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.