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!

duncan n da nile...

Friday we left in a rush for a last minute rafting the nile trip! nbd. We should have known better - african time dictates that we had at least another hour before the bus left... we ended up waiting for quite awhile... after a 2 hr bus ride we made it to Jinja. The hostel was actually real nice- we had a rockin view of the nile and HOT SHOWERS. So good.

Saturday morning we got up early and were stoked to go rafting!! Well most of us were... I admit I was a little bit freaked at the idea of anacondas and crocodiles in the nile... but there was no way I was going to miss out. We watched a lady bungee jump before we went out and saw what we believed to be little crocodiles circling underneath her... freaked for the calm water for sure! When we met our raft guide he was a crack up. His name is Duncan and is a Brit from New Zealand. He was your typical dirty back packing slacking off for the summer, partying and rafting guide. Kept us laughing the whole time and even sang us the song from PS I Love You on request as we were going through the rapids- it was actually quite soothing! :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLb213lak5s I'm sure he learned WAY more about us than he bargained for... I guess we aren't really used to being around too many boys... let's just say he learned about maria crying (one of  the funniest things we have heard in country- what girls say when they have their period)... We had such an awesome time rafting though! They were grade 4 and 5 rapids and we had a great time! In all the pictures I am goofy smiling the whole time. I was having such a blast. Surprisingly I was never scared in the rapids- it was only when we saw what we believed to be baby crocodiles in the flat pool we were in that I kinda freaked and started yelling FORWARD PADDLE!!! Duncan just laughed at me and then said they were actually just monitor lizards- which I googled and are just as terrifying! By the last rapid our team still hadn't flipped over or been thrown out really (josh fell out once) and we were kind of feeling cheated out of that experience! They had told us that the average person is thrown out 7 times! So Duncan came up with a plan to let us do something awesome on the last go. He said if we let out some of the air from the raft, we would have three options: 1. flip over right away 2. just go straight over the rapid (boring) 3. get stuck in the rapid and "surf around a bit"   we obviously voted for option 3. We did get stuck a bit but not too long. I held on for as long as I could- at first I thought I wasn't even going to fall out- and then the second wave hit and we went flying. There were paddles and body parts EVERYWHERE! I got stuck under the raft for a little bit but ironically I wasn't even scared. It was just like body surfing at pounders. I finally came up and saw the next wave- instinctively duck dived, and then popped out on the other side where I saw Sam and her bloody head! I was getting swept down the river though so the most I could do was yell to Duncan that she was bleeding- I guess she banged heads with someone in the chaos. It actually wasn't that bad- just looked a little scary. Duncan was really good and calm though and got her cleaned up. The safety boat that had been following us the whole time had tried to do some tricks in the rapids and ended up breaking everything! It was a good time though. 

After the rapids we went back and hung out at the hostel. We started talking to Duncan and another raft guide Jacob. They were def have a lot of fun at the bar... it was pretty hilarious though as we got good ol duncan donuts to sing to us more and ended up hanging upside down in a kayak that was strapped to the ceiling! I thought there was no way I was going to be able to get up there but lo and behold with a little assistance from Jacob it was pretty easy! We were all laughing so hard. Favorite quotes from that night "she's like a ninja!" "i'm not doing anything inappropriate just tucking your shirt in!" "i'm sorry i look like that! it's just my face!"

Today we were to region conference. As always it was pretty hard to understand- I don't know why but I only get 1 out of every 5 words over the pulpit.. It's terrible! The ward brought 5 taxis to Jinja so we just met them there and got a ride home with them. On the way home we stopped for.. that's right 3 weddings. Super random. I guess something to do with the government - people can only get married in certain buildings so there was 3 couples who had been waiting to get to Jinja so they could get married. Each ceremony lasted like 5 minutes. It was so different than any wedding I would imagine. We were also told that in Ugandan culture they don't kiss - not until about 30 yrs ago when they saw it on tv and even now it is still considered pretty scandalous- so that explained when the branch president told them to kiss the bride they got so awkward and the crowd went wild! 

Before the weddings though our friend Tyrel (the one who asked about how would you breast feed triplets) got his mission call! I think we were freaking out more than he was! It is just so awesome. He got baptized last year and is such a good guy! He is going to Ghana! He actually guessed it. It was the weirdest thing. Before he read the call we were all placing bets and he won! 

On the ride home Tyrel and Rebecca told us all about Ugandan dating it was hilarious to hear about. They have such different customs than us. Tyrel described to us what they call a "hell date" apparently it's when you take someone out on a date but they don't know it's a date haha..yeh I don't get it either.  It is good to be home though!

Moral of the story. I LOVE RAFTING.

 beautiful sunset on the nile

 I believe our team name was Search and Destroy! haha a Ugandan man named us...

Jennilyn, Jan, me, Cami, KJ, Kara, Sam, Ashley, Josh, Duncan

more pictures of the rafting:https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151732313735417.852733.699820416&type=1

Oh update on the urine garden! We finally had enough pee to try it out... it was not the most pleasant experience.. that's for sure...We are trying it out but it looks much better in PDF form than in real life... so rank... yup that's a jug of Ryan's pee and i'm about to pour water in it...

 It smelled SO bad! Rebecca had to take over the pouring and Ryan could barely contain himself... 

Hopefully this makes out sprouts grow bigger!! Who would have thought i'd be into this project... so nast... 

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...