"I am only one, but I am one..."

Forgive me for my last post - it was a bit disgusting. Good news though - my ear is healed already!! :) The hole has closed up and I can now do a regular bucket shower without having to worry about boiling the water to kill the bacteria that could have creeped into my owie.
I still have some cysts - I can feel them, but no more swelling! I won't worry about them until I get back. I can now get back into the groove of workin' hard core. :)

I cannot believe the end is coming nearer.  The 2nd wave left today.  Elaine and Becca left us - it was hard to say goodbye, but knowing that we will see them again in a month was reassuring.  However, it still didn't keep the tears away.

"Don't be dismayed at goodbyes, a farewell is necessary before you can meet again and meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends."

- Richard Bach

Love you two!  You will be missed!

Elaine & Becca - Baayi Party: leg wrestling :)

It is official.  I have become Ugandan.

How you may ask?

I have received a name - a name that makes me Ugandan.  Nalubega. :) I don't know what it means exactly, but a lady gave it to me while we were shopping at her hardware store for supplies for the piggeries.

Complete with becoming Ugandan, I have been educated in Reproductive Health Issues of Uganda. For the past three days, 5 hours a day, we have had the Naguru Teenage Health Centre has been training us and telling us about Reproductive Health.  It was very interesting.  We should have had this at the beginning of the summer!  It would have been extremely helpful for our project Proud.  But nevertheless, it was still grand.

Rosette, Eve, and Betty's kids :)

The other week I went to Kampala with Troy and McCall for some meetings with a doctor who works at the Ministry of Magic Health.  After our meeting, we bought some paint for Happy Child's project, and then we walked around Kampala for a little bit.

We stumbled upon a Hindu Temple.  It was their lunch break, but they would be back at 4; so we headed down to the Nakaseru market place.

Holy Macaroni!  That market was insanely crazy!!!!  I have never been in a market place that busy.  There was barely pathway large enough for two people to stand side by side.  I was kind of in shock.  So many people bustling around me - buying their food for their dinner for that day.  It made me extremely glad to have a walmart where aisles aren't insanely crowded and you don't have to worry about getting run over by someone carrying a VERY large bag of potatoes or who knows what kind of vegetable/fruit!

After the market, we headed back to the Hindu Temple.  Two words: Way Neat!  I had never been in a Hindu Temple before!  It was cool.  It was very spacious and they had different shrines set up all around the walls.  We had to take off our shoes before entering.  It was a neat old building too.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I love cultural experiences like this: crazy market place and different places of worship.  It is neat to see what things are like outside of America - it broadens my perspective so much each time I get an experience like this.  It also makes me so much more grateful that I live in America.  I had no idea how lucky I was before I came here for the summer.  What a humbling experience.  I love it. :)

Quote of the Day! :)

"I am only one, but I am one.  I cannot do everything, but I can do something.  And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do." - Edward Everett Hale

Surgery in Africa!

CAUTION: THE FIRST COUPLE PARAGRAPHS AND PICTURES ARE NOT FOR QUEASY STOMACHS.  IT MAY BE A LITTLE GRAPHIC.
Have you ever had a pimple on your face, that you squeeze and it turns out to be one of those pimples that bursts and puss and a tiny bit of blood flies from your face onto the mirror?  That is how the cyst  behind my ear was while Kristen was draining it today.  It was practically a surgery.  A very painful one at that.

Prepping the surgery. I am scared!

I can check that off my list of things to do in Africa now:  Surgery on my head.  Woot... ;)
For at least a year, I have had some little bumps behind my ear.  I never knew what they were or what to do with them except just live with it.  After arriving in Africa, they started swell and created one large bubble.  It built up a lot of pressure and at the beginning it was really full and wasn't squishy, but for the past couple weeks it has been squishy (because of the less pressure) and it has hurt more.  Even having an earring in my ear would make it sore.

Bump before surgery

So, after talking with my mom and finding out that it was a cyst, I decided to have Kristen (one of the volunteers here who is on her way to becoming a doctor) drain it.
Kristen, while draining the bump, pulled out about 5 or 6 cysts. And LOTS of puss.  Yuck.  She would get a pimple burst of puss, it would bleed for a little bit, and then she would squeeze again and get another pimple burst of puss.

See the hole? That's where all the puss and blood was coming out. Sorry the picture isn't the best)

She said in those bursts she would pull out 1-2 cysts each time.  We dirtied about 5 cotton swabs from blood and puss.

Bloody cotton swab and gloves

She told me after that she hasn't been feeling well this whole week and draining my ear definitely didn't help!  Right after she finished draining my ear, she had to lay down so she wouldn't faint or throw up.

Bandaged up!

Since the surgery, I have been so tired.  It seriously wore me out!
ALRIGHT, DONE WITH THE SURGERY STORY.

I have rested all day and I have been working on Joel's and Sam's presentations for their mothers.  It is going well!  We should be able to present the information of their child's disability hopefully at the beginning of this next week (Monday or Tuesday!) :)
We were able to visit Sam and Joel's mothers and ask them questions that I had found I needed answered before we could finish our presentation.

We don't want to sound like we are doctors and are diagnosing their child.  We are just giving them information on what their child's disability might be and how they can find out for sure what it is. We will tell them what the disability is, and what they can do to help their child.  Hopefully it will encourage them to continue to help their child even while HELP is out of the country.

I really hope that will be the case.  I pray for that to happen.  I hope these children's lives can be changed and improved.

Quote of the Day!
"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Baldwin

I Love the Broken Ones

Here is a movie that I made for my project: People with Disabilities.
Hope you enjoy it. :)

I have come to love these children so much. I hope through this video that you can come to know and love them as I have also.

These Children are my Heroes

Julia, Amos, Me

On Friday I was able to go to Mukono to visit the children with disabilities that live there.  Moses works with these children every Saturday, and he showed us around even though it wasn't Saturday.
We met a lot of cute kids. I wish that I could just help ever single kid who has a disability here.  There are so many!!

Fred

We first went and visited Daphine. She is doing well and she is very happy!  She loves her arm! She can do a lot of domestic chores with it - peeling potatoes, sweeping the floor, and we are going to try and teach her how to use her hand to wash clothes! :) She is amazing.

Daphine

After visiting Daphine we visited only a couple of Moses's clients.  First we visited Martha.  We didn't stay for longer than five minutes at each place, but just said hi and did a little "check" on all the kids.  They are all so wonderful.  They are all my heroes - each and every single one of them. I love them all so much.

Julia, Martha, Martha's Grandmother, Me

Each time we visited a new kid, I didn't want to leave them!  They are so precious!  Even though I sat with them for five minutes or less, I already loved them so much and wished I could help them in every way possible.

Derrick

Julia & Joseph

This week, we are hoping to finish Sam's and Joel's presentations so that we can present the disability to their parent and teach them what they can do for their child! We will also be playing with Mastula and Noel this week and in the next two weeks hopefully we'll be able to give their parents the presentation for their child.  This project is going very well!!  I love it.:)

Miri

Today is Julia's last day with us. She has been my partner on this project, and I am really going to miss her. I know Daphine will really miss her as well. Love you Julia! Thanks for all your help:)

Quote of the Day! :)

"We know that equality of individual ability has never existed and never will, but we do insist that equality of opportunity still must be sought." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

The Enemy of the 'Best' is Often the 'Good'

Africa is amazing! supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! :)
As time goes on, I find myself loving this place more and more.  I fall in love with the children more and more each day - especially while I round the corner of our street and the girls at the house there yell out to me, "Baayi Jesca!" :) It makes my day - every single time:)

It's July 10th.  Two months ago (May 10th) I arrived in Uganda.  I have been here for TWO months already!  Time has flown by WAY too quickly!

We have taken a turn on our People with Disabilities project.  We are still working on helping the children individually, but we are now starting to focus on educating the parents about their child's disability.  Yesterday we walked around Nakazedde and asked 4 parents who had a child with a disability and asked them questions so we could learn more about what their child has and what the child can and can't do and what the parent would like to see them learn how to do.  It was very neat.
We have discovered a lot, and have realized that Moses's assessment in the beginning was good, but not correct in which disability each child has.

So our plan from here is to research specifically just for that child and then organize a presentation that we can present to the parents to give them knowledge about their parent.
Our cause for changing our plans in this was the question, "How are we going to keep this program sustainable?  How will it continue through the rest of the year while HELP is out of the country?  And how can we make it so next year will be able to pick up this project and run with it right from the first week?"

Our thinking: No matter how much we help the child this summer, if the parents don't know about their child's disability and if they don't know what they can do to improve their life, what is the use of just helping the child?  We need to educate the parents!  Once the parents are educated, hopefully they will have the desire to help their child on their own without help from HELP volunteers in the future.
We are hoping that by educating the parents, it will make it so they will continue to help their child while we are gone.  Then next year, volunteers can work on helping more families (ones that we are not able to talk with and research on their child's disability), present the information to the parents, and soon start a support group within the community for all the parents who have a child with a disability.

We are hoping this way will make it more sustainable.
We will still be helping the child directly, but just focusing a little more on educating the parents now!
Let me ask you: 
What are your thoughts on this?  Is this a good idea?  Or what would you suggest would be the best way to make this program sustainable?  How can we help these children, not just for the summer, but for the rest of their lives? Leave your comment and/or suggestion below.:) Thanks!

Quote of the Day! :) (I saw this on my cousin's blog the other day.)
"You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage - pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically - to say 'no' to other things.  And the way to do that is by having a bigger 'yes' burning inside.  The enemy of the 'best' is often the 'good'." - Stephen Covey

It's Easy to Love

Whitney showed this to me the other day.
"It is easy to love the people of Africa," - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
It really is true.  It is honestly super easy to love the people of Africa.  I fell in love with the people the first day I arrived in Uganda.  They are amazing individuals. :)
The people are also very open and accepting of the gospel.  We have been able to see this first hand with some of our friends - Eric, Joseph, Eddy and Isaac.

http://www.lds.org/study/prophets-speak-today/unto-all-the-world/emerging-with-faith-in-africa?lang=eng

Watch the video, read the article.  It's definitely worth the 10-15 minutes it takes. :)

Quote of the Day!
"That is my love for the Africans - it is their uncompromised joy in the gospel.  Most have had so little in their lives of material goods, but when they got the gospel, they just embraced it hook, line, and sinker.  And they still do.  They are doing it to this day." - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

God Bless America!

As you all know, yesterday was the 4th of July!!!  U.S.A.'s Independence Day!
Mine was a bit different from the past 18 4th of July's that I have celebrated.  I was (and still am...) in Africa.  And being in Africa on the fourth was a very neat experience.
We always say that we are thankful to be able to live in America, the land of the free; but I believe that being here for the past two months has made me even more thankful.  Coming from a country that is well developed and has nice paved roads everywhere ;), it has been hard living in a country completely opposite of that!

Monkey's were EVERYWHERE!! :)

I love Uganda.  Absolutely LOVE it!  I have been taught many lessons while here which I am very thankful for.  One lesson that I have learned: We have so much in the States, and are thankful for so little.  Here, they have so little, but are grateful for SO much.  For every little thing they are given.  Every little blessing that heads their way, they are so grateful for it.  It's been amazing to see and such a grand experience.  I am so thankful to have this opportunity.

Our day off, we went to the Jinja Nile Resort and fed monkeys and swam! :)

However, there are times where I just wish I was back in my home country - The United States.
Last night, as we finished our day of celebration of the fourth, we started to sing patriotic songs.  We sung God Bless America, God bless the U.S.A., and some more songs.  Last of all, we sung our National Anthem.  At that moment, all throughout the room I just felt the love everyone had towards our country.  We all miss it, and we love it so much; it was expressed during our singing of the National Anthem.  It was really neat :)
I am proud to be an American.

Thank you all who made this trip possible, I couldn't have done it without your donations and support.  I love you all and I love the U.S.A! :) Happy 4th of July everyone (even though it is now the 5th...) :)

They were so cute :)