sprinting to the finish line

i only have 5 weeks left here!

AAAAAAAGGGH!

I was really worried that when the second wavers left that all the projects would fizzle out. thank goodness for the awesome third wavers who are jumping right in to Uganda! I am now project lead on four projects- the CURE trainings, Mbale Hospital volunteering, handwashing outreaches, and the leadership class. I have kept really busy with them. Which is great! I do not want to be lame and die out these last five weeks. i want to keep sprinting hard core to the finish!

why?
I am not ready to leave! this place is honestly the best place I have ever been. I am content and happy. For the most part I live the Hakuna Matata lifestyle. The people here are the happiest people on the planet. They don't most of the "conviences" that we have in the US, but they have something more. They have family. They have community. They have relationships with God and with others that are undeniably strong. I love seeing children playing with homemade soccer balls (made from banana leaves and plastic bags) or homemade metal cars.  everyone here is so ready to learn knew things. they all want to make their life better than it was. they want to make Uganda a better place. They have such great hopes for the future. I hope and pray that they will all be fulfilled.

Well, I am almost out of time but I am going to really try to post more often in these last 5 weeks. Until later then...

the 5 senses of Uganda

Uganda smells like.....
- burning piles of garbage (i call them cancer piles)
- matooke and posho cooking
- raw cow stomach, intestines and fish in the market
- sewage in the gutters of the street

Uganda sounds like....
-crazy sounding birds that wake you up at 6 am 
- honking buses and yelling boda drivers
- rain pouring down
- drums and dancing
- children singing
- kids yelling "mzungu!"

boys from Sonset soccer academy

Uganda tastes like....
- fresh pineapple 
- rolex (chipati and fried eggs)
- a LOT of oil
- cadbury chocolate
- "Nice" biscuits

Aubs making a delicious chipati concoction

Uganda feels like....
- the hot hot sun beating down
- getting caught in a sudden downpour
- dancing for an hour, even though you are sweating bullets
- laughing with kids
- happiness

Becca, me, Kaylen after getting caught in a rainstorm

Uganda looks like....
- the greenest place you will ever see
- the happiest people
- insane roads
- busy busy busy, everywhere
- a lush garden
- red dirt

the view outside our compound!

tippy taps

whats a tippy tap?

its a handwashing station. many people in uganda don't wash their hands and so they get really bad diseases that are born by fecal matter. so for one of our projects we build a handwashing station at a school and then teach them about handwashing

this is a tippy tap we built at St. Kizitos baby home!

pictures to follow i promise

ok i have 4 minutes. aah! I am still a live. 

i lov africa.

i might come home with a black baby named scovia.

or maybe i'll bring home benjamin from impact.

or gerald (aka jared) and his sister, sandra.

i'll put up pictures tomorrow when i am on a better computer with faster internet.

project update

umm ok a month later.... i finally post. sorry about the long absence. in case you are wondering, i have not died in africa. but i have been sucked in. i absolutely love it here! i only have 10 minutes but i want to give a quick update on the three BIG projects i am working on. (i'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.)

#1- CURE Hospital Trainings.
CURE Hospital is an NGO in Mbale that specializes in pediatric neurosurgery- specifically hydrocephalis. It is a great facility and run by awesome staff. A group of us go every week and teach the mothers (who are there with a child getting surgery). We teach nutrition and boiling water (me), handwashing and basic hygiene (Aubrey and Rem), and First Aid (Jenner and Paul). I was really nervous to teach nutrition at first, since i am not an expert, but it is really fun! I just teach the 5 food groups and show them foods that they have here which are included in each group. We are hoping to spread the classes to the Regional Hospital and surrounding villages.

i love this hospital!

#2- Leadership Class at Impact Primary School
Impact school is my favorite. I love the kids there SO much! I had this great idea to start a student government. It turned into a leadership class, ebcause these kids don't really get much leadership training or opportunity.  We go once a week and teach all of P7 and then 2 or 3 kids from all the other classes (they are the class monitors).   I love teaching there because I hope to empower these students (most of whom are orphans) and show them they can make their life better than it is now!

me and some girls

human pyramid in p7

the P1-P4 class monitors

#3- Volunteering at Mbale REgional Hospital.
Ever since the mango tree and boy experience i have wanted to do somethuing in the hospital. We started volunteering there a few weeks ago. my goal ultitmately is to make contacts and friends with staff there so that i can remain in contact with the hospital when i go home. i want to create my own NGO to provide the hospital with suipplies and possibly volunteer doctors (to go over there like once a year). I volunteer in the pediatric acute care unit of monday and the surgery (OR) ward on Thursday and Friday. I have been able to see some crazy and sad stuff. i am more convinced that I WILL come back and help these people one day! they deserve a chance at a healthy, long life. And the staff deserve the supplies and equipment to fit their training.

this is what we had to wear in the surgical ward. i felt legit.

the boy and the mango tree

Monday night of last week, we were all hanging out at the house when suddenly Suzanne (our CD) and Jenner (a boy on the team) rushed out saying that
there was an emergency. They are both EMT's and Charles (a man from
church) had called them saying aboy had fallen out of a mango tree! So
they rushed over there. Charles had already picked up the boy
(something very bad to do because the boy had fallen on his head!) and
taken him to a "hospital". When Jenner and Suzanne got there the boy
was lying on the one bed in the "hospital", unconscious with blood and
cerebral spinal fluid coming out of his ears and nose. All the
villagers (these are the same people who we had a dance party with
last week) were just sitting there, sure that he was dead. But he
wasn't. After a while of searching, Suzanne and Jenner were able to
contact the only ambulence in Mbale to come get them. The ambulence
had a stretcher, but NO neck brace or straps to hold the boy down.
Suzanne and Jenner jumped in the back to help stabilize the boy (his
name is Ivan) on the way to the hospital. Can you imagine going on the
bumby roads in a sketchy ambulence when you already might have brain
damage? Ivan was unconscious for most of it (thankfully), but
sometimes he would wake up and thrash out. They finally got to a
private hospital- they didn't go to the regional state hospital
because there mayn't have even been a doctor on duty. At Mt. Elgon
hospital the doctors there didnt' even really know what to do, so
Suzanne and Jenner ended up doing alot of it. they didn't even have
any gloves for them! Ivan needed a CT scan, but becaus this is a
private hospital (not a state hospital, where all services are free)
they had to pay BEFORE the procedure could happen. the family of
course did not have the money (250 thousand shillings- or about $150)
to pay for it. Finally Jenner convinced the doctor to just do the
scan! He asked anyone on the team who was willing, to donate 20
thousand shillings to help pay for it. HELP doesn't do stuff like
that, but if individuals are willing to do that they can. the scan
discovered that he had a skull fracture and a subdural hematoma (blood
on the brain) that was starting to clot. there was nothing else they
could do at that time so they simply put Ivan in a room for the night.
If he lived they would evaluate him in teh morning. In the morning
Jenner and Suzanne went back over there  and had Ivan referred to CURE
hospital- the very reputable neurosurgery hospital here. He is VERY
lucky that CURE is so close because he probably would have died! He
was able to get into surgery that afternoon and did great. From this
week learned of the dire situation the healthcare system is in. About
70 kids (probably more) die from head injuries every day in Uganda.
That is so many! The villagers, and even Charles, had no idea what to
do when Ivan fell and took him for dead. Even the doctors were
unskilled and had very limited supplies. It is sad to see the poor healthcare system here. It has really impacted me. As a result, I am trying to find a way to get supplies over here to at least one of the hospitals!

pictures deleted

Hey all,
So tomorrow I was going to write a stinking awesome post complete with epic stories and pictures. Sadly, today as I was fiddling around with my camera I accidentally reformatted my memory card deleting all my pictures!!!! I amost cried. Luckily, they are [probably] not lost forever, but I will have to wait until I get home in order to have my brother retrieve them. So there will be no pictures tomorrow. However, epic stories will still be in the post! Until tomorrow,

Beka