flowers and another love song...

Just a few pictures of my day...

 Cam and I went to the village today and Simon had another surprise for me... he brought me flowers! Haha and another love song... out of control! He is so cute and happy though!

 Damalie was not interested in getting off my lap so I could take a picture with Simon and the flowers..

 Teaching Simon and Jaclyn to shaka

 Simon and Jaclyn's mom! 

I love this family!

the time a boy wrote me a love song and gave me a live chicken

Love this kid so much.

Well you know how much I love Simon- turns out he has the cutest little sister and I love her too! Her name is Jaclyn and she is quite possibly one of the cutest kids I have ever seen.

Jaclyn!!!!

This week we went up to Bunabuyoka to hang out with the kids and talk about the language school they want to start up there. It had been forever since I had been and I missed Simon! (and the other kids of course). As soon as we got there the kids came running out of the school and gave us hugs. It is the best feeling in the world when a little African kid remembers your name! So the shouts of Alexis! automatically puts me in a good mood. Which is good considering riding on the taxi smashed with 24 people in a van always makes me a bit cranky… (we discussed that middle middle on the airplane ride home would be a welcome spacious journey compared to African travel!) Simon of course ran up to me and told me he had something for me but I was a little confused as to what he was talking about so just gave him and hug and moved on.

Simon and his note/song!

Later I was talking to Jared the school teacher, which by the way MIND BLOWN- his name is Gerald! haha the whole summer we have been calling him Jared and I will continue to call him that-fits much better, and he told me that Simon had something for me. He motioned for Simon and he came running down and handed me a note. It turns out it was a song and it was so cute. He sang it for me and I loved it. Ha as the other girls pointed out- first time a boy wrote a song for me…and I didn’t hate it! 

Jared/ Gerald

Later that day we were hanging out with Jared and tall skinny teacher Simon and they are obsessed with the Princess Pat! We sang it to the kids once and they love it. I have literally never seen so many grown men dancing and singing to the Princess Pat.  We also got them to teach us a little African dance which was super funny. We were all laughing and then Jared was like “oh! I almost forgot! the boy brought you a chicken” …. uh what? yup Simon brought me a chicken! I felt so bad because his family can’t eat sometimes and here they are giving me a chicken! What am I supposed to do with a chicken?! I tried to turn it down but didn’t want to offend as Jared assured me I would if I didn’t take it…They made me hold it and thought I was the funniest person in the world when I called it chicky chick… I just really didn’t know how to react… I was so flattered by the present and the obvious ultimate sacrifice in Africa. Jared told me of course it wasn’t extra- there is never extra- but it is a sign of friendship. I mean he gets up at 5 am everyday to walk up the Hell Hill just to make it to school on time (it’s about an hr walk) and he did it holding a live chicken! He also takes care of his cute little sister on the way. It just made me love him all the more. Apparently the only thing I need to love a boy is a song and a live chicken haha. Sara (the woman we stay with) made it for dinner! Chicky chick is no more!

Some of my favorite village guys dancing! They love the princess pat!

This picture cracks me up- mostly because they don't think twice about  the hand holding... especially in a place that it is illegal to by gay....

He got me a what?

Finally comfortable with Chicky Chick

Sorry mom... this is chicky chick after... I of course had to eat it- I would be a terrible person if I didn't eat the poor boys chicken!

Cami and I have not been on a real project together all summer and are thinking about running an eye camp in Buna. The team in Lugazi had 800 pairs of glasses donated and they have nowhere to put them. We are thinking it would be really cool to do a camp and do a bunch of eye exams and then leave the extra glasses in the brand new clinic that we built! Then they will always be there when people need them. I am excited to finally work with Cami on something!

I just love Cami so much! Believe it or not..we are dancing haha

The beading women are doing good and we are excited to start them out on some new designs soon. As for the urine project…we are officially finished! So much cooler in PDF form… it still makes me shudder thinking about the pouring of Ryan’s pee we did… but on the plus side the women are super stoked! Also I found out that the people in Buna are using urine as fertilizer! haha I was just joking with them today when we were helping the kids plant beans for their agriculture project and they were like uh of course! haha.

Jaclyn and Simon!

I just love it here. 

NBD.

I don't think I will ever get over the nonchalant attitude toward human life and innate rights here in Uganda. I can't even comprehend the difference of my life and the life of a Ugandan. All the time when tragic things happen, we are told, "it's ok, that is how life is- it is our way" I want to yell out that it is NOT ok! That those things should not have to be normal! In their experience though it is nothing to complain about, it happens to everyone, they should just accept it. 

They work harder in one day than I have ever worked. It's amazing.

For example, I have told you about Annette, my apaperero from beading, the other day she was really quiet during beading and I went to her "house" afterwards and asked if she was ok, she told me that her good friend and neighbor had died. You know i'm always awkward with news like that- but she said it so matter of factly that I had no idea how to respond. I told her I was so sorry and she just told us the same "it's ok, it is our way here in Namatala". I just can't comprehend that that is daily life- NBD.  Then today Rebecca and I were in Namatala and walked passed her house and she was selling some vegetables outside. Rebecca bought some for the house and Annette said "oh thank you! you have given me lunch today!" She didn't say it to make us feel bad, she was just stating the fact that she wasn't going to be able to eat lunch that day (and probably not feed her children lunch either), but since she made a sale she had some money to get food. NBD.

Annette, my apaperero!

her son Silver

One of my friends at the church works as a guard. He is part of the infamous 21 pack (all the young single adult boys who are all too excited to hang out with us mzungu girls). Yesterday I was at FHE at the church and he was in his guard getup. I went in the little station and saw he had a gun! I asked him if he even knew how to use it and he said "of course". Why wouldn't he be able to use a gun? He is from Northern Uganda after all... I asked what that meant, but all the boys seemed to think it was obvious that anyone from Northern Uganda would be able to use a gun. He then proceeds to tell me that where he is from every boy knows from the age of 12. NBD. He was KIDNAPPED from his home and taken to the bush and beaten and taught how to use a gun. He was able to escape with some of his older friends and had to go into hiding. He told me that it was better for him when Kony moved to Sudan because then he could stop hiding and go to school again. His dad had died and his mom couldn't really take care of him. I made him pinky promise that the story was true- he told it like he was telling me about the time he went to the store- like a total NBD moment. It's a big D. big D. He is one of sweetest and calmest people I have met here. I would never imagine that coming from him. When you think of that sort of thing happening-child soldiers and what not- it is super sad, but to know someone- makes it all the more real. Yet that was 10 years ago and he is not angry or bitter like you might expect. He was baptized a few months ago and is preparing to serve a mission. 

We have another friend (also part of the 21 pack) and he is one of the happiest people I have ever met. He is great. He also has gallstones and not enough money for surgery so is taking medication that makes him super sick and dizzy and nauseous. He can't pay for school fees, but wants to finish so bad, that he goes to the church everyday and studies by himself so by the time he has saved enough to go to school he won't be behind. He has so many bad things in his life but he is totally part of the NBD movement. So happy and I want to say...jolly. That's right I said it- cheese. He is just always smiling, even though he is in intense pain pretty much all the time. I mean my life can't even compare. I feel guilty when I complain about stuff and here he is never complaining.

This is not one of the 21 pack but another always happy man from Bunabuyoka

There are so many other things, this post is real long already though- but the attitude towards men being more important than women- just accepted- no one even questions the correctness of that statement, healthcare not being supreme - that's just how life is, everyone has malaria, NBD if I have a C-section then have to ride with my newborn home in a taxi stuffed with 28 people and then get on a boda (motorcycle) to get the rest of the way to the one room mud hut (that is if they didn't give birth in said mud hut and use a razor blade to cut the cord then go back to work), it's normal that the street kids smell like paint thinner because they have been huffing, NBD.

I just want to point out that all of this is a big deal. I still don't think I have adequately described the sad things you see here that are "NBD" to everyone because that is the way of life- but then in contrast to that the happiness and gratitude that is shown by every person. We are working with a documentarian right now that is going to help us make a movie about Namatala, but he is also working on a documentary called "Uganda 2012" It is in response to that Kony 2012 movie i'm sure everyone has seen. His main point is that when the outside world thinks of Uganda they think of Kony now- which is not a problem. He says they have been out of war for years now and that the real problems in Uganda (because Uganda DEFINITELY has them) are that there is no medication in the hospitals, and that people cannot afford to receive an education.

It still blows my mind that signs like this are at primary schools- it's not fair that they have to deal with stuff like this

I still can't wrap my head around it, but i'm thankful for the opportunity to even take a glance into what life is like for the people of Uganda.

shamba'd.

This last week has been quite the week.... it seemed like everything went wrong.

Tuesday Rebecca and I were excited because we were going to take pictures of where Martha works- she works at the medical school as a cleaning women- when we got there though she had already finished her work so we just sat down and talked with her. She told us her story and it is incredible! She is an amazing woman. She wants to start a casava business and has everything worked out but just doesn't have the start up capital. She doesn't know about the 1000 Shillings website yet, but we hope that the money she earns from selling necklaces will help her reach her goal! When we were leaving we saw a big pile of rusty beds sitting outside, we are building the clinic in bunabuyoka and happen to need hospital beds so we decided to ask if we could have one. We got as the Ugandans like to say "tossed about" a lot. We were sent from one office to the next and then told we had to come back later. Meanwhile we are just walking around the hospital which is insane! There are no real waiting rooms and everyone is just outside chillin- open wounds, IV ports coming out of little kid's heads and then the maternity ward just out in the open...could have potentially been very traumatizing but luckily I saw nothing... the mental hospital is also just in the middle and there were a bunch of guys in all white handcuffed together that was super shutter island and creepster... basically we didn't get the beds...

After that fail we decided to go try the milkshakes at the internet cafe that everyone had been talking about... even bringing Ashley to tears...and it's true they were dang good... first real ice cream i've had since i've been here... the let down was I immediately noticed the coconut ripping my chest apart.. I of course wasn't carrying any medicine so I just went across the street to the shiv (a supermarket) and got some water. It wasn't my worst reaction but not great. We had meetings the rest of the day so I went to those without getting any medicine. I went to institute that night and my reaction was getting worse so I kind of wanted a blessing but no one was there to give me one. I said a little prayer that maybe the elders would show up so they could give me one but they never go to institute - I was so surprised when I walked out the door and they were standing there! An appointment had fallen through and they had just stopped by. It was really cool. Also after receiving the blessing my reaction ended and didn't continue into the next day as usual.

Wednesday we went back to Martha's work to try and video her awesome story. BIG FAIL. Rebecca and I realized that we are NOT videographers. It was the worst. I can't even tell you how bad it was. We tried with different cameras later that day at beading and still a fail. All you can hear is birds CA CAW CA CAW! Super annoying. Then the beads the women had were covered in dirt with bugs dried into them... so we decided we needed to paint the paper for them first because they don't have room in their 1 room huts to dry a bunch of paper... the paint we used took FOREVER to get off our hands not to mention dry- and Cam and I had to sleep in the living room because the paint fumes were so bad and I had delirious dreams about getting malaria because I wasn't sleeping under a net! Ha.

Thursday we went to Kamonkoli and Kakoli as always (the urine project) we were supposed to have a guest speaker but he didn't show up!! It was terrible. We had to wing it for 2 hrs and had nothing prepared! Beading made the day better though. Our women were so excited and a lot of the necklaces are really coming together! Rebecca and I got really sick though and I'm not sure why...

Friday I was sick all day.. I was throwing up and it was not nice. It's the weirdest feeling though because i'm super hungry but then when I eat anything it's the worst.

Today we went to play soccer at the church and were shamba'd turns out it was the church clean up instead haha.

Even though things get frustrating here, i'm still so excited to be here and I love (almost) every minute of it. Rebecca and I just keep laughing when we have days like that saying when we look back at our "beginnings" as 1000 Shillings we are going to have the best stories!

SIMON!

Let me tell you about Simon... He is my new best friend. I had noticed this kid around before... how could I not? Look at that as the Ugandans would call it "smart jacket". He is always wearing it! He looks like a little man and is so funny. He reminds me of Dante a little bit with his facial expressions and when he is pretending to flirt with the girls and what not. He is 9 years old and the coolest kid. I learned a little bit about his background and it is heartbreaking. 

Simon comes from a very abusive home, his father used to beat him and his siblings very badly. CFAI found them and came to their aid. He is one of the children that CFAI (they are our partner in building the clinic in Bunabuyoka) has kind of taken in as their own. He lives at the bottom of the mountain now with his siblings and mother and his father is not around. Everyday Simon walks 3 miles up what you all know I like to call the hell hill just to go to school. He is a very dedicated student. His teacher, Jared (aka attractive teacher), told me he is one of the best in the class. He came up to me one night and pulled on my arm after we had been working all day and shyly whispered that he was hungry. It was heartbreaking. I literally had no food because we eat what the village feeds us. A little while later the men were eating posho and I tried to get Simon to go get some but he told me they said no. So I walked him over hand in hand and used my mzungu skills to get him a plate. I wish everything was that easy! 

When I asked Simon what he wanted to be when he grew up he said a pilot! He wants to be able to fly to America someday. Children here often don't have very lofty goals for themselves. They don't dream of what they want to become because- in all reality it probably won't happen. School fees are out of control. It is more expensive to go to university here than BYU tuition is. These people just don't have the money. Even high school in about $200 a term! The government doesn't sponsor schools so the kids have to basically pay the teachers. I am so happy that Simon has a dream! I really hope he does it!

I wish I had one of those little kids airplane wings that I could pin on his little man jacket and I can just envision his Lifetime movie now... He keeps the future pilot pin his whole life as inspiration to become a real life pilot and then one day when his dreams come true he flies to America as promised and comes to visit me! Ha if only it were so easy!!

I have also decided that he is going to marry Hailey (my niece). I even showed him a picture of her and he obviously didn't understand what I was saying but just kind of laughed... I think they would be perfect! 

Oh yeh best part is... he remembers my name! Ugandans as a whole STRUGGLE with my name. They just can't say it! Well Simon calls me lex! and he came up with it all on his own! Ok it is more like "lak" but we are working on it :) . It is the cutest thing ever! When we are carrying sand up a mountain or passing bricks to build the clinic he is always eager to stand right next to me. These kids are SO strong! Where we struggle lifting the sand and carrying it to the next person in our line to the top of the mountain they practically run it! We literally couldn't build the clinic without their help! They are our best helpers! and are eager for the results!

Moral of the story- I love this kid. I'm grateful for the opportunity to meet such a strong little boy who still has a dream even after such a rough life at just age 9. If he can do it, I can do it. 

urine, jewelry, and a health clinic!

If you had asked me a month ago what I would be doing when I went to Africa I probably would have given a generic- possibly sarcastic answer... never in a million years would I think that I was going to be excited about urine and beads! I am so stoked on these income generating projects for women. Rebecca and I have been researching and researching and are excited to start! I was researching vertical gardens last year and came across a report that was talking about sack gardens in Kenya and how they have long drought seasons so people have started to use sewage lines to water their gardens. At first a had the same reaction you probably just did...euuughhh nasty... so I read it out loud to everyone immediately of course... but as I kept reading I actually got super interested. Turns out pee is a fantastic fertilizer! It makes the veggies bigger and better, they grow faster, and it is a natural pesticide so more plants survive to be fully grown. It also makes for more seeds, which turn out to be the truly profitable part of farming here. The women will be able to grow veggies to feed their families and they will be bigger so there will be more to go around, they will then turn around and sell the seeds making a profit and starting all over! It is going to be so awesome! We are so stoked about the project and there has been quite a few potty jokes going around our house. (we may or may not have a very good septic system at our house and have a few unusual bathroom rules- including the favorite "if it's yellow let it mellow"). We are now going to put that "mellow" to good use! haha. Rebecca, Sam, and I started our own garden today to give it a try before we go and teach village women how to do it next week. We found ourselves scaling the hill/cliff down to the jungle that is our backyard and collecting buckets of dirt...they were much heavier than anticipated! We also went out and collected rocks from the road where we were almost trampled by a herd of cows. I got SO dirty. We had a ton of fun though. We even got the boys to agree to pee in our old water jugs so that we can try it out. We are going to have a man competition and see who can produce better cabbage :) . I am so excited for this project. I know it is kinda gross... but this is really happening all over the world, and SUCCESSFULLY! Who knew we could change the world with pee....

The other project Rebecca and I are really amped on is a bead project. Last year the Help volunteers taught the women how to make paper beads to sell and create incomes. A few of the women got really good at making them, but there is just no market for it here. We decided that we are going to start a website to launch their products. It is such a great opportunity for these women and we can really make a difference in their lives. Plus the jewelry is going to really awesome and stuff people would want to wear anyways. These women are mostly widows and have no other way to care for their family. They are living in the slum and this project will help them to provide for their families and put their children through school.

The last project we are really excited about is a health clinic in Buyanbuyoka. These people are amazing! They are so ready to put it together and build it in 2 weeks. They have all pulled together and are pooling their resources. This clinic would be such a blessing in this little village! We are so excited to help them and get them the health care they need. When we were at the village on Monday they showed us their "clinic" and it was a teeny room with a cabinet in it with basically nothing inside...a couple cotton balls... but then after they crammed us all in this dark dungeon-like mud hut room- they told us that many women had given birth in there, right on that floor.... now if you know me you know that that creeped me out beyond belief! euugghhh! I immediately wanted out but was trapped! Only to realize there was a dirty razor blade on the floor..haha so you see they really need this clinic! We are going to start fundraising soon and I know some people have been asking me how you can help and this is how! I will let you know the details when I know!

So basically... Africa is awesome. I am living a ridiculous life full of things I never thought I would be interested in... 

 Sam and Rebecca are so stoked to put the rocks in... that weigh a million pounds...

 realizing we need MORE dirt and about to go back down the hill to dig more dirt around the trash piles...

 I don't know how I got so muddy... way dirtier than the other two... 

Josh's pee can.... before his first contribution...