The "Peace Corps Experience"

Of course no Peace Corps experience is 'wrong' but there are more plush situations I could be in at times. But who wants to read about that?! Nah that's no fun at all which is why I will explore the more realistic and unsettling experiences I've had so far. Some of them are going to be gross. Some of them will be just a little weird. We'll see what experiences pop into my head while writing today.

One of the things I was most excited about getting into the PC and going to Uganda was having that fresh market experience whenever I need food. Well the markets fun and some of the produce is fresh to last me a couple of days without spoiling... sometimes it is not so pretty. I get tons of products from the market such as coal, local honey sold in emptied liquor bottles, bulk items like G-nuts (peanuts), beans, popcorn kernels, rice, and in season fruits and veggies (green pepper, red onion, tomatoes, potatoes, mango, avocados...). If I felt like it I could even get smoked fish of who knows what kind or from where (probably tilapia) or have the butcher hack a piece of meat off of a hanging cow... but I rather not. Thanks.

I was so stoked when I first got here to get everything from the market it was like a dream come true! I was being a 'real' Peace Corps volunteer in a developing country! One of the first things I bought was a 1/2 kilo of rice in a bag. That should last a while and its cheap! So let me tell you a little something that isn't a secret to anybody here about bulk food... sometimes it comes with presents since its sifted by hand. You get more than you bargain for a lot of the time like a chipped tooth from a rock or a bug infestation. Well I was new to this whole 'market' thing.  I got home and sifted through it just to make sure it was kosher... found a bug or 2 and picked them right out. Figured its all good once I cook it and it was. A week later before cooking I saw a bug at the top again and smashed him to bits after flinging him out. At this point I was a little grossed out since I already sifted last week and got rid of everything... that I saw anyways. I lost my appetite after I was staring at a fat grain of 'rice' and it wiggled. Yeah that was my deciding factor that it was just not worth saving the few extra thousand shillings ($1) for the bugs so I will be buying my rice from the supermarket in a sealed bag without bugs (hopefully). After sifting that rice 3 times I still found undesirable things in it so it just became the cat rice. Elend won't mind the bugs... he eats bugs all the time! I still buy other fruits and veggies from the market but am a bit skeptical on some of the bulk items. I'm glad I experienced this and now know that even though  I don't have a ton of capitol as a Peace Corps Volunteer but sometimes its just not worth how gross it will be. I still have my own PC experience though.. the roof in my house leaks, I don't get hot water everyday any more in fact my jerrycan was 'stolen' from outside my door and I haven't been given hot water for about 2 weeks now. I'm thankful for having baby wipes and short hair because that cold water does not do it for me, and half the lighting in my house is from solar power Christmas lights.

I also got my stitches out today... half way through the removal of the first one the power goes out and the generator didn't kick on right away. So what do they do? One of the staff pulls out his phone... turns on his torch (flashlight) and shines it on my hand while the doctor continues ripping out my other stitch. Ouch. No big deal. I'm just glad they are out and I can fully appreciate being able to wash my hands again!

Tomorrow I'm heading to another PCVs house in town and having corn bread, chili, and some yummy homemade dessert. Candace is an amazing cook :) All that talk about rice just makes you hungry doesn't it?! Yum!

I'm getting Ugandans addicted to Pixy Stix and I LOVE it! Gotta teach them the right way to eat American candy! I can't eat them all by myself. My first lesson taught in Uganda.

Africats

About 2 ½ weeks ago now… I actually have no idea how long since it's so easy to lose track... but the time feels about right, I finally got my cat! Unfortunately it was a package deal and I also got my cats sister that day since the girl keeping both of them was moving. I was nice enough to say I’d take her till she had a home. Ugh.. It was way too stressful for me and after about 3 days I couldn’t handle both of them. I went from never having a cat to having 2 cats! I didn’t even like cats and I still really don’t like cats. They climb on things and dogs… can’t the way cats can plus cats just DON’T get it when you push them off a table or off your mosquito net. The first day I kept them inside with a basin full of dirt for the litter which they are really good at using. I’m thankful for that but their poops stink. On the second day I let them roam around and play since I was sure they knew where to come back. They are fun to watch but when they are outside I have to stay home since they don’t have a way to get back in without my door being open. On the third day they were playing outside like ‘normal’ and I hear a little ‘peep-peep’ and think nothing of it. They were occupied with something in the back corner of the yard and I was occupied with not yelling at them for climbing on things. A few minutes later they are both staring at something near the door in my house… now I’m curious and suspicious.  There in my house is a Shrew (almost like a mouse but with a longer snout). The cats were chasing it INTO the house! All they were doing was staring at it and doing nothing. Before it could run away and hide I quickly found the closest box, emptied out the tampons, and scooped the little bugger up. It was so cute I almost wanted to keep it and get rid of the cats instead. I couldn’t kill it with its little scared peeping noise so I walked out to the banana plantains and dumped him where I knew he could bury himself in some soft dirt and be happy. That night I was lying in bed with the kitties crawling all over me and Elend Ad-Venture(cat) gets up, walks over to the corner of the room and starts staring at nothing. So okay the cat is a bit weird. Then the female (Veronica or Ronny previously known as Ramsey under my care) gets up and starts walking backwards by the corner as Elend is walking forward. I knew something was up at this point so I turn on my solar light and get up out of bed…. There sliding across the floor is a BIG African looking centipede! It was like making the Creepy Crawler  replica and placing it on my floor. This thing was blood red and uggglllyyyy!!! I’ve seen centipedes in the states and this one was just so mangy and nasty looking. Yuck! So once again it was up to me to grab a flip flop and take care of business the right way.

Early last week Candy (a PCV from my group in my town) took Veronica off my hands and since then it’s been a BIT less stressful.  An hour after Candy leaves she sends me a text “I think I lost the cat.” But all is right with the world and the cat came back to her. Ha.

I feed Elend what I can without trying to spend a fortune. I bought expensive cat food ($3) in Mbarara when I went shopping on my way home from the All Volunteer conference but it’s not enough and too expensive to feed him every day. Some mornings I’ll cook eggs and give him the yokes or share some oatmeal. I bought some stinky silverfish from the market which is just dried up minnows and he enjoys those for a snack but I don’t enjoy the smell. Another cheap meal is to boil meat and with the water you boil the meat in cook rice so the rice obtains the meat flavor. Unfortunately there is a ‘Foot and Mouth’ disease or something like that in the area so all the butchers have temporarily closed. It’s a good thing I don’t enjoy the market meat here. When you go to the market and ask for 1 kilo or whatever of meat… they look at the hanging slab of cow, or goat, or whatever and hack chunks off with a machete completely destroying the meat giving you bones and all. It would be good if only they knew where to cut the meat. Plus the meat here looks so fatty most of the time I don’t think you would get a solid piece of beef if you asked. I’m surprised the meat here doesn’t look leaner… but what do I know about meat anyways.... I used to be a vegetarian. 

I’m starting to fill out camp applications for a staff position that PCVs are directing in December J And I’m getting a lot of interest for nominated campers from and around the school which is really good. I got a late start but we should turn them in by the due date later this week.

I’ve also been looking up tickets for Dar Es Salaam from Uganda so I can go on a Safari near Mt. Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar over Christmas and New Years with a bunch of PCVs and my brother Michael!!! Plane tickets to Uganda from the states are a lot cheaper than I thought. Only about $2,000 round trip! Surprising. That’s still a lot of money but I’m excited my brother is willing to spend that much to see me and get a ‘cheap’ vacation complete with a tour guide (me) for around Uganda J

So many adventures to have… so little time…. 

And thanks to Jake he let me borrow his laptop for a few days and now I'm addicted to Game of Thrones. Check it out if you haven't already it is strange at times but good!

Surprise! Don't Freak Out...

So before I get into the fun I'll talk about how my day has been so far... eventful. Woke up after cuddling with my cat Elend all night. No big deal. He purrs... I've never had anything that purrs before. I went outside with him and he started digging in my newly planted flower garden! I even put a dead bush over it so he wouldn't do just that. So I got my leather-man and started cutting branches so they would cover my garden better. Well the leather-man slipped and I cut my index finger right by the knuckle on my left hand (Don't worry mom and dad I'm fine). But it was bleeding like gory drips... to me...anyway... but then again I have a weak stomach and HATE injuries/ blood/ hospitals... although half my family works in one or with one. I wiped it off and it stopped... which okay the band-aid and Neosporn will stick now. Close your eyes for this next part if you're like me. Before applying the bandage I swear I could see something white which I assumed was the bone or a tendon or something which just sent me over the edge and I started getting a bit woozy so I began to chug water to calm myself. Then I hear the car start from outside and know they are going to town. On the way to the door I stop and lay myself on the couch and tell myself in 10 seconds I'm going out the door to tell them what happened and get a ride. I get myself to stand up in my sweatpants and tank top and walk outside like nothing big happened. In all honesty I've probably overreacted. I'm holding my hand and leaning against the door frame when I tell them I need to go to town so I can get stitches... I walk back in my house... slowly change and head out the door. While crammed in the back seat of the car Akatia (the niece of my supervisor and 'manager' of the Orange store) tells me how her kids never got stitches and she would just tell them to suck it up. After a little laugh and her probably thinking I'm a wuss for such a small cut really... we head into town. She drops me off at the corner and lets me find the rest of my way to the hospital. At this point I feel fine... my body is slightly in shock and I am feeling pretty good so I stop by the post office and get the package from my Grandma Sophie :) Haven't opened it yet but really excited to when I get home! Anyways... end up riding on the back of a motorcycle to get to the hospital.. holding on with my one good hand and hoping I don't fall off. When I arrive at the hospital, which isn't just one building like ours in the States but more like a compound, I wonder around the hospital grounds asking for the 'office' and where I can get sutures because nobody seemed to know the word 'stitches'. Found the Emergency room and am waiting while I talk to the Doctor about how it happened... to them I was peeling Matooke and the knife slipped. If it was because I did something stupid I might as well have fun with HOW I hurt myself. Right?! When I first arrived I asked a local female doctor if any of the Harvard doctors working in the hospital were available and that seemed to make her angry so I told her she was very good at what she does and let her take care of me. Its only stitches. I watched her prep my little table and get all sterile equipment out of the packages and at this point I've got my injured hand on the table and head on another table resting on my right arm while sweating like crazy. Just get it over with. I was trying to take my mind off everything and distract myself by looking at the scale with band-aids holding it together realizing they need duct tape and laughing at how adorable the little, when I say little I mean little bobby-pin to your hair little, nurse caps are. After almost passing out and starting to shake it is soon over and I've got two tiny stitches in my hand. See... no big deal but if you know anything about me I HATE and can't stand being in a hospital. Other than getting stitches after my hand surgery a few years ago this was my first stitches encounter. Afterwards I went to go visit a PCV on the hospital grounds who lives there and may have a secondary project of painting one of the children's wards! Something good happened out of it all after all right?

Sorry mom hope you didn't freak out too much. The PC is going to reimburse me and I get the little buggers taken out and am all healed in 5 days! I'll bring water next time so I won't feel like passing out as much.

Ugh... I'm exhausted now. And will talk about the cats next time... but another PCV took the female and it's just me and Elend now... he's such a cuddler! That's what I'm going to do now... eat my hard boiled eggs with my cat and read 'The Help' since last night I finished The Hunger Games series again.

 My first hospital trip all by myself I feel like a big girl now I'm so proud of myself! Laugh all you want but its a big deal to me! Plus... a hospital in Uganda is a bit different from a hospital back home.

All Volunteers Unite!

Its been a long 2 1/2 weeks since my last post. I apologize and am kicking myself in the butt for it because I have soooo much to catch you up on it may take more than one post.

September 5th through the 8th we had our All Volunteer conference in Uganda. This means exactly what it says... its a conference where all the PCVs around Uganda get together for a what? A conference. The 5th was our travel day to Masaka where the conference was held at a pretty nice hotel with decent food, a huge conference center with really nice but crooked stairs along with other crooked structures that still managed to look nice and a big fat cement hole in the ground in the back where the pool will be/ is but is not nearly finished. Bummer. I know. I lost track of how long the bus ride was because I usually just zone out except I did get to see a bunch of Zebras on the way! When I checked in at the front desk I kept asking where my room was and they would not tell me which direction I could go in because it was such a complicated path. I was walked out in between the hotel and conference center buildings, in front of the "pool" along a few scattered bricks and boards that I had to hop from one to the next so I didn't have to walk in the mud, through an outdoor courtyard and finally to my room. After 3 days of going back and forth I never bothered to realize how unacceptable this would be back home for a hotel but I thought it was fun. I had a hot shower, hot enough to steam the bathroom and make myself feel almost completely clean and a TV... that of course I didn't even want to touch because what would I watch anyway. I've been getting used to not having a laptop (which was sent home with a PCV visiting the states so he could send it in to Acer for me since it crashed on me)! We were fed 3 meals a day plus 2 tea times which they had really good spring rolls and doughnuts at once! Yum! I got my hair cut back into a Faux Hawk so I look a bit more like myself again (Thanks for the haircut Kendra)! Socialized with a bunch of volunteers that have been here for a while... some are even leaving soon if not already gone home because they finished their 2 years! Congrats guys! Which luckily for me I found a COSing (Close of Service) volunteer willing to sell me their gas tank so I get to pick it up next week!! I won't have to wait 30 minutes for my coals to heat up to cook oatmeal anymore in the morning. Along with all the socializing we did have sessions on things I feel A LOT more comfortable about doing at my site now such as working on Grants and with VSLAs (Village Saving and Loans Association) which is one of my primary projects in the village with the women's group. Oh and one of my favorite things about the trip was that I found Salt & Vinegar Pringles!!!! I felt in heaven every time I popped one of those into my mouth until they were gone the next day... woops. I'm also pretty sure they were stale but I just came from the village.. who cares?! On the final night of the conference I got to play Super Smash Brothers and Goldeneye (James Bond) with a couple other PCVs with REAL Nintendo 64 controllers hooked up to a laptop. You guessed correctly that I will be asking my brother Andrew to send me one of those!

On the trip home from the conference we all booked a matatu together for those who were going in the same direction and I thought we were never going to get home. The drive kept stopping, talking to people, and at one point he actually turned off the engine, got out of the vehicle and hopped on a boda and took off. I think we were all really really confused at that point but he came back a few minutes later and he didn't stop as much. Maybe he needed airtime for his phone... who knows? When we were cruising along the 'highway' there was a man walking on the side of the road with no pants on but rather slung over his shoulder... there is no such thing as indecent exposure in this country or there is and nobody enforces it which is usually the case.While stopping in Mbarara and going our seperate ways I was able to do some MAJOR shopping which included me splurging and buying pickles... real hamburger dill pickles that taste funny but who cares! I also found 'Slim Milk' instead of the whole milk I find everywhere. I was excited about that purchase as well. On my trip back to Rukungiri I was transfered to 3 different taxis and ended up paying twice what I should have. Ugh. I got so fed up with men not leaving me alone that I just started getting real sassy with them and short tempered. If that's what I have to do in this country to avoid harassment then fine. After a while it was kind of fun and I was having a game out of it by myself but it was still EXTREMELY frustrating. After a torturous ride home I got back after dark so I ended up staying with another PCV where we made some amazing veggie burgers and watched a movie and I was greeted by two packages in my PO Box the next day! Thank you Aunt Connie, Uncle Harry, Mom, Dad, and Andrew! Tomorrow was indeed better than the previous day :) Its always good to have something to look forward to!

About 4 days ago I FINALLY got my capa (cat) and he is adorable. Unfortunatly he came with a bonus of + 1 cat which is his sister and a trouble maker but tomorrow another PCV is adopting her. They are 6 months old roughly and litter/ dirt box trained and everything. I just have to stop them from climbing my mosquito net! Pain in my butt. I went from not liking cats... to accepting I want one because I have mice... to temporarily owning two cats. And I still don't really like cats...

 Elend Venture... or Venture-cat I like to say. 

Elend and his sister... cute but pain in the butt!

I found lettuce at the market and this is the closest I will get to having Ranch Dressing (thanks Aunt Connie!)

 From 2 packages... I feel SOOOO loved!

notice the blow up ball, paddle ball toy, and kitty card ha (thanks Mom!)

This is what the view looks like if I look over my fence

This is what the same view looked like on the day it looked like the world was going to be swallowed whole... it was seriously that dark and looked like a wall!

Hope you enjoyed the spoiler for my next post. I'll let you all mull this one over before I start gushing cats and how I'm almost finished with The Hunger Games again and is it bad that I could re-read them a 3rd time?!