July. The 7th month out of 12 which means
we have passed the halfway mark of 2013! Crazy right?! So far it has been a
crazy adventure for me. Today I am celebrating the ‘birthday’ of good old
America with some fellow volunteers. We spent the afternoon making onion rings,
potato salad, and cheese burgers… not too shabby. No fireworks though but… with
the new laws in Michigan I’m sure people are enjoying that. It’s weird for me
to say this has been my second 4th of July celebration in Uganda.
Just over a year ago I left my homestay family and finished language training…
time flies. Only one more 4th of July in country to go?! Possible.
I started the year off by watching the sun rise over
the Indian Ocean while enjoying the island of Zanzibar with my brother and
fellow Peace Corps Volunteers. Not long after arriving back in Uganda I finally
had a chance to celebrate my birthday in Africa. Wait. Hold on… a January
birthday in Africa?! My thought process goes straight to ‘no snow or freezing
temperatures!’ This means I can FINALLY eat outside on my birthday and actually
enjoy it! Oh the little things in life. Naturally that’s what I did… for two
bites until it started raining at least. But I can check that off my list of
things I always wanted to do! That weekend I went to a fellow volunteer’s site
near Queen Elizabeth National Park for some great company, scenery, and (of
course) an adventure. Check. I arrived at Jim’s site and am warmly greeted by
the children from House of Love (orphanage). Jim is a fellow volunteer in my
group who also arrived just over a year ago in Uganda. He is an INCREDIBLE
photographer and anyone can easily get lost in his ice-blue eyes. He enjoys
micro brews, being extremely chill, and as you can tell by what I just said…is
a pretty cool dude. Sorry ladies, he’s taken. Let us continue shall we? Jim’s
birthday present to me was that I could take two of the girls from House of
Love and pick seeds in the forest for crafts. Big trees, uneven terrain,
leaping monkeys, strange birdcalls… I was in my element. Thanks Jim! Best birthday present EVER! After a
few hours of romping in the forest we collect a few more Peace Corps volunteers
and went on a nature hike to explore the elephant problem. Many of the
elephants are destroying crops on the edge of the park so there is a group of
individuals working on developing new methods to keep the elephants away from
the crops. Some of these methods include making loud and obnoxious noises at
night, digging a trench, putting thorn bushes along the trench, and bees. By
connecting a series of hives together with a ‘trip wire’ when the elephants
disturb the bees, the bees get angry and chase the elephants away (we hope).
They are still working on this issue but in time they will find a good
solution. Later in the evening we headed over to a friend’s for some brick fire
pizza and fun times.
When we got
back to Jims we walked around the rim of a crater so that we could watch a fire blazing in Queen Elizabeth National Park. The stars above our heads and glow of the fire
were the only sources of light we had to guide us around the crater’s rim. We
found a log to sit against and just took it all in. I’m pretty sure it was
controlled but you never know. When we finally moseyed back to Jims where I set up
camp on the floor. I brought out the tent and doubled it as my mosquito net.
Check. I always wanted to go camping on my birthday and eat outside. I think I
somehow accomplished both.
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| Homemade Pizza crust pro. Boom. |
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| Brick pizza oven made with lava rocks! |
My epic birthday weekend wasn’t over just yet. The
next morning Aaron and I took Jims advice and went to go look at the twin crater
lakes. The plan was to find the viewpoint… check it out… and head somewhere for
food. Oops… I mean we found the ‘viewpoint’ but as soon as we saw the crater
lakes we couldn’t just look at them. We had to explore! Standing at the top of
a hill looking down a walking path where you hope just goes around the crater
but you will never actually know for sure unless you check it out. Tempting,
eh? With our hydration bottles in hand
and cliff bars in our pockets we were pretty unprepared for what was to come.
The adventure started off calm with nobody else around but the birds and the
bees. We were walking along the ridge between the two crater lakes… eventually
we took a split… started going around a second crater lake to get to the top of
the first one…. Walk up and down… this way and that… and eventually hit a
village on the other side of the crater about 4 miles into our journey. We
picked up a little tour guide about 8 years old and all of his little pals on
the way. He led us along a cliff that you couldn’t see the edge of because the
grass was so tall then down the side of this said cliff. Most of the kids
stayed near the top and once we got a certain distance away our little guide
went back up. Then the kids started walking along the edge at the top and started
pelting rocks at us. Aaron and I booked it and started running along the narrow
trail we were on while the kids followed on the cliff above. We escaped with
our nearly empty water bottles and still had quite a hike to go. We take a
short break and I go to check the time on my phone… ummm… crap. Somewhere in
all the madness I managed to lose my phone AND… this loss still hurts me... my
Leatherman. Ouch. Good news is I somehow survived 6 months without it. After
our what seems like an 8 mile adventure, we head to a resort for some lunch and R&R. My
phone was discovered the next day and I had to pay 20,000 shillings to get it
back. My Leatherman on the other hand was never recovered and I hope it’s
living a useful and respected life.
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| Salt plots in the water |
February is a blur. I started an after school
fitness program for the community and students. This usually involved me
blasting music and dancing while all the kids follow what I do. Somedays would
be more organized than other with Zumba and Yoga but for the most part I just
wanted to keep the kids moving and being physically active for more than 30
minutes. Once in a while I even got an adult from the community to join. I also
started showing the students Planet Earth videos and explaining related content (Ex: earths rotation, how mountains form, what some of the key words meant) . Mainly because I wante to watch the films but I
also really enjoy teaching the kids how things work with our planet.
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| Yoga cool down! |
Then comes March… where shall I even begin...? Let
me think on that one.
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| Moo. |
Happy Birthday America. I will admit I miss you at
times… and hopefully will see you someday soon.
Love the adventure!!
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