Day 25 - July 30

Day 24 - July 29

I’m trying to keep the next couple of writing short because frankly I haven’t had much time to keep us since Pamela and Nick have gotten here. We’ve had much more work to do and lots of traveling. It’s more complicated when there are more people. Plus, I’d rather spend free time hanging out with people that I haven’t seen than I would writing about everything we do.

We woke up early to go to Mulago. We had arranged with Jozeph to pick us up at 7:45 so that we could be sure to be on time, even with Jam. It was normal morning traffic, but it does take a lot of time to get there when the traffic is heavy. However, I don’t think it took long enough. We were early to Susan’s office by 20 minutes. I don’t like to be late and I actually prefer to be at least 10 minutes early for any work appointment. That’s just not how it works here. People kept wondering why we were waiting and asking if they could help us. We were perfectly content just sitting outside and waiting, but apparently that makes people uncomfortable. When Susan finally arrived, she said we made her nervous because we were early. When she asked if we were on Mzungu time, Pamela replied that it was Margaret time. I’d rather be known for being early than late! Susan brought us down to the Infectious Disease Unit to follow the doctors there. She made us promise that tomorrow we will be on Africa time. I told her I couldn’t make any promises! I have to plan for Jam and if it’s not there than I’ll just have to be early!

The Infectious Disease wards were totally full with patients. Most of the infectious disease problems are because of HIV/AIDS. The doctor that we were told to follow was trying to do some punch biopsies to confirm Kaposi sarcoma in some of the patients. If that is the case, the patient is in the fourth and highest stage of the disease progression. I was a bit apprehensive about being in on the biopsies. The last time I was observing one, my mind told me I was fine, but my body was trying to stop my from watching by putting me in panic mode, forcing me to sit down and try to keep myself from passing out. Since it was early, I was hot, and hadn’t eaten much, I knew it might be a problem. I started leaning just in case. I’m glad I did because I was feeling a bit clammy even though all that had been done was insertion of the needed to administer the numbing medication. Clearly I need to get over this issue if I’m going to be a doctor! Once the first procedure was done, Pamela and I walked to get more water and I had some of a Cliff bar. I felt much better afterwards. It’s amazing what can happen if your body isn’t getting all the nutrients it needs!

I was expecting to have the next procedure right away, but since the nurses were nowhere to be found, we decided to go through the ward and round on the patients. The doctor we were with tried to explain as much as she could to us. I don’t think she was having an easy time with her patients because she didn’t appear to speak Luganda. She had to keep requesting people to come over and talk to the patients. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to be trying to take care of that many patients but not be able to speak directly with most of them. She has a hard enough time getting patients to tell the truth and when you add the language barrier, it becomes nearly impossible to get all the necessary information.
After we saw most of the patients, the doctor decided to try the biopsies. The nurse had disappeared and I don’t think she was planning on coming back anytime soon. The doctor asked if we could assister her instead. I’m glad we were at least useful today! She took us on without any warning which I’m sure is a bit uncomfortable and burdensome to have 3 extra people to explain everything to!

The first patient we did, Pamela helped out with. It seemed to go smoothly for everybody and I was ecstatic that I never got light-headed or even close to feeling like I would pass out! Yay! There is still hope for me yet! The third and final biopsy was something I think I’ll never see again in my life. Immune compromised people can end up with some pretty intense infections because their body just doesn’t fight off fungus, virus, or bacteria very well. This man had feet covered in a fungus and they had swelled to at least 3 times the normal size. I can picture them in my head, but I don’t even know how to describe them. I didn’t think it was appropriate to take a picture of his feet, so we never asked. Part of me wishes we could have just to remember what it was. This was the biopsy that I had the pleasure of taking part in. I made it through with not much problem and was able to help out a lot more since his condition was much worse than the first two. I think if I could do that without a problem, I must be getting better. Only time will tell. I’m sure there will be many more things that throw me over the edge, but I’m just going to have to keep trying to push through them!

When we finished, we were supposed to meet up with the sister of a friend from back home named Joyce. She is just starting her third year of medical school here. It was very sweet of her to want to meet us and take us around if we wanted. She was still in class when we finished so we sat in Susan’s office. I’m sure we made her nervous! After a while, I recognized the guy who had come late to the meeting on Tuesday walk in. We talked for a bit. He is a resident from Cornell who is going to start a fellowship in Infectious Disease. It was great of him to take time and talk with us. We ended up waiting for Joyce outside and he was waiting for a cab. He offered to give us a ride on his way since Garden City is easy to get to. It was so great of him. I love when you meet down to earth doctors who are willing to help out those of us at the bottom of the totem pole, aka 10th class citizens as we were once told. Maybe I’ve moved up to 9th class since I finished one year, but still, I think there are way more people in front of us than there are behind. Just before we were ready, Joyce walked up and asked if I was Margaret Perko. I thought maybe it was one of Angella’s friends, but then she introduced herself as Joyce. We thanked Ben for the offer, but ended up getting our own cab to Garden City with Joyce.

Lunch was fun. I think it’s always better to spend time with real people and just not experience the country from the outside. We got to get the perspective of a student in a similar position as us and learn about how she got to be where she is. Even though she’s all the way across the ocean, we seem to have a lot of the same frustrations and struggles.

After lunch, we went back home to meet my mom. She had been with Jozeph all morning visiting a school that her cousin back home has been supporting for many years. When I got home, she was very excited to tell me about the school that takes hundreds of kids and teaches them not only the necessary educational subjects, but also teaches life skills and jobs for those that can’t or don’t want to go to university. Afterwards, Jozeph invited her over to his house to have lunch with his wife and kids! He’s such a great cab driver and just an all around good guy!

It had been an exhausting morning, so we all took naps to get ready for Katanga. We knew we had to get in and out quick at her house because it we had to start later in the afternoon when all of the kids were around and we didn’t want to be there past dark. Luckily, Angella brought Gloria with her to help with translation and explanations. It was mass chaos and the mess was hard to bear. It doesn’t seem to bad when you see all the garbage, but then we you think that this is where they cook, eat, sleep, and where some of the children use the bathroom every day all day long, it’s really overwhelming. I have a hard time sitting there for an hour or two. I don’t know what I would do if I had to stay there for days at a time.

We’re still a little unsure of exactly what JaJa’s relationship to the children is. It doesn’t seem that we know everything about all of the kids. Some of the ones form last year are now gone because a family member decided to take them in. Some of them may be her real grandchildren and there are still quite a few that have no background information and were just dropped off at her house.

Luckily, while we were there, a man named Peter showed up. He explained that he is in a cell group at Watoto church and they have been trying to help JaJa since 2008. They were responsible for the news article that brought the orphanage to Susan’s attention which led to us visiting. They are currently supplying food and helping try to keep things clean. They are also working on projects to help find her land to live on in a bigger space. It was great to know that somebody was working on helping her out. Both Angella and Gloria were worried about the situation and want to do more than just bring the medicine, but they weren’t sure how to help. What are the chances that Peter happened to come at the same time as us? I think God for sure had a plan for us to meet Peter so that we could learn about JaJa and make a contact with somebody who is also trying to help them out. We’re going to try and help out as much as we can and keep in contact with Peter and his friends as they work on improving the situation.

For dinner, we went to Fang Fang hotel and restaurant. It’s pretty much the most expensive place we ever eat, but the good Chinese food is totally worth it. It’s a great outdoor setting with giant red lanterns hanging in the courtyard and wood carvings on all of the walls. I think we deserved a good meal after the long couple of days we just had! Tomorrow may be even busier, with another day at the hospital, shopping, another orphanage, and bowling to end the night!

Day 23 - July 28

After a long day, sometimes all you want to do is relax! Too bad we don’t really get that luxury because we have an early morning tomorrow. I think every day from here on out is going to be this busy, but we will hopefully get a great experience.

I woke up around 7:30 as usual and used the quite time to get my thoughts in order and plan for the rest of the day. Lately I’ve been having strange dreams that make me wake up thinking about odd things. I think last night there was some sort of serial killer out to get us and we were hiding out trying to stay alive. The medication we take for anti-malarials called Malarone is what a lot of people blame their strange dreams on while they are in foreign places. I’m still not sure if it’s the medicine or perhaps just the strange environment. In addition, those silly movies may have just found too much room to camp out in my brain! I’m not going to get sucked into another one and hopefully the dreams will be a little less bizarre!

Angella called and said she would be going to the clinic and we could meet her for Evelyn’s appointment around eleven. We weren’t at all ready by then. I think I was the only one that was up before 9:30 and everyone else still wanted to shower before we left the house. We decided to just meet at Mulago around noon.

Once we finally got ready, we called Jozeph to pick us up. Unfortunately, he was busy taking somebody to the airport so we had to call the other Jozeph, who charges more. I understand that his car is bigger, but seriously, he charges way too much! I think the only fair rate that he gave us was for the airport. This time we tried to get him to go for 15,000, but he said that wasn’t enough and that 20,000 was the fare. We finally settled on 17,000. It’s the first time I feel like he actually gave us a somewhat decent negotiation on price.

We stopped by Susan’s office to drop of the crayons, coloring book, and beanie baby we brought for her niece, Clarissa. She really appreciated loved them and I’m sure Clarissa will too! When she found out that Pamela and Nick were here and that we weren’t going to see the hospital, she insisted on setting up a couple of days for them to work in Mulago. I thought Troy had said he talked to this Susan about it and was told we couldn’t, but Susan said she never talked to Troy. Who knows if it was a different Susan or if she didn’t remember him. We’ve met so many Susans that I wouldn’t be surprised if there was another one working in a similar place in the hospital that Troy talked to and thought it was the same person.

We didn’t know exactly where to find Evelyn but luckily Angella knows every area of the hospital so she acted as our person guide. We got to the outpatient surgical ward to find that it had moved to a whole other building for the day. Go figure. I don’t know how people know where to show up for work in the morning and I’m even more baffled at how patients are able to arrive, find their charts, and then head to the proper building to see their doctor. We found the ward but when we got there, behind the desk there were three nurses and a man in white that did not want us to be there. We tried to explain to him the situation from both Angella’s and my own perspective, but they weren’t having it. It’s frustrating because when Troy is back in the states, Deo contacts him about Evelyn’s condition but Deo doesn’t know the exact medical procedures so there isn’t anything Troy can do. All we wanted was to talk to a doctor about what the plan was for her case. In the middle of our discussion with the four gatekeepers of the ward, Deo showed up to tell us where to find Evelyn. We decided that just one of us needed to go in and it wouldn’t be a good idea to try to have all of us inside, especially with the way the nurses were annoyed with the group.

While we waited, Deo brought Evelyn over to see us. She’s such a happy little girl as long as you aren’t messing with her belly! Poor thing has been through so much and she’s just 3 ½! I honestly don’t know how her mother does it! She takes care of Evelyn and her other children along with some of the orphaned kids in Mubende. Evelyn needs to be constantly watched and her bandages need to stay clean all day long. It’s hard enough to do it in a sterile environment with running water but to do the same out in the village with no running water and so much outside work with dirt and garbage all over the place, she must be working non-stop. Evelyn had fun with us for a while and we talked a bit with Deo. After nearly an hour, the nurse called Evelyn, and I was chosen to go with. I entered with Fiona and Evelyn to a patient room with four other patient/mother pairs already in it. Apparently privacy and patient confidentiality don’t really matter. Fiona doesn’t speak English and I’m pretty sure that nobody else in the room did. I did understand that Fiona was telling one of the mothers about Evelyn and then explaining to her that I was Mukwano, which means friend. I wish there was more I could do for them, but unfortunately I don’t have the skills of surgeon and I don’t know anybody else who does.

The nurse called the patients one by one to the room next door where the doctor was waiting. I tried to sheepishly explain why I was there, but the doctor really didn’t seem to mind that I was there nor did she care why I was there. She explained that Evelyn’s case was not the only one and that they just need to get their act together in order to do the procedure. Deo has always made it seem like nobody is able to do the surgery, but after talking with the surgeon, it seems they know what to do, it’s just a matter of getting the resources together. The surgeon said that a doctor from the U.S. was welcome to take over the case if they felt like it, but it seemed to me that she would rather continue the process they are working on, even though it is slow-going. I made the mistake of leaving without asking for contact information. When I got back to the group, I explained the situation but it didn’t seem Deo was totally satisfied. I don’t know who mentioned it, but somebody suggested I get the email or phone number for the surgeon directly. I really didn’t want to and I didn’t think it was necessary, but my mom started to insist that I do it. I tried to walk back to the room again, but the nurse was mean this time and said the doctor was very busy and I could wait until she sees the rest of the patients. There were at least 25 more waiting in main area so I knew it would probably be hours. I walked back the hallway without the number and feeling insignificant after the way the nurse brushed me off. When I got back, my mom said I should ask her new friend, the nurse at the desk who had been cranky earlier. My mom has always had a way of making friends wherever she goes. My mom had asked her if she could take her picture to show her friend Shirley back home because her outfit was similar to the outfits that nurses used to wear in the states. When I learned he name, all I could do was laugh. Margaret Susan! Some day we might find a variety of names for the people that we know, but for now we’re just going to have to settle with know multiples of every name. Needless to say, Margaret Susan was not able to help us. I honestly didn’t think it was an appropriate situation in the first place. I get really frustrated that people expect us to solve every problem just because we are from outside of Uganda. It’s somewhat disrespectful to the nurses and doctors that work here. Many of them are very good at what they do and are competent in their skills, but people in the country tend to not trust the system to work and fix their problems. Part of me doesn’t blame them because the number of people that don’t get what they need in hospital is very high. However, most times it is because the organization is so poor and the resources are so limited. There is a lack of understanding that needs to be worked through so that people will learn to trust the people that are there to help them.

I was frustrated when we left, but I know that Evelyn is in good hands and I am glad to know that we can trust them to take care of her. I followed through on my promise to go to the appointment and figure out what is going on, but I think that’s as far as we should get involved. It’s hard to tell people you can’t really help them more, but truthfully, we can’t and we really shouldn’t in the interest of letting the Ugandan doctor do her job. Angella worked under the surgeon and she said she was one of the best that she worked with at her entire time at Mulago. I trust what Angella has to say and I’m glad that she was able to reassure us about the situation.

After the appointment we stopped by Susan’s office to inform her that we would like to see infectious disease and possibly pediatric or OB/GYN rounds in the next two days. She informed us to come at 8:45 in the morning and she’s have it set up.

We also had to stop down at Katanga to make sure JaJa would be around with the kids when we come tomorrow. I am always a little skeptical when we go down in that area. The people watch everything that we do and it’s so crowded and noisy that it’s easy to get distracted. With the group of us, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. Now that we have found an easy way to find it, there doesn’t seem to be any uncertainty about safety. It was probably good for everybody to see where we were going so they could be prepared for tomorrow.

Apparently the morning had gotten away from us because by the time we decided to get lunch it was nearly 4:00. We took Mtatu’s to Taste Budz in Bukoto. I probably should branch out more, but I stuck to the pizza and a chocolate milkshake. They just taste better than most things here! We still had to get our medicine cabinet’s to bring to the Bukoto orphanage. Since we didn’t want to pay for a taxi, Pamela and I took Boda’s back to the house to pick up what we needed. Pamela had asked about safety on them and I assumed she meant physical safety. I said they should be safe, especially since the roads aren’t too bad. Then she informed me that she was more worried about being taken some place she didn’t want to go. Apparently in Vietnam it was a big concern when you took scooters. I’ve never heard of that being a problem, but once we started riding, I was very careful to watch for Pamela, just in case something happened. We got home and grabbed the stuff. When we came back out of the gates, the drivers were pointing up the hill and laughing. I think they were overwhelmed by how steep and bumpy it is. They were strategizing on how to get up it. This hill has caused more headaches than anything else this trip! My driver got on and when as fast as he could the whole way up the hill. We both cheered when we made it. Pamela and her driver were another story. They started slow and weren’t ever able to pick up momentum. We laughed as they struggled to make it! Thankfully, they arrived at the top without too much trouble, but clearly it was a strain on the bike! I decided I wouldn’t mind giving an extra 1,000 for the ride because of the unexpected hill!

We had to walk to the orphanage in Bukoto. We started walking just as the rain started. There weren’t really any taxis out and none of the Mtatus go where we needed to from that point. We just continued in the rain. By the time we arrived, all of us were drenched. At least the water wasn’t too cold and the weather was still pretty warm so we weren’t miserable.

The mother, Hilda, was super excited to see us again. And the children were jumping up and down in happiness! We got to work filling out information on each child and asking the questionnaire to the two main caregivers and two secondary caregivers. The oldest of the women didn’t speak English, so translating was fun. Hilda speaks English, but some things are lost in translation. There is one question about dehydration that asks what it means when a child cries with no tears or drool. She thought it was hysterical and couldn’t stop laughing about such an absurd idea. It took longer than it should have, and it was pretty dark by the time we finished. Pamela, Nick, and my mom handed out beanie babies that Pamela’s dad had given for the trip. The kids loved them and immediately started running in to show them to us.

Once we finally got all the work done, we were blessed with a song and prayer for the rest of our travels. I’m so happy that we have found this orphanage. I think it could be a really great place to visit in the future and they seem to really try to understand exactly how to use all of the medicine. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, with a visit to the hospital and another orphanage!

Day 22 - July 27

I hope that Nick and Pamela enjoyed today. We returned to the HIV clinic that I went to at first with Gloria. We were supposed to meet her at 8:00 to go to the meeting for failing patients at IDI. Jozeph came to get us in the morning, but he was a little late and then the jam was more intense than usual so we ended up being almost a half hour late! I don’t know if I can really say late. Since everybody works on African time, it’s almost impossible to ever start anything when you are supposed to. The traffic is awful in the city so some days it can take an hour or more to go a distance that should take 15 minutes. We walked into the meeting late, but the person in charge waved us to some seats in the front.

I was surprised at how much more I was able to figure out what was going on today. The last meeting I went to, they might as well have all been speaking Luganda, because I wasn’t catching any of the points they were making. After spending a couple of days with Gloria and talking about HIV/AIDS and all of the complications, I was actually understanding what they were talking about with each patient. I felt like I had learned some relevant information that I will be able to take with me as I learn more in the future. The world probably learns a lot from the data that comes out of the IDI center about infectious disease. There are not many other places outside of Africa that have the number and high concentration of HIV positive patients. Each patient is put into a profile and then given treatment based on guidelines set up here. The biggest problem is the sheer number of patients. The CDC has a set budget on what money is available to purchase ARV drugs to give out to patients for free. The more patients that show up, the more money they need to spend. In order to try to cut costs, they patients are being started on the medicines later and later. This means that the patient’s immune system may be very weak by the time the drugs are started so they will end up with more complications. It’s so unfortunate to see that there are drugs that will prevent severe sickness, but they are not being used because there is not enough money to make them go around.

At the clinic, I decided to help out with the triage of the patients which is basically taking weight, height, temp and blood pressure. Being a first year medical student and working at the HOPE Clinic qualified me to be able to do it! However, I think the most important factor was that I have my own BP cuff, which is a limiting factor for the number of people that are able to take blood pressures. Pamela and Nick split up with Gloria and her friend Joane, who works with management of pregnant woman and children who are at risk or have HIV.

I tried to help call out the names of the patients that were waiting as the files were placed on the table. When I called out the names in my English pronunciation, nobody really paid attention. There were three nurses and a counseling student at the table, and they didn’t seem to interested in helping me at first. I knew it was going to be a really rough day if I wasn’t able to make a connection with them. Lucky for me, I had resources to help me out! The best was the tiny beanie babies. Our neighbors our extremely generous and had given us over 400 of the little toys to pass out wherever we saw they would be appreciated. We decided to hand them out to the children at the clinic as they went in to see the doctors. I never got the student’s name, but he was my biggest help. I wasn’t sure how to use the thermometers. Everybody here takes temperatures under the armpit. It might be a little less invasive and more sterile than anywhere else, but I don’t really think they are that accurate. Most of the patients were 35 degrees Celcius or less, which means that they are a whole 2 degrees below the average normal temperature. I just have a hard time believing that everybody is that low. Maybe there is something I don’t know about people in the country and core body temperature. I’ll have to try to figure it out some day.

The nurse sitting across from me was especially stern. She was probably in her mid thirties but you could tell she was in charge of what was going on. She was always telling people what to do and grabbing things away from people in disapproval. Any time I even reached for a file that she wanted, she would shake her head and give me some other file. I realized after a few patients that she had a system and I was interrupting it when I took the files that I was told to take by the man bringing them. Once I figured that out, things went much more smoothly. The nurse was even calling out the names of patients and directing them to me! While we were sitting around waiting for more patients, the stern nurse picked up my pen to figure out how it worked. I told her she could have it and she grinned ear to ear! She was finally happy and it was directed at something I had done! Ross had taught me on the first trip that “pens make friends”, especially when it comes to nurses who are generally in short supply of them. I think he was right. From then on, she was even more friendly and was helping me out more with patients.

In the 4 hours that I was there, I must have taken at least 50 blood pressures, and the other two nurses did even more. Partway through the day, I stopped and thought about the patients and I was amazed at the fact that every patient that I had touched was HIV positive. When am I ever going to be in a place that 100% of my patients have such a complicated disease with such a serious prognosis? When I was with my preceptors in Minnesota, I don’t think that I saw any HIV positive patients. In a day we would maybe see 15 patients, but most of them had high blood pressure or an acute injury. There were only a couple each day with really complicated histories, but very few of them had anything that would compare to HIV.

High blood pressure must not be that big of a problem. People here are generally not overweight and their diets are very healthy. The only two patients that I had that were overweight both had very high blood pressure. I remembered the first man because he was the first person that actually filled up the chair when he sat down. When I took his blood pressure, I thought that I heard the first noise around 185, but I wasn’t positive until about 175 (the normal should be about 120). It ended up being 175/120 that I wrote on his chart. A little while later, a counselor/nurse interrupted me to borrow my cuff. When I looked over, she was re-checking the blood pressure on the man that was really high. All I could think was that I had taken it wrong and they were trying to fix my mistake! Then another nurse went over and took his pressure again. They were gone with my cuff for 20 minutes. When the nurse, Sylvia, brought it back I asked her about the patient. She said she got it as high at 190. I think back home somebody would have sent him to the ER. Instead, the nurses set him up with counseling about his high blood pressure and hopefully got him started on ways to reduce it.

I finished a little earlier than Pamela and Nick so I joined in on a counseling session with Gloria’s friend Sylvia. She is the one who had given me a tour last time. She is so feisty and very expressive when she talks. When I sat down, they were speaking Luganda, but I could tell she wasn’t happy with the patient she was speaking with. There was a man sitting in front of her and a women next to him. Sylvia was asking him questions and he kept avoiding them. She stopped to explain to me that this man had stopped coming to the clinic about a year ago because he felt better and didn’t think he needed drugs. Then he started getting sick so he wanted to come back. She was trying to explain that he needs to stay on the medicine all the time or else he would keep getting more and more sick. It was interesting that even though I didn’t understand the words, I still understood the conversation. At one point, after the man refused to answer the questions to her liking, Sylvia sent him away. The woman remaining was his sister who generally helps out with his care. She was trying to explain to her the importance of the drugs and then get more information about the man’s social history. He had claimed he left his wife because of his HIV, but it didn’t make sense to Sylvia, so she wanted to know more about other women in his life. Before I could find out the conclusion of the story, Gloria came and informed us it was time to go! I think Sylvia probably talked to the patient for a lot longer after I left. She wasn’t going to stop until the whole situation was sorted out and sometimes that means spending an hour with one patient!

There was more jam on the way back, but probably not anywhere near as bad as the morning. Gloria dropped us off at a mtatu stand and we got a ride back to Ntinda. Since I haven’t walked anywhere long in a few days, I convinced them we could walk back home. I was hungry and hot, but I figured it would be better to walk now and then take a shower and nap when we got home. It sounded like Pamela and Nick had learned a lot and enjoyed the experience at the clinic.

When we got home, my mom had just finished with some laundry and cleaning at the house. Even though we are guests here and there are cleaning people that come to the house, she still wants to do all the work she can to contribute to the clean house. I wonder if that’s something that happens when you become a mom or if I should already have the urge to clean all the time. My philosophy is that if there is already somebody doing it, I shouldn’t take their job away from them, so I haven’t really cleaned at all since I’ve been here. Hopefully that’s not too upsetting or offensive to anybody.

We ate some snacks and took naps and just relaxed for a while around the house. We called Jozeph 2 to come and get us and bring us to Javas for dinner and so we could use the internet. It’s hard to keep up with all of the emails and messages from home, but I really don’t miss them! I like not having the expectation that I can be contacted any time by anyone and be expected to reply within 24 hours. Sometimes it’s nice to just work on things at your own pace and be able to get them done when you can. I will be happy to have the internet back on a regular basis and I’m sure I’ll find a million and one ways to waste time on it, but for now, I’ll be content without it!

Day 21 - July 26

Today was our day to be tourists. I think it’s necessary on every trip to do at least one day that you aren’t doing a lot of work and that you have some time to relax. Unfortunately, the way it works out for us, all of our relaxing days are at the beginning and then we have some really busy days from tomorrow until Saturday. I think it will be a lot of long days ahead, but hopefully we can manage.

We decided that we should be able to manage to use public transport to get to Jinja and then find a special taxi to get to the horseback riding place. Since Jozeph was our driver and we had to fit 5 people into his car, he didn’t want to travel all the way to the downtown taxi park because he didn’t want to get stopped by the traffic police. I would hate to be the reason that Jozeph was in trouble for anything, so I was fine doing whatever he asked. We went to a smaller taxi park near where we live. The only problem with the smaller parks is that taxis fill up much slower. We found an EMPTY mtatu that was the only one labeled for Jinja. Angella and I decided to look around and see if we could find any others that were going that direction. Sometimes you have to ask the drivers specifically where they are going in order to find out their destination. The park is pretty much mass chaos, with mtatu’s parked in all different directions and guys yelling where they are going. I’m actually kind of glad we didn’t go to the downtown park because it is ten times as chaotic and probably would have been a bit overwhelming for the group of us.

Since we couldn’t find another taxi and we were still the only ones in the mtatu, we were getting doubtful that we would make it to Jinja in time to go riding. After 30 minutes, I decided we had to make a deal. I told Angella that we should offer to pay for the empty seats in the mtatu if they would promise us to not stop and pick up more people and take us to our final destination. I sometimes feel like we are taking advantage of Angella because she is always our interpreter. For the drivers and shop-owners, they see a Ugandan woman with a bunch of Mzungus and they expect her to help them out by giving them business at a high price. We want Angella to help us get a fair price. It ends up putting her in a sticky situation where she feels like she is being pulled from both sides. If only I spoke Luganda! I would gladly try to negotiate prices with people, but there is just too much of a language barrier to make that possible sometimes. The driver was receptive to our offer, but charged us 7000 per seat even though the going rate is probably only 5000. We had to pay for a total of 14 seats, making the final price 98,000 shillings. Even though it seemed like a lot, it was much better than the price we would have paid for a special hire and it was the best way to ensure we got there in time. The ride was actually quite pleasant. We could spread out in all the seats, open all the windows without people in front of us closing them, and we got to go straight to the location.

When we got to Jinja, we had to call for directions. The woman on the phone was so nice and didn’t mind that we might be a little late. Sometimes I forget that being late is almost always expected, but when I had called to plan the trip, the man on the phone insisted that we were ten minutes early. I would rather be early and have to wait around than late, even though most people would expect lateness. Angella is the exception to most Ugandans. She is almost always on time or early and she likes it when other people are too.

We had to turn down a narrow dirt road to get to the horses. We are lucky we even saw the little yellow sign pointing us in the right direction. None of the boda drivers or local workers we asked knew exactly what we were talking about, so we just had to keep our eyes open and hope we could find our way. Apparently Jinja had gotten much more rain that we did in Kampala yesterday because the road was a pile of mud. The driver did not want to go, but Angella insisted they take us where they said they would. We were pretty much sliding out of control the entire way. At one point, we slid to within a few inches of a matooke tree. At least we weren’t really going fast so we probably wouldn’t hit anything too hard. Ahead of us, we saw a big white truck just stopped and parked across the road. We realized it was completely stuck in the mud. I called the woman at the horse place and she said she knew about the truck and her husband was on his way to pick us up with the jeep. We saw him right away coming up behind the truck. The mtatu driver started to ask for more money, but I had already counted out the exact amount and he had already overcharged us. I’ve learned that if you have exact change, there is no opportunity for people to say they don’t have change so they won’t be able to keep more money. It doesn’t happen with every driver, but there are quite a few that it seems to be the case and I’d rather err on the side of caution!

We had to stand up in the back of the truck because it was wet and full of red dirt. There was no warning about all of the trees so we were just hanging on to a big pole and trying to duck as much as we could. At one point, Angella and Pamela, who were slightly in front of Nick, ducked without warning while he was looking the other way and he turned around just in time to run into the branches. It couldn’t have been timed better!

The view from the ranch was amazing! They are on top of a hill overlooking the River Nile as it wraps around a couple of islands. Everything is green and beautiful around it with the sound of the rushing water to calm you down. The people that own the horses are a couple from the Pacific. She is from New Zealand and he is from Australia. They moved to the country 10 years ago because he had visited and loved the country. They’ve been living on the river for over 6 years and are able to keep the horses and rent out land to make money. Some of the most interesting people I have met have been from Australia or New Zealand. It seems that they are much more likely to be adventurous or live in interesting places than people from the U.S.

The horses were a great way to do something different. Angella had never ridden one and she had mentioned it was on her “bucket list” of things to do in life. We really wanted to help her out with her list and I thought it would be pretty fun to see her riding a horse, so we offered to gift her the trip. I’m so happy she decided to accept! My horse was named Sam Bucca. The only reason I recognized that he was named after alcohol was that when we studied in Australia, a woman invited us to her house and she got really excited about opening her bottle of Sam Bucca and sharing it with us. Apparently it was some sort of special liquor or the bottle was special to her. Now every time I’ve heard that name, all I can think about is the trip to Margaret River with the sweet little woman who fed us and entertained us for an evening.

Sam Bucca the horse was great, except for the fact that all he wanted to do was eat! I felt bad depriving him, so I often just let him stop and munch on some leaves. If I really wanted him to go, all I had to do was give him a tug and a kick and he would be obedient. It was just hard to deny him food when I knew he was doing all the work and I was just sitting back letting him struggle on the slippery roads. The horses were having a bit of a tough time after the rain. The guides didn’t really want to go to fast to ensure that the horses were not sliding around too much. I was okay with that. It takes a lot of energy to stay on the saddle when you are trotting and I preferred a relaxing ride. There was a little girl named Naomi who was also on the ride with us and she really wanted to trot. She was probably only 9 or 10 but she really loves to ride horses. I think we figured out that she is the daughter of some Mzungu that runs a resort in Jinja.

Overall, the horses were great, except that Angella’s slipped and made her scream at least a few times. Nick had some issues keeping his on the trail. Naomi’s horse started bucking and going crazy at one point. My mom, being the trooper that she is, stayed on the horse and kept a smile most of the time, but I think she was having trouble getting her horse to do what she wanted. It’s funny because no matter where we go, people call her mom. The guides kept going back to help “mom” with her horse. The ride itself was through a local village in Jinja on some of the trails through the fields. The last part of the ride was gorgeous! We got to go to a clearing overlooking some of the rapids. I recognized them from when we went whitewater rafting because they were right next to the rest camp where we get to eat dinner. The guides led my horse right next to the edge facing the clearing so he could take a picture. It was fine until he lined up Angella and Pamela next to me. They took the picture but then Pamela’s horse decided that it was a good idea to back up into mine. Sam Bucca was not a fan and started to freak out. I quickly got him to move forward and away from the edge. The last thing I needed was to tumble down to the Nile with a horse on top of me!

We got done with the ride and took some pictures overlooking the Nile. Angella loved a huge great Dane that was on the riverside so she had a mini photo shoot with him. Hopefully I’ll get one of my favorites posted! We got a ride back to town and the owner set up a taxi to take us to Jinja.

Jinja is not as small as I expected. It actually felt quite large once we started driving through the busy streets. It’s a better size than Kampala, which is so big and crowded that at most times it can be very unpleasant. I think if I had to choose, I would appreciate the pace and attitude of the people in Jinja. They tend to be much more helpful and less worried about taking advantage of money from tourists. We ate lunch at a small restaurant and internet café and then stopped to look at some of the shops. We were able to buy a lot of beautiful things and they were much cheaper than they are in Kampala. One of the shop owners was so happy that he gave Angella 4 pairs of earrings for free. I don’t know if he thought she was a guide or if he just was generous, but it was really nice of him!

On the way into Jinja, we almost got into big trouble. Pamela had her camera in her hand and had lifted it to take a picture of the Nile. As we were crossing, a guard started yelling at her to stop. She never took any pictures and put it away, so we thought that was it. However, when we got to the other side, an officer pulled over the car and started talking to the driver in Luganda. I could tell right away he wanted to know about pictures. We had to take out our cameras and prove that we hadn’t taken any pictures. I was shocked at how strict they were about the rule. It’s the first time that we’ve actually been questioned about what we are doing. I’m so happy that Pamela never took any pictures and we didn’t get ourselves into trouble. Clearly there is something to hide near the bridge. It makes me really want to know what it is! I guess it will be a secret that Uganda will hold without sharing it with us!

We decided to check out the Bugagali Falls, which is a 15 minute job out of Jinja. The cab driver that brought us to town offered to bring us there. It was good to be able to take some pictures close to the river and for Angella and Nick to be able to see something they haven’t before. We also paid a guy 3,000 shillings to float down the rapids tied to one of the plastic cans that people carry water in. I’m sure he does it all the time, but it’s still kind of fun to watch. For $1.50, I think it was a good short entertainment for the afternoon.

On the way home, we decided to take a bus. It was much bigger than the Mtatu, but it was still crammed with people. We sat with all 5 of us across the last seat. Unfortunately the woman in front of me kept shutting the window and the window next to me didn’t open. It make for a really long hot and tiring ride. It’s crazy how the buses stop here. There are rest places where people dressed in blue coats come up to the windows selling fried bananas, water, juice, meat on a stick and all kinds of random things. You can pretty much get anything that you want without leaving your seat. By the time we stopped, I would have rather just kept going and get to Kampala sooner, but you get what you pay for! Instead of 98,000, we paid a total of 20,000 for all 5 of us. I was a fan!

We had to walk back to town because the mtatu we got stopped early and we were on a really odd road. I was so ready to be home! We stopped at Quality Supermarket to pick up some random food to eat for dinner. We got Jozeph 2 to take us home because Jozeph was unavailable. I didn’t really care how we got home at that point as long as we got there! I took a shower and got ready to sleep early! The next few days are going to be really busy and I don’t want to be tired!

Day 20 - July 25

Sundays are always good, but when you put the Woolies on a Sunday, they are even more amazing! We had to go to the earliest service at 8:00 in order to have enough time to walk to Garden City to meet with the Woolies. The woman who spoke at the service is a children’s pastor, which I really appreciated. When you talk to little kids a lot, you have to find ways to keep their short attention spans interested for a long time. She used stories and visual aids over and over again so there was always something to keep you alert and awake, which was good because I was tired from the late night and early morning. The sermon was about letting your light shine. Sometimes it’s hard to be the light and show love to people when you are worn out or when the things of the world start to wear on you. It’s so important to be aware of our light because so many people may never have somebody being that positive influence in their lives. If we aren’t, who will do the job?

She ended with a story about Luther the Lighthouse, who lights the way for all the ships coming in. After many days of never being thanked for leading the ships with soldiers coming home from war to the harbor, he decided to sleep one night instead of shining his light. Two ships came at the same time from opposite directions and he didn’t wake up until they had crashed into each other, killing on the soldiers. He had given up because he was frustrated and he didn’t realize how important his job was until something bad had happened. The pastor then explained that we are shining for people’s lives every day in a different way. It’s such an important responsibility. I think we really need to rely on God to help us shine our light. We are not the source of any light, but a vessel that He uses to spread the light. If we can focus on him as the source and not rely on our own strength, it becomes much easier to let your light shine. When people see that we live our lives differently and we are loving people in practical ways, they see a different way to live life. It’s hard to be here and not get bitter or worn out of all the poverty and sadness. People see Mzungu and expect us to give them everything they need. It is tiring to not be able to do everything and frustrating to be expected to do so much. I know that the only way that we are able to do as much as we have is through what God has allowed us to do.

After church, we walked through the craft market to just see what was around on our way to Garden City. Not too many of the shops were open, so we only spent a short time looking and buying a few random things. We were still a little early by the time we arrived, so we decided to get an early lunch at Javas. I have eaten there so much and I generally get the same two things – Tuna melt or Avocado and cheese sandwich, but I haven’t gotten sick of them yet! I decided I wanted to eat before we get to Garden City because I had a feeling it would be hard to keep track of the kids eating while if we were trying to eat ourselves.

When we arrived at Garden City, it wasn’t hard to find the kids! Rose and Bridget had dressed all of them in nice clothes and shoes and then were waiting inside the entrance. They were so excited to see us and came running up to greet us. We walked them all up to the second level where there is a little play area with a slide and some stuff for them to climb on. There weren’t too many other children around, so it was good for them to be able to run around and be crazy without disturbing other kids. I always worry because they don’t really have any boundaries at Watoto. They can’t get out of the gates, so they can basically run wherever they want and be safe. Garden City is a different story. At one point, Peter climbed on top of the flower bed and started walking towards the edge. I ran as fast I could to grab him off so he didn’t take too many steps and fall two stories down onto the pavement of the parking lot. My mom had taken the two moms shopping for shoes and some things they wanted at the grocery store, so it was up to Nick, Pamela, Angella, Kate and I to watch all 15 of them. The ratio was not in our favor, but we somehow managed. Pamela and Angella sat outside by the fountain to catch the ones that came out of the play area and Nick, Kate and I patrolled to make sure none of them got to close to the edges or started to walk back to the stores. At one point I pulled Kenneth and a few of the kids that remember Ross aside. It’s become tradition that we wake up somebody back home to the sound of the Woolies saying hello. It was only 4:30 in the morning, but I figured Ross wouldn’t mind. Kenneth was excited to hear him talking. I’m not sure what Ross was saying, but I don’t think Kenneth understood everything. Trevor, Peter, and Irene also said hello. I can’t wait to show Ross the video of them taking. They were so smiley and happy to be on the phone! After the phone calls, I could tell they were starting to get bored, so I walked over to the toy store and bought a couple of balls. They worked well until one fell over the edge and a security guard picked it up and took it. At least they had one more to play with.

The balls didn’t distract them for too long, so I decided to go and search for my mom and the two moms from Watoto to see about eating. I tried to sneak away, but Ruth and Trevor kept following me, so I let them come only if they promised to hold my hand and stay by me. I think Ruth had heard me say something about food so she wanted to stay close. As we started down the ramp, I noticed Kirabo and John coming behind me. I let them stay, but had to keep telling them to come closer and not run away. We were able to find the three moms in the grocery store and they said we could go ahead and order food and they would come upstairs later.

Once we got upstairs, we had the task of gathering all 15 kids to the food court and set them down on tables and chairs all in a row. Every restaurant sent menus over for us to choose from. Nick said he was confused because he assumed it was like food courts at home where you choose what you want. Here, all the restaurants try to make their place look the most appealing so they want to get their menus in your face the fastest. We knew chicken and fries would be the best. We ordered 14 plates, one for each kid except Joy and Abby, who were so little that they could just share. The place that sold the chicken didn’t have any soda so we had to get them from one of the other stores. At that point, we didn’t really know who we were ordering from, but I’m sure they kept track of the money we owed pretty carefully.

By the time the food started to come, Abby was completely asleep and Pamela’s lap. We tried to get her to wake up, but she just kept closing her eyes. When you’re tired, you just have to sleep. Lucky girl! I could have fallen asleep at that point too! Joy kept me busy. She needed help with her chicken and chips. She also has a great way of drinking Fanta with a straw. She hasn’t quite learned that you don’t have to tip the bottle, so every now and then if I wasn’t paying attention, I would end up with Fanta all over my skirt and covering Joy’s dress. She didn’t seem to mind, and my brown skirt could cover the wet spots. Ruth was the last one left eating. She savors every bite and always cleans her plate. All of the other kids had gone back to play but she wanted to stay and finish. It’s always good entertainment when Ruth is at the dinner table! Her face is completely focused on the food and she is aware of every place that the food goes. Once she was finished, we finally got all the kids back to the play area to run around for a bit. They had been out since 11 and it was nearly 3:30. We could tell they were starting to get a little crazy, and they were harder to contain.

As we were trying to get them down the stairs, Bridget stopped to talk to two women. My mom was with them and they kept talking for a while. Finally I told them we needed to go. My mom said that the woman was the doctor for the kids. As we were continuing to gather the troops I looked back. The American doctor did not look pleased as she surveyed the scene and talked to her friend. I don’t know if she didn’t approve of the kids being out or if she was just having a bad day. I really hope that it doesn’t cause a problem for the kids or the mothers. We had gotten approval to go out to Garden City, but I never really feel like I know the rules at Watoto. Every time we are told something, there always seems to be a way around it. I don’t want to go outside of the boundaries of the organization, but I also think it’s important to let the kids see life outside of where they live. They are basically in a compound that they never have to leave because their home, school, church, and doctor are all within the same fence. If they don’t get out, they won’t understand how the rest of the world works and it will be a much harder adjustment when they leave. I just don’t know what the right things to do in the situation are. It’s an all around crappy situation to have no parents, but Watoto does a good job of trying to give the kids a good experience. There are just so many children to take care of and none of them really gets the attention that they would if they were being brought up in a home with their mom and dad. It is quite heartbreaking when I think of how much love and attention I got growing up versus how much these kids get to be pampered one on one with their house mother.trying to look after all of them.

We decided to walk by one of the markets on our way to the mtatu stand. Angella and Kate went home to take a nap. The market wasn’t too busy, so it was good to be able to just walk around. Pamela found some bags and things for her sisters and my mom found some jewelry that she really liked. Nick found a piece of grass that he could lay down on. We only had a few minutes to shop once we were done, we walked down the street to the taxi stand. A nearly empty Mtatu pulled up and we got it. I should have known better! Empty mtatu’s usually mean that you will be waiting a long time for them to fill up. It was fine until we got to Wandegeya. It was raining so there weren’t that many people outside anymore. There were dozens of mtatu’s waiting to fill up. We had to inch our way into a parking spot. It was the first time in a long time that we had to wait a long time. It took almost a half hour for us to get filled up and start moving again. At least it was only kind of hot and there was a bit of a breeze. We were going to be late for the 6:00 culture show that is near Ntinda, but it didn’t matter too much. People will always let you pay the admission!

We met up with Angella around 6:15 on the street corner and then walked down to get on a different Mtatu. It was only a few minutes to get to the show. Even though we were 45 minutes late by the time we walked in, there were still many open tables and the introduction had not happened yet. The host is an energetic man in his 50’s who loves to dance and tell jokes. He kept us entertained, even though we were exhausted.

The dances are very different in every region of the country. Angella is great to sit next to because she explains the meaning of every dance and tells stories about the people that live in that area. My favorite things is to watch her reaction when they host tells jokes. I’m pretty sure that she laughs harder, longer, and louder than anybody else in the audience!

Halfway through, it started to sprinkle, so we decided to move the show inside. We all had to pick up our chairs and go to the small auditorium. Everybody managed to fit in the small space, with chairs crammed as close as possible to one another. When Pamela went to sit down, the feet of the chair must have been crooked, because the back leg just snapped! Fortunately she was able to keep her balance and not completely fall down, but she had to sit on the cement step for the remainder of the show. Just about the same time, Angella managed to spill coffee all over the front of her jacket. We clearly were having issues tonight! On top of that, we had tried to text Jozeph about picking us up, but he misread the text and showed up an hour early and then got upset with us. I don’t want our favorite cab driver to be upset with us! We convinced him to come back later, but he was not happy to have to leave and then return. My mom went out to talk to him and he realized that he had misread the text and the misunderstanding was his fault. He was much less upset and apologized to us.

Tomorrow is going to be another early morning because we are going to Jinja to ride horses and see the Nile. We arranged for Jozeph to bring us to the taxi park early in the morning. We’ll have to squeeze all of us into his car, but hopefully we’ll be able to sneak past any traffic cops along the way. It was another exhausting day, but totally entertaining and fun!

Day 19 - July 24

I love the days we see the Woolies! They are so fun to be around, but they have a way of wearing you out! We left home at around 8:30 with Jozeph 2. Angella’s sister Kate, was able to come with this time. We were going to also pick up Ssali to go and visit them, but he never showed up. We had called him numerous times and he kept saying he was on his way, but could never describe where he was. He had plenty of warning time about it since we told him about it over a week ago. We waited on the side of the road for over a half hour and by 9:00 we decided it was too long. It’s hard to have to say no, but there comes a time when you just have to show him that he needs to follow through and not have excuses. I think Angella gets more frustrated because she’s had a long relationship with him and he continues to do things to disappoint her expectations. I’ve only been around him a few times over the past 3 years, but in that time he’s been the source of frustration more than once because he doesn’t follow through on what he says. Hopefully some day he will figure it out before he runs out of people who try to help him.

We stopped for some Chapatti on the way so Pamela and Nick could try my mom’s favorite treat and we could get Angella some breakfast! When we got to Watoto, they recognized Angella and let us in without a problem, even though Nick and Pamela were not on the pass to get in. As we pulled up to the house, we saw there was a delivery of charcoal and the kids were all coming out to carry the big bags to their house. There are usually two children that carry one bag that probably could fit at least 8 kids in it! That’s usually how it goes at Watoto. A truck comes with Matooke, Charcoal, rice, or whatever supplies they are given, and the kids just have the task of going to get it. Some of the kids were still cleaning up their beds and washing the floors. We must have come just as the morning chores were finishing up.

We spent the whole morning playing with balloons, whoopee cushions, and handing out candy. I don’t know how the two moms handle a total of 16 children every day. It’s hard enough for me to keep track of them for a few hours! They mother’s loved all of the clothes that we had brought for them. Kenneth was sad for a while because he had fallen down at school and scraped his face. I finally found him hiding after he did his chores and I showed him the video from Joshua. He really liked it and seemed to perk up a bit afterwards. He got even more excited later on when my mom gave him a Minnesota Gophers basketball jersey from Ross. After he got the jersey, he was nothing but smiles. I showed him how to play Barrel O’ Monkeys that I had randomly picked up at Target on the way home one day. He was pretty awesome once he got the hang of it. I think he got up to ten monkeys. I got 4…..I think I need more practice.

Ruth was her usual self, looking for more sweeties all the time. Irene was hanging around me more, even though I wasn’t taking pictures with the camera. I really can’t believe how outgoing she has become! She used to stand off to the side and just watch everyone else, now she will jump in and be the center of attention. Peter was pouting every time he didn’t get what he wanted. It didn’t matter if he wanted a balloon, he wanted to be picked up, or he wanted a piece of candy. I think he has learned the system quite well. If he wants something, he can cry and look cute and he’ll get it. It’s probably not a good thing, but I don’t know if anybody tried to stop it. Simon really liked hanging close to Nick. He always seemed to be running towards him or hanging on to his hand. Diana loved the dresses we had found for her. I think she tried on all 4 of them during the time we were there. Joy and Abby are so cute and little! They just love to sit on people’s laps and cuddle. It’s fun to have all age groups here. The youngest of the original Woolies is probably Irene and she is 5 or 6. The oldest is a teenager named Martin. It seems to be a pretty good family since the older kids take care of the younger ones and the mother’s take care of all of them. I can’t believe how all of the kids’ personalities are starting to really show up. The only problem is most of them don’t speak English and the ones that do don’t speak it well. At home, the mother’s speak Luganda, so the kids only have a few hours of English each day. I think it would probably help if the kids started to speak English at home. I can’t wait to some day be able to communicate with them for real! I will either have to learn Luganda or they will have to get better at English! Hopefully they will learn English because Luganda is hard and nobody knows how to teach it back home! The best Rosetta Stone has to offer is Swahili and none of it has actually helped me yet!

The kids kept asking if they could come with us to the zoo again because they had so much fun. We knew it wasn’t possible to go that far, but Bridget said that she can take the kids out if she asks the house manager. Apparently it’s much easier to take care of the kids and get in to see them if you know the mother’s rather than going through the Watoto office. The manager was really nice when Angella and I went to talk with him. However, he has his concerns. He said that it is hard for the kids when they get a lot of visitors that come often and take them out a lot. They start to get confused as to where they belong, especially as they get older. I can understand where it gets confusing. These kids were in one home for the majority of their childhood and then they got moved here. They have two other mothers that took care of them that they called mom and many visitors that they knew and recognized. Now they have to get used to a whole new environment and they have to forget what they used to know. I am praying that they are able to finally get adjusted and eventually end up as well-adjusted teens and adults.

After the Woolies, we got home and took a nap! I was only able to sleep for 20 minutes because we had to get ready for Gloria and Frank’s wedding. Pamela and Nick stayed back and got to sleep and relax for the rest of the night. We managed to get ourselves together on time, but Jozeph 2 was more than a half our late! On top of that, it started raining as soon as we made it up the hill. Angella and Kate had to use an umbrella to get into the car. Angella and Kate both said the venue for the reception was near. Clearly our definitions of near and far are not the same because it took almost 45 minutes to get there! I would totally call that FAR. Even Angella and Kate agreed by the time we arrived that it was farther than they thought. The rain combined with totally uneven roads made travel interesting. There were huge puddles of reddish-brown water with literal piles of garbage floating in them. I don’t’ know if it’s a good thing that the garbage is getting washed away or bad because it’s just being moved from one place to another.

Apparently it’s okay to be late. We were told to be there by 5, but we didn’t get there until nearly 6. There was only an address on the reception map and invitation, so we had a hard time finding it. I was pretty sure we weren’t looking for a place called “venue”, but the cab driver kept asking people where “venue” was. As we drove by a gate, we caught a glimpse of a pink sign with “Frank and Gloria” written on it. Thank goodness because none of the plot numbers were in order, so I don’t know if we would have found it simply by looking for the numbers. There were lots of people there already, but there were at least 15 completely empty tables. It was decorated much like it would have been at home. There were beautiful bouquets of pink roses on the tables and purple clothes draping on all of the tents. Gloria was wearing a dress made by Alfred Angelo which a sister in law had brought from the states.

As we walked in there were guys with stacks of pictures, holding them out to us as we walked. I’ve been here long enough to know that people don’t give you things for free. My mom has not learned that yet. She grabbed a picture and kept walking. She showed it to us and said how great it was that they give you pictures of the wedding. All three of us laughed and we turned around to find the picture guy chasing her down the pathway. My mom gave the picture back. It’s that way pretty much everywhere you go. Everything has a price. People will even try to give you advice or directions and then after the fact they will expect some sort of payment. It’s quite ridiculous when you think about it. I didn’t ask for advice, I refused directions and kept walking, but since a guy followed me the whole way, he claims that he needs payment for his work. I have gotten the hang of saying no and refusing to pay so it’s not so overwhelming anymore. It’s just an entertaining distraction when you walk!

We got to eat lots of traditional foods at the buffet. There were a couple of kinds of meat that I didn’t eat. I’m pretty sure in addition to chicken there was goat and some sort of beef. Chapatti, rice, matooke, and beans were my main dish. In addition there were some vegetable sauces and this clump of stuff called millet. It’s a flour mixture that ends up as a sticky clump of brown slime. It reminded me of that stuff, Gak, that we could play with as kids, only it was probably a little thicker. I probably could have thrown it at the wall and it would have stuck. It just didn’t have any taste. Kate said that it usually isn’t that tasteless, but it wasn’t bad when I mixed it with some vegetable greens.

Gloria and Frank came around to serve the cake to every table. There were two live singers providing the background music and they were actually really good! Gloria was so happy to be married and to celebrate with all of her family. She finally could prove to us that Frank was real, since we kept telling her she might be making him up because every time we were supposed to meet him, he wasn’t able to come. They were having a ton of fun dancing around and celebrating their wedding. The cake looked really similar to what you would normally expect at a wedding…..5 tiers with flowers cascading from top to bottom. It didn’t taste the same! For some reason, ginger is way too popular here! The flavor was so overpowering, that I just wanted to eat something else to get the taste out of my mouth. The only option I had left was a fermented porridge that was still on the table. It was good for a few sips when we initially got it, but by then, it was separated with an oily mixture on top and the specks of ground spices and whatever else in a brown liquid in the rest of the glass. I decided the cake taste was better than drinking more of that.
The way Gloria had talked about the dance, I expected a ton of people on a dance floor. I was mistaken. There was one dance that the bridal party had a choreographed dance to a song called “Step in the name of Love”. It looked a lot like the electric slide. It was good, but then it went on for 20 minutes! At least they were having lots of fun with it. After that, things went downhill. It turns out that everybody gets to talk at weddings! It probably wouldn’t have been as hard to handle if there was more English or Luganda! At least with Luganda, Angella could have interpreted. Many people were speaking the local language from Gloria’s home. People would switch from English to the local language in the middle of a sentence! Everybody got a chance to speak….parents, aunts, uncles, sisters, cousins….. It was kind of a good idea to include so many people, but they ended up saying the same things over and over again. At one point I think Gloria even was bored. I watched as Frank started his speech and she was really happy, and slowly her smile got less enthusiastic, she stopped holding his arm tightly, and she started looking around instead of paying attention.

We decided that around 9:30 that we should leave. We called Jozeph 2 and he said he would be there soon. Soon must be similar in meaning to near. We waiting for 20 minutes inside and then decided it would be a good time to be outside. We ended up standing outside the garden for another half hour or so. At least he showed up! He got us home in one piece and he avoided any place that might have had a jam. It was another long day and we’re going to have a big day tomorrow, too! I think we will finally get a bit of a break on Tuesday, but who knows what will come up between now and then!

Day 18 - July 23

Today was the day for Pamela and Nick to arrive! We had a lot of random preparations to do before they got here, but I think we got it under control pretty well. It was our last night sleeping in our own beds so I’m glad I got a good night’s sleep! After Susan woke up, we brought the single bed that I was sleeping in to her room for Nick to sleep in and we moved the full size mattress onto the floor in our room. I will probably sleep in the same bed as mom and Pamela will have the mattress on the floor. It should be a good set-up, but it is much smaller than sleeping with somebody on a queen bed like mine at home. Some days I really miss my pillow top! What we have here is better than a lot of places we could be sleeping in this country, so I will be thankful for whatever we end up with!

We also had to sort through all of the clothes, books, and games we had for donating to the orphanages. I really don’t like the fact that I am the one that decides the fate of who gets what. I don’t feel worthy to determine that some kids will get more books and others won’t get any. When you can see first hand what each of these kids live with on a daily basis, it’s hard to deny them anything because they have so little to begin with. The problem is there are always limited resources. There is limited money, limited clothes, limited books. We just personally don’t have a billion dollars so we can’t buy everything for everybody. Even if I did have a lot of money, spending it at these places would not fix any problem. It would just temporarily stave off hunger and improve their ability to learn at home for a short time. Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime. The problem is, I don’t know how to teach anything useful yet and we don’t have the time or money to set up something to big. What we can do is look for ways to get these orphanages connected to the big organizations that can help them get housing, food, and school support for the children. It was interesting to see the most recent orphanage and how they had gotten funding for their basic needs. I hope that we can look for ways to connect places without these basic provisions to the organizations that can help them. For now, we need to focus on the medicine because that is the purpose of the trip!

We had to go back to the flea market because we had promised Little Angel that we would buy them shoes. The mothers told us so many sad stories about how the money had run out and Max is having a hard time paying them. I know we don’t have the money and it would set up for a really sticky situation if we started to pay them anything. I think a lot of places see us coming in and want us to provide more than the medicine we are offering. This trip we have some extra money from people at home who wanted to give to our projects, so we’ve been able to get food and dishes and shoes. It’s hard to provide these things without setting some sort of precedent for future trips. Troy does a really good job of focusing on the mission all the time. I need to take more tips from him! He’s been working with people in this country for many years and he’s seen so many projects come and go. He’s learned what works and what doesn’t. I’m still learning, and I’m sure I’ll get burned along the way, but at least I can say that I’ve tried all sorts of things!

At the market, it was much less busy, and since the weather was not as hot, it was much more bearable to be standing around looking at things. We decided shoes were our main goal and we should really focus on getting them taken care of before anything else. We found a good pile of them about halfway down the market. The woman originally said 25,000 per pair ($12.50 or so). We weren’t going to pay any more than 10 so we decided to pick out the quantity we would need and then negotiate later. All we had to go on was a piece of paper with lines drawn for each of the 14 kids feet. We dug through at least a hundred shoes and finally found one shoe from each set. I’m pretty sure that all of the shoes had been painted and it’s likely that some of them weren’t black to start with. There were some Nike shoes and other athletic shoes that were definitely not meant to be black! I assumed that there would be another pile with the partners to our shoes, but unfortunately I was wrong. The matches were somewhere in the pile! You had to use any landmark you possible could on each shoe. It might be the laces or a pattern on the toe. Sometimes you just had to check out the bottom and look for a pattern. It was like playing a giant game of matching only you don’t have cards neatly arranged and you have no idea what part of the pile you’ve looked at. We were able to find all of them after about ten minutes of searching! Yay us! It turns out it takes 4 people to do the job, but we got it done! The woman was pleased that we were buying so many so she decided to give us a fair price of 10,000 per shoe! Now we just have to hope that all of them will fit somebody when we return to Little Angel. Even if they don’t, we will be providing something that they didn’t have.

I needed a pair of dressy shoes for the wedding. It was one time I decided that my Chacos just wouldn’t cut it. There were some women’s shoes on a tarp a few steps away so I decided to check them out. Thank goodness I’m in Uganda and not some place where people have little feet! Even Angella, who is much shorter than I am, has nearly the same size feet as me. Since more people have bigger feet, that means that there are generally bigger shoes! I was able to find a pair of gold heels within a few minutes. The man insisted on helping me put them on. In addition to always uncomfortable with people touching my feet, I realized they were covered in mud from walking around and they are dried out from all the sun and sand! He didn’t seem to mind, so he tied the strap and made them look cute. He wanted 25,000 for them, so I just pulled out a 20,000 and he said okay. I probably should have tried for less, but I didn’t want a hassle and he seemed to understand my need so he took the 20 and gave me my new shoes!

We still had a random list of underwear, buckets, trays, oil, cups, toilet paper, and a few other random things. We had to stop at a few other places on the way out. In the meantime, our cab driver, Jozeph arrived and had to wait in the parking lot of a gas station. I ran over and dropped off the shoes. A security guard claimed I needed to buy him a soda in order for him to allow Jozeph to park. I told him I would return and get it. I ran off to help Angella and my mom carry more things and buy the rest. When I came back again, I offered to get the soda and he said he would take the money instead. I laughed and said no way. I know that it really doesn’t cost anything to park there and he knew I knew that, but he still tried!

We got our stuff home just in time for our new cab driver, Jozeph 2, to come and pick us up. Since Jozeph’s car isn’t big enough, he gave us the number for his friend to come and help us get Pamela and Nick from the airport. I just don’t know how we always end up knowing two people with identical names. It’s kind of like finding the shoes in the stack. It seems impossible, but you always find another one! His car sits 7, but the back still doesn’t have a trunk. I didn’t think we’d be able to make it work, but I decided to let it play out once we got to the airport.

On the way out of town, we quickly decided that the jam was worse than usual. We were stopped more than we were moving and there were times we would not move for more than 5 minutes. My mom was able to buy some alphabet and number charts from a guy on the side of the road. It’s a whole new way to window shop. We finally figured out that the African Union Summit was the cause of our problems. We kept seeing convoys of 6 or seven motorcycles, 5 big cars with huge stickers on the windows with different nation’s flags, and always an ambulance near the end. Everybody would have to stop to let them pass. I’m pretty sure that between Kampala and Entebbe we saw al least a dozen, some going to the airport and others to the city.

Once we got to Entebbe, we found a boda driver that gave us an idea of where to get some fish and chips. We were coming early so we could meet Joshua, a boy that used to live at Need for All Orphanage but now lives with his father and stepmother in Entebbe. Last year, we went with him to his last chemotherapy appointment at Mulago. We are hoping he is now cancer-free, but we were hopeful just knowing he was still alive! Since the ride took over two hours instead of just one, he had been waiting with his family’s maid for over 2 hours! We got to town and as we walked down the sidewalk, we saw Joshua peek around the corner and as soon as he recognized us, he came running as fast as he could. He was grinning ear to ear and grabbed my hand immediately as we starting walking back down the road. We ordered some food at a local bar and just talked with the maid and with Joshua. We had bought him school books, reading books, two drawing pads, pencils, colored pencils, and crayons. We also had a beanie baby that is a snake that I made sure to set aside for him. I remembered that when we went to the zoo, he was more excited to see the snakes than any other animal! He loved the gifts. He is a great artist and he said the kids at school always ask him to draw things for him. We recorded a video to show Kenneth back at Watoto. It broke my heart when he said that he wanted to see Kenneth, but his mom said that he couldn’t come! I wish there was a way to make it work. I have a hope that some day they’ll be able to at least hang out again together. We went back to sit down and Joshua decided to color a picture for Wooly Bully. He sat down and drew an amazing picture of Spiderman, complete with all the details! I’m sure Ross can add it to his collection of great pictures from special kids that he gets. It was sad to have to leave Joshua again. His dad wasn’t able to come and join us like he planned, so we still don’t know is medical status. He looks good and told us he just takes daily medicine, which are possibly supplements, but it didn’t sound like he still goes to the hospital. Joshua is in a good school because his dad is a sergeant in the army and he is seeming to like where he lives. I know he misses the other children, but I think he’s very fortunate to be able to have at least one parent to grow up with.

I got worried we wouldn’t make it to the airport in time for the plane that arrived with Pamela and Nick at 8:19. We got to security at 8:25 and we had to get out of the car to go through a check which Jozeph 2 drove the car and got searched. He picked us up and we droved the rest of the way to the parking lot. It looked the people were just coming through customs, so we made it just in time! As I walked up to the doors, I saw Pamela and Nick walking through the main doors. It was perfect timing! After exchanging money and introducing everybody, we headed to the car. We managed to get all the luggage in the furthest seat, which meant we had to squeeze 4 people in the middle seat. Fortunately it is one of the better roads in the country and it’s a cooler time of day. For an hour and half, my mom, Angella, Pamela and I got really cozy as we drove home. It was great to finally have them here and the trip will take on a different tone as we work on showing them what Uganda has to offer and finish up the work for Medicine for Sick Children. Hopefully all of the work that Angella and my mom and I have done will make it a worthwhile experience. Once we got home and situated everything, it was nearly 11. We got to bed as soon as we could since we have an early morning tomorrow to go and see the Woolies at Watoto!

Day 17 - July 22

Sometimes I forget the color of my skin. I only look in the mirror once or twice a day with I’m brushing my teeth or my hair in the morning and then I don’t usually glance again until I go to sleep. The rest of the day I’m walking around with my mom and Angella or looking at the crowds of Ugandans going about their daily lives. I think in my mind I just assume that I look like everybody else. It turns out, I don’t! I’m clearly very white and most people are very black. I find myself wishing I could just blend in with them and become a normal citizen of the country. It’s taken two and a half weeks, but I think I’ve come to a point that I feel like I am one of the locals! I don’t really fit in that well, but I like to think I can navigate my way around the country. I’ve done it without Angella’s help and although I ALWAYS miss her when she’s not around, I know I could survive at least a little while without her constant guidance!

This morning we went to the craft market at the National Theatre. Although there are a few unique things, most of it is the same old stuff but the prices are higher and the people are not as friendly as they are at the market near Watoto church. It was pretty cool out today. Probably only got to around 70, but you would have thought it was 20 degrees! Everywhere we went, people were in winter coats and scarves. I was comfortable in a skirt and t-shirt. It was a perfect day to be walking around the markets because the temperature was not hot so you weren’t sweating and feeling the suffocating heat of a normal day.

After the market, we walked to Garden City to get lunch. Security has gotten TIGHT! There are not airport style metal detectors to walk through and security guards on every floor, pacing back and forth. I think that some of the added security has to do with the bombs, but even more because of the African Union summit that has been going on in Kampala all week. Any time that the presidents of these countries are in an area, the security gets more serious. Hopefully since it is ending tomorrow, things will go back to a somewhat normal state.

Despite looking at all of the other menus in the food court, we again settled on the Wok Chinese food. Luckily, our server was slightly more attentive this time. We actually got our drinks right away and he explained that our spring rolls would be a little later than our fried noodles. Nobody took away our sauces without asking. It must have just been the guy who served us the last time, who, by the way, was just sitting in his uniform at the table next to us almost the entire time!

My mom wanted to check out the gift shop in the shopping center. Banana Boat is nice, but most of the stuff is something I’ve seen before and usually at a higher, fixed price. I usually don’t mind it and in fact, every year I’ve purchased at least something there. Today I wanted to get out! There were Mzungus completely infiltrating the place! There must have been 30 people from the same group. They all had name tags on. Two Ugandan guys with matching shirts were their tour leaders. Most of them were wearing their backpacks in the front, which is great if you don’t want stuff stolen in the flea market, but seriously, in the mall? It’s probably the safest place you could go! I think I was just so used to not being around that many white people, that I was overwhelmed by it. It was like I was in the wrong place. I didn’t want to be in there, so I just walked out and sat on a bench to wait. It’s going to be totally weird when I end up back in the states in northern Minnesota surrounded my only Mzungus!

We ended up having to wait for Jozeph for nearly an hour because he was stuck in a jam and security does a really thorough check of the car, making every person get out to be checked and then looking in every compartment of the vehicle. At least we really didn’t have anything important to do! On the way home, Jozeph found some great ways to avoid the jam by taking side roads. I love that he knows his way around the area so well. There have been many times on previous trips that our drivers really have no clue where they are going. It’s been a blessing to have a caring cab driver who seems to like his job and does a really great job at it!

We decided to have a game night today, so Angella invited over Gloria and we told Susan and Gloria to come over. We had a bottle of wine, a bottle of Fanta, an assortment of chocolate, some cheese and crackers, and Doritoes! What a classy mix of treats! We spent a long time just chatting about life and how blessed we have been, especially on this trip. Angella has a really great core group of friends that have their hearts set on Jesus. It makes a huge difference when you can connect with people on such a deep level. I consider these people to all be my friends. They have helped me out so much on this trip and I enjoy their company immensely. The rest of the night was devoted to Uno, Phase 10, and a short-lived interest in spoons.

After everyone left, we watched a another crappy movie. We need to not let this get to be a pattern. This one was about a random group of travelers on a Greyhound that accidentally killed a biker gang member who was strung out on meth. Then the rest of the meth-addicted bikers chased them into a junkyard and they had to defend themselves against even more gangs guys that showed up. It was horrible acting, a unbelievable plot, and super violent. I can’t believe we even watched it, but I think I needed to stay awake and watch the end just so I could find out who was going to live at the end! No more of those movies for me. I will stick to happy ones!

Pictures! Not an Easy task!

Day 16 - July 21

Wow! A great day!

I like when I can say that and really truly mean it in every aspect! We started out a little slow, but we ended with a bang! I wanted to walk to town because we hadn’t walked a long distance in a while and I really like it when I can feel like I got a lot of exercise in for the day. It was much warmer than it was the last time we walked, so I think my mom didn’t really enjoy the walk. I pretty much expect that every walk will be hot and I will be sweating almost the whole time, but I think my mom hasn’t quite gotten to that acceptance yet! We stopped at the supermarket to buy some water and a soccer ball for the orphanage we were going to visit. Then we tried to get money from an ATM again. The one near the supermarket was broken so we had to walk a little further to a gas station. The one there was working, but both times I tried, it said the transaction was cancelled. I had called yesterday, and Wells Fargo said I was over my limit for a single day, which I didn’t think was true, but I waited 24 hours just in case. Since I had tried 3 different ATMs in 24 hours, I decided I better call again. The woman on the other line said that 3 minutes ago I had made two withdrawals for $300 each! Clearly I had not! All I had to show after putting in my card twice were two pieces of paper denying me any money! We went through the whole process of filing a claim and after 10 minutes, she said that the withdrawals were reversed and my money was back. Unfortunately, that still didn’t help me access any money. I was down to a mere $20US and I knew that wouldn’t last very long. I still had some cash back at home so I wasn’t too worried. The Wells Fargo lady suggested I pay with credit cards at the places I go. Clearly she’s never been to Africa! Sure you can use a credit card at the fancy places that Mzungu’s go. But I could probably count those on less than two hands and two feet! Besides, those places are way out of my price range! I explained that we shop at markets and street stores that accept only cold hard Ugandan cash! We decided to just wait and see if we could get money directly from a bank.

We kept walking to meet Angella for lunch at a local place that we went to last weekend. It’s nice to go to an easy place with decent food at a “local” price. I think we should frequent “Taste Budz” more often. Once we were full of food, we were already late to meet Godfrey. We decided to just walk to meet him rather than go to the bank first. On the way, Angella suggested I try one more ATM. Thank you Stanbic Bank! Your Automated Teller Machine liked my card and gave me my money! I will have to remember that for the future! Now we are for sure able to access the money we had set aside to buy stuff for the orphanages. I was only slightly worried, but it was still a huge relief to know we wouldn’t have to run around to all kinds of banks to figure out our cash situation!

The school that Godfrey teaches at is an international school that was completely funded for a new building two years ago by a wealthy Indian man. Mostly rich Ugandans and international families enroll their kids there. I know it’s for sure a nicer facility than my hometown school and probably has just as much to offer as any school would in Minnesota. It was good for my mom to see a school, but I almost wish we could have seen a local one without millions of dollars invested in it. While we were waiting in the library, I opened up the newspaper to find a picture of children at their school. They were sitting on long wooden benches with one long thin table in front of them. The schoolroom had dirt floors and the kids’ uniforms were dirty and some were torn. I’m sure they don’t have many books and probably don’t have a really great teaching staff. That is what I usually picture in my head as a Ugandan school. It just goes to show again what money can get you. There is always a big gap between the haves and the have-nots, not matter what country you live in.

We still had some time to kill even after the tour, so we walked back up to the main street in the area for a drink and so Godfrey could grab a bite to eat. We all ordered different drinks. Coke, Sprite, Fanta, and Stoney. It looked like a typical table when Angella eats with us. Stoney is a Coke product that I am not sad about not being able to get at home. When I was in high school we took a trip to the Coca-Cola factory in Atlanta. You can taste Coke products from all around the world. I am almost positive that Stoney was one of the choices and that I had to drink 5 glasses of regular Coke to get the taste out of my mouth! Stoney has a super strong ginger flavor. It’s just too overwhelming for my taste, but Angella loves it! I will let her drink it as much as she wants as long as it means I don’t have to!

We decided over drinks that we should bring some food down to the orphanage. I thought it would be cool to get a huge bunch of Matooke. It comes on a really big branch that is about two feet long and covered with bananas. The only problem was the logistics of getting it down the hill. We decided we could hire a boda to get it down the hill. Since we were already getting some matooke, we figured we could get some other things as well. For $75 we got 24 liters of milk, two bunches of matooke, 10 kilos of rice, 10 kilos of beans, 5 kilos of sugar, 25 cups, 25 plates, a bucket, stirring spoons, 2 small balls, and a soccer ball. Tell me a place you could do that back home and I’ll be really surprised! Godfrey, my mom and I had gone to get the rice and beans inside the main market area. My mom was fascinated by the market. There were people scaling fresh fish, butchers hanging entire goat carcasses, vegetables, fruit, and whatever you could possibly need to survive all in a little place. It’s a place full of a lot of energy. Luckily Godfrey was able to guide us through and to help get us fair prices because he knew a lot of the vendors. By the time we met up with Angell with all of the stuff, we realized that we needed a better way down the hill. A boda guy had already strapped the two bunches of matooke to his boda. The best thing we decided would be to each get a boda and carry a load. My poor mom! She had kept saying she didn’t want to ride one, but she no longer had a choice. Before she knew it, a boda was in front of her and she was instructed to hop on! I had made sure to tell the boda driver that she was a first-timer and I inspected to make sure she had one with two good foot rests. We became a line of 5 bodas – 4 with people and one with bunches of matooke and a bucket of dishes! We all made it safely to the orphanage with a huge load! My mom even enjoyed the ride! Who knows, she may decide bodas are the way to go!

We were greeted at the gate by tons of smiling faces! The mother, Hilda, was so happy to see us with all the food. She was jumping up and down. The kids were yelling and screaming in excitement. It’s truly amazing to see what joy they have! Once we were all safely inside and the bodas had been paid, we gave lots of hugs and got lots of thank-yous from everyone. There is an older woman who was also there who is a neighbor that comes to help out. We pulled out the soccer ball and immediately the kids ran around to play with it. We ended up playing a giant game of pig in the middle with a big circle and about 5 kids in the middle. Hilda even got in on the action! The kids were laughing and having a great time. Occasionally I saw the faces of neighbor kids climbing up a tree to look over the wall and see what all the commotion was about. The smaller kids were running around with the two smaller balls we bought. We eventually stopped the keep-away game and played some soccer. It’s not my sport, but I tried pretty hard. Unfortunately I probably kicked every one of the kids at least twice, but I was full of bruises myself! When it started to get dark, the kids lined up and sang us songs. It was a blast to be around all the kids and be able to laugh and have a wonderful night. At the very end of the soccer game, Angella kicked the ball and it landed on the spikes of the metal doors and popped it! I guess we’ll have to replace that when we go back with Pamela and Nick. At least they got one night of fun with it!

As we were getting ready to leave, we gathered in a group, and Hilda wanted to pray for us! It was wonderful! We were able to use what we had to bless them and in return they are blessing us with their prayers for safety and guidance from the Lord! I know that God put us in touch with this orphanage through his plan. Our goal is to provide medicine to them, but we can reach out and help them in small practical ways when we can!

It was dark when we left and we were clearly in the ghetto. Angella suggested we walk like we belong. She had quite a strut. When we turned around, we saw my mom had a strut of her own. Actually, it looked more like a dance. We all decided to do the “mama Margie strut” on and off the whole way home. We must have been quite a site, walking through town, dancing and laughing and having a good time. Along the way we stopped for some pineapple and bananas at a roadside stand. We got a local fruit for free. The man didn’t even have a name for it, but Godfrey assured us it was okay to eat. It looked like a red chili, but it peeled away to reveal insides kind of like a passion fruit. It was tasty, but unlike anything I’ve really tasted before. It was a combination of something sweet and something spicy all at once. It did leave an odd aftertaste, so I was glad when we stopped and got some fresh chapatti.

Angella and Godfrey gave us a “push”. I really love this tradition! People will generally walk people past their driveways or to a good stopping place. They will carry your load until you part ways. Thanks to Godfrey, I didn’t have to carry our big bag of fruit! We stopped at Quality supermarket and got some of the essentials and some treats! I haven’t had Nutella in ages and it makes Digestives taste so much better! It was worth the $4.50 for a whole jar! I think it was cheaper than the peanut butter! If you’ve never had this hazelnut-cocoa delight, you should really go pick some up! It’s a great way to get your chocolate fix! We also got some chocolate bars and cheese and crackers. Tomorrow night Angella and some friends are coming over for wine treats and games! These are some of my favorite things! (although usually wine is substituted for soda of some sort….it can be a rare treat!). Before bed we watched a Van-Dam movie called “In Hell”. It was awful, but we kept watching just to see the outcome. It’s a 2003 action movie about a guy who was sentenced to life imprisonment in Russia after he killed the man who brutally raped and murdered his wife. It was extremely disturbing to see the violence and corruption! I was happy for it to end. However, it was much more entertaining than the crazy Nigerian movies that Susan loves so dearly!