This week was pretty tiring, but also full of so many fun and hilarious moments! On Monday, Ani and I went to work with a local NGO called Life Center Ministries Africa. It was started by a couple, and its purpose is to put undernourished children on a nutrition plan for 4 months to get them back to a healthy weight. The husband is a Ugandan doctor (the one who gave us an inspiring peptalk the week before), and the wife is a fellow Mzungu from Virginia. They met while she was working here in Uganda and now they are married, have an NGO, and an adorable 6 month old baby named Owen. The place was about an hour out and they offered to take us in their car. It was such a luxury driving in a car that smelt nice and I even had my own seat! When we got there we listened to the nutrition class, and helped take temperatures and pictures of all the new kids. All of the children have Kwashiorkor and Marasmus (protein and nutrient deficiencies) so they are either extremely thin, have blonde hair growing on their heads, or have big round bellies and puffy cheeks. I was taking pictures and had to write their name, age, and weight on a whiteboard. I was asking the nurse how old the boy in front of me was, and she said 10 years old. I thought for sure that he wasn’t older than 4 or 5, and was completely shocked when she said he was 10! I had to ask her about three times because I didn’t believe it. He was so tiny and stunted from lack of good nutrition. He weighed 17.5 kgs which is just under 40 lbs.. AT TEN YEARS OLD! It was one of the more heartbreaking outreaches I’ve done. Normally I love working with or teaching children because they are so happy and loving and giggly! All these children just looked so sad and had no energy. They were literally starving, and that was hard to see. I think that this was a wonderful organization and I love what they are doing. Children who do not get proper nutrition have problems for the rest of their life because their brains and bones aren’t fully developed. And the saddest part is that it isn’t their fault at all; it just happens to be the situation they were born into. Out of all my health classes, nutrition classes have always been my least favorite classes. This experience really opened my eyes and helped me to see why good nutrition is important at all stages of life. The rest of our Monday was spent at some meetings for the opening of the new health clinic.
On Tuesday I went with Hanna and Haylee to finish working on a project at Dan’s Orphanage and school. Previously this summer, HELP installed giant rain catchers into two different schools. These schools are in more rural areas, with little access to things. It can take them hours just to get one jerry can full of water. Most of the time, they send their kids to go fetch water so, often, they miss out on school, and can also get mugged because they are alone. We went back to Dan’s to install some plumbing for any excess rain. Before we went to that village we went to the hardware store to get all the supplies. On our boda ride we were carrying a giant pipe so it looked like we were jousting on the boda, haha. We also had one of the boda drivers carry the underground piping, which was all wound up, so he rode inside of it like an inner tube. You see a lot of crazy things being transported on bodas here. I have seen chickens and goats and other random large obects. Rachel and Ani said that they once saw a cow on one! Can you imagine that? Only in Uganda… lol
Wednesday was spent doing another deworming outreach in the village where the new health clinic is. It was a larger Primary school and we dewormed about 500 kids! We spent the rest of the day painting the inside and outside of John’s clinic. I’m not very good at art (I can probably paint a sun and maybe a tree), but I have always had good handwriting so I just stick with that. I felt like I was back in high school on the student council, painting signs to hang around the school. That night we went to our partner and friend Carolynn’s house for dinner. It was actually her parent’s house and it was the nicest one that I have seen in Uganda so far! All the kids from the neighborhood were over, so we danced and danced all night! I want to take an African dance class when I get back to America. I also want to start a garden to grow my own fruits, veggies, and grains. Everything really does taste so fresh here. I love going to the central market because it is mango and avocado heaven!
On Thursday, I accompanied Holli to help her with her final skills classes. We taught at two different high schools in the mountains. There, students are all in a business club at school, so at one school we taught chalk making, and at the other liquid soap. Their clubs will be able to make a good profit off these business ideas. It reminded me of the time when I started my own business, making and selling hair accessories… I didn’t make more than $75 but hey, it was a good start. Maybe I will start another business in the future!
Friday was spent going to the hospital in the vision ward as well as the Public Health department of Mbale! Sylvia and I are both Public health students and could very well end up working at a health department someday so we were so excited to see how things are run here in Uganda. The guy in charge took us on a tour and answered all of our questions. I kept asking so many questions, I could not shut up haha. It was interesting because they basically do all the same things that we do in America, but the issues and programs they have are totally different. In America we might have teams that work on projects to reduce illicit drug use, or obesity, or to educate on suicide prevention. Here they have departments like vector control, worms, and HIV/AIDS. It was interesting to realize that every country has health issues, the issues just vary.
We only worked until 3 p.m., and then Hanna, Haylee, Rachel and I got on a Taxi and headed to Jinja! The hostel we stayed at was right on the Nile River and it was so beautiful at sunset!! We played an intense game of spades that lasted forever. (Hanna and I won, in case you were wondering.. J) The next morning I did something that I have heard about and wanted to do since my sixth grade geography class.. I bungee jumped over the Nile River!!! It was terrifying, but sooo much fun! TALK ABOUT AN ADRENALINE RUSH. The guys helping me at the top were really funny and helped me to feel safe. When I was at the bottom, hanging upside down, I couldn’t stop talking to the guys picking me up in the boat. “I can’t believe I just did that that was freakin crazy did you see that wow that was nuts holy crap I did it.” Everyone in my group who has done it said they were the same exact way. Must have been some sort of adrenaline reaction. Jinja is more of a touristy town so there were a lot of good shops and places to eat. Also, there were SO many monkeys in Jinja (they are my favorite animal). Rachel and Haylee went zip lining and I spent the rest of the day with Hanna in Lugazi, Uganda. When Hanna came with HELP 5 years ago, this is the town they stayed in, and this is the town that the next group that comes the Uganda will be staying in. We went to go visit some of her old friends and check it out! Hanna said since coming back to Uganda she has seen many, good changes in health care and many, good changes in business, but education has stayed exactly same. I’m glad that during my time here I have been able to teach a lot of classes and help with education hopefully at least a little bit. The schools here really are SO good, they are just not accessible to all.
If you’re still reading this, props to you!.. I’m almost done I promise. This week was so busy and tiring and long and at times really hard. However a few funny things happened this week that made for some good comic relief:
We burn our trash outside in our backyard every night. One night it was Rachel’s turn, and apparently someone had put an aerosol can of bug repellant in there. It sounded like a bomb went off, and the house almost caught on fire…
Whenever we are on boda rides and little kids see us they YELL “Mzungu! Mzungu! How are you!” while running beside you to try and catch up with you. One little boy was so excited to see us on a boda. His pants were too big on him so when he started yelling and sprinting beside us, his pants fell all the way down, and he kept running till they were far, far behind him. Kids here don’t wear underwear, and he was already shirtless so he was running completely naked. He just really wanted to say hi to us and had no shame! It was the cutest/funniest thing, and we couldn’t stop laughing once we passed him.
I was using a latrine and the entire door just all of a sudden broke off. It was one of those moments where I was like “what on earth do I do now.” There was no one around except Ani, hahah
So this one is more scary than funny. My dad, my brother Matt, and I are all really good at falling asleep wherever/whenever (I consider it a blessing most of the time). I took this talent of mine to the next level and accidently fell asleep on a boda! Crazy, I know. The ride was just really peaceful and not bumpy for once, and I was soo tired that day. Luckily I was in the middle spot where you don’t have to hang on to anyone or anything, and I fell asleep on the driver’s shoulder… I think it was just for a few minutes, but it FREAKED me out when I woke up zooming past corn fields and banana trees. I was so confused!!
So between bungee jumping and falling asleep on a motorcycle… I’d say it was an eventful week!