Oh man....I really shouldn't wait so long to send an update because there is WAY too much to talk about!!
I guess I'll just start one day at a time. So, if any of you have been on my facebook you saw that I rafted the NILE RIVER last week! Yes...I was in the same river that Moses floated down, and the same river where Alligators and large snakes and lizards and hippos live! And to top it all off we were going on grade 4 or 5 rapids!
I was so terrified to go, and all my friends have been slowly talking me into it the last few weeks and I finally gave in. I was scared to death the entire time we were on the river, but once we were on safe dry ground again I was so happy I went, and definitely something I probably won't get to experience again! When the river was calm and we were just floating..every time we saw something poking out of the water we would play "rock or crock??" haha it was usually a rock...but we did see a baby Crock!!
We had to ride the bus into Jinga (like 3 1/2 hours) and then the company we rafted with, Adrift, has a campground type thing there where we stayed. They have tents and different cabin type things, the place we stayed was a big room with like 5 bunk beds that we all slept on, and it was only like $10 a night. So we went to Jinja Friday...then rafted all day Saturday, and then we stayed there Saturday night as well. It worked out that Sunday was district conference in Jinja so we went to that in the morning and then rode the taxis home with the church!
It was way neat to go to district conference! I loved seeing so many of the Uganda members all gather together, and some of them had to travel so far to get there!!
The church here is kinda run by the missionaries, so the mission president and his wife spoke, and the choir was all the sister missionaries. Their talks were SO good, I honestly could have listened to the mission president all day. All the missionaries from the district were there, so there were a BUNCH of them! It was so fun to see all of them there! They seemed a bit shocked to see so many white girls...and a few of them seriously avoided us like the plague!!! It was kinda funny.
After district conference there happened to be 3 couples from our branch who were all getting married! So our branch all went over to the Chapel in Jinja which was like 2 minutes away. It was way neat to be a part of, but also very strange and different from weddings we are used to at home! The mission president first spoke for a minute and then the branch president married each couple and then after we had wedding cake!
Oh, and also right before the weddings, a boy in our branch was receiving his mission call....since the mail is so crazy here they send it to the mission president of the area, so President Jackson brought it there, and then Tyrell opened it in front of all of us. He was SO excited and nervous...he has been talking about it for weeks, so we were all way happy we got to be a part of it!
Then after the weddings and cake, we got to squish into my favorite taxis for the 3 1/2 hour drive back to Mbale.
I guess I'll just start one day at a time. So, if any of you have been on my facebook you saw that I rafted the NILE RIVER last week! Yes...I was in the same river that Moses floated down, and the same river where Alligators and large snakes and lizards and hippos live! And to top it all off we were going on grade 4 or 5 rapids!
I was so terrified to go, and all my friends have been slowly talking me into it the last few weeks and I finally gave in. I was scared to death the entire time we were on the river, but once we were on safe dry ground again I was so happy I went, and definitely something I probably won't get to experience again! When the river was calm and we were just floating..every time we saw something poking out of the water we would play "rock or crock??" haha it was usually a rock...but we did see a baby Crock!!
We had to ride the bus into Jinga (like 3 1/2 hours) and then the company we rafted with, Adrift, has a campground type thing there where we stayed. They have tents and different cabin type things, the place we stayed was a big room with like 5 bunk beds that we all slept on, and it was only like $10 a night. So we went to Jinja Friday...then rafted all day Saturday, and then we stayed there Saturday night as well. It worked out that Sunday was district conference in Jinja so we went to that in the morning and then rode the taxis home with the church!
It was way neat to go to district conference! I loved seeing so many of the Uganda members all gather together, and some of them had to travel so far to get there!!
The church here is kinda run by the missionaries, so the mission president and his wife spoke, and the choir was all the sister missionaries. Their talks were SO good, I honestly could have listened to the mission president all day. All the missionaries from the district were there, so there were a BUNCH of them! It was so fun to see all of them there! They seemed a bit shocked to see so many white girls...and a few of them seriously avoided us like the plague!!! It was kinda funny.
After district conference there happened to be 3 couples from our branch who were all getting married! So our branch all went over to the Chapel in Jinja which was like 2 minutes away. It was way neat to be a part of, but also very strange and different from weddings we are used to at home! The mission president first spoke for a minute and then the branch president married each couple and then after we had wedding cake!
Oh, and also right before the weddings, a boy in our branch was receiving his mission call....since the mail is so crazy here they send it to the mission president of the area, so President Jackson brought it there, and then Tyrell opened it in front of all of us. He was SO excited and nervous...he has been talking about it for weeks, so we were all way happy we got to be a part of it!
Then after the weddings and cake, we got to squish into my favorite taxis for the 3 1/2 hour drive back to Mbale.
We were supposed to go back up to the village on Monday morning, but they had to work out a few more things with buying the supplies and everything, so we left at 7:30 Tuesday morning and bought all of the supplies and headed up to the village! I have NO idea how the truck made it up the hell hill....but then again I don't know how A LOT of things that happen in this country are possible. So once the truck got there we all helped stack the bags of cement (50 kilos...roughly 120 pounds) into this building and then we carried the rest of the supplies down the path to the village...about a 25 minute walk.
So, for the health center we were able to rent this brick making machine, so we can make the building out of bricks which is a TON stronger than just building it with mud. But the problem with that was getting the machine to the village...because the 25 minute walk from the road is like a little pathway through the mountains. There are a ton of hills and it's super narrow.
But of course not a problem for crazy strong African men! I wish you could have seen this, but they literally dug a road out of the side of the mountain with hoes! They took down two HUGE trees. And then once they dug out the side of the mountain they pulled this machine, which is the size of a small trailer and weighs 1,100 pounds up the muddy path! It was unbelievable to watch...
So the next morning the men were supposed to carry the super heavy bags of cement from the road to the village, but when we woke up and went up there the bags weren't there and the men were having a little bit of a hard time getting the ball rolling...
In Africa they do ONE thing at a time..they say how different we are in America, because we will eat breakfast, read the news paper, and have a phone conversation all at the same time..and here they do one task first and then do the next one.
So we were all ready to GET TO WORK! We are trying to finish this health clinic in two weeks and that means we all need to work fast and hard! All the men were just excited about the machine and wanted to figure out how to get it to work before we get the cement, but the machine isn't any good until we have the cement! So we all got a little bit frustrated and we just left to figure out how to get the cement there! Well we tried a few ways, super unsuccessful, and ended up just taking turns with me and Jan carrying the bags on our upper back/neck. Keep in mind this is a 25 minute hike without carrying anything...and these bags were 125 pounds!!! I literally shocked myself. I had no idea I could carry that much much less up a hill. When this weak white girl walks up the hill carrying the bag of cement that got the men into gear a little more and they finally got the picture to GO HELP! For them it's no big deal to carry them...they just plot them on their heads and RUN up the path. I was DEAD after that. We took a little break, and then after the men carried the other 100 bags of cement (it took them like 30 minutes to do all of those, and it took us Mzungu's like 45 to get 3 bags...and there were 6 of us!) it took a bit to get the machine up and running and then we were making bricks like crazy so we had to carry the bricks into the school to keep them out of the rain. So by the end of the day I was exhausted!!
When I woke up the next morning I seriously was more sore than I have ever been! I felt like a aged 70 years over night.
Then on Thursday me and Jan didn't have anything going on with projects until 3:00, so we decided to go to the Mbale regional hospital because we had talked to the director previously about volunteering with our CNA...well welcome to Africa...he wasn't there when he told us to meet him and no one we talked to knew who he was. So we decided to just drive over to the Cure Hospital and see if they had anything we could do.
It is an American owned hospital and there are like 12 in other places in the world. This one does pediatric neural surgeries. The director guy took us on a tour and showed us all over the hospital, and told us everything they do there. It was amazing! Most of the babies they operate on have hydrocephalus, or spina bifida...SO sad, but they are amazing! Anyway...I could go on for 5 minutes just about the hospital, so if you want to know more about it ask me when I get home and I would be happy to share! If we have any spare time before we leave they told us we could go and shadow the nurses! So I am hoping I get to for at least a few hours one day...
Then on Friday me, Jan, and the other Jenny (our names are super confusing for the locals when we're all 3 together) got to go to our guard David's house!! I was so happy I got to go before I left. He is basically part of the family. We got to meet his wife and 2 little kids, and see his piggery. Last year one of the projects they did was set up a little piggery business for David to help him earn money since he only works for us 4 months out of the year. We are continuing that project this year and helping work out some of the kinks. His house is like an hour and 45 minute taxi ride away and then like a 30 minute boda ride..which makes your bum feel like you have been on a horse for 3 days straight..haha
His family and house was so cute and his wife made us a whole big meal which was SO nice of her.
On the way home our taxi driver decided to shove even more people than usual, so our 13 passenger van had 26 people! Ugh...I seriously HATE when they do this...David and the other two girls were on the row behind me so I was by myself shoved in the corner...on one side of me was probably a 200 pound black man who is basically and then on my other side was the conductor who was technically standing up, but he slowly made his way onto my lap. I have NEVER been so squished in my life. It was horrible. I couldn't move any of the lower half of my body for like an hour and 45 minutes. And the only place for my head was out the window so by the time we got home I looked like I actually belonged in Africa because my face was so covered in dirt! It was miserable in the moment, but rather funny afterwards :)
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