A Summer To Remember

WATCH OUT y’all

Guys…i got the herps! this last week in the village has been rough to say the least. everything is wrapping up and i fill pretty dang shitty, but i am slowly recovering so i shall be a-okay. i had to visited the mzungu doc for my bleeding hemorrhoid and then now i have a sore in my mouth, from the strain of herpes that 70-80% of the population has though that causes cold sores so no worries. the only problem is that it is the size of a freakin dime and hurts like a mother! not to mention that the rest of my mouth is inflamed like i just downed a bottle of chili sauce. but i have gotten down eating on one side of my mouth. talking about eating and food here, whoever says you are going to come back losing a few with an amazing tan has obviously never been to uganda! first for my tan, my skin has burn, peeled and burned so i look all patchy and then it is only in spots where my skin is exposed, that means due to the conduct of appropriate dress, my legs and pretty much everything else are blinding since they haven’t seen a speck of sunlight for a long time, and i getting a pretty dang awesome farmer’s tan. then the food, all carbs and oil, drenched in oil! so much that every female is complaining about the losing of a figure and gaining weight, but for me it explains the malnurishment that are imposed upon these children. as a result of the mass amount of lack of the proper nutrients, extended stomachs and copper colored hair emerge. Everything else seems superficial when you are healthy and i find it extremely difficult to complain about anything else when you look around. we have established a healthy initiatives team within the village in order for them to continue the work that we has started so that when we leave, hopefully it will be sustainable. i am really excited for the partnership that has been created with the district office of health, and our man the health assistant has been amazing in the active role he has been undertaking. training for the selected members will be wednesday but the program is coming to an end this tuesday for wrap up and evaluation, but i think that a few of us will sneak back into the villlage to observe them being educated and trained by the health assistant. not only that, our well is making wonderful progress and it is amazing that 700 US and a partnership with the village and engineers will allow for the entire village to have clean water. its kinda of sickening actually thinking what some americans spend their money on, including myself, when people don’t even have access to safe water! the first week of august i will be heading out to murchinson falls for a three day four night adventure/ safari. what a great example of poorly spending money, huh, but i have heard that this is one place that someone has to go. i will be flying home on August 8th, moving into the dorms the same day and the first meeting that starts my RA training is the next day. after 30 hours of traveling and then unpacking, i am going to be exhausted to say the least. BUT shout out to my CKC-ers summer staff, i want to see you girls beautiful faces when i come that weekend. i’ll be checking in on the 8th so i don’t know if any of ya are working but still! hope everyone is having a wonderful summer, peace, kt

this should be in the bill of human rights!

in our village we have conducted a HIV testing date with 100 people showing up and since the nurses didn’t come with enough strips, we are having another one this friday. Out of those, only one person tested positive; however, she isn’t the only wife and she has a daughter, so the actual infection can quickly add up. although it is just one, one is too much for me! people even said that when we were mobilizing what services will they have since they might want to commit suicide if they were found positive the other day our village broke ground on the shallow well for safe water. it is right next to the swamp where they usually get water and seriously it is the color of my dirty laundry. i was not only disgusted at the conditions, but also at that thought that this is not uncommon! this should be a given, clean water for all for all men, women, and children! i am excited for the commission and the partnership that was created with engineers here at uganda. i wish there was a group of ppl just traveling around just making shallow wells, anyways, got to get going a write the report and get stuff done. miss you all but i am reallly reallly going to miss this place at the same time!

Sippi Falls

so … basically amazing, the view from our guest house was panoramic and we were able to see kenya and the falls. So we absailed down 100 meters next to the fall, like repelling but you don’t have a rock to put ur feet on. basically i wish i could do that everyday. on our hike back up, now that was crazy! so there was a little down part that was hella muddy, when i say little, i mean enough space to put one foot just in front of the other, hugging any vegetations since there was a pretty steep slope downward right next to you that seemed pretty endless. to top it off i only have hikers sandals that had no traction. sum it up and i ate ass on a rock once and another time there was a curve part were it is downhill and the tiny trail curved around to the cliff but the other problem was i ate it again and wasn’t able to curve with the trail since i kept on sliding thank goodness the ugandan guide was right in front of me and just pushed me on the trail to the left. just to say my heart fluttered a bit! then we went rock climbing and these guys are intense! we did it until sunset and the view is beyond words. just a little thing of hiking back up the canyon, it was around an hour and a half some was straight up hill that they made pseudo stairs, we were all pretty much huffing and puffing and then there were bare footed children passing us with full jerry cans on their heads, can anyone say ridiculous. not to mention that it didn’t even come from a clean water source! anyways, spending this weekend to start wrapping up our projects in the village.

Kampala/ Sippi Falls

Last weekend, I went to the capital, which was amazing to see but it was dirty!  Someone pickpocketed me and stole a small journal, thank goodness it wasnt my money/ camera! i def. learn my lesson though! When we were going through the second hand markets people would grab my ass multiple times and offer cows for marriage.  master park would be proud of me because i hit this guy pretty hard (a straight on chop to his wrist) after he grabbed me, and he gave me this priceless look and i just gave him one more stern look and he regressed into the crowds.  it was pretty great. i went to church there and it was english speaking which is really rare and it was amazing, minus convert 10 of your friends, but seeing the conditions around us can be very dishearting and it is not always easy to maintain my hard shield, which no matter what is a must here in order to get another done here. anyways, i am headed off to nature at sippi falls for the fourth of july.  I am pretty pumped since there will be rock climbing and repelling down the rapids.  Also shout out to all those who leave me messages, i love hearing from u all, maddy damn girl, jaw still broken, hope it gets better and mel mo you are going to love africa!  Anyways, happy fourth, i know i’ll be celebrated with my rum that we all bought that comes in individual plastic packets, pretty priceless!  hugs and love!

Still more on Jinga

SO mom, if you are reading this, please skip ahead ahha! So after rafting me and some fellow UVP people decided to head out clubbing, which was ridiculous because it was more pushing people off of you. Thank goodness our translator, Lawerence was there and he is 6’4 so i was hanging out with him and the rest of the gang all of the night. Anyways, Lawerence has a car and this guy ( i later found out since i didn’t understand the situation at the time) was watching his car with a hugh rifle so it wouldn’t be stolen. In return he was asking for 500 shillings which is 50 cents US mind you. I was in the back seat and at the time, I thought he was just asking for money. With my mother’s genes, I was trying to bargain with him so with my loud ass mouth i was said ’ Nhabyo, nhabyo i will only give you 200 shillings.’ Mind you nhabyo is miss in lusoga, sebo is sir and the guys in the front where just like Kate shut the hell up. yes i called this guy with a hugh rifle miss, my bad!

TMI

i am sick, if you want details, i’ll spare you, two words…two ends, then use your imagination with a latrine! then afer 5 hours of sleep, woke up and had to walk 3-4 miles to the healthcenter to conduct interviews… not in the best of moods.

   that doesn’t hit upon the fact there is another death in our village, yes that is four in two weeks and our parish is not hugh

 in addition, we have critters, a bat who literally shat on my shit, diarrhea too, no nice pellets, then the rats (who we tried to kill using non-poisonous rat glue and escaped) were dying under my stuff and all over the place.  that doesn’t include the time it was trying to sneak under my bed net and crawl into my bed!

  but bungee jumping was crazy, definitely a once in a life time experience! i didn’t jump when they told me to and my whole body was shaking, basically shat my pants, but i survived.  Rafting was amazing and we had a crazy ugandan guy who had been doing this for twenty years and was saying that it is a very spiritual experience, which it really was.  It is strange but i am finding faith in the oddest of places and times.  The first rapid, i was projectiled out along with my enitre side and i hit a rock.  I am okay, but i hope my leg doesn’t scar - it was right on my tibia so during bungee, it was a bitch.  oh and for those who haven’t done it before, they only use a towel! to tie you down, sadly i admit it, i cried, but if you ask me in person, it was the wind

JINJA!

I will be rafting on the Nile this coming weekend so you probably will not hear from me in awhile. They are class 5 rapids, if anyone knows, that is some wild stuff. Its like the second best rapids in the world! I am also going bungee jumping too…but we shall see if i could actually jump. Supposedly your head gets dunked into the Nile River below you. Mom, there was a heavy rain storm so Matt’s cell phone got no service also there is no answering machine so it just says it is out of service. I am fine and will be getting back on Sunday from this weekend trip so feel free to try again but this is Africa so don’t worry too much if you don’t get a hold of me! Love you! Ps I couldn’t send an email so hence using this instead!

ROugh Weekend

     After visiting the health centers, the numbers were ridiculous!  It didn’t hit me until this weekend.  There were three children who died within two days.  I went to the two of the burials and they will be something I will never forget.  I wrote in my journal that day, and here is what I wrote:

    My feet were bare as I sat on the rice mat.  Women and children were in front, to the sides, and behind me by the hundred.  The village was there.  Men sat in chairs under a make-shift shelter for the clouds rolling in predicted rain.  The sun was struggling to show itself and created a crisp silver lining on the darkest of clouds. The breeze threw the wisps of my hair in my face and I would toss them aside as they would hinder my view.  Hinder my view of the blackened coffin, fit for a four year old yet the child was eight.  Voices would rise and fall but just blurred together in their native tongue.  The thing I noticed that the young mothers around me were clutching their children, knowing that it could happen any day to them.

      A fury of emotions sweep through me, the same fury that shown across the faces of the women and children sitting next to me.  Sorrow, confusion, and anger.

      What resonated the most was anger.  The mass amount of infected individuals with HIV/AIDs, malaria, and other water borne diseases were in the hundreds diagnosed per month.  Those numbers in my mind were just that in the record books, numbers.  Today I saw one number turn into a lifeless child and I could not help see it multiple in the masses

    I was angry to see people, women, children die of such a curable disease.  I was angry at the circumstance that this family could not afford a three dollar treatment.  I as angry at the fact that due to the lack of medication at the health center, a child was sent to her death bed. 

      I then started to think if this would ever occur in the States.  The answer is simple. NO! I then redirected my anger.

      I was angry that Americans are either ignorant or ignore these conditions.  The lack of empathy is obvious as it is mirrored in our governmental spending to aid compared to our deficit spending for the military.  Is it because we are comfortable and desire to maintain this comfort? Are we blind to see that our sense of entitlement to our lifestyle is a joke?  Our privileges and rights occur the day we are born. Sure one has the power to change circumstances, but please tell that to an American born child and the same message to a child from a family of fifteen living in Bugabula. The last message would falsely deceive that child.  She would have an enormous likelihood of death compared to completing a college education.   Anyways, women are usually seen as investments to be sold off into marriage.

    Many more thoughts like these cascade through my mind. 

         I am finally brought back as the women  around me stand.  They carry the body off behind the mud house to be buried.  I finally see the mother.  She is curled up in the fetal position on her knees with her face buried in the dirt.  It seemed as if she wanted to join her child.

    As people moved away for her to ceremoniously throw the first handful of dirt on the coffin.  The mother lets out a horrifying cry that sent tears sweltering into my eyes.  I have never heard a sound ever like this before and it is one that I never want to hear ever again.  She had to be carried off since she went limp.

     After the procession, I was emotionally drained.  But it lit that fire.  As long as I save one life or even plant the seed of preventative health care, I would feel like my two months here was successful.

     I have so many thoughts but they have to wait.

Mini break down

  As some of you may know, back in the States, I would take a shower and shave every day!  After walking a round trip of 8 miles to interview various pharmacies in a town, I was a hot mess.  The exposure to the sun gave me sun poisoning aka rashes with tiny bumps and nausea and I was covered with red dirt.  My teammate knowing the mood I was in poured me some water for a tub bath and I proceed to grab a cup to start with my feet. Of course I would splash water and dirt all over myself.  It was a major fail.  I just stood in the tub and just let out some French…SHIT!  There was no way I was going to get clean.  Not today, not tomorrow and not for the next two months.  Until then, I will be waiting for a nice cold shower!

The players should come to Bugabula

The players should come to Bugabula. Here it is acceptable for a man to have multiple wives. To impregnate those wives repeatedly. The best part is to have a hands off approach while the wives work in the households and fields. For the wives to carry children on their backs along with a 20 liter jerry can on her head. To take care of up to 15 children. Yes, the players should come to Bugabula!