I’ll probably say this every time, but MAN what a week! Time is going by way too fast, I’m just about half-way done with this internship.
On Tuesday Sylvia and I started a new project teaching Nutrition and Physical Activity. I taught about physical Activity and made up a Michael Jackson dance for everyone to learn. (It had the moonwalk in it, no big deal). The kids loved it and we had soo much fun! Side note: My mom wrote a journal for me when I was young. I was reading it with Tanner last month and it said that I had an imaginary friend named “Michael Jackson.” Are we surprised? I love him. Anyway, We taught again at a different primary school on Wednesday. After I taught the dance the 5th grade girls all taught me African dancing. They were laughing at me half the time because I would bust out the white girl moves now and then, but the teacher told me I was a natural, haha. She is a very nice woman.
It is interesting preparing lessons here in Uganda. In my major I've had to prepare a lot of presentations and lessons. It is totally different here, however, because you can’t prepare a power point or show a video or anything like that. You just write it out on paper, and use the chalkboard when you teach. Also, you have to keep in mind the audience you are teaching. Example: You can’t just tell these kids “Eat broccoli and spinach because it has iron and zinc!” They don’t have broccoli and spinach. It's been good doing a lot of research to learn more about the culture and how these people live. It is also so relaxed teaching here. In America I have to wear professional dress, heels, and try to make my hair nice, where here I show up covered in mud and with a messy bun (which probably has something growing in it because it never gets washed…) and they still, always tell us that we look smart or very nice.
Wednesday I had an interesting experience. We went back up to Zion to spend the night at our partner Shadrach’s hut. It was a cool experience sleeping on top of a mountain in the jungle. The few people here have no electricity, bathrooms, beds, showers, or anything. Dinner in Africa is never ready until 10 or 11 at night so we sat around in the dark drinking lemon grass tea which tastes like the milk after a bowl of fruit loops. We had a good and deep conversation that night with Shadrach. I love talking to Ugandans because that's how I learn the most. They say things that you would never even think about saying in a million years. Government, Religion, and, of course, Health are so different here so I like getting all their insights into these areas. Once I was at a health clinic in a village and they were saying that life-support isn’t a thing here because they don’t have generators and if the power goes out (which happens every day), you’re dead, literally. That’s just one, small example of something that I never even thought about until now. We really do live quite the life of comfort and ease in America. Anyway, we finally ate at 11 (with our hands), and went to bed. We taught dance and nutrition again the next morning. Later that day, we finished up our final respect and child sexual abuse classes and made posters for each classroom. This was such a good experience and all of the students responded so well. They also gave some of the funniest answers. I can only imagine that teaching elementary school would always be entertaining.
On Friday we went to our friend Carolynn’s school in the morning to do a de-worming outreach. We dewormed about 150 kids! I love Uganda because it is so chill, people are really honest here, and you can jump through a lot of loops that you couldn’t anywhere else. Both of my country coordinators have volunteered in India and they said that it is so much harder and takes so much more time to order supplies/medication/set up appointments there. You have to do a little bit of research, but Ani and I went to a clinic, talked to a really cool doctor (who gave us the most inspiring pep talk by the way), and we walked out with 1,000 de-worming pills and 1,000 vit. A tablets for FREEEE. We aren’t nurses or pharmacists, just college students. Ani is a year younger than me so we are actually the two youngest of our whole group! Ugandans trust that we will use it for medical outreaches. In America that would not fly! I like the lax rules here, though, because I feel like our team gets SO much work done in a day, so efficiently.
Afterwards we met with John. This is the project that I am most excited about at the moment. WE ARE OPENING A BRAND NEW HEALTH CLINIC!!! John is one of our partners, a nurse and a very good business man. He had his own clinic at one point, but it got robbed. We helped him by getting a microscope for the lab tech (which Matt’s dad shipped to me before I left and I brought in my bag), and we have supplied a lot of medication for the clinic as well. We found an old, empty clinic to rent and he now has a receptionist and other nurses. By this coming Friday the clinic will be functioning. John is a great leader in his community. People love him and he is making the health clinic affordable for the people there. They need a lot of help and medical attention so I am so glad that we can help out the community to attain better health, and also help out John. Like I said last time, it has been good to be learning a lot of business skills here. We are working on creating the contract. I like the way HELP works because we don’t just give people free stuff. We help with certain costs, but a lot of it comes from the individual. We supply individuals or companies with skills that will make their business sustainable. One thing we have noticed is that Africans don’t always keep records of things and that is why their businesses fall apart. We always stress the importance of record keeping and we always follow up on each project to ensure it is sustainable. I am in charge of a medical outreach at John’s new clinic shortly after it opens. We are going to be doing malaria testing because there is a need for that in the community and it is also a good way to get the village excited about the new clinic; for them to see what it has to offer and how it can help their families. I will keep you updated on how the opening of the clinic goes. I can’t believe it... I am helping to open up a freaking Health clinic!!
We have been working so hard. We start work at 7:40 and don’t come home till 6 or 7 at night. If you would like to help and donate to this clinic or any of the other projects, check out the “get involved” tab on this blog. All of the money we use to fight poverty comes through donations, but mostly our own pockets. For those who have donated, I sincerely appreciate it! Just this summer we have put together (and are currently working on): a dental outreach, an eye surgery outreach, deworming, HIV and Malaria testing, giving vaccination, teaching TONS of classes, making R.U.M.P's, giving communities access to clean water, creating income generating businesses, planting gardens… and these are only some that I can think of off the top of my head. I will be sure to include the year-end report at the end of my trip to give the exact numbers and details as to what we have done. (End of plug)
Yesterday we hiked up Mount Wanale to spend the night on top of some falls. I have been on a lot of hikes in my lifetime, and I’d have to say this was the prettiest! It was also probably the hardest because it was straight uphill! It was so steep that we were basically crawling up the mountain the whole time (Rachel even brought work gloves lol). At one point Ani was like “let’s hurry it’s starting to rain.” In all reality, I was just drenched in sweat and dripping ALL over her… haha my bad… There was a moonlight festival going on at the top so there were tons and tons of people there. There were a lot of foreigners as well so it was a fun change hanging out with white people for once. I loved talking with people from all around the world. There were a lot of people from Spain, England, and Scotland. Matt and Holli both served missions in Scotland and they ran into the girlfriend of someone Holli baptized. What are the chances that they run into each other on top of a mountain in Africa? Cool stuff happens here in Uganda.
Like normal, dinner didn’t start till 10 and then the dance party started. There are rules here at HELP International so I think we were the only ones not drinking or smoking weed. When I was deciding which country to go to with HELP, I decided on Uganda because they have the worst health problems like HIV and malaria. I’m also so glad I picked this country because African’s are the BEST dancers! Seriously everyone is so good. It is part of their culture and there are dance parties every night. They make American’s look so stiff and awkward and boring. Also the music here is the best. They are always playing a lot of American hip-hop songs with African beats and also some upbeat reggae. The dance party was so much fun and so crazy. There were a lot of little kids dancing (also till 3 in the morning) and they are SO good too. Don’t be fooled, Ugandan children are so sweet and cute during the day, and turn into dirty little dancers at night. I’ve never felt so violated by 9 year olds in my life. We had to leave the dance floor eventually because it was getting too crazy up in there! It rained all night and the inside of our tents were soaked so we didn’t really sleep at all. We left to hike back down at 6 the next morning to get home in time for church today. It was muddy so I had my first experience mud sliding down a mountain. I kind of felt like I was back in Utah snowboarding again!
Other than that things are pretty simple here in Uganda. The power was out most of the week which sometimes lead us to extreme boredom. We play spades a lot and other games. Our Friday night consisted of us getting crazy and each putting on about 10 temporary tattoos. Exciting right? I love hanging out with everyone and you could say that Africa has brought us pretty close.. haha. Also the water was off for a little bit this week.
Many of my family members have been asking about the food here. Basically the only food here that we eat is rice, beans, matoke (a “banana” that tastes like potatoes), posho (maze), peas, sweet potatoes, chapatti, and cabbage. We eat this for dinner every night just presented in different ways. Sometimes we get spoiled and get mango, pineapple, or jack fruit. The food is really good, it is just very flavorless and gets old eating it every meal. I think about In-n-Out almost every meal.. lol. It has rained every day and I got caught in it twice. I came home SOAKED on Tuesday. We have all mastered latrines and peeing in the grass. I went on a taxi ride this week and there were exactly 25 (I kid you not) people squished in the van (Another thing that would not fly in America haha). We were all sitting on each other’s laps. It’s normal. I love Africa. Oh and this weekend we are going to Jinja, Uganda! I am going to cross something SO FUN off my bucket list that neither my fiancé nor my mom would agree with.. stay tuned!