Visiting the Namatala Slum

I have had the most unforgettable day of my life....I really don't even know where to begin.
I guess I'll start by telling you about the last few days first. So on Saturday a bunch of the group went on this way awesome hike that I really want to do. But I was still kind of sick and Jan (my best friend) woke up WAY sick, so a few of us decided to stay back and just have a chill day (much needed...the jet lag was kinda catching up with me). So we were walking in to town (like a 25 min walk) and Jan was sorta falling behind, and she woke up with her throat like completely closed off and couldn't breath so she was coughing and couldn't hardly breathe and her anti-malaria pill was taking away her appetite so she hadn't eaten much and was dehydrated. We'd been walking probably 15 minutes and it was the middle of the day so it was SUPER hot and humid and as we were walking down the street all the sudden she just passed out. We all ran to her and she was out cold for a good minute, so enough time that we all started panicking a bit.....she finally came to and we gave her some water and I grabbed a Boda (the motorcycle taxis) and we rode it back to the house. (Our FIRST boda ride!) haha she was still super out of it when we got to the house, and the money convergence thing still confused me a bit....so we payed the boda driver 20,000 shillings....and it is only supposed to be 1,000 into town and we weren't even all the way in town! haha 20,000 is only the equivalent of like $8.00 so it wasn't very much for us, but for him that is like a month's salary...so we gave him quite the bonus that day! haha
But since Jan was so sick I ended up just staying at the house all day with her and kinda playing nurse and making sure she was okay....so we just sort of chilled and watched a movie and stuff. Then that night we went into town with some of the girls to a little coffee shop/ cafe called "Chat 'n Chino's" it was SO yummy....everything they make here they make from scratch and it all tastes so good! I ordered hot chocolate (the best I ever had) and when they brought it to me they had written "lovely" with the chocolate syrup in my cream :) haha it was the cutest thing ever. Then I got something called a Rolex. They are SOO good! It's a chipote (the tortilla things I told you about) and then basically just eggs and peppers and stuff, but they are DELICIOUS!!!
On Sunday we all got up and went to church (all of our group is members except for our 2 Country directors and then one of the guys that Holly brought) It was pretty funny going through town cuz we were on a train of boda's with all these Muzungu's and none of us really knew where the church was haha
But we made it and we were even a little early! We were greeted at the gate by the missionaries and then EVERY single member would come up to us and shake our hand and introduce themselves and thank us for being there. Everyone is so friendly and made me feel so loved and welcomed, and they were SO excited to have us there! During sacrament meeting we all split up so we were sitting all with different people so I was sitting with a group of girls around my age up to like 22. All of them had kids, and some had ones as old as 5!! More than 1/2 the population in Uganda is under the age of 15 and they usually live to like the age of 45, so their culture is to start having kids around age 17! They were all so friendly and nice though and LOVED my hair and skin they just kept touching me and playing with my hair and by the end of sacrament meeting I had like 15 little braids in my hair :) haha
Kinda funny story...I asked someone where the bathroom was at church and one of the missionaries from California just started laughing and said "Good luck! I hope you have strong legs!" I went in and the bathroom was just a whole in the floor! Haha...let's just say I held it until we got home.
Church was amazing though and I loved all the meetings! I think the thing that is so amazing is that the church is the same wherever we go...we sing the same songs, teach the same lessons, and feel the same spirit. If that isn't enough proof it's true then I don't know what is! The members here are so amazing and have some of the neatest stories. They are so humble and grateful for what they have and so grateful for the gospel. The branch there keeps growing at a way fast rate and right now there are like 120 members!

Then today we woke up and we went in to town to see the outdoor market.....oh my goodness....I don't even know how to describe this to you. First of all it was SO hot and humid and muggy. And there are HUNDREDS of people in way tight quarters selling everything you can imagine. It is so smelly and hot and gross....I can't believe that is where most of our food we are eating comes from. The meat they sell is just sitting there all chopped up and hanging with about 5 millions flies covering it and I even saw one piece with the furry tail still on it....I definitely left there feeling a bit queezy....after that we went to just like a grocery store and bought some drinks and stuff and then went to tour 'Child of Hope' and the Namatla slums....

Child of Hope is a school that they built right in the middle of the slum, and they find the very poorest of the poor and bring in one child from each of those families to their school and they teach them and clothe them and provide medical care. They are only able to do one child per family but they do that in hopes that they can then go home and teach their family and help provide for them. It's a super neat program and they do it all for free.
So then the people from Child of Hope took us around to tour the slum....as hard as I try I won't be able to describe to you the things I saw and the way that I felt. I don't know that I was prepared for this nor could I ever be. I even just from this one experience today my heart will be changed forever. There are SO many people living in these slums and they have NOTHING!!!!!! The children all just came RUNNING to us and hugging us and touching us and holding our hands...we had a huge group of them following us the whole time we were there. Most of them had no shoes on and none had underwear or diapers...a lot were naked and the ones who did have clothes were just wearing dirty clothes with tons of holes that were just like hanging off their bodies. But their eyes and smiles had more love than I have ever seen!! It didn't matter how dirty and gross they were I loved them so much and just wanted to give up everything I had to help them in any way that I could. The whole time we were walking I usually had 3 kids on each hand all holding one finger and usually another one in my arms or on my back. There was one little boy who was with me the whole time and any time someone would try to hold my hand he would push them away or tell them to go to the other side haha.
They all lived in these little tiny huts with just mud floors and walls and they are basically just living in their filth. They all wanted to take my water bottle and watch and one little boy looked up at me and said "You have so many things! Where do you get all these things?" I had almost nothing with me but yet to them I had things they could never even dream of having. There were old women who were just sitting there and asking us for money or anything to help.
Most of the people living there are refugees from other parts of the country and just in that one slum there are 8 or 9 languages spoken, and most of the people come from super hard pasts. The average family of 7 people lives off of like 1000 shillings a day....which is equivalent to 80 cents....80 cents for 7 people!! Can you believe that??

Last year one of the projects that they did was clean water filters and so we got to see some of them that they still have and are using....and a few months ago a Cholera outbreak happened in the area and this Slum wasn't affected by it because of the water filters! Isn't that awesome to see the success of some of they work they did. I can't wait to begin some of our projects with Child of Hope....I don't even know where to begin to help them but I want to do it all!
One little girl as we were leaving came up to me with her big brown eyes and said "Auntie Jenni....will you please come back to Child of Hope" it seriously melted my heart and I promised her I would come back....I have no idea how I am ever going to leave this place!!!!

Well you probably are wondering when I am going to end my novel....so I'll end with a quick funny story.....so when we got home we were seriously covered in filth so me and Jan took a bucket bath/shower (since we only get 2 real showers a week) so I had to do it down stairs in the bathroom.....so I was coming upstairs in just my towel and I was trying to do it inconspicuously as possible and sneak into my room.....well right as I got to the top step my flip flop slipped and broke and I ate it SOOO hard! I couldn't catch my fall otherwise my towel would have fallen off so I hit the floor hard and of course everyone is in the family room and all look over....haha I was just laying there barely covered in my towel for like 2 minutes cuz I seriously couldn't move.....but at least everyone got a good laugh out of it :)

I am in Africa!!

Big Ben

Buckingham Palace

The Queen driving by in her carriage!

First group picture in front of our house

Believe it or not...I AM IN AFRICA!!!! It for sure still feels like a dream. After leaving SLC we took a 2 1/2 hour flight to Dallas, and then we only had a 40 minute layover and our terminal was on the other side of the airport, so we got off the plane and went straight to our next one which was a 9 1/2 hour flight to London! I got a cold like 2 days before I left so I took 2 cold medicine when I got on the flight...but little did I know that they made you drowsy so I also took 2 sleeping pills....I was in the middle of watching sherlock holmes and next thing I knew I woke up with my head on my tray and the movie was over, so I took off my headphones and got a little more comfortable and I was OUT!! Jan said I was sleeping with my face straight against the pillow not really even laying on it....mouth open and drool coming out haha I woke up when they brought us breakfast and sort of ate it but felt completely drugged up and was out again until we landed in London. For like 2 hours my eyes were literally glazed over and I had no clue what was going on...definitely a good ice breaker for meeting new people. I for sure will never take 2 sleeping pills again and especially not with cold medicine! But I'm not going to lie....it was the BEST flight I have ever had!!

So then we land in London and get on the train to go into town, once we got off at our station we walk up stairs and first thing I see is Big Ben! I felt like I was in a dream (literally since I was still drugged up on sleeping pills) and we just sort of started walking down the street. The road was blocked off and there were policemen everywhere and actually straight up English soldier guys in the red with the tall black fluffy hats. So we asked an officer what was going on, and guess what he said.....Oh just that the QUEEN OF ENGLAND is on her way to open parliament and she'll be coming down the street in about 10 minutes. Yes, I saw the queen! Haha people are in London for years and never see her...we're there for 12 hours and see her TWICE! And I have a video to prove it. So a few minutes later all these soldiers riding black horses in straight lines start coming down the street and the royal band is playing and then the queen comes along in her carriage! And then followed by another carriage with Prince Henry. So after that we just kept walking down the street and went to Trafalgar square and then walked down to Buckingham Palace and as we almost get to the Palace...oh no big deal...here comes the queen and the royal procession again! Haha and this time we were even closer. I really still can't believe that happened... so we walked around some more and in the different parks and stuff and just around London...it seriously is like a different world there and with the whole horse brigade and the queen and everything I felt like we jumped in a time machine and were in a different era. I for sure want to go back again when I have more time. But after that we walked to Harrodd's SO HUGE!! and by this time we are like DEAD because of the flight and lack of real food and all the walking, and the fact that it was like 4am our time. So we got sandwiches and juice at the Harrod's deli and ate it outside and then headed back to the airport. We then got on another 8 1/2 hour flight to Kenya (I took just one sleeping pill this time and it did the trick so it was a pretty good plane ride) Then we finally were in Africa! Then we waited like 2 hours at the Kenya airport and then got on a plane and then had a one hour flight to Entebbe, Uganda!! We flew over Lake Victoria....it was HUGE!!!! Once we met up with our country directors we squished all of us and our luggage on to a bus and drove for another 5 hours to Mbale! We stopped on the way in Jinga and got food...strangely enough my first meal in Africa was Thai food...haha I got chicken curry and rice, but it was really good! I thought the 5 hour drive would be MISERABLE after traveling so long and being so jet lagged, but I was in so much awe the whole time it went by super fast! I couldn't believe the things I saw....we went from the city where people came right up to the open windows of the bus begging for money and trying to sell us meat and shoes and all sorts of things, and then past little tiny towns where people lived literally in dirt huts. I wish I could describe to you everything I saw today. Everywhere we would go everyone would stare at our bus and yell Mzunugu's!! (white people) and in some of the smaller towns they would literally chase after our bus. But we made it to our house and it is super nice for Africa!! But still completely NASTY for the states haha I am SO happy to be here though. We have a cook who makes us dinner Monday- Friday, so I had my first real African meal tonight and it was WAY good!
We talked for awhile about house and safety rules and our plan the next few days and then we set up our beds and mosquito nets, and today we get to take a freezing cold shower, but we only get 2 showers a week! And 1 hot one every other Sunday....definitely embracing the experience for all it's worth :)
It's way hot and humid and there are more bugs than there are in Hawaii, and I have never been so tired in my life, but I am SO happy and would not want to be anywhere else right now. I can't wait to experience more, and I hop you guys will be able to keep in touch and be a part of it with me. I have access to internet a lot so email and facebook me! I want to hear from all of you :)