Life 'n Stuff

There's a lot to say about being here. But maybe it'd be good to give you an idea where "here" is. I'm living in Iganga, which is in the southeastern part of Uganda. I'm living at the home of the former mayor of Iganga. Well, not actually in the house. We have our own little place in his backyard compound. There's one room that has some chairs in it and a propane stove for cooking, which is AWESOME and another room where Terra and I sleep. That's it! But it's fantastic.There's no running water actually in our place so we fill up Jerry cans for drinking water and cleaning. Then (don't worry Mom) we use Water Guard to purify the drinking water. It's just like camping without the tent, basically. Which rocks for me because I'm that kinda girl. We brush our teeth in a cup, shower with cold water and listen to the pitter patter of little cockroach feet as we're in the squatty potty. For me, life is good :0) Except for the fact that we still don't have power. Now there's none at all so we can't charge the phone, cameras or my iPod. Sad day with no music, because unfortunately for Terra that means I have to create my own music....mwahahahaha. Stay tuned for "Volunteer" The Musical featuring classics like There's A Rock in my Shoe, The Corruption Blues, and Just Blame The Equator. Coming soon to a blog near you...



We've been pretty busy lately because yesterday was the first day of school! Woo hooooo!!!! It's been so fantastic to see some of the kids again, and I know that more of them will continue to appear as the week goes on. See, the deal at the orphanage now is that for holidays the kids go to stay with their guardians. Possibly an aunt or grandparent or something. That way their connection with their home village is preserved, which is a pretty big deal in Uganda. There's only one child who has absolutely no one to take him, so he went with the matron for Christmas. He had such a good time, it just makes me so happy to see him like that. The generator just died in the middle of this, but luckily I had saved it. There's a long line of impatient Ugandans waiting for the internet so I'm feeling the pressure to wrap up. Let's just say, in summary: The kids are back, Iganga is basically a bunch of dust with a few buildings, things are very busy, and we're heading to Rwanda in two weeks. Yaaaaaaay! I have some more feelings about some reason political problems we've been having with the LC1 (head of the village of Bukeye) but I'll save that for next time. Too much pressure! In short, the dude thinks he's the king of everything and keeps saying how he has the power to shut us down even if it isn't legal the way he does it unless we find a way for him to benefit financially from the project. Nice guy, I really like him.

Okay! The end for now! I hope everything's great at home and I also hope it's not too long before I can communicate again. Power power power *sigh*. But things are good! Hip hip hooray!