care of and able to leave the country and return to safety, but my ugandan friends would be the ones to suffer. and it is all because there is corruption and so much hate. its just really sad.

the good news is that we are safe and still able to work now. we started our big EYE CAMP on tuesday and it has had incredible success. on Tuesday we did 34 surgeries and gave out 100 pairs of glasses. wednesday we gave out another 100 pairs of glasses and did 25 cataract surgeries. On wednesday i spent all day out in Naggalama helping and even got to go into the surgery room and watch them remove the cataracts! it was soo cool but really strange to see at the same time! but i figured it would be neat to see what my dad does every week in the hospital so i went for it. kim, the girl i went in with, actually ended up fainting into my arms haha. she was fine, it was just kind of funny. on wednesday though at the eye camp i was able to do vision screening! so i'd have them read the letter chart that you do at the eye doctors office, and then i'd record their prescription on a piece of paper and send them on their way. it was a really good experience and i'm glad we have every day until monday to keep doing it! we've already screened over 600 people, its great!

well, its my last week here and i'm going to make sure i finish working hard! i love Uganda, and i'll never forget all the amazing people i've met and what they have taught me!
-ashley

New al-Qaida threat: Somali group claims blasts

By MAX DELANY and JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writers Max Delany And Jason Straziuso, Associated Press Writers – Mon Jul 12, 7:14 pm ET

KAMPALA, Uganda – East Africa saw the emergence of a new international terrorist group Monday, as Somalia's most dangerous al-Qaida-linked militia claimed responsibility for the twin bombings in Uganda that killed 74 people during the World Cup.

The claim by al-Shabab, whose fighters are trained by militant veterans of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, resets the security equation in East Africa and has broader implications worldwide. The group in the past has recruited Somali-Americans to carry out suicide bombings in Mogadishu.

Al-Shabab, an ultraconservative Islamic group that has drawn comparisons to the Taliban, has long threatened to attack outside of Somalia's borders, but the bombings late Sunday are the first time the group has done so.

Rage said a second country with peacekeeping forces in Mogadishu — Burundi — could soon face attacks. Fighting in Mogadishu between militants and Somali troops or African Union peacekeepers frequently kills civilians.

The attacks outside Somalia represent a dangerous new step in al-Shabab's increasingly militant path and raises questions about its future plans. The U.S. State Department has declared al-Shabab a terrorist organization. Other neighboring nations — Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia, along with Burundi — may also face new attacks, analysts say.

Despite the threats, the army spokesman for Uganda — an overwhelmingly Christian nation — said the county would not withdraw. "Al-Shabab is the reason why we should stay in Somalia. We have to pacify Somalia," said Lt. Col. Felix Kulaigye.

In Washington, President Barack Obama spoke with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Monday to express his condolences for the loss of life in the bombings. Obama offered to provide any support or assistance needed in Uganda, said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

Gibbs said that, while the FBI is assisting in the ongoing investigation, the U.S. believes that there is "no clearer signal of the hateful motives of terrorists than was sent yesterday."

The death toll in Sunday's twin blasts rose to 74 on Monday, Ugandan officials said. Investigators combed through the blast sites, one an outdoor screening at a rugby club and the other an Ethiopian restaurant — a nation despised by al-Shabab. Investigators found the severed head of what appeared to be a Somali suicide bomber.

The United States worries that Somalia could be a terrorist breeding ground, particularly since Osama bin Laden has declared his support for Islamic radicals there.

GULU

hello! its been over a week since i've blogged, and so much has happened that i can't possibly catch up on all of it. this last weekend i traveled with 6 other girls on my team to Gulu, a region 6 hours north of Lugazi. there is a lot of history there and i will try to give a quick background about it as best i can. so in 1986, the Lords Resistance Army was formed and Joseph Kony became the leader shortly after. They want to overthrow the ugandan government. to accomplish this, kony's army abducted thousands and thousands of people into the LRA for two decades. it was in gulu that the army targeted the acholi tribe. they would come at night and force people to become soldiers in the army. when i arrived in gulu thursday afternoon, i could instantly feel the difference there. you could just tell that a war had happened there. i was surprised by how developed the area was though. even more surprising were the stories i heard from the people i met there. every single person i met was abducted into the LRA at one point. when i asked dennis, our contact there who took us around the city for the weekend, if anyone escaped abduction he simply stared at me. "dont you understand? everyone was either abducted, or killed. if the army came for you, you were taken." one of the people we met was james, a teacher and friend of dennis. james wrote his story and it was put into the newspaper. he gave us a copy of it and i will copy it and post it here for you to read, rather than me rephrasing it.
--------------------------

"My name is Kilambus Charles. I come from Gulu district, which is found in northern Uganda. This district has been affected by the continuing civil war that has made great impact on the people living in the region.
"I was abducted by rebels together with my wife in the middle of 2003 and stayed with them for 3 months.
"It was around 9:00 p.m. and I was asleep in my room. Suddenly we were surrounded by rebels and I heard a kick at the door and was ordered to open it. Two rebels forced their way inside my room and tied my arms behind my back using my shirt. They looted my clothes, mobile phone, camera, bed sheet and many other things including the original of my exam certificate. They ordered my wife to carry all those properties and bring them out while the other rebels were busy looting properties from my mother's and brother's house.
"They took us to join about 70 other people who had been rounded up. I was tied around the waist with one person and they put my wife close to me and ordered me to take care of her. If she escaped, I would be killed.
"They too k us to the next village and put us there while other rebels went back to collect food that was given to us and carried it with them.
"We walked a distance of 50 kilometers that night without resting and carrying bean seeds of 75 kg. Those who were unable to carry such weight were killed.
"On our way, two of the former rebels whose feet were swollen and the skin was peeling off were killed and they told us that the same thing may happen to any one who could not walk.
"We were going towards Sudan straight away. We walked for four days without eating anything and with the heavy load. I got tired and my feet started to swell and peel off as a result of walking a long distance. I was weak already. Life was terrible.
"The rebel commander ordered that we had to increase the speed of walking because the Ugandan army, UPDF, was following us. But I couldn't walk. So I was beaten seriously and they ordered me to run quickly if I didn't want to be killed. SO I had to do it.
"During the process of beating, I was given dislocation in the bone and seriously injured in my body.
"When we entered in the camps, we were welcomed by other rebels. In the morning the rebel commander ordered us in line. They started selecting young girls who were 10 to 15 years old to be the rebel's wives, which is a violation of children's rights and at the same time is child abuse. Those who were not beautiful or had problems in their legs or body so that they could not manage what ever was needed, must be killed and they did it.
"Now, with those serious killings we found it normal. Staying with them, I started learning from them how the rebels behave compared to home. But there was no way I could escape.
"Once day around 10:00 am we were attacked by an army helicopter gunship. We continued moving and taking cover in the tall grass and under trees.
"The rebel commander ordered killed people who were dressed in white and red since those colors would easily be seen by the soldiers in the helicopter. Two of the abducted girls were killed there and then. I had on white shorts and a green t-shirt. I feared I was the next person to be killed. But I was ordered to remove the shorts and remain half naked. I had to walk like that in the tall grass until we arrested some civilians who had a good pair of trousers.
"This is how I escaped from the rebels: One day I was chosen to be among the 150 people to participate in a battle with army soldiers. When we met with those soldiers and the battle was terrible, I was among the 30 abducted who luckily narrowly escaped death."
--------------------------------------------------
James was one of the very lucky ones. Most of the people who were abducted were children because then the LRA could brain wash them into thinking they were the good guys and that their families at home were all dead. We met another man when we were in Gulu named John. He also was kidknapped into the LRA, but he was only 12 when it happened. They told him that his family was all dead and that there was no point in returning. So he stayed with the LRA for 9 years and worked very closely with the leader Jospeh Koney. He ended up getting shot in the leg and because he had been such a good soldier they let him go home instead of being killed. He was very lucky. But because he had been in the rebel army all that time, the whole community looks at him as an enemy now. It is so sad.

Gulu taught me a lot about the people of uganda. they have suffered unimaginable horrors, but they are strong. as i sat in several homes in gulu, i listened to the stories of people who had been forced to kill. yet, you knew they had the kindest hearts and have left their abduction in the past. they are so sincere and positive, it is almost hard to remember that they were under kony's reign and lived in the bush in constant fear. they are the perfect example of not letting a situation forced upon you determine your future. the entire city is focusing on rebuilding and rising above the emotional, physical, and mental destruction that the LRA caused.
we saw the IDP camps, for internally displaced persons, where thousands and thousands of people came for refuge during the war. dennis told us that one of the camps we passed held 30,000 people. there were probably only 50 huts.
we also went to WORLD VISION, which was a really cool center. it was made for all the people returning from the army who needed counseling, rehabilitation, and therapy to adjust back to normal life. many people were abducted into the army as young children and spent all their teenage years there. so they need world vision to help them gain skills and counseling to be able to survive and adjust to normal life. i was happy to see that they are not as packed with people there now. same with the IDP camps, the only people that are still living there are the elderly and the physically disabled. most of the people have gone back to their villages.

my time in lugazi is wrapping up very quickly and i am not sure i will ever be ready to leave. the longer i'm here, the more i think i could live here forever. ugandans are happy, humble, loving, giving, and just plain awesome. i am really going to miss it. as i've been thinking about my time here, i have realized that while i signed up for this trip to help change people's lives and do service for the poor, the one changed the most was myself. my heart has been opened as i've been treated with love and friendship. i've learned more about humility, gratitude, selflessness, and dedication in these last 3 months than i have my entire life. i want to be more and more like the ugandans every day. i will never forget the lessons i've learned here. i wrote this quote in my journal the other day and i think it is a good thing for me to remember about my time here. sorry, i didn't mean to go off on a tangent about my love of africa, it just happens :)

"They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel."

Tomorrow is the Youth AIDS Megafestival!!!!! i am so excited. all week long we've been going to schools and doing assemblies to award the winners of the writing contest. its been so fun! we surprise the kids in front of their entire school and it made all the work doing it worth it to see their smiling faces as we gave them their prize. ahh! so much fun. the four grand prize winners are going to read their entries at the festival tomorrow. it starts at 10 am and goes all day long. there will be school dance performances, free hiv testing, some hiv/aids awareness lessons, music and lots of fun! oh and i can't forget about the mzungus dancing!!! hahaha we've been learning this traditional african dance that requires a whooole lot of hip shaking and feet moving! its going to be quite the sight!

okay gotta go! have a lovely day everyone!
p.s. i really want some raw vegetables right now.....

Writing Contest Entries and Giraffes :)

I wanted to write a poem that was written by Apio Lynette Ogwang Aine. She attends St. Mary's College, Namagunga and is 16 years old. This is her poem entered in as the AIDS topic. She is one of the two winners from her school.

---------------------------

TONIGHT.

A woman cries tonight,
Her only son, dead,
Her only daughter cries,
She cannot sleep tonight.

A woman weeps tonight,
Odious acts committed by a depraved mind,
Upon her daughter,
Her only daughter defaced,
She cannot sleep tonight.

A woman wails tonight,
AIDS has sunk its teeth into her family,
Ebbed it away-one member after another,
And now they all lie in the shackles of the eternal sleep.
She cannot sleep tonight.

A woman moans tonight,
Cursing the life she did not ask for,
The only momento left of her loved ones
Is a few dreary graves.
She cannot sleep tonight.

A woman sobs tonight,
Repentant to her creator,
Psychologically disoriented by her guilt,
And looked upon with scorn
By those around her.
She cannot sleep tonight.

The woman is silent tonight,
She sheds no tear,
She weeps not,
Wails not.
In an inaudible whisper,
She fades away.
She sleeps tonight.

-----------------------------
That is just one example of the entries we've received for the writing contest. These kids aren't afraid to tell it how it is. I'd love to write some of the stories but they are longer so i'll have to do that when i get home.
Here is another poem written by Opio Denis. He attends Parents International College, which is a secondary school. He is in grade Secondary Six.

-------------------

THE RITUALISTIC CORRUPTION IN UGANDA

Corruption! Corruption! Corruption!
Why do you exist in our society
making the youths to suffer.
When I turn around and
look at each and every angle,
I just see life full of corruption
leaving the economy of Uganda
in a desperate moment.

The poor are taken advantage
by the rich class.
The dull are taken advantage
by the clever people.
The nonmaterialistic are taken
advantage by the materialistic people
making the Ugandans to
live a misery life.

Corruption,
You are found everywhere
at schools, homes, hospitals,
churches, places of work and
everywhere I don't know.

Neither lawyers nor members of parliament,
neither teachers nor doctors,
neither sheikhs nor pastors,
are corrupted people.
Making Uganda to be like
a desert-drought stricken
yet not a natural phenomenon.

If corruption can be
managed and combated,
then Uganda will
rise and shine from
Genesis to Revelation.

Yes, fellow Ugandans,
corruption is a combated issue
Therefore, my comrades
outside there,
let's get united, join our hands
together and combat
this social evil, corruption.

------------------------------

That boy is probably around 15 years old. Many of the stories we have received tell of personal experiences with disease, corruption, lies, teenage pregnancy, rape, etc. It's been almost shocking sometimes to sit in the office reading about these things. But of course, there are positive ones as well. Many students wrote about the things they love about Uganda. The range of entries we got was quite large. I'm so excited to meet the winners from each school! We're planning on writing up a bio of each winner and take their picture to put in our book of stories that we'll try and publish when we get home.

Well, my weekend was really awesome! We went on a SAFARI! After 6 hours of traveling to get to Murchison Falls, we made it! The waterfalls were incredible!! So much power and erupting water. Crazy cool. Early the next morning we got in a legit safari jeep with no roof and drove right through the grasslands! It was really cool to get to see a different landscape of Uganda. I've said that Lugazi and everywhere else I've been in Uganda is a lush, green tropical jungle. Well, the best way I can describe where we went on a safari was how it looks in LION KING with the cool trees and savanna land. So cool! I saw tons of giraffes, elephants, warthogs(aka pumbas), african cobs, antelope, baboons, fish eagles, water buffalo, crocodiles, hippos oh my! pretty much the ONLY african animal we didn't see were lions. But one of the other jeeps in our group did! their pictures and videos are so cool! jealous, but really glad they got to see them.

Tomorrow we are heading up north to GULU! Its the war torn region of Uganda where the LRA were a couple years ago. There are tons of IDP camps for children that were abducted. Ever seen the documentary Invisible Children? Go to youtube and watch it if you haven't. That is where it took place, up in Gulu. The youth need a lot of counseling and we're going to do a lot of service up there until Monday. It'll be a 10 hour bumpy taxi ride but it will be worth it in the end! I just decided today that I'm going. Thats whats nice about Uganda. You can just up and go take sporadic trips to anywhere in the country without prior planning.

Talk to you all later! Bye!

"AIDS AIDS AIDS"

Good afternoon everyone! its been an excellent week here in uganda.
on monday i spent the day picking up all the entries for the writing contest!! i've been looking forward to this day since we started the idea back in the first week of may. we went to 13 schools and had our backpacks full of essays and poems galore. i was so excited. i just wanted to run home and read them all that night. but we gave them to wilson and he kept them in the office for us to start on tuesday.

we spent several hours on tuesday, thursday and today reading the entries and separating out winners from each school. we had to sift through many reports about aids information or how many trees are uganda... stuff like that. there were actually a TON OF ENTRIES that had the line "AIDS AIDS AIDS" in it so it became a little repetitive ;) but overall we have some AMAZING pieces that i can not wait to award. the topics were aids, or uganda. we got poems and personal stories about aids that were so moving it almost put all of us in tears as we read them together in the office. these kids are not afraid to express their emotions. the experiences and insight they have are just incredible, terrifying, and uplifting all at the same time. i can't wait to post some of the winning pieces on my blog. it will have to be in a few weeks... if i even get the chance while i'm here. i'll do my best! sorry i haven't posted pictures either... just wait! it will be worth it! :)

wednesday we woke up early and took boda bodas out to PAUL AND ROSE'S orphanage. twelve of us made the hour journey there on the dusty roads. i wish you could've seen our dirty faces when we got there!! we all had a nice "spray on tan" that consisted of orange dust caked to our face. always looking good here in africa! anyways, the kids were just incredible and it was one of my most favorite days spent here in africa. one of the first girls i met was 15 year old MAURINE. we were talking and i asked what she wants to be when she grows up. she wants to be an english teacher! just like me. so we instantly became friends and i spent a lot of the day talking to her. Paul and Rose picked her up four years ago when they were just starting the orphanage. she was 11 years old at the time and had been living on the streets for 2 years. her parents had died when she was just a baby and had been living with her grandma. but when her grandma died, maurine was 9 and had no where to go. i just imagined my little brother connor, who is 11, being on the streets alone. i can't imagine what these kids have gone through. it just amazes me that they regardless of their hardships, they are so full of love. holding our hands and hugging us and smiling all day. they are so happy. maurine asked if there were street children in america. it was hard to explain that while there are children who don't have parents, we don't have the same problem of thousands of children living on the streets. i'm really grateful i was able to meet all the kids. maurine is just one story, they all have experiences like that. paul and rose are so awesome for giving those kids a place to call their own. not to mention feeding them with the food they grow on the 10 acres of land the orphanage sits on.

well, thats all for now i suppose! i'm going to a meeting for the eye camp at kawolo hospital in half an hour so i need to head out! we're learning how to screen eyes! cool huh dad? i imagine it will be similar to what i did for your patients when i worked at your office. i'll let you know! oh and i'm happy to report that we have enough money for our eye camp now!! An organization called Sight Savers has agreed to sponsor the rest of the funds for the entire camp. yes! thanks to all who donated! have a great week! we leave for our SAFARI tonight! welaba!

p.s. last saturday a few of us went to the zoo with wilson and godfrey! and i RODE A CAMEL!! haha it was making this weird groaning noise the entire time so that was pretty hilarious! oh africa :)

African Twisty Twists!

Good morning friends and family! its a beautiful rainy day here in lugazi. i love the rain! yesterday a bunch of us were walking home from a project and realized we were locked out of our front gate. so we took off to find the person with the keys when it started to downpour! it just comes out of nowhere, that african rain. so we ran for shelter under our good friend Alex's chipatti stand. its a tiny open hut with a stick roof and a tarp over it. so while we were somewhat covered, we definitely all got wet under there! It was fun though because we got to talk to him and watch him cook random things. Anyway we ended up having to run all the way home through the rain because it wasn't stopping. By the time we got home we were wetter than if we'd jumped in a pool!

Later in the day a few of us took off to Hope Orphanage and did some activities with the orphans there. I love those kids so much. Its really fun now because we actually know the kids and have become good friends with them. We brought bubbles that the boys just loved, and fingernail polish to paint the girls nails. They had so much fun! We even showed them how to do it and they painted each others. I brought picture books and we read them to the younger kids as well. We helped them read after a while and I was very impressed with their English for their young age.

There is one girl named Resty that is my best little buddy there. we hang out pretty much the whole time and talk about her life and what she likes and doesn't like. She is the happiest girl and is always smiliing. These kids make you feel like you can change the world and do anything you want. In america we have sooo many opportunities that these children just don't have. and it breaks my heart to listen to them talk about their plans for the future and know that they only see it as a dream. When i graduate from college and eventually become a teacher, that is one thing i will always be telling my students. You can be anything you want to be. Follow your dreams! There are so many opportunities in the world just waiting for you. Never let anyone tell you that you can't do something. You can. There will always be someone that will support you and help you achieve your dreams. Well that's all of my little -follow your dreams- tangent for now..

SOOO I have officially gotten an AFRICAN MAKEOVER. On wednesday afternoon I up and decided I wanted to get my hair plaited! Cecilly, a girl on my team, did it a couple weeks ago and it looked pretty sweet. So Molly went with me to walk around town finding an open salon to do it. Everyone was busy and we weren't having any luck... when we ran into Wilson and Godfrey!! YES! haha so i had them take me somewhere to get it done. So the lady, Sophie, doesn't really speak English I'm told. So wilson negotiates a price and takes off! I literally sat down and they just went to town. I didn't even know what they were goign to do. I ended up getting AFrican Twisty Twists!!! hahahaha. Oh my gosh. What they do, is take all this fake hair and twist it into tiny strands of my own hair. It took 5 hours!! oh my gosh. i have too much hair for these kinds of things. oh and i almost forgot, it is almost to my waist! soooo long! they did this cool curly thing to the ends of it... i'll have to put pictures on my blog of all of this when i get home. its hard to describe! just know that i look like an african now :) love it!

sorry i have been neglecting our projects lately. its been crazy with second wavers here this week. but good of course! we're transitioning to new schools for teacher training, and suz ally and i got the writing contest proposal passed yesterday!! we didn't even have to use any team funds because suzanne's amazing in-laws-to-be donated 200 dollars to the contest! they are so awesome. did i mention suzanne is engaged?? yep! she got engaged the DAY before she flew here! haha crazy girl. i love her though, we pretty much spend all day every day together doing education projects!
we are going to collect all the writing contest entries on monday and i can not wait any longer!! :)

***********We're also working really hard as a team to fundraise through home to get more money for the eye camp. we just need 1,000 more dollars and we'll be able to HELP TWICE AS MANY PEOPLE! so if anyone is reading this and would be willing to donate just a little more money to the camp, we would be so grateful.
To make sure the money gets to our team, you have to send it to HELP INTERNATIONAL and make it specifically towards the LUGAZI EYE CAMP. thank you so much to anyone who donates! our tipping bucket fundraiser worked so well and we just wish we could have anticipated the extra funds before so we could have gotten it earlier.

well i have to go, but i hope everyone at home is doing great! i love you all! so mom, should i leave my african hair in until we meet you in paris?? ;)
HAPPY FATHERS DAY ON SUNDAY DAD!!! I LOVE YOU!

Fluffy bunny. Or in other words... THE BAD PLACE

GOOD MORNING1 i can't for the life of me figure out how to use exclamation points on this keyboard... so thats why you will see a lot of ones in this post haha. okay okay okay i am so excited to write about my weekend11 i wasn't planning on going river rafting this weekend, but my whole team was going practically so i decided the night before that i would go for it1 ahhhh. i know i thought that repelling down the waterfall was adventurous and life threatening... but thats got nothing on white water rafting down the NILE. oh myyy.

we got picked up in a costa, which is like a huge bus, and drove to jinja to begin the day. oh! i just figured out how to use the exclamation sign! haha okay sorry i'll keep going. our river guides were just hilarious, which made the experience all the more enjoyable. one was from new zealand, Sonny. what a character. we had three raft fulls of us going down the river. my guide was Steph, he's from canada and is here with his wife adopting a little boy. very funny guy. he kept making fun of me because i was so scared and asked a lot of questions. most of them pertained to whether i was going to die on the next rapid, and if he would save me if i was drowning haha. well i don't know how to describe rafting down the nile, other than to say i'm glad to still be alive. the different classes of rapids are rated, and the highest you can raft on and still have a chance of living is class 5. want to guess what class the rapids were that we went on all day?? yep. CLASS 5. we went on about 8 rapids during the seven hours we were going down the nile. the first 7 were terrifying/exhiliarating/awful/fun/crazy and insane!! but we made it through without our rafting flipping. including the one waterfall we went down, but before we went down we got stuck on a rock at the very edge. i may or may not have shed a tear of terror as we sat up there with our river guide screaming orders at us so we wouldn't tip off the edge and get sucked under the falls... its even more embarrassing because we bought a cd of pictures from the day! haha oh boy. neevvvveerrr again. never. but this doesn't even compare to the last rapid. we were doing just fine on the long stretch of flat water as we approached the last one. then steph started to tell us about it. he said he's never been through it without everyone flipping out of the raft and essentially being destroyed by the waves. so we asked how many times he's been down it. don't worry, he'd only done it TWICE!! AHH. then he proceeded to tell us that it is called THE BAD PLACE. he said we can choose to go down that way or take the easy way out. i asked how many people go down the bad place. he said probably less than half. WELL NO WONDER. who wouldn't want to go down a rapid called THE BAD PLACE??! of course we picked to go down it because we are all hardcore like that. well, everyone besides me and katelynn i suppose ;) steph, being the considerate river guide he is, told me i could call it the fluffy bunny to make me less scared. he said all you'll see going into it is white rapid spray so its fitting. thanks. well down we went and all i saw was a ENORMOUS wall of water in front of our raft. we instantly were launched out and people went in all directions. i was tossed under the water for a good 9 or 10 seconds and finally got up for a breath only to be thrown under again by a wave. this time, while i was under, my helmet was ripped off my head somehow! it nearly choked me haha oh it was so confusing down there. awful. just awful. and would you believe that my experience was one of the better ones? mike was caught under a boil for 40 seconds (i'm not exaggerating fyi) and our river guide thought he was going to drown. he finally curled into a ball and shot out though. oh my. people do this for fun?? i think i'm done risking my life for a little while ;)
so yep! that was my weekend! we are all little fried lobsters from being in the sun all day on the nile. oh! and i'm proud to say i have swallowed HALF THE NILE. yay for parasites :)

on sunday i went with katelynn to mass at the local catholic church. we needed to announce information about our disability choir we're starting, so the.. head church leader invited us to attend the meeting. i've been to mass in salt lake and some of it was different than i remembered. i loved the music! they had a full on choir with drums, clapping, and awesome singing. so cool. we're running into a lot of barriers with the choir but i'm confident it will work out. we really want to make it a sustainable project after we leave this summer. so we're working on finding someone that can help keep it going.

yesterday me and suzanne and chelsea did another assembly to promote the writing contest. last school! now we're just preparing to judge next week. i'm so excited! its going to be so good! oh did i mention that second wavers arrived on sunday????? whoo! our house now has 24 people in it hahaha. oh gosh. it is so crazy. i really love it. katie is here too! sadly both her bags were lost but we just found out that they arrived in entebbe yesterday so she'll get them soon. lucky duck!

hmm we also did another teacher training at seya school yesterday. i love all of our teachers that we work with. they are so awesome. we have so much fun. then we went to hope orphanage and played with the kids there until dinner time. those kids are incredible. they have so much ambition, when nothing about their life has given them hope that things will get better. i love encouraging them. and i want to take them all home. ahhh.

well thats all for now! i'm going to an eye camp meeting later, working on square foot gardens, teacher training, choir meetings, etc. i love being here. tomorrow i only have 5 more weeks in africa. i might cry. i don't want to go home! i love you all! goodbye!

oli otya! its been a very good week here in lugazi, uganda. let me tell you about it! by the way this keyboard doesn't have a button to capitalize letters... ? haha

so i spent all day tuesday and thursday out with ally, suzanne, and wilson of the outreach mission. we went to probably thirteen schools and promoted the writing contest. oh my it is so much work! i had no idea. just all the little details take so much time and meetings to figure it out. it's crazy! and i always think how much easier it would be to start something like this in america where there are emails and communication is so fast. but then again, it always surprises me how easy it is to just walk into a school and explain the contest, and the headmasters always accept and give us time to speak in an assembly. is it because the contest is such a good idea? or is it because we are giving out prizes? or is it simply because we are white and people always listen to what the mzungus have to say? unfortunately it is probably a combination including the latter. but, we just have to remember to put our white skin to good use, as unfair as it is that we have credibility from it. i'm never going to get used to that or like it while i'm here. on the one hand, its fun to have the little kids yell to us and run up and give us "bongas", which is like pounding fists. but on the other hand, sometimes i wonder what certain peoples intentions are for working with us. do they even like us, or are they just playing nice because they know we have money? its a very conflicting situation, one that i still don't feel comfortable with. but i'm learning a lot by living it, that is for sure. we have a lot to do with the contest. there are over 100 schools in the buikwe district competing.... which is going to be absolutely i n s a n e to try and judge entries! i'm already stressed out. oh man! and in the mukono district, we have a much more doable number of 15 schools because we limited the number. we are going to have a winning boy and girl from each school. and the two grand prize winners are going to get to read their piece at the annual aids extravaganza festival at norah's complex on july 10th. it is an aids awareness festival where students and people in the community entertain through music dance and drama. it was a great success last year and i'm excited to be a part of it again.

on wednesday i spent the day giving an aids lesson at a school. we taught with the youth outreach mission guys. they are all our age, going to a university, and volunteering a lot of time helping their community. we taught about sexuality, hiv prevention, and just general information on hiv contraction and symptoms. there is such a lack of knowledge about it here!! it frightens me. we were teaching a secondary school so the kids were ages 13 and up. at the end of the lesson we had them write questions on papers and give them back and we'd answer them. oh my goodness. the questions we got! you wouldn't believe it. they ranged from weird, to completely obvious. the misconceptions are still there. many still think you can get hiv from kissing. many think if you have sex and then abstain for a few years, that you can become a virgin again. it was very interesting and unlike annnyyyy health lesson you would hear in america! the kids learned a lot though. very productive day!

so next! i am soooo excited about this! i am going to help katelynn and ally start a choir for disabled children here in lugazi! yaa! i am so pumped. the writing contest has been very draining and i'm excited to have this to focus on as well. we went with sandra today, who is awesome! i love her! she is my age, going to the university and studying child development. she is so smart and so motivated! we went to several different churches to spread news about it. many expressed interest, we just have to work out a lot of the logistics to get it organized. we are also planning on starting one in provo when we move back in the fall! we're calling it the kids ability choir. and we're going to name the one in provo the same thing! can't wait.

well thats the update for now... i tripped on a rock today walking up the street in my flip flops and cut my big toe open. ouch! thats what i get for not wearing my chaco shoes that are invincible! my right foot is just having issues in general haha. have i mentioned that ever since the plane ride from kenya to uganda, my right pinky toe has been completely numb??? i have no idea why, and it is the joke of the team because its the weirdest thing ever! my clumsiness never ceases to amaze.

okay thats it folks! its friday and i have no idea what were doing tomorrow! maybe going into jinja, visiting bujagali falls, splurging and getting a cold milkshake... who knows! later friends!
-ashley/nampijja

African Paradise and SIPI FALLS> (AKA HEAVEN)

Hola family and friends! I have so much to write about that I am having trouble even knowing where to begin. Here goes!

Wednesday June 2:I went to volunteer at Kawolo Hospital for the morning. I initially brought children's books to read but all the children in the ward had parents there so that didn't work out. Some girls went to observe a surgery or examination of an expecting mother, but that wasn't quite up my ally haha. In Africa, by the way, the hospitals are run a little differently. There are no restricted areas. You can perform any kind of medical thing you want. Well, if you are mzungus like us i guess. Of course we didn't though. It's just crazy how we could go anywhere we wanted in the hospital. I ended up going to the premature babies and held a little boy while the mother rested. It was soooo tiny. Honestly the most precious thing I have ever seen. It probably weighed three pounds at most. He had a headful of dark black hair and was just perfect. Ah I just loved him so much. If he was an orphan I would take him home with me. Such a special experience. That's about all we did there.

Thursday June 3: Martyrs day!! National holiday! Awesome awesome day. So, here's a little history of Uganda for ya. On June 3, 1886, King Mwanga ordered the killing of 26 of his pages, 13 Anglicans and 12 Roman Catholics. 25 of these Christian converts were killed after a week long torture at Namugongo. The 26th martyr was killed at a later time. They were burned for rejecting the executioner's persuasion to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ. Now, people walk from all over the country to commemorate the sacrifice and strong faith of the martyrs. People even come from Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda! People literally walk for days in advance to make it to Namugongo. We woke up at 6 am and had our trusted driver Godfrey take us! It was so cool, people were EVERYWHERE! I've never seen so many people lining the streets and in this huge open field area. Church choirs were singing, people selling religious things, etc. We went to the site and had a great history tour. It was so fun to celebrate with the Ugandans at a place that was so sacred to their religion.

Friday June 4: Hmm what did I do this day. Oh! I had a meeting with Wilson and we worked out all the kinks of the Annual Help Writing Contest we are sponsoring! Wilson is THE MAN. Have I written about him?? We all love him. Seriously, too much. He's 22 and started his own non profit organization called The Youth Outreach Mission(TYOM). It's been going for three years and he does SO MUCH for this community. He doesn't get money for doing it either. I spent all day with him but I'll write about it later. The meeting went great, then we did another teacher training at Skyway Primary School. Oh it was so cramped!! It was raining and so there wasn't an extra room for us to go with all the teachers. We squished into this tiny little dark room with about ten teachers and i wrote on the chalkboard. It was fun though! They skyway teachers need you to be a little overenthusiastic about everything, which was kind of fun for me in all honesty. Every group of teachers is different, and they just needed a little more encouragement to participate haha. They love it though. Our cultures are just different!
Oh yes!~! Friday night we went dancing at AFRICAN PARADISE!!! Hahaha it is a local dance club right by our house. We had Wilson, who I previously mentioned, as well as Godfrey, (not our driver, he's one of Wilson's friends who helps us alot and we love) and some of their other friends escorted us there! Actually, in Uganda they don't say escort. They say "PUSH". As in, "We are here to push you to the club." hahaha. Anyways it was quite the experience. We had a strategic circle of our African friends surrounding us the entire time we danced. When the other men at the club tried to dance with us, our "bodyguards" if you will, would talk to them and they'd back off. We had the best time! NOthing like an outdoor dance club/hut in Africa with a sweet DJ. Awesome night.

Saturday June 5: SIPI FALLS!!!!!!!!!! Okay, I cannot even begin to describe the amazingness of this place. WOWOWOWOW! So we left around 6 am saturday morning to catch a taxi to Sipi. It's about 4 hours away from Lugazi, my town. The best way I can describe it is HEAVEN ON EARTH. I'm completely convinced there is no place more beautiful on this earth. I thought Lugazi was green and tropical?? Sipi falls is up in the mountains, which was so awesome to be in! More like a plateau of jungle, but still a mountain nonetheless. Driving up this windy jungle road it overlooked a huge cliff. On this cliff we could see three GINOURMOUS waterfalls and it was honestly the coolest thing ever. I can't wait to put pictures on this blog when i get home and show you. ahhhh! it gets better. We drive up to our campsite and picture this: it is on the cliff's edge, trees everywhere, waterfalls within sight, the main lodge is a bamboo hut with a thatched stick roof with a huge deck to look out over the valley. Then they showed us our sleeping corridors and guess what they were? Our OWN tiny little bamboo stick/mud/thatched roof huts!!! We were dying. SOOOO AWESOME!!! I am feeling giddy with joy just remembering it. Did I mention there were monkeys just wandering around the campground? Yep. Tons. So mom and dad, I think I found my future place of residence=Moses's Campground?? haha coolest thing i've ever done! We proceeded to eat some beans for lunch, then head out with our trusty tour/weekend planner man Fred!! He was soo nice to us. He totally could have tried to rip us off but he was so helpful. He arranged all the meals, walked us around at night to make sure we were safe, took us on hikes, set up repelling, and just did it all. Love him! People are so friendly in Uganda. Honestly, they are the best people I know. Most of the help he did for us wasn't because he was getting paid. However, he did propose to Katelynn so there could have been underlying motivations there hahahaha. The hike was so beautiful (that word doesn't do it justice one bit) and we took tons of pictures and saw three huge awesome waterfalls. After hours of hiking up and down and all around cliffs and waterfalls, Fred took us to another huge hut lodge with a deck and we ate a candlelit dinner outside watching the sun go down. The day could not have been more perfect. It was delicious too, not 100% African which was a nice change. After dinner Fred walked us home in the dark, and the guys running Moses' campsite had started a bonfire for us on the edge of the cliff by the lodge. Moses is one of the guys uncle and they all were working there. They were so fun! All our age and we had a blast. We told stories, laughed, and the boys even sang songs for us. Don't worry that they were all sappy love songs they wrote themselves.. hahaha. It was great. We even talked to a girl from Italy who was volunteering in Gulu. Sweet!

Sunday June 6: I accomplished something that I never thought I would have the guts to do. Ready? I repelled down a 300 FOOT WATERFALL. IN AFRICA!! Yep, I did! I promise! I have pictures to prove it. Now, I will admit I have never been so scared in my life. My entire life! At the top I was panicking and the other 7 girls were just laughing away at me. I couldn't believe how high up we were, just on the edge of this straight down cliff with the waterfall crashing over the edge 30 feet away. But after watching Carrie go over the edge first, I knew I better go now or I'd chicken out! So off I went! I walked backwards over the edge of the tallest cliff ever with just some rope saving me from death! Haha it was so scary. Oh man. But once that initial over the edge moment happened, it was awesome! Looking down and seeing my little rope dangling with no one at the bottom, looking to my left and seeing this massive waterfall cascading next to me and hitting the mossy boulders below was the sweetest moment of my life and one that I'll not soon forget!! We had a blast and it was completely worth the 50 bucks I spent risking my life to do it. YES!
So that was my incredible weekend in Sipi. We got home at 8 sunday night, had a team meeting, and welcomed Mike from HELP in America! He is staying with us this week to see how things are going. We pretty much love him because he brought us a bag of chocolate. Yep. Good good weekend.

Monday.. Today! Me suzanne and ally spent all day with Wilson (lucky us) going around to schools and promoting our writing contest. Students are so excited about it! Which makes me so happy! I can't wait to read all the entries!! Ah! We're going to turn the winning pieces into a book and publish it back at home because Suzanne has connections. It's gonna rock. Wilson is such a good person. His heart is so big! He goes goes goes all day long to help his community and doesn't take breaks or do anything for himself! I made him stop and eat my crackers and had to buy him water because he didn't have any money. Oh wilson. We love you! We couldn't do it without him.

This week's gonna be a good one! Oh and I've hit my one month mark of living in Africa!! Here are some things you should know :)
-It smells like burning trash multiple times a day
-People wear puffy winter coats if it gets below 75 degrees. sooo funny!
-there are huge storks/cranes/freaky pteradactyl birds that sit on buildings and freak me out
-ugandans say "mmm" instead of "uh huh". we all do it now
-"please" is tacked onto random phrases like "thank you please". or "yes please" when asked if they like something
-pedestrians do NOT have the right of way! cars/bodas speed up and honk at you!
-for every five people, three are named godfrey
-women should sit sideways on bodas. we dont, therefore boda drivers think we are crazy
-the water and power go out all the time. as in, almost every day hahaha
-Ugandns laugh at you when you walk out in the rain
-cows, chickens and goats roam freely in streets and yards. ugandans are scared of cows and i know why! when they are charging at you it is terrifying!

Thats all for now! I love my life! It is honestly too good to be true. Welaba!

Hello friends! It has been quite the weekend for me! Seriously only minutes after i was writing my blog entry on friday, i started to feel lightheaded and nauseated. this happens fairly often in the mornings after i take my malaria medication so i didn't think much of it. wellll it wasn't from the medication. i proceeded to have a headache, fever, nausea, throwing up and body aches for the rest of the day until about 9 pm. it was pretty miserable and i haven't felt that sick in.... a long time if ever. at one point i was sure i had malaria and was dying a slow and painful death! another volunteer, alex, was violently ill as well that night. it was a rough day for our team! well no worries,i don't have malaria and as of yesterday i am back to normal! i am pretty sure i had some sort of heat exhaustion/dehydration because i had all the symptoms and had spent all of the previous few days in the intense sun. so yep, i've been guzzling the water like a camel the last few days and will make sure that never happens again! my team went out to jinja on saturday but i wasn't able to go. i spent a lot of time sleeping on a little dirty foam mattress in the corner of our kitchen. oh i am so grateful for my health after that!! and the comforts of america when you are sick! it made me sympathize a lot more with all the sick patients in the hospitals, were comforts are few and far between.

So! yesterday i went and did my first teacher training! i missed the actual first one on friday, but heard it went fantastically! yesterday we went to Seya primary school to teach and it was so great. we taught about the different learning styles students have and how teachers can adapt lesson plans to be more creative and teach in a variety of ways. for instance, we can teach to the musical, verbal, logical, visual, interpersonal and intrapersonal learning styles all in one lesson! they had great feedback for us and it was very successful.

This morning i went to do an HIV screening at Lugazi University. I finally got to meet Emmanuel, who i have been hearing about forever! And he is THE BEST! Seriously the funniest, coolest guy. He is 24 years old and a clinition at the university. He wants to get his masters degree at a school in america. He's So smart. So me, Molly, Becca, Alex, and Cecilly took boda bodas over to the university early this morning. can i just say how much i love bodas?? yes, its true that often i think i might die from a head on collision, but mostly they are just so fun! we were laughing the other day about how normal it is for us to just walk up to a group of africans on motorcycles and ask them to take us somewhere. only in africa! anyways, we got there and he showed us how to do the testing, and told us how to give the pre and post interviews with the people being tested. At first we helped with sanitizing peoples fingers, giving Emmanuel the needles, recording names and such. Then, I went in and listened to him give a few of the results. He called the person into a little room and had him sit on a chair in front of us. He proceeded to essentially grill the person about their sexual behaviors, when they were last tested, if they knew the status of their partner, how many partners they have, etc. It was very intense. He asked what they would do with their life if they found out if they were negative and what they'd do if they were positive as well. Emmanuel told us that when it was our turn to interview, we have to be very careful to gage the person and if they give any answers that seem suicidal, to not tell them their status yet. The point of all the intense questioning is to really make people aware of how their unsafe behaviors could affect the rest of their life. Everyone in the clinic today tested negative, and i can tell that many people are going to change their behavior after seeing how scared and nervous they were before finding out they were negative. It was a very interesting experience to say the least.

Well then! We were done testing people for a bit and Emmanuel asked if we knew our status. So we all decided to get tested! I am proud to say that I am HIV negative! Whoooo! Haha oh man. *Don't worry dad, we used a new needle for each of us and it was all very safe. I promise :)Emmanuel even conducted an interview with each of us about any risky behaviors and what we will do now that we know we are HIV negative. It was pretty great. He is seriously my favorite. We had a lot of fun with him today, too much probably!

So ya thats a little update on my weekend! It wasn't the most eventful one but I'm just grateful to be up and able to work! Bye!

Just call me NAMPIJJA

hello again! njagela uganda! i love uganda! so it has been a very emotionally draining, productive, and englightening week for me. i have learned so much about development in the last few days and the role that i play in it here.
*oh sidenote; my mom informed me that my blog has many spelling and grammatical errors haha. so my fellow readers, just so you know, i do know how to write better than this, but many keys dont work and the delete button sticks :)
well i will catch up on the beginning of the week first. we went to the uganda vs kenya football game!! it was so much fun. it was also kind of a weird day because we drove to the capital, kampala, to gte there, and stopped at dominoes pizza. i felt a little guilty because it was so easy and cheap for us to go and get normal food. i just thought about the people in our little neighborhood who don't have that ability. its hard to explain, but it was just an eye opening experience for me. but the game was really fun! we got there early so we sat on the front row! instead of cheerleaders, they had tribal dancers who did the coolest things like play huge drums on their heads and even kick it while on their heads! uganda even won the game! also, have i mentioned that i'm never goign to get used to the strangers that just walk up to us and take our pictures? they dont try to sneak it either. its a little uncomfortable sometimes hahaha.
me and suzanne visited about ten schools this week and we are doing our first teacher training later this afternoon! i am so excited. so on wednesday, we took a taxi out to the buikwe district to meet with many schools. we were escorted by a teacher in the area we have been in contact with. well, there was a miscommunication of sorts, because we were expecting a meeting and each school put on a presentation for us and gave us time to speak to the entire school. we have realy been gettingput on the spot here. my public speaking is definitely improving! whether i want the practice or not! it was hard because each school saw us as their saviors. the ones who could give them funds to fix all their problems. as an organization, we dont just hand out money. we work with different partners to create projects with them that will be sustainable. so we couldn't make any promises, especially without talking to the rest of our team first. it was a difficult situation. the schools in this area literally have nothing. no materials, not enough teachers, and one school didn't even have a structure. it was a stick roof and the children sat in the dirt underneath it. it was so draining to see so much need and know that we can't fix everything and help everyone. i wish we had enuogh resources, but the truth is that we don't. the more i'm learning about development, the more my mindset is changing. when i came here, i was so excited because i thought i was going to change so many lives and help so many people. and i will. but not in the way i expected. the only difference between the people here and myself is that i was born into a family and country that has education and resources. ugandans are not less capable, hard working, motivated, or intelligent than we are. they simply lack the knowledge of how to improve their circumstances, and dont have resources available to help them suceed. its very heartbreaking, and i was getting discouraged this week. but we are doing our best. i can't help everyone, but i can make a difference so someone every day. and since i have been trying to do that, i have felt more hopeful and optimistic.
well, off of that serious note- i rode my first boda boda this week! they are motorcycles for anyone that doesn't know, and they take you wherever you want to go! me and ally took one through the sugarcane fields to get to seya school. it was the most beautiful ride i have ever been on! just miles of rolling green fields as far as you can see. ahhh i was in heaven. just fyi, women ride bodas sitting sideways. however, us americans prefer the safer alternative! haha the other day i was getting on one again, and the drivre said to me- you have never sat like a woman before?? he was quite shocked, it was pretty funny!
oh and at seya school, one of the head teachers i met with gave me a ugandan name! yes! i've been so excited for someone to give me one! it is........ NAMPIJJA! haha i love it. i now belong to the cow clan! meaning i respect the cow clan. each clan respects an animal, and it means you cannot eat it. the woman that gave me the name also respects this clan so i asked her if she doesn't eat cow meat. she just smiled and said that they made a rule that they only don't eat cows without tails. when i asked why, she burst out laughing and said that there aren't many cows without tails so it is good because then they can eat cow meat! ah i love uganadans :) until next week! thanks family and friends for all the support and emails! its so fun to hear from everyone! mwelaba!! bye!

i bless the rains down in africa!

hello! today marks two weeks that i have been living in africa. i can't believe it! it feels like i have been here so much longer! it is great. first of all, i received several emails from family members in response to an email my dad sent. thank you so much!! it was so great to hear from you all and feel the support from everyone. i am so blessed to be here. every day i wake up and try to soak it all in. every day has been an adventure!
well, i'm sitting here at hope internet cafe, which is about a twenty minute walk from my house. i want to tell you a little more about lugazi. i already mentioned that every time we walk through the streets in our neighborhood it is a parade of children running and screaming after us and holding onto our arms. well, i am happy to report that this hasn't died down one bit! i am convinced they will sing bye mzungu bye mzungu and run after us all summer long. they are adorable. we've made many friends and know a lot of their names. there is a main road about ten minutes from our house called jinja highway. now, it is not really a highway, but i'd say its just about as dangerous as one! traffic here is insane! boda bodas, motorcycles, come flying out of nowhere all the time. and taxis are everywhere. pedestrians defnintely don't have the right of way in africa haha. so its an adventure crossing the streets. also, ugandans have a really cool handshake that they do when they meet you. i'll show you when i get home haha. and it can last for an uncomfortably long amount of time too! its so funny. also, women and little girls carry anything from huge gallons of water, to baskets of fruit on their head as they walk around. it is incredible!! i have no idea how they do it without dropping anything.

this week has been extremely successful as far as projects go for our team! everyone is making contacts and setting up things and its fantastic. me and suzanne have over twenty schools to work with through the summer for our teacher training and writing/art contest and workshops. i am so excited! its taken a lot of preparation to get things ready to go, but we've had a lot of help and enthusiasm that has made it a productive week. we will be using the iol, inside out learning, manual to do teacher training here in uganda. the other day, the director of iol called me from kenya and said she would be willing to come to uganda and hold a teacher training meeting with us because help international has been such a helpful partner in the past. it is so exciting! so many doors are being opened to help us get thigns going.
we were supposed to meet with the mayor again yesterday... but when we showed up at the town council he was in another city. haha oh uganda. we've learned very quickly that it is normal to not show up for meetings and not answer phone calls. yet, at the same time, people will drop whatever they are doing to meet with us or help us with something. its funny. the people here are so great! it is my favorite thing about uganda. more than the beautiful scenery, cheap prices, touristy excursions- it is the people that i meet that has made the biggest impact on me already. i've met people with the purest hearts and serve others so unselfishly. it is really inspiring. it makes us want to do our best by finding out their greatest needs and doing all we can to facilitate change. because they know much more than we do about what their community needs. the only difference between them and us is that we have the resources available to improve their situations.

it's friday! yesterday i was feeling pretty sick to my stomach, but today it has been better. i've just been living on a diet of bananas and rice for the last few days haha. at least half of our volunteers have sore throats and bad head colds as well. hopefully i don't pick that up too. we are planning on going to african paradise tonight! it is a local dance club within walking distance to our house. and tomorrow!! we are going to a soccer game between kenya and uganda!! i am soo excited. it is going to be sweet! on monday me and suzanne will start meeting with schools about the writing/art contest and continue setting up contacts and meeting with the headmasters of each school. i love being here! i miss you all but honestly i am nowhere near ready to come home :)

KATIE LIDDIARD! if you read this, i need to email you about project/packing information. but i don't have your email because i can't access my address book here. so email me at ashleyalder15@gmail.com okay? asap! can't wait for you to get here!

bye!!

Jinja!

hello all! it's been a very productive and fun weekend. we've had many many meetings with partners we are going to work with over the summer. suzanne and i have met with pastor frances to talk about educational needs and starting a writing contest while we have writing workshops in the schools. he is giving us some great ideas and we are very excited. today we met with chairman livingston, he is like the senator of uganda. its kind of awesome, we get to meet with all these people in high positions basically because help international has built such a respectable reputation in the country. he talked with us about developmental needs and specifically answered our questions. i am becoming more interested in developing a program in the schools for special needs students. the teachers dont know how to deal with them so they are essentially kicked out of school. we want to train teachers on how to adapt lesson plans for these students. we want to pick five schools and do teacher trainings in the evenings each day for a couple hours. in the mornings we are setting up workshops to do directly with students. another commitee is focusing on public health, and we are going to combine with them to teach hiv/aids awareness and sanitation in the classrooms. i love all of the projects our team is doing! our five main areas are
1.education/schools(that me and suzanne are leading-teacher training, writing workshops, high school service clubs, teaching creativity and life skills)
2.public health(hiv/aids, hand washing, basic health, nutrition)
3.construction(adove stoves, mushroom houses, square foot gardening)
4.business(training, savings and loans groups, womens group)
5.volunteering(orphanages, elderly, soccer with street kids, hospital help)
yep! our projects are coming along! i'm excited to work witht all of the groups at some point througout the summer.
so on saturday we went to jinja to spend the day being tourists! it was so fun to go around to all the souvenier shops and see all the handmade crafts. i loved it! and it was crazy because everything is ridiculously cheap. i bought a really nice drum for about 7 bucks it is so sweet. our guard morris was jamming out on it with me the other day haha. after we went around to some shops, we went swimming at the triangle resort. it was sweet! it felt sooo nice to swim in a cold pool when it has been so hot and sticky. we had a blast. have i mentioned how many indian people live in uganda? i was very surprised! we felt like we were in india at the resort haha. but ya life here is sweet! i have to tell you about the drive thru's here! our taxi's pull off teh side of the road and i kid you not, at least 20 ugandans run up to the windows and nearly get run over. they stick poles with chicken, samosas, water bottles, fried bananas, etc INTO the car and ask you to buy them. it is chaos! very fun though. well i'm off! i hope all is well in the states! what is this i hear about the volcanoe erupting like crazy in iceland? am i going to be stuck in africa forever? at this point, it sounds pretty sweet to me! bye!

I never would have done that in America...

Hello family and friends! time for a little update on how the week has been! it's only thursday and so much has happened! we have spent time this week meeting with parter organizations and influential people that will help us with projects and make them productive. tuesday was quite the adventurous day for me. so we went with kizza, pronounced like chizza, and saw a mushroom house. about 15 people share them and provides a great income for the families because the market is so high for them right now. BUT! i have to tell you. the mushroom house wasn't in use because it's not in season right now, so they were dark and full of cobwebs!! it was seriously a spider shack. i never never never would have gone inside in america. but i was brave! and went inside! there wasn't much to see but kizza showed us how to grow them and build it. next we went to a woman's group that runs a business called Musana Jewelry. they are awesome. the local women make beads and necklaces out of paper and wood and all sorts of random things. they make beautiful things, its really cool. anyways, it is a great way for them to make money and we want to start more projects like that.
well, we got our first rolex's today! they are literally, rolled eggs, but the way ugandans talk it sounds like rolex. they are delicious! just eggs, tomatoes, onions all rolled up in a chipatti. they are 900 shillings so like 45 cents in us dollars. everything is so cheap here. its crazy!
after lunch nicole, our country director (cd) needed someone to go with her to meet with robert about buying a fridge. i went with her and it was quite the experience! i had been to roberts house before, his aunties are so funny and loud. well we were meeting in their living room discussing the cost and one of the aunts brought out a huge plate of..... GRASSHOPPERS!! yes my friends, i ate multiple grasshoppers. my eyes went wide because i knew i could not refuse them. we looked at each other, and dug right in! we had to pull off the legs first. they really weren't that bad! i was surprised. you could not pay me enough to do that in america. i feel like i keep saying that, but its true! we had a good time laughing about it and brought home the extras for the other volunteers to try.
I had yet another first that day, i hand washed all my clothes. let me tell you, that is not an easy task! especially when they are stained red from all the muddy clay all over everything. they still aren't dry, and the colors leaked so i have blue spots on all my shirts haha. oh well!
by the way, our water was off from saturday until tuesday! amazing how much you can't do without water. we didn't have any reserve yet either so we all got pretty smelly in those four days! we had the hugest thunderstorm ever that night too! the power went out for a while whch was kind of fun. oh uganda!
yesterday we built adove stove number 2 for a family. it turned out great! we're getting good at building them. they take about 4 hours to build.
then we went to Kowola hospital and met sister josephine. she is incredible. she's decidated her life to promoting public health and has worked at the hospital for 39 years. she took us around to every part of it and introduced us to all the main doctors and head workers. this was one of the nicer hospitals in uganda. that is so scary to me. dad, you wouldn't believe how unsanitary it is. oh my. we all felt like we were going to get a disease in the few hours we were there. the worst was when they took us to the mens unit and we went into a room of sick patients. as we stood in the middle, the nurse pointed out that the area to our left was the tuberculosis section. there was no distinction from the other areas and we all instantly held our breathe. it was a little scary. it makes me appreciate healthcare in america so much though. i can't imagine having to go to a hospital like that wehn you are sick. it was very sad. we visited the maternity ward too and that was fun. we got ot talk to the mtohers with their newborn babies. they were just beautiful. so much hair and they were just perfect.
today we went to ssanyu school and met with pastor francis. he told us all about the problems that the teachers and locals in general deal with. we are getting so many ideas for projects that will help these people. we are all so excited. me and suzanne, another volunteer, have been brainstorming about a teacher training project we can do. we are both english majors so it's something we are really interested in and the teachers are eager for training. we also want to sponsor a writing contest to get the students interested in writing. it will also help improve their english skills. we want to capture their stories about their culture, because none of it is written down. we were thinking we could find a way to publish a book out of it and create an income for them to buy more books. we have a lot of planning to do and need to meet with more of the teachers to make sure we can create a sustainable project for them. that is what i have learned the most since coming here. we need to start or refine projects that the people want and need. we saw how a few projects from last year fell through after the volunteers left and we don't want that to happen again. its been really cool to go aruond meeting people and thinking of projects to do.
well everyone, thats it for now! i don't know if anyone besides my family is reading this haha. if so, feel free to leave me a little comment! sharon, i would like to thank you for your fantastic email the other day! it was great to hear from ya! guess what, cows and goats and chickens run wild here and it reminds me of you. a cow circled us today... it may or may not have totally freaked me out! oh, and i caught a chicken! ya! i took pictures, don't worry.
katie liddiard- will you call my parents and pick up the books i didn't have room to bring over? we are definitely going to want them! actually we have a list of a million things we want you to bring so get ready for that haha.
mom and dad- it was great talking to you on sunday! so fun, i look forward to talking to you again next week! i love you all, goodbye!

I LOVE LUGAZI!

Hello all! africa is so awesome!! i have so much to tell you about. we moved to lugazi saturday morning after the rest of our team arrived. it is so beautiful. uganda is seriously the greenest place i've ever seen. it rains every day here but we love it because it cools everything down and cleans us off a little. so we live in the city lugazi and our little town is nacazade. we live right in the heart of an african neighborhood. i love it. it's less busy than mukono, definitely. so saturday we spent the majority of the day scrubbing down the entire house so we could move in. the construction workers were supposed to have it done, but didn't. it was hard work, we made it look so much better! my favorite part was having to guide a river of nasty water through the hallways and out our back door! so funny. the house has a fence and our guard has a large gun. his name is morris and he is a stud. he takes really good care of us. our cook's name is rose and she is fantastic! we had our first ugandan feast, literally a feast, and we loved it. haha, she even killed our pet chickens for dinner. yum yum! i actually felt a little sad for them. luckily i didn't see them killed. so we had matoke, wish is basically the ugandan staple food eaten with every meal. not too bad! kind of like thick mashed potatoes. posho is strange, it's the consistency of play doh and has absolutely no flavor. rose also made us beans, peas, g-nut sauce which is like peanut butter, and delicious fruit! ugandans only eat dinner so that has been taking some getting used to. we just have fruit and a granola bar for breakfast and then come back at night for dinner.
the power has gone off multiple times already, as well as the water supply. haha it's been adventurous. me megan and kyle had to use a bucket last night to 'relieve ourselves' if you will. it was awesome. very african!
yesterday we went to church in jinja and it was amazing!! so cool. we'll be going to that branch which is about 30 minutes driving away. me and a few girls went to the young womans class and we talked about family history. unlike any lesson i've ever had before! we talked about the importance of knowing what clan you are in and your exact birthdate so you can keep a record. also, so whne you start dating someone, you can make sure they aren't your brother! a little different than here in the states. we're going to be teaching that class for the rest of the summer though! i'm so excited!
today we went and learned how to build adobe stoves and even made one ourselves! we got really messy! you have to stomp the clay and it is really thick and pasty. then you layer bricks over mortar and use a banana stalk to carve out a place for the smoke to go out. it was awesome talking to the various people about the stoves they already had from last year. it helps them so much! they don't breathe in the smoke, so it is way healthier for the women. it saves them hours and hours of food preparation as well. they can spend this saved time in their garden or working at their businesses. so this provides additional income. it's awesome!
so everytime we walk down the streets it is a parade of screaming children. they sing muzungu mzungu and it is the cutest thing ever. ah!
i am so happy to be here. i don't think i've ever been so happy. the people are welcoming and loving. i want to do so much for them, and it is ahrd to see the poverty they live in. they have so little, yet they smile and have so much joy. it's amazing. i can't wait to tell you more about my adventures but for now, goodbye!

Mzungu Mzungu!

I'm in Africa!!! It is so amazing. I LOVE IT! I have so much to say I don't even know where to start. The plane rides here were long but surprisingly not too bad. We had a 14 hour layover in London so Me, Megan, Katelynn, Cecily and Kyle went out into the city for the day. By that point, we hadn't slept in a LONG time and we were starting to get a little loopy you could say. But we used the tube and got to all the places we wanted to see! (no thanks to my navigational skills of course). We even had a nice little nap on the grass in front of Westminster Abbey. It was great! We then flew on to Kenya and I slept great for the majority of the way there. We got off the plane and it was warm and bugs were all over the ground! Haha huge moths just flopping around. Awesome. Unfortunately I needed to take my malaria pill but hadn't eaten any food or water for a while. This resulted in a bout of nausea that remained for the duration of my flight to Uganda. But all is well, nothing embarrassing happened luckily! Our country director Nicole picked us up at the airport. UGANDA IS BEAUTIFUL. It is so green and I feel like I'm on a tropical island. We had a two hour drive from Entebbe to Mukono. We'll be living in Lugazi with our team but our house isn't done being renovated yet. The Mukono team's flight was canceled yesterday to Uganda so we had the house to ourselves. I don't know what I was expecting but the house is quite primitive. But cool! The floors are dark red cement and we took a bucket shower outside :) Fun stuff! We were dilerious from lack of sleep and just walked around town since it was afternoon. Everyone stares at us and all the children wave and run up and hold our hands as we walk down the street. The internet cafe I'm in is open air and has five computers. It goes VERY slow. Yesterday I met a man named Elijah and he told me about how God has a plan for us all and he knows God meant for him to meet us that day. He was awesome! Gotta go I'll write more later! Mzungu means white person and everyone yells that at us as we walk by! Love you all!

Oli Otya?

Well family and friends, the time has almost come for me to depart to Africa! I can't believe it. I remember turning in my application to volunteer with HELP on September 20th (my Dad's birthday!), and feeling like this adventure was years away. But nearly eight months later, I am ready to go! I've gone to many trainings that have been really interesting and helped me get a better perspective of what my experience will be like in Uganda. These are the ones I've been to: Orphanage Work, Public and Community Health in the Developing World, Introduction to International Development, In-Country Safety and Security, Project Planning and Implementation, Understanding Yourself as an Instrument, and Intercultural Communication.

Another thing I've spent time on to prepare for this trip is fundraising. I want to thank my family members, friends, and everyone that donated in response to my letters. Also, to those that donated to the Tipping Bucket Organization that raised money for us to set up Eye Camps in Uganda. THANK YOU! I have full confidence that the projects we implement will greatly improve the quality of many lives. I can't wait to update you all on the things we accomplish and the experiences I have.

I want to express again how thankful I am for this opportunity to serve. I've had so much support from my family especially, even though my parents are a little nervous about my travels to a developing country like Africa. :) My younger brother Nate was able to volunteer with YouthLinc last summer in Kenya and had a life-changining experience there. While I've always wanted to volunteer abroad, I never imagined I'd be going to Africa! But I remember him coming home and seeing the light in his eyes as he spoke of his experiences. He had so much joy whenever he talked about the Kenyan people. I can definitely say that Nate played a part in my decision to pick Africa out of the countries that HELP sends volunteers to. I already feel love for the Ugandans and I can't wait to meet them!

The next time I write on here I'll be in Uganda!! :) bye everyone!
P.S. "Oli Otya" means "How are you?" in Luganda, the tribal language spoken in Uganda! Can't wait to pick some of it up!
P.S.S. Happy Birthday to my awesome Mom!! I love you!

73 Days!

Hello friends! Only 73 days until Uganda and I am more excited than ever. To help you get an idea of what my experience will be like, I've copied some general info about Uganda and stats on what HELP accomplished last summer.

"HELP International has been in Uganda for three years. We live in a village called Lugazi which is a small town of about 33,000 people. Lugazi is surrounded by sugar cane plantations, and many of the inhabitants are poor laborers. Just outside of the sugar cane fields are remote villages where we bring many of our projects. Projects in Uganda include: HIV/AIDS support group, business training, adobe stoves, square-foot gardening, public health campaigns, support for children with disability, and more.
Country Description: Uganda is in East Africa and is known as the "Pearl of Africa" because of its lush jungle and rolling hills. Though Uganda lays on the mouth of the Nile River and is replete with natural resources, the Ugandan people remain deeply impoverished. The official language is English, however in Lugazi, many people also speak a tribal language called Luganda. Translators are always readily avaible and most volunteeers end up learning a little Luganda."

"In 2009, 105 trained HELP International volunteers, with the help of 8 country directors, accomplished the following in Uganda, Fiji, El Salvador, and Guatemala:

4000 hours spent working in orphanages
1700 people received eye screenings, diagnoses, and medication; 102 received eye surgery
1650 hours spent providing hospital care
912 hours spent building homes with Habitat for Humanity
565 people (especially mothers) trained in public and family health and nutrition
574 hours spent starting medicinal plants business operations across 5 communities
350 books donated to a library
188 individuals trained in business
155 hours spent starting 4 mushroom producing businesses
132 adobe stoves constructed
125 chicken coops constructed for a school and orphanage
105 square foot gardens built
110 parents and community members trained in caring for the disabled
96 hand washing stations
35 at-risk youth for gang involvement mentored
54 young women and 45 street children recruited into soccer leagues
65 HIV positive orphans received art therapy and personal care
48 people served in starting 3 microcredit groups"

Visit HELP International's website to learn more about this awesome program!
http://www.help-international.org/
If you are interested in donating, go to the HELP website, click on "Donate Now" and place my name on the prompt line.
Thank you donors!!

Happy Birthday Blog!

Hey everyone! I've officially started a blog to keep people updated while I'm in Africa this summer. I don't know exactly how to use this but I'm sure I'll figure it out soon enough.

I'm so excited to meet the people in Uganda. I really can't wait until May 5th!!