Week 2

It's really been a week and a half, but it's the first full week and first real week of work.

Monday-Team Meeting: REALLY LONG, GREAT START!  It took from about 7:30 to noon.  We decided who would lead what committees, what projects we would be working on, who would lead those projects, what the house rules were, what our schedule for the week would be, and we even had a break where Kerri and Stewart demonstrated their mad singing and dancing skills blindfolded with an ipod.  We also found out that half of the team was leaving after the first wave (6 weeks) and only two more would be coming.  That will bring us from 25 to 14 and then for the last wave we will have even less-7, I think.  I was put in charge of cleaning committee with Taylor and food with Liz and Troy.  I was also became project lead for the eye and dental camp with Jessica and project lead of an immunization campaign that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is putting on in Mukono.  I'm really excited about all these opportunities.
               After the team meeting we met for the eye and dental camp to see how many people were interested in volunteering with us.  Apparently we need to work on our skills because after no one came to our first meeting, we started trying to ask people to give one day a month to just volunteer at the camps and we got one yes and three maybes after a week.  However, we had a meeting with Rotarian Paul and his entire rotary club this last week and they are on board to help so we've delegated responsibilities amongst the doctors, HELP, and the rotary.  We are hoping to partner with Deseret International, Sight Savers, and Rotary Clubs in the states to really bring this together and make it happen.  Our first camp is next weekend so we're hoping and praying that things go through well and quickly.
                The rest of the day was spent shopping for food, learning about other projects, and setting up the rest of the week and dinner!

Tuesday-I love green peppers, so I ate them.  I also happen to be allergic to them.  So since they were in the food and I ate it anyway and didn't pick them out like I usually do, I spent the large majority of the night (Mon./Tues.) vomitting.  I went with Liz, Nate, Becca, Lane, and Stewart to meet with Pastor Francis about some business classes we're going to hold.  Since this is a big project and I'm going to be here the whole summer and the numbers will just keep dwindling, I decided I should be informed.  It was a great meeting.  Business classes were done last year and continued while the HELP participants were gone and they are excited to do more this year.  When we got back from the meeting I had another meeting about the eye and dental camp and decided that we should get a meeting together of everyone involved as soon as possible.  We set it for Thursday night before the rotary club meeting and talked about HELP's part of the logistics.  I only spent about a half an hour on that before the effects of vomitting all night took over and I feel asleep for the next 8-9 hours.  It was fantastic, but I meant it to be a small nap and I didn't get as much done as I wanted to.  I finished some things up before I went to bed, but other than the morning it was pretty unproductive.

Wednesday-I then went to town litterally and figuratively with Troy, Liz, and her husband, Nate to figure out the food situation.  People are always hungry and without a fridge it is hard to figure out how to keep 25 people happy and not hungry.   We found nuts and roasted corn and some fruits and breads and jams and we stocked up.  I also I went to Musana, a wonderful jewelry store that started as a project with help to help the women here a few years ago and still continues.  They sell their hand-crafted jewelry here and in the states.  I'm definitely bringing some home with me.  I watched them work.  It was crazy, it can take a whole day to make a necklace, sometimes two or three, but they are so beautiful.  Two of the women there are our cooks (on weekday nights).  We love them very much.  Eve and Rosette, the cooks, have known my name since the first night and always welcome me to teach me how to learn how to cook their dishes and with their methods-I'll never cut a tomato the same again.  They also help me learn the language and song.  The nights I spend with them are priceless. We had a team meeting Wednesday where Taylor and I described the new chore chart, we gave updates on projects, and any general comments/complaints/concerns/compliments were brought up.

Thursday-Thursday was spent almost entirely on the eye camp.  We planned for the meeting that night and then took taxis down to Kampala. Lane, McCall, and Troy came with Jessica and I.  We met with Rotarian Paul, but no one else showed up.  We then went to the best rotary meeting ever where they had a musician play for us and an awesome, funny meeting.  We also found out that the first eye and dental camp will be combined with a family health day where they will give out mosquito nets, do male circumcision, donate blood, talk about malaria and sanitation, and do HIV/AIDS testing and counseling.  We didn't get home until 10 O'clock at night.

Friday-We got canceled on for a meeting so it was spent writing the project proposal for the eye and dental camp and figuring out how we were going to get everything done in time.  We got Rolex for lunch and I got my hair in corn rows.  I was last in line for dinner and didn't get any, but was on dish duty.

Saturday-AWESOME!!! Jinja=real food. We decided to skip rafting and go second wave so that we could learn from all the first wave people.  Instead, we went swimming at the Nile Resort for 6,000 shillings (a little more than 2 dollars), ate chicken Caesar salad, watched monkeys, took boda bodas on a bridge over the nile for breath-taking sights, met awesome people from all over the world, ate at a cafe called oddie's where Becca finished my fries and Stewart ate my salad-Uganda shrinks your appetite-unless you're Becca and Stewart.  We then went home where we made guacamole (of sorts).  It was dang good!  We put it on Chapatis and I felt like I'd lived the day of a queen and I slept like a baby.

Sunday-Mukono is in danger of being demoted from a ward.  It is really hard for the members to pay tithing and they just feel like they can't afford it.  I talked to one woman who really thought it would be impossible to pay tithing and eat and live somewhere suitable with her family and pay for her children's school fees, which she wasn't paying for all of them already because she couldn't afford it and she really just didn't know what to do.  It was a hard conversation and I didn't know what to tell her besides to have faith and put tithing first.  I gave her the rocks, pebbles, sand example story and told her that if she really would put the Lord first things would be OK even if they would not be easy.  However, it was hard for me to say because I know I can't truly relate, but I said what I felt like I needed to say.  I also told her that it would be easier to pay tithing if she took it out first instead of paying for other things and then trying to find tithing money left to spare.  I told her that at university I have a box I put mine in as soon as I get paid and then I won't use it and maybe if she hid it or used a box until Sundays then it would be easier.  We also talked about how fasting and prayer would help.  I also realized just how blessed I was when we had a lesson on temples today and only the white girls and a few other ladies had been to the temple because the closest one is in South Africa or Ghana.  One saw my temple recommend in my scriptures and just stared at it like it was the most sacred thing she had ever seen.  I told her that even if she could not go to the temple on a regular basis that she should get a temple recommend so that she could be just as proud of hers and know that she was worthy and strive to stay that way so that when she does get the opportunity to go that she'll be ready.  I litterally cried in sacrament and relief society and we had the funniest, most wonderful Sunday School teacher.  She taught us the ABCs of repentance. A-Admit, B-Be Sorry, C-Confess, D-Don't do it again, E-Erase (make right what you did wrong-restitution), F-Forgive, G-God's commandments (keep them)  I was in the hall with three other girls after sacrament and bishop came up to us and said to Holley, "You look like you'd be good in primary."  Which she is. Then he turned to Kerri and Brianne and said, "You two look like you've just finished young women's and could inspire our young women, would you be willing to help us with that?" They said yes and he showed them all the hall to go down.  Then he turned to me, put his arm around me, and said, "You need a real calling.  Meet me in my office after church and we'll talk."  Then he showed me to a sister in relief society and off we went.  Then after church I went to talk to Bishop, but they were having an immunization meeting for all the volunteers so I had to go and Bishop said we could talk next week because he wanted to get home to his family.  I came back to Lugazi, got off the taxi, met up with Jessica, and went right back to Mukono for a meeting with Dr. Kizito, an optometrist we are working with for the eye camp.  It was a very productive meeting and we are probably meeting with him again to get a hold of all the supplies we can for this weekend.  We came home and had this yummy curry rice stuff and some pineapple and a team meeting.  Next week's schedule is one the board and we're all excited to hit the ground running.

SIDE NOTES AND HIGHLIGHTS

So I don't know where I missed this stuff or I didn't know where to put it.  The End.  Here goes.

Some of our team is sick, some have boda boda burns, and many are sunburned.  I'm pretty much the only health care person here so I take care of what I can (which is everything so far).
It's awesome and I love Uganda, all my experiences here so far.  I can't believe it's only been a little over a week.  I already hold small conversations in Luganda and I had a guy in the market the other day say, "Local price, she's no muzungu no more!  Local price, local price, she's Ugandan".  A woman at a fruit stand in the market was trying to rip me off and I was trying to get her to lower the price and she didn't want to because I was white and they guy was basically saying, "Hey, she's one of us not one of those white ignorant people give her a break!"  It was great!  I thanked him and the woman who lowered the price in Luganda and bought some more fruit and vegetables without having to barter so hard. = )
Food situation is slowly, but surely getting better.
The house is staying cleaner.
I love Luganda and I hope I continue to pick up phrases.
I learned a lot about measles today at church that I didn't know.  It kills more children than AIDS.  I'm so happy I get to be a part of the church's campaign to eradicate measles and polio.
This family health day we are doing is turning into a BIG DEAL.  Any help-funding, tools, glasses covers, anything that could be sent with second wave people or to us in the mail would be awesome, but get in touch with me somehow first.  It's amazing how much is going on and how much there is to do.  It's overwhelming and I just want to do it all.
I had a ton written like probably a page worth of stuff and then the computer I was on crashed so I'm not going to try and recall the things I just wrote because it's 2:30 am.
I love you all.
I don't think I'll complain much about bugs or food again when I get back to the states.
One thing I wrote that is kinda important is that I ripped out half my corn rows...story later.
They say cloth-es instead of clothes.
I love my team.
Every night around 10-10:30 our village smells like trash.
Every night around 10: 45 two dogs down the street go nuts.
No matter how many bugs you kill, there are more.
Ant hills can be as big as me and many (most) are as big as small children.
I love Africa.
The people here are awesome.
Ringworm is really common among the children here so we're going to try and start a de-worming campaign-it's really cheap and beneficial.  We use LOTS of hand sanitizer.
I'm REALLY bad at uploading pictures.
I'll remember the good stuff later, sorry guys.
I'm also really sorry if I sound immature.  I'm trying to sound bloggy and fun and Kristen too.   I'm also trying to describe sights and sounds and smells in words...and it's not working.