Sunday, June 3, 2012

The longer I stay, the more I fall in love


Hey all!
I’m not sick anymore!  Wahoo!!  I went to the local Muslim health clinic and got a stool test last week, and I am one of the few out of this household who does not have a parasite in them at the moment!! :) It’s a great feeling.
And not being sick anymore is great.  I can actually leave this death trap of sickness and go places around town instead of lying in bed all day.  Like on Saturday, I got out of here by 9am and went to Seya.  There is an orphanage there and they have a school, but all it is a pavilion with no walls or even a cement floor.  It’s a dirt floor and for their classroom separations they have a reed sheet type thing.  It’s sad.  So we are helping them build an actual school.  We are providing the cement and some volunteer labor work, and the community is providing bricks and the other stuff and also labor and food.  It’s way awesome of them to help out so much!
Our shower!
 So Saturday, I went for the day to start helping with construction.  We started out with only 4 HELP volunteers there, but it soon increased to 11 volunteers.  However a couple hours of digging and hoeing trenches, 10 volunteers wanted to go back home.  I wanted to stay.  I had no desire to go back to that death trap!  Luckily 3 more volunteers showed up right at that time, so I was able to stay with them.  I hoed the dirt.  I shoveled the dirt.  I carried rocks on my head from the quarry on the mountain side to the construction site.  I played soccer with the kids for one of my breaks.  I dug some more and hoed some more, and carried some more rocks down the mountain again.  Near the end of the day, the trenches were all dug and we were able to put the rocks we had carried down the mountain into the trenches!  It was exciting to see that we had gotten so far!
Doing Laundry...
That morning, NONE of the trenches had been dug.  They had been started, but none were even near completion!  But a day of work later, they were all done.  It was amazing to see!  And that huge rock pile that had been worked on for a couple days, disappeared in only about 30 minutes.  It was cool to see the progress throughout the day that the community and we, HELP volunteers, were making!  It was a great day!  8 hours of work!  I was SO dirty by the time the day was over.  My legs were terribly disgusting and so were my pants, shirt, and arms.  Near my ankles, my skin was literally the color of an African.  I was black!  But only near my ankles!  haha I was SO dirty. :)
Across the street from our house and awesome thunderstorm clouds :)
Melissa and McCall got some outfits made! :)
Also, some good news: we are able to get glasses donated from Deseret International Foundation and Julia’s mom’s Rotary Club in the states!  Wahoo!  Deseret International will be sending them sometime before August, so we were thinking of doing an Eye and Dental camp in August before we leave.  With the Rotary Club, those glasses will be coming with a girl who is headed here for the 2nd wave, so we will get those by June 14th!  We will probably hold an Eye and Dental camp sometime in July.  So hopefully we will be able to do two Eye and Dental camps!! :)  I really hope we can.  The only problem now is fundraising and where.  We don’t know where we should do it still.  We are thinking one of the places we should do it is Najjembe.  The other place, maybe Lugazi in Kuwala Hospital, but we aren’t sure.  We need to talk to Josephine still about that.  But yeah!  I’ll keep ya informed on how the project keeps coming along! :)
Our squat pot. The stick thing is a cover for the hole!
This week is the grand opening for Musana Jewelry!! :) That will be a party:)  There will be music, food (I hope at least), entertainment, and the cutting of the ribbon!  The mayor will be there along with some other town council people!  It is going to be great!  I’m so excited for these women.  They are great women and definitely deserve all that is happening for them and their business :)
Abby, Eve, Camille, and Rosette :)
Wednesday we are doing a team talent show.  Without a piano, I have no talent!  What should I do??  Any ideas?? ;)  Maybe do a juggling talent like the one off of Baptists at our Barbecue?  I think I might have to end up doing that one…it would work, right? :)
Nile River:)
This Thursday we leave for our safari at Murchison Falls.  It’s a 3 day safari and I am SO excited! :)  I’ll get to see Lions, Elephants, and Zebras!  Oh my! :) It is going to be a blast!  I will definitely let you know how it goes next week!  That is, if I survive fighting a Lion just for a cool picture. ;)
Lugazi:)
I chatted with ALL of my family just this morning!  It was great :) There was a lot of making faces, laughing, and talking.  I love my family. :)
Well, it’s not much, but that’s all I have for you right now.  It’s not much because I was stuck home sick for most of the week.  Sorry!  I'll put more pictures up later!  For now, enjoy! :)

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