Somewhere but Nowhere: I Got The Friday Night Fever... Really.

I thought life in Uganda would slow down since IST but not a chance. Kendra (a fellow SW volunteer) was ‘homeless’ due to Marburg fever in her area so she stayed in Rukungiri for the week. On Halloween I got together with Candy and Kendra and we made pumpkin soup, a grated pumpkin dish, roasted seeds, and then watched a ‘scary’ movie. Since the power was out we were cooking by candle light which gave the night an eerie effect. It was a perfect Halloween night in Uganda. That Saturday we all left for Jims site located near Rubirizi just 3 hours Northwest and ate dinner at another mazungu’s house. Nicole has been in Uganda for 6 years studying chimpanzees and right now she is living in a gorgeous house studying chimps and rehabilitating a wetland. Her house has a wrap around porch and overlooks one of the wetlands, electricity, running water, and is designed by either a German or Belgian architect. She also has 3 adorable dogs Lola, Natu, and Stevie! Her house is near the Kyambura Gorge (one of the locations you would go to trek chimps) Dinner is an understatement… she has a brick pizza oven so what do we do? Make the best flippin’ pizzas in country! We had an assembly line going with people rolling out dough, cooking the dough, adding topping, and then cooking the final product. The toppings included: homemade mozzarella, spinach, basil, tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes from Italy, olives, mushrooms, carrots, capers, and something else I seem to be forgetting. We made over 10 small pizzas for 9 people. You can just use your imagination on the topping combinations. It was A-mazing. That night we all went back and stayed with Jim. Clair, Tara, and Kendra on a mattress, Candy sleeping on a mat on the floor and me on a not so long couch. Before going to bed we had a nasty looking ‘sausage’ ant flying around. From locals I hear that these ants have one sole purpose… to crash land near a group of female ants and be dragged underground to mate. They crash land because they are horrible at flying and have ‘pinchers’ on their face that they can’t even close because they are horribly designed. But these things are UGLY! Right before going to bed one decided to find its way inside and dive bomb into everyone. The girls all started freaking out and eventually I got out from hiding under my blanket, grabbed a map of Uganda and took a swing at it. Luckily I knocked the thing to the ground and that was that.

The next morning we woke up at 6am so we could go on a safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park. It was my second time being there and I was just as excited as the first! Along with an elephant, water buck, cob, and water buffalo we were able to get close to a group of hippos sleeping just off shore and I also saw a TON of birds I didn’t see last time. Plus my pictures were erased from last time when my computer decided to crash on me. But I finally got the pictures back as in… I took new ones! After Queen I spent the night at Brittan’s Guest House (Bitts house) and the next day traveled to Entebbe for a Training of Trainers (TOT) to make a presentation about living with a home stay (local) family to the new Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs) coming next week! Well... We get to Kampala late due to traffic and the amount of stops the bus made so we had to stay in Kampala for the night. Not my first choice but… didn’t really have any other option. Dinner that night was amazing though (veggies smothered in cheese). Got a ride with PC the next morning to training and the first thing I see are Vervet monkeys running all over. After a few hours of training most of the group went out to eat Thai but a handful of us stayed back for a dinner of soup, guacamole, chapatti with cabbage, garlic bread, and ice cream! For Uganda that’s a great meal! Afterwards I was able to get some new movies and watched RED (starring Bruce Willis) with Lori who is also presenting with me on home stay and living in western Uganda. RED is a really good movie I highly recommend it. The training site didn’t have any running water unfortunately but the accommodations were nice. They had statues all over their grounds that I hope to replicate or get ideas from somehow. Oh! And I also might have seen a marmoset (small animal) for the fist time. Again the next day I had to travel back to Rukungiri but not without stopping to grab some cat food for Elend. Travel was torture… I think I rode in at least 5 different vehicles and my entire body hurts now. In one vehicle I was lucky enough to be sitting on the middle council in the front seat… that hurt. Two other vehicles I was in the back of the car with 5 adults. Not my favorite. Ugh. When I got back to Rukungiri I played with Marvin (the baby at the Orange store that my organization owns) which made me a bit happier but when I got home I had a temperature of 102, took some medicine and fell asleep at 6:00pm before the sun even went down. This morning I woke up feeling a bit better but still slightly ill so I laid in bed most of the day watching the 1999 TV show ‘Freaks and Geeks.’ It was pouring for most of the day and I didn’t feel up to doing anything. I didn’t unpack from my trip until about 3 pm but now my house is nice and tidy again.

At about 4 pm I went to the school to talk with Tess and the Headmaster about Camp GLOW and the World Aids Day event the SW PCVs are hosting in Rukungiri next month. While sitting in Tess’ office two students, Bridget and Elizabeth, came in and were watching me doodle for a bit. Then I gave them the pen and had them spell and draw for me. After about 20 minutes 5 more students came in all between 5 and 10 years old and started doing the same. It was adorable and for the first time I feel like I was able to bond with some of the students. I hope that it happens more often. On Monday I shall be spending the whole day at the school helping study for the upcoming exams and when school opens back up in February after break I hope to be teaching/ helping out with after school activities.

My new gas tank compliments my stove wonderfully!

Over 600 bottle caps and counting!