Only in Africa!

Oh the adventures of this week! Where to begin.....
Well, starting Monday over half of the house got sick with food poisoning and random other sicknesses. I told myself that I was not going to get sick, and I didn't! I was one of the few! I haven't had any problems with any kind of sickness so far and I intend to keep it that way! In fact, I have only gotten two mosquito bites since I have been here! I guess I don't have good blood or something. But I'm okay with that. That kind of threw off our schedule for a few days, but we all eventually were up and running again.
I had an exciting week at the hospital. I was able to witness the birth of a little baby boy. I was just volunteering at the right place at the right time and they asked me if I wanted to watch the birth. Of course I said yes! It was really cool to see. Also this week I was able to watch a surgery. They had to remove and ovarian cyst. Half of the ovary was infected, so they just ended up cutting it off. And a man with polio came in with horrible bed sores. He has nobody to take care of him and doesn't have enough money for skin graphs, so all the doctor could do was cut off the dead skin. It was very sad. There are some advantages and disadvantages to being a white person in Lugazi. We pretty much can go wherever we want and see whatever we want to see just because we are white. However, we get over charged for most things here. We have to barter most of the time because they are not being fair. And you get kind of tired of the stares all the time.
On Friday night I experienced the highlight of my trip to Uganda so far. There is a group of kids that do African dancing for weddings and such. Six of us from the group pretty much got a personal show. What people would go pay $100 for, we got to see for free! So these kids ranging from about 5 to 18 dance to make money to send local orphans to school. We are working with them with our youth outreach. They are so amazing!! There was this one little boy who just melted my heart. He would always look back to make sure that you were watching him and that the camera was on him. And he got so into it with the biggest smile on his face. After they performed a couple of dances, they put furs around our waists and made us get up and dance with them. This got the biggest laugh from the surrounding crowds. I think the whole neighborhood was there! Some were crying because they were laughing so hard. I guess mzungus don't know how to dance. Through this, I met the most inspiring kid! His name is Luta. He is about my age I think, maybe younger. Anyways, he is heavily involved with the youth outreach while also attending school and working to put himself through school. In fact, he told me that he uses 50% of his income for himself (school, books, etc.), 30% goes to suporting his mother because his dad died a couple years back, and 20% goes to youth outreach. I talked with him for about twenty minutes or some that night and I wanted to cry the whole time. He has such a big heart and wants so badly to give back to the community through helping kids. He is so inspiring. From that point, I decided that a lot of my time here is going to be helping with youth outreach.
Saturday I went bunji jumping!! It was 44 meters, about 150 feet. It was awesome! I was so nervous the night and whole morning before! But they counted me down and I just had to shove the nerves behind and jump. I don't even know how to explain the feeling... just awesome! I went bunji jumping over the nile... what up?! ;)
And today I just got back from eating an amazing dinner at the branch presidents house. One of the best meals I have had since I have been here. I actually think I am gaining weight. Most of the guys that come lose weight and the girls gain weight. This is because they guys don't get as much protein in their diet as the did in America and we eat a lot of carbs here, hence the girls gain weight. I didn't think it was possible for me to actually gain weight!
Like I said... only in Africa!

Here we are helping build adobe stoves. Most women cook in the home where the living quarters are too. It is really bad for her and her family. Worse than second hand smoke. So we help them build a stove with 2-3 burners and once it it finished and they can do it on their own, we will give them a chimney so it can escape the house. We have already build a bunch and plan on building a lot more.

This is outside of our church house in Mokono. Half of us go to Jinja to church and the other half here. We don't want to overwhelm the wards with many mzungus! I love this branch!

These are some of the kids that live around our neighborhood. When we start playing with them, somehow kids start showing up out of nowhere and we get attacked with 50 kids or so.

I am a Mzungu!

This week has been busy with finding what areas and project that we wan to work in. I have tried many different projects and I have decided that my main focus is going to be volunteering at the hospital, working with womens groups, and teaching literacy classes. From the moment I walked into the Lugazi hospital, I knew that I wanted to do something to help even if it was just donating my time there. We are so blessed in America to have the health system that we do. In most areas of the hospital, all the patients are kept in one large room together. The infectious patients are where the operation patients are. It is overall an overcrowded unsanitary place compared to what we have in the states. They need so much help. I am now the teach lead over the pediatrics section of the hospital. I want to start up some classes there to offer to the mothers whose children are being treated where we would teach sanitation and HIV/AIDS awareness. Also, the asked if we have a social worker in our group because a lot of the mothers could use something like that. So will work in that area as well.
We are starting classes this week on Tuesdays and Fridays for locals to come learn to read and write. Many women come because they have very few english skills and that really helps increase their business. You don't get far if you dont know how to read and write and speak english. We also are going to work with some other womens groups and teach them business skills such as budgeting. Those are my main areas of focus as of now.
It is amazing how much I am craving American food! They don't have many snack foods here! No oreos, french fries, hardly and chocolate, and no ben and jerrys!!! I am living off peanut butter and banana sandwiches (the bread and peanut butter just dont cut it), my granola bars I brought, and Marry's cooking. She cooks for us each night. It is the same thing each night with one main thing that changes up every now and then. It's really good! She is an amazing cook! But i'm not sure how long I can eat the same thing each night! We are in charge of getting our own breakfast and lunch. Their fruit is AMAZING here! The pineapple and avacados are to die for! I also have a rolex a few times a week which basically is an omelette on chipate bread. We went into Jinja yesterday. It is more of a tourest destination so a lot more eating choices. We found an american restraunt. I pounded so much food!! I'm afraid that when I get home I'm just going to pound everything that I didn't have here! Which is pretty much everything! I'm going to get fat!! =)
I have tried uploading pictures onto my blog, but the computers are so slow here that it's not going to work. So you will have just have to wait till I get home to see them.

I am Namutebi!

I arrived in Lugazi around 10:30 pm Friday night after two very long plane rides. We were greeted by Aunty Peggy as we call her. She is the acting mayor of Lugazi right now while their elections are going on. She is like our mother here in Lugazi. The drive to our place from the airport was crazy! They drive so crazy here! But something I do like about their driving is that they give certain signals to cars behind them to tell them that there are cops ahead. What helpers they are!
We are living in a house that is really nice in African standards. It is a gated house with our own personal guard. It is going to take some adjusting to... squatters for toilets, showering outside by a pump in my swimsuit, currently no running water, and sharing a room with 5 other girls with bunkbeds. But we are living like kings compared to other people in town.
But that seems all negative right now. There are so many great things here that outweigh all those things that don't even matter. We are the talk of the town. It's like a parade every time we walk the streets. The kids all yell muzungu (white or rich person) and all run towards us while everyone else stops to watch us walk by. Everyone is so kind and always says hello wherever we go. I meet so many new people each day. I went to church in Mokono today. It was seriously the highlight of this trip so far. I went to the primary class with about 10 kids in the ward. They asked Kristen and I to teach them a primary song because they dont have a piano to play the music on so it's hard for them to learn all the songs and they don't really know how to read music. So we sang it for them a few times, wrote it down so they could sing along, and we ended up singing that song about 20 times before we were through. But they are always so desirerable to learn something new. The kids are amazing learners! So smart! Everyone in the ward is very kind! Some of the nicest people I have met and I have only met them once! We are going to keep going to this ward and will be getting callings soon.
I am slowly adjusting to Ugandan life, picking up some new Lugandan words, being able to walk basically right next to passing traffic, shouting Obama's name down every street (they love Obama here, he is there hero), and picking up their accents while mine is changing for them to understand me.
I love it here and my love for this place grows stronger each day! There is so much need for help and I am so happy that I can be here to help.
Oh... I better explain my title. Namutebi is my new African name. Pretty cool huh?!

Goodbye America! Helloooo Africa!

The time has finally arrived! I am leaving to Uganda, Africa in only two days! I will be flying out of Salt Lake City at 8:30 Thursday morning, and after long hours of flying and a few layovers I will arrive in Entebbe, Uganda around 8:15 Friday night. After which I will take a two hour drive to where I will be living for the next four months of my life... Lugazi!!
Uganda is known as the "Pearl of Africa," as deemed by Winston Churchill during his African explorations. It is a landlocked country bordering Kenya, Tanzania, D.R. Congo, Rwanda, and Sudan. It is also lined by Lake Victoria and Lake Albert. It lies on the equator with mountain ranges on both the eastern and western borders. It is filled with lush green hills and red sand. I met the ambassador of Uganda a few months ago, having the opportunity to serve him while i working in banquets at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. He excitingly informed me that I haven't eaten real fruit until I have tasted to fruit of Uganda.
It's hard to believe that I am finally going! I have spent many hours and days in preparation for this adventure. I want to thank all those who have donated and given of their time to help me achieve this goal. I am excited, nervous, and anxious all at the same time. But most of all, I am ready to go give four months of my life in helping the wonderful people of Africa. So as they say it in Luganda (the language I will be learning a lot of), Nneetegese! I am ready!