You should have a boda-boda driver in your "top five" and other things I learned today 8/17/09

There is a point in any new experience where you feel relaxed enough to ease up a little without feeling comfortable. It’s after you pass the point of feeling like you’re not in control or could lose it at any second. Then, before you get to the point of comfort and are acclimated, you hit that stage where you get a little confidence, feeling like you can handle the challenges and you may actually like not knowing what’s coming! THAT is where I am and I love it!

I know enough to be ready for some really sad mornings hearing from concerned HIV positive clients worried about their children when they are gone or getting enough to eat. I know to expect hugs when I walk into the orphanage and to see kids playing with a few bricks, a stick and a mesh cage having as much fun as a little American boy who just got a new remote controlled car. I also know at all times where my flashlight, phone, and keychain light are so when the power goes out or my boda driver makes a wrong turn on the way back, I’m going to be able to see what I am putting into my bowl for dinner and skip over the giant pothole filled with mud walking towards my home.

(Photo: A fruit stand near my home. I learned you don't need a lot of anything besides creativity when it comes to entrepreneurship!)

What I don’t know are things like how to best help all the people I meet so obviously in need or even when I do, how to get the results I want! I still don’t know which store within two miles sells diet coke or where I can buy peanut butter and I also don’t know how in the world I am going to wash the pee out of my jeans from the pantsless twins at the orphanage staging a sneak attack before I could hand them off to someone else!

“Knowledge is Power” but it can also lead to settling. Settling for being comfortable rather than pushing yourself to the next challenge. Since I view myself as slightly lazy or complacent, I try to keep myself in a place where I am forced to learn new things every day!

A few things I learned today:

Wasuze otya means “good morning” when you don’t want to say oli otya which is “how was your night?” This is super useful when you are just passing someone who you don’t want to stop and converse with but you don’t want to ignore either. I learned this from Derrick’s 3 year old daughter. Technically I learned it 3 days ago but I just got what she was finally saying to me every morning.

A charcoal stove that is big enough to make chapatti costs less than the pan that goes on top. I bought a small stove today for the woman I want to help start a chappatti stand for herself. She needs to generate enough income to support caring for her grandsons and hopefully be able to visit her brother in the hospital. Even with bargaining, I only managed to bring down the price of the pan 500USH and it was STILL more than the stove!

I don’t like noodles for dinner. Or lunch. Or really ever. I have had enough noodles to sustain whatever part of my brain would ever crave them for years.

I really like the kids at the orphanage.

I also have favorites; Carlos, the kid who for whatever reason loves Spanish and wants to learn. I teach him a few words every time I come and he knows them the next day. He’s also really smart in general and just an overall great kid. Vic, whose real name is Victoria and whom everyone else calls Victor (because that’s somehow more girly than Vic?!?) or Victoria even though she likes Vic. Vic it is for me! Rebecca because she’s just really smart and I am so impressed with how eager she seems to learn. John Bosco because he’s three and the chillest three year old I have ever met. Plus he played catch with me. And his name is John Bosco. And finally the little Rachel (there are 2) who is the cutest kid ever. So sweet and adorable!

(Photo: Carlos, one of my favorites asked me to take his picture "looking smart")

Apparently you can tie a string around a finger and it will fall off. At least that’s what is happening at Bbiri clinic.

You can use a fork for anything. That includes making eggs, opening cans of instant coffee and later as the utensil to stir the muck up in the bottom of your cup.

And finally- it is good to make nice with at least one boda-boda driver. Geoffrey is now a valued contact saved to my phone. Even though the first time we met, he started asking me if I knew Jesus WHILE driving and WHILE turning around to hear my answers, he gives me a fair mzungu price to the orphanage and back everyday. Now, I no longer have to “compromise” with the others where they look at me straight in the eye and try to charge me 4 times what a local pays. Please.

All of these pieces of knowledge have different shelf-lives for usefulness but I still love knowing that I learned them!

(Photo: Brooke using a tupperware container as her "cup" and a fork as her "teaspoon" makes for some decent morning coffee!)

Bargains at the Equator

Amazing weekend! On Saturday morning, Brooke, Chris and I met up with Rachel and took a matata (van taxi) into Kampala. There we were meeting Greg and Todd, 2 other volunteers from California who work in another area of Uganda. Morgan, (also from Cali) was also coming but a bit later. I met Morgan, Greg and Todd through The Real Uganda when we all stayed for a night at the volunteer house in Mukono. We had decided to meet in Kampala since it was a convenient middle point for all of us. Not to mention it would be nice to get a little bit of city life, functioning internet, food, and a night out!

We booked a night at a hostal called Red Chili which is in every guidebook and known by any mzungu remotely near Kampala. It’s pretty incredible when you are living with few luxuries; a shower, a flushable toilet that you can sit on, DSTV, cold drinks, western foods and internet! We all stayed in the mixed dorms-the cheapest option and therefore the total price was a whopping 12,000 USH, roughly $6.00. It was great to have a little time to unwind and actually feel like the dirt was coming off my body instead of feeling like I am just redispersing it.

(Picture: Typical hostal dorm room complete with your very own mosquito net!)

We stayed there for awhile before heading out for the night and were shown a place for dinner (by our lovely tour guide Chris who navigated the streets of Kampala like he had lived there for 20 years) not yet in the Bradt Travel Guide which I guarantee will/should be in any future books! Tuhende Safari Lodge, run by a native Ugandan who spent 35 years living in California is the owner. For 13,900 USH, you get an appetizer that appeared to be something like pita filled with different vegetables and served with a chili salsa. Following 3 plates of that for 8 people, we each got a bowl of onion and crouton soup. As a main course, you have a choice of several options including steak, several chicken or fish dishes and 2 vegetarian options. I choice one of the vegetable dishes and it was absolutely amazing. Since vegetable are considered a poor man’s choice or an afterthought here, (besides potatos, beans, and cassava, a root vegetable) finding anything more than a miniscule piece of tomato in your pasta or rice is a miracle. I was in heaven. Collectively we probably said “this is sooo good” or in my case, “this is unreal” about 50 times.

(Picture: The group of volunteers at Tuhende Safari Lodge in Kampala for Dinner

Later on we went to a bar called Parkside Inn where I got killed in the Ugandan pool game. Here I got to try my first baggie of alcohol. Since I am not a beer drinker and everything else gets a little more pricey, I was eyeing the sodas when I noticed on the chalkboard it said “Beckham, 700USH. I decided I had to try it and ordered one with a Krest Bitter Lemon soda. For those fortunate enough to have missed out on this opportunity in life, Beckham is gin in a baggie which I now realize I have seen many people sipping OUT OF A STRAW on the street. Due to the poor balancing skills of a plastic bag on a table, the half I managed to have before spilling the rest left me pretty sure I wouldn’t order it again. We left to go to Effendy, a bar/club likelier to be found somewhere in the U.S rather than anywhere else in Uganda The music was loud and the drinks overpriced but it had an outdoor area in the back and it was nice to have fun!

Sunday Brooke, Greg, Todd, Morgan, Rachel and I headed to the area in Uganda directly on the line of the equator. We were warned it was two ugly circles where a bunch of mzungus go to take cheesy photos. If you know me, you realize hearing that, I was DEFINITELY going! I love the cheesy tourist spots just as much as I love the off the beaten track locations. We really got lucky with our timing. It poured almost the entire 1 ½ hour drive and just before we arrived, the rain stopped! We got out to a clear sky and the picturesque view of two, clearly out of place circles that you could step in and shamelessy take numerous photos of yourself. Of course I did just that and loved every second.

Since it’s clear this is a tourist hotspot, there are also several stores that sell everything from postcards and miniature animals to incredible artwork and handmade instruments. I had mistakenly put several 1000USH in my wallet for the weekend believing them to be 10,000 bills so I had NO money to be spending so I took on the roll of “admirer.” I still loved looking at all the incredible crafts made by hand and got some good ideas for a few souvenirs for my family!

(Picture: Duh. THe Equator! Climbing up is harder than it looks though. Apparently other lame tourists have done the same thing so it gets tricky when the letters "D and "A" are loose!)

While my adventure up to that point had been frugal, I assumed lunch would be where I would spend the last of my money. In fact, I ended up spending less that $1.00 on a great lunch! We decided to skip the café near the shops where everybody else went and walked about 20 minutes down the road to get some local food. Of course everyone stared and we had kids come up and watch us buy some food at one of the stores.

Here is what we came out with for about 2500 USH for 6 people; 2 avocados, chipatti, “pancakes,” (which I can best describe as fried unrisen banana bread that’s about the size of the “O” your hand makes when you give the “ok” signal) sambosas (trianble shaped bread filled with rice, chickpeas or meat,) and mini bananas. I also got a the delicious Krest Bitter Lemon soda which cost me more than my meal at a whopping 1000USH (50 cents!)

This post will end like it started; amazing weekend!

From Cows to Wheelbarrows. You Know, the Usual.

I woke up today ready to head out on more home visits only to realize that at least around here, Friday seems to be an extension of the weekend! It turned out great for me since I then decided I needed a slight workout and headed to the spring to fill up 2 jerrycans. I waited only about 15 minutes today as there were less people and when I came back up, Chris, the engineer (or artist which he reminds me) had finally woken up from what he refers to as his “creative time” and agreed to go to the spring with me to do round 2. However, first we stopped at the site of the work-in-progress volunteer house he has been tasked to build. Once finished, this will really help out KACCAD because they will no longer have to pay rent on their property as they own the land.

(Photo: The extra builder)

Arriving, our goal was to film a little bit of Chris’ progress for a piece he is doing to show other engineers at his alma mater, Bath University. Not surprisingly, we had one bull-horned cow strolling through the rooms and a cow-herder telling us something in Luganda which we could only politely nod and respond with, Oliotya saabo (roughly translates to “how is the day sir) a few times. After finally getting a few clips of the house, we headed to the spring the route we believed was the back way. The back way turned into a pleasant 45 minute walk through villagers’ backyards filled with goats, chickens, children and animal poop and unidentified plants I am hoping are not going to give me rashes. With enough water now to last the day, I decided the rest of my morning would be spent doing something productive. I organized my supplies that I will be using at the orphanage and then gathered and completed all 50 forms for the children regarding their HIV results.

After lunch, Brooke, Rachel and I headed to the orphanage to spend the afternoon with the kids. When we got there, it was pretty cool to see some of them literally jump up and run to give us hugs. Even though it was Rachel’s first time there, they all welcomed her as well. I asked Sam what they needed help with and the task of the day was grading their exams. It was not difficult but really time consuming even with both of us and it was nice to know we were able to do something for the guys that would allow them to relax a little more this weekend.

While we were busy with that, super nurse Brooke had found one of the little girls, Rebecca laying down with what she correctly believed was an extremely high fever. Even with my limited knowledge, I could tell her temperature was lamplight warm. (Don’t act like you don’t know-the temperature you get after you put the thermometer under the lamp to skip school!) Brooke decided to take her to the clinic and later that night, came back to tell us Rebecca had reached 40.5 Celsius (105 degrees Fahrenheit!!) As this was a local clinic, the level of care is usually not the same as what one might expect in the U.S or any developed country. They gave her a shot of quinine and a Vitamin B supplement which seems to be given for any type of ailment here. Brooke is going to follow up at 7 tomorrow morning to get her another shot and some more medicine.

(Photo: these kids made the wheelbarrow their clown car! The older boys in the back are typical 11 year olds posing for the camera)

Sitting here typing on my Macbook, charging my ipod and about to get into a bed I don’t have to share with 3 or 4 other people, I can’t help but think about how being born in one place verse another can so drastically affect everything in your life. Not only your physical comforts but your health and education. However, as depressing as that can be to think about when I am here looking at poverty and destitution every day, Uganda has given me insight on how I truly control my happiness and attitude. It’s amazing how being here allows me to appreciate things that I have always taken for granted like being able to use to toilet without friendly visitors (flies) all around you or a shower where water comes out when you turn a handle and you can even ADJUST the temperature! When a kid who has been wearing the same outfit for 4 days interrupts his game of wheelbarrow racing (not the one you’re thinking but where they cram 4 kids IN a wheelbarrow and race it around) to greet you with a hug it seems so obvious that material things while nice, cannot make a person joyful. I hope when I got back to a world where drama means LC leaves "The Hills" or starving means I didn't eat breakfast, I can remember some of the things people who most would say have nothing were able to teach me.

(Photo: The REAL wheelbarrow race you never got to do in grade school!)

The positives and negatives of an HIV mobile clinic 8/13/09

(Picture: Some of the kids from the orphanage getting their numbers for testing and paperwork completed. These kids were incredibly brave getting their blood drawn!!)

2nd week for HIV testing. This time, the testing was done in the village of Nankawadde where we set up at the Kawuuzi health clinic. I had talked to Patrick, the director at the orphanage and was really hoping the kids would come. I wasn’t sure if they would be able to do it but at least this one was in walking distance so there was a chance!

Yesterday I bet Sam 500 USH 

(about 25 cents) that we wouldn’t be leaving for the clinic until after 8am which was the “official” start time on all the posters we had so carefully placed around the village. I have learned the art of Ugandan time here. Ugandan time was explained to me like this; Time is about being comfortable. You don’t rush because it it not comfortable to have a time commitment. If you are uncomfortable at any given moment, your aim is to be comfortable with whatever you do next.

(Picture: Patrick our lab technician)

This leads to many leisurely tea breaks and casual chats with people on the road. With that in mind, I decided 8 would be the perfect time to wake up and I could then be ready to leave by what I imagined would be the departure time of 9…ish. I learn quickly so when we left at about 9:30, I felt very comfortable with my bet won and my morning relaxing!

When we arrived it was a little different story. By the time the counselors and nurses arrived at their comfortable time of 11:00, I had already given one presentation on Safe sex and abstinence to a group of about 25 people and was about to start on the healthy eating presentation when I noticed that there were a few important parts of the testing that had been forgotten. Namely, the numbered cards that each person should receive to help keep the results a little more confidential.

After asking around for paper and getting blank stares Brooke, the volunteer nurse, ripped some out of her notebook and we quickly made 57 pieces assuming that would be enough. We were only off by about 77 people! Once we started, we did not stop until 4:30pm. We did not take a break for food, water, the bathroom, anything. It was literally one after the other. My job was to see the person first, take their number and record it on their paper as well as our records and then fill out their information on another sheet where later we record results. Then, the patient would go to Noreen, a nurse from Uganda who would draw their blood. Brooke would take the sample and put it in the test tube and a lab worker then analyzed the results. Finally, I would have to record whether the results were positive or negative on the papers after they testing had been done. If it seems time consuming, it is. I could have easily written a novel with all the writing I did today!

The major work came when at around 1:00pm, 50 children came from the orphanage to get tested. Not only did we have a stream of adults still coming, we had 50 kids as young as 3 who needed testing. I was so proud of how well they did and most of them didn’t even cry! Remember, this testing was done in a poor village in Uganda. There were not separate rooms or to be more specific, there were NO rooms. The testing was done outside in the back of the health clinic. Therefore, all the children could see the needle going into the arm of the child in from of them-I can’t believe how tough they were! It was so cute to see the older kids comforting the younger ones who were crying after the results. It was truly amazing to see how brave and caring they all were! After they were finished and knowing they had at least a 30 minute walk back, they did not want to wait for the results. I was then officially entrusted to bring all the results back to the orphanage. Now, of course due to confidentiality, I won’t tell you the specifics but suffice it to say, I was VERY pleased with the kids results! They have enough challenges in their lives without having to deal with an awful disease like HIV/AIDS.

Finally returning back to KACCAD, we arrived to find we still had to water. It was my first exciting excursion down to the local spring where you bring your jerrycans and fill them up with running water from a stream somewhere in Uganda! The route is directly downhill so on the positive side, I had a workout to look forward to! I went with Brooke and Sam who showed us the way. Apparently, 5:00 is social hour at the spring and we waited about 40 minutes before it was our turn to fill up the jerrycans. After all 5 were filled, we began the no water workout and seriously, it’s no joke. When you are lugging two full cans, one in each hand and scaling your way up a dirt path, it can get a little tiring! At least I know I will appreciate my shower/pour a bucket over my head time a little more tonight!
Hopefully we will get water tomorrow as I desperately need to wash my clothes! That will probably mean 2 trips down to the stream but on the plus side, Saturday Chris, Brooke and I are headed into Kampala and are going to stay overnight in a hostal for backpackers which to us at this moment is like the Hilton! They have cold drinks, a pool table, and free internet! HEAVEN

(Picture: Confirming results with the nurse and technician before sending the confidential forms to the counselors who give the actual results to the clients.)

Making babies and being born in the right place 8/12/09

I came to Uganda hoping to do achieve two things; Number one-learn more about the people and difficulties here and secondly, learn FROM them. I hope to take what I learn and find at least some ways to help improve the lives of those here with the extremely generous support in all typs of ways from my friends and family. Just as importantly, I hope to bring back what I learn from this country and those who make it so incredible for those who, for numerous reasons, might not be able to experience it themselves. Today I think I achieved a little bit of both.

I started my day sitting on the floor writing my pregnancy presentation on large sheets of poster paper with the help of Sam, a KACCAD worker. Basically, it was my job to present to a roomful of women (one man!!) and their babies the importance of antenatal care and then postnatal care. Clearly my specialty what with my background in child development and personal experience with childbirth…right. So that’s why my day started with the books, Where There is No Doctor and a very visually descriptive book for women ranging from how to find a comfortable position for sleep to what you can expect to look like during every month of pregnancy, at my side as reference guides. Luckily Brooke, a volunteer nurse who has been working at the hospital was able to help as well. She explained the most common problems they see are women who are malnourished bringing in their malnourished children as well. Sometimes it’s because they can’t afford food and other times it’s because of a lack of knowledge on what foods are needed.

The objective of the morning was to scan both books while discussing with Sam the culturally appropriate explanations and then put on a good presentation to a lot of skeptical women. I have to say I think I did a pretty decent job. I tried to keep it simple but informative and I thought it went well! At the end, the lone father in the room stood up and said in English, “thank you for teaching us” to which of course I responded, “thank you for listening!” For the most part, the babies behaved very well and the women were very attentive. My only obvious error was just a cultural difference where, when speaking about the proper weight of a growing child from birth to 5 years, I mentioned that a baby born under 3.1 kg is considered underweight. This, in fact is true in the United States but in Uganda, as the nurse politely corrected me,” 2.5 kg and under is considered underweight. I was very grateful that she politely put it in question form and then allowed me to explain that I was incorrect rather than trying to correct me in front of the group.

After the presentation I came back to my home to wash clothes only to find that we have no water. Normally, there are taps outside that you can use for cooking and filling up water. Today that lucky modern privilege is no longer. I was told it could be a day or possibly a week before we get working pumps so that was frustrating. Luckily it went off right when I was finishing my clothes so I will have clean underwear for another week! Now we will have to walk down to the community water pipe and fill up our jerrycans when they are low to have enough water for washing and cooking. It really isn’t too bad but it was a little frustrating when today the gas also went out so we no longer can use the stove to heat coffee or boil eggs in the morning. Oh AND the electricity comes on later every night now. I know I am lucky to have it at all and I definitely realize how I have taken it for granted. Now when I spend every night eating by flashlight, I am trying to be appreciative while literally sitting and waiting until around 10 when I will have electricity to read or take a shower (VERY difficult with no light and water in a small shower room the size of a port-a-potty.) It can be really uncomfortable but in a way, I am proud of myself for being able to deal with all that is coming at me and just kind of figuring a way to deal with it. It really helps and puts my discomforts in perspective when I constantly see people in more dire situations than I will probably ever encounter. It makes me grateful for the fact that I still have water, clean clothes to change into and food that I am able to complain about having to eat in the dark! It also helps to have Chris and Brooke around to sarcastically complain with and laugh 2 seconds later!

An update on the orphanage: the kids are taking their exams this week and so I helped with P.5’s exam today. I will try to put this in stark contrast with my memory of an exam I took in 5th grade in a public school in the U.S; Taking a little liberty with detail, I imagine I woke up, ate a breakfast of cracklin oat bran (Yes I KNOW none of you probably relate. Kirk and Catherine were what I will delicately call sliiightly overprotective and that they even invaded the kitchen where sugar cereals seemed to be as bad as cigarettes. Don’t you guys read the labels? Lucky Charms gives children bad attitudes and makes them want to smoke cigaretters) Aaaanyways, I probably headed to school with my XL GAP t-shirt which was totally cool back then, my umbro shorts and comfortable samba sneakers. I bet I brought my backpack filled with colored pencils, markers, pencils and pens (black and blue so when I wrote notes in class, I could change it up) and I ALWAYS had my trapper keeper with the clear outside pocket so I could put pictures of all my friends and draw around them when I didn’t want to listen to the teacher. When I got to school. I would sit in my assigned desk and have a few minutes to prepare for my exam while my college educated teacher would hand out clear print-out copies that were the same for everyone. I was nerdy so I would have been a little nervous and probably look around the well-lit room to all my friends making faces like, “oooh great. I would waaay rather be playing POGS and talking about my new slammer.” After finishing, I would have continued with the school day eating a hot lunch prepared by the lunch ladies and hoping my mild had the sticker on the bottom for the free cookie.

Here is the day for a P.5 student at the Raising Up Hope Orphanage; Most of the students wake up under their mosquito nets next to one or two other kids in the orphanage. Without breakfast they start the day by getting dressed and doing chores like sweeping or mopping the floors or maybe going out into the neighborhood to try to climb the trees with fruit in them to eat with their friends. Many of the kids in P.5 are older so they would take care of the two 3-month-old babies or other little ones.

(Photo: One of the kids drawing a picture with some donated crayons and paper)























Preparing for the exam is easy. They cannot study from the book as there is only one copy for the teacher so they would have to look at their notes. Coming to class which is an unlit room next to the main building, they might have had one pen and one pencil or perhaps shared with another student. At the “school,” there is no door to close to your classroom and there are children ages 3 months to 15 years running around outside playing. In the class, there is no electricity and the ages range from 10-20 years old. There are two tables and four benches. The tables are similar to a picnic table so the children sit across from each other and if anything is written on the board, the kids in the back either stand up or strain their necks around all the other kids to see. Before I arrived, one of the founders of the orphanage handed out the exams. Since he was the only one available at the time, he left the children in the room on their own in order watch the other children. The exam was handwritten and photocopied. Sam, one of the guys who started the orphanage had explained to me on Monday how he did not have the money to make photocopies for the exam. As they did not have sufficient funds to print the pages, Sam had written them out by hand and photocopied them because it is cheaper than printing. The handwritten words were very difficult to read and some of the pages were cut off on the bottom or the sides so while it is timed, you are constantly having to stop and ask the teacher, or in this case class monitor (me) what a word is or what word(s) are missing. At times I wasn’t sure so I had to leave the class to ask Sam the meaning or ask what word was missing on the page. Oh and don’t forget-this exam was not given in their native language! With minimum education, some of the students do not have a good level of English. If a child’s level of English is not good, he/she might not even understand the instructions even if fully capable of comprehending the concept.

One example of this today was a question asked after a short story where they had to answer the simple question; What is the relationship between the two characters? One child asked me what the word relationship was and thinking she couldn’t read it since it was written slightly illegibly, I told her. Without any look of understanding on her face, I realized she didn’t have a clue what a relationship was. Asking the class, none of them did. They simply didn’t know what the word meant in English.

Another problem resulted in the lack of paper and ability to print. I started noticing once I had the original copy that some of the students were working on pages I did not have! I realized that because all pages are two-sided, some of them had sides from another class' exam. Therefore, while they should have been filling out transition words on page one and moving on to short stories with short answers for page two, some kids were drawing parts of the body or asking me when I wanted them to demonstrate the commands on their paper like “clap” and “jump.”

I guess the main thing I took away from this experience was how much harder these kids have to work for an education than I did. Not only do they lack supplies but they are faced with numerous other challenges ranging from noise and illegible wording to lack of food and space. Even completing simple repetitive exercises for things like math take 3x longer. They don’t have their own books so they must first write down the entire problem. In P.5 it can be a tedious task with all the story problems. Even if a child is quick with math but slow when writing, they will have less opportunity to grasp a concept than the others. They don’t have a quiet place to study or review and they don’t have a strict parent making sure (like I did) my homework was done before I went and played nor one who is concerned if their grades slip or their behavior changes.

(photo: Kids copying their math problems from the crude blackboard where I wrote all their problems out. The orphanage finally got a single copy for most of the school books so a teacher can actually follow what they would be studying in school.)























It may sound surprising since today if you look at it in one way, it was one of my roughest days yet. However to be honest, it was one of my best! I felt hopeful when I saw all the great parents at the clinic waiting patiently for their child to get immunized and that hope carried over to my time at the orphanage where I talked with Carlos, the 11 year old who, for whatever reason loves Spain and wants to learn Spanish. I had taught him the numbers 1-11 (so he could say his age) and within two days he had it down! He seemed really proud of himself and I also noticed he had decorated his special notebook for our “Spanish class” with glitter. I felt hopeful when I cut string for bracelets and saw how when even the smallest kids wanted string to make one, the older kids immediately commanded everyone to get in a line and let all the little kids all go first. And maybe hopeful is not the right word but I felt good about my bargaining skills when after telling a boda-boda driver I would walk if he was going to charge me more than I normally pay to get home, he conceded and I got the regular “mzungu rate” of 1000 USH to ride home.



Life is good :)


(Photo: Studying so hard she's not even distracted by the camera!)