Ekyaro Kyaife Website

P.S. For those of you wondering, the web site for the orphanage in Uganda is: www.ekyarokyaife.citymax.com. Check it out!!!

Christmas!

Christmas is coming up and there are lots of children everywhere who may not get a visit from Santa. Luckily, most of them are not the type of children who just EXPECT presents at Christmas. Kind of cool when you think about it. Isn't Christmas more exciting when you are surprised with presents and touched that someone thought of you? In my opinion, it's kinds like that who deserve the most at Christmas. Not to discount the lucky few who have very large celebrations at Christmas, but you know what I mean?

So this Christmas, why not support those kids who might not receive something otherwise. Be Santa. It doesn't have to be for just our organization, although we certainly wouldn't say no to making a happy Christmas for the kids!But you can also make a box for Operation Christmas Child or buy a goat for World Vision or something. If you could see the celebrations at Ekyaro Kyaife when a gift is given, you wouldn't hesitate.

Think about it. Give because you want to this Christmas, and because it comes from you heart. Not just because something is on sale.

Almost Over :0(

I'm leaving Uganda next Tuesday. I am very very very sad about that. Although, I was rather excited to discover that the Canucks are playing the night after I get home and I'll also be home in time for Stanley Cup Playoffs. Where there's hockey, there's also Timmie's coffee. So I suppose life could be worse.

We've had some adventures in our compound lately. We came home one day and were talking to the Ugandan couple who own the main house when he mentioned that we should be sure to always have our flashlights with us at night, even in the compound which is protected by shards of broken glass and a huge gate. Naturally we asked why and he casually informed us that they had killed two snakes in the compound that week. Terra asked if they were poisonous and they just laughed and said,"Well they're snakes, aren't they?" Silly question. So I rephrased it and asked if you would die from being bitten by those ones, and they said," Yes, but as long as you get to the hospital to get treatment really quickly you should be okay. Just don't delay." So basically, it's no problem because it's not like you'd die right away or anything. After this wonderful exchange, he just reminded us to carry our flashlights again. I don't know about you, but I felt reassured.

See, the latrines are located at the side of the compound underneath a tree. There is also a pole in the latrine that would be an excellent place to curl up. To get to the latrines you need to walk by another tree and a huge pile of wood. All of these factors regarding the latrines led me to the conclusion that I am not peeing again until I get to Amsterdam.

I've been told by many of my friends that they will definitely see me before I leave next week, and Terra has been snatching her phone out of my hands when texts come in, and conversations abruptly stop when I enter the room. So somehow, I feel like Terra and Team Iganga are up to something. They should really not be trusted with any state secrets. Oh yeah, all of us mzungus (whities) in Iganga call ourselves Team Iganga...you know...'cause we're cool like that. Most of the other mzungus here are Peace Corps, so it's been an interesting time hanging out with them.

There are so few of us mzungus out here in the sticks of Iganga so we know who everybody is. When we see a new white person in town we stop and point just like the Ugandans do. We've talked about making all of the new mzungus sign a registration book when they come into town so we know what they're doing here on our turf. The majority of the white people who show up are 2-weekers who parade around town in short shorts and tiny tank tops while tossing out candy and money everywhere, which in turn makes life very hard for the rest of us long-termers. To show your thigh out here in the village automatically makes you a prostitute. And it just paints giant targets on the rest of our backs for the creepy men who really want to marry a white woman. I just want to shake those girls and make them understand that this is a different culture and they should adapt to it for crying out loud. They just parade through town and leave a mess in their wake. Seriously, you can't start a project and leave it after 2 weeks in the country with no contact after that. It's very damaging to the area. Sometimes it feels like 2 steps forwards, 9 steps backwards. But in the end it's worth it to push on here. I'm really not THAT bitter. Just sometimes :0)

Oh yeah, and we're officially registered with the district here now! Woo hoo! We're all like, legal and stuff. It's good. Anywho, I'm off to the orphanage for life skills class. See ya soon!

Re: Previous Photo Excitement Post

The other picture was Tenwa, Waiswa's twin brother who likes to hang off of my arm while I'm walking. It's me looking down at him hanging off my arm like a little monkey. He's like an extension of my body now. No big deal.

More Photo Excitement!

So, Terra and I were brushing our teeth last night when we heard some commotion and what sounded like a stick being banged on a rock or something. We peeked outside and saw Loi (the houselady) holding a giant stick above her head and smashing it down on some kind of creature while Gertrude (a girl who stays in the house) was holding a flashlight for her. At first, we thought it was a huge snake. Then, when we looked closer we saw more of a body, not just the tail. It was covered in scales that were like armor, and Loi just kept beating it over and over with the gigantic stick because it absolutely would not die.In the end, Terra and I decided it kind of resembled an armadillo, but we're still not sure because neither of us have seen an armadillo before. Some sort of armored scary creature that had apparently been terrorizing the chickens and just happened to sneak up on Loi at night. Bad move on his part, I have to say. Loi is a tough woman. Anywho, we took some pictures, but unfortunately I don't have them with me. Oh, Africa, I love you. Never a dull moment.

The greatest news in the world is that we got some of our beds delivered for the kids!!!! We still don't have all of them, but it's a start and it is beyond exciting. The kids (and us) were freaking out when they arrived. I've posted some pictures below, but it keeps changing the order when I publish the blog, so I'll just say what they are and you can match it.Pictures AND a matching game! What fun! The bed pictures are obvious, then there's a picture of Waiswa when he fell asleep really awkwardly between my legs. So cute. Also, there's Sanga and I (I wrote about her before)aaaaand...to be honest I can't remember what the other picture is and I can't see it right now. The whole computer just crashed so I'm going to publish this really quickly before I'm forced to go home and drown myself in frustration. Oh yeah, and sorry if one of the pictures is sideways. You know how it is *sigh*.

Otherwise, life is great here! Really REALLY hot, but great. Stay tuned for more fabulous adventures and occurences...oh, the suspense!

You know...stuff

Soooooo....what's up in Uganda now? Hmmmm...well, I've gotten into a routine now where we usually do paperwork, meetings, or run errands in the morning and then we head out to the orphanage at lunchtime. At this time, most of the older kids are still in school, but the nursery kids are out already. They are pretty much the most fantastic kids ever. Not that I'm biased. But they really are so entertaining and each one of them has a very distinct awesome personality.

Isaac is a little 4 year old monster who you could watch for ages and never get tired of. When he's bathing he sits in the bucket and throws water up in the air with glee, then splashes the water with his palms and starts throwing it in the air all over again. By the end, there's hardly any water left in the bucket. When he's eating, he's like a true carnivore. He tears food apart violently with his teeth, and even when he's peeling a sweet potato he peels it very deliberately and then throws it down to the plate, not caring if he hits the plate or not. Plus, he can consume intense quantities of food for a kid his size. Just everything he does is interesting to watch so I try not to miss much of the Isaac Show.

Semaia is a 5 year old who's about the size of a 3 year old. We call her the little pixie, not only because of her size but because of the mischievous smile she has when she's up to something. For a girl that little she's surprisingly strong, though. When the other nursery girls were playing with my hair, I all of a sudden had my neck snapped backwards because Semaia started "petting" me. We're trying to add "gentle" to her vocabulary...we'll see how that goes.

Speaking of hairdressing, little Sanga is one of my favorite kids. Don't tell the others. She's so smart and she's almost like a little mother to the other kids even though she's the same age as them (about 5). To me, it makes sense that her name literally means "Aunt". She loves to sit with me and be poked in the belly and exchange Lusoga words for English ones. But mostly, she loves to play with my hair. One of the factors that forced me to go through with cutting all of my hair off was when Sanga was contentedly playing with my hair one day while I was talking to Terra and all of a sudden I felt a "snip" on the back of my head. Turns out that little Sanga had found some scissors and took a nice chunk of hair out for her collection. Luckily, I had already talked with Terra about cutting my hair, so we went home and finished it off that night.

All of the nursery kids have a tradition of sitting on the mats with me under the mango tree and copying parts of the newspaper out onto my legs. Obviously, white legs are meant for writing on. Plus, they draw pictures of things and write the English words underneath to practice. On Friday they learned jug, chair, and stool. So my legs were covered with multiple illustrations from all of the little ones. I want to take pictures of everything they write before I wipe it off every day, because it's so great. Terra calls them my gnarly tattoos, and I have to agree. I don't mind one bit, I actually really enjoy discovering what they're decided to draw. And we both get so excited to see them learning new things! Maybe it sounds dorky, but it's true. Those are just a few of the kids, but every one of them is so unique and we just want all of them to be noticed for each special thing about them. It might be easy to blend in a group of 81 kids, but we don't ever want them to feel unnoticed.

We've been looking around for some land for the possible expansion of the project. Last Sunday we went to look at a wonderful stretch of land, which we're still thinking about. The main problem is that it's a bit farther out from town, but it's also kind of what we want because there's a lot more need in the villages than in the town. It's 15 acres when measured in the "old way", but by our standards it's actually 20 acres. We'd only have to pay for 15 though, because that's how they chose to measure it. And they're willing to sell it for 800,000 Shillings an acre, which is an amazing price. It works out to around $519 an acre. Incredible! Plus there's swamp for our agriculture project, soccer field, garden, dormitories and a school building. There's also fresh water and really fertile land from what we can tell. The owners are also willing to let us conduct any investigations we'd like, which is a very good sign around here as far as land ownership goes. Finally, there are no squatters on the land, and it's a full strip all together, which is also hard to find. So we're seriously considering our options. We're still just looking around, but that one's still sticking out, at least in my mind.

I wish you could all see what I see every night here. It's cheesey, but I have to say it. I walk outside to brush my teeth and look up and every night the stars are IN-CREDIBLE. Even when there's clouds, there's something about them that is just so much bigger and amazing. I can't really describe how immense everything seems here...but I love it love it love it. It's actually one of my favorite moments of every day. I much prefer it to the stupid roosters, chickens and goats who wake me up every morning...I hate that rooster. It perches right on our windowsill and crows over and over and over, sometimes when it's not even really light out yet. Someday I may kill it. I helped slaughter a chicken yesterday and it was stragely satisfying when I pretended it was the rooster. Sorry for you vegetarians out there. That's all I'll say on that topic.

Anyways, there's so much more to say, but I know I've written way too much already. I hope life's trucking on famously for everyone! I'll be back on your side of the world in a month...oh...now I'm sad...

Picture Extravaganza!!

Okay, hopefully these photos work. It's been hours of work, so they better!!!! The first one is little Ikamba, the boy who lived in our compound and was wondrously entertaining. He was really into my iPod, even though he called it a TV. Crazy dancin' fool. The next is a few of the kids at the orphanage, being wonderfully pleasant. And the last photo is at Terra's Princess birthday party that we had. We all made tiaras and wore dresses, then we watched the movie Enchanted. Even the boys made tiaras, but those photos are for another post when I have 6 or 7 hours to spare :0) But see, this is proof: I'm still alive!!!!

I'll write again soon. Peace out.