A week of many firsts...

It took me a couple days, but I can officially say that I am settled in...not only settled in but loving it here. I have decided that I will stay until the New Year (and will have to stick to that commitment since I told Erika she can come visit for Christmas).

I'm gonna try my very best to describe what its like at the Waliggo's (the family's house where we stay). There are animals EVERYWHERE! There is of course the rooster, a bunch of chickens, goats that constantly fart (or shart), a huge cow with giant horns who just had a baby calf, a couple huge pigs and their little piglets, and best of all are the ducks. I got to see ducks have sex for the first time. but not the last. The ducks have sex ALL THE TIME and just yesterday we got to see the outcome when one of the ducks walked around the back of the house with 8 little furry ducklings following behind. If that wasn't enough commotion, there are also people coming and going at all times. Jaja (which is Luganda for Grandma) is the head of the household. She has 7 children, all of whom we have met, except John Mary who is the founder of URF and lives in the states. She also has 7 grandkids around that sometimes sleep in our house and if the roosters don't wake us up, its the kids that usually start screaming before 7am. If you were deaf, they'd be really cute kids :P

I wasnt sure what to expect for temperature, but I am glad that I brought lots of warm clothes because it is pretty cold at night and first thing in the morning. It is the start of the rainy season, so for the past couple days it has rained in the morning for and hour or so (which is good, because that's how we get water for showering, washing clothes etc.) and then it clears up and gets really hot. This weather should continue like this for the next couple months, which doesn't bother me...it almost makes me feel like I'm back in Vancouver.

As to what a typical day looks like, I can tell you what its been like so far although I'm sure that will change once school starts tomorrow and I actually start teaching!! We wake up at around 7am and relax (Chris or Daniel will play guitar while we journal or read). By 9am we start running errands (we have bought food and clothes for a couple child headed families in Rakai, we have taken 3 women to the clinic in Masaka to get treatments for HIV, vaccinated chickens - that was all Daniel, set up a library in the school, and supervised the workers who are currently paving the inside of the school). When we are not running errands, there are constantly kids from the school and the after school program that come around to talk to us or get us to help them with their schoolwork they don't understand. They are for the most part really great kids...although there are a couple that you just can't help feeling like they have an alterior motive. Some of them think that we are super wealthy and able to help them each individually, which would be nice, but realistically an impossibility.

This weekend we held a Youth Camp at the school. When I say youth camp and you think youth camp those are 2 totally different things. Had this camp occured in North America, I am pretty sure there would have been at least a couple law suits. About 45 kids showed up although only 20 had registered. The kids were split up into 4 groups (Canada, US, Brazil and Uganda) and we painted their faces and I of course tatooed my team with my dollar store tattoos. They made their own dinners, collected their own firewood and water and did all sorts of chores. The boys all slept in one of the classrooms while the girls slept in the other. We had a couple seminar/discussion groups where we taught them to use the library we set up, talked about recycling (and not littering which is a huge problem here) and career options. The best seminar had to be the one where we had to show them how to use an actual toilet! The school has 2 "toilets" meaning they have put a seat over the latrine. Unfortunately the kids are not familiar with how a seated toilet works, so some of them stand on the seat and squatting and therefore end up pooping and peeing all over the seat. Gross, I know. We played a soccer game against the boda-boda drivers in Kyetume (motorcycle taxis) and watched "educational videos" with them. It was really fun and to top it all off, we (Daniel, Fred and I) slept down at the school on the floor in sleepingbags...just because we weren't roughing it enough already ;)

A big first this week was my first jigger. I'm not sure what exactly it is, but it is some sort of parasite or worm-like creature that buries itself into your feel and then grows and itches like crazy. Fred said it feeds on your blood although I have heard different things from different people. He took it out with a safety pin while I bit Daniel's shoulder and Renato commented on how disgusting it was and took pictures (which I havent uploaded yet). I hope that was the first and last time I'll have to do that!

This evening we went into Kyetume (pronounced chetumeh) to lead a session with the women about women's health. Seeing as though I am the only female volunteer here at the moment, I had to do all the talking. I think it was fairly successful. We talked about the conditions in which they cook (over a fire in a closed room with no ventilation for the smoke which is incredibly bad for their lungs), anemia and menopause (which most of them had never heard of and knew nothing about it). Daniel and I have been brainstorming and talking about the possibility of installing chimneys into the kitchens, to solve some of these problems. So if any of you have any expertise on chimney construction, please let me know!

I will try to write again sometime this week once school gets going and I settle into the groove. I am really nervous about teaching here! Part of what I think makes me a good teacher is my ability to relate to my students and I wonder if I will be able to do that with the kids over here. I'm sure I had more to say, but its late and I should get to bed. Goodnight!

Missy
xoxo

PS. I also got my first letter in the mail this week from Francesca (my cousin from England)! It was exciting to receive a piece of mail...hint hint!