Fishing on Lake Victoria

So yesterday morning we took a taxi out to a small fishing village on the coast of lake Victoria. The lake is the largest tropical lake in the world, and the largest lake in Africa. We took a small wooden vessel named "Andrew" across the lake to a tropical island. Andrew had a few leaks but they fortunately provided a bail bucket to keep us a float. The trip took a couple of hours and was absolutely beautiful.

We stopped at a couple of rural fishing villages along the way. The people were drying millions of small fish on the rocks. They look similar to sardines and are called "Silver Fish" I think. The children throw rocks at the birds to keep them from eating all the fish drying in the sun. The fish are actually really tasty. You mix a couple of dozen fish in with beans. Mandy refuses to try them.

We stopped to fish with handmade bamboo poles. Alas we didn't catch a thing, but it was beautiful to sit in "Andrew" as the African sun set on the lake. We then landed, and took off on a hike through the jungle. The rain forest was absolutely amazing. The island was full of incredible birds, monkeys, and crocodiles (Though we didn't see any crocs that day) We hiked for quite awhile in the dark. Our guide was a member of the church in a neighboring city. He was taking us to his parents home for dinner. We arrived in the dark, (The island has no electricity) and had a delicious meal of cold fish heads and rice. Ironically the fish here are by far the most delicious things to eat. The heads are the most desirable part. I was privileged to eat three.

We spent the night in a "hotel" Mandy and I paid $1.50 for the honey-moon suite. We made it through the night, woke up before the sun came up, trucked back through the jungle, and back on our sturdy vessel. We arrived a bit late to church, but had a great time and made some memories we'll never forget.

Speechless

So, Taylor's post pretty much covered the Safari. It's kind-of our last hurrah before we leave. I can't believe this whole two months has slipped away from me so quickly. I don't know if we'll even hit up the internet again to post anything before leaving.

It all feels so strange. I feel so speechless. I feel like I should have some deep insights into life, but I really have come away with so many more questions than answers. Plus love. I like to think that despite the annoyance of misunderstanding another culture, I have been able to emerge with a great love for them. And for people in general.

I also have a much greater resolve to do something good with my life. Even if it's small. There are so many people here doing so much with so little. At least I can do my part to help and lift others. I hope I don't forget that. I know it will be much harder to remember if I don't see it everyday.

Murchison Falls

We just returned from our African safari. It was absolutely amazing. We drove to Murchison Falls national park and stayed at the Red Chili campsite. We slept in a nice tent for the two nights we were there. The tent was a step up from our usual homestead so we really enjoyed sleeping in style.

There were warthogs and hippos outside the tents which was fun. We went on a game drive in a safari van. We just crawled on top of the roof and drove the the African savanna. It was absolutely beautiful. We saw hippos, elephants, gazelles, water buffalo, giraffes, hundreds of birds, and a pack of lions eating a wart hog. We were within 20 feet of all of the animals just chilling on the roof of the car. It was spectacular.

We then took a boat cruise up the Nile. We saw hundreds of hippos, elephants, buffalo and enormous Nile crocodiles. The Nile is absolutely beautiful. The boat dropped us off on an very small island (more like a rock) at the bottom of Murchison Falls. It is one of the most powerful waterfalls in the world. The entire Nile blasts through a narrow steep gorge (15 feet across). We took plenty of pictures and returned back to camp.

The next day we took a hike to the top of the falls. We'll have to show you the pictures. It's hard to explain, but we were right on top of the waterfall looking down into the froth of water, dead fish, and crocodiles. It was awesome.

We are now in Kampala grabbing a bite to eat. We were hoping to go to the football match tomorrow. It was supposed to be Brazil vs. Uganda for only a couple bucks. We were really hoping to get to go, but alas it was actually today. \for some reason the wrong day came down the Ugandan grapevine. Oh well.

At any rate our trip is sadly coming to a quick close. We have grown to love Uganda and are sad to leave.

Just Missing Good Food

So by now I feel like I've lived in Africa for a really long time. Except for the food. It is still so gross. I can't get over it. I think if I had my own kitchen, it would be better. I know it would be better. But buying nasty powdered milk and cardboard-tasting cereal? It's just not cutting it. At first I could buy street food, but now I can't handle it. I just want something good to eat. At least I like Mary's food for dinner. I basically drink water and gnaw on nasty biscuits until dinner time. It's sad.

Like I was saying, I am really getting used to this though. Pumping water? No problem. Bathing outside? It's kind-of fun. The lizards in the toilet? I hardly flinch. Ok, except for the time I swear it was a snake in the hole. Yuck! That I couldn't handle. But really this is getting normal.

I keep wondering where else I'll end up and how this experience will affect us. Taylor is sure he wants to come back to Uganda. I like it here, but I much prefer Indian food. Or Thai. Maybe Mexican. All conversations return to food here. I am just rambling, so I'll go. We are safe and healthy. We miss you all.

Gulu

These last few weeks have been so busy. I'm not even sure why. We've been running from business classes to teacher trainings, from building stoves to the AIDS Extravaganza. This is definitely not a restful summer, but I'm so grateful to be here. By the way, we meant to write earlier, but the power went out. I don't know if we've mentioned yet that the power goes out at least once or twice a day here. Also, Tay was sick. Of course, the local doctor said he had malaria. The doctor in Kampala, however, said he didn't. Just a bug. No medicine. He's totally fine now. I've never been sick yet. So lucky.

Tay was sick on his birthday, so that was sad. The next day we went to Kampala to "The Surgery" which is just a doctor's office, but maybe they do surgery there. Who knows? Anyway, I already told you about that. But that night we went to the American Recreational Association building where they had a 4th of July party for all U.S. citizens plus other random people who want to pay for a mediocre-tasting barbeque. They did have fireworks, which were fun. Short, but fun.

On Saturday we left Lugazi and headed for Gulu. The trip was supposed to be five hours total, but our bus breaking down plus traffic made it twelve. Amazing, huh? One glaring need in Africa is paved roads with no potholes and with more than one lane going each way. Anyway, we arrived at four in the morning. We slept in the nastiest place ever. The experience was even worse because one of our group members was barfing right outside our room. Multiple times. Woe to him.

We went to church here in Gulu on Sunday. It was amazing. The people here are so good. They have been through so much with the LRA and everything. I don't think anyone is left unaffected. We also had a sporatic fireside with them that night. It was also incredible.

Today we finished adobe stoves that some of our group made a few weeks ago. I don't think it's the most needed project, but I guess we need to finish what we started. The people here really need water and food. Why build a stove if they don't have food to cook? Maybe we can help them get what they really need in the future. Development work is definitely really complicated.

I don't know what else to tell you, but we'll try to post more often in the next two weeks. You all realize we only have that much longer left, right? At least for now. Taylor thinks we are going to move back. Hmmn... I guess we'll see.

Rwanda

On Saturday at 1 am, we boarded a bus in Kampala and headed to Rwanda. Most of the ride was on bumpy dirt roads, and it was miserable. Ten hours later, we arrived in Kilgale, Rwanda.

Rwanda is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It has green rolling hills with tons of trees and flowers. Still, when we reached the border, I felt so sad. For all of you who haven't seen the movie Hotel Rwanda, you should see it. It talks about the genocide in Rwanda. The genocide really started back in the '30s and eventually led up to 1994, when more than 1,000,000 people were killed in 100 days. We went to a museum, some mass graves, and a church where 5,000 people were murdered. The experience was haunting but important. I can't understand it.

On Sunday, we attended a branch of about 40 members in Rwanda. They meet in the home of an American man who works in peacekeeping. He was very hospitable, and it was a wonderful experience to be there. The people are incredible. It is amazing to see Christianity (especially Evangelical Christianity) spread through Africa. I believe that learning about Christ has been one of the biggest factors in helping Rwanda heal. The city is the cleanest I've ever seen. The government is functioning well. They have come so far.

The only bad part of the trip was when we went to the branch president's house to watch the football (soccer) game on Sunday night. All 17 of us left our shoes outside. Unfortunately, his dog destroyed 5 shoes in the hour we were there. That's the last time I buy Chacos. Oh well.

We were happy to get back to Lugazi. Taylor is mostly busy with business classes. I taught a teacher training yesterday. We are also working with the schools to try to create a sexual education program using school clubs. Here, no one talks with the youth, and the pregnancy and rape rates are very high. We want to educate students on local myths, STDs, assertiveness, etc. The goal is to create school clubs of a few exceptional students who can do one-hour presentations in their school's health classes to educate their peers on these issues. We hope this project will be able to continue for a long time, even when we are gone.

We're Going to RWANDA!

On Wednesday morning, two girls from HELP and I did a 30-minute presentation on HIV and AIDS at Lugazi West Primary School. The 700 elementary students were already assembled for morning exercises. We listened to a preacher for a few minutes first. (It's crazy how strong the Evangelical movement is out here.) Our presentation went pretty well, I think. We may do more of them in the future.

We spent Thursday at Broadway Bakery, which is owned by the branch president. Taylor is trying to help them straighten out their finances. It was a long day, but I think we helped out a lot.

I think the most exciting thing is that after a business class today, a big group of volunteers are heading for Rwanda for the weekend. We are excited to tour some of the genocide sites and monuments. Genocide is so horrible, but I think it's so important to learn about it. We will also attend the tiny branch in Rwanda. It's held in a member's house. Actually, some cool news is that Elder Holland is coming out to Uganda and Rwanda in August, and he's going to dedicate Rwanda for preaching the gospel. It will be part of the Ugandan mission. I think that's so cool. I'm sad we won't be here when it happens.

Anyway, things are still going well. Taylor's feeling better. He was only a little sick for a day or two. I have (very luckily) been completely healthy so far. Let's hope it stays that way.

HIV Education

So today Taylor woke up feeling sick. Not too sick though. He just has to keep running to the bathroom every hour. I'm still hoping I will somehow stay exempt from any sickness. Hmmn...

Today a girl named Melissa and I met with a woman named Agnes. She is HIV positive and very passionate about educating the people here about this disease. She says there's a horrible stigma, and most people just hide their disease. So we are going to do a presentation at her school on Wednesday and offer counseling the following week. We don't know if anyone will be brave enough to actually come, but we will try.

I don't have much more to say, so maybe I'll teach you some Lugandan. This is what most of the people here speak. I keep wishing I could speak it. The next time I travel somewhere for an extended time, I will make sure I learn more of the language. I am at such a disadvantage not knowing it! Anyway, here are a few words with my own spelling:

O-lee-o-tee-ah----How are you?
Say-bo----Man
Mu-gah-tee----Bread
Sen-tay----Money
En-tay----Cow
En-co-co----Chicken
Em-booz-ee----Goat
Em-beez-ee----Pig
Mah-kwan-o----Friend

Anyway, that’s all for your lesson! Way-lah-bah! (Goodbye)

Ugandan Food

First of all, let me explain the internet situation. There are a few small internet cafes here in Lugazi. They each have about 4-8 computers and the slowest connection I've ever experienced. For instance, it took me 10 minutes just to log onto this blog. That is why we haven't published any pictures on here. We will have to wait until we are visiting a bigger city with better internet or we are the only ones using the internet. So, sorry about that. I'll see what we can do.

The food here is interesting. For breakfast, Tay and I bought some powdered milk from the store that we eat with this strange wheaty cereal called Wheatabix. Maybe you can google it to see it. The powdered milk tastes like the buffalo milk we drank in India. Don't ask me why.

For lunch, there are tons of delicious chapatis, just like in India. (I think this is due to the Indian influence here.) Often, we buy what they call a rolex to eat for lunch. I think it is very similar to the egg rolls our neighbor Mom in India made us. They are just chapatis with eggs and some vegetables inside. They are very good. They also have random balls of cooked dough that they call scones. They are...fine. The one thing I haven't seen anywhere is cheese. Strange, eh? The best thing is the fruit. They have great mangos and pineapple. Oh, and the avacados are huge and amazing.

For dinner, we have an amazing cook named Mary. Wait, maybe I should clarify that. She is amazing. Her food is pretty good. The problem is that they don't use many spices here. Every night she makes us huge pots of potatoes, beans, eggplant, pineapple, and cabbage. She mixes things up by occasionally adding passionfruit juice, avacados, or chapatis. I don't mind the food at all. I always help Mary cook. I love spending time with her and hearing her stories.

More about Mary: she is from Sudan. She escaped during the war and now lives here with her two daughters. Her husband is working up in Sudan. She is about six feet tall, and she loves Jesus. She is pentacostal, and she always tells us how Jesus saved her. She really is the sweetest, best person ever. We all love her.

I hope that we are doing some good here. Yesterday we delivered newborn kits to the hospital. We also took an adventurous drive out to a few obscure villages (one of them literally in the jungle) to visit a few new mothers who really need things. Today we opened a hand washing station (just an outside sink) in the market place. It quickly became a mob of people wanting to wash their hands, get a free soap, and become hand-washing certified. I hope they will wash their hands now. Who knows?

African Strip Club?

So one of our African friends was performing last night. Ugandans love karaoke, only they don't actually sing... they just lip sync and dance to the music. Our friend is a "comedian" and was performing at a bar/town council meetinghouse/dance hall/whatever you can think of.

We spent an hour laughing and enjoying the hilarious African karaoke acts... and then the "real show" began. As appalling as strip dancing is of course, I couldn't stop laughing. This skanky African girl was, in all seriousness, dancing in her bikini to a Celine Dions song from the early 90's: It's all coming back to me now. It was so hilarious. Needless to say we promptly left, but laughed all the way home.

Today (Saturday) we took the day off and went to Jinja, a resort town 30 minutes east at the headwaters of the Nile. It was so beautiful. We paid $3 to swim in the resort pool on the cliffs overlooking the river. We also rode "Boda Bodas" for the first time. Basically they are a taxi in the form of a scooter/motorcycle. They are everywhere here and are a lot of fun. Luckily Mandy's driving anxiety is for some odd reason completely gone here. Between 21 people in a single taxi, to 3 people on a motorcycle flying down the pot-holed roads you'd think she would be beside herself. It's all good. We are loving it here.

We haven't been sick at all yet... (knock on wood) Our friend Ryan however, pulled a worm out of his bicep yesterday.... gross? He eats sausage off the street so he deserves it. At least that's what we keep telling ourselves.

Obama Is The Real African Hero

Obama is the man here. When we walk down the streets, people--young and old--yell "Obama" at us. People always ask us, "How is Obama?|" There is a song on the radio here with the following chorus: "Obama! Hey! Hey! Obama is the real African hero! Hey! Hey!" It's awesome. Then in the taxi yesterday a man sitting by me turned and asked where I was from. When he heard, he said, "Thank you for voting for Obama." Lucky guess?

The people here are amazing. This last week, they had a teacher training in Mukono, the town 20 minutes away from Lugazi. It was led by these three people from Kenya. They actually did a great job. I am so amazed, though, at how much they love each other. They are so kind. They are also so quick to talk about Christ and Christian principles. They are constantly bearing testimony (without knowing it) all the time. Their faith is incredible. Everything is God's will and will be ok. That's what they always say.

We are planning to use ideas from our own backgrounds and also from this teacher training to teach others in the surrounding villages. I hope we can do some good. It is so sad to see so much need and know that there is so little we can do in such a short time. I will do my best.

I am so happy here.

We're Here!

It feels like we've been traveling for weeks. I think I've only slept about 7 hours in the past 3 nights. Planes are so hard to sleep on.

Uganda is beautiful. We flew in over Lake Victoria. It looked like we were going to land right there in the water, but suddenly there was land below us and we touched down. Three girls from HELP were there to greet us. We rode for about an hour and a half back to our house. It made me want to cry, watching the brightly colored houses, all the people, the animals, and the crazy traffic. It reminded me so much of India, and I feel so good about being here. It's weird, but I feel like this is where we're supposed to be right now. And I don't usually feel things like that.

We are literally staying in a concrete shed behind the main house. There's a huge gate around the complex and a guard. It feels safe. Don't worry. And we're being very careful. Still, I can't believe the living conditions. It's much worse than our house in India. Here we pump water in front to bathe or wash our hands. We use an outhouse. It's shocking--more so to Taylor than to me.

Still Not Quite Ready

Yes, it's almost 1:00 am, and we're still up transferring money from our bank accounts, paying bills, searching for Tay's pocket knife, washing laundry...

Will we ever get to Uganda?

Actually, I am shocked at how calm I feel, considering I'm FLYING TO AFRICA tomorrow. Maybe I'm just too tired. This is probably the last you'll hear for a few days. We'll write again as soon as we can. Promise. I know there will be at least one person checking each day to make sure we arrive safely. :)

The Amazing Key Discovery

When we finally got home with the two new keys to the car and a little less money in our bank account, what did we discover in Taylor's jacket in the trunk? The original key. Yep. He swears he searched the jacket a billion times. I believe him, but man. We had a good laugh. There was nothing else to do.

The Big Car Ordeal

So yesterday Taylor lost the keys to his parents' car somewhere up in Rock Canyon. This morning he went to retrace his steps...no luck. Since Taylor has been at meetings all day in Salt Lake, this whole car ordeal has been left up to me to fix. Taylor thought it might be fine to just leave the car up in the parking lot for a week. I didn't think so. After tons of phone calls, I finally ended up with this solution: tow the car to the dealership who will reprogram the lock and make two new keys. The whole thing will probably end up costing about $250. It's obnoxious, but things could definitely be worse. I'm crossing my fingers that nothing else will come up.

Getting out of Utah is proving to be more difficult than I had anticipated.

We Leave In 4 Days!

So, after a big fiasco including a 2-hour phone call, Taylor and I will now be flying out Monday morning--as opposed to Tuesday. This makes our traveling time double to 57 hours. Fun. Taylor was not happy with the airlines lady on the phone. I'll leave it at that.

Thanks to very accommodating grandparents, we'll still be able to make the flight.

The Week Before

Mandy and I have been counting down the days before we leave for our African adventure. Frankly we can hardly believe that it is actually going to happen. Now that Mandy is finished with school we have a couple of days to focus entirely on getting ready for the trip.

Yesterday we spent the day running up and down the isles of stores grabbing things we anticipate needing:

• 3 bars of fruity soaps - Fights body odor 24 hours!
  
• 7 sticks of deodorant - Rumor has it... Showers are available once a week
  
• 1 giant mosquito net - Reminds me of an old sci-fi movie
  
• 48 quarts of crystal light packets - To flavor the potentially gross water
  
• 60 spf Sun screen- Apparently you can't get this in country (who needs sunscreen but the pasty, white college kids from America?)
• 2 ponchos - No idea... they were 88 cents
  
• Baby wipes - For Baby Mandy
  
• Duct tape - For home repairs
  
• Spray bottles - To keep cool
• Pocket knife - To fight off lions, tigers, and... bears?

As you can see we are ready for anything. Hopefully our suitcases don't weigh over 50 lbs.

Creating the Blog

So, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to blog or just send e-mails from Uganda. I'm still not sure, but blogging seems new and fun. I think I'll try it. Parents, we will also try to slip in a personal e-mail each week as well. Still, come here for more info.

I am writing this blog, hoping that it will let people--especially those who are a little nervous about this whole adventure--keep tabs on what we're up to. However, I also hope to have an amazingly exciting and wonderful time, and that's what I really want to share with you. So, once a week, feel free to check in and see what's going down in Lugazi, Uganda.